Judge says Free Speech is OK during elections

Thank YOU to Judge Stephen Mickle. Busybody state legislatures can NOT stop US from commenting on political matters by making the reporting requirements overly burdensome.

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TALLAHASSEE -- A federal judge has thrown out Florida’s rules governing so-called electioneering groups, the shadowy political organizations known as “527s” on the national stage.

In striking Florida’s broad campaign-season reporting requirements, U.S. District Judge Stephan Mickle said the state had placed an unconstitutional burden on nonprofit organizations that want to discuss candidates and issues on the ballot.

The Broward Coalition of Condominiums, Homeowners Associations and Community Organizations brought the lawsuit forward, after the group ran into the reporting law when it tried to print a newsletter including information on candidates and constitutional amendments last November.

“While it is true the legislature has the power to regulate elections, it does not have the power to regulate purely political discussions about elections,” Mickle wrote in a 19-page opinion, released Friday. “This legislation cannot be justified by the government’s interest in preventing political corruption because the communication that is swept up in this legislation is issue advocacy speech, pure political speech.”

Thank YOU, politicians with good intentions.

Ethanol is ruining car engines!!

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City Garage manager Eric Greathouse has found that adding ethanol to the nation's gasoline supply may be a foolish government mandate, but it has an upside he'd rather not deal with. It's supplying his shop with a slow but steady stream of customers whose plastic fuel intakes have been dissolved by the blending of ethanol into our gasoline, or their fuel pumps destroyed. The average cost of repairs is just shy of $1,000.

You will turn over your health data and YOU WILL LIKE IT

There is a bill in the TN legislature that will require ALL heathcare patient information be turned over to the State of Tennessee. The bill REQUIRES that your doctor and insurance company provide the information to the State. HERE is the bill. This bill will raise the cost of healthcare and is a major invasion of privacy.

This bill needs to be stopped and stopped NOW.

Click HERE to send an Email to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who will be considering this bill.

UK Govt Health Service lost patient data 140 times

So far this year.

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The personal medical records of tens of thousands of people have been lost by the NHS, the Department of Health has confirmed.

A total of 140 security breaches were reported within the NHS between January and April this year.

These included computers containing medical records stolen and left by skips and stolen and passwords taped on encrypted discs with sensitive information, The Independent newspaper said.

Over the last six months, the Information Commissioner has been forced to take action against 14 NHS bodies for breaching data regulations.

In an interview with the newspaper, Commissioner Richard Thomas, said the watchdog had ordered an urgent review of data security in the health service.

Mr Thomas has written to the Department of Health calling for immediate improvements to the lax treatment of personal data within the NHS.

The Independent reported that Mr Thomas plans to send in a "crack team" of inspectors to examine how data is protected by hospitals and medical workers across Britain.

One GP downloaded a complete patient database, including the medical histories of 10,000 people, on to an unsecured laptop, the newspaper reported. The laptop was then said to have been stolen from his home and never retrieved. In another alleged breach, a memory stick containing the medical histories of 6,360 prison patients and ex-inmates of Preston prison was lost. Though the data was encrypted, the password was written on a note that was attached to the device.

Twitter Alerts: Email Alert when keywords in Tweets

Link Ht: Marcus Zillman

If you love Twitter, you'll love TweetBeep! Keep track of conversations that mention you, your products, your company, anything, with hourly updates! You can even keep track of who's tweeting your website or blog, even if they use a shortened URL (like bit.ly or tinyurl.com). Now, how cool is that?!

Great for online reputation management, catching all your @replies and @mentions, finding job/networking opportunities, keeping up on your favorite hobby, and more!

But they had such great good intentions for our tax money

Doesn't it just bring tears to your eyes when you think about all the great good intentions that Phil Bredesen has for all of us unwashed...err, citizen types. He lies awake at night thinking how his intellectual and moral superiority can be put to use to help us all...the man is a saint!!

Remember the great Switchgrass biofuel intiative from last year that was going to put Tennessee on the map. Stacey Campfield has an update for us....its going nowhere FAST.

The great $62 million solar plant that Phil wants for us this year will meet the same fate but it won't stop Phil.

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It is funny how people run into each other. I was at a cookout my uncle had at a state park yesterday. One of the other guests worked for the higher ups at UT's Agriculture department. Curious, I asked how the switchgrass refinery was coming. They shot back a "Don't you know?" look and said it was not going to be much of a refinery after all. It has been scaled back to more of a research facility for switchgrass and not much actual production of fuel would ever come to pass. More testing is needed. Lots of research still to go.

Make your car less stealable with rust stickers

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These rust and scratch stickers are designed to make your beautiful bike/car look rusted and scratched so that passing thieves assume it's not worth stealing due to its apparent shabbyness.

Another Mid-Tenn Mass Transit Boondoggle

The Music City Star , our first attempt at Middle Tennessee mass transit, is a complete disaster. Now, the mass transit pushers want us to "invest" in another boondoggle, a train from Clarksville to Nashville. But, they assure us, only those who are "better at raising money" will receive the benfits of this gem. I volunteer NOT to pay a dime.

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Transit planners say one of those cities could become the second link in Nashville's rail transit network. But which corridor is built first could depend on which community is better at raising money.

State lawmakers took a step last week toward allowing local leaders to do that. They passed a bill — now awaiting the governor's signature — that would allow local governments to, through ordinance or referendum, set up a funding source dedicated to public transportation projects.

It also would give regional transportation authorities in the state the power to borrow money by issuing bonds.

"To become a world-class city you have to have ability to move masses of people," said Greg Atkins, executive director of the Tennessee Public Transportation Association.

Hey! Maybe there IS a crisis?

The unfunded liability of Social Security and Medicare is now over $100 trillion, i.e., we would need $100 trillion in the bank today to pay future benefits.

Clue: we don't have $100 Trillion in the bank. The only thing in the social seciurity "trust fund" are IOUs left there by Congress when they took the surplus and spent it on other things.

Mick Wright reminds us of the fate of a website created by Labor Unions and lefties to tell us there was NO crisis.

Cap and Trade and Bait and Switch

HT: TaxGuru

Who could possibly object to low cost healthcare?

DOCTORS!!

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That is why it is disappointing that bills and amendments died during the Texas legislative session that would have allowed advanced practice nurses to diagnose and to prescribe for common, minor illness and injures without doctor supervision.

You can blame Texas doctors.

Despite better protections from malpractice lawsuits and lower malpractice premiums, Texas has a doctor shortage. Nevertheless, the Texas Medical Association took every step to ensure physicians will have a tight rein on the activities of well-trained nurses.

The barrier against nurses will continue to keep low-fee retail health clinics, such as those operated by Walgreen and CVS drug store chains, from expanding in Texas. The state law requiring doctor supervision adds too much cost to the clinics.

Hawaii vote is first all digital

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Some 115,000 voters in Honolulu's neighborhood council election were able to pick winners entirely online or via telephone. The voting, which started May 6, ended Friday.

City officials say the experiment appears to have generated few problems; it has even saved the financially strapped city around $100,000.

"It is kind of the wave of the future," said Bryan Mick, a community relations specialist with the city Neighborhood Commission, "so we're kind of glad in a way that we got to be the ones who initiated it."

Web voting, which produces no paper record, cannot be used in city council or state elections because state law bars voting systems that do not include a vote verification process, said Warren Stewart, legislative policy director for Verified Voting Foundation, a nonpartisan advocacy group.

Lori Steele, head of Everyone Counts, the San Diego-based firm chosen by the commission to run the election, said Web voting will make it easier for civilian and military voters who live overseas or those who just don't have time in their busy days to visit a polling place.

The commission's move to digital voting was dictated more by a lack of money than a strong desire to use the Internet in new ways.

The Housing Market Solution: Creative Destruction

Politicians want SOOO badly to be relevant when, ironically, their greatest contribution is irrelevance. If they will simply leave the decision making up to the citizens we would ALL be freer and more prosperous and happier...but alas they just can't stand being irrelevant.

Phil Bredesen says HE creates jobs....not true. Michael Bloomberg jumps in front of any PR parade he can find to claim he is solving the citizen's problems...not really.

Their self-righteous fervor is so cute and so unnecessary.

The housing market in Phoenix is re-creating itself throught the efforts of sovereign citizens making self directed decisions about their own welfare without anyone "directing" them...its a miracle? Nope, it freedom.

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With this sweltering desert city enduring one of the largest tumbles in housing prices for any urban area since the Depression, there is an unrelenting stream of foreclosures to choose from. On some days, hundreds are offered for sale at the auctions that take place on the plaza in front of the county courthouse.

There is also a large supply of foreclosed families who can no longer qualify for a loan. And that is prompting a flood of investors like Mr. Jarvis, who wants to turn as many of these people as possible into rent-paying tenants in the houses they used to own.

Real estate got just about everyone into trouble in Phoenix, and the thinking seems to be that real estate is going to get everyone out.

The low end of the real estate market here — and in some equally hard-hit places like inland California and coastal Florida — is becoming as wild as anything during the boom.

One real estate agent was showing a foreclosed house to a prospective client when a passer-by saw the open door, came in and snapped up the property. Another agent says she was having the lock changed on a bank-owned home when a man happened by, found out from the locksmith that it was available, and immediately bought it. Bidding wars are routine.

UK Traffic Cameras to log ALL License Plates

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Pictorial of Massive May 16 Indian Election

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Green Good Intentions and Polluting Realities

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The research conducted by the group Transport Watch found that diesel powered vehicles emit approximately half as much CO2 as electric cars when the use of fossil fuels to produce electricity is taken into account.

The research paper says: "We conclude that the notion that electric cars will reduce emissions is a fiction."

Factors making the rechargeable cars less efficient include the amount of electricity lost on the journey between the coal fired power stations which generate it and the point where it recharges the car, and the energy lost by the batteries and the motor.
The researchers calculated that of the energy burned in a power station, only a quarter reaches an electric car after leakages and losses along the supply chain are considered, giving the vehicle an energy efficiency score of 24%.

A modern diesel engine, by contrast, achieves 45% efficiency.

White House Shuts Out the Press

Producing Its Own News Reports...think this will create any journalistic skepticism? I doubt it.

