>Rampant and blatant pension padding and multiple pensions
Dear Trenton Dwellers,
I can’t afford you any more. I certainly can’t afford to pay all those “pensions” you’ve been voting yourself. I’m old enough to remember the original pension debate when everyone if the state gooferment whined that the private sector got pensions and they should to. And, what a plum they got.
NOW, everyone in the private sector has a 401k.
Why not Trenton?
an over taxed voter
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Posted by reinkefj
Funny how you can find people by “Find Friends”, but you can’t add them to a list or suggest them to others. I suspect that the various databases in use by facebook are not updated very frequently.
Hmm, maybe an “employment opportunity” for a FOWG from the days when “directories” were differentiated from “databases”.
You also can’t get a list of your “friends”. Is that to conceal lost data?
Fascinating!
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Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://bentoncrane.net/2008/09/19/avego-the-new-slugging/
Avego–The New Slugging
September 19th, 2008
*** begin quote ***
I recently moved to the Washington DC area. I experimented with various different ways of commuting. I tried driving, riding the bus, and taking a train. With some help from the locals, however, I found that slugging is my ideal way to commute.
Slugging is a funny blend of carpooling and hitch-hiking. It came about over 20 years ago as a result of northern Virginia’s HOV-3 lanes. The I-95 freeway has the typical Northbound and Southbound lanes, but unlike most other freeway systems it has a third artery down the middle.
*** end quote ***
Aren’t people smart? And, without a gooferment centralize planner to ‘processize’ the process! How could that ever be?
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Leave a Comment » | Productivity | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
===========================================================
CARLA HOWELL’S OP-ED COLUMN FOR THE SUNDAY BOSTON GLOBE
===========================================================
Below is Carla Howell’s final draft of her Op-Ed Column for the Sunday,
September 21 edition of the Boston Globe:
Why Haven’t You Been Told These Things About Ballot Question 1?
by Carla Howell
Why are 1,350,000 Massachusetts voters already planning to vote YES on
Question 1 to end the state income tax?
First let’s look at what happens if you join those YES voters – and what
happens if you don’t.
If you vote YES, we end the state income tax, let 3.4 million workers
get back an average of $3,700 each, every year, and roll back annual
state government spending to $34.7 billion.
If you vote NO, we keep the state income tax, require those workers to
keep paying an average of $3,700 each every year, and maintain state
government spending at $47.3 billion.
Which choice, which vote is better for the 3.4 million workers and
taxpayers of Massachusetts? Let’s look at some key Massachusetts
government numbers.
The $28.2 billion “budget” figure tossed around is only part of it –
called the Statutory Budget. There are three other parts of the complete
budget: NON-Budgeted Spending, Capital Spending, and Expendable Trust
Spending(1). These four budgets come to $47.3 billion in state
government spending for this year.
Massachusetts cities and towns are spending $27+ billion(2) this year.
That totals $74.3 billion in Massachusetts government spending. Subtract
$5 billion in state funds given to cities and towns (to avoid double
counting) and subtract another $12.6 billion from the state income tax.
What’s left? $56.7 billion for city, town and state governments AFTER we
end the income tax – way more than needed to fund every essential
government service.
Government waste is one reason why so many voters already plan to vote
YES on Question 1. Last April, Fabrizio Surveys asked Massachusetts
voters this question: “How many cents out of every dollar you pay in
state taxes would you say is wasted by the state government?” Their
average estimate was “41 cents.”
Ending the income tax will cut state spending by just 27%, leaving
billions of dollars in state government waste still to cut – without
even touching the waste in local government spending.
There’s one more number that will make you feel at home if you’re
inclined to vote YES on Question 1.
45% of Massachusetts voters already plan to vote YES on Question 1 –
according to three polls, approximately the same number that polls show
will vote against Question 1. With a November 4th voter turnout of 3
million, that comes to a whopping 1,350,000 votes to end the state
income tax.
The numbers show we can easily afford to end the income tax and how many
voters want it. But it’s the benefits to the people of Massachusetts
that make a YES vote on Question 1 a real winner.
Voting YES will give back over $3,700 each, on average, to over 3,400,
000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers. That’s a $3,700 pay hike for
each of them, not just once, but every year.
It will take $12.6 billion out of the hands of Beacon Hill politicians –
and put it back into the hands of the men and women who earned it. Every
year.
