Surgery in India=$20 billion/yr savings for US patients

While the docs and hospitals have been concerned about competition from Minute Clinics, they may have missed an even bigger threat....medical tourism. But ain't competition grand if you are a consumer!! These foreign providers know they have to provide top notch service at a substantial savings.

Link

Top-notch care, a fraction of the cost
That’s certainly been the case for Mason, 43, whose $20,000 body lift in Panama last July included about $7,500 for surgery to remove a large flap of skin from her abdomen, a procedure called a panniculectomy. Because the excess flesh led to potentially dangerous skin infections, the surgery was deemed a medically necessary procedure, one that could be covered by her federal Blue Cross health insurance plan.

Mason paid the bill herself for the rest of the surgery, including breast augmentation and thigh lifts. Because her surgeries would have totaled $50,000 to $75,000 back home, she contracted with Planet Hospital, a California-based medical tourism service, to research the alternatives abroad.

Planet Hospital, which also arranged care for Ryerson and Davies, has been offering medical tourism services since 2002. Of the nearly 2,000 patients they've served, nearly three dozen have had some or all of their care covered by insurance, said Rudy Rupak, president and founder.

"A delightfully despicable site" - Weddingbetting.com

Link

Tiger Woods and Barack Obama's Tax Plans

Tiger would not have fared very well under Obama's two major tax proposals. Instead of keeping 57% and paying 43%, he would have kept only 43% and paid 57%. But Hey!...Tiger Woods doesn't really "deserve" to keep any of that money anyway...he didn't really earn it? Did he?

Link HT: Tax Prof

It was fortunate for Tiger that his most-recent U.S. Open win occurred in 2008. Under twin tax proposals from Obama to 1) remove the "cap" from Social Security taxes for individuals earning over $250,000, a plateau Tiger has long since surpassed in 2008, and 2) eliminate the "Bush" tax cuts, thereby raising the top marginal federal income tax rate to 39.6 percent, Tiger's taxes on his winner's check would have increased to approximately $776,000, a boost of almost $190,000. Instead of Tiger keeping 57 percent of his earnings and the government taking 43 percent, under the twin Obama tax proposals, Tiger's federal and California taxes would have amounted to 57 percent of his winnings, leaving Tiger with just 43 percent.

VERY sad commentary on our political process

Link

"A lot of bills are never intended to pass," he added. "They're just to get some bureaucrats' attention because they're jerking one of my constituents around. Sometimes you have to play hard ball when somebody's not doing your constituents right."

Two very positive Cancer Treatment developments

Link1

A drug developed using nanotechnology and a fungus that contaminated a lab experiment may be broadly effective against a range of cancers, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.

The drug, called lodamin, was improved in one of the last experiments overseen by Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher who died in January. Folkman pioneered the idea of angiogenesis therapy -- starving tumors by preventing them from growing blood supplies.

Link2

LIFT clinical trials

Asking for coffee = Gender discrimination? No

says judge.

Link

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller couldn't resist punning his way through a decision on the deeper issue - whether Klopfenstein's managers had created a hostile and discriminatory work environment by requiring the receptionist to fetch them coffee.

He wrote that she had no grounds for her complaints of sexual discrimination.

Please pour Judge Schiller decaf before he puns again.

"The act of getting coffee is not, by itself, a gender-specific act," Schiller wrote. The fact that a vice president wrote "looks nice, dresses well," on notes when she was hired also doesn't add up to discrimination, the judge wrote.

"While the behavior of plaintiff's supervisors may have been rude, gauche, or undesirable, their actions do not violate federal or state antidiscrimination laws," Schiller wrote.

UK Commuters get less space than farm animals

The future of mass transit: a vision only Peta could love.

Link

According to the Government's rail White Paper, published in July, commuters should be allocated 0.45 square metres of space – whether they are seated or standing.

With the average human being weighing 73.5 kg this is equivalent to allocating 0.0062 square metres per kg.

This is less than half the space allocated under European Union regulations for transporting farm animals to a chicken weighing up to 1.6 kg, who the EU guarantee 0.02 square metres per kg.

Goats, Brussels insists, should get at least 0.0086 square metres and calves 0.008. The Tories seized on the figures.

"It is appalling that the Government's own guidance forces commuters into levels of overcrowding which would be illegal for chickens, goats and cattle under EU law," said Theresa Villiers, the party's transport spokesman.

Great healthcare in Canada...for your dog

Link

Both vets and doctors have more to offer than they have ever had before, but doctors don't have the resources. Says Michael McKee, "The veterinary industry looks for business and caters to a market that wants to be looked after. Me? I spend most of my time actively deflecting as much as I can." Brian Day diagnoses the problem in part as a symptom of how Canada's ministries of health fund our hospitals. Rather than having hospitals seek new patients with better care, and expanding in response to greater demand, Canadian hospitals are funded with fixed yearly budgets. "The money does not follow the patient the way it does in the animal health system," says Day. "If you go to a veterinary hospital, you're bringing revenue to the hospital. If you go to a hospital in Calgary, you are using up the block funding that it gets each year."

[...]

But the point is, they can if they want to. Anyone who has watched a loved one limping for a year before they get a knee operation, or has seen an aging relative languish in hospital, knows what a helpless feeling it is. With pets, people are free to spend their money — and even if the animal can't be cured, they know that everything that could be done was done. Says Goodridge, "At least pet owners get peace of mind." It's hard to accept that when it comes to our human loved ones, Canadians can't always get the same.

Back in MY day gas was REALLY expensive

Link

Despite all of the reports about record-high gas and oil prices, we're still nowhere close to record high gas prices adjusted for the growth in per-capita, disposable income.

The chart above shows the cost of 1,000 gallons of gasoline, as a percent of per-capita disposable income in every month from January 1980 to May 2008. During most of 1980 and 1981, it took between 13.50% and 14.90% of per-capita disposable income ($8,5000 to $10,000 in that period) to purchase 1,000 gallons of gasoline ($1.25 to $1.40 per gallon in that period), which was far greater than the 10.26% that it takes of today's per-capita disposable income of about $37,000 to purchase 1,000 gallons of gas at the May average of $3.76 per gallon.

For gas to reach a record high as a percent of per-capita disposable income, it would have to sell today for $5.47 per gallon to reach 14.90% of per-capita disposable income, like it did in March of 1981, when gas sold for $1.42 per gallon, and per-capita disposable income was only $9,500.

In TN you can Tax Rock but not Dirt-is Clay dirt?

Link

General Shale hopes to harvest clay from northern Rhea County to make bricks. Rhea County hopes to be able to tax General Shale for the clay it removes like it taxes the rock quarries. General Shale would rather not pay the tax. Both positions are understandable. The question is, is clay a form of rock?

The Tennessee General Assembly passed a law in 1984 empowering counties to charge a tax of up to 15 cents per ton on gravel, sand, sandstone, chert and limestone removed for commercial purposes. Rhea County adopted that act in 1995, and since then local quarries have been paying the tax.

Both General Shale and the county have been mature in their discussions over the mineral severance tax, and both parties have indicated they will abide by a state attorney general’s opinion on the matter, which the county will likely request next month

"Can Memphis Schools be fixed?"

The Commercial Appeal asks, in their front page article today: Can Memphis Schools be fixed? The answer of course is YES.

You can fix them by offering different solutions than have been offered in the past.....that much is clear. The solutions tried in the past have resulted in schools that fail most students. So lets review: what has already been tried and has resulted in the current failure?

1- A new superintendent? - CHECK, already tried that

2- Spend lots more money? - CHECK, already tried that

3- New, revolutionary teaching methods? - CHECK, already tried that

4- More computers in the classroom? - CHECK, already tried that

5- Metal Detectors at every entrance? - CHECK, already tried that

What hasn't been tried?

Put the power of CHOICE into the hands of the people most likely to love and care about the future of the students, i.e., the parents. Or, the corollary, take power away from the people who failed the students in the past: the school bureaucrats, the unions that represent school employees, and the local government.

Ok, lets review, the fix is easy: take power away from those who have failed students so completely and give power to the parents.

UK taxpayers funding less hole-ee Saltshakers

The food police for the Democratic Convention in Denver, who are bent on taking away all food choices they deem unwise, could learn a thing or two from the nannies in the UK.

Link

Another local chip shop owner, Carol Ackerman, who runs Carol’s Plaice in the suburb of Acklam, said: ‘People will just put on more salt if they want more.
‘In fact, we have had some people unscrewing the lids to do so.’

Gateshead Council defended its decision. A spokesman said: ‘Research carried out by us discovered customers were often receiving huge quantities of salt with their fish and chips – up to half their daily allowance. The council was so disturbed it decided to commission a manufacturer to produce a salt shaker with fewer holes, which it distributed free to every fish and chip shop and hot food takeaway in Gateshead.

‘We believe the cost to be a small price to pay for potentially saving lives.’

The scheme is being promoted by the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services, which is responsible for ensuring councils follow food hygiene rules. A spokesman said: ‘Heart disease costs taxpayers £7billion a year so to say that projects such as this are a waste of money is mind-boggling.’

New information about climate change? Say it ain't so

Wow...you mean to tell me we may have to revise "our" models...again? That seems counter intuitive (he says sarcastically)...since the models we have are so accurate they can predict weather all the way out to the next...oh, say 48 hours if we are lucky.

Link

An important mechanism for sucking ozone and methane out of the atmosphere has been discovered over the tropical Atlantic. The finding reveals how the two greenhouse gasses are kept in check by natural chemical reactions.

Researchers warn, however, that there is a risk the process could be overpowered by rising industrial pollution.

The data collected in Cape Verde, off the western coast of Africa, suggests that 50% more ozone is being destroyed above the tropical Atlantic Ocean than previously thought, because of halogens released by the seawater.

The process also increases the amount of methane pumped out of the lower atmosphere by up to 12% each day. It could occur in tropical oceans worldwide and could considerably improve the forecasts generated by the models used to study climate change.

"At the moment this is a good news story: more ozone and methane being destroyed than we previously thought," says Alastair Lewis of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science in Leeds, UK.

"But the tropical Atlantic cannot be taken for granted as a permanent sink for ozone. The composition of the atmosphere is in fine balance here," he adds.

Yikes..THIS is encouraging!!

Gallup Poll indicates that most Americans believe that:

1- Government should NOT redistribute income to "fix" the economy

2- Government is doing TOO much

Best Friends again Dog cloning auction

Link

The Best Friends Again program, sponsored by BioArts International, is a limited commercial dog cloning program. BioArts is the only entity in the world with both the know-how and the legal right to practice commercial dog and cat cloning. We are auctioning off 5 dog cloning service slots to the general public. We may or may not perform any additional commercial dog cloning services after this auction.

As many people are aware, dogs are arguably the most difficult mammal to clone. Due to the challenges unique to dog cloning, we can only offer a limited number of dog cloning service slots. With a very limited supply and a very large demand for this service, we have decided that an online auction is the fairest way to offer this special opportunity to the public.

Doctors want laws to protect their monopoly

The recent growth of minute clinics staffed by nurse practitioners is causing more so-called state medical associations to propose legislation to kill this threat to the doctor's monopoly.

Economists call this sort of behavior "rent seeking." Basically, it means that docs want to use YOUR govt to limit YOUR healthcare choices by shutting out anyone but doctors.

Link

About 1,000 retail medical clinics have opened their doors at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS/Caremark and elsewhere around the country. Most are open around the clock, don't require appointments and are staffed by nurse practitioners who treat a variety of common ailments. The clinics have been a godsend for patients seeking accessible, affordable and convenient care.

But the powerful Illinois State Medical Society wants to slam clinic doors shut in this state. It has proposed a bill that would regulate these clinics almost to the point of extinction.

The bill would:

•Ban health-care facilities from opening in any store that also sells alcohol or tobacco. Well, there go Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS/Caremark as locations for the clinics.