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Do you recognize this lower third? It's from the only video news story about the UCONN Women's basketball team's visit to the White House last month.

It might not look familiar because it's not produced by one of the networks, but rather, by the White House.

ABC News White House correspondent Jake Tapper brings to light this new media operation by the Obama administration.

"Obama White House officials decided to do their own media report on the visit, complete with cuts, interviews, and chyrons identifying who's speaking," writes Tapper, while the pool report from the day said: "Your Pool was not allowed to go over and shoot POTUS with the team shooting hoops. We protested loudly."

Tapper asks, "Do Obama White House officials think their media coverage isn't flattering enough?"

Mass Transit Rail System in Central Fla Shuts Down

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Tri-Rail officials rolled out a budget Friday that calls for reducing service from 50 to 30 trains a day, ending weekend and holiday runs and shutting down the system altogether by early 2011.

Members of the board that oversees Tri-Rail voted 5-2 to approve the service cuts and closing the system -- but the action was not final because they instructed staff to tweak the budget and return with a new proposal next month that somehow could ensure service without cuts.

The drastic budget option was unveiled at the regular monthly meeting of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority. Officials also disclosed that the Federal Transit Administration is threatening to demand the return of $256 million Tri-Rail used for adding a second track -- if service is cut below 48 trains a day.

Graphic Artists take a go at Re-Branding America

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Milkyway Galaxy Rise

Starts about 21 secs.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Hugo Chavez nationalizes iron, steel companies

Silly dictator!! Nationalization is for REAL tyrants, like Geitner and Obama, not the petty variety. Barack Obama can nationalize more industries in a single day than Chavez can in a month.

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CARACAS (AFP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the government would nationalize several iron and steel companies to pave way for a large "socialist" state-run enterprise.

"There is nothing to discuss. We've been on this for a long time," Chavez said in a televised address Thursday, ordering the beginning of "a process of nationalization to create an industrial complex."

Chavez, who has nationalized many of the mineral-rich country's biggest industries, named Matesi, Consigua, Ceramicas Carabobo and Tavsa, which produces seamless steel
pipes for the oil industry.

Also affected were Orinoco Iron and Venprecar, subsidiaries of Venezuelan-owned International Briquettes Holding (IBH), which exports iron briquettes.

The announcement is the start of a "transition" so that these companies can become the "solid platform of socialism," he said.

Where is OUR Daniel Hannan? Why can't we hear

someone in Congress stand up and FIGHT for the dignity and sovereignty of the individual citizen? Why can't we hear a clear, unapologetic condemnation of a government out of control.

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Let's look at the future of these newly confiscated businesses that government will soon control by using the business model or, as they like to call it, the “service” (just to show they have a sense of humor) model of the US Postal Service.

Be assured, pro-union Obama will do nothing to cost the Postal Workers Union anything. Democrats are more afraid of asking a union to make sacrifices than they are of a registered letter.

In a year when Fed Ex and UPS made billions and paid taxes, the United States Postal “Service” lost $2.4 billion. What makes the loss more interesting is that most of that money was lost in the mail.

Since there is little demand for their “service,” the USPS has now raised the price of a stamp to forty-four cents in response. Our government will apply the same logic to Chrysler and GM upon gaining control of them. If the 2012 Cobalt does not sell at $13,000, the government will simply raise the price to $92,000 and eliminate two of the cup holders.

Why Government-run anything will always be a disaster

Government "management" always devolves into 1-power seeking bureaucrats, 2-re-election seeking politicians and 3- rent seeking businesses. Demogoguery and corruption and massive inefficiency are ALWAYS the eventual result.

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In 1913, for instance, thinking it was being overcharged by the steel companies for armor plate for warships, the federal government decided to build its own plant. It estimated that a plant with a 10,000-ton annual capacity could produce armor plate for only 70% of what the steel companies charged.

When the plant was finally finished, however -- three years after World War I had ended -- it was millions over budget and able to produce armor plate only at twice what the steel companies charged. It produced one batch and then shut down, never to reopen.

Or take Medicare. Other than the source of its premiums, Medicare is no different, economically, than a regular health-insurance company. But unlike, say, UnitedHealthcare, it is a bureaucracy-beclotted nightmare, riven with waste and fraud. Last year the Government Accountability Office estimated that no less than one-third of all Medicare disbursements for durable medical equipment, such as wheelchairs and hospital beds, were improper or fraudulent. Medicare was so lax in its oversight that it was approving orthopedic shoes for amputees.

Nashville Convention Center (aka boondoggle) Forum

If you would like to learn more about how you will be obligated to repay $1 Billion for the new Convention Center which is being built despite the wishes of Metro Taxpayers, you can attend a debate:

May 31 @ 2-4 pm at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music Turner Hall

Groundbot

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Daniel Hannan was correct, UK credit rating suffers

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May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Britain may lose its top-level credit rating at Standard & Poor’s for the first time as the government’s finances deteriorate amid the worst recession since World War II.

The outlook was lowered to “negative” from “stable” because of the nation’s increasing “debt burden,” S&P said in a statement today. The pound fell the most in almost a month against the dollar. Stocks and bonds slid, and the cost of insuring debt against default rose.

Britain would become the fifth western European Union nation to lose its rating because of the economic slump, following Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain. The U.K. plans to sell a record 220 billion pounds ($343 billion) of bonds in the fiscal year through March 2010 as the recession cuts revenue and forces the government to raise spending.

“We have revised the outlook on the U.K. to negative due to our view that, even assuming additional fiscal tightening, the net general government debt burden could approach 100 percent of gross domestic product and remain near that level in the medium term,” S&P analysts led by David Beers in London, said in a report today.

An Honest Politician gets elected

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"I just told them the truth. This town will be like my family business. If I get a little something, so do they," he explained.

Locals who backed Risa said they would be happy to have him as mayor, despite his bizarre campaign pledge.

Ivan Vjisnic, 57, said: "We know what we're letting ourselves in for.

"We're going to get ripped off no matter who takes over. At least he's being honest and up front about it. And he has said that if things get better for him then they will get better for us."

How the Stress Tests were performed

HT: Big Picture

Adopt and monitor a Stimulus Project

Pro Publica is looking for citizens who will "adopt a stimulus project."

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It is never too early to start watchdogging one of the largest spending bills in U.S. history – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It includes $27 billion to repair America’s roads and bridges.

Monitoring thousands of construction sites around the country is an impossible task for a single reporter. Or a handful of reporters. That’s why we need your help.

Search for stimulus projects in your state below, then pick one to monitor over the next few months. We’ll send you suggestions and tips on how to watchdog your project. Use this form to send us reports (we'll also send you a link to it by email when you sign up).

Email Amanda Michel at amanda@propublica.org for more information.

Healthcare "reform" is ALSO about lobbying and money

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When President Obama won approval for his $787 billion stimulus package in February, large sections of the 407-page bill focused on a push for new technology that would not stimulate the economy for years.

The inclusion of as much as $36.5 billion in spending to create a nationwide network of electronic health records fulfilled one of Obama's key campaign promises -- to launch the reform of America's costly health-care system.

But it was more than a political victory for the new administration. It also represented a triumph for an influential trade group whose members now stand to gain billions in taxpayer dollars.

A Washington Post review found that the trade group, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, had worked closely with technology vendors, researchers and other allies in a sophisticated, decade-long campaign to shape public opinion and win over Washington's political machinery.

With financial backing from the industry, they started advocacy groups, generated research to show the potential for massive savings and met routinely with lawmakers and other government officials. Their proposals made little headway in Congress, in part because of the complexity of the issues and questions about whether the technology and federal subsidies would work as billed.

Politico: Climate Lobbyists are a happy, incestuous

little cadre of 10 lobbying firms made up of corporate money changers and former legislators.

Democrats are getting co-opted by the big money corporate lobbyists just as surely as the Republicans were seduced. 

If, deity forbid, cap and trade ever gets passed, it will be a grab-bag of corporate corruption negotiated by this band of happy pirates. This is NOT about change, it IS about MONEY.

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A new analysis of Senate disclosure records by The Center for Public Integrity found that 10 lobbying firms — all with deep ties to Capitol Hill — have amassed such large client lists that they represent nearly 100 of the business stakeholders in the legislative brawl.

Zilok.com: Rent anything from anybody

Link HT: Makeuseof

Giles County Commission rejects Senior tax Freeze

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Concerns raised during Monday’s meeting included questions posed to Giles County Trustee JoAnn Townsend and Giles County Tax Assessor Steve McGill. Both said they would need to hire an additional person for their respective offices to handle the tax freeze program.

Townsend and McGill explained that additional paperwork would have to be handled each year, with McGill adding that field work would increase due to the need to inspect the properties of each applicant.

Some commissioners who spoke on the issue estimated the minimum start-up cost of the tax freeze program at $50,000.

Commissioner Wendell Wilburn noted that 80 percent to 95 percent of the people who would be qualified for the tax freeze program are already served by the state’s Tax Relief program.

“This will only put more burden on other taxpayers,” Wilburn said.

Not just NO, but HELL NO!!

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NASHVILLE - House Democrats are discussing closing some sales tax loopholes to help offset the need to slash another $200 million in spending from the 2009-10 state budget that starts July 1.

“No one wants to raise taxes, I mean, at all. But we’re in unprecedented times,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner, who noted his members increasingly fear the impact of cuts on services.

Rep. Turner said the state has an estimated $6 billion in services and items not subject to the state’s 7 percent sales tax. He did not cite a specific figure. A state income tax is “off the table,” he said, as is a general sales tax increase.

His comments came after House Democrats’ closed-door meeting with Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz in which he outlined the state’s recession-driven fiscal woes.

The Bailout circle just keeps getting bigger and bigger

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Washington -- The Treasury Department is preparing to announce as early as today that it will invest an additional $7.5 billion in GMAC LLC in a deal that could allow the U.S. government to hold a majority stake in the Detroit-based auto finance company.
GMAC, whose financial good health is key to providing loans for consumers to buy General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC vehicles, has been in talks for several weeks to secure additional capital. It had hoped to close the deal last week.

In December, the U.S. Treasury invested $5 billion in GMAC by buying preferred stock in the finance company. That stock carries a 9 percent dividend, but has no voting rights. Treasury also loaned GM nearly $900 million to buy GMAC stock.

