Candido Portinari - Brazilian Artist (1902-1962)

Link

THANK YOU Marsha Blackburn!!

for voting against the ridiculous housing bailout bill.

Thank YOU Marsha Blackburn for thinking of all Taxpayers BEFORE you think of special interest groups. Your vote against the boondoggle housing bill is very much appreciated. Keep on voting for taxpayers!!

Lemonette-Video Blogger talks about Perfect Relationships

Link

Lemonette’s a video blogger from Georgia, who dispenses wisdom and hair advice from the driver’s seat of her car. Yet she’s also so much more. It’s hard to explain the charm in words. Just go watch!

Census: Fill out this instrusive 28 pg form or go to jail

This is absolutely outrageous either way. If people are, in fact being prosecuted, which I doubt, then it is unforgivable. Otherwise, if the Census Bureau is simply using these kinds of intimidation tactics on 77 yr olds then that is equally outrageous.

Link

The survey contains other personal questions besides financial data, such as "What time do you leave for work?"

Other questions ask about the number of people living in the resident's home, whether anyone in the household has received food stamps in the last 12 months, how many times the person has been married and how well the person speaks English.

Mary Smith, a 77-year-old from Elgin, received the survey about a month ago. She said she provided only her name and address and sent it back. So far, she has not been contacted about it.

"It asked, you know, personal questions that I didn't feel I should answer for someone I don't know. I felt uncomfortable," she said.

She pointed to questions such as: "Because of physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have serious difficulty remembering or making decisions?" Or, "Does this person have difficulty walking or climbing stairs?" and "Does this person have difficulty dressing or bathing?"

Smith said the only reason she sent it back was because the Web site threatens a fine or imprisonment if it is not filled out.

Exxon makes $11 bil, Govt makes $32 bil

Professor Perry has done a stellar job of documenting the TAXES paid by Exxon. The media always highlight the profits but taxes are always a secondary topic. Oh, and by the way, the "evil" profits are what give Exxon stock value, the value that grows in the 401ks and pension funds of virtually every pension fund and retirement account held by Americans. That is a GOOD thing. And profits are the funds available to drill for new oil and hire new employees.

"Its My Audit and I'll Tax if I want to"

The Tennessee Department of Revenue is hassling churches over too many yard sales. This video, provided courtesy of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. indicates it may be part of a pattern. This video comes form a "team building" exercise during the yearly retreat held by the TN Department of Revenue first reported by Phil Williams HERE and HERE.

We must keep buying oil overseas

so the Sheikhs can fly their Lamborghinis to London for oil changes.

US tops in Internet usage - 73% -1.5 billion worldwide

Professor Perry has the info.

1. North America has the highest Internet penetration rate in the world of 73.6%, 1.5x the 48.1%penetration rate of Europe.

2. Africa has the lowest Internet penetration rate in the world: 5.3%.

3. The Middle East has the highest percentage growth in Internet usage from 2000 to 2008: 1,177%.

4. Asia has the highest number of Internet users.

5. There are now almost 1.5 billion Internet users worldwide.

The innocence of Children-McCain on Taxes

3,000 blank British Passports Stolen

Link

He was buying a newspaper and chocolate bar when the raider jumped into the driver's seat and forced the head of the passenger against the dashboard.

The van was driven off with the delivery man on board before being abandoned nearby.

The delivery man has told police that he did not know how many raiders were involved because he kept his head down and when it was safe to look up realised the documents - a total of 3,000 passports and visas in 24 parcels - had been taken.

Foreign Office officials said today they had launched an `urgent investigation' into security arrangements.

A Home Office spokesman cranked up the pressure by saying that their policy was always to use `secure armoured vehicles'.

The Home Office would usually transport passports destined for use in this country.

Hey Gov Bredesen, its SMALL businesses that

create jobs!! But instead of lowering taxes for existing small Tennessee businesses you are throwing hundreds of million of our hard earned taxpayer dollars at corporate fat cats who wouldn't, as they say, "pis* on us if we were on fire" if some other State offered them more taxpayer lucre than you offered.

Professor Jeff Cornwall has the story

The ADP National Employment Report and ADP Small Business Report released today show that small businesses are continuing to be the only reliable engine for new jobs in our economy. During the month of July small businesses - defined as businesses with fewer than 50 workers - added 50,000. During the same month, medium businesses (50-499 employees) lost 9,000 jobs and large businesses (500 employees and larger) lost 32,000 jobs.

As I said yesterday, we need to understand the changing nature of this economy and take steps to help support the real engine of job creation. For the past twenty years small business has created about 78% of all new jobs every year. And yet we still have not changed our approach to public policy to reflect the new economic reality.

Kudos to Senator Corker

Link

"Both the White House and Congress are guilty of such gimmicks on a yearly basis, and it is time for it to stop. The American taxpayers deserve to be shown the true scope of our financial problems. Our country's resources have been mismanaged and the economic downturn we're experiencing will only make the situation worse. We need to work together on a bipartisan basis to overhaul our budget process, reform entitlement programs and restrain our spending."

Outsource your tasks to poor overseas students

Link HT: Bits

Social Responsibility Benefits to Buyers

• Provide work opportunities to people everywhere
• Help encourage continuous education worldwide

Serebra Connect is open to everyone, and Buyers can award tasks to any Seller, anywhere. Buyers who want to add a social responsibility element to their business are free to use the platform to provide work to skilled people in developing nations. This helps foster a culture of global education and supports Serebra's mission to link education to income.

Change through empowerment

Like other social responsibility initiatives, such as the One Laptop Per Child program and the micro-loan platform, Kiva, Serebra and Serebra Connect place an emphasis on providing opportunities for people to help themselves.

Think of it this way: You may have heard the expression, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." In this case, Serebra's e-learning platform does the teaching, and Serebra Connect provides opportunities for people to earn money from their skills. By posting tasks on Serebra Connect, you can increase the opportunities for people everywhere to fish in a global pool. At the same time you can benefit your business through time and cost savings. Everyone wins.

A Country At The Mercy Of Environmentalists

Another great editorial by Walter Williams.

Link

Let's face it. The average individual American has little or no clout with Congress and can be safely ignored. But it's a different story with groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy.

When they speak, Congress listens. Unlike the average American, they are well organized, loaded with cash and well positioned to be a disobedient congressman's worse nightmare. Their political and economic success has been a near disaster for our nation.

For several decades, environmentalists have managed to get Congress to keep most of our oil resources off-limits to exploration and drilling.

They've managed to have the Congress enact onerous regulations that have made refinery construction impossible.

Similarly, they've used the courts and Congress to completely stymie the construction of nuclear power plants. As a result, energy prices are at historical highs and threaten our economy and national security.

What's the political response to our energy problems? It's more congressional and White House kowtowing to environmentalists, farmers and multibillion-dollar corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland.

One in four TN County Governments affected by theft

Link

In all, about one in four county governments in Tennessee were affected in some way by theft last year, according to a new audit conducted by the state comptroller's office.

The audit says counties in Tennessee are about $350,000 short because of theft.

Sometimes, the thefts are sizable. According to the audit, Henry County is still trying to recover more than $162,000 that was stolen in 2006 through a conspiracy involving the then-sheriff.

But more often, the audit reveals, thefts only involve one or two people and the take is much smaller, involving a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. Even in cases where the money taken was just a few hundred dollars, drawn out legal proceedings can delay repayment for years.

Joe Kimery, an assistant director in the Comptroller's Office of County Audit, said the thefts weren't sizable enough to have much of an effect on day-to-day operations in most counties. But they can create serious concerns in the eyes of taxpayers.

"It erodes the confidence the public has in government when they see these things happen," he said.

Dems to pick up historic gains in House?

Link

When was the last time either major party followed a gain of more than 20 House seats with another double-digit gain just two years later? That has happened just once in the post-World War II era, more than five decades ago: In the twilight of Harry Truman's presidency, Republicans scored a 28-seat pickup in 1950 and then netted 22 more in 1952.

Now, after Democrats picked up 30 seats in 2006, the question is not whether they will gain seats again this year but how many. Their pickups might well reach double digits once more.

Free Online Criminal Background Searches

HERE HT: PI Buzz

and a good discussion HERE of the limitations of criminal background searches.

Fannie and Freddie vs Bennigans and Starbucks

If Bennigans and Starbucks had learned to play the bailout game they would be flourishing instead of going bankrupt, in the case of Bennigans, and closing stores, in the case of Starbucks.

If they had invested just a few million in Congressional lobbying and contributions they too would be flourishing like Fannie and Freddie.

FINALLY!! Thinking of Taxpayers FIRST

Link

The Greene County Commission's Road Committee on Monday decided not to propose or support a referendum for the November ballot that would increase the wheel tax if approved by voters.

Committee members noted that county residents are being hit hard by rising gas and grocery prices, as well as by other steep price hikes.

Greene County Road Superintendent David Weems had said his department was definitely in need of more funding. But Weems quickly added that he opposed a wheel tax increase to do that, citing increases in the cost of gas and other costs of living for residents.

"I just don't feel like now's the time to place any more burdens on taxpayers," Weems said.

Off-Roaders tell Smokey Bear to take a Hike

Link

The Forest Service said Tuesday it has canceled a public service ad in which the iconic bear warned that sparks from off-road vehicles could start a wildfire.

Off-road groups had complained that the ad sent the wrong message that riders operating ATVs in a legal manner can start forest fires.

"The mutual goal of the Forest Service, National Association of State Foresters and the Ad Council is to spread Smokey's enduring message of preventing wildfires to all forest users," the Forest Service said in a statement Tuesday.

Because the ATV ad was interpreted as unfairly targeting off-road riders, the Forest Service has requested that TV stations and other media outlets that had broadcast the ad discontinue it, the Forest Service said.

AFL-CIO starts Barack Obama mailings

Link

The AFL-CIO begins a ramped-up campaign to define Sen. Barack Obama with union members and their families in battleground states, focusing heavily on working-class, swing union voters in OH, MI, PA and WI. The goal, per union officials, is to dispel the many rumors circulating about Obama via two new mailers, dropped today, that ask and answer still-looming questions about the candidate. The union will send the pieces to 600K swing voters living in the four critical battleground states.

"Sen. Obama has proven time and again that he's a champion for working families who will deliver the economic change we so desperately need," said AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman. "Working people are focused on issues that matter like good jobs, fair trade, health care reform and retirement security. They aren't about to let the right-wing attack machine distort Sen. Obama's record or defame his reputation in a desperate attempt to maintain the disastrous economic status quo."

One of the mailers aims directly to dispel myths and rumors about the IL senator. The other features worker testimonials on Obama's record on jobs, health care reform and workers' rights.

Fed Lobbying even more corrupt than we thought

Link

The episode opens a small window onto an open secret of lobbying. Public relations firms regularly solicit authors of opinion-page articles, draft the pieces for them and place the articles in publications where they will have the most impact -- all for a fee.

Usually the collaboration comes off without a hitch and no one is the wiser. But apparently that didn't happen here.

The commentary criticized pending federal legislation that would reduce credit card fees and suggested that retailers stand to profit from it. The measure has been the subject of a long-standing feud between retailers, which want to limit the fees, and credit card companies, which don't.

Canadian woman gives birth to 18th child

Link

The couple immigrated to Canada from Romania in 1990 and now live in Abbotsford, B.C. Their 17 other children range in age from 20 months to 23 years old.

Alexandru Ionce does not know if the couple will be having more children.

"We never planned how many children to have," he said. "We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life.

"We let life come."

The family now has 10 girls and eight boys.

"We would have liked a boy to be even," he said. "We thank God all of them are healthy and happy."