•Require separate restrooms and a "designated receptionist and waiting area." Both would raise the infrastructure costs of many retail clinics to the point that they would no longer make economic sense.

•Ban advertising of fee comparisons and require that no doctor can supervise more than two clinics.

•Set stiffer regulatory requirements for retail clinics than for more traditional health-care operations.

Add it all up and Illinois would be left with a law that pretty much protects the status quo: Traditional doctors' offices would be safe from competition. There would be no chance a retail clinic might actually give health-care consumers useful information about price comparisons.

Quote of the Day

"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner".

Ok, we've tried Govt Healthcare...time to go back

Link

The government followed his advice, leading to his modern-day moniker: "the father of Quebec medicare." Even this title seems modest; Castonguay's work triggered a domino effect across the country, until eventually his ideas were implemented from coast to coast.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis."

"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."

Castonguay advocates contracting out services to the private sector, going so far as suggesting that public hospitals rent space during off-hours to entrepreneurial doctors. He supports co-pays for patients who want to see physicians. Castonguay, the man who championed public health insurance in Canada, now urges for the legalization of private health insurance.

Aussie dilemma: Go Green or Keep Beer fridge?

Link

The NT Government is recommending Territorians "retire'' their beer fridges in a bid to tackle climate change.

In a list of "practical actions for NT households'', the Government suggests residents "retire the second fridge or freezer''.

But it seems it could be a case of "do as I say, not as I do'', for Chief Minister Paul Henderson.

"I've got a beer fridge -- as many Territorians do -- and I'm keeping it,'' he said.

Vintage Photo of the Day: 1941

Link

What Would Jesus Steal?

An interesting historical perspective on "progressive" Christianity from Gary North. While using the rhetoric of both mainline protestant and evangelical Christians, progressives ultimately depend NOT on voluntary decisions of mind and heart, progressives must ultimately depend on the police power of the State to enforce their brand of "goodness." They must ironically ask "what would Jesus steal"......and, of course, the answer is Jesus would not use the police power of the State to steal.

Link

In many cases, leading progressive intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century were former pietists who went to college and then transferred to the political arena, their zeal for making over mankind, as a "salvation by science." And then the Social Gospel movement managed to combine political collectivism and pietist Christianity in the same package. All of these were strongly interwoven elements in the progressive movement.

The Social Gospel movement, which began in the United States in the 1880's, shared an ethical principle with the Progressive movement, which began at the same time and in the same social circles. This ethical principle can be summarized as follows: Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.

Holding Govt Accountable: FixMyStreet.com

An interesting UK site where citizens report street problems that need to be fixed.

Link HT: Bivens

Obama promoted housing subsidies for key supporters

Great investigative series by the Boston Globe on crumbling subsidized housing promoted by Barack Obama in his district and how many of the developers came to be key campaign supporters and contributors.

Link

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.

As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.

But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies - including several hundred in Obama's former district - deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable.

Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama's close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama's constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.

[...]

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.

Panda makes a run for it...GO PANDA!

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Bank Lobbyists wrote vital part of "Bailout" bill

Link

Credit Suisse, a large investment bank heavily invested in mortgage-backed securities, proposed allowing hundreds of thousands of homeowners to refinance their mortgages with lower-cost government-insured loans, relieving financial institutions of the troubled debt.

After the bank proposed this to Congress in January, it became known as the "Credit Suisse plan" among congressional staffers and lobbyists. It later formed the basis of housing provisions in both the House and Senate.

Bank of America, which is acquiring Countrywide Financial, the country's largest mortgage lender, followed with a similar and more detailed proposal, principal negotiators on the legislation said.

In approaching congressional aides, the lobbyists suggested that banks take less than full payment for the distressed loans on their books. But the measures would allow financial institutions to get cash out of foreclosed properties that would otherwise sit on their books as dead weight.

Can Govt make our Energy problems worse? YES!!

The Federal Government is trying to solve the energy problem, YES? So how to "accomplish" this worthy goal? Why, of course, they impose a 2 year moratorium on solar energy projects on Federal Lands.

Yes, Virginia, the Federal Government wants to help in the same way they normally "help", they create more problems.

Link

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”

Much of the 119 million surface acres of federally administered land in the West is ideal for solar energy, particularly in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, where sunlight drenches vast, flat desert tracts.

Hold onto your a*s, Congress is going to "solve"

another problem.

Having "solved" the energy problem with ethanol and driving up the cost of fuel and food to the point where we can't afford them, the idiots in Congress are going to try to "solve" the housing problem (which they created in large part by the Community Reinvestment Act.)

Why won't Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander just leave us alone!!

HERE is a brief summary of food inflation over the last year.

		May	May	Percent
Field Crops	Unit	2007	2008	Change
Barley	Bu	$3.12	$4.76	52.56%
Beans, Dry Edible	Cwt	$3.08	$5.06	64.29%
Corn	Bu	$3.49	$5.12	46.70%
Cotton	Lb	$0.44	$0.61	37.95%
Flaxseed	Bu	$7.08	$16.60	134.46%
Hay	Ton	$138.00	$166.00	20.29%
Lentils	Cwt	$13.20	$32.70	147.73%
Oats	Bu	$2.49	$3.46	38.96%
Peanuts	Lb	$0.18	$0.20	12.29%
Peas, Dry Edible	Cwt	$10.10	$16.40	62.38%
Potatoes	Cwt	$7.95	$9.21	15.85%
Rice, Rough	Cwt	$10.00	$15.00	50.00%
Sorghum	Cwt	$6.49	$9.18	41.45%
Soybeans	Bu	$7.12	$12.30	72.75%
Sunflower	Cwt	$16.60	$27.40	65.06%
Wheat	Bu	$4.88	$8.80	80.33%
		Source: USDA/NASS - Ag Prices Received

Translation for "dedicated, reliable funding source."

The Director of the Music City Star commuter railroad is looking for a "dedicated, reliable funding source."

For those of you who don't speak government let me clarify...take out your wallet and open up the compartment that holds your cash. You are now looking at a "dedicated, reliable funding source."

The director doesn't care what YOU want to do with your cash. She is a zealot for "mass transit" and she wants YOUR government to extract the money from YOU so she can see her dream fulfilled in spite of overwhelming evidence that YOU don't want to ride her train. She can't get you to buy tickets so she has to get YOUR cash some other way. You have to give her points for persistence and creative PR.

Link

The Music City Star's money problems can be traced to its first year of operation, when passenger ticket sales came in $800,000 below projections and unanticipated costs, including high insurance premiums, drained its budget.

Now, as its parent agency scrambles to fill a $1.7 million hole in next year's budget, the U.S. government is watching intently.

[...]

"The common thread is that everyone is vested in making this work," said Diane Thorne, who has been executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority since August. "We need to realize that unless everyone wants to continue to scramble every year, we need a dedicated, reliable funding source."

Now where did I put that $1.2 billion of taxpayer money?

Link

The deficit was uncovered in a state audit of DOT budgeting practices requested by Gov. Sonny Perdue and the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

The audit found that the agency has been committing funds to projects before having the money in hand.

"We're dealing with a significant problem," said John Thornton, director of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts' State Government Division. "But I think it is fixable."

Driver's License staff rude? Say it aint so!!

Link

NASHVILLE — Employees at Chattanooga’s Bonny Oaks driver license station underwent a crash course in customer relations and a change in top management after persistent complaints about rudeness, Tennessee Department of Safety Commissioner David Mitchell revealed Wednesday.

Among other problems, one state employee repeatedly referred to an American Indian customer as “chief,” officials said.

The department’s moves came to light after Rep. Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, ripped top safety department officials over problems at the Bonny Oaks station during a meeting of the General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee.

The watchdog panel was looking at a recent comptroller’s performance audit that found, among other problems, the Department of Safety’s Driver License Issuance Division has yet to fully address lengthy waits for service outlined in 1997 and 2004 audits.

Highway deaths down in 35 of 37 states

Link

Highway deaths across the nation are down sharply so far this year compared with 2007, according to preliminary data tracked by state police and transportation agencies.

Deaths declined in 35 of the 37 states that provided data for January through April, May or June. Fatalities also were down in the District of Columbia. Many of the declines were significant — more than 10% in 30 states, and more than 20% in 14 states and the District of Columbia.

"exercising our privilege" to raise your taxes

in Montgomery County (Clarksville). County Commissions may implement a wheel tax hike by calling for a referendum OR they may simply vote, by two thirds to implement the tax. In Montgomery County they are about to raise the wheel tax by $20 in addition to a property tax hike.....one bureaucrat says its "our privilege" to raise taxes....oh really?

Link

The committee also unanimously endorsed raising the wheel tax unilaterally by $20, bringing the total tax to $50.

Historically, most increases to the local wheel tax have only been enacted when approved by a public referendum, but the committee endorsed pursuing it strictly at the commission level, where approval requires two consecutive votes with two-thirds approval.

"Are we creating an adversarial relationship with the community by doing this?" Commissioner Lettie Kendall asked.

Ed Davis, director of administration, replied that he sees this issue as "exercising our privilege."

Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln Debated?

On a very enjoyable trip last week through the Mennonite and Amish areas of Southern Kentucky I was looking through brochures published by the Kentucky Tourism Department at one of our stops.

One brochure was about the 200th birthday of Jefferson Davis, who was born in Kentucky as was Lincoln. In the middle of the brochure one of the lines was very neatly marked over with a magic marker. I held it up to the light so I could read the marked out text and it said,"Davis-Lincoln Debate." I assume someone was thinking about these debates....or maybe not. I suppose KY taxpayers should be pleased that someone took the time to correct several thousand brochures...or maybe not.

Trial Lawyers exploiting 911?

Link

The workers’ lawyers have sharply criticized the city’s review, calling it skewed and largely inaccurate. They have consistently claimed — but have never released a detailed analysis of the claim — that the workers suffer from a broad range of medical problems, mostly respiratory or gastrointestinal sicknesses, but also more serious conditions like cancer, chronic pulmonary disease and sarcoidosis, a lung-scarring disease.

The city’s findings have no immediate impact on the litigation because the court is not ready to rule on the severity of illnesses or make connections between diseases and exposure to ground zero dust. But the review is important despite its obvious limitations. Until now there has been no attempt to categorize the extent of illnesses in these workers, assumed to be the most badly injured of about 40,000 or more who labored at the World Trade Center site.

And the conflict over the review findings is a preview of how difficult it could be to prove that trade center dust — a complex mix of materials created by the collapse of the twin towers — sickened workers.

Environmental Zealotry at the Dem Convention

is a very insightful proxy for our future. Micromanaging control freaks want to regulate every aspect of our lives.

Conspicuous, heavy handed moral and intellectual authoritarianism that will make dictators blush.

Link

No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is more vibrant, each meal should include "at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white." (Garnishes don't count.) At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation.

Wow...another Congresslady with initials MB

that I REALLY like.

Link

Depending on Govt to make decisions about

your welfare is a recipe for disaster. This article is from UK but the principle applies to all governments.

Link

The loss of 25 million child benefit records, complete with sensitive personal information, was brought about by a “woefully inadequate system” being used by staff who were working on a “muddle through” ethos, a damning report has found.

The 59-page report found that there were “cultural failures” at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and practices at the organisation were “far from what they should have been”.

Escalator spinning-potential new Olympic Sport

41 yr old Olympian-Dara Torres

Link

Depending on politicians to solve our problems

is a recipe for disappointment.

Link

- Seven in ten Americans (71%) rate the economic policies of the national government as bad while 13 percent rate them as good. One in five (21%) say the policies are very bad. The economic rebate checks may have hit people’s bank accounts and mailboxes, but that has not done much to change opinions; in March, almost the same number (70%) said the policies were bad;

Yea, you can take my picture

Link

Schools without layers of bureaucracy?

How can it be....schools without bureaucracy?

Charter Schools doing well in NY

Shoetube.tv, YouTube for shoe fashion

Link

Capital is very mobile and Labor is catching up

Countries that have Governments which restrict the free flow of capital and labor will suffer the most.