Religious Affiliation of State Legislators

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Here are some interesting trivia from the data:

• Southern state legislators were much more likely to report their religious affiliation in their biographies.  The states in which 80 percent or more of state legislators specified their religion are Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, Alabama and West Virginia.  The states with the least reporting of religious affiliations were in the West. Less than 40 percent of legislators in Oregon, California Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada and Washington revealed their religion.
• Massachusetts had the highest percentage of Catholics (36 percent) but Pennsylvania had the largest number (78).  New York, Illinois and New Hampshire also had 50 or more Catholic legislators.
• There were more than 10 Jewish legislators only in New York (24), Florida (17) and Maryland (13).
• Mormon legislators were concentrated in Utah (27), Idaho (24) and Wyoming (11).
• Three legislators reported that they are Buddhist, three Muslim, and two Hindu.

FingerPrints for Traffic citations Bill rolled to Thurs

Senator Haynes did not have the votes this morning so he rolled the bill to next Thursday May 28. He said there was a lot of concern about the bill on both sides of the aisle....EXCELLENT!! 

He appealed to his fellow Senators by saying the police departments would have to buy the more expensive handheld electronic signature devices if this bill was not passed. 

List of Federal/State Stimulus Feeds from UC Berkeley

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Stimulus Feeds is prepared and hosted by the Information and Service Design Program (ISD) of UC Berkeley's School of Information. This is the complete list of feeds currently provided by Federal Agency Recovery Sites as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This table groups these feeds by agency, and then by feed type. In addition to these agency-maintained feeds, the Stimulus Feeds site provides feeds for all weekly reports published on recovery.gov (republishing the Excel data as XML and XHTML); these feeds are available in the Scraped Data column.

27% of Mass Elementary Teachers Pass Math Test

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MALDEN, Mass. (WPRI) - According to state education officials, nearly three-quarters of the people who took the state elementary school teacher’s licensing exam this year failed the new math section.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results Tuesday. They say that only 27 percent of the more than 600 candidates who took the test passed. The test was administered in March of this year.

The teacher’s licensing exam tested potential teachers on their knowledge of elementary school mathematics. This included geometry, statistics, and probability.

"...politicians...are not getting the job done."

Californians overwhelmingly rejected tax hikes on Tuesday's Ballot. Here is what the SUPPORTERS of the tax hike had to say.

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"Clearly the voters have spoken," said Bill Hauck, president of the Business Roundtable, who was speaking for the consortium of groups and individuals who supported the measures. "The voters are angry, they're frustrated, and they've concluded the politicians in Sacramento are not getting the job done."

The drubbing appeared to be statewide in scope. In Sacramento County, where residents are closest to state government, none of the first five measures on the ballot were doing much better than they were statewide. In vote-rich Los Angeles County, Propositions 1A through 1E were struggling - and failing - to crack the 40-percent-yes barrier. Even liberal-leaning San Francisco County voters were barely approving the measures.

Mr Obama, Healthcare is Not expensive in spite of Govt

It is expensive BECAUSE of government. For starters Medicare/Medicaid regulations are THREE Times the size of the IRS code.

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Commonwealth study: time spent interacting with third-party payers per physician per year: doctor: 3 weeks; nurses: 23 weeks; clerical staff: 44 weeks.

PWC/AHA study: for each hour of patient care, there is 30 minutes of paperwork. In the emergency room, the ratio is one to one.

Commonwealth study: the cost of interacting with health insurance plans is $68,274 per physician per year.

PWC/AHA study: Medicare and Medicaid have 130,000 pages of rules and instructions. That's three times the size of the IRS code and federal tax regulations.

Top 100 new words from Wordspy.com

See top 10 below.

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1	1	tweetup	June 11, 2008
2	2	time porn	August 5, 2002
3	3	retrosexual	October 6, 2004
4	4	phishing	August 1, 2003
5	5	google	April 12, 2001
6	6	flotsametrics	May 8, 2009
7	9	invacuate	December 16, 2002
8	8	sexting	March 19, 2009
9	10	cosmetic neurology	May 7, 2009

Many required Stimulus Reports MIA

Click on Link to see those that have been submitted, they are very broad brush and information lite.

Link

Yesterday we wrote about some deadlines in the stimulus package requiring federal agencies to submit reports to Congress and publish guidelines for new programs.

Some of the reports have trickled in—10 of 17—but others remain MIA.

2008 Crime hit record level in Philly Schools

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So far this school year, the School Reform Commission has voted on 33 expulsions, mostly for aggravated assaults on teachers, administrators and students, said Ben Wright, the district's head of alternative education. In all, 12 students were permanently expelled, 13 students were temporarily expelled, and eight students were not expelled.

More than 100 cases are in the pipeline, Wright said.

Before this school year, no student had been removed from the system for three years. Stollsteimer had long criticized the district's prior stance against expulsion as illegal and harmful to student safety, a position that earned him the wrath of some state and district officials.

Photos from Cannes Film Festival

The cast from Easy Rider and Arnold at Cannes.

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At what point will Obama be "irresponsible"?

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From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that's atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70%, up from 41% in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80%).

The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82%.

But wait: Even these totals may be understated. By various estimates, Obama's health plan might cost $1.2 trillion over a decade; he has budgeted only $635 billion.

Next, the huge deficits occur despite a pronounced squeeze of defense spending. From 2008 to 2019, total federal spending would rise 75%, but defense spending would increase only 17%. Unless foreign threats recede, military spending and deficits might both grow.

Real Time Object Recognition via Cell Cam for Blind

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Have a right to refuse to disclose your health info?

Yes, but not much longer if Governor Bredesen gets his way:

Rep. Susan Lynn has the scoop:

What if you should want to opt-out? Well, you can’t. And should your doctor refuse to comply with giving over your information he or she will receive a $100.00 per day fine from the state.

Recently a similar plan was instituted in Minnesota. The cost was $1.2 million for the databasing of claims data on all Minnesotans for just the first 18 months. Additional costs for analyzing the data are $3.0 million dollars per year. The next phase of educating physicians was another $100,000+, and about $45,000 per year in expenses for the state’s health dept. Of course the cost to the doctors for sending the data has never been calculated.

But the state claims that this bill will cost little more than $10,000 per year.

Insurors wary of Barack's benevolence

The president can't allow this kind of insolence!! Either he will have to throw more money at them or pass a law requiring them to accept this taxpayer money. 

Link

Ameriprise Financial Inc., one of six life insurers preliminarily approved in the past week for billions in federal aid, said Friday that it wouldn't take the money. Prudential Financial Inc. is expected to reject it, too, according to a person familiar with the matter.

5 mos behind schedule and half the work is done?

Any guesses who we are talking about boys and girls?

Link

The federal government is still woefully behind schedule in issuing high-tech identification cards to its employee and contractor work force.

The White House said in budget documents released May 11 that 2.7 million ID cards — about 48 percent of the total 5.6 million cards to be issued — had been issued to employees and contractors as of the beginning of March.

[...]

“It turned out to be a more daunting task than the government realized,” said John Palguta, vice president of policy for the Partnership for Public Service. “We need to have secure credentials in today’s world. Let’s hope the last 52 percent doesn’t take as long as the first 48 percent.”

Palguta said that agencies must maintain their capacity to issue cards once this initial deployment is finished. The federal government will have to hire hundreds of thousands of new employees over the next few years to replace retiring baby boomers, and agencies will need to issue them cards too.

White House and Office of Management and Budget officials were unavailable for comment.

Biggest Threat to Global Health? Yup, Global warming

oops....sorry, should have said "climate change" (does anyone expect that climate won't change?...)

We have reached a new high on the politically correct hogwash meter. Now, "climate change" is so urgent a problem that wild eyed, self righteous, government bureaucrats can claim that everyone has a RIGHT to be free of climate change. 

A Stable Climate is your Birthright!!! Every degree of thermal variation will be cause for the trial lawyers to sue....who? Who the hell cares, we are all responsible and we are all victims. Its a win-win for the crazies!!

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Until now the medical profession has not taken a position on climate change, considering issues such as world poverty, HIV and bird flu to be more pressing threats to human health.
However, a study by the University College London, published in the Lancet, concluded that the problems caused by climate change such as food shortages, heat waves and increased threat of tropical diseases such as malaria will kill billions of people.

It means climate change is now the biggest threat to humanity.

"Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century," the authors including doctors, climatologists and economists concluded.

Very Entertaining TED lecture on Creativity

You do have a Choice...

HT: Tax Guru

Public Employee Unions: most powerful political force

Link

Today, public-sector unions sit atop lists of organizations that devote the most money to lobbying and campaign contributions.

In Pennsylvania, a local think tank, the Commonwealth Foundation, counted the resources of the state's teachers union a few years ago. It had 11 regional offices, 275 employees and $66 million in annual dues. In Connecticut, representatives of the teachers union camped outside the legislators' doors in 2005 to keep tabs on school reformers who were calling on these officials to expand school choice.

And in California, unions spent more than $50 million in 2005 to defeat a series of ballot proposals that would have capped growth in the state's budget. Now the state's teachers union is putting its clout behind a ballot initiative, to be voted on next week, that would restore more than $9 billion in educational spending cut from the state's budget.

The results of such efforts are evident in the rich rewards that public-sector employees now enjoy. A study in 2005 by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated that the average public-sector worker earned 46% more in salary and benefits than comparable private-sector workers. The gap has only continued to grow. For example, state and local worker pay and benefits rose 3.1% in the last year, compared to 1.9% in the private sector, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Jim Cooper PR, July 11, 2007: "More Happy Talk"

The July 11, 2007 press release below is from Congressman Jim Cooper's office complaining about a $205 billion deficit. 

The current budget is now projected to have a deficit of $1.8 trillion. Congressman Cooper calls this budget "honest." In fact, when asked if this budget would have received his support if it had been proposed by President Bush, he said "it would have."

Link

July 11, 2007: NASHVILLE - U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper today criticized President George W. Bush for continuing to mislead Americans about the country's true financial state. The administration announced this afternoon that the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year would be $205 billion, lower than it had publicly anticipated.