Interesting National Security Agency Forms

The Memory Hole blog has obtained, via Freedom of Info requests, lots of blank forms used by NSA. The form shown to the left is some type of psychological assessment for example.

Link

Labor unions always want to create a monopoly

They want to control the supply of labor and have absolute power over who enters a trade. The latest example: Metro Nashville Taxi Drivers.

Link

Abdinasir Ismail, one of the founders of the MNTBA, says drivers aren’t making any money because the market is oversaturated. He wants to see the Transportation and Licensing Commission reduce the number of permits available to increase demand.

Is Anna Patterson the next Bill Gates?

Founder of Search Engine Cuil.com

Article describing challenges

Study: Why Hugh Grant is sexy-Self-deprecating Humor

Probably financed by the taxpayers.

Link

Although it has long been known that making a woman laugh is the best way to seduce her, new research shows the most successful form of humour comes from one's ability to poke fund at oneself, making men like actor Hugh Grant, 47, most sexually attractive to women.

Bringing attention to your flaws is a high-risk seduction strategy for men however and has the potential to backfire.

'Dissing Oneself: The Sexual Attractiveness of Self-Deprecating Humour,' will be published in next month's Journal of Evolutionary Psychology.

During the two-year study, women students listened to tape recordings of men talking about themselves, and we asked to score the men on sexual attractiveness.

Lead researcher Gil Greengross, of the University of New Mexico in the US, said: "Many studies show that a sense of humour is sexually attractive to women but we've found that self-deprecating humour is the most attractive of all.

"People who used this humour were considered to be far more desirable as mates."

RI Gov and Union play chicken

Link

“There will be no resumption of negotiations with Council 94,” Carcieri said. “My administration spent six months and hundreds of hours negotiating the terms of this agreement with representatives of Council 94. Those representatives agreed to the terms that were finally negotiated. There were numerous concessions from the state, including not going forward with the layoff of hundreds of employees and guaranteed wage increases of 8.5 percent over the four-year contract.”

Grilli said Council 94 would probably file an unfair labor practice charge with the state Board of Labor Relations as soon as Monday. Grilli and other labor leaders believe that the Carcieri administration is required to negotiate under the state’s labor laws.

“This is uncharted territory. But we believe we still are protected by the law,” Grilli said. “Rather than all this posturing, I think we should sit down.”

Carcieri administration officials, however, maintain that they are not required to negotiate. They believe that Council 94 currently has no contractual rights. The administration issued letters last month officially terminating its most recent contract, which expired July 1.

Study: Political Correctness by discipline

Link

Political Correctness by Discipline

Discipline	Moderately Correct	Politically Incorrect	Politically Correct	Non-Committal
Psychology	15.2%	21.7%	58.7%	4.3%
Sociology	48.2%	1.8%	44.6%	5.4%
English	30.2%	18.9%	41.5%	9.4%
History	50.0%	16.7%	31.5%	1.9%
Elementary education	40.0%	28.9%	24.4%	6.7%
Communication	35.6%	31.1%	22.2%	11.1%
Nursing	41.8%	25.5%	18.2%	14.5%
Art	46.3%	17.1%	14.6%	22.0%
Business (general)	27.0%	37.8%	13.5%	21.6%
Political science	58.3%	14.6%	10.4%	16.7%
Criminal justice	63.6%	25.5%	9.1%	1.8%
Economics	32.6%	51.2%	4.7%	11.6%
Marketing	31.8%	43.2%	4.5%	20.5%
Accounting	40.0%	40.0%	4.0%	16.0%
Computer science	42.4%	48.5%	3.0%	6.1%
Biology	62.7%	19.6%	2.0%	15.7%
Finance	34.3%	34.3%	0.0%	31.4%
Management information	19.4%	72.2%	0.0%	8.3%
Mechanical engineering	17.6%	50.0%	0.0%	32.4%
Electrical engineering	34.1%	19.5%	0.0%	46.3%

Video: Calif State workers protest

Link

FY2009 Fed Deficit expected to be $490,000,000,000

Link

WASHINGTON — The White House has increased its estimate for next year's deficit to nearly $490 billion, a record figure that will saddle the next president with deepening budget problems in his first year in office, a report due out Monday shows.

The projected deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is being driven higher by the continuing economic slowdown and larger-than-anticipated costs of the two-year, $168 billion fiscal stimulus package passed by Congress, said two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the report. In February, President Bush predicted the 2009 deficit would be $407 billion.

The budget update shows this year's deficit headed under $400 billion, at least $10 billion less than projected, according to the two officials. That's partly because tax revenue held up reasonably well despite the weaker economy.

Memphis Schools catering unit out of control

Great investigative work by the Commercial Appeal.

Link

An investigation of five years of records by The Commercial Appeal shows not just questionable spending but shoddy record-keeping, missing invoices, late payments, unexplained discounts and a history of problem employees. Records portray catering services as uncontrolled well before the tenure of James Jordan, who was forced to resign last year as nutrition services director amid allegations of gross mismanagement.

The newspaper found records in such shambles that it's impossible to see a clear picture of the unit's total operations -- and, significantly, its abuses.

Records show that board members and school employees have, for years, eaten haute cuisine on the hog.

"This catering boondoggle stinks worse than week-old cafeteria food," said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville-based free-market think tank. "And just like week-old cafeteria food, it's time to get rid of it."

Lottery Revenues going up in hard times

Link

Even as soaring gasoline prices, mounting home foreclosures and bank losses throw the national economy into a tailspin, the lotteries of Connecticut and its neighboring states are booming.

Connecticut's 2008 lottery revenue of almost $1 billion is a new record, making Lotto tickets and scratch games a kind of reverse barometer of the U.S. economy.

Tranquility Lost

Greenland: Thank YOU "global warming"

Evidence strongly suggests that volcanic activity is melting the ice around Greenland, not "global warming" but whatever the cause, they are welcoming the change.

Link

For 30 years, Greenland's 56,000 people have been pushing for greater control over their own affairs. Despite their best efforts, it was assumed that poor, remote Greenland would remain tied to Denmark indefinitely.

But with the recent surge in global oil and mineral prices – and melting ice on land and sea improving access to potential reserves of both – the prospects for Greenland's independence have never looked better.

"If Greenland becomes economically self-sufficient, then independence becomes a practical possibility," says Aleqa Hammond, minister for finance and foreign affairs in Greenland's home-rule government, which already controls most of the island's affairs. "We know that we have gold and diamonds and oil and great masses of the cleanest water in the world … It may be closer than we think."

75% favor drilling

Link

Thinking now about the energy situation, please tell me if you favour or oppose the following ways to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and make the United States more energy independent.

	Favour	Oppose	Don’t Know
Increasing drilling for oil in the United States immediately	75%	20%	5%
Increasing offshore drilling in U.S. coastal areas	71%	23%	6%
Drilling for oil in a small area of the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge	56%	38%	6%
Reducing the speed limit on interstate highways to 55 miles per hour	43%	52%	5%
Rationing gasoline and oil	28%	64%	8%
Increasing the federal tax on gasoline	14%	82%	4%

Source: Opinion Dynamics / Fox News
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 900 registered American voters, conducted on Jul. 22 and Jul. 23, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Pols begin to push back against union pension

demands...finally. As usual the politicians only act when they have no other options. ALL State and local governments will be required to report this year, for the first time, the burden which they have laid upon taxpayers for future pension and health benefits. The numbers will be HUGE. Some politicians, like this San Diego Mayor, are finally willing to stand up for taxpayers.

Link

The deal has three major components: Taxpayers would pay less for each employee's retirement, workers would receive limited pensions if they retire before age 60 and the ceiling for benefits would be lowered.

Current employees would see no changes to their benefits, nor would public-safety workers.

The compromise – hashed out over the past few days after the unions contacted Sanders on Friday – comes after years of financial turmoil at City Hall stemming from the city's billion-dollar pension deficit. It does little to solve the city's fiscal woes today, but eventually would save the city as much as $22.8 million a year.

The new reality of oil supply and demand

Link

Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company's Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent. Mexico's state-owned oil enterprise is one of Valero's main sources of crude, but oil output from Mexican fields, including the giant Cantarell field, is drying up. Mexican sales of crude oil to the United States have plunged to their lowest level in more than a dozen years.

The same week, India's Tata Motors announced it was expanding its plans to begin producing a new $2,500 "people's car" called the Nano in the fall. The company hopes that by making automobiles affordable for people in India and elsewhere, it could eventually sell 1 million of them a year.

Although neither development made headlines, together they were emblematic of the larger forces of supply and demand that have sent world oil prices bursting through one record level after another. And while the cost of crude has surged before, this oil shock is different. There is little prospect that drivers will ever again see gas prices retreat to the levels they enjoyed for much of the last generation.

John Harvey: time for action on Memphis Crime

Link

How long will we tolerate urban terrorists among us? A man was arrested last week for stabbing a woman in the face with a fork, while he was robbing her at a retirement home. He had been arrested over 30 times. This is not an uncommon occurrence. It is fairly common knowledge that we have too many repeat offenders, but did you know that we have over 52,000 people who have been arrested between 6 and 15 times? Over the past 25 years, we have arrested more people than the entire population of Tulsa, OK, or Cincinnati, OH, or Honolulu, HI, and many other cities.

Each Thursday, Mike Fleming and I have done a short segment we call "Thug of the Week", or "Thug Thursday". This little segment is not done to make fun of those who may have made a mistake and run afoul of the law, it is to let people know that the reason crime is so bad in this county is this - the "criminal justice system" is dysfunctional. We have a rule that in order to qualify for recognition as "Thug of the Week", you have to have been arrested 100 times or more. We have 140 people who satisfy that requirement. We have selected them, and brought them to people's attention, (some more than once, because they have been rearrested). It appears the cops are doing their part, but the breakdown is either in the legislature, the courts or the prosecutors or a combination of the three.

A Tax break for Chrysler in Housing Bill???

Yep and one for a specific apartment building in in Mass...plus all credit card transactions will be monitored, a new fingerprint database, eminent domain protections will be weakened...etc etc etc. This bill is a disaster. Corker voted NO and Alexander voted YES.

Link

7. Section 8 – This one’s not really controversial, but maybe just because we don’t know what’s going on with it. Randomly, one section of the bill extends Section 8 federal housing subsidies for “the property known as The Heritage Apartments” in Malden, Massachusetts. Someone should ask Edward Markey (D-MA), Malden’s congressman, about what strings he had to pull to get this one in there.

8. Tax Cut for Chrylser – Another weird one. According to the New York Times, there is a provision in the bill “tailored narrowly for Chrysler to ensure that it can benefit from a corporate tax incentive even though the company is now structured as a partnership not a corporation. The bill does not name Chrysler but rather describes an unnamed automobile manufacturer “that will produce in excess of 675,000 automobiles” from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2008.”

A New French Revoltution? We can only hope

Link

French face prosecution for 'insulting' civil servants

[...]

Behind the legalese is the belief that civil servants are the embodiment of a French State that deserves the respect and support of all its citizens. The number of prosecutions for insulting police officers and other civil servants has risen from 17,700 in 1996 to 31,731 last year in what critics say is an abuse of government power.

Now Mr Reboux has begun a high-profile campaign for outrage to be taken off the criminal statute books.

“If you tell the owner of your local café or your banker that he's a connard, you might get into a row but you won't get prosecuted,” the mild-mannered intellectual said. “But if you say the same thing to a policeman, you find yourself in court. Why should civil servants be different? It's like something from the ancien régime.”