Link

"As the talent shortage becomes more severe, employers are naturally concerned about losing employees -- not just to competitors within their own markets, but to those based overseas, too," said Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and CEO of Milwaukee-based Manpower. "Individuals are now increasingly willing and able to find employment far from their homes."

The most popular destinations that people would want to relocate across borders for work are the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain. This preference changed somewhat based upon the region in which respondents live. The U.S. was the preferred destination in the Americas; China topped the list in Asia Pacific; and the U.K. was preferred by those in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

Employees rate Employers via Glassdoor.com

Link

Whether you're looking for a new job or you're completely satisfied where you are, your work matters, and we want you to have all the information you need to manage your career – real reviews, ratings, and salaries from real employees.

Bredesen: reductions "very healthy for state govt"

Phil Bredesen continues to say, to anyone who will listen, that Tennessee State Government needed to have staffs reduced, that many of the positions were unneeded "fossils", that the review forced by the budget cuts was very beneficial and that the staff reductions will result in a leaner, MORE EFFECTIVE state government. The message is loud and clear...

and the Taxpayers are listening.

Link

“And frankly, from what I’ve seen so far, there are some very good things coming out of this buyout. I mean, there are some middle management structures that are ’way overblown out there, and probably are hurting the ability to provide services, that are going to be cleaned up as a result of doing this. I think it’s, on the whole, going to be very healthy for state government.”

Will be away from the keyboard for a few days

Here are some other blogs to keep you busy:

Political/Economic
Mark Perry
Steve Bartin
Open Markets
Club for Growth


Fun/weird/random
Neatorama
Arbroath
UniqueDaily
Miss Cellania

Nashville Taxpayers owe $1.96 billion AT LEAST

for pensions and OPEB (other post employment benefits) for Metro employees and teachers. And this doesn't include NES....don't know how much that is....more info as it becomes available.

Recent changes in accounting rules require state and local governments to disclose this GASB 43/45 liability and for the first time taxpayers know how much we owe for this debt and that it is growing to huge amounts.

Although, the debt is noted in financial statements, it is NOT reflected in current budgets. Joe Saino, in Memphis has been doing great work on finding information on this huge liability.

Joe estimates now that the Memphis/Shelby County taxpayers owe $3.125 billion.

Bredesen: "they can keep those positions vacant"

The Governor earlier said they were finding jobs that were "fossils" when they reviewed positions to buyout. Clearly there are many good people in State Government but when the Governor refers to "fossils" and then tells us the positions targeted don't need to be refilled, it certainly appears that the review of State Government Management should continue for the next budget year. The taxpayers need to know how many more "fossil" positions exist.

Link

“What I asked the agencies to do is to, to target the buyout, so we weren’t just, you know, buying out a lot of positions that had to be refilled again. These are ones where the agencies have agreed that they can keep those positions vacant. They don’t need to fill them.”

Newsweek: NV Brothels hit hard times

Link

In Nevada, the world's oldest profession has been very lucrative. In a typical year, legal brothels generate about $50 million in total revenue and have an economic impact of about $400 million on the state. But in the last 18 months the industry's cash flow has taken a dive. Why? Like other businesses around the country, bordellos throughout the state are feeling the pinch of rising gas prices and a weak economy.

Several of the hardest hit are the houses of prostitution in Nevada's rural northern areas, which get roughly 60 percent of their business from truckers. "Some of these brothels are out in the middle of nowhere so fuel prices have an effect, says Dennis Hof, owner of the infamous Moonlite Bunny Ranch. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, diesel on the West Coast now costs $4.87 per gallon. That means truckers could easily spend $1,000 to fill up their tanks, leaving them with little extra cash and less likely to take a detour. For bordello owners, relocating to more central locations is impossible. Under Nevada law, brothels can only operate in counties with fewer than 400,000 residents.

Mass Transit driver talking on cell during crash?

Full video at Link.

Link

According to Muni officials, a one-car, T-Third train going west on King Street between Third and Fourth streets rear-ended a two-car N-Judah train that was stopped at the Fourth Street traffic signal. The back of the N-Judah train was heavily damaged in the crash.

"Based on the investigation so far, it appears as though the T-Third train was traveling at 17 mph," Muni spokesman Judson True said Tuesday. He said that section of roadway is a 3-mph zone for Muni trains.

Muni is also investigating whether the T-Third operator may have been on a cell phone at the time of the crash.

ZipCar-Flexible Rent by the Hour Car Rental

Link

Zipcar would not have been possible ten years ago. That’s because Zipcar utilizes RFID, gas card, and tracking technology to allow their vehicles to be maintained all over the place with relatively little involvement from Zipcar employees. Rapid technological advance has made Zipcar possible. And Zipcar’s popularity has exploded in recent years. With gas prices increasing and the economy slowing, Zipcars (which include gas and insurance in their rates) start looking like a better deal. Zipcars are the free market’s way of adjusting to increasing gas prices, by enabling people to drive when needed but allowing them to forgo the costs of car ownership.

Last year, Zipcar acquired its main car-sharing rival, Flexcar, with benefits for consumers including the ability to drive many more cars in more cities with only one membership fee and the enhanced ability of Zipcar to partner with businesses and universities. But competition has not died in car sharing. Now, U-Haul and Enterprise are getting in the game too. Zipcar’s story in some ways resembles Netflix’s. Netflix’s early dominance of the DVDs-by-mail market did not protect it against major brick-and-mortar retailer Blockbuster from going online and providing competition (and additional services) that drove down prices. Zipcar may not be for everyone, just as Netflix isn’t, but it’s a nice example of market experimentation doing what government mandates never could.

Convention Donors spent $800 million on lobbying

and donations. Hope they don't have buyers remorse. New CFI study:

Link

CFI’s analysis of 107 organizational donors acknowledged by the host committees for the two conventions reveals that their PACs, executives and other employees contributed a total of $98.2 million to federal candidates and parties from January 1, 2005 through April 30, 2008. Nearly three quarters (73%) of this money came from PACs. The average amount of contributions per corporation (all of the organizations were corporations except for a single labor union) was $953,000. During the same period, this group spent a total of $721.3 million lobbying the federal government on legislation and regulations -- an average of $7 million per company. (The data for contributions and lobbying were provided by the Center for Responsive Politics).

Brookings Study: Govt Intervention Does NOT work

Link

Trying to fix problems that affect vast numbers of people has an intuitive appeal that politicians and policymakers find irresistible, but several warehouses of research studies show that intuition is often a poor guide to fixing systemic problems. While it seems like common sense to pump money into an economy that is pulling the bedcovers over its head, the problem with most social interventions is that they target not robots and machines but human beings -- who regularly respond to interventions in contrarian, paradoxical and unpredictable ways.

"How well does government do in helping the market to improve what it does?" asked Clifford Winston, an economist at the Brookings Institution and the author of the 2006 book "Market Failure Versus Government Failure." "The research consistently finds that, in fact, government efforts to correct market failures have little effect, or actually make things worse."

New Hasbro Robot

Link

Huge Tort Law firm convicted of Lawsuit Cons

Link

The firm perfected what's known as a "strike suit," in which a corporation is sued over a dubious claim of "fraud" merely when its stock price falls. Milberg now admits that, over 30 years, seven former partners (three remain unnamed) paid secret kickbacks to plaintiffs in 165 suits. Those suits earned the firm some $240 million in fees.

The plea deal itself reveals how elaborate these strike-suit cons were. In addition to paying plaintiffs, Milberg was also funneling kickbacks to New York-area stockbrokers who referred clients for Milberg suits. One of these was Paul L. Tullman, who received some $9 million in finder's fees over 24 years. Milberg Weiss was also illegally paying at least one class-action expert witness, a man named John Torkelsen, on a contingency-fee basis. Torkelsen, now serving jail time for defrauding the government, was famous for providing the court with estimates of the "damages" owed to shareholders. Since he was getting a cut, he had every incentive to pump up the numbers.

The alarming increase in Google Violence

Not to mention all the other non-violent crimes that are no doubt enabled by Google searches. Its time to stop this epidemic of Google crime. Ban Google NOW!!

Link

Kate Knight, 28, from Wirral, was convicted of attempting to murder Lee Knight by lacing his food with ethylene glycol, had her appeal rejected by the Court of Appeal.

The jury heard Knight used internet search engine Google to find a method of killing, settling on anti-freeze.

Knight served the anti-freeze in red wine and Indian takeout on their wedding anniversary.

In a separate murder trial:

A detective testified in a US court that a laptop computer taken from the home of a British man accused of killing his wife and nine-month-old daughter was used to search online on "how to kill with a knife", four days before the slayings.

Telecoms in Africa offering what Govts can't...

an easy, dependable way to store and exchange money, the foundation for a stable, growing economy.

Link

But the dramatic growth in mobile phone use in Africa - phones now outnumber cash machines by several thousand to one - is paving the way for a new set of services that turn the humble handset into a banking tool with the potential to transform Africa's economy.

Services have sprung up that let people transfer cash by text message to other mobile phone users and give Africa's vast number of "unbanked" their first access to financial products. Instead of using a bank branch, these services rely on local retailers who already sell mobile top-up cards.

"We wanted to offer something that would work," explained Mung Ki Woo, who heads Orange's m-payments division. "Instead of giving people a plastic card, why not use something many people already have: a mobile phone? And instead of doing transactions at a bank branch, why not let people go to their local retailer to deposit and withdraw cash?"

BBC: 50 "Office Speak" terms you love to hate

Link

1. "When I worked for Verizon, I found the phrase going forward to be more sinister than annoying. When used by my boss - sorry, "team leader" - it was understood to mean that the topic of conversation was at an end and not be discussed again."
Nima Nassefat, Vancouver, Canada

2. "My employers (top half of FTSE 100) recently informed staff that we are no longer allowed to use the phrase brain storm because it might have negative connotations associated with fits. We must now take idea showers. I think that says it all really."
Anonymous, England

3. At my old company (a US multinational), anyone involved with a particular product was encouraged to be a product evangelist. And software users these days, so we hear, want to be platform atheists so that their computers will run programs from any manufacturer."
Philip Lattimore, Thailand

4. "Incentivise is the one that does it for me."
Karl Thomas, Perth, Scotland

5. "My favourite which I hear from the managers at the bank I work for is let's touch base about that offline. I think it means have a private chat but I am still not sure."
Gemma, Wolverhampton, England

City of Sacramento wants to tax Text Messages

Link

Fehr said it will treat all communications users equally and not put the largest share of the burden on land-line telephone users.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, however, has a different description of the city's proposal: "baloney."

"They're packaging it as a tax reduction and it's not. It's an increase," said Timothy Bittle, director of legal affairs for the taxpayers group. "They're not only trying to hoodwink voters to ratify a tax on cell phones, but they're adding insult to injury by extending it to all current and future technologies."

Connecticut Gov signs bill canceling Gas Tax Hike

Link

Waterbury (AP) - Gov. M. Jodi Rell appeared at a Waterbury gas station Tuesday to sign legislation repealing a planned July 1 gas tax increase.

The new law, which takes effect immediately, is also intended to make it easier for gas stations to offer discounts to customers who use cash instead of credit cards to fill their tanks.

The state's gross receipts tax on petroleum products, a levy on wholesale earnings from gas sales, had been slated to climb from 7 percent to 7.5 percent on July 1.

Gas station dealers predicted the increase, which would have generated $25 million for the state, would have boosted gas prices by up to 5 cents per gallon.

”Finally, the consumers of Connecticut are getting a bit of a break from the bruising price of gasoline,” Rell said at Tuesday's bill-signing event.

Members of Congress 3-4 times more likely to choose

private schools for their children...what a bunch of hypocrites. They take teacher union campaign contributions by the boatload and sing the praises of public schools and micromanage education policy through NCLB and other ridiculous laws but when it comes time to make one of the most important decision of their lives...where to send their own children to school, they are much more likely to choose private schools.