"The number the president announced today is more happy talk from a guy who seems to have learned accounting from his friends at Enron," Cooper said. "The real, audited federal budget deficit is 15 times larger-about 3 trillion dollars. And what's more, we have a long-term spending crisis on our hands that will literally bankrupt the country unless we take action soon. President Bush does the nation a disservice by pretending things are just fine. It seems we have a leadership deficit, too.

"The good news is that a group of patriotic experts is taking this urgent warning directly to the American people," Cooper continued. "On Monday, U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and a bipartisan panel of economists will be in Nashville to give us the real numbers. The Fiscal Wake Up Tour is coming to the Downtown Library, and I encourage all Middle Tennesseans to come hear their important message. Your children will thank you for refusing to bankrupt future generations."

Your Federal Taxes went up 81%. No one told you?

Link

To summarize, we see that taxpayers are on the hook for Social Security and Medicare by these amounts: Social Security, 1.3% of GDP; Medicare part A, 2.8% of GDP; Medicare part B, 2.8% of GDP; and Medicare part D, 1.2% of GDP. This adds up to 8.1% of GDP. Thus federal income taxes for every taxpayer would have to rise by roughly 81% to pay all of the benefits promised by these programs under current law over and above the payroll tax.

Since many taxpayers have just paid their income taxes for 2008 they may have their federal returns close at hand. They all should look up the total amount they paid and multiply that figure by 1.81 to find out what they should be paying right now to finance Social Security and Medicare.

To put it another way, the total unfunded indebtedness of Social Security and Medicare comes to $106.4 trillion. That is how much larger the nation's capital stock would have to be today, all of it owned by the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, to generate enough income to pay all the benefits that have been promised over and above future payroll taxes. But the nation's total private net worth is only $51.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. In effect, we have promised the elderly benefits equal to more than twice the nation's total wealth on top of the payroll tax.

Large Families audited by NC Dept of Revenue

Link

Several families contacted by CJ claimed fewer than eight dependents on their state return but still received the audit letter. North Carolina has 86,421 family households with six or more persons, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005-2007 American Community Survey.

Lay declined to offer details on how much cheating his department expected to catch through the audit, or how much the action is costing in manpower and overhead. “I’m not at liberty to say,” he said.

Asked if targeting large families is a new policy or if similar audits have been conducted in past years, Lay said the move is “not a policy.”

“It’s a matter of what we find when we look,” he said. “When we find noncompliance in an area, that’s where we tend to concentrate.”

A spokeswoman for the governor’s office offered no comment other than to say the governor would look into the audits.

1 in 5 Americans admit to peeing in the pool

No way, the true number has got to be higher, much higher.

Link

To check that your public pool is properly chlorinated, the Water Quality and Health Council recommends the use of portable pool and spa testing strips, easily purchased at pool supply stores and discount retailers, in addition to trusting your basic senses.

"A smelly pool is a dirty pool," said National Consumers League President Emeritus and Water Quality and Health Council Vice-Chair Linda Golodner. "Look for water that's clean, clear and blue. Check for tiles that feel smooth and clean. Make sure there are no strong odors. Listen for pool cleaning equipment. Using your senses help you recognize the difference between a healthy pool and one that needs cleaning and treatment."

Should Tea Partiers resort to civil disobedience?

Like LA Teachers.

Link

Schools throughout Los Angeles were disrupted today as thousands of teachers called in sick and hundreds of high school students walked out of classrooms to protest possible teacher layoffs at the nation's second-largest school district.Teachers said they planned to storm the Los Angeles Unified School District's headquarters in downtown Los Angeles today and "jump on some desks" as an act of civil disobedience, according to a memo circulated to district officials by school district Police Chief Lawrence Manion.

District police officials said they did not plan to make arrests. But if arrests became necessary, they would let Los Angeles Police Department officers step in to handle the situation.

OK AG says msgs on private devices still public records

Link

The Oklahoma attorney general issued an opinion Thursday saying that work messages sent by public officials on their private electronic devices, such as cell phones, Blackberries and laptops, are public records. The cool thing is in Oklahoma, AG opinions are binding unless overturned by a court.

The opinion evolved after Oklahoma State University refused to provide a college journalism student e-mails and text messages regarding public business. University administrators were skirting the public records law by conducting their business on their personal communication devices, arguing that a public record is only subject to the public records law if it is sent on a government computer. The lame policy earned the university the annual "Black Hole Award" from FOI Oklahoma Inc. in March.

Isn't it astonishing that supposedly smart people like university officials can come up with such dumb arguments? Kudos to AG Drew Edmondson for putting the university in its place and keeping the public's business public. Also, congratulations are in order for the college students who fought for these records, and for Joey Senat, co-adviser of the OSU student SPJ chapter, who alerted this issue to FOI/FYI and wrote about this in the December Quill. It takes dedicated students, journalists and professors to keep our leaders honest.

Now we are bailing out Insurance Companies

Link

LOS ANGELES — The Treasury Department has agreed to extend billions in bailout funds to six major life insurers, following a months-long quest by some in the sector for government help in shoring up capital positions in the wake of major investment losses.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. was the first to disclose Thursday that it had been notified by the Treasury Department that it was eligible for $3.4 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Lincoln National Corp., which commonly goes by the name Lincoln Financial Group, said it has been initially approved for a $2.5 billion injection from TARP's Capital Purchase Program.

Allstate Corp., Ameriprise Financial Inc., Principal Financial Group Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc. also are among insurers receiving preliminary investment approval, Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams confirmed. He declined to disclose the amount of investment each company will receive.

The total capital injection into the six companies will be less than $22 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the situation.

Senator Ophelia Ford says Shelby County Taxpayers

should pay to embalm indigents just like all the other counties. The County Mayor was trying to pass a bill which would exempt Shelby County from embalming the approx 600 unclaimed bodies which the county deals with each year.

Senator Ford is a licensed funeral director. She declared Rule 13, meaning she had a personal interest in the bill, but voted on the bill. Senator Marrero, the sponsor of the bill made the not so subtle point that funeral homes were welcome to offer to embalm these bodies pro bono.

Senator Ford describes what would happen to her fellow Senators if they happen to meet their maker in Shelby County without proper ID.

Democratic Strategists analyze the cute Teaparty Bumpkins

Democratic strategists try to figure out how they can derail and re-rail the Tea Party movement.

Link

In terms of Democratic strategy, there are two key implications of this analysis:

First, while these voters are unlikely to support Democratic candidates, their distrust and hostility to Obama and the Dems can be significantly moderated, reducing the number who move on to become committed anti-Democratic activists in hundreds of communities around the nation. The key is to reject the assumption that people who do not accept a Keynesian view are necessarily doctrinaire conservatives or committed Republicans. As we have seen, there is good evidence that they are not. Democrats can moderate the opposition of these voters by communicating with them in their own distinct “common sense” and “small business” framework.

The second important strategy for Democrats to follow is to point out—not insultingly, but sincerely—to the “small-town traditionalist” grass roots protesters that there is a genuinely huge gulf that separates their own views from those of the major organizations that have emerged as the main “clearing houses” for the Tea Party movement.

Pelosi and TN Dems vote to protect the crook Murtha

This kind of behavior is despicable. John Murtha is a crook and should not be serving in Congress. This guy is a Duke Cunningham (former Republican Congressman, now in jail) level crook and yet he is still protected by Democrats from an ethics investigation.

All Tennesse Dems (except Tanner who did not vote) voted to protect Murtha. 29 Dems did have the guts to vote for an ethics investigation. Jim Cooper should be ashamed of himself.

4 Republicans voted to protect Murtha: Don Young, Walter Jones, Tim Murphy, and Howard Coble.

Link

As the House prepared to vote this week on Republican Rep. Jeff Flake’s push for an ethics investigation involving Rep. John Murtha and other senior appropriators, Democratic leaders sent an unmistakable message to their members:

“Don’t be a Flake.”

That was the subject line of an e-mail that staffers for first- and second-term Democrats received Tuesday from Rep. Chris Van Hollen, assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The message said that Democrats would once again be “voting to table another Flake resolution” — and it made clear that leadership would have its eyes on any Democrats even thinking about defecting.

Not that they needed reminding.

In another pre-vote e-mail, the office of House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) warned Democrats that they would suffer in 2010 if Republicans succeeded in forcing an ethics investigation into the relationships Murtha and other veteran Democratic lawmakers had with the PMA Group.

“If the Flake resolution is referred to the Ethics Committee, members can expect attacks ads to be run against them alleging members to be ‘under investigation by the House Ethics Committee,’” the whip’s staff warned members. “The Flake resolution is nothing more than a fishing expedition.”

The Clyburn-Van Hollen double-team worked — for now.

When the House took up Flake’s resolution Tuesday night, Democrats once again voted overwhelmingly to table it. But the 29 Democratic votes the measure got this week was the highest tally yet — and further evidence of a generational divide that’s pitting newer House members who want to “drain the swamp” against veteran members who don’t want to see their colleagues investigated.

Visible Vote for iPhone: Mob voting

Link

Here's how the app works:

After downloading Visible Vote, the app will ask you to enter your e-mail address, state and zip code (no GPS support in version 1.0, apparently). It will then retrieve your local Senators and Representatives and a list of issues they've voted on recently.

For each issue - everything from taxing AIG bonuses to alternative energy incentives - the app provides more detail and then asks for YOUR vote - Yes, No, or Don't Care.

It then takes your stance and compares it to the members of Congress - showing you how much their votes match with your interests.

Don't like the results? Wanna praise your favorite politician for sticking to his or her guns? The app lets you write them directly, with a simple interface that allows you to e-mail any combination of your Senators or Representatives - from one at a time to all at once.

The app also promises to provide elected officials with weekly reports on how users are voting - and to send users an overview of the candidates when the next election rolls around.

No bleep Sherlock: "taxes could kill recovery"

Link

The barrage of tax increases proposed in President Barack Obama's budget could, if enacted by Congress, kill any chance of an early and sustained recovery.

Historians and economists who've studied the 1930s conclude that the tax increases passed during that decade derailed the recovery and slowed the decline in unemployment. That was true of the 1935 tax on corporate earnings and of the 1937 introduction of the payroll tax. Japan did the same destructive thing by raising its value-added tax rate in 1997.