Politicians: you deserve it ALL and I can deliver it

Many politicians simply pander to the lowest common denominator to gain as much power for themselves and their supporters as possible. Some few are arrogant enough to believe that they really do know what is best for everyone. In both cases the result is the same, they have debased the worth of many of our finest institutions.

1- Home ownership

We don't look to arsonists to help put out fires but we do look to politicians to help solve financial crises that they played a major role in creating.

How did the government help create the current financial mess? Let me count the ways.

In addition to federal laws that pressure lenders to lend to people they would not otherwise lend to, and in places where they would otherwise not invest, state and local governments have in various parts of the country so severely restricted building as to lead to skyrocketing housing prices, which in turn have led many people to resort to "creative financing" in order to buy these artificially more expensive homes.

2- A college degree

What to do? Bauerlein doesn’t conclude with an optimistic chapter on how we can turn things around. He does suggest that colleges should stop treating students like customers to be coddled. Those who can handle serious academic work should be required to do so and those who can’t but are willing to try should be helped as much as possible. If colleges were to start raising their fallen standards, we would expand the cohort of people who are capable of serious thinking, of defending the culture, and of countering demagogues.

Listener agrees to name baby for $100 gas card

Link

In Orlando, Florida, David Partin pledged to name his son after local radio hosts to win a $100 gas card as part of a contest. Partin will collect the card in December, when his son is born, if he can produce a birth certificate proving the baby is named Dixon Willoughby Partin, after the hosts.

"(His wife said) this is his problem to explain when the child is older," Greg Stevens, WHTQ-FM program director told Reuters.

Why didn't I think of this? Pizza Scissors

Link

More on South Carolina Medicaid Database

This is even HUGE-ER than I thought....have been doing some poking around in their database and it even lists physician level payments HERE. TennCare begs for this kind of transparency.

HERE is the main entry point to the database.

The $5 Bill savings Plan

Link HT: J Walk

Three years ago, I made a decision that changed my relationship with money: I stopped spending, and started saving, every five-dollar bill that passed through my hands. Squirreling away each and every $5 received as change from a cash transaction didn't require any complicated savings strategy, but it has paid off, to the tune of $12,000.

That's right. In three years, I have socked away $12,000 just by saving fives.

Glue yourself to the Prime Minister?

to protest a new airport runway? Hmmmm...will have to remember that if the Income Tax rears its ugly head.

Link

Speaking afterwards, Mr Glass said: "My left hand was covered in superglue and I stuck it to his sleeve.

"I just glued myself to him and after 20 seconds he tore my hand off - it really hurt. He had to give it a couple of tugs before it came away.

"He was just grinning about it. He didn't seem to take me seriously."

After the incident Mr Glass was allowed to stay Number 10 for 40 minutes.

When he left the building he tried to glue himself to the gates of Downing Street but was prevented from doing so by a police officer.

"I didn't have much glue left by that point," he said.

Stimulus Check sent to deceased taxpayer

and said so right on the check. The stimulus didn't work, he is still dead.

Link

A $600 economic stimulus check, courtesy of the U.S. Treasury, made its way to Roswell earlier this week. It was payable to George A. Coker DECD. Yes, "DECD," as in "deceased." Coker died in May 2007.

[...]

"There's a $9 trillion national debt, and our government's giving away money to dead people," he said. "As a taxpayer, it offends the hell out of me."

Good preliminary report on Florida Medicaid Reforms

Link

Florida's Medicaid reform demonstration is entering into its second year. Now operating in five counties, the reform has unambiguously led to greater competition. Many plans now offer more services and products than conventional Medicaid. There are also a variety of benefit packages. The most popular expanded benefits include over-the-counter drugs and adult preventative dental care.

A measure of success of this program is the percentage of new beneficiaries who have selected a plan (67%) as opposed to auto assignment. The rate was 62% in the second quarter, 66% in the third quarter and close to 75% in the fourth quarter. Extrapolation of the first-year trend by quarter indicates a possibility of meeting the 80% target for year two.

The great irony of Government is that it protects our

right to be completely and utterly unique from every one of our fellow citizens and yet must, itself, treat us all equally.

Zak-n-Wheezie, the two headed Lizard(s)

celebrate their first birthday.

Link

The Mold Litigation Scam is almost over? Maybe

but rest assured many taxpayer dollars will still be wasted as this trial lawyer contrived hysteria winds down.

Link

Why did the mold litigation blob form?

Entrepreneurial lawyers saw an opportunity to use junk science to blame deep pockets for a variety of idiopathic diseases. We saw it with powerlines, we saw it with Bendectin, we still see it with vaccines. Every once in a while, trial lawyers completely fool the legal system, and make billions with one of these theories, as they did with silicone breast implants. “Toxic mold” was just another stab at the litigation lottery.

Why has it ebbed?

Has it ebbed? I still see reports of an occasional verdict, including a big $22 million settlement in 2005, and there were thousands of cases pending when I last saw it. Rep. Conyers just introduced legislation on “toxic mold” last year, so someone is still lobbying about it. Rationally, it should have ebbed, because the toxic mold suits are meritless. The most notorious for-hire plaintiffs’ mold expert, Gary Ordog, was disciplined in 2006, which likely ended his $975/hour litigation consulting career, and likely a number of cases built around his testimony. Together with NIH, Institute of Medicine, and CDC reports, and insurance policies that more explicitly excluded recovery based on theories of injury from mold, and tort reforms in Texas, where mold litigation was the biggest business, plaintiffs’ lawyers may have sought, er, greener pastures.

How does the fear of mold tie into our culture of fear?

What does this fear of an enigma say about our society?

Fascinating, isn’t it? We coexist with mold for thousands of years. My friend, Walter Olson of the Manhattan Institute has said sarcastically “How unfortunate must we be to live in the twenty-first century, when plaintiffs’ lawyers have discovered the terrible health effects!”

Economic incentives have a lot to do with it: trial lawyers have an economic incentive to describe something relatively innocuous–vaccines, mold, powerlines, silicone breast implants, Bendectin–as something deadly and fit it into the fictional Erin Brockovich paradigm, which appeals to jurors’ preconceived notions. (Erin Brockovich herself has brought a number of bogus lawsuits trying to invoke this paradigm–including over mold.) Low-quality scientists of a variety of levels of sincerity are given the economic incentive to take the same position. Journalists have the economic incentive to tell a story that fits the paradigm whether or not it’s true, because the victims-and-villains storyline that could affect the viewer attracts eyeballs. The three work together symbiotically: the expert witness feeds stories to the lawyer and vice versa; the lawyer feeds stories to the journalist with the expert; the journalist creates publicity that generates business for the lawyer and the expert witness, which in turn creates more stories for the journalist.

The culture of fear is a lot larger than that (others take advantage of it), but I think the reason it is so much larger in America is because only here do we make people millionaires for inventing new things to be afraid of.

Zogby Poll: Favor State Secession?

Link

I believe any state or region has the right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic:
Agree	22%
Disagree	73%
Not sure	5%

Global warmitarian loses faith

Link HT: Flashpoint

There has not been a public debate about the causes of global warming and most of the public and our decision makers are not aware of the most basic salient facts:

1. The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it.

[...]

2. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations by anyone that implicate carbon emissions as a significant cause of the recent global warming.

3. The satellites that measure the world's temperature all say that the warming trend ended in 2001, and that the temperature has dropped about 0.6C in the past year (to the temperature of 1980). Land-based temperature readings are corrupted by the "urban heat island" effect: urban areas encroaching on thermometer stations warm the micro-climate around the thermometer, due to vegetation changes, concrete, cars, houses. Satellite data is the only temperature data we can trust, but it only goes back to 1979. NASA reports only land-based data, and reports a modest warming trend and recent cooling. The other three global temperature records use a mix of satellite and land measurements, or satellite only, and they all show no warming since 2001 and a recent cooling.

4. The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon. Which says something important about which was cause and which was effect.

None of these points are controversial. The alarmist scientists agree with them, though they would dispute their relevance.

Howard Stern upset with the Dems

Link HT: Carpe Diem

Free and Open Source Education Software

Hundreds of Links

Sweden gives PARENTS the power of choice

Egads, Sweden, that bastion of socialism, is letting private, for profit companies offer education choices for parents. Whats next...the Mayors of Nashville sending THEIR children to private schools? Oh wait!

Link

It may sound out of place in Sweden, that paragon of taxpayer-funded cradle-to-grave welfare. But a sweeping reform of the school system has survived the critics and 16 years later is spreading and attracting interest abroad.

"I think most people, parents and children, appreciate the choice," said Bertil Ostberg, from the Ministry of Education. "You can decide what school you want to attend and that appeals to people."

Since the change was introduced in 1992 by a center-right government that briefly replaced the long-governing Social Democrats, the numbers have shot up. In 1992, 1.7% of high schoolers and 1% of elementary schoolchildren were privately educated. Now the figures are 17% and 9%.

In some ways the trend mirrors the rise of the voucher system in the United States, with all its pros and cons. But while the percentage of children in U.S. private schools has dropped slightly in recent years, signs are that the trend in Sweden is growing.

A DC "jobs" program for kids that is a disaster

Its so depressing to see stories like this Washington Post story about a "jobs" program that is such a bloody disaster on so many levels.

So many good intentions, so much ignorance of economics, so much taxpayer money wasted, and so many kids robbed of their faith in their own abilities.

What these kids learned was that they can site around for weeks doing nothing and still get paid for the job. What a bloody waste of human dignity.

Link

Robinson said she was excited about the remaining 4 1/2 weeks, now that everyone has been registered. But she did not think the first month had been a waste.

"Some of these 14-year-olds are the only ones earning a salary in a three-generation household," Robinson said. "If that means sitting in a hot auditorium, then I'm okay with that."

Barry also said he was sorry that so much time had been spent on administrative issues but said "it had to be done for the good of the kids." As to whether the academy was really a "jobs" program, he said that "with the 14- and 15-year-olds, we have no problem paying them to learn."

He said computer glitches in the DOES payroll computers led to students being paid even if they didn't show up. That, in turn, made running the program even more difficult, Barry said.

"Green" advertising may have run its course

Link

The sun was still beating down on the Côte d’Azur last month as advertising executives from around the world returned for this year’s festival. But Mr. Gore was nowhere to be found, and the party buzz was about the American presidential election, the Euro 2008 soccer tournament and even the business of advertising itself. Green marketing, while booming, had lost some of its cachet.

The advertising industry is quicker than most to pick up on changing consumer tastes and moods, and it seems to have grasped the public’s growing skepticism over ads with environmental messages.The sheer volume of these ads — and the flimsiness of many of their claims — seems to have shot the messenger. At best, it has led consumers to feel apathetic toward the green claims or, at worst, even hostile and suspicious of them.

$500 mil taxpayer money to VW...too much?

Its a record according to ChatTimesFreePress but is it too much? Gov Bredesen and Matt Kisber don't think so....sooo, the question is, how much would have been too much taxpayer money...at what point would Gov Bredesen said:

I am not willing to give away that much of the taxpayer's money.

SC to post Medicaid payments on Internet

This is huge. Tennessee should follow South Carolina's great example immediately.

Link

The state is now posting that and other provider information online.

"We are pleased to be able to offer the public a way to track how their money is spent in the Medicaid program," Emma Forkner, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. "This kind of spending transparency is key to ensuring accountability from government agencies and those who get paid by them."

Montgomery Cnty has $7 mil in Fannie/Freddie

mortgages in 2007. HERE is the report. Wonder how many other local governments have investments in mortgage loans?

Can flying become any more humiliating?