Link

Notable findings include the following:

Over 37% of Representatives and 45% of Senators responded that they had sent their children to private school;

Over 23% of House Education and Labor Committee members and 33% of Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Com­mittee members exercised private school choice; and

Exactly 52% of Congressional Black Cau­cus members and 38% of Congressional Hispanic Caucus members sent at least one child to private school.

The Obamas send their children to private schools

Will he support school choice?

Probably not.

Even some of Mr. Obama's Democratic colleagues -- e.g., California's Dianne Feinstein -- have said that D.C. should be allowed to give the program a chance. In contrast, Mr. Obama's silence is thundering across the district.

This silence is all the more striking, given that the Ivy League-educated Democrat puts education reform at the top of his agenda. He has decried the "achievement gap" that is leaving African-American children behind. He has also noted -- rightly -- that America's system of public education is producing hundreds of thousands of children who will be condemned to the margins of American prosperity because they do not have the tools they need to succeed.

The question is whether, to paraphrase Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama offers these children anything more than a good speech. It's true that Mr. Obama has endorsed merit pay, and in the past has suggested that schools should be able to sack bad teachers. But apart from a few feints and jabs around the margins, his proposals would do little to challenge a status quo that today serves teachers unions at the expense of students.

Pay by Mobile phone at MacDonalds

Link

McDonald’s has announced that they will accept mobile phone payments via Felica. That’s not only about payments: customers can also choose the desired combo, however, he or she still needs to choose the drink verbally. Right now, the system is deployed in about 175 McDonald’s restaurants in the Kyushu region. It will be expanded if this trial works as expected. Micro-payments in Japan aren’t really new, but we have yet to see it in the U.S or in most European countries.

TN Board of Regents making "tough" decisions?

Bull Feathers!! The TN Board of Regents makes the "tough" decision to raise tuition at more than double the rate of inflation year after year and call it a tough decision...this is just ludicrous. The TN Board of Regents continues to rip off parents even after they are wallowing in hundreds of millions of lottery money. What a crock, the only tough decision they make is how much to spend on their meetings.

Link

Hollywood actors get rich, Taxpayers get screwed.

A study from Massachusetts indicates that film subsidies go to fund big salaries for Hollywood actors.

Corollary to quote of the year: You are GREEDY if you don't want the politicans to take your money so they can pay off their special interests buddies and film industry shills.

Link

But a new government study suggests much of the money will go to high-paid Hollywood actors, raising questions about the value of the incentives.

The analysis by the Department of Revenue this week estimated that at least half the film-industry payroll spending will go to out-of-town residents, mainly actors, directors, and producers commanding salaries of more than $1 million each. The Revenue Department assumes they will spend only a fraction of their paychecks in Massachusetts, limiting the benefits to the local economy.

Is the Leaf-Chronicle newspaper pro tax hike?

Clearly, today's issue is:

County tax hike not too costly, some say

Grass grows taller as cleanup funds dry up

Major DUH!! Cubans think Democracy would be better

Link

Do you think a democratic government—elected by the people in free elections—would be more adequate than the current government to solve the country’s problems over the next few years?

Yes	53.8%
No	42.6%
No reply	3.6%

Source: International Republican Institute
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 587 Cuban adults, conducted from Mar. 14 to Apr. 12, 2008. Margin of error is 4 per cent.

North Dakota sets oil production record

Link

North Dakota has set a monthly oil production record and is on pace to set a record for the year, state and industry officials say.

The state Industrial Commission reports that North Dakota oil wells pumped an average of 150,578 barrels a day in April. The previous high of 147,774 barrels a day was set in August 1984.

North Dakota surpassed Kansas in 2006 to become the eighth-largest oil-producing state in the nation, and soon will surpass Wyoming to become seventh among oil-producing states, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council.

The Myth of the Declining Middle Class

Link

Since the late 1970s there has been a substantial decline in the number of adults living in husband-wife couples. At the same time, there was a small rise in the share of single adults with children and a large rise in the number of single adults living alone (primarily adults in their twenties and those over the age of 70). Thus, while GDP per capita was up by 63 percent, personal income per household rose by just 48 percent. This reflects the fact that newer households were small and tended to have relatively low incomes; fewer people per household means that household income is not going to increase as much as per capita income.

After adjusting for demographic changes and for rising employee benefits (counted in GDP accounts but not by the Census Bureau), median household incomes rose by 33 percent rather than 13 percent over these 26 years. If the median (the number where half of households earn more and half earn less) was the same as the mean (the average household), then the median household income would have increased 48 percent. Thus households above the median (the richer half) did rise faster than 48 percent — but it is also clear that not all the growth went to the top decile. A substantial part of the growth dividend was shared by the masses of the middle class.

It is, perhaps, no surprise that for all its popularity with the pundits, the "vanishing middle class" meme doesn't quite have a purchase on the public: According to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey on intergenerational mobility, two out of three Americans who describe themselves as middle class rate their standard of living as better than that of their parents.

TSA'ers get new badges to look more authoritarian

Link

WASHINGTON — Screeners at the nation's airport checkpoints are going to start wearing police-style badges — but real officers aren't too happy about it.

Some sworn officers fear airline passengers will mistake screeners for law-enforcement officials with arrest powers.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is starting to equip its 48,000 screeners with 3-inch-by-2-inch, silver-colored, copper and zinc badges that will be worn on new royal-blue police-style shirts.

The attire aims to convey an image of authority to passengers, who have harassed, pushed and in a few instances punched screeners. "Some of our officers aren't respected," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said.

Quote of the day, perhaps of the Century.

Politicians never accuse you of "greed" for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own money.

~Joseph Sobran HT: Mark Perry

This quote embodies so much wisdom about politics that its difficult to know where to start.

Politicians, even so-called conservative politicians, enthusiastically encourage citizens to use government to take money, by force, from the "greedy" so it can be re-distributed to those who will vote for the politician. Anyone who opposes such a redistribution plan is, by definition, "greedy."

Anyone whose need is perceived to be less than average or whose wealth is perceived to be more than average, is a fair target for confiscation by the politicians. A corollary of this principle: If you payoff the politician with a campaign contribution you are less likely to be labeled greedy.

Poll: New Yorkers worried most about TAXES

This is a New York Times commissioned poll. Given a list of issues, New Yorkers (State and City), said Taxes were the greatest problem, even more than gas prices and "the economy". 52% said government corruption was widespread.

Link

More No Tax Increase Pledge Signing Today

Bob Shutt, Candidate for the 26th State Senate District, will sign our two Tennessee Tax Revolt tax pledges this morning in Savannah. Bob will pledge to the taxpayers that, if elected, he will oppose a State Income Tax and will oppose any effort to raise taxes.

Exploring Public Sector Blogging-The Municipalist Blog

Link

My point here is to document that potential, making use of my journalism background to reach out directly to bloggers who serve their communities, states, or nations in elected or appointed positions, and ask them what has worked for them and what they have learned. Federal agencies are getting into blogging too, and I want to write about that as well. And I will ruminate about blogging in general and how it can impact government institutions and organizations. The intended audience here is definitely not new media analysts or "futurists" or any other self-appointed expert. I am aiming at those who are learning about Web 2.0, and/or those who may be public officials themselves, and are curious about new ways to build community around ideas or goals. Municipalist is a non-partisan blog. We have no interest in rooting for any particular political party.

So lets FORCE Clarksville families to CUT

their budgets by raising their taxes. Yea, thats the ticket....that way the city government won't have to suffer.

Lets review:

1- Clarksville taxpaying families face sharply higher gas and food prices and decreasing real incomes.

2- The Clarksville Mayor and City Council are elected by taxpaying citizens to represent taxpaying citizens.

3- The Mayor and Council have two choices. a-Cut the City Government budget or b-force taxpayers to cut their family budgets by raising their taxes?

Link

Piper said he could not rule out a property tax hike, but said he'd do "everything we can to keep there from being a tax increase."

"I'm committed to making our city continue to move forward and progress forward," Piper said. "I believe that we have too often stopped and started, stopped and started, and it has hindered the long-range planning of our city."

Piper said a "perfect storm" of economic conditions will make this budget cycle a difficult hill to climb.

"Unfortunately, we've had a down-turned economy, we've had military leave and we've had a (a decrease in sales-tax revenue)," Piper said. "We've had a very minor increase in revenue versus increasing costs, and there's a significant gap between the two."

City Finance Commissioner Wilbur Berry could not be reached for comment.

Disney rips off TN Taxpayers in return for a little

Hollywood...very little. A well organized and persistent special interest group can work wonders when it comes to taking taxpayer money. Theo Emery does a great job of documenting just how far the film industry shills will go to rip off Tennessee taxpayers. And of course they claim that all of this must be kept secret from the very taxpayers who fund it. This is OUTRAGEOUS and completely unacceptable.

Wouldn't it be nice if OUR government worked as hard for taxpayers as they do for the film industry?

Link

When Gibson returned to Tennessee, discussions quickly accelerated over whether Tennessee could provide enough incentives.

Under state law, Tennessee offers two film incentives. A cash rebate through the film office is for up to 17 percent of what a production spends in Tennessee, from salaries to travel to equipment rentals. The other, through the state Revenue Department, is for companies that establish a headquarters here, for an additional 15 percent.

The Revenue Department incentives had been written to apply to salaries for Tennesseans. But Disney was afraid there wasn't enough qualified crew in Tennessee, and Gibson was under pressure to include non-Tennesseans in the incentives.

It also turned out that the Cyrus family, though closely associated with Tennessee, might not be considered Tennesseans under the statute. Their situation was also complicated by the fact that they were paid through a California "loan out" company.

The question of non-Tennessee crew was central to how big a tax break Disney would get, state records show. Disney eventually told the state it expected to spend $11.3 million in Tennessee.

While state officials refused to disclose the amount of the tax break, saying that information was confidential under state law, the math works out to a $1.9 million rebate if Disney received only the film commission incentive, but about
$3.6 million if the production qualified for both incentives.

(State officials refused to confirm The Tennessean's math, saying it was confidential tax information.)

Ragtime Nightingale played by John Arpin

Legal, advertiser supported Online "Gambling"

Link

Palmer skirts this pesky problem by banking his customers. Three elements have to be present to violate most state gambling laws--namely "prize, chance and consideration," says attorney Chuck Humphrey, a gaming-law specialist and author of the Gambling Law U.S. blog. Because Centsports.com doesn't allow users to bet their own stash, no "consideration" is involved, and thus all is kosher. Quips Palmer: "Congress assumes if you’re dumb enough to give away money, then go for it."

Here's how the site works. Each user starts off with 10 cents in his or her account, provided by Centsports. (You need only register a name and password.) From there, they can bet on any event for which Las Vegas bookmakers set a line.

Once users accumulate $20 in winnings--the equivalent of doubling your money eight times, or striking gold on a 200-to-1 long shot--they can cash out a minimum of $10 and receive an actual check in the mail. (In terms of "consideration," winnings on that initial 10-cent stake don't constitute ownership until actually cashed out.) Losers risk nothing--except perhaps a touch of pride--and get immediately restaked with fresh dimes.

Cashing out is not exactly straight forward. To ensure he can always pay the electric bill, Palmer puts the breaks on payouts (talk about having a house edge). Users compete with each other to snag their winnings from a community pot; big winners get preference.

Users can also earn money by referring friends to Centsports.com. The incentive: 5% of any winnings their friends rack up.

Links to all Tennessee Newspapers Online

From the Tennessee Tax Revolt Taxpayer Information Center:

Link

Miss Tennessee Contestants Photo Gallery

The Jackson Sun stamped each picture with their URL to be helpful.

Link

and Here are baby pics of contestants

Father's Day Gifts: The Bad, Good and Really Bad

Link

Teacher cartels don't care about quality of education

Oil Cartels don't care about access to oil

Doctor cartels don't care about access to healthcare

Harvard Study: Welfare payments and Crime Patterns

Our "welfare" system could not be more degrading and destructive if we designed it for that purpose. It systematically robs people of their respect and dignity and then obstructs their path out of the poverty cycle. It is a crime against humanity committed in the name of humanity.