The current outlook for an economic recovery remains precarious. Although the stimulus package will give a temporary boost to growth in the current quarter, it will not be enough to offset the combined effect of lower consumer spending, the decline in residential construction, the weakness of exports, the limited availability of bank credit and the downward spiral of house prices. A sustained economic upturn is far from a sure thing. This is no time for tax increases that will reduce spending by households and businesses.

Shelby County loses 2k residents, 2nd yr of declines

Link

Residents fleeing the county typically cite crime, high property taxes and school problems.

County chief administrative officer Jim Huntzicker said the direct fiscal impact of the population loss isn't significant. But the decline indicates there is work to be done.

"We've got to improve what we're doing in terms of job creation and economic development," he said.

Vanderbilt Univ selling their surplus stuff

Link

Napolitano says "Rightwing Extremism" report being re-written

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A contentious "Rightwing Extremism" report that warned of military veterans as possible recruits for terrorist attacks against the U.S. was not authorized, has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Capitol Hill lawmakers.

"The wheels came off the wagon because the vetting process was not followed," Ms. Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.

"The report is no longer out there," she said. "An employee sent it out without authorization."

Do what I say I do, not what I do

Link

One way to test whether people live up to their virtuous self-image is to set them up. In one study, for example, 251 Cornell students predicted how likely they would be to buy a daffodil at Daffodil Days, a four-day campus event to benefit the American Cancer Society. Sure enough, 83 percent predicted that they would buy at least one flower but that just 56 percent of their peers would.

Five weeks later, during the event, the researchers found that only 43 percent of the same students actually bought a daffodil. In other experiments, researchers have found that people similarly overestimate their willingness to do what’s morally right, whether to give to charity, vote or cooperate with a stranger. In the end, their less generous predictions about peers’ behavior tend to be dead-on accurate — for themselves as well as others in the study.

.

Get a jump on Inflation, buy a Billion Dollar Note

Link

UK Cops target...people with Bling

You may be a crook if you wear flashy jewelry?

Link

In the latest example of innovative policing in Britain, the Gloucestershire force is encouraging members of the public to report people wearing too much 'bling' during the recession.

They are also urging people to shop anyone who drives flash cars or buys expensive items without the apparent means to afford them during the credit crunch.

The campaign, run with Crimestoppers, was launched by the force today under the title 'Too Much Bling? Give Us a Ring' with the aim of cracking down on those who live a lavish lifestyle on the profits of crime

College Students the next Tax Target, think VANDY!!

Hey Karl Dean and the Metro Council, you are missing a GREAT opportunity. Tax the Vandy Students...and Belmont...and Fisk...and Trevecca...and Lipscomb...oh, just think of the possibilities. We could reduce our property taxes to zip!!

Link

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The mayor of Providence wants to slap a $150-per-semester tax on the 25,000 full-time students at Brown University and three other private colleges in the city, saying they use resources and should help ease the burden on struggling taxpayers.

Mayor David Cicilline (sis-ah-LEEN-ee) said the fee would raise between $6 million and $8 million a year for the city, which is facing a $17 million deficit.
If enacted, it would apparently be the first time a U.S. city has directly taxed students just for being enrolled.

Wash State starts ball rolling on Newspaper bailout

Link

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Chris Gregoire has approved a tax break for the state's troubled newspaper industry.

The new law gives newspaper printers and publishers a 40 percent cut in the state's main business tax. The discounted rate mirrors breaks given in years past to the Boeing Co. and the timber industry.

Great Moments in Political Hypocrisy

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As he takes political heat for blocking a push to lower county sales taxes, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is in hot water for a more personal tax issue:

He owes Uncle Sam nearly $12,000 for unpaid income taxes, recently filed records show.

The Internal Revenue Service slapped a $11,668.10 lien on Stroger and his wife earlier this year. The Strogers have yet to fully pay that debt, meaning the federal government could hold up a sale of the Strogers' house or other property if payment terms aren't reached.

ABC News Reports on John Murtha's Airport

Streets of London 1903, lots of horsepower

HT: Maggie's Farm

More Milton Friedman videos: Phil Donohue Show

Link

Betting on the Next Supreme Court Justice

The ladies, lead by Sotomayer and Kagan, are favorites.

Link

The Rebel

PublicRecordsTracker.com: FOIA Mgt for Govts

Link HT: Zillman

Public Records Tracker powered by Microsoft Dynamics CRM makes it easy for state, local, and federal government organizations to track, organize, and automate their responses to public records requests (both FOIA and state PRA requests.) Public Records Tracker is 100% web-based so there's no need to download or install any software. Also, Public Records Tracker generates the key reports required for FOIA annual reporting compliance. In short, Public Records Tracker is all you need to manage public records requests.

NY Court says GPS requires Warrant, Hallelujah

In the last few days the Wisconsin State Supreme Court said that cops don't have to have a warrant to attach a GPS device to your car. This was a stunning court approved invasion of privacy.

A NY State Appeals Court thankfully rules that cops must have a warrant.

Link

The New York State Court of Appeals yesterday disagreed with Wisconsin's second-highest court in ruling that police may not use Global Position System (GPS) tracking devices without a warrant. A divided New York court found that the state police violated the law when officers placed a device known as Q-Ball on the van belonging to Scott C. Weaver on the morning of December 21, 2005. This device wirelessly transmitted an up-to-the-minute history of the vehicle's every move over the course of sixty-five days. Police never obtained a warrant for the surveillance, but the evidence obtained was used -- along with the testimony of a witness -- to convict Weaver of participating in a K-Mart burglary.

In evaluating the legal situation, the New York court -- like its Wisconsin counterpart -- turned to US v. Knotts, a 1983 US Supreme Court case involving a modest beeper-like transmitter. The New York judges departed from the reading of the Wisconsin judges by distinguishing the powerful capabilities of modern surveillance.

Tracking Worldwide Marine Traffic: Marinetraffic.com

Link

The system is based on AIS (Automatic Identification System). As from December 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all vessels over 299GT to carry an AIS transponder on board, which transmits their position, speed and course, among some other static information, such as vessel’s name, dimensions and voyage details. 

$440 mil for printing pages that are then thrown OUT

Link

The report, which is based on a survey of 380 federal employees, found that the government spends nearly $1.3 billion annually on printing. Of that, about $440 million -- more than four times the amount President Obama recently asked agency managers collectively to eliminate from their administrative budgets -- is spent on pages that don't need to be printed, the survey found.

NY State Senator arrested for assaulting Photographer

Link

A New York state senator has been charged with a felony and stripped of his legislative leadership positions after being arrested for assaulting a New York Post photographer on Friday.

Sen. Kevin S. Parker (D) was arraigned on Saturday in the Brooklyn incident, but did not enter a plea. His attorney said he will plead not guilty.

New York Post photographer William C. Lopez said he took a picture of Parker at Parker's mother's home. The Post was preparing a story on the apparent foreclosure of a home owned by Parker. The New York Daily News reported that Parker came out of the houseand came toward the photographer. When Lopez retreated to his car, Parker allegedly tried to pull open the door and take his camera. The photographer said there was damage to his car and more than $1,000 of damage to his camera.

This is belt tightening? Avg Federal worker up $3k

Link

President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.

At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.

Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

Hugo Chavez launches the "penis" phone

Link

"This telephone will be the biggest seller not only in Venezuela but the world. Whoever doesn't have a Vergatario is nothing."

He even telephoned his mother during the launch ceremony. But critics have described the choice of name given to the phone as vulgar and in bad taste.

Haley Barbour vetoed Eminent Domain Reform for THIS?

Haley Barbour vetoed Eminent Domain reform because, as he explicitly stated, it would hamper his ability to TAKE PRIVATE PROPERTY from Citizens so he could give it to large multinational corporations via corporate welfare and REPUBLICANS wonder why they are losing elections???

Barack Obama has just used MY Government and YOURS to take billions of auto company equity and turn it over to a favored Democratic special interest group, the unions and they wonder why thousands of Teapartiers protest Obama???

What the hell is going on???? 

Link

But none of that mattered to Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who promptly vetoed the bill, claiming it would cripple his ability to lure large corporations into the state. As Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, admitted in his veto statement, had he not promised Toyota that he would use eminent domain to secure a piece of contested land for its Blue Springs facility, "Toyota would have broken off negotiations with us and chosen one of the other states competing with us for the project."

That sob story may be true, but it still does nothing to justify the state's forcible seizure of private property for the benefit a rich and powerful corporation. Toyota won't be building bridges or roads or waterways or any other legitimate public project that might permit the use (or threat) of eminent domain. It wants to build a plant to manufacture cars and then sell them for a profit. That's not a legitimate public use. If Toyota—or any other corporation—wants a particular piece of land, it should either pony up the market price or find somewhere else to settle. By the same token, if Barbour wants to attract business to his state, he might try pushing for lower corporate taxes or for any number of other pro-business enticements that don't involve stripping citizens of their fundamental rights.

Albuquerque TeaPartiers Prep for Obama Visit

Link

US Forces in Iraq using iPhones/iPods

Link

The equipment being used – described by the US Army as ideal for 21st-century warfare – was an Apple iPod Touch. In a matter of minutes the soldier had established through words and images that the two men were not considered to be serious threats and detaining them was unnecessary.

Apple's iPods and iPhones, symbols of a modern urban lifestyle, are now in use in a very different setting – the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan. They are, say the US forces, ideal for the age of "network centric warfare", relatively easy to use, safe with secure software, and far cheaper than manufacturing a military version.

Bredesen announces Vouchers for Daycare

Link

Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Tennessee Department of Human Services announced the creation of a time-limited child care scholarship program for low-income, working families through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). Providers at all licensed child care centers and homes across Tennessee are eligible to participate in this one-time, $42 million program.

“This scholarship program is designed to help working families provide their children safe, quality child care,” said Governor Phil Bredesen. “The Department of Human Services has created an excellent program to use our valuable child care Recovery Act dollars to reach as many eligible families as quickly as possible.”

Letters are arriving in the mailboxes of all 5,100 licensed child care providers in Tennessee and area Boys & Girls Clubs. The child care agencies will identify families that are not eligible for existing child care assistance programs and have the greatest need to participate in the scholarship program. Providers will have to submit an application and supporting documentation for currently enrolled children or accept newly enrolled children into their programs. They can begin signing up children starting this week.