No

"Honk if you hate protests" protest

Link

AgentEm developed some chants for our rally to cry out to the passing public at rush hour- here are a few of them:

- No Assembly Required!
- We Want Quiet, not a Riot!
- No Cause is Good Cause!
- No One Cares What You Think!
- We're NOT Gonna PROTEST!
- No Change to Spare!
- Silence not Stridence!
- Decide to be Satisfied!
- Expression is Depression!
- Public Scenes are a Waste of Time!

China now has 600 million cell subscribers

India has 277 million. That's a combined total of almost three times the population of the US.

Link

Both countries boast populations of over 1 billion people.

China's mobile phone statistics have been accelerating over the years. The nation hit the 400 million subscriber mark in February, 2006 and then took 16 months to top 500 million, which was in June, 2007. It only took another 12 months to reach the 600 million mark.

Spring Hill Bond Protest Petition

Spring Hill Bond Protest Petition

Click HERE (PDF) to Display and Print the Petition

The Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen just passed a huge property tax hike. NOW, they want to burden the taxpayers with an additional $2.5 million in new debt. This is outrageous, the City does NOT need to be borrowing more money. Under TN Law the citizens of Spring Hill can force a vote on this new debt but time is short.

PLEASE Sign and have friends and family sign and return to the address on the petition. If you need more information call: 615-405-2764 or 931-486-1298. All petitions must be submitted within 20 days so it is VERY important to act quickly. Please print additional copies and hand them out at church, at your work and around the neighborhood. Thank YOU.

Chicago defeats tax repeal effort

Todd Stroger, close friend of Barack Obama, and his allies defeated an effort to repeal the recently enacted sales tax increase which gave Chicago the highest sales tax in the nation.

HERE is the video

Lawmakers concerned about Internet Fight Videos

Link

The hundreds of thousands of fight videos online, running the gamut from fake fights to bullying to gang warfare, have parents, educators, and lawmakers around the world grasping for solutions. They want popular social-networking websites to do more to block or remove such content. Some places in the US and abroad are even criminalizing “cyberbullying” and the recording and posting of violent acts.

The ensuing debates raise age-old issues of free speech versus safety. Those on the safety side say the matter is urgent because the videos seem to inspire copycat acts. They also raise concerns that the broadcasting of such fights intensifies the humiliating effects of bullying.

“A lot of kids are looking for attention; they’re looking for a way to measure their own popularity, and they measure it now on page views,” says Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety, an online safety group in Fort Lee, N.J. “The faster we can get any of the networks to take down [such content], the less likely it is that kids are going to keep doing it, because they do it for the fame factor.”

and speaking of Fight Videos, here is former UT player Candice Parker mixing it up:

The Fannie Mae Gang is "solving" the Fannie Mae

problem with more of the same big government manged taxpayer funded bailout which will concentrate more power and money in DC.

Link HT: Club for Growth

The abiding lesson here is what happens when you combine private profit with government power. You create political monsters that are protected both by journalists on the left and pseudo-capitalists on Wall Street, by liberal Democrats and country-club Republicans. Even now, after all of their dishonesty and failure, Fannie and Freddie could emerge from this taxpayer rescue more powerful than ever. Campaigning to spare taxpayers from that result would represent genuine "change," not that either presidential candidate seems interested.

Fake Funerals help S Koreans appreciate life?

Link

“To my husband, knowing that this will be my last time seeing you, I would like to apologise for thinking only about myself and for not being a caring wife. To my parents, just thinking about you makes my eyes teary. I love you,” she cries, before heading off to lie down in a coffin and be “buried”.

Welcome to the new Korean craze of “well-dying”. In a country infatuated with “well-being” – living and eating healthily, even to the point where tobacco-makers offer vitamin-enriched “well-being cigarettes” – training companies are now offering courses on dying a good death.

“Korea has ranked number one in many bad things such as suicide and divorce and cancer rates, so I wanted to run a programme for people to experience death,” says Ko Min-su, a 40-year-old former insurance agent who founded Korea Life Consulting, which offers fake funerals as a way to make people value life.

Kudos to Penn on their new Contracts Database

Link

The Pennsylvania Treasury Department has launched a database of state government agency goods and services contracts. Search by any combination of contractor, contracting agency, contract amount or date range. This primarily includes contracts entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2008. See the FAQ’s for database parameters.

1,800 yr old Roman Statue looks just like the King

From the UK Metro

It has been verified by experts, who say it is a decoration found on the corners of a Roman coffin.

'Fans seeing this face from the distant past will be forgiven for thinking that their idol may well have lived a previous life in Rome,' said a spokesman for Bonhams, which is auctioning the item in October.

This Elvis probably dates back to about 200 AD – about 1,750 years before the birth of rock'n'roll.

But it could even date to 400 BC, experts claim.

The bust is an authentic acroter­ion – an ornament often found on the corners of sarcophagi, stone burial chambers where the most important people were laid to rest.

Cable Morning Show Ratings

Link

Show (6-9amET)	Network	A25-54	Total Viewers
Fox & Friends	FNC	224,000	782,000
American Morning	CNN	165,000	463,000
Morning Express	HLN	101,000	217,000
Squawk Box	CNBC	87,000	209,000
Morning Joe	MSNBC	77,000	255,000

County Taxes not high enough? Send a Gift

Just as the Federal Government gratefully accepts gifts, any county in Tennessee is authorized to accept gifts.

Link

5-8-101. Sources of county revenue — Gifts and donations. —

(a) County revenue is derived from taxes on property, privileges, litigation, merchants, peddlers; from fines and forfeitures; and from money remaining unclaimed more than two (2) years in clerks' offices.

(b) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a county is authorized to accept and receive gifts and donations of money, intangible personal property, tangible personal property and real property. If any such gift or donation is offered subject to conditional or restrictive terms, then the gift must be accepted by majority vote of the county legislative body and must be used by the county subject to the terms of such conditions or restrictions. If an unrestricted gift or donation of money is accepted and received, then such money must be deposited in the county general fund and must be appropriated and expended in accordance with county budgetary procedures. If an unrestricted gift or donation of personal or real property is accepted and received, and if the property is subsequently leased or sold, then the proceeds from such lease or sale must be deposited in the county general fund and must be appropriated in accordance with county budgetary procedures.

[Code 1858, § 482; Shan., § 644; mod. Code 1932, § 1035; impl. am. Acts 1963, ch. 14, § 1; Acts 1979, ch. 23, § 5; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 5-801; Acts 1999, ch. 109, § 1.]

Alzheimers reversible? A new video

Link

The study provides preliminary evidence that the disrupted neural communication that happens in Alzheimer's disease may be reversible.

The study, entitled Rapid improvement in verbal fluency and aphasia following perispinal etanercept in Alzheimer's disease, is available here,

Mass Transit is, more than ever, NOT the answer

Link

Thus, as a practical matter, public transit is unlikely to provide a meaningful solution to reduced energy use in transportation. This becomes clear after looking at travel behavior in the wake of the increase in gas prices over the past year. Overall, public transit ridership increased just 3.3 percent. If we convert ridership into passenger miles traveled – a distance-based rather than trip-based measure – a 3.3 percent increase translates into 1.6 billion passenger miles over the course of a year. That may seem like a big number, until it’s compared to overall US travel.

As gas prices went up, US automobile travelers eliminated 112 billion passenger miles from our roadways as vehicle miles traveled fell by 2.3 percent. Even if we assume all the increased transit ridership was accounted for by the migration of automobile travelers to public transit, buses and trains captured fewer than 2 percent of the reduction in automobile-based travel demand.

Thus, in the end, those seeking ways to promote energy conservation are still relying on market forces to affect behavior and resource use. Higher-income consumers value mobility, and automobiles provide the flexibility and adaptability they demand. As energy prices rise, incentives to provide resource stingy alternatives such as hybrid and electric only vehicles increases, stimulating even further innovation that bring down costs over the long run. Meanwhile, contrary to public perception, as fewer segments of the population rely on fixed route transit systems, the relative energy efficiency of public transit declines.

Flexjobs.com, the "#1 Telecommuting job site"

Link

FlexJobs is the best place to find current, hand-screened, and legitimate telecommuting jobs on the web today.

Central Georgia schools bring back paddling

Link

But for the deterrent to work, teachers and principals will need to be consistent when correcting students' behavior, and parents will have to accept the change, he said.

"It has to be bought in by parents," he said.

Twiggs parents will have to sign a permission slip for their child to be paddled by an administrator, and witnesses will have to be in the room, Stanley and board member Johnnie Moore said. There also will be a meeting to inform parents of the changes, Stanley said.

House Polls: 187 Repub, 206 Dem, 30 Tossup

Very nice summary of competitive US House races with roll-over map and table.

Link

Singin and Dancin on the Taxpayer's Dime

Link

But they clearly show auditors and investigators from the Tennessee Department of Revenue, during a week away from the office for training -- and what Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr calls "team building."

"They are not skits just around parodies or fun," Commissioner Farr tells Phil Williams. "They are skits with the purpose of delivering a message."

Oil Shale on Federal Land to be Developed

maybe.

Link

The Interior Department is scheduled to unveil proposed regulations Tuesday for a program to sell oil shale leases on federal lands, similar to the leases sold now for oil and natural gas both on and offshore.

The shale is concentrated in the Green River Basin of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Developing it has become a hot topic of debate between Democrats and Republicans in response to voter anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline prices this summer.

President Bush said last month that "one major deposit in the Rocky Mountain West alone would equal current annual oil imports for more than 100 years." The U.S. currently consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day, about 58% of which is imported.

Oil shale may be the largest untapped source of domestic oil, dwarfing the quantity of oil available offshore and on federal lands currently off-limits. However, it is very expensive to extract. A government program to subsidize its development in the 1980s was shut down when cost figures came in at several times the then-market price for oil.

Can Fist Bump Replace Handshake?

Link

But others says fist bumping may be more than a workplace fad. It's been around for years among athletes and is used by Howie Mandel, host of TV program Deal or No Deal, who says he fears germs. Last month, presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, fist-bumped at a campaign speech in Minnesota, and The New Yorker magazine used it as part of a controversial caricature of the Obamas that was published on the July 21 cover.

In business, the fist bump is catching on mainly among younger men. Eric Casaburi, the 34-year-old CEO of Retrofitness, a Manalapan, N.J., company that franchises workout facilities in five East Coast states, says that one of his managers said goodbye recently with a fist bump. It seemed natural, but Casaburi says he would hesitate to do the same with an older franchisee. Older executives believe they can tell something from a handshake, Casaburi says, but, "I don't buy into that." He sees the fist bump as a positive addition to the business greeting repertoire.

ReWalk Exoskeleton allows paraplegics to stand tall

Link

The Internet--a private eye's best friend

Link

Rambam says he searches on social networks to find photos of what people he is researching look like, the first step in any investigation. He gets a lot of other vital data from those sites, like hometown, age, relationship status, school and work history, hobbies, and friends and acquaintances to interview. With Twitter, he can often see where they are right now, or at least in the recent archived past.

"I used to pay the police $500 for a driver's license photo. Now I just have to go to MySpace," he said. "I can find your location without leaving my desk."

He uses job sites to see someone's resume, date of birth, address, and work history, to find former employees of companies he is researching and to see what job openings they have and compare salary levels. And then there are sites like Don'tDateHimGirl.com and Who'sARat.com where you can find what a person's enemies have to say.

Rambam also gets information from marketing databases that gather information on people's buying habits and preferences from frequent customer cards, surveys, product registrations, actual transactions, and other activities.

NiceCritic.com-Anonymous msgs for coworkers

Link

IRS Agents use Turbo Tax? Yep

This is an interesting article in the Chicago Post Tribune about three IRS agents who have been instrumental in investigating public corruption...what caught my eye was the sentence below about TurboTax..they use Turbo Tax!! Even experienced IRS agents don't fill out their own returns!!