Link HT: Marginal Revolution

5. Conclusion

Analysis of patterns in crime in 12 large U.S. cities where more than 10% of the
population receive Food Stamps indicates that the timing of welfare payments affects
criminal activity. More crime takes place when more time has passed since welfare
payments occurred. The increase reflects an increase in crimes in which the perpetrator
is likely to have a financial motivation and not other types of Part I UCR or Group A
NIBRS offenses. Temporal patterns in crime are not observed in jurisdictions where
welfare payments are relatively more staggered. These findings are consistent with the
hypothesis that individuals who receive support from welfare payments consume welfare
related income quickly and then attempt to supplement it with income from criminal
activity.

Feeding 5 for $65/week

Link

Jill Cataldo isn't crying the blues over spiking food prices. She's learned to play the game, the Grocery Game, that is and it's saving her family $40 to $60 a week on groceries.

The Grocery Game, a membership Web site (Thegrocerygame.com), tracks the price of thousands of grocery store items, flags when they are being discounted the most and matches those goods with coupons.

"I am spending about $65 a week to feed my family of five, but that's not just food," 34-year-old Cataldo said. "I have two children in diapers. That includes diapers as well as other personal care items, shampoo, razors, soap, etc."

New TSA Scanners can see thru clothes

Any hope of personal privacy is now pretty much gone.

Link

While it allows the security screeners -- looking at the images in a separate room -- to clearly see the passenger's sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger's face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.

The scan only takes seconds and is to replace the physical pat-downs of people that is currently widespread in airports.

TSA began introducing the body scanners in airports in April, first in the Phoenix, Arizona terminal.

Why won't Congress leave us the hell alone

Congress refuses to allow American oil producers to drill for oil in many areas of the US and thus drives up the prices of gas.

Congress mandates that more corn be used for ethanol, thus increasing the price of food for all of us.

Professor Mark Perry shows us what would have happened to our cost of living without the idiots in Congress meddling in our affairs.

Chris Dodd/Kent Conrad got CountrywideVIP loans

Link

Citing company documents and e-mails, the report says the FOAs paid lower fees, and if rates fell while a loan was pending, the VIPs would get a free "float-down" while regular customers had to pay a surcharge.

Dodd reportedly received two loans through the program in 2003 - $506,000 to refinance his Washington town house, and $275,042 to refinance a home in Connecticut. The more favorable terms saved him about $70,000, the report says.

The company has also contributed $21,000 to Dodd's campaigns since 1997, but the senator proposed a bill last year that was averse to the company's lending practices, the report noted.

Conrad borrowed $1 million to refinance his vacation home, and saved at least $10,000.

Medical Fraud costs taxpayers $60 billion/yr

Link

MIAMI -- All it took to bilk the federal government out of $105 million was a laptop computer.

From her Mediterranean-style townhouse, a high school dropout named Rita Campos Ramirez orchestrated what prosecutors call the largest health-care fraud by one person. Over nearly four years, she electronically submitted more than 140,000 Medicare claims for unnecessary equipment and services. She used the proceeds to finance big-ticket purchases, including two condominiums and a Mercedes-Benz.

Health-care experts say the simplicity of Campos Ramirez's scheme underscores the scope of the growing fraud problem and the need to devote more resources to theft prevention. Law enforcement authorities estimate that health-care fraud costs taxpayers more than $60 billion each year.

"Intelligent" people live longer

Wow...this opens up all sorts of avenues for new class action litigation by trial lawyers. Like Xmas in June.

Link

Researchers at Calabria University in Italy have found that longevity is because the brains of intelligent people age more slowly — thanks to the very gene SSADH which makes them clever actually.

According to them, those with the less “smart” variant of the gene, are unlikely to live beyond 85 but those blessed with a “good” version of the same gene could expect to live up to 100 years.

The Italian team came to the conclusion after analysing a research involving 500 elderly men and women.

Amtrak and Music City Star are bottomless pits

for taxpayer money. Mass Transit is a boondoggle and it has proven to be a failure time after time after time.

The Music City Star must have yet more money

Amtrak is a complete failure and got the biggest bailout so far this year...Terry Frank has the story.

Montgomery Cnty (Clarksville) goes for 3 TAX HIKES

Is this some kind of bad joke in a year when taxpaying families are suffering through $4.00 gas and food prices going thru the roof?

And the County Mayor says she has NO CHOICE??? Maybe she ought to talk with a few taxpayers about how to deal with declining revenue...this is absolutely outrageous.

I am absolutely fed up with elected officials who treat taxpaying citizens as just another stakeholder group. WE ARE NOT JUST ANOTHER STAKEHOLDER GROUP!!! We are the people who grant to government all the power and authority they exercise and ALL the MONEY they spend.

Link

The County Budget Committee is urging increases to property and sales tax rates and the wheel tax to generate more revenue to cover county needs in the 2009 fiscal year.

The committee voted unanimously Thursday to recommend a 36-cent property tax increase. The current rate is $3.14 per $100 of assessed property.

The panel also urged increasing the wheel tax to $50, up from the current rate of $30 a year.

It also wants to discuss with the city increasing the local option sales tax to 2.75 percent, the legal limit, up from today's rate of 2.5 percent.

The property tax rate must be approved by a vote of the 21-member County Commission. The wheel tax and and sales tax increases would have to be approved by county voters.

County officials at Thursday's county budget hearing said property tax increases next fiscal year appear inevitable.

"It's a hard pill to swallow; nobody wants to raise taxes," said County Mayor Carolyn Bowers. "We don't have a choice."

Cuba ends "egalitarian" wages

Link

Cuba took another leap away from Fidel Castro's creaky egalitarian model yesterday when it swept away the wage restraints that have kept surgeons and taxi drivers on much the same salaries for the past 50 years.

The latest and most dramatic liberalisation by Raul Castro appears to be aimed at bringing to communist Cuba the Chinese-style economic reforms he admires so much. But the move falls far short of the political reforms that Cubans, both inside and out of the country, long for.

The new wage policy is the latest change by President Castro, who officially took over on 24 February but has been running the country since July 2006 when his older brother, Fidel, 81, suffered serious health problems.

Since February, Mr Castro, 77, has allowed Cubans to buy personal computers and mobile phones, rent cars and even stay overnight in hotels previously only accessible to foreigners, provided they can afford it.

Congress is Playing with Fire

Colorado is the next New Jersey

Once a shining light for limited government and low taxes, Colorado is quickly laying the foundation for ruinously big government and THIS is a major step in that direction. Colorado will be the New Jersey of the West.

Efficiency wave or fossil removal?

Dave Goetz says State Government is going through "efficiency wave after efficiency wave" just like private business? Huh?

Phil Bredesen said we were removing fossils.....which is it fossil removal or "efficiency wave?"

And by the way, Commissioner Goetz is still not willing to tell us which corporate fat cats will be getting our $100 million of "economic development" aka taxpayer money. My guess is that most taxpayers would like to have that money back about now to pay for gas.

Link

Goetz said the state is taking a business-like approach to its revenue woes. "It's what you've done in your businesses as you go through efficiency wave after efficiency wave," he told attendees.

Goetz said the state budget still sets aside $100 million in the new budget in case a couple of mammoth economic development projects requesting state incentives are landed.

One of those projects is a Volkswagen plant eyeing the Chattanooga area, Goetz said following his formal remarks. He wouldn't comment about other possible projects.

Fight Crime with $500k taxpayer funded GOLF?

Link

A senior Justice Department official says a $500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use of money designed to deal with juvenile crime in America.

Candidates signing Tax Pledge Today

I will be in Maryville today where Senator Raymond Finney, running for re-election, and Tona Monroe-Ball, campaiging for the 20th House District, have invited me to witness their signing of our Tennessee Tax Revolt Taxpayer Protection Pledges. They will pledge to oppose the State Income Tax and Oppose any tax increases. We are happy to attend events anywhere in the State for candidates wishing to sign a pledge.The pledge signing is at Ryan's Steak House in Alcoa at 5:30PM.

This is VERY important since the next legislative session will almost certainly see Gov Bredesen propose an increase in the gas tax. Any legislative session AFTER an election year is VERY dangerous for taxpayers.

Tennessee Legislators spend the entire session making rules that we must obey. Its very important to have legislators who agree to abide by a promise NOT to raise taxes.

May Gallup Poll: 57% favor drilling in prohibited areas

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Democrats are going to have to grow up. The oil-rich areas they want to leave untouched are accessible with minimal environmental disturbance, thanks to modern technology. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita flattened terminals across the Gulf of Mexico but didn't cause a single oil spill. As for anticarbon theology, oil will be indispensable over the next half-century and probably longer, like it or not. Airplanes will never fly on woodchips, and you won't be able to charge your car with a windmill for some time, if ever.

Public anger over fuel prices could hardly come at a worse time for the GOP, since voters tend to blame a flagging economy on the party that occupies the White House. But the opportunity is to offer a reform alternative to Barack Obama and the high-price energy status quo he embraces. It looks like the public is increasingly ready for . . . change. In a May Gallup poll, 57% favored "allowing drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas now off limits." Just 20% blamed the increase in gas prices on Big Oil, like Mr. Obama does.

Recent weeks have seen some GOP stirrings on Capitol Hill, but John McCain has so far refused to jettison his green posturings, such as his belief in carbon caps and his animus against offshore development. A good reason for a rethink would be $4 gas. At present, it is charitable to call Mr. McCain's energy ideas incoherent, and it may cost him the election.

10 Free Web based alternatives to Photoshop

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Life expectancy continues to rise

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• Life expectancy at birth hit a new record high in 2006 of 78.1 years, a 0.3 increase from 2005. Record high life expectancy was recorded for both white males and black males (76 years and 70 years, respectively) as well as for white females and black females (81 years and 76.9 years).

• The preliminary number of deaths in the United States in 2006 was 2,425,900, a 22,117 decrease from the 2005 total. With a rapidly growing older population, declines in the number of deaths (as opposed to death rates) are unusual, and the 2006 decline is likely the result of more mild influenza mortality in 2006 compared with 2005.

• Between 2005 and 2006, the largest decline in age-adjusted death rates occurred for influenza and pneumonia, with a 12.8 percent decline. Other declines were observed for chronic lower respiratory diseases (6.5 percent), stroke (6.4 percent), heart disease (5.5 percent), diabetes (5.3 percent), hypertension (5 percent), chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (3.3 percent), suicide (2.8 percent), septicemia or blood poisoning (2.7 percent), cancer (1.6 percent) and accidents (1.5 percent).

• There were an estimated 12,045 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2006, and age-adjusted death rates from the disease declined 4.8% from 2005.

• The preliminary infant mortality rate for 2006 was 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2005 rate of 6.9.

• Alzheimer’s disease passed diabetes to become the sixth leading cause of death in the United States in 2006. An estimated 72,914 Americans died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2006. However, the preliminary age-adjusted death rate from Alzheimer’s did not change significantly between 2005 and 2006.

Cell revenue exceeds land line revenue

in Sweden for 2007 for the first time. We live in a very dynamic economic environment.

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Swedes are increasingly placing calls, surfing and sending text messages, which led to sharply increased traffic and increased revenues for mobile network operators in 2007. For the first time, total revenues from services in mobile networks exceed revenues from fixed telephony according to a report from the telecoms regulator, the National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS).

Study: Anti-depressant drugs don't work

This study concerns antidepressants. Other recent studies question the effectiveness of cholesterol reducing drugs. Clearly, we are WAAAY over-medicated.

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Compared with placebo, the new-generation antidepressants do not produce clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially have moderate or even very severe depression, but show significant effects only in the most severely depressed patients. The findings also show that the effect for these patients seems to be due to decreased responsiveness to placebo, rather than increased responsiveness to medication. Given these results, the researchers conclude that there is little reason to prescribe new-generation antidepressant medications to any but the most severely depressed patients unless alternative treatments have been ineffective.