Govt spending now 40% of GDP

Fed spending is about 28% of GDP and State and Local is about 12% of GDP.

Link

Hate Crime laws Hate the 1st Amendment

"Hate crime" laws are preposterous encroachments on free speech and an insult to the whole concept of blind justice and equal treatment. And the hits just keep on coming. 

Now Maryland becomes the first State to say the homeless are a special class of people who must be protected from.....home owners?

Link

Maryland became the first state Thursday to cover homeless people in its hate crimes law.

Under the law, signed by Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, an attack can result in a harsher penalty if evidence shows the attacker acted because the victim was homeless. The Maryland law also covers race, religious belief, national origin, disability, gender and sexual orientation.

"This is a very symbolic and practical step in addressing violence against homeless people," says Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Similar bills are being considered in Washington, D.C., and California.

A few states have passed related measures. In 2006, Maine allowed judges to impose harsher sentences for crimes against the homeless. Last year, Alaska added them to its vulnerable-victims law, which allows for increased penalties.

The FBI tracks hate crimes, but because the homeless are not a protected class, it has no figures for attacks on them.

Students of American Liberty Protest Traffic Cameras

Link

Mike McGinn doesn't want traffic cameras to be installed anywhere, especially in his hometown of Kingsport.

"I don't want them in Kingsport, I want to fight it wherever it's at," McGinn said. "This does not improve safety. It improves the financial bottom line (of the city)."

He also believes it infringes upon the constitutional right of all citizens. McGinn traveled from Kingsport, where a traffic camera system has recently been installed, to take part in a rally to protest Jonesborough's Redflex traffic camera system on Saturday.

The rally was held by the Students of American Liberty, East Tennessee State University's pro-Constitution group, in front of town hall. From 10 a.m. until 7 p.m., many people showed up to sign petitions urging Jonesborough's Board of Mayor and Aldermen to take down the traffic camera system.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day - barats and bereta

If Big Oil Gouged like Big Govt Post Office

Why are Govt monopolies exempt from price gouging charges?

Big Govt education has a similar track record.

Link

When gas prices rose last summer, Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-MI) introduced "The Federal Price Gouging Prevention Act," which would make it a crime to "sell crude oil or gasoline at a price that is unconscionably excessive." Shouldn't we now investigate "unconscionably excessive stamp prices"? Monopoly has its privileges.

Jackson TN Govt Utility not making a profit

and taxpayers will eventually have to pick up the financial pieces...

Link

But energy authority officials have spent $65.6 million to build the operation center and install network lines and subscriber connections for the system that provides a fiber-to-the-home network throughout Jackson.

During its five years in operation, the utility's telecom division has lost $18.8 million as of Feb. 28 and its long-term debt has climbed to almost $80 million.

Some, including City Councilman Frank Neudecker, fear the authority's telecom debt eventually will fall on city residents to repay through tax increases. In addition, at least one local business owner believes the government-owned utility should not be allowed to compete against privately held companies for telecommunications customers.

Administration official says forget Chrysler money payback

Link

The reality is that much of the money loaned to Chrylser before and during its bankruptcy process won’t be recovered, said an administration official, speaking for the Auto Task Force, which is a joint effort of the White House and Treasury. (We tried to get the official to speak for attribution, but the official declined.) The face value of the $4 billion loan approved by the Bush administration will be by and large written off during the bankruptcy process, according to the official and Chrysler’s bankruptcy filings. The administration has also pledged to give Chrysler up to $3 billion to keep the company afloat during restructuring.

So that’s about $7 billion gone right there. The administration will do what it can to recover a portion of that money, said the official. A “loss-sharing agreement” between Chrylser and the administration will mean “some” of the $4 billion will be recovered. And the Treasury will get an eight percent stake in the Fiat-Chrysler alliance when it emerges from bankruptcy, along with warrants in the company, in exchange for the aid.

Postal Rates UP to 44 cents on Monday

Happy Government Monopoly Day

Link

Cop takes pic of citizen he asked not to take pics

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No less than 5x per week, Muni is my chariot. It brings me to-and-fro, from home to work, and vice-versa. This past Monday I saw four Fare Inspectors huddled at the end of my outbound platform. I thought it made for a compelling shot, amongst the incoming LRV’s and fellow passengers, so I aimed my camera in their general direction and started firing.

Before I could get the 1st shot off, Fare Inspector #32 started marching towards me, hands in the air, yelling at me to “STOP TAKING PICTURES!!” So I put away camera, walked towards him and answered his statement with a question. I asked him if he could site me the specific Muni code that prohibited a Translink Card carrying passenger from taking pictures of Muni Personal on Muni Property. He could not. Instead he responded that I “needed his permission” and demanded to see my “credentials” and the pictures on my camera. He added that in fact, if I was unwilling to turn over possession of my camera to him he would seize my camera and have me arrested.

Get ready to be fingerprinted for TRAFFIC CITATIONS!

This Bill authorizes fingerprints to be taken even if it is just a traffic citation. It has passed the House and is on the CONSENT calendar for the Senate??? meaning they don't consider this bill to be more important that establishing State Leaf Day!!!

Our Freedoms frittered away!! 

Link

This bill authorizes, in regard to the issuance of a citation in lieu of arrest for violating a law, ordinance, or traffic violation, the affixing of the person’s fingerprint to the citation instead of or in addition to the person’s signature. Furthermore, this bill authorizes the courts of this state to implement procedures for the use of electronic fingerprint captures in the signing of pleadings, court orders, judgment orders, affidavits of complaint, arrest warrants, a mittimus or other court documents.

Deficits Are Future Taxes

HT: Division of Labor

Report: “Army Surveillance of Civilians” (1972)

Link

Prompted by Capt. Christopher Pyle’s 1970 revelations of U.S. Army surveillance; the Tatum v Laird case, which petitioned “the courts to enjoin the army from the collection, distribution, storage of information on lawful political activities of persons unassociated with the armed forces”; and Morton Kondrache’s 1972 Chicago Sun-Times reporting, the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights [1] released U.S. Army Surveillance of Civilians: A Documentary Analysis (1972, 92d Congress, 2d session). 

The Subcommittee (1972:44) credits Kondrache with breaking the story regarding the Continental Army Command’s (CONARC 1955-1973) “computerized and non-computerized files” in which the Subcommittee (1974: v) discovered “enormity in data collection” in the surveillance of professors, students, housewives, civil rights workers, and anti-war and political activists.[2] In its Documentary Analysis, the Subcommittee wrote: 

The absence of civilian control over this surveillance prior to 1970 has already been established. This report proves an absence of central military control as well. Each major data bank developed independent of others in a milieu which showed little concern for the values of privacy, freedom, efficiency, or economy (1972:97). 

In addition to the Subcommittee’s (1972:44, 97) unearthing of an extensive, decades-long intelligence-collection and information-sharing program conducted by CONARC and its “subordinate continental armies and their constituent elements,” most remarkable are the revelations of the Army’s perceptions of their domestic mission and “vacuum cleaner” approach to intelligence-gathering and surveillance:

Find Telecommuting Jobs

Link  HT: Marcus Zillman  

Our Mission: To be the best, most respected, "go to" site for telecommuting, freelance, and online jobs!

FlexJobs not only walks the walk and talks the talk (our staff all work from home), but we also spread the love to help others do the same! Our site serves up only the "best of the best", hand-screened, legitimate job opportunities for our users.

Anyone who's ever looked for a work from home or telecommute job knows how much junk is out there, and it can take seemingly endless -- and frustrating -- hours to sort through which ones are just scams, ads, or or too-good-to-be-true business opportunities and which ones are really great jobs. So let our trained staff do the extensive, painstaking, and ever-important (due to aggressive online job scams and frauds) research for you!

BBC: Funny voiceovers of animal videos

Only fireable offense approved by Teacher Unions

Link

Seventy veteran educators in the Detroit Public Schools may lose their jobs in the next month because they’ve fallen behind in the payment of their union dues, according to a newsletter published by their teachers’ union.

The following was written by Mark O’Keefe, executive vice president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers:

“We are in the unfortunate position of having to notify seventy teachers that they may be terminated for nonpayment of union dues. Paying union dues, or alternatively agency shop fees, is a condition of your employment.

“When members do not fulfill their responsibility to pay their dues, we are in an unfortunate position. We have to notify the district that employment will be terminated in 35 days if the delinquent dues are not paid.”

Wow. Is this proof that the primary purpose of public schools is NOT to educate the children?

TN Officials may NOT vote on Contracts where they

have a direct financial interest.

TCA 12-4-101. Personal interest of officers prohibited. —

(a)  (1)  It is unlawful for any officer, committee member, director, or other person whose duty it is to vote for, let out, overlook, or in any manner to superintend any work or any contract in which any municipal corporation, county, state, development district, utility district, human resource agency, or other political subdivision created by statute shall or may be interested, to be directly interested in any such contract. “Directly interested” means any contract with the official personally or with any business in which the official is the sole proprietor, a partner, or the person having the controlling interest. “Controlling interest” includes the individual with the ownership or control of the largest number of outstanding shares owned by any single individual or corporation. The provisions of this subdivision (a)(1) shall not be construed to prohibit any officer, committeeperson, director, or any person, other than a member of a local governing body of a county or municipality, from voting on the budget, appropriation resolution, or tax rate resolution, or amendments thereto, unless the vote is on a specific amendment to the budget or a specific appropriation or resolution in which such person is directly interested.

     (2)  (A)  The provisions of subdivision (a)(1) shall also apply to a member of the board of directors of any not-for-profit corporation authorized by the laws of Tennessee to act for the benefit or on behalf of any one (1) or more counties, cities, towns and local governments pursuant to the provisions of title 7, chapter 54 or 58.

Obama Housing Nominee: Huge open records violation fine

Link

The documents that Ronald Sims' office was found to have kept from the public when he served as King County executive included information about cheaper alternatives to the $430 million Seattle Seahawks stadium, which was built in 2002, according to a Washington Times review of the court records.

Washington's highest court ruled in January that the withheld documents would have allowed voters in a referendum to challenge "the veracity" of King County's request for $300 million in public bonds for the project. The justices found the actions of Mr. Sims' office to be so "egregious" that they scrapped a lower court's order of a $123,780 fine - the largest ever assessed in a public records case - and recommended that the penalty be increased to as much as $825,000.