Link

The three have lived comfortably on their IRS salaries -- all three confessed to using TurboTax software to do their own taxes -- and they seldom envy the lives of those who have resorted to crime to live beyond their means. Often, a careful review of financial records let's them know their targets better than the targets' own wives.

5 minute microwave chocolate cake recipe

Link

SF Ballot measure to decriminalize prostitution

Link

The measure, which qualified Friday, would bar authorities from spending money to investigate or prosecute prostitutes for engaging in prostitution.

A San Francisco first-time offender program that allows men to avoid charges for soliciting a prostitute if they attend a class and pay a fine would also end under the measure.

The Erotic Service Providers Union recently announced it had gathered the 12,000 signatures necessary to put the measure on the ballot after failing to get a similar initiative before voters in 2006.

Take the PEW News IQ Test - 12 quick questions

Link

Civil Liberties Dead in Britain? Probably

Link

There are more than 1,000 laws and regulations which permit officials to force entry into homes, cars and business premises, a report commissioned by Gordon Brown has found.

The publication of the first comprehensive list of laws available to police, council staff and other inspectors will renew concerns about the erosion of civil liberties.

The dossier, compiled by Lord West, the Home Office minister and former first sea lord, details the often obscure acts and regulations which give the authorities the power to break into homes.

Hundreds of new powers of entry have been created since 1997, including ones relating to illegal gambling, congestion charging, high hedges and weapons of mass destruction.

West’s report details 753 separate “big brother” provisions in acts of parliament and a further 290 minor regulations. A total of 430 of these powers have been approved by parliament since Labour came to power.

Overload of Twin Baby moose cuteness

Davidson County Sample Ballot for Aug 7

Link

Those damn Chinese and their exports...oh wait

Link

National "Grassroots" Organization?

www.HealthcareforAmericaNow.org bills itself as a "National Grassroots Organization." Here are the participating groups:

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Americans United for Change
Campaign for America’s Future
Center for American Progress Action Fund
Center for Community Change
MoveOn.org
National Council of La Raza
National Education Association
National Women’s Law Center
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Service Employees International Union
United Food and Commercial Workers
USAction

Their strategy is to vilify insurance companies and promote a government takeover of healthcare. Here is one of their videos.

Yikes!!

http://view.break.com/534959 - Watch more free videos

Are Mass Taxpayers angry enough to fight back?

Link

Column after column could be filled with the ways the Massachusetts political class and its hangers-on play taxpayers for suckers - the gold-plated tax breaks for moviemakers, the insanely lucrative sick-time buybacks, the indefensible police details, the public-sector-only paid holidays, the "temporary" tax hikes that last forever, the state budgets that keep growing even as family budgets shrink.

It will never end - not until the suckers get riled up enough to fight back. Not until they start throwing incumbents out of office, instead of blindly reelecting them. Not until they stop letting themselves be treated as ATMs for politicians and doormats for public-employee unions. Not until they force their public "servants" to defer to them, instead of the other way around.

Suspect Nation-UK Documentary on Surveillance

See More Videos at JohnLocker.com

Military Psy-ops via Cell phone

Link

According to Almanar, Israel is sending voice messages to mobile phones in Lebanon as part of a psychological war, inciting the Lebanese against Hezbollah after the “Operation Al-Redwan” with the resistance group.

"It said it received complaints from south Lebanon and Beirut residents that they began receiving recorded voice messages promising retaliation to any attack and urging them not to allow the establishment of a Hezbollah "state within the state."

[via Cellular News]

Related:

-- Lebanon. Psychological warfare on phone

-- Israel steps up "psy-ops" in Lebanon

-- Israelis convey strike warning to Lebanese officials by SMS

Elsewhere:

-- British Intelligence bomb Taliban with SMS in psychological warfare

-- Russia. SMS text messages urge rebels to surrender in exchange for a fair trial

Prisoners/Non-residents still receiving TennCare

Ben Hall at NewsChannel5 reports on the continuing eligibility mess in Tenncare due to conflicting court orders, federal mandates, and good ole fashioned bureaucratic incompetence.

Boy, I can't wait until the government controls every aspect of healthcare. It will be a complete disaster.

Link

But inmates aren't the only problem. The state claims people who don't live in Tennessee anymore receive TennCare.

"This lawsuit requires us to keep these people on the program indefinitely at this point," Gordon said.

The state estimates more than 5,000 people with out-of-state addresses are on TennCare's rolls. Last year, out-of-state people cost TennCare more than $18 million.

75% of SanFran "homeless" are NOT homeless

Do we hold people accountable for their actions? That is the essence of the argument between so-called homeless advocates and the people who object to the pan handling and crime of the homeless. The "advocates", who never, ever have enough taxpayer money to "solve" the homeless problem (or pay the advocates' salaries), tell us that only they have the empathy to understand.

Link

In short, the jury is reflecting the views of many San Franciscans who made the choice to live here. They understood that housing and taxes would be higher, and so would the cost of a meal in a restaurant. They understand and believe that the city needs to provide for its poorest homeless residents and don't begrudge what the grand jury says is $186 million a year in city funds spent to finance homeless programs.

But, they ask, can't someone stop the panhandling? And, given all the programs and services, is it unreasonable to ask those who are being given supportive housing to start making some effort to be self-sufficient?

"People's conduct has to be held to account," Supervisor Bevan Dufty said. "They can't engage in conduct that is hurtful to them or others."

Addendum from AJC: Baggage thieves mostly homeless

Huge increase for Hendersonville permit fees

are being considered. This will be a tax increase, plain and simple. If we allow those within government to determine the size of their budgets, they will NEVER, EVER have enough of our money. No department head would EVER recommend reducing expenses but hard decisions MUST be made sometimes and that is the job of our elected representatives.

Link

Steve Mills, Hendersonville codes director, estimated a 2,000 square-foot, wood-framed house with a two-car garage would have a $684.50 permit fee under the current standards. If the proposed fee increase is approved, that figure would jump to $1,237.

For a commercial site, Mills determined the permit fee for a 10,000 square-foot building is currently $3,648.50. Under the proposed increase, the fee would go up to $8,855.

He said the changes are not designed to put pressure on builders, but to "deal with the philosophy that (codes) should cover its expenses through revenues."

The codes department finished the 2007-08 fiscal year with a $170,000 shortfall in collections beneath the departmental budget, he said.

Aldermen have deferred the decision on the increase twice and could discuss it again in September.

Vacation Home Rentals by Owner

HERE are the listings for Tennessee...lots of nice looking homes for rent such as:

Nashville Victorian Guest Cottage

Pulaski country getaway

Center Hill Lake

Why stop signs and speed limits endanger Americans

The bureaucrats would never go for this but its an interesting proposal, i.e., actually depending on citizens to make decisions about their own welfare....its revolutionary!!

Link

They’ve taken the apparently drastic step of eliminating traffic control more or less completely in a few high-traffic and pedestrian-dense areas. The intention is to create environments in which everyone is more focused, more cautious, and more considerate. Stop signs, stoplights, even sidewalks are mostly gone. The results, by all accounts, have been excellent: pedestrian accidents have been reduced by 40 percent or more in some places, and traffic flows no more slowly than before.

Great set of resources on Federal Budget Process

Link HT: Free Govt Info

This is a selective guide to resources at Columbia University Libraries and on the Internet, for conducting research on the U.S. Federal budget process. Most of the items included are available in Lehman Library, either in the U.S. Government Documents collection, Lehman, or the Lehman stacks.

"The government doesn't have any money."

Link

"People seem to think the government has money," said former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "The government doesn't have any money."

A rare consensus has developed across the political spectrum that the government's own fiscal affairs are precarious, with an astonishing $53 trillion in long-term liabilities, according to the Government Accountability Office.

To put that number in human terms, the debt has reached $455,000 per U.S. household. As that debt grows, the United States increasingly relies on foreigners, including China and Middle East oil producers, for financing.

"The factors that contributed to our mortgage-based subprime crisis exist with regard to our federal government's finances," said Walker, now head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group established to raise alarms about the nation's budget. "The difference is that the magnitude of the federal government's financial situation is at least 25 times greater."

Why didn't you ride a bicycle to see Al Gore?

Public Education meets George Orwell

Renegade parents teach old math on the sly

Alabama's Gov is such a Girlie Man

Come on Bobby!! if you want to play in the big leagues you have got to be able to give away taxpayer money like there is no tomorrow. You have got to be able to say:

"to HELL with all those existing businesses who have been paying taxes and creating new jobs year after year without so much as a pat on the back, I have got my political future to think about. The PR I get from this one deal will be worth millions in campaign contributions and its all paid for by the taxpayer."

See Bobby, you have to think like a playa, like Phil!!

Link

“There comes a point in an auction where you don’t want to be the one with your hand in the air,” Riley said. “We hit that point.”

"education reform is not possible with a school board"

This is one among many of the amazing statements made by an amazing lady. Michelle Rhee is the new Chancellor of Washington DC Schools who, despite weekly protests of people who are trying to stop her reforms, is making great strides. Whether she can continue the progress is dependent on a new union agreement. She is interviewed by Charlie Rose.

Big Dig will cost no more than 4..no, make that 15, no

make that $22 billion.

Link

Now, three years after the official dedication of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, the state is reeling under a legacy of debt left by the massive project. In all, the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to a staggering $22 billion, according to a Globe review of hundreds of pages of state documents. It will not be paid off until 2038.

Contrary to the popular belief that this was a project heavily subsidized by the federal government, 73 percent of construction costs were paid by Massachusetts drivers and taxpayers. To meet that obligation, the state's annual payments will be nearly as much over the next several years, $600 million or more, as they were in the heaviest construction period.

Big Dig payments have already sucked maintenance and repair money away from deteriorating roads and bridges across the state, forcing the state to float more highway bonds and to go even deeper into the hole.

Music City Star is a miserable, costly failure

for one simple reason: VERY few people choose to ride it. Tens of thousands of people living close to the train route have the option and can choose to park their car for free, buy a very cheap ticket and hop right on. 99.9 percent of them choose NOT to ride the train. Everyone of these 99.9 percenters is sending a very clear message to RTA: "you can keep your taxpayer subsidized tickets and free parking, we don't want to ride your train."

Soooo....does this stop the politicians from pouring even more money into this mismanaged monkey clinging to taxpayers' backs? NO, in fact, Commissioner Nicely wants to put a million more of OUR money into this boondoggle.

Will more people ride the train because of this money....all together: NOOOOOO

State Bailout would involve Metro in commuter rail

Momma Cat adopts baby rabbit..all together: awww

New Dutch Church founded after Smoking Ban

Link

Café owners in the Netherlands are joining religious movement known as the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.

‘We stand firmly behind the church’s teachings and that is smoking,’ Cor Busch, owner of the former Lindeboom café in Alkmaar told the paper. ‘Smokers are being discriminated against… but a beer and a cigarette belong together.'

Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1.

Several dozen bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the right to freedom of religion, the paper says.

People who join the church get a membership card entitling them to smoke inside the building. Worshippers believe in the trinity of smoke, fire and ash and honour their god by smoking.

Church founder Michiel Eijsbouts says café owners who are trying to get round the ban on smoking will not be allowed to join. The church, he says, takes smoking very seriously.

‘It has ritual aspects, it is something you experience and we follow our faith very strictly,’ he told the Telegraaf.

Be-a-doll.com - Create your double

Link

Half of US Trade Deficit due to imported oil

Link

Congress is hopelessly corrupt...that is about

the only conclusion you can draw after reading this story in Politico about Fannie and Freddie....read this and PLEASE tell me why I should NOT be depressed.