Census Bureau to fingerprint/background check 500k

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Census Bureau said Wednesday it will fingerprint and conduct background checks on more than a half- million temporary workers who will go door to door for the 2010 count, at a cost that could exceed $300 million.

Census Director Steven Murdock told a congressional committee the measures are necessary to ensure the federal government does not send criminals into the nation's homes.

He said it would be "absolutely devastating to the census" if temporary workers used their government jobs to commit crimes.

"We have a prime responsibility to ensure the safety of the American people," Murdock told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The Census Bureau received a waiver for the 2000 census from the federal requirement to fingerprint government employees. Workers' names, however, were checked.

Murdock said four census workers were accused of crimes in 2000, though none was convicted. He said there were far more crimes committed against census workers.

Oh yes, this is what our Metro school system needs

One group of bureaucrats has failed to perform so we call in another group of bureaucrats to "fix" the problem.

Hey, I have an idea...lets put some of this power in the hands of PARENTS!!!!! Let parents decide which school best serves their children....what a novel idea. It worked for Phil Bredesen and Karl Dean.

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Major changes to the structure of the Metro schools central office will be forced by the state this week, an official said Tuesday.

Connie Smith, executive director of accountability and improvement for the Tennessee Department of Education, told Metro school board members the state will announce changes this week that will shake up staffing assignments at the top level and affect the district's curriculum.

Senator Dodd: Congress can decide a fair profit for

all corporations. He actually said that!! This is unbelievable.

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Co-host Joe Kernan called the Connecticut senator on the idea, asking if he was going to apply the same strategy to other types of businesses. “Are you going to go across industries across the board and decide what Congress thinks is a fair amount of profit and drawing a lines on what’s fair and what’s not for corporations?” Kernan then emphasized the point. “That’s not the way it’s done in this country, senator. It could never be done that way, could it?”

“Yes, it could be,” Dodd said. “In fact it’s been done that way in the past and particularly when you’re trying to get some relief for people out here when the economy is in a tailspin. We’re about to go into a recession here. This is really causing a tremendous dislocation, not only here, but around the world.”

Anger release vending machine..a GREAT idea

This was created as performance art but they may be on to something...not a bad idea.

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Taxpayers taken for a ride by Miami Transit Tax

A great investigative series by the the Miami Herald on the promises vs the reality of a transit tax. Voters originally approved the new tax by 60%. Taxpayers would have come out much better if they had simply flushed the money down the toilet.

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The promises that preceded the 2002 Transit tax vote have come up as empty as the Route 82 bus. In January, it served so few passengers that it cost Miami-Dade County taxpapers $30 a ride about 13 times the average cost of a Miami-Dade bus.

Amazing Dancer

I think he Can Dance - Watch more free videos

Vote Fraud...in the California Legislature

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California lawmakers routinely violate their own law and cast votes for colleagues who aren't there.

Although the practice of "ghost voting" in the state Assembly is usually harmless, experts say it is fraught with the potential for mischief, and at times ghost votes have decided the outcome of potentially far-reaching legislation.

In the most recent case to surface, eyewitnesses said that in May, Assemblyman Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, cast a ghost vote for Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley - opposite the way she would have voted. "I don't recall it, but I don't deny it, either," de Leon said.

De Leon's ghost vote on AB2818, a measure concerning the state's affordable housing crisis, was first disclosed in The Chronicle's Insight section on Sunday. Assembly Democrats will examine the episode Tuesday, said a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angleles County).

Photo: WWI Recruiting Station in NY 1917

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Congress should pay, otherwise the taxpayers will

get stuck with it.

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Here's the question -- "Should Congress quit funding for Public Television and NPR, Public Radio?"

Richard Guess of Charleston says, "Congress should continue paying for it because if they don't, the taxpayers will end up paying for it."

Police raid art gallery to stop unlicensed dancing?

Yep.

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The DJ was spinning old records by James Brown, Aretha Franklin and the Meters during Funk Night last weekend, when the heavily armed cops dressed in commando-style uniforms burst into the west-side Detroit art gallery.

The cops yelled at the patrons to hit the floor. Witnesses said some officers used their feet to force down a couple of people who failed to move fast enough or asked too many questions.

Detroit police conduct raids frequently for all sorts of illegal activity, and the public never hears a thing. But cops almost never raid art galleries filled with young hipsters, students and at least one lawyer. So this May 30 raid, not unexpectedly, is turning out to have an afterlife: The gallery and patrons have decided to fight back, and the American Civil Liberties Union has become involved.

Obama would impose windfall profits tax on oil cos

Obama campaigned for self-identified socialist Bernie Sanders and he is clearly allied with virtually all the groups that are anti-free market so its not surprising that he would suggest windfall taxes for oil companies. It is surprising, however, that he would be so bold so early.

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RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday he would impose a windfall profits tax on U.S. oil companies as he sought political gain from Americans' pain over high gasoline prices.

Launching a two-week focus on the economy after clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama drew a sharp contrast between his economic policies and those of John McCain, his Republican rival in the November election.

"I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills," the Illinois senator said.

"rock bottom became the solid foundation"

J.K. Rowling on the benefits of failure and poverty.

She seems to be saying that we shouldn't protect people from the consequences of their decisions.

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So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

States seizing millions from stimulus checks

I assume that Tennessee can not seize the stimulus checks...except maybe for the Hall Income Tax? Will see if I can find the answer.

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Thousands of Georgians are seeing their federal stimulus payments stimulate state government.

Georgia is leading the nation in the number of stimulus payments intercepted by the state because the recipients owe back income taxes.

Part or all of 16,051 stimulus payments to Georgians had gone to satisfy back taxes as of the end of May. New York was second, with 11,359 payments intercepted.

Georgia has collected $4.66 million worth of federal stimulus money so far, according to federal figures released to the State Department of Revenue. And millions more likely will wind up in state coffers as the stimulus payments continue.

"I knew we'd get something, but I've been surprised by the number, and it takes a lot to surprise me," said Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham. "Sixteen thousand people. That's a college basketball arena full of people."

The price of gas goes up and we buy less gas?

No question about it, everybody agrees...we are all using less gas.

Sooooo, what happens when you raise the price of unskilled labor, aka the minimum wage?

Employers buy less unskilled labor.

So, lets review. If you REALLY want to help people, who have few marketable skills, get a job, the very LAST thing you do is raise the minimum wage.

Detroit Mayor's friend received $170 mil in contracts

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DETROIT -- A friend of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's has received at least $170 million in city contracts -- $109 million from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department alone -- since the mayor took office in 2002.

Bobby Ferguson, who has been at the mayor's side at black-tie social events and on the backs of motorcycles, has long claimed the relationship hurts his general contracting company's ability to land contracts. But an analysis of records by The Detroit News shows his share of water department contracts has jumped more than 20-fold since Kilpatrick took office. Half of them have doubled, tripled or almost quadrupled in price because of additional work -- a cost that is spread among customers in 126 communities across southeast Michigan.

Senate Dems vote to privatize their own restaurants

Just as most members of Congress send their children to private schools, this vote is yet more evidence of hypocrisy that rises to the level of the absurd in the US Congress.

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Rules and Administrations Committee, which oversees the operation of the Senate, said she had no choice.

"It's cratering," she said of the restaurant system. "Candidly, I don't think the taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn't need to be. There are parts of government that can be run like a business and should be run like businesses."

In a letter to colleagues, Feinstein said that the Government Accountability Office found that "financially breaking even has not been the objective of the current management due to an expectation that the restaurants will operate at a deficit annually."

Govt should create access to data, not websites

A very interesting study which proposes that Governments should stop spending so much time designing web sites as user interfaces and follow the path of many successful web companies and give users complete access to the underlying data so citizens can design user interfaces. This would open up a huge reservoir of online creativity.

Link HT: BeSpacific

If the next Presidential administration really wants to embrace the potential of Internet-enabled government transparency, it should follow a counter-intuitive but ultimately compelling strategy: reduce the federal role in presenting important government information to citizens. Today, government bodies consider their own websites to be a higher priority than technical infrastructures that open up their data for others to use. We argue that this understanding is a mistake. It would be preferable for government to understand providing reusable data, rather than providing websites, as the core of its online publishing responsibility.

Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design sites that meet each end-user need, we argue that the executive branch should focus on creating a simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that exposes the underlying data. Private actors, either nonpro
t or commercial, are better suited to deliver government information to citizens and can constantly create and reshape the tools individuals use to
nd and leverage public data. The best way to ensure that the government allows private parties to compete on equal terms in the provision of government data is to require that federal websites themselves use the same open systems for accessing the underlying data as they make available to the public at large

"Green Schools" bill will take green from taxpayers

and deliver it to special interest groups. Here is the House vote on this green pork boondogle.

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On Wednesday, the House passed the “21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act,” a $6.4 billion school-construction program. Essentially, it’s a regulatory gift bag for environmental groups and labor unions

The legislation creates a new federal grant program to provide states and local school districts with money to build and modernize schools. Among the reasons offered by Chairman George Miller’s Education and Labor Committee for supporting the legislation: to “create jobs in the construction industry” and make “schools that are more energy efficient and reliant on renewable resources of energy” to reduce “emissions that contribute to global warming.

Under the plan, states and localities would be required to use federal dollars to make schools consistent with environmental standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council. States also would receive funding to encourage state agencies to track public schools’ carbon “footprints” and energy efficiency. In all, the Congressional Budget Office projects the program would cost $20.3 billion over five years.

Environmental groups aren’t the only special interests the legislation rewards. Labor unions win, too. The legislation includes the Depression-era Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage regulations, which require projects funded by the program to pay workers wages at least equal to similar projects in the locality.

Just for good measure, the House approved an amendment sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.) that requires school-construction projects to use only American-made steel. This limits flexibility and drives up the cost.

"I Am A Neurotic" Web site

A place to bare all your insecurities and obsessions.

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I can’t allow my husband to go grocery shopping with me because whenever we get to the salad dressing aisle he has to shake each bottle of salad dressing whose solid contents have settled to the bottom. Italian dressings and oil based dressings are particularly bad for him. Depending on the size of the salad dressing section this can take up to a half an hour. Also, I don’t keep dressings like that in the house because he will shake them each time he opens the refrigerator door. Sometimes I suspect he goes to the fridge for that purpose and no other.

This must be in the Appalachian region of France

Driving home in France - Watch more free videos

Talk about grading on the curve...this is CRAZY!

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In a move that would make zero a grade of the past, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district is considering making 61 the lowest grade for a failing assignment.

The goal would be to assure that a single test-day disaster doesn't ruin a semester. Some teachers, students and parents say the change would coddle failing students.

"The system for years had talked about raising expectations for all children in the district, and I don't feel that demonstrates raised expectations for everybody," said Beth Ann Ghio, whose son is an East Chapel Hill High junior. "I don't think that's fair for children who actually submit the work -- even if it's not passing quality -- that they receive the same grade as a student who doesn't submit anything."

Sherri Martin, the district's dir

ector of high school programming, said the revised policy would increase consistency throughout the schools within the district, and ensure that students' grades truly reflect their efforts and understanding.

Prop 13 starved California Government of revenue

Right? Not only wrong but absurd.

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From fiscal 1980-81 – the year Proposition 13 took effect – through 2005-06, property tax revenue skyrocketed from $6.4 billion to $38.3 billion. That is an increase of more than 500 percent. So much for talk that the measure turned off the property tax spigot.

Any claim that the two-thirds requirement to hike state taxes depressed other revenue is also flat wrong. Total state revenue went from $19 billion in 1980-81 to $93.5 billion in 2005-06 – a jump of nearly 400 percent.