In productive, private hands this $12.6 billion a year will create
hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Massachusetts.
This tax cut will force the state legislature to streamline and cut the
waste out of the Massachusetts state budget.
It will force the state legislature to get rid of the failed, flawed
government programs that don’t work – and often make things worse.
It will make the state legislature accountable to Massachusetts workers
and taxpayers – instead of the government employees, lobbyists, and
special interests who profit from high government spending.
With less government and no income tax, Massachusetts will become a
magnet to private, productive businesses and individuals. This will
bring the state more good jobs and more good workers.
A YES vote will enable Massachusetts families to pay off their mounting
bills and debts – and save thousands of them from home foreclosures and
bankruptcy.
By making the Massachusetts total tax burden more affordable, we’ll
allow more of our young people to stay in Massachusetts near their
family, their friends, and their home.
These are the reasons why you should vote YES on Question 1 to end the
income tax. It’s not just what’s best for you. It’s what’s best for 3.4
million Massachusetts workers and taxpayers – and their families.
(1) (http://www.mass.gov/Aosc/docs/reports_audits/SBFR/2007_SBFR.pdf
Pages 308 – 312)
(2)(http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=dorterminal&L=3&L0=Home&L1=Local+Officia
ls&L2=Municipal+Data+and+Financial+Management&sid=Ador&b=terminalcontent
&f=dls_mdmstuf_aag_aagindex&csid=Ador , See Fiscal Year 2007 Schedule A,
Actual revenues/expenditures for each town. Adjust up $1.3 billion for
all towns to bring budget current.)
1 Comment | LIBERTY | Tagged: Income Tax, Masschusetts, Tax Revolt | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://ncc-1776.org/tle2008/tle485-20080921-02.html
Abortion: An Excerpt From Hope
by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise
*** begin quote ***
“Abortion,” Alex said, “will remain legal. But not one red cent of federal tax money will ever be spent on it again, and I will do my level best to persuade the authorities at the state, county, and municipal levels to follow my example. As you know, gentlemen, I can be pretty persuasive.”
*** end quote ***
A national disaster. MYOB Let folks find their own way to the truth. Certainly, the gooferment shouldn’t be involved, pay for it, or stick its nose into a very painful personal process. It appears that a “roe v wade” industry has grown up around the government paying for this. That’s a industry that has to go away. Let’s have those, that feel abortion be free to the woman, put up their bucks to pay for it. Let’s have those, that want to save every life, put up their bucks to pay for it.
It’s a moral outrage to rob either side to pay for the programs of the other side.
See that’s what politicians do: They get us arguing among ourselves by framing the question wrong. In each one of these tough issues, we should always be asking: “Why is the gooferment involved in this?”
99% of the time the answer is “It shouldn’t be!”
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY | Tagged: Abortion | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://wcbstv.com/local/rutgers.scarlet.knights.2.822287.html
Sep 21, 2008 12:35 pm US/Eastern
Report: N.J. Lawmakers Aiding Rutgers Athletics
Sports Program Reportedly Receives Special Grants
*** begin quote ***
TRENTON (CBS) ― New Jersey lawmakers have reportedly been approving special grants to the Rutgers University athletics program even as academic aid is being slashed.
The Star-Ledger of Newark reports that Trenton lawmakers have approved $2.25 million in grants so far by tacking on earmarks to the state budget.
*** end quote ***
Shame on the poor reporting. The “NJ Lawmakers” are not “aiding” RU athletics. Makes it sound like the passed the hat. They’ve agreed among themselves to steal from the NJ taxpayers (I.e., us fools who can figure out to hide from the outlaw thieves, highwaymen, and con artist masquerading as “public servants”!) … … argh!
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Leave a Comment » | NEW JERSEY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
It happened in Church – October 19, 1962
Chapter Ninety Two – Life without the USA
It Started In Church – October 19, 1962
http://www.itstartedinchurch.com
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Leave a Comment » | Writing | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_re_us/ike_beach_houses
Some Ike victims may not be allowed to rebuild
By MICHAEL GRACZYK and CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writers Thu Sep 18, 6:46 PM ET
*** begin quote ***
GALVESTON, Texas – Hundreds of people whose beachfront homes were wrecked by Hurricane Ike may be barred from rebuilding under a little-noticed Texas law. And even those whose houses were spared could end up seeing them condemned by the state.