If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions.

But the political tentacles of the mortgage giants extend far beyond their checkbooks.

The two government-chartered companies run a highly sophisticated lobbying operation, with deep-pocketed lobbyists in Washington and scores of local Fannie- and Freddie-sponsored homeowner groups ready to pressure lawmakers back home.

They’ve stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House.

New teacher union boss has new "vision" for

education. Basically her vision is to have a much, much larger involvement of schools in the lives of children. Forget supplanting parents, that's just a start. She wants to replace medical and dental clinics and childcare. And of course I am sure that she envisions all of these new employees being union members, which is what her new "vision" is really all about.

The track record of public education calls for a lot of things but more, much more, of the same is not one of them.

Link

“Imagine schools that are open all day and offer after-school and evening recreational activities and homework assistance,” she said. “And suppose the schools included child care and dental, medical and counseling clinics.”

By laying out that expansive vision of government’s role in the public schools, Ms. Weingarten waded into a fierce debate among Democrats seeking to influence the educational program of Senator Barack Obama, their party’s presumptive presidential nominee. In an interview last week, she said the ideas in the speech amounted to “what I’d like to see in a new federal education law."

Volkswagen takes our money and pols take credit

All the pols are gushing because they can envision themselves up there on the podium at the groundbreaking, basking in the glow as Volkswagen officials pander and fawn to them for "all they have done."

Truth is, the only thing the pols did was to take a very large wad of taxpayer cash and throw it at Volkswagen. Meanwhile thousands of small Tennessee businesses receive absolutely NOTHING for creating most of the new jobs....no taxpayer money, no pat on the back....nada, zip, zero.

I certainly hope they will have just one taxpayer on the podium to accept the thanks that BOTH the pols and Volkswagen should extend.

Federal Unions invest heavily in Democrats

Link

In the presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will benefit primarily from those efforts. Obama has received the endorsement of four federal employee unions: the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union, National Air Traffic Controllers Association, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.

[...]

Beyond presidential endorsements, federal employee organizations also are investing heavily in congressional elections, focusing their giving on House Democratic incumbents.

• NTEU, which has 150,000 members, contributed $211,000 to candidates as of late June, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that figure, 96 percent went to Democrats and 4 percent to Republicans. NTEU gave $168,100 to House Democrats; $7,000 to House Republicans; $34,900 to House Democrats and $1,000 to one Senate Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
• NATCA, with 20,000 members, has allocated $1.6 million in political contributions -- 77 percent to Democrats and 23 percent to Republicans. Of that total, sitting House Democrats received $1.12 million; House Republicans, $320,000; Senate Democrats, $142,225 and Senate Republicans, $52,500.
• NARFE has given $206,500 to political candidates, with Democrats claiming 80 percent of those funds and Republicans receiving 20 percent. The organization gave $142,500 to House Democrats; $35,000 to House Republicans; $22,000 to Senate Democrats and $7,000 to Senate Republicans.

Boy, that Amercian Crystal Sugar Co likes Congress

They gave out lots of money including $5,000 to Lincoln Davis....not that there is anything wrong with that. This and MANY other nuggets of info can be found in the Senate Lobbyist Database. Many other TN Congresspersons are listed in the database.

Link HT: Real Time Investigations

Fridgewatcher.com blog - Open Fridges worldwide

Link

Summer Blockbuster Preview: I.O.U.S.A.

Link

UK Town bans speed cameras as "blatant tax"

Link HT Open Market

Speed cameras face the axe from a Tory council which has condemned them as a 'blatant tax on the motorist'.

They plan to scrap £400,000 a year funding for the speed-traps in a move which could have the effect of seeing them removed altogether from the roads.

Conservative councillors say the cash is better spent on alternative road safety strategies, such as vehicle activated speed warning signs.

Swindon Borough Council in Wiltshire has decided to make the first public stand against the 'money-making' project by threatening to pull out of the Government's speed camera partnership scheme.

It is believed to be the first time that a council in the UK has publicly accused the Government of installing speed-cameras to make money rather than prevent accidents.

Am NOT!!

The Nashville Convention Center is a disaster

waiting to happen. The signs are all there and the City Paper does a great job of counting up the ways in which this boondoggle will unfold. It is time for the Mayor and Metro Council to start representing ALL citizens of Davidson County, not just a few rich downtown businesses and the tourist industry and STOP this disaster in the making.

Link

Even more questions are likely to arise from a document uncovered by The City Paper. The report gives an ominous warning from former Finance Director David Manning in a report he left for his successor before he left office.

Manning compiled a binder of all finance-related issues facing Metro when he left office. Included was a document labeled “New Convention Center.”

In the document’s third paragraph, Manning estimates the tourism-related revenue streams set aside to fund the convention center will reach about $54 million annually. This led Manning to reach the following conclusion:

“From the estimates in the schedule below it appears likely that the new taxes and growth from the established hotel/motel taxes will not produce enough money to pay for the bonds needed for the $455 million original estimate.”

That’s not to mention that the estimate has reached $635 million and excludes issues like soaring energy costs that will surely pump that number higher over the coming years.

Jonathan Alter: "Paleolithic teacher unions"

Private sector unions have been one of the most self-destructive institutions ever. They have managed to reduce their numbers to 9% of the private workforce, an historic low. They have achieved this ignominious goal by ignoring the most basic of economic laws, a law that is the basis of our prosperity, i.e., people should be compensated based on how efficiently they produce goods and services. For some unknowable reason the unions have stuck to the notion that everyone is equal in talent and motivation when it comes to productivity.....WRONG. (I would like to make as money as Tiger Woods but my golf game just won't measure up.) The result has been disastrous for private unions.

The public sector unions have been able to delay the day of reckoning because in the government sector is very difficult to assess productivity (a topic unto itself) but even there the chickens are coming home to roost.

Link

Teachers unions bristle at the business comparison. But they should listen to Andy Stern, head of the nation's largest union, the SEIU: "Education is like any business. You need a return on investment. Outcomes do matter. Paying people according to outcomes does matter. I don't care if a teacher has a high-school degree, college or a Ph.D. if he or she can produce results." Stern is worried that if his brethren in the teachers unions don't embrace accountability now, "parents will vote with their choices" and the unions will begin dying, as they already are in reform-minded cities like Washington, D.C., and New Orleans.

If Stern can say that, why not Obama? All the criticism of Obama's moving to the center is misguided. General elections are won among moderate swing voters, many of whom would respond well to a Democratic candidate willing to show he can slip the ideological stranglehold of a retrograde liberal interest group. Obama's right that the NCLB-inspired testing mania is out of control, but wrong to give teachers "ownership over the design of better assessment tools." That's a recipe for no assessment, because the teachers unions, for all their lip service, don't believe their members should be judged on performance. They still believe that protecting incompetents is more important than educating children.

56% say govt service not more honorable than

private sector.

Link

Is it more honourable to work for the government than it is to work for a private company?

Yes	17%
No	56%
Not sure	27%

Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 American likely voters, conducted on Jun. 30, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Del Biaggio played Nashville taxpayers for chumps

and we were....or at least our "representatives" were. Great investigative piece by Brad Schrade in the Tennessean. Del Biaggio NEVER intended for the Predators to stay in Nashville...it was all a set-up to position his group to be in the right place when the Predators failed. They would quickly move the team out of Nashville. The local owners now say they are "shocked but not surprised."

Del Biaggio's plan would have probably worked if his illegal loans hadn't gotten in the way.

Here's an idea....revolutionary in its simplicity....if you want to buy entertainment then the purchase price for that entertainment should reflect the true cost whether it be football or country music or hockey. Don't expect your fellow taxpayers to subsidize your entertainment. Don't use MY government to subsidize YOUR entertainment. Not only is it wrong to ask me to subsidize your entertainment, but like all subsidies it inevitably leads to the corruption of OUR government.

Link

The PowerPoint presentation plainly spells out Fore check's investment thesis: Del Biaggio's group could invest in the team with little risk.

At the same time, it says that the internal operating agreement Del Biaggio had with the other Predators owners would allow him to gain majority control of the team and move it under various scenarios.

In the event the team were to succeed here, Del Biaggio and his investors could remain in the minority, or have the right to cash out and make a play for another NHL franchise if an opportunity arose elsewhere.

But Forecheck projected the Preds would not become financially viable — former owner Craig Leipold has said he lost $70 million on the team over 10 years — in which case, the Del Biaggio-led investors could gain majority control, serving their agenda to buy a hockey team and locate it elsewhere, while providing cover for Freeman's local ownership group.

The great "Bra Tax" controversy

Link

M&S added it found most customers "were happy to pay a small premium for the specialist work" needed to make larger sizes of their bras.

But the policy has drawn protests with 900 people joining a Busts 4 Justice protest group on the Facebook website.

Its founders argue it is unfair that smaller bras are cheaper, because this logic does not apply to other clothes.

'Unfair tax'

Beckie Williams, 25, from Brighton, said she set up the social networking site group after an "unsatisfactory" correspondence with the retailer.

She said M&S replied to her letter claiming the extra material needed lay behind the higher price at the tills.

"That's fair enough," Ms Williams told BBC Radio Five Live. "But they don't apply the same policy to other clothes that use more material and more resources to make as well.

"I just think it should be one policy for all items of clothing."

No adult channels on taxpayer owned cable TV

in Clarksville....for now. maybe later.

Link

The decision was made by CDE officials more than a year ago, but it's a question some members of the Power Board — which oversees the utility — are beginning to give more consideration.

"I just don't see how we can be competitive when we don't offer what our competitors offer," said Power Board member and beer distributor Charles Hand.

Board member and restaurateur Mabel Larson echoed his sentiments.

"They pay for it if they want it, so why shouldn't you offer it?" Larson said.

According to Batts, if adult pay-per-view programming was offered, movie titles would be visible from menu screens. However, she said, parental controls could block the titles from being visible.

For board member Willie Freeman, pastor of Greater Missionary Baptist Church, it is a conflicting issue.

"I don't agree with the programming, but it is a personal choice," Freeman said. "Me, personally — make sure you underline that — I say no."

While Freeman said he is not opposed to CDE offering the channels, he said he could never vote to endorse them.

"It's my convictions, too. I have to vote my convictions," Freeman said.

A board vote would not be required to offer the channels. However, the board could instruct CDE officials to research the issue.

Lessons from the "toxic" shower curtain con

Link

How do stories of this ilk get such bounce from major news organizations?

Those who make their living composing news releases say there is an art to this easily dismissed craft. Strategic word selection can catapult an announcement about a study, a product or a “breakthrough” onto the evening news instead of to its usual destination — the spam folder or circular file.

“P.R. people want to invest time in things that are going to get picked up, so they try to put something to the ‘who cares?’ and ‘so what?’ test,” said Kate Robins, a longtime public relations consultant. “If you say something is first, most, fastest, tallest — that’s likely to get attention. If you can use the words like ‘money,’ ‘fat,’ ‘cancer’ or ‘sex,’ you’re likely to get some ink in the general audience media.”

David Seaman, a P.R. stunt planner and the author of a book to be published in October, “Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz,” is a proponent of “safe,” “easy” “secret,” “trick” and “breaking” because they suggest that something is new and fresh, he said.

Anyone who read or heard the Toxic Shower Curtain Story can probably relax: the unsettling findings about possible respiratory, liver and reproductive damage were dismissed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Our staff scientist found many problems with the testing methodology, which called into question the credibility of the science,” said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the commission.