These whopping revenue gains occurred in an era in which the state's population went up by 58 percent and, according to federal data, inflation rose by 131 percent. The upshot: Lawmakers have at least twice as much money – inflation-adjusted money – to spend per Californian as they did when Proposition 13 took effect.

Contemplate these numbers, and the claim that the initiative starved the state becomes absurd.

Nice new look to Google Book Search

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NJ Legislators finally admit they simply can't

control spending or borrowing...so much so that they are now willing to give the authority back to the taxpayers.

This is really amazing when you think about it, like a drunk giving the bottle back to caretakers, the NJ State Government is admitting they are completely and utterly unable to rationally ration limited tax dollars. The public employee unions, the army of State bureaucrats, and all the other groups that push for more and bigger government are simply too politically powerful so legislators are saying 'sorry' we just are not up to the task anymore.

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After maxing out their credit card to one of the heaviest debt loads in the nation, state lawmakers may soon need voters' permission before they can borrow again.

A constitutional amendment that would require voters to greenlight future state borrowing is gaining steam in Trenton, reflecting public frustration over a perceived addiction to spending and the state's fiscal crisis.

The idea was embraced in January by Gov. Jon Corzine, who made it part of his broad financial restructuring plan. While that plan's centerpiece -- drastically cutting debt through dramatic toll hikes -- collapsed, the borrowing amendment quietly advanced in the Legislature and has a decent chance to make the November ballot, lawmakers say.

UK Docs revolt over denial of cancer patients

who pay for some of their own treatment.

Great moments in government medicine.

Ok, class lets review. There is a limited supply of medical services. Someone must make the decision about who receives this limited supply. If bureaucrats and politicians make these decisions then patients (with the advice of their doctors) do NOT make the decisions.

That is currently the situation we have with US public education. Bureaucrats and politicians and teacher unions make the decisions, not parents....same result.

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The outcry from eminent consultants and doctors’ leaders came as news emerged of two more patients whose NHS care was removed while they were dying of cancer.

Alan Johnson, the health secretary, faces opposition from the presidents of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal College of Surgeons, as well as British Medical Association consultants.

Baroness Ilora Finlay, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said the issue went to the heart of the purpose of the health service.

“Can we justify spending billions of pounds on the relief of relatively minor conditions and deny patients with life-threatening disease the support of the NHS when they want to bridge the costs themselves?” she said.

Writers Strike costs California $2.1 billion

Reuters

The report, issued by the economic think tank on Thursday, takes on increasing importance as the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood's major movie studios are embroiled in their own contract talks that threaten to throw the industry into another work stoppage as soon as the SAG contract expires on June 30.

"The biggest thing that (a potential SAG strike) really does is it slows down the recovery, even a short strike is going to lead to a further disruption of filming schedules," said Kevin Klowden, managing economist at the Milken Institute and one of the report's authors.

Klowden said the three-month writers' strike that ended in February cost the entertainment industry alone $500 million. But because Hollywood overlaps with other state industries, the report found the strike had a wider impact overall.

Current Intrade Odds: 59% Obama, 36% McCain

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FreeRange Kids Blog-Parenting without smothering

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Do you ever...

..let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk alone to school? Take a bus, solo? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free Range Kid! At Free Range, we believe in safe kids. We believe in helmets, car seats and safety belts. We do NOT believe that every time school age children go outside, they need a security detail. Most of us grew up Free Range and lived to tell the tale. Our kids deserve no less. This site dedicated to sane parenting.

IRS files $220k of liens against John Ford

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Already in prison for bribery and facing another corruption trial this month, former state senator John Ford can add tax trouble to his woes.

The Internal Revenue Service has filed two liens against Ford, contending he owes more than $220,000 in unpaid federal income taxes.

[...]

John Ford's tax bill

According to the liens, Ford owes these taxes, penalties and interest:

$43,998 for 2003

$107,231 for 2004

$47,697 for 2005

$21,740 for 2006

NYC crane inspector accepted bribes

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James Delayo, an assistant chief inspector with the Department of Buildings' cranes and derricks division, accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from a crane company, Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a statement.

But Delayo's actions apparently had no connection to two cranes involved in fatal collapses this year. Both of those cranes were tower cranes, not the mobile cranes at the center of the investigation into Delayo, she said.

It is troubling that an official responsible for ensuring that cranes are safe in New York would be "selling out his own integrity in a way that compromised public safety," Hearn said.

Hearn's office did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment, and she did not identify the company that is said to have bribed Delayo.

Nice collection of USA/World Live TV Feeds

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Congress after a long day?

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Great Fedex Ad

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$1.6 billion Trial Lawyer Tax Break

Billions of Trial lawyer money and the special favors that it buys is slowly but surely transforming the Democratic Party into a corrupt shell. To be sure, the Republicans get some of this money but like public employee unions the trial lawyers depend on the Dems to do their bidding and the Dems expect big bucks in return.

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Finally, this tax break for trial lawyers was passed by the House just as the illegal and unethical practices of some of America’s most famous plaintiffs’ lawyers are in the public spotlight.

Last month class action lawyer Bill Lerach reported to federal prison and yesterday, his partner Mel Weiss was sentenced to 30 months in jail – both for paying “professional plaintiffs” illegal kickbacks, and thereby taking money out of the pockets of their clients. Add to them Dickie Scruggs, the famed class action trial lawyer from Mississippi, who recently pleaded guilty for attempting to bribe a judge. Also part of the equation are the three Kentucky trial lawyers accused of using the money that belonged to their clients to purchase vacation homes, sports cars and the racehorse Curlin, the winner of last year’s Preakness Stakes.

Once you start looking at the big picture, it is clear there is solid evidence that the culture of greed and corruption is growing within the plaintiffs’ bar.

Now is the time for Congress to begin investigations to expose the abusive and fraudulent practices of some of America’s most powerful plaintiffs’ lawyers and take action to enact reform – not give them a $1.6 billion bonus.

Mass Transit: An expensive failure for taxpayers

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Q: Is the current model of mass transit in the USA dead after 40 years?

A: It's not dead because it is being kept alive by an IV from Washington and taxpayers. The very idea that Pennsylvania wants to impose tolls on I-80 with part of the money going to transit shows the bankruptcy of the whole thing. You are not going to get anything for it. Transit is on life support. It is very politically strong. And you know what, we can keep brain-dead transit alive for as long as there is stuff coming out of those IV needles. But if you want to talk about people, role in the community and all that kind of thing, not only is the model dead, but my sense is that transit is dead. That's because this model has so poorly served the industry and the people that I'm not sure there is anything that can be done to resuscitate it.

Clint Eastwood, Libertarian

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"I don't pay attention to either side," he claims. "I mean, I've always been a libertarian. Leave everybody alone. Let everybody else do what they want. Just stay out of everybody else's hair. So I believe in that value of smaller government. Give politicians power and all of a sudden they'll misuse it on ya."

50 highest paid athletes-Excess, obscene profits?

Where are the socialists when you need them? These guys clearly are making excess, obscene profits. Lets tax it all away, they clearly don't "deserve" this money.

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AP teams with 25 dailies to investigate Earmarks

This is great news!!

Link HT: Club for Growth

NEW YORK The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) and some 25 daily papers have teamed up with AP's Washington bureau for an unusual joint project that investigates congressional earmarks.

The project, set to be unveiled this weekend, includes a four-story package produced by the AP and a congressional earmarks database that will be available to all AP members.

The package, centered on a 2,200-word story, includes content supplied by 25 daily newspapers that have been reporting on the earmarks of their local congressional delegations since April. Earmarks are those federal budget items procured by local representatives specifically for local entities.

Absolutely amazing picture of Water on Mars

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230 Miles Per Gallon

More info HERE and also, VW says they will have a 230 mpg car by 2010.

Brawl at Mt. Pleasant City Hall in Budget Meeting

People are not transformed when they enter public service. Government doesn't make people more benevolent or kind or intelligent but it does give them more power to magnify their traits, negative or positive, and impose their moral orthodoxy on their fellow citizens.

It is absolutely necessary that we limit the power that those in government have over our lives.

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“Well you go ahead, fat mouth, and say something,” Shackelford said.

“Well now, I think I will —,” Kirk said.

Shackelford then stood up, struck Kirk several times in the head, dragged him to the floor and continued to strike him. Goode ran over to the two officials and separated them, putting Shackelford in a headlock.

"Insider" Poll shows even greater partisan divide

over global warming:

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The latest National Journal Insiders Poll asks Dems and GOPers if "it’s been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Earth is warming because of man-made pollution."

-- 95% of Dems answered yes, compared with 26% of Republicans.

Insiders of both parties agreed, however, on the most urgent issue facing the next president and Congress: the economy.

-- 59% of GOPers said the economy is at the top of the nation's priority list, while 44% of Dems said the same. But global warming was the second-most pressing matter, according to Dems, while energy took the second spot for Republicans. Give the poll, conducted by NJ's masterful Richard E. Cohen and Peter Bell, a good read.

They actually read a bill on the floor of the Senate

Yes, fellow citizens, they read the Warner -Lieberman Bill last night on the floor of the Senate, all 500 pages which took 10 hours.

Now, granted, most of the Senators weren't actually listening and the reading was just a parliamentary punishment for Harry Reid not allowing more judicial votes but STILL they actually read a bill on the floor of the Senate BEFORE they voted.

McCain and Obama jump thru a loophole?

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The presumptive presidential nominees, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), are exploiting a major loophole in the campaign finance law. Both Senators are setting up joint fundraising committees that allow the wealthy to donate $70,000 or more on behalf of their campaigns.

Father's Day: UroClub, for the golfer that has to go

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Smyrna, La Vergne: No tax hike this year

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"It's pretty much cut-and-dry. We cut everything we didn't have to have," Mayor Bob Spivey said.

Met Tenor Raul Melo singing Mattinata

on Prairie Home Companion...Bravo!!

Link (Real Player)

and HERE he sings four Italian songs...beautiful!!

Here is the link to the entire show.

Nice New Google Finance Feature: Stock Screener

Link

Screen companies using what appear to be at least 50 metrics....very powerful.

User manuals online for all your gadgets

Safemanuals.com

Today's Senate Budget Resolution Vote..about

as party line as they come.

Two Repubs voted YEA, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and One Dem voted NAY, Evan Bayh.

The Budget Resolution is an outline of the budget but is not a law.

While the arrogant, pompous asses in Congress

try to tell us how THEY can "solve" all of our energy problems, US citizens are actually doing something about a solution to the problem that was created by the very Congress that is trying to "solve" it.

May the big man upstairs have mercy on our pitiful souls if Congress actually passes the Warner-Lieberman Bill.

I am sick and tired of being governed by people who live in a fantasy bubble of egos run amok and irrelevant self-righteousness. PLEASE!! Senators and Congresspersons...LEAVE US ALONE!! Spare us your good intentions and your pompous rantings...LEAVE US ALONE!!

Teeny, Tiny Robots at Duke

From Next Big Future which is, by the way, a very interesting blog.

No Property Tax Hike in Roane County

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Local property owners might be happy to know that those responsible for drafting Roane County’s new fiscal budget don’t anticipate a property tax increase this year.

Money Mag: Fat pensions spell doom for many cities

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NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- The jig is up. For years, politicians have been playing what amounts to a multi-trillion-dollar shell game with state and local pensions. They've doled out lush retiree benefits to their heavily unionized workforces, knowing that they could shove the cost for those benefits onto future generations of taxpayers.

But a recent financial bombshell dropped by a San Francisco suburb shows why that shell game is now starting to unravel in a nasty way. And it's a cautionary tale that you can't afford to ignore.

TN Public School Enrollment/Teacher/Spending

Spreadsheet for 05-06. Info source HERE.

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No Property Tax Hike for Murfreesboro

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The city's current property tax rate is $1.407 per $100 of assessed value. If the proposed $93.4 million budget is approved, this will be the 14th year the city has not raised property taxes.

The next fiscal year will begin July 1. The council will review the proposed budget again at 4 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

This year's proposed budget is about a 4.6 percent increase from the current year.

