Friday, July 02, 2010

Oh Canada! All Eyes Down South!

Pension Pulse: Oh Canada! All Eyes Down South!
"Canada's economic recovery, which appeared so strong earlier this year, seems to have hit a rough patch.

The country's gross domestic product was unchanged in April from the month before, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

Economists were expecting 0.2 per cent growth in GDP for the month.

That compared to a 0.6-per-cent GDP expansion in March.

It marked the first time in eight months that the Canadian economy did not expand and comes on the heels of 6.1- per-cent annualized growth in the first quarter of this year, the strongest expansion in more than a decade.

Statistics Canada said there was a 'large decline' in the retail sector in April, and lesser contractions in manufacturing and utilities, which were offset by gains in mining, wholesale, the public sector and construction."

Health overhaul may mean longer ER waits, crowding

Health overhaul may mean longer ER waits, crowding
"– Emergency rooms, the only choice for patients who can't find care elsewhere, may grow even more crowded with longer wait times under the nation's new health law.

That might come as a surprise to those who thought getting 32 million more people covered by health insurance would ease ER crowding.
It would seem these patients would be able to get routine health care by visiting a doctor's office, as most of the insured do.
But it's not that simple."

Thursday, July 01, 2010

AG's Office Knew About Hangar42 Months Ago

G.R. Press: AG's Office Knew About Hangar42 Months Ago [Mackinac Center]
"Attorney General Mike Cox's office knew about concerns regarding the Hangar42 film studio as early as February, according to a story in today's Grand Rapids Press.

Cox, however, did not officially announce an investigation of the film subsidy deal until a day after being called on to do so by Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Director Patrick J. Wright."

The Dodd-Frank Financial Fiasco

John B. Taylor: The Dodd-Frank Financial Fiasco - WSJ.com
"The sheer complexity of the 2,319-page Dodd-Frank financial reform bill is certainly a threat to future economic growth.
But if you sift through the many sections and subsections, you find much more than complexity to worry about.

The main problem with the bill is that it is based on a misdiagnosis of the causes of the financial crisis, which is not surprising since the bill was rolled out before the congressionally mandated Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission finished its diagnosis."

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Spend, Baby, Spend!

Spend, Baby, Spend! - Reason Magazine
"Not long ago, President Barack Obama ordered the creation of a commission that would report back to him with policy recommendations on cutting the federal deficit.
And as great leaders throughout history have proved, the most effective way to tend to any intergenerational crisis is to create a bipartisan commission to study it—but only after midterm elections.

You, the public, are only asked to suspend your disbelief and accept that the president is deeply worried about the deficit, the huge national debt, and the federal spending explosion.
As a candidate, after all, the president assured us that he would scour the budget 'line by line' for any wasteful spending, yet today we've seen the national debt climb to $13 trillion, and federal spending is nearly 25 percent of gross domestic product.
Washington likely will spend $1.56 trillion more than it took in last year—putting the Bush administration to shame."

National debt soars to highest level since WWII

National debt soars to highest level since WWII - On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election - USATODAY.com
"The federal debt will represent 62% of the nation's economy by the end of this year, the highest percentage since just after World War II, according to a long-term budget outlook released today by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office."

And the future seemed great then!

Does it seem great today?

Firing Public Union Workers Creates Jobs

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Firing Public Union Workers Creates Jobs
"Public unions in New Haven, Connecticut have not yet gotten the message that business-as-usual no longer flies.

I am quite happy with that because the city responded by dumping public workers and privatizing services, and that is exactly what needs to happen.

Firing public union workers actually creates jobs."

check it out!

2nd man killed in alleged South Knox County burglary

2nd man killed in alleged South Knox County burglary ID'd » Knoxville News Sentinel
"Both of the men killed during an alleged South Knox County home burglary Sunday night had criminal records, according to the Knox County Sheriff's Office."

Our world is a better place!

Police Reopen Sex Abuse Case Against Al Gore KPTV Portland

Police Reopen Sex Abuse Case Against Al Gore - Your Vote News Story - KPTV Portland
"Portland police have reopened the case regarding sex abuse allegations made in 2006 against former Vice President Al Gore."

Seems to me it started back with this thug-kiss....

Jobs Market Barely Budges in June as Hiring Stays Weak

Jobs Market Barely Budges in June as Hiring Stays Weak - CNBC
"It also supported fears that the short and tepid recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s was fizzling.

'There is really no way to characterize this number other than disappointing,'"

Wow!

Spending $trillions dollars on political pork and attacking business owners with new taxes and regulations didn't increase employees!

Who'd of guessed?

Where Did the Tea-Party Anger Come From?

Works and Days » Where Did the Tea-Party Anger Come From?
"Why is the Angry Public so Angry?
I think we all know why the Tea Party movement arose—and why even the polls do not quite reflect the growing generic anger at incumbents in general, and our elites in particular.

There is a growing sense that government is what I would call a new sort of Versailles—a vast cadre of royal state and federal workers that apparently assumes immunity from the laws of economics that affect everyone else."