Interview with Howie Rich, activist extraordinaire

Howie Rich is one of those activists whose name is not a household word but a person whose money and energy has caused extraordinary change over the last 20 years. His biggest impact has been in the areas of term limits and school choice. He normally does not grant interviews. This is the third part of an 8 part video interview. You can find the remaining videos HERE.

Bureaucrats still hindering Katrina recovery

three years after the fact.

Link

But new issues seem to arise all the time, said Gray Swoope, MDA executive director. The environmental-assessment process has been difficult to complete because of the complicated rules.

"We see new bureaucrats every day with something you've never thought of," Swoope said.

One rule MDA officials find mind-boggling is if there is an above-ground propane tank within a 1-mile radius of a project in some of the programs, those applicants can't move forward until the tank is blast-protected or mitigated. The provision apparently affects 500 applicants in the Small Rental Assistance Program.

Emissons testing "failure" rate jumped from 1% to 8%

in Davidson County last year. Thanks to Jeremy Finley and WSMV for investigating this disaster in 2007. The "failure" rate jumped from 1% to 8% when new testing equipment was installed. Its now back down to 4%. Councilman Tygard said "we need to get a handle on the problem. What we need to do is put an end to auto emissions testing, it is a complete waste of time and money.

Link

City records show that this year, the number of cars failing emissions tests jumped from 1 percent to 8 percent by the time the company Systech was hired in July. Systech brought in new testing software and the failure rate came down, but it is still higher than before at 4 percent.

The figure means that about 20,000 cars in Davidson County are failing the tests, according to I-Team calculations.

Metro Councilman Charlie Tygard said he got a surprise failure because of his gas cap.

"I think it's really strange to go from 1 percent to 8 percent to 4 percent within the space of four months. I think we need to get a handle on that,” said Tygard.

India says no way to Global Warming

Link

"No firm link between the documented changes described below and warming due to anthropogenic climate change has yet been established:"

Speaking of Art...so many wondeful Art Blogs

Here is one and the blogroll leads to many more.

SO much safer with hands free...for other things

Funny videos

Thanks to the Tennessean for letting me

have a say on taxpayer funded "art."

Time for a Taxpayer bailout of the New York Times?

Link

The stock sank 7 percent, or $1.05, to $14.01 yesterday, near its lowest point in 10 years and 77 percent off its 52-week high of $24.76.

The drubbing came after Lehman Brothers analyst Craig Huber slammed the Times' shares for being too expensive, compared with Gannett and McClatchy.

Huber also ratcheted down his previous price target to $8 a share from $12 a share, due to the industry having deteriorated faster than he earlier predicted, adding, "We think the shares have significant further downside risk over the next year as the stock is the most expensive in the [newspaper] group, plus Street estimates remain way too high in our opinion."

He urges the company, which is run by CEO Arthur "Pinch" Sulz berger Jr., to cut its dividend, claiming it should utilize the money to pare down the company's $1.05 billion debt.

"The prudent thing to do would be to pay down debt and continue to evaluate the landscape for Internet acquisitions," said Huber in a memo to customers.

Outsourcing Mexican and Mississippi Jobs

Link

Whirlpool Corporation has announced it will move about 500 jobs to its Cleveland, Tenn. facility.

The change comes with the closing of the company's plants in Oxford, Miss. and Puebla, Mexico.

Marketing with a Penny covered Billboard

Link

Video of media angst-Can you say nuts on TV

Link

New oil wells in North Dakota producing good results

Link

The oil and gas explorer's flow rate for the second well was about 58 percent higher than the first, which flowed at an average rate of 693 barrels of crude oil equivalent per day in its initial week of production in May.

The second well, Mathistad 1-35H, began production on July 4 and flowed at an average rate of 1,095 barrels of crude oil equivalent per day, with 90 percent of production being crude oil and 10 percent natural gas.

Natixis Bleichroeder analyst Curtis Trimble said the latest results from the Three Forks/Sanish formation increased the productive profile of the Bakken Shale area.

"Future wells will be closer to the 600 to 1000 barrel a day level versus previous wells that were averaging about 450 barrels a day," Trimble said by phone.

Poll: Only 21% think taxpayers should help

homeowners who can't pay their mortgages. BUT....Congress is pandering full speed ahead with a bill to do just that. And of course the other problem is that NO ONE WILL BE helped. By the time the bureaucracy is set up and all the rules and regulations are written the crisis will be over. The only result will be that a new bureaucracy will be in place, just in time for the next budget year, to ask for more money to solve a non-existent problem.

Link HT: Don Fenley

Rasmussen Reports national survey shows that only 21% of voters think the federal government should provide such assistance.

Slightly more than half (51%) say the government should not help these troubled homeowners and 27% are undecided.

Celebrating the Olympics with Acupuncture

Link

FINALLY...a bicycle made for Congress

Unions to Taxpayers: You can't declare bankruptcy

Firefighters and other Vallejo, California unionized workers are telling taxpayers to shut up and pay up.

Link

Spending on public safety employees currently takes up three-quarters of the city's general fund.

The documents filed by San Francisco attorney Dean Gloster on behalf of Vallejo's firefighters and police officers challenge the city's eligibility for bankruptcy.

Gloster told Reuters by telephone that Vallejo can avert bankruptcy by accepting an offer for $10 million in salary reductions and by raising revenues and selling surplus property.

"We had a well-respected government consulting firm figure out how they could react to things like all other cities and counties in California, and they found the city's own staff had recommended 18 separate revenue increases," Gloster said.

"They're not insolvent," he added. "The city is financially troubled, there is no question about that, and controlling their labor costs has to be part of the solution -- but not the only solution ... Vallejo has been so badly managed it can't even afford reasonable labor costs."

Can't bring a camera to a School Board Meeting?

This is absurd and illegal. In Giles County the School Board says:

“the press or individuals shall not bring a camera, camcorder or photographic equipment to board meetings without consent of the board.”

What!!!

You read that right. Allen Barrett has documented this policy on his blog and is cited in a recent article because of problems he has encountered at previous board meetings. This can not be allowed to stand if we value our freedom.

First it was Redlights, Now its Streetsweeper

CAMERAS....no kidding. Why don't the politicians simply proceed to the logical conclusion of all this craziness. Lets just require that a camera and GPS device be attached to each citizen and then they could monitor us 24/7.

Link

Mayor Richard Daley wants to use the devices to snare people who defy signs ordering them not to park curbside on street-sweeping days. Under an ordinance the mayor introduced Wednesday to the City Council, cameras would be installed on street sweepers to capture images of the temporary no-parking signs posted on street-sweeping days and of vehicles who defy them. Violators would receive $50 tickets.

The effort is expected to save the city money because police would not have to be called to the scene to issue tickets, Daley said.

If the program is approved, the city will put cameras on six sweepers—one in each sanitation district and one that would float among districts. The city then may consider a similar program for vehicles that block snowplows when overnight parking bans are in effect, the mayor said.

More Un-bleepin-believable Public school insanity

This LA Times article indicates that, like Memphis, the bureaucrats in LA simply don't want the competition from charter schools but the best part is to be found at the end of the article where the bureaucrats have decided that absent students should be no barrier to receiving taxpayer money:

At Tuesday's school board meeting, district officials outlined plans to open an alternative school this fall that would offer independent study to at-risk students much like those served by Media Arts.

According to the plan, students would attend school for only two hours a week and be on their own to complete their course work the rest of the time. It was presented at the meeting largely as a way for the district to recoup money that is lost when students have poor attendance records, because schools receive state funding based on attendance.

You paid for it but you are NOT Welcome

This is a picture, taken Monday, of the entrance to the parking garage under Legislative Plaza in downtown Nashville. If you are a member or staff you are welcome but if you are an average taxpayer, forget it. Downtown parking typically ranges from $6-$12.

100 niche search engines you never heard of

Link

60% say both changed positions for political reasons

Link

Do you think [see below] has or has not changed his position on issues for political reasons?

John McCain: Has 61%, Has Not 37%, Unsure 2%

Barack Obama: Has 59%, Has Not 38%, Unsure 4%


CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. June 26-29, 2008. N=906 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.5.

Selling your vote on eBay is wrong?

Link

Poor Max Sanders. The 19-year-old University of Minnesota student faces five years in jail and a $10,000 fine; he is accused of putting his vote in the presidential election up for auction on eBay. He started the bidding at $10. The charge is bribery, treating, and soliciting.

I'm confused. Aren't all our votes for sale? Each candidate tries to bribe us with future benefits of all sorts. Basically, a campaign is an effort to buy votes wholesale.

[...]

Keeping most campaign promises costs money. For politicians, money comes from the taxpayers, who are forced to surrender their cash whether they like it or not. As H.L. Mencken understood, "Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods." So the only difference I see between a politician who buys a vote and an eBay bidder who buys it is that the bidder spends his own money. Since people spend their own money more wisely than they spend other people's, we can conclude that the eBay sale might be preferable.

We sure love us some disabled students

Link

Forster and Greene argue (see here, here and here) that in states where there is a per pupil subsidy to kids with disabilities, schools in such states find a lot more disabilities. I am not surprised.

Or, like Karl Dean and Phil Bredesen, you could choose

NOT to send your children to Metro Public Schools.

Councilwoman Emily Evans has listed on her blog a few of the basic points about the Nashville School re-zoning...is any parent going to ask the obvious question of MNPS:

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR EVER LOVIN FREAKIN MINDS!!!

Is this the craziest witches brew of silly bureaucratic rules and regulations ever assembled in one place??? And the PARENTS will have to wade through and put up with this crap.


Just so the folks at MNPS remember, here is the way this basic relationship is supposed to work. Taxpayers pay their taxes and they expect services in return. They don't expect to jump thru bureaucratic hoops at every turn.

Ophelia vows to change law after denied license

Link

While her brother was in a Nashville courtroom facing federal corruption charges Tuesday, state Sen. Ophelia Ford was a few blocks away asking a state board to reinstate her funeral director's license that lapsed, she said, while she was battling health issues.

Ford said she was in and out of hospitals last year, leaving her no time to fill out the paperwork necessary to renew her license. She asked the state Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers to make an exception for her.

After the board denied her request, Ford, who was elected to the state Senate two years ago, vowed to change the law.

"I cannot allow what has happened to me to happen to anyone else," said Ford, a Memphis Democrat. "It is terribly unfair that any board would not have the discretion to look at what has taken place with a person. I think it's a grave insult and a shame that anyone would have their license taken from them under circumstances such as mine."

Best blog post title of all time...so far

Link HT: Unc

China will overtake US economy in 2035 or before

A Carnegie-Mellon study predicts, conservatively, that China's economy will overtake the US by 2035....and probably long before.

Economic growth is about freedom for producers and consumers and productivity and competition and efficiency. Some politicians want GOVERNMENT to grow, not the economy. If those politicians win the day, the US economy will be the BIG loser.

Link

Two Vanderbilts beat Bill Gates

Link

	Image	Name	Age when at peak of earnings, or in 2008 for living people	Current age, or age at death	Wealth in Billion USD	Origin	Current or Final Residence	Company or Source of Wealth
1.		John D. Rockefeller	74	97	318.3	United States	United States	Standard Oil
2.		Andrew Carnegie	68	83	298.3	Scotland	United States	Carnegie Steel Company
3.		Nicholas II of Russia	49	50	253.5	Russia	Russia	House of Romanov
4.		William Henry Vanderbilt	64	64	231.6	United States	United States	Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
5.		Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII	50	80	210.8	Hyderabad	India	Monarchy
6.		Andrew W. Mellon	80	82	188.8	United States	United States	Gulf Oil
7.		Henry Ford	57	83	188.1	United States	United States	Ford Motor Company
8.		Marcus Licinius Crassus	62	62	169.8	Roman Republic	Roman Republic	Roman Senate, conquest, assorted business ventures
9.		Basil II	67	67	169.4	Byzantine Empire	Byzantine Empire	Monarchy
10.		Cornelius Vanderbilt	82	82	167.4	United States	United States	New York and Harlem Railroad, shipping

Big Labor unions push for socialized medicine

All the big government, nanny state groups are there but my guess is that labor unions are providing most of the money. I was surprised not to see AARP, they are normally front and center for bigger government and higher taxes.