Mr. Obama nominated Mr. Sims as the top deputy at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just three weeks after the court's ruling, which harshly and repeatedly criticized Mr. Sims' office for its conduct during a 12-year legal fight.

If confirmed, Mr. Sims would help manage billions of federal dollars set aside for building, maintaining and operating public housing inside a government agency with a history of misspending and corruption. A Senate committee last week forwarded Mr. Sims' nomination to the full Senate without asking the nominee a single question.

Hard Drive sold on eBay had secret missle plans

And some want the government to "protect" our healthcare information.

Link

Highly sensitive details of a US military missile air defence system were found on a second-hand hard drive bought on eBay.

The test launch procedures were found on a hard disk for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) ground to air missile defence system, used to shoot down Scud missiles in Iraq.

The disk also contained security policies, blueprints of facilities and personal information on employees including social security numbers, belonging to technology company Lockheed Martin - who designed and built the system.

Ins Co Lobbying Fed Govt for past due payment

An Insurance company hired a lobbyist to punish Argentina because they were owed $5,000?? I doubt that Thomas Jefferson ever considered this to be the proper role of govt.

Link

TIG Insurance has hired the Normandy Group to “[a]ddress non-payment by Government of Argentina of fees owed to TIG Insurance Company. Seek to put restrictive language in Foreign Operations Appropriations Bills re: US assistance to Argentina.” The fees paid are less than $5,000, so it doesn’t seem like a lot of lobbying went on, but the list of lobbyists has a few revolvers on it.

Tennessee Legislative Map Resources

County Commission and Voter Precinct Maps
Map of State Legislative/Congressional Districts
National Atlas Congressional District Maps
County Highway Maps
City Highway Maps
Tennessee Census Tract Maps

County Election Commissions

Tennessee Property Tax Maps and Owner Information

Here is the Statewide GIS system  covering all small counties and most large counties. You can look up properties by address or owner name. The counties that are not covered by the Statewide GIS are linked individually below along with other jurisdictions that have their own mapping system.

HERE is a link to the Statewide assessment data (owners/addresses) without the maps.

Google Maps and Live Maps are also great resources. The street view on Google maps and the Bird's Eye view on Live Maps both provide extraordinarily detailed perspectives on any piece of property.

Anderson County
City of Oak Ridge
City of Clinton
Metro Nashville & Davidson County
Metro Nashville Crime Mapping
City of Dyersburg
Franklin County
Hamilton County
City of Chattanooga
Hardeman County
Jefferson County
Knox County
City of Knoxville
Lincoln County
Maury County
McMinn County
City of Clarksville & Montgomery County
Putnam County
City of Cookeville Zoning
Roane County
Rutherford County
City of Murfreesboro
City of Murfreesboro Water & Sewer
Sevier County
City of Memphis & Shelby County Planning
Sumner County
Tipton County
Williamson County
City of Brentwood
City of Lebanon
Wilson County
City of Mt. Juliet

Meet the 1,400 jobless NY teachers still getting paid

Link

It would seem like a pretty good gig: About 1,400 teachers in New York City are receiving full salaries and benefits even though they don't have permanent jobs. Two hundred and five of them have been without full-time work for three years. And they can continue receiving payments indefinitely even if they never secure new positions.

These educators are members of what is called the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR), a program in which unionized teachers are placed when they don't have jobs. They end up there after being displaced by school closings, program cuts, or voluntary transfers. Technically, they work as classroom substitutes, but, when they don't have temporary assignments, they spend their days in school offices, cafeterias, and break rooms. And they are not required to seek full-time positions. "Teach one year, get [displaced], never apply for another job, but, as long as you work as a sub at full salary, you can get tenure at the end of that," says Tim Daly, president of The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a New York-based education advocacy organization that monitors the reserve closely. And some ATR teachers, it seems, are content to stay right where they are. "I'm happy now," one such teacher told TNTP researchers. "I don't have to prep, I don't have to grade tests, I don't have my own class. I don't really have to do anything."

Automatic Gas Tax Hike Bill Taken Off Notice

In this afternoon's House Transportation Committee meeting HB1321 was taken Off Notice by Chairman Harmon meaning it will not be considered again in this session. This is the bill that originally concerned the SandHill Crane specialty license plate but was used as a "caption bill" to propose an automatic gas tax hike. The amendment implementing the gas tax hike was never posted on the legislative web site.

Chairman Harmon reads his statement at 30:10 (move the progress button to that point and click on the Start arrow). It is clear from his statement and Rep. Dean's follow up that a gas tax hike will be back with a vengeance next year.

When husbands and wives knew how to profess their love

Benjmain Rush was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He professed his love for his wife in this poem, written in 1812, on the occasion of their 36th anniversary one year before his death.

To Mrs. Julia Rush from her husband Benjamin Rush, 36 years after their marriage.

When tossed upon the bed of pain
And every healing art was vain,
Whose prayers brought back my life again?
My Julia's.

When shafts of scandal 'round me flew
And ancient friends no longer knew my humble name,
Whose heart was true?
My Julia's. 

When falsehood aimed its poison dart
And treachery pierced my bleeding heart,
Whose friendship did a cure impart?
My Julia's.

When hope was weak and faith was dead
And every earthly joy was fled, 
Whose hand sustained my drooping head?
My Julia's.

When worn by age and sunk in years,
My shadow at full length appears,
Who shall anticipate my cares?
My Julia.

When life's low wick shall feebly blaze 
And weeping children on me gaze,
Who shall assist my prayers and praise?
My Julia.

And when my mortal parts shall lay,
Waiting in hope the final day,
Who shall mourn o'er my sleeping clay?
My Julia. 

And when the stream of time shall end,
And the last trump my grave shall rend,
Who shall with me to heaven ascend?
My Julia.

Anne Bradstreet was an author who lived from 1612-1672.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence.

Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let's so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

Teapartiers want Obama to keep meeting promise

Link

Speaking at a townhall meeting in Arnold, Missouri this past Wednesday, Obama said: "So, you know, when you see -- those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular and you see folks waving tea bags around, let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we're going to stabilize Social Security."

The national leadership team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, one of several organizations that form the grassroots ecosystem of the Tea Party movement, this afternoon faxed a letter to the White House accepting the President's invitation for such a discussion. "The Tea Party movement has grown because millions of Americans believe the government is heading in the wrong direction and their government is not only not listening to them, but ignoring them. We need to have a serious, public discussion of these issues. We are ready to have that discussion with you and look forward to your response," the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition leaders wrote in their letter to Obama.

A Billion+ Dollars piled on Backs of TN Taxpayers

The Bredesen administration is downright giddy at the opportunity of loading up Tennessee taxpayers with record levels of new debt.

This is a perfect opportunity for small government fiscal conservatives, of both parties, to STEP UP and say HELL NO to this unprecedented expansion of forced taxpayer borrowing.

Thanks to Clint Brewer and TCPR for finding and disclosing the memo (see link in article) and putting this info in a single, concise source. Otherwise we, the taxpayers, would not have this information available.  

Link

Senate Bill 2358, sponsored by Sen. Jim Kyle (D-Memphis), and House Bill 2390 by Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley) call for direct general obligation interest-bearing bonds of $701,100,000. The massive bond issue accomplishes a variety of goals according to the attached fiscal note.

• Allocates $350,000,000 to the Tennessee Department of Transportation for construction and maintenance of state highways including extensive bridge repair.
• Sends $210,900,000 to the Department of Finance and Administration for capital outlay and grants to local governments.
• Provides $56,900,000 in grants tied to the Wacker Chemie AG Project in Bradley County.
• Bonds $80,000,000 that the Tennessee Department of Finance & Administration says is to secure credit for road projects that will ultimately be paid for in cash. The $80,000,000 bond approval would then be repealed.
• Repeals six previous bond authorizations with a principal amount totaling $41,285,000.
• Supplies $3,300,000 capital outlay and maintenance for state buildings and grants for local governments.
• Realizes a debt service savings of $600,000 per years.

LibertyGuide.com - Freedom Resources

Link

The goal of LibertyGuide is to provide a comprehensive, easy-to-search index of resources that will help scholars and other intellectuals pursue their interest in the ideas of freedom.

Benefits of LibertyGuide membership

Creating an account will let you use the site to its fullest potential.

• Find intellectuals with an interest in the ideas of a free society
  • by academic discipline
  • by name
  • by location and university (coming soon).
• Explore LibertyGuide's large and growing collection of links:
• academic conferences, lectures, seminars, and other events
• scholarships, fellowships, contests, and other opportunities
• policy centers, academic associations, research centers, and other organizations.
• Let the rest of the community know about you:
  • list your research interests and academic history
  • link to your personal web page
  • upload your resume CV.
• Link your profile to LibertyGuide pages that interest you.
• Discuss events with LibertyGuide members who are interested in attending.

Search 7,000 Classified Ad sites at one time

Link

Jimmy Naifeh reminds Repubs a Tax Hike is up for a vote

Rep. Joe McCord is authorizing a higher hotel/motel tax for Blount County and Speaker Emeritus Naifeh reminds McCord's Republican friends they are voting to increase taxes. The higher tax was approved 76-8. (sorry for the fuzzy video, the compression was set too high)

Chinese Bureaucrats: Smoke for the Greater Good

Link

BEIJING - OFFICIALS in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported on Monday.

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

Property Tax Hike to fund Nashville Convention Center

YES, I will say it again.

Metro Nashville Property owners will have their property taxes hiked to pay for the New Nashville Convention Center.

If it quacks like a property tax hike, and waddles like a property tax hike, its a PROPERTY TAX HIKE dear friends. 

Karl Dean and the Metro Council may call it whatever they like but, as they say, the bottom line is THIS: property taxes will have to go up to pay for the convention center. 

Nate Rau does a good job of analyzing the numbers. We are currently paying THESE EXPENSES with tax money that will be needed for the convention center. Those expenses will not go away and property taxes will have to go UP to provide the money for the convention center.

Link

“I wanted everybody to know that if the convention center is approved, some of those funds, if not all those funds for all those agencies, will disappear. Unfortunately, when the convention center that’s there today was paid off, the previous administration took the funds that came available and spread it all across the budget.”