FBI: Spies Hid Secret Messages on Public Websites

FBI: Spies Hid Secret Messages on Public Websites Danger Room Wired.com
"Steganography is simultaneously one of the oldest methods for secret communications, and one of the more advanced.

The process dates back to the fifth century B.C., when the Greek tyrant Histiaeus shaved the head of one of his servants, tattooed a message on his head, and waited for his hair to grow back before sending the messenger out.

When the courier arrived, his head was shaved and the missive was read, giving information about upcoming Persian attacks."

VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV

VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV - CNN.com
"A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV."

This is "free" government healthcare.......

Read this thread!

Lucianne.com News Forum - Thread
Birthers,’ Polls and Public Ignorance
New York Times, by Staff

There’s a new poll out, from Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes, showing that 24 percent of Americans don’t think that Barack Obama was born in the United States.
On MSNBC last night, Chris Hayes asked me about it, and I tried to suggest that polls like this should be taken with a large grain of salt — both because Americans will happily express all kinds of outlandish opinions to a pollster without necessarily meaning much by them (does almost half the public really believe in U.F.O.s

Comments:
Sorry Ladies...what goes around, comes around. How many believed some of these falsehoods promulgated by the MSM and other leftists: Bill Clinton was impeached because he had sex with an intern.
GWB lied about Saddam's WMD. 9/11 was an inside job.
0bama was a Constitutional Law Professor.
The SCOTUS 'selected' GWB to be president etc....
Sorry, but even if 0bama was born in America, he is NOT American."

Read the rest of these insightful responses!

Democrats add teacher money to war funding bill

Democrats add teacher money to war funding bill - Yahoo! News

"House Democrats, who are trying to pass a long-stalled war funding bill this week, have attached $10 billion to help local school districts avoid teacher layoffs when schools reopen."

Is it about time we realized just who the teacher unions really care about?

have you ever wondered why all those Disney kids are so cute and perky?

Couple o' kids vids - Maggie's Farm
"I love behind-the-scenes exposés, as I’m sure you do.

For example, have you ever wondered why all those Disney kids are so cute and perky?

Wonder no more."

Must see video!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Sheryl Crow: Tea Partiers Are Too ‘Uneducated’ to ‘Understand What’s Happening on Wall Street’

Sheryl Crow: Tea Partiers Are Too ‘Uneducated’ to ‘Understand What’s Happening on Wall Street’ NewsBusters.org
"Pop-star and courageous anti-toilet-paper crusader Sheryl Crow apparently has a new political concern: Tea Partiers.
The country crooner told CBS journalist Katie Couric that Tea Party members are uneducated, angry and potentially dangerous in an interview with Glamour magazine this June."

Ludacris dazzles 11,000 at Summer Celebration

Review: Ludacris dazzles 11,000 at Summer Celebration MLive.com
"One thing is for sure.
Summer Celebration had the right idea by bringing in Ludacris.
Rap hasn’t been as commonplace at the main stage shows in the past as other genres, and they would do well to include more of it next year."

Well, 11,000 on a Monday night is a great turnout.

It looks like having a "black night" at MSC does bring out the fans.

How many were African americans?

Wouldn't that be "inclusive"?

The Public Pension Crisis

The Way We Live Now - The Public Pension Crisis - NYTimes.com
"Ever since theWall Street crash, there has been a bull market in Google hits for “public pensions” and “crisis.”

Horror stories abound, like the one in Yonkers, where policemen in their 40s are retiring on $100,000 pensions (more than their top salaries), or in California, where payments to Calpers, the biggest state pension fund, have soared while financing for higher education has been cut.
Then there is New York City, where annual pension contributions (up sixfold in a decade) would be enough to finance entire new police and fire departments."

It is coming to EVERY community in our country!

The Cost of Unions

The Cost of Unions - Veronique de Rugy - The Corner on National Review Online
"The Cost of Unions [Veronique de Rugy]

Here is interesting some data:
Unionized public sector workers have much higher average wages and benefits than nonunionized public sector workers.

Bureau of Labor Statistics data in Table 2 show that union members have a 31-percent advantage in wages and a 68-percent advantage in benefits.

This line bears repeating: 'Union members have a 31-percent advantage in wages and a 68-percent advantage in benefits.'

That's from Chris Edwards' work on Public Sector Unions here.
He adds that even when one controls for the fact that states with generally higher wages tend to be more unionized, public-sector unions increase average pay levels by roughly 10 percent.

This information is interesting in the context of the following chart.

It shows that in 2009, for the first time ever, more public-sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private-sector employees (7.4 million) despite there being five times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.

This helps explain some of the disparities between public- and private-sector compensation."

AdMan | Advertising that Sells

AdMan Advertising that Sells: "How to write a blog that sells"

Sex complaint against Gore is detailed, credible

Sex complaint against Gore is detailed, credible Washington Examiner
"Finally she got away. Later, she talked to friends, liberals like herself, who advised against telling police.
One asked her 'to just suck it up; otherwise, the world's going to be destroyed from global warming.'"

Airline Food Fails To Meet Health Standards

Airline Food Fails To Meet Health Standards - wcbstv.com
"It turns out, however, the biggest safety issue you face while flying could be the food served by the airlines."