Link

A $40 million national push for affordable health care, Health Care for America Now, was announced at a noon press conference at the State Capital in Nashville Tuesday.

The campaign involves 52 cities and the District of Columbia.

The goal of Health Care American Now is to make sure then next order of business for the new administration is quality, affordable health care.

The steering committee for the campaign includes the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Americans United for Change; Campaign for America's Future; Center for American Progress Action Fund; Center for Community Change; MoveOn; Planned Parenthood; the Service Employees International Union; and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

74% of young people support personal accounts

for Social Security. This is a no-brainer campaign issue for young voters and also for African Amercian voters who are getting absolutely ripped off by Social Security.

Link

Stimulus checks helped....er, stimulate

Link

Seems Uncle Sam's economic stimulus checks are boosting an unlikely part of the economy.

Adult entertainment Web sites began seeing a spike in business shortly after the first wave of checks went out in mid-May, according to Adult Internet Market Research Co., a New York firm that tracks the adult online world.

McCain's Chances: From 42% to 31% in 38 Days

Prof Mark Perry

How to Crack an Apple in Half

Super-Human Strength - Halve An Apple With Your Bare Hands - video powered by Metacafe

Govloop.com-Social Networking for Fed Govt

Link

European Bureaucrats rethinking Biofuels

Maybe Congress will get a clue.

Link HT: Open Market

BRUSSELS — European Union legislators on Monday proposed ratcheting back an ambitious goal to raise Europe’s use of biofuels, signaling a significant retrenchment.

At the same time, a new report by the British government cast fresh doubt on using fuels from crops in the fight against climate change.

FEMA needs to dump 478 pallets of baby food

because it was "exposed to infestation hazards".....let me translate, 478 pallets of baby food sat in a warehouse so long that bugs got into it...soooo, taxpayers paid to buy it, store it and now dispose it.

Link

FEMA issued a one-sentence solicitation notice last week indicating that it needed to dispose of 478 pallets of "contaminated food products" sitting in a warehouse in Fort Worth, TX.

But, when pressed by GSN for more details, FEMA eventually said its original description of the food as contaminated was "inaccurate" and that a large quantity of Gerber finger foods and snack packs originally intended for the children of Hurricane Katrina victims had been "exposed to infestation hazards" and would be "destroyed through our normal GSA disposal process."

FEMA said, "No one consumed the food."

10 Background screening trends for 2009

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2. The Use of Social Networking Sites to Screen Individuals
3. The Screening of Outside Contractors
4. Background-screening for Existing Employees

Congress is a VERY BAD joke-Every "Solution"

costs us money and screws up our lives. Someday I am going to find the time to write a Taxpayer's Prayer.....it will include the following line:

Let me have the wisdom to vote for the least idiotic candidate and the courage to tell them to leave me the hell alone....amen.

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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is not terribly optimistic about the success of the housing bailout bill going through Congress. They project that 35 percent of the homeowners "helped" under the plan, or 140,000 families, will find themselves again facing foreclosure. The reason for the pessimism is that the lenders get to decide which loans enter the program. Naturally, they will pick homeowners who they think will be the least likely to make it.

I wonder what the folks who support this bill will tell those 140,000 families? Many of these families will struggle to make their mortgage payments for 2 or 3 years, sacrificing health care, child care and other necessary expenses in a hopeless effort to hang onto their home. At their end of their struggling, they will end up out on the street, foreclosed a second time.

That is what Washington policy wonks call "asset building."

China to buy 100 Westinghouse nuke plants

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Jun. 28--China wants to have 100 of Westinghouse Electric Co.'s nuclear reactors in operation or under construction by 2020 -- more than double what was anticipated, according to the company's incoming CEO.

Aris Candris, who will lead the Monroeville-based firm beginning Tuesday, said Chinese officials shared those plans with Westinghouse during a mid-May meeting.

"It is huge," Candris said in an interview Thursday with the Tribune-Review. "Originally we were thinking somewhere around 40."

"This is the beginning of the nuclear renaissance," he said. "Growth is good, but it's also a management challenge."

He succeeds Steve Tritch, who is retiring after 37 years with the company, the past six as CEO. Tritch remains chairman of the board of Westinghouse, a global leader in reactor engineering, construction and maintenance. Westinghouse's technology is the basis for nearly half of the world's 440 nuclear power plants, including 62 of the 104 in the United States.

Chess Boxing?? YES, Chess Boxing

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$5.00 to simply LOOK at records in Sevier Cnty

No Kidding...its for real. Leslie Graves has the details:

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Kim Pierce, a candidate for sheriff in Sevier County, Tennessee was recently charged $15.00 just to look at the three different components of one file, on the theory that each search for a document costs $5.00.

Ann Butterworth, head of the state’s public records ombudsman office said there’s no basis at all in the law to charge to let members of the public simply look at records.

Larry Waters, the sheriff of the county, is not in any hurry to refund Pierce her money, nor is he in any hurry to stop the policy. He’s going to check with the county attorney first. Waters is not happy with all the people asking for records: “We had people coming in asking to see 120 pages, not just five or something.”

Here’s a thought. If you have that many people looking for your records, you might have a problem. The problem is not going to be solved by being a passive-aggressive, stubborn obstructionist.

Sevier County has its own anti-corruption watchdog website: Sevier Corruption.

Zogby: Obama way ahead in electoral tally

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UTICA, New York – As the race for President passes the Independence Day holiday and heads toward the dog days of summer, Sen. Barack Obama holds a 44% to 38% lead over Sen. John McCain in the horserace contest, but also leads by a substantial margin in a state-by-state Electoral College tally, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows.

The extensive national poll of of 46,274 likely voters also shows Libertarian candidate and former Congressman Bob Barr wins 6% support, eating into McCain’s needed conservative base of support.

Zogby’s Electoral College Count	7-7-2008
Obama	273
McCain	160
Undecided	105

Missouri Digital Heritage-Very nice collection

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If you think flying is a hassle now...just wait. it

can become even more degrading and fascist. The video linked below is for a firm that wants to "equip" each traveler with a "bracelet" that will track and, if necessary, disable passengers with an electric shock.

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I KNEW it!! Tofu harms memory!

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Eating high levels of some soy products, including tofu and other so-called 'superfoods,' may increase memory loss, scientists say.

Experts funded by the Alzheimer's Research Trust found a 20 per cent lower level of brain functioning compared with those eating very little of the product.

They are warning older people, particularly women and vegetarians, of the possible risks of consuming tofu and similar foods too frequently.

Researchers at Loughborough and Oxford Universities worked with Indonesian colleagues to investigate the effects of high soy consumption in elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java.

The researchers' findings, to be published in the journal Dementias And Geriatric Cognitive Disorders this month, found a high consumption of tofu was linked with worsening memory, particularly among those in their sixties.

Pension funds speculating on Commodities

The huge pension funds which pay the pension benefits for many public employee union members are profiting from rising commodity prices....do you think we will hear outrage from the left about these obscene profits??

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California's public employees' pension fund, the world's largest, made its first investment of $1.1 billion into oil and other commodities early last year, and since then, Calpers has seen it soar 68 percent. Fairfax County pension managers have enjoyed a 61 percent return from a similar move over the past 12 months, far outpacing any other segment of the fund's portfolio.

"Our commodity investment has really helped," said Robert L. Mears, executive director of Fairfax County's Retirement Administration Agency. "This year would have been a lot worse."

Other pension funds are rushing to get in on the action as the prices of oil, precious metals, corn, uranium and other vital goods continue to reach record highs. Montgomery County officials are in the process of shifting 5 percent of their $2.7 billion pension fund away from stocks and into commodities.

[...]

"Our job is to minimize our risks on the taxpayer," said Mears, the county's pension executive director. "If you can do that, why wouldn't you?"

Un*^%.believable ..Memphis City Public Schools

have met the enemy and the enemy is most surely the Memphis City Public School System.

Smart City Memphis relays the sickening news that one of the few bright lights in the Memphis City School system is being slowly extinguished. The KIPP Charter School is, almost literally, being run out of town....why?, because they have been successful. Its just that pathetically simple. The bureaucracy can't stand the competition.

And the bureaucrats and power brokers for the status quo don't even have the guts for a frontal attack.

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In a vote that was unanimous in its political extortion, the Board of Commissioners jacked up the lease on the KIPP DIAMOND Academy from $50,000 a year to just under $300,000 a year. The circular logic, pandering rhetoric and political opportunism as symbolized by the educational malpractice of Dr. Jeff Warren at that meeting were nothing short of stupefying.

[...]

Delivering Results

According to results of the Stanford 10, a nationally normed achievement test taken by KIPP DIAMOND Academy students annually, fifth graders entering KIPP in the fall of 2007 were outperforming only 18 percent of students nationally in reading. By the end of the school year, however, KIPP DIAMOND’s fifth graders were outperforming 42 percent of the national norm group in reading.

In mathematics, the scores climbed from the 21st to 49th percentile; in language arts, the scores rose from the 17th to 53rd percentile; in science, the scores jumped from the 17th to 44th percentile; and in social studies, the scores rose from the 19th to 51st percentile. Nationally, more than 80 percent of the students from KIPP schools attend college while fewer than one in five low-income students typically do.

But proving that often in the city district, no good deed goes unpunished, KIPP Academy – like other charters in Memphis City Schools – is treated as an alien virus that must be attacked and destroyed. On their best days, city school officials give charter schools lip service, and on the worst, they treat them like pariahs.

UK to be brought to its collective knees by unions

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Other unions, including that for refuse collection, have voted to strike this summer. And other unions are threatening a summer/autumn of “action.” Those of us old enough to remember the UK at its nadir in the 70s remember piles of rubbish in Leicester Square, London, because of the strike by council refuse workers. They are threatening a repeat performance unless they get a proper pay deal. In fact over 800,000 council workers are set to strike.

As a limited government type, it is always welcome to see council workers not doing their job of meddling in people’s lives and basically holding things up. However, scenes of piles of rubbish around will not exactly inspire confidence in the UK. It is not like they have to work hard. Many councils are even threatening to collect rubbish from householders once a month to force them to recycle.

Other government employees are getting bolshy, including the aptly named teacher’s union, the NUT. They are trying to get more money out of the government and threatening strikes in the autumn. Pleas from the Labour government, which is considered friendly to unions, are falling on deaf ears.

It is the case that unions see weakness in a Labour government and try to use it to their benefit. They like a Labour prime minister with his back to the wall, as Gordon Brown is right now, as a chance to get the maximum out of “their government.” It is being said they are holding Brown to ransom over laws they don’t like or want. His party is in a dire financial situation and need the unions’ deep pockets to bail them out before the next election. The unions are determined to make him pay for their bailing them out. Actually they want everyone to pay for their help — whether it be because of inflation, higher central or local taxation, or the bother of dealing with normal daily life while they are out striking.

Upscaling today's casual diner

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Jeff Hawkins on future of artificial intelligence

and brain theory. My son was mesmerized by this video and insisted that I watch it and I was captivated by it also...HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended.

We have anti-income tax pledges if any candidates

in the 52nd TN House race would like to proclaim their opposition to the State Income Tax. It would certainly give any candidate an edge in Tennessee.