Murfreesboro will be able to avoid tax increases at a time when Rutherford County is looking at a possible 17-cent increase to its $2.44 property tax rate.

IRS gave out citizen tax info 4.5 billion times

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The report reveals that the IRS made 4.5 billion disclosures of tax return information to federal and state agencies. Here are the Top 5 recipients of taxpayer information:

1. States: 3,056,204,124 disclosures
2. Bureau of Census: 1,168,111,972 disclosures
3. Congressional Committees: 232,647,366 disclosures
4. Medicare Premium Subsidy Adjustment: 35,709,109 disclosures
5. Child Support Enforcement Agencies: 12,788,428 disclosures

Odesk.com-Outsource your work or Insource a job

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oDesk is an online staffing marketplace and management platform that provides a convenient way to hire, manage, and pay individuals no matter where they are located. Hiring managers can post jobs and hire from thousands of ranked and certified service providers for time-based work or fixed-price projects. oDesk tools empower users to manage providers as if they were in the same office, and verify and pay only for actual work performed.

Gallup Guru: Repub/Dem split on Global Warming

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The percentage of Republicans out there across the country who agree that the effects of global warming have already begun to be felt has dropped by five points since 1998. The percentage of Democrats agreeing has gone up by almost 20 points.

TN County using tax dollars to promote a Tax Hike

This is now officially a VERY worrisome and troubling and expensive trend. Another Tennessee local government apparently using TAXPAYER DOLLARS to promote a tax hike. In fact, it is quite similar to Morristown where a recently defeated tax hike is being placed on the ballot once again and being promoted with taxpayer dollars. I will, try to confirm if they have actually set up a committee with the local election commission like Morristown.

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The resolution will be on the Aug. 7 county general and state primary ballot. Voters defeated the same measure in the Feb. 5 presidential primary by 91 votes out of 5,335 cast.

Mr. Graham said Monday the committee decided to advertise on posters, yard signs and fliers. Committee members also will give prepared fliers to civic clubs, he said.

“We’ve got an entire menu of things we’re going to hand out in stages,” Mr. Graham said.

He said it could be hard to change public opinion.

“I think it will be a harder sell now than if we attacked it more aggressively last time and the reason is because gas was a dollar cheaper,” he said.

Commissioner Bill Hollin, chairman of the county’s Education Committee, said on Monday the tax increase also could be a tough sell because there are no contested county races and voter turnout is expected to be low. He said people likely won’t come out just to vote on the tax issue.

“I think it will be bad for us,” he said. “The more voters we get, the more chances we’ve got.”

He said right now the sales tax could be the “only option.”

TaxTAKERS have it better than TaxPAYERS?

Yes, in many cases. Columnist Mark Brown writes about Chicago but the principle applies elsewhere. Talk about layoffs is just that, government "layoffs" are almost always buyouts which cushion the job loss. Taxpayers in the private sector have much less job security and a layoff actually MEANS a layoff.

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Simply put, the people who are the beneficiaries of taxes are being better compensated -- when you calculate pay plus benefits -- than most of the people who have to pay the taxes.

I could quote some statistics to make the point, but you know it instinctively from what you can see around you. Government jobs have become highly coveted, especially among nonprofessionals, where the disparities are greatest.

We're going to need to take steps to level the playing field.

On Monday, the Sun-Times ran a story about some business and taxpayer groups, led by the Civic Committee, urging Gov. Blagojevich to extract concessions from state workers on pension benefits and health care.

I can't say if they really are trying to pressure the governor or just helping give him cover for what he already wants to do, but either way, they've correctly picked the area where the treatment of public sector employees is most out of whack with what's happening in the private sector.

Search for members of Federal Advisory Committees

Link HT: FOIA Blog

For those of you new to FACA, the act requires certain committee's (usually ones that utilize non government personnel) to operate in the open so that the public can see what they are up to and comment on their deliberations.

Union actuary cost NY Taxpayers $500 million

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ALBANY — An actuary paid by public employee unions and yet relied upon by the State Legislature to determine the cost of proposals affecting New York City’s pension system underestimated their ultimate cost by at least $500 million, city documents and other records show.

In the hundreds of bills for which he has provided estimates to lawmakers since 2000, the actuary, Jonathan Schwartz, said legislation adjusting the pensions of public employees would have no cost, or limited cost, to the city.

But just 11 of the more than 50 bills vetted by Mr. Schwartz that have become law since 2000 will result in the $500 million in eventual costs, or more than $60 million annually, according to projections provided by Robert C. North Jr., the independent actuary of the city pension system, and by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office.

Shelby voters to decide recall and term limits

Too bad they didn't put a -vote on property tax hikes- charter amendment on the ballot because it would pass overwhelmingly....oh wait, that is WHY they didn't put it on the ballot.

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One of the proposals would limit all officials, including the mayor and commission members, to three four-year terms. It would also allow voters to re-establish the offices of sheriff, trustee, county clerk, register and assessor.

The mayor and commissioners are currently limited to two four-year terms and the other officers are not term limited.

Another provision would create a way for citizens to remove a county official by recall election, which cannot currently be done.

No new oil refineries since 1976

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A new oil refinery has not been built in the United States since 1976. During that time, our gasoline use has increased over 25%. The nation's 149 existing refineries have been running at maximum capacity trying to meet record demand and, as a result, not only do we import oil, we actually have to import 10% of our daily gasoline from refineries overseas.

John Ford-backed law lets doctor practice

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Federal prosecutors contend Morgan offered Ford money in 2005 for legislation that would have given psychologists power to prescribe drugs. Morgan is not charged with the alleged attempted bribery but with lying about it when approached by FBI agents who secretly recorded the conversation.

Morgan, 54, has pleaded not guilty. He has not responded to requests for an interview. Ford, serving a federal prison term on corruption charges, also was not available.

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Records show Morgan was paid $450,000 between 2003 and last year through a series of contracts requiring him to perform psychological assessments, drug and alcohol screens, outpatient treatment and other services to defendants in the Drug Court's DUI program.

In recent months, Morgan has also headed another Drug Court contractor, the Alcohol & Chemical Abuse Rehab Center. Following his May 13 indictment, Morgan sent a letter on ACAR stationery disassociating himself from Drug Court.

"When he did the service for us he did a real good job,'' Dwyer said.

Records show county purchasing officials questioned in 2006 whether one of Morgan's contracts should have been competitively bid. Dwyer, who grew up with Morgan in Frayser, said he "didn't pull any strings'' for his friend but recalls that Morgan started as a volunteer and did such good work that he began getting paid when Drug Court won a crucial state grant.

Commisioner Nicely: "Revenue Package" will be

considered. In response to an inquiry about local bridge repairs Commissioner Nicely says the General Assembly may consider a revenue package.

Translation: Governor Bredesen will propose a gas tax hike next year AFTER the election.

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"It is also possible at some point the Government will put forward a transportation revenue package for consideration by the General Assembly."

Gov Corzine forced to reveal emails from Union Leader

and ex-girlfriend.

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A judge today ruled against Gov. Jon Corzine's bid to keep secret the e-mail traffic between the governor and state-worker union leader Carla Katz, his ex-girlfriend, over the first 18 months of his administration. The Attorney General's office said it would appeal the decision.

A day shy of the one-year anniversary of the filing of a Republican lawsuit against the governor, state Superior Court Judge Paul Innes ruled that hundreds of e-mails must be released because they are not merely the private correspondence between two people who once had a relationship.

In a clear and strongly worded ruling issued this afternoon, the judge said the e-mails are public documents under the state's Open Public Records Act.

"The relationship created a clear potential for conflict," Innes wrote. "These types of communications would be the sort of communications the Supreme Court felt the public had the right of access to understand and evaluate the reasonableness of the public body's actions."

"The public," Innes wrote, "has a right to know whether the relationship between the governor and Ms. Katz had any improper influence on the governor's paramount obligation to serve the interest of the citizens of New Jersey first."

Federal Employee/Salary Database

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Enter a name, or select an agency, job title or location to begin your search. Not all fields need to be filled out. The results will show the adjusted base salary and any merit award from federal fiscal year 2007. On the results page, you may click on a column heading to sort the results.

Employees involved in security work, the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, nuclear materials, IRS, and jobs essential to national security are excluded. The list contains most executive branch employees but does not cover the White House, Congress, the Postal Service, and independent agencies and commissions.

New Map feature in Property Assessment Database

In the State Assessment database linked HERE, your search results now include a link to the State GIS mapping system.

This is the database for counties that don't maintain their own property owner/assessment database.

For example,

1- Click on the assessment database here and then click on Sevier County (SouthEast of Knox County).

2- Enter "dollywood" in the Owner Name box and then click on search.

3- go down to the 10th entry, with the address "DOLLYWOOD LN 1020" (that's the address listed on their website).

4- You can then go to the left side of the page and click the radio button to get information on their property valuation or you can go to the right side of the page and click on "Map" to see the GIS map of the property.

Poll: Regardless of legality, is it moral?

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Source: Gallup / USA Today
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,017 American adults, conducted from May 8 to May 11, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Next, I’m going to read you a list of issues. Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, for each one, please tell me whether you personally believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong.

	Acceptable	Wrong
Divorce	70%	22%
Gambling	63%	32%
The death penalty	62%	30%
Medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos	62%	30%
Sex between an unmarried man and woman	61%	36%
Medical testing on animals	56%	38%
Having a baby outside of marriage	55%	41%
Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur	54%	39%
Doctor-assisted suicide	51%	44%
Homosexual relations	48%	48%
Abortion	40%	48%
Cloning animals	33%	61%
Suicide	15%	78%
Cloning humans	11%	85%
Polygamy, when one husband has more than one wife at the same time	8%	90%
Married men and women having an affair	7%	91%

Georgia Gov blocks State Gas Tax Hike

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ATLANTA (AP) - Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed an executive order halting what would have been a 2.9 cent per gallon increase to the state gasoline tax.

Perdue said it isn't fair for the state to reap a tax windfall on the backs of cash-strapped families struggling with record-high process at the pump.

The state was expected to post the higher tax Monday. It would have taken effect July 1st. The state tax is adjusted twice a year based on the average price of gas.

In Georgia, the price of every gallon of gasoline includes 18.5 cents in state taxes, 18.4 cents in federal taxes and a local tax that varies from county to county.

Let'em hear you honk in Kingsport

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Cisco demos holographic-like 3D display

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French Bureaucrats move to regulate Line Dancing

Clearly, individual citizens can not be allowed to dance unregulated.

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Now country and western has become so big in France that the country's bureaucrats have decided to bring the craze under state control.

The French administration has moved to create an official country dancing diploma as part of a drive to regulate the fad. Authorised instructors who have been on publicly funded training courses will be put in charge of line dancing lessons and balls.

The rules, which come into force next year, come after the rapid spread of country and western in France, where an estimated 100,000 people line dance several times a week. Jean Chauveau, the chairman of the country section of the French Dance Federation, said: “It's growing at a crazy rate. There are thousands of clubs and more are springing up all the time.”

He said the French shunned the square dancing that is popular among country and western fans in the United States because it involved physical contact. “They don't want to take anyone by the hand or anything like that,” he said. But they were passionate about line dancing, where participants follow the steps without touching anyone else. “I think this corresponds to the individualism of our times,” Mr Chauveau said.

Taxpayer money should NOT defend misconduct

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A temporary restraining order has been filed against numerous Cocke County officials that prevents them from spending taxpayer dollars to defend a local judge who faces disciplinary action for alleged misconduct.

The restraining order was issued Friday by Cocke County Circuit Court Judge Ben Hooper II after a lawsuit was filed by Michael McCarter, a former county commissioner and jail administrator for the Cocke County Sheriff's Department.

McCarter's lawsuit claims that County Mayor Iliff McMahan Jr., Finance Director Anne Williams and the entire county commission - known as the Cocke County Legislative Body - violated state la