They serve food on airlines?

Who'd have guessed?

Inside the Black Panther case

ADAMS: Inside the Black Panther case - Washington Times

On the day President Obama was elected, armed men wearing the black berets and jackboots of the New Black Panther Party were stationed at the entrance to a polling place in Philadelphia.
They brandished a weapon and intimidated voters and poll watchers.
After the election, the Justice Department brought a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and those armed thugs.

I and other Justice attorneys diligently pursued the case and obtained an entry of default after the defendants ignored the charges.
Before a final judgment could be entered in May 2009, our superiors ordered us to dismiss the case.

The New Black Panther case was the simplest and most obvious violation of federal law I saw in my Justice Department career.
Because of the corrupt nature of the dismissal, statements falsely characterizing the case and, most of all, indefensible orders for the career attorneys not to comply with lawful subpoenas investigating the dismissal, this month I resigned my position as a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney.

The federal voter-intimidation statutes we used against the New Black Panthers were enacted because America never realized genuine racial equality in elections.
Threats of violence characterized elections from the end of the Civil War until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

Before the Voting Rights Act, blacks seeking the right to vote, and those aiding them, were victims of violence and intimidation.
But unlike the Southern legal system, Southern violence did not discriminate.
Black voters were slain, as were the white champions of their cause.
Some of the bodies were tossed into bogs and in one case in Philadelphia, Miss., they were buried together in an earthen dam.

Based on my firsthand experiences, I believe the dismissal of the Black Panther case was motivated by a lawless hostility toward equal enforcement of the law.
Others still within the department share my assessment.
The department abetted wrongdoers and abandoned law-abiding citizens victimized by the New Black Panthers.
The dismissal raises serious questions about the department's enforcement neutrality in upcoming midterm elections and the subsequent 2012 presidential election.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the dismissal and the DOJ's skewed enforcement priorities. Attorneys who brought the case are under subpoena to testify, but the department ordered us to ignore the subpoena, lawlessly placing us in an unacceptable legal limbo.

And the democrooks tell us there is no voter fraud.
And their willing enablers in the MSM parrot the lie.


Their evil plan is simple:
1. Cover up EVERY case of voter fraud, even if it's GOPers cheating.(that's because democrook cheating is WAAAY more prevalent)

2. When voter fraud is reported by some renegade medium, bury it, deny it, make fun of the accusation.

3. When there is video, audio and dozens of eye witnesses, send it to Obama's "justice department" and, after the outrage has quieted, dismiss the case, order attorneys to illegally ignore subpoenas and deem it never to have happened.

4. Fully expect the MSM to actively bury the facts.

This is our Obama-nation folks.

Will Congress Kill Volunteer Fire Departments?

Will Congress Kill Volunteer Fire Departments? - HUMAN EVENTS
"House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D.-S.C.) wants to include the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act as part of the war supplemental coming before the House this week.

The bill forces state and local governments to collectively bargain with police, firefighters and emergency workers.

Its critics say it would compel volunteer firefighters to join unions, threatening the survival of America's nearly 26,000 volunteer fire departments."

Fannie-Freddie Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $1 Trillion

Fannie-Freddie Bailout Could Cost Taxpayers $1 Trillion - CNBC
"For American taxpayers, now on the hook for some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, that amount could be just the tip of the iceberg.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion.

And if housing prices fall further, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion."

Monday, June 28, 2010

BYRON YORK: Sex complaint against Gore is detailed, credible

BYRON YORK: Sex complaint against Gore is detailed, credible; Could this be Gore’s real ‘Inconvenie…

BYRON YORK: Sex complaint against Gore is detailed, credible; Could this be Gore’s real ‘Inconvenient Truth’?

Anybody else notice that this came out right after Gore started criticizing the White House over the oil spill?

Plus, condoms in the hotel “treat box?”
Was that an “intimacy kit?”
What kind of hotel was this? . . . .
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 4:53 pm"

CARPE DIEM: MCAT Scores for Medical Students by Gender

CARPE DIEM: MCAT Scores for Medical Students by Gender
"In the most recent year of 2009, men scored higher on average by 1.50 points (31.6 men vs. 30.1 women), which is a statistically significant difference"

The Jones Act: Lost at sea

The Jones Act: Lost at sea - Juneau Empire
"Who would have thought the Gulf oil spill would make a 90-year-old law newsworthy?

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, also known as the Jones Act, was meant to save the merchant marine industry by requiring ships that plied American waters be built in the United States and manned by American crews.

After the oil started gushing, lawmakers started demanding that the government waive the law to speed international assistance for the cleanup.

What the White House can't waive, however, is the ongoing damage caused by the Jones Act.

The policies it embodies are a remnant of a worldview that contributed to economic collapse and the Great Depression."

CARPE DIEM: Quote of the Day

CARPE DIEM: Quote of the Day
"'Hillsdale College is one of the last true meritocracies.
There's no place on its application for racial identity, and it doesn't know the racial make-up of its student body until it shows up on campus in the fall.

'The purpose of education is not diversity,' Hillsdale President Larry Arnn says.

'It's truth.''

~Detroit News"