China has cancelled our credit card? Looks like it

Link

"It would appear, quietly and with deference and politeness, that China has canceled America's credit card," Kirk told the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American group.

"I'm not sure too many people on Capitol Hill realize that this is now happening," he said.

The Republican lawmaker said that China was justified in concerns about returns from finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out by the US government due to the financial crisis.

Kirk said he was the first member of Congress to tour the Bureau of Public Debt, which trades bonds, and was alarmed at how much debt was being bought by the US Federal Reserve due to absence of foreign investors.

"There will come a time where the lack of Chinese participation may have a significant impact," Kirk said.

GovFresh.com - Live feed of Govt web news

Link

GovFresh is a live feed of official news from U.S. Government Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Facebook, Flickr accounts and more, all in one place.

Global Harvesters of Data: Hidden Digital Collections

Click on the Link for all. Below are a few of the harvesters of data, much of which is not available through Google and other search engines.

Link

Global harvesters (other than Web search engines)

 

OAIster

http://www.oaister.org/index.html

Developed at UMichigan (originally in collaboration with U.Illinois). Harvests from over 1000 source collections and has almost 20 million records. Anticipates a number of enhancements including Google-like search, browse by subject, access to duplicates (provides access to all potential duplicates; attempt to discover and remove duplicates during ingest) and automated clustering of subject metadata in the test search interfaces. Discloses deep web resources.

 

BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

(http://base.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/index_english.html)

Developed at the University of Bielefeld. Harvests from over 1000 source collections and has almost 16 million records. Anticipates a number of enhancements including browse function, provision of HTTP and SOAP interfaces and the inclusion of more source collections.

 

NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of These and Dissertations)

http://www.ndltd.org/

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organisation dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations.

 

ScientificCommons 

http://en.scientificcommons.org/about

Developed and hosted at the University of St.Gallen. Has around 13 million records and 6 million author names. Indexes full-text as well as metadata. Uses lexical and statistical tools to analyse metadata and develop keywords. Semantic processing of records to subject areas using Ontologys.

 

Cap and Trade is...a lie

Link

What is “Cap and Trade”?

It is a lie. But not just a lie. It is also theft, socialism, dirt-worship. Big Government, extremism, impoverishment, fantasy and disempowerment.

Cap and Trade is a gargantuan regressive tax and oppressive regulatory scheme of energy rationing. It forces businesses to buy permission slips from a “central authority” to both create and then use energy, a double tax.

Why not just call it an Energy Tax? Because taxes are unpopular. It’s called “Cap and Trade” because “Tax and Regulate” is too honest. It is touted as a free market solution to pollution…if by “free” we mean mandatory and by “market” we mean “government”.

Once businesses are forced to buy these energy-rationing coupons or permission slips to create jobs, those slips will have value, not unlike a liquor license. Although they really have no value in and of themselves, businesses would then be unwilling to repeal this tax and lose their investment. And it would be woven into treaties, making it difficult to ever again regain our sovereignty, thus disempowering Americans.

Why do all this? Well, first, I’ll give you the stated purpose; to lower carbon dioxide levels, the gas you exhale, and therefore lower the Earth’s thermostat by a degree or two.

That is madness. We do not control the weather, despite the God-sized egos in Washington DC.

The very premise of this scheme is dubious at best. It is still doubtful that Global Warming even exists. It is therefore doubtful carbon dioxide causes it. And it is extremely doubtful that this system would even help in any case.

Man-Made Global Warming is not just science fiction–it’s L. Ron Hubbard Jumping-on-Oprah’s-Couch Brand(tm) Science Fiction, wrapped in Weapons-Grade Wishful Thinking, inside an Old-Growth Fantasy Forest.

This is a bottomless financial rat-hole, an infinite money-pit which will not alter the Earth’s temperature one iota. But it will stifle business, kill jobs, raise prices on everything and transfer power and control of our economy to politicians in Washington and UN bureaucrats in New York.

And that is it’s real purpose–the process is the punishment. Transferring control of our economy to bureaucrats is the real purpose of Cap and Trade. It’s all about money, power and control; the Environment is just the hook used to sell it.

In an unguarded moment during the campaign, Obama promised that Cap and Trade would “skyrocket” your power bill.

The Bad News: he was right. The Good News? He’s finally keeping a promise!

Cap and Trade is...a giant economic dagger

Detroit Free Press Editorial: "a giant economic dagger aimed at the nation's heartland"

Thanks

Watching TV may be a luxury you can't afford

Link

It’s amazing the amount you can accomplish when you find an extra 3,285 hours to work on something you enjoy doing rather than vegging in front of the TV. Those hours helped us create a small network of websites and blogs which allowed both of us to quit our jobs and work on them full time a couple of years ago…

To put it into perspective, if you watch an average of 31.5 hours of TV each week (which the average person in the US does) and you value your time at minimum wage of $5.85 an hour, you are spending nearly $800 a month ($798.53) to watch TV. That comes to nearly $10,000 ($9582.30) a year. I would imagine that most people reading this value their time well above minimum wage, so the cost is likely several times that number. When you look at it from that perspective, watching TV is an extremely expensive and financial draining habit to have.

Firing incompetent teachers in Calif? Forget it!!

Teacher unions have condemned millions of students, in California and across the country, to miserable, third world educations. Why does the Democratic party allow this to happen year after year after year after year????? 

Money and political influence, plain and simple. 

Teacher unions are artificial, political creations designed to funnel money into the Democratic party. They and the politicians that support them don't care about education or teachers or taxpayers and certainly not students, they care about power and money, nothing else.

Link

The Times reviewed every case on record in the last 15 years in which a tenured employee was fired by a California school district and formally contested the decision before a review commission: 159 in all (not including about two dozen in which the records were destroyed). The newspaper also examined court and school district records and interviewed scores of people, including principals, teachers, union officials, district administrators, parents and students.

Among the findings:

* Building a case for dismissal is so time-consuming, costly and draining for principals and administrators that many say they don't make the effort except in the most egregious cases. The vast majority of firings stem from blatant misconduct, including sexual abuse, other immoral or illegal behavior, insubordination or repeated violation of rules such as showing up on time.

* Although in general, districts press ahead with only the strongest cases, even these get knocked down more than a third of the time by the specially convened review panels, which have the discretion to restore teachers' jobs even when grounds for dismissal are proved.

* Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can't teach is rare. In 80% of the dismissals that were upheld, classroom performance was not even a factor.

When teaching is at issue, years of effort -- and thousands of dollars -- sometimes go into rehabilitating the teacher as students suffer. Over the three years before he was fired, one struggling math teacher in Stockton was observed 13 times by school officials, failed three year-end evaluations, was offered a more desirable assignment and joined mentoring programs as most of his ninth-grade students flunked his courses.

Swollen Govt Reaction creates mass hysteria

Fox17: Commissioners Kisber and Farr fly to Destin

Link

Kisber and Farr werent the only ones on the plane. They had two other staff members with them.

Tennessees Department of Transportation says just the fuel for the flight to Florida cost about $2,400.

Their other options could have included flying commercial, driving, or doing a video-conference by internet, like Skype.

How quickly can you name all 50 States?

Link

Literature

and lots more at sporcle.com HT: Make use Of

The Whitehouse is Tweeting

Whitehouse Twitter feed

Politicians in their underwear

Link

BERLIN (AFP) — Berliners on the city's main shopping drag, the "Ku'damm", were greeted Thursday with an unusual sight: a giant mocked-up image of Chancellor Angela Merkel in a matching purple bra and knicker set.

The 100-metre-square (1,000-square-foot) image of the half-naked world leader is part of a nationwide advertising campaign for an underwear company aiming to cash in on the success of a "cash-for-clunkers" scheme for old cars.

Punters trading in their old underwear will get a five-euro (seven-dollar) discount on a new pair, the advert promises, under the slogan: "The country needs new undies."

Shouldn't White House Flickr Photos be public domain?

Good question. EFF ponders the licensing of the new Official Whitehouse Flickr Photostream.

Link

So we did a little investigation. As it happens, there is a kind of public domain option on Flickr. Photos in the Flickr streams of other public institution such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress are accompanied by text that reads "No known copyright restrictions," with a link to apage explaining that the photo is either public domain or is owned by an institution that is not exercising control over the image.

The White House should reconsider its licensing approach, and work with Flickr to flag these government works in the same way. This Administration is pioneering the use of the Internet to reach out to citizens — and part of the precedent it should set is a clear recognition that publicly funded government works should be free to the public, without the burden of copyright and licensing restrictions.

THOMAS (Lib of Congress) now offers RSS feeds

Link

VIDEO: "gas" or "tax" or "increase" were NEVER mentioned

The Rural Roads subcomittee of the House Transportation Committee passed a statewide gas tax increase but never mentioned what the bill was about.

HERE is a link to the video of the subcommittee proceedings. It's HB1321, the first bill on the agenda. Move the progess button over to the 5 min mark to get to the start of the committee.

The bill will now go to the full committee.

Vintage Tennessee Postcards

Link

Aussie Politician gets taller via surgery

Link

An Australian politician has gone to extraordinary lengths to be taken seriously by her peers: she has had her legs broken and stretched to become 3in (8cm) taller.

“A lot of young females have insecurities about their weight or their nose; mine was my height,” said Hajnal Ban, 31, a councillor with Logan City council in Queensland.

After nine months of excruciating pain, the councillor became a “normal” 5ft 4in.

Ms Ban was taunted at school and feared that her height would damage her credibility as she entered the legal profession and later went into local politics.

PETA competing with KFC to fund pothole repair

in Chattanooga.

Link

The ante went up Thursday in a battle over chicken-naming rights on city streets.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter Thursday morning to Mayor Ron Littlefield, saying the group would double the amount of a donation the city received from KFC Corp. to fix potholes on city streets.

KFC gave $3,000, and PETA is offering $6,000.

The catch would be that they want to put an evil depiction of KFC founder Col. Harlan Sanders on the road with the tagline, “KFC Tortures Animals,” the group said Thursday.

“We want Chattanooga residents to know what their road repairs really cost,” said Nicole Matthews, PETA spokeswoman. “It’s the lives of around 360 million chickens.”