Now here’s the saltwater in the wound: It could be a year before the state tells these homeowners what they may or may not do.
Worse, if these homeowners do lose their beachfront property, they may get nothing in compensation from the state.
The reason: A 1959 law known as the Texas Open Beaches Act. Under the law, the strip of beach between the average high-tide line and the average low-tide line is considered public property, and it is illegal to build anything there.
Over the years, the state has repeatedly invoked the law to seize houses in cases where a storm eroded a beach so badly that a home was suddenly sitting on public property. The aftermath of Ike could see the biggest such use of the law in Texas history.
“I don’t like it one bit,” said Phillip Curtis, 58, a Dallas contractor who owns two homes — a $350,000 vacation home and a $200,000 rental — on Galveston Island’s Jamaica Beach. “I think the state should allow us to try to save the houses. I don’t appreciate the state telling people, `Now it belongs to us.’ It breaks your heart.”
The former state senator who wrote the law had little sympathy.
“We’re talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember and against every advice anyone has given,” A.R. “Babe” Schwartz said.
*** end quote ***
Ahh, yes, those “damn fools” who thought THEY owned their property. Still person, the Almighty State owns everything. Just wait, soon everything will be owned by the Gooferment. They hold 50% of all the mortgage market now. Property taxes will soon condemn the rest.
The Supreme Court nuked your Fifth Amendment rights against property seizure in the Kelo decision.
So, you citizen have a tshirt. You know been there, done that, and got the tshirt to show for it.
Sheeple!
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Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_el_pr/biden_taxes_3
Biden calls paying higher taxes a patriotic act
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 41 minutes ago
*** begin quote ***
WASHINGTON – Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans. In a new TV ad that repeats widely debunked claims about the Democratic tax plan, the Republican campaign calls Obama’s tax increases “painful.”
*** end quote ***
JSMH (Just Shaking My Head)
The thief robs you and then tells you that “giving” them more is patriotic?
Try idiotic!
Just like them.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: biden | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2008/09/does-this-make-me-liberal-or.html
Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight…
James McGovern is an industry thought leader whose focus is on the human aspects of technology around open source, SOA, software security, enterprise architecture and agile software development.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Does this make me a liberal or conservative?
*** begin quote ***
Today’s blog is slightly offtopic but I feel compelled to comment on the absurdity of making a profit from healthcare. I believe that the principles of open source when applied to this problem could make things better…
One of my cousin’s is a recent graduate of a nursing program and has started to learn first hand how people suffer and die because of HMO’s, big insurance (Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare, etc) and Pharmaceuticals (Pfizer, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, etc) and their decision making process. They are, by law, beholden to their stockholders and the bottom line, and therefore have an ethical conundrum in that at times they have an incentive to deny needed care in the name of profit.
I am not for government healthcare because it suffers from much of the same problem as the current system. The government also is beholden to many of the same financial burdens. Imagine if the principles of open source were applied to healthcare where HMO’s had to make their business rules publicly available in a well-formed XML format that could be inspected by others? Imagine the ability for a consumer to use an open source rules engine such as JBoss Drools and could proactively tell whether a claim is going to be approved or denied. The current model requires consumers to expose themselves to financial risks as they don’t have a clue upfront as to their own liability.
{Extraneous Deleted}
*** end quote ***
I’d say it makes you a Libertarian.
You’re rightly suspicious of the gooferment in your healthcare. I’d suggest that the gooferment get the boot and we begin to unwind the mess we are in. Step One imho is to disconnect employment from health insurance and equalize the tax-deduct-ability of it.
The gooferment should be the insurer of last report; not, like in Medicare, or the VA, the provider, insurer, and the regulator.
If health insurance was like life insurance, there’d be very little regulation (i.e., only what was needed to prevent fraud) and it would be cheap and easy.
Oh, and let’s not kid anyone, that all the gooferment in health care, does ANYTHING but make it expensive and oppressive. And, people die unnecessarily!
When we allow liberty and the free market place to work, it will do wonders. It took “us” a hundred years to screw things up, hopefully we’re smart enough to fix them a lot faster. But give the attitude that “gooferment will save us” I’m not so sure we’re up to the task!
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Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
You are currently browsing the Reinke Faces Life blog archives for September, 2008.
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
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