GOVEROTRAGEOUS: schools and “knives”

Thursday, October 15, 2009

http://www.wten.com/global/story.asp?s=11283345

Eagle Scout suspended from school over pocket knife (10/08/09)
A NEWS10 EXCLUSIVE
By MARK O’BRIEN

*** begin quote ***

LANSINGBURGH — High school senior Matthew Whalen is the kind of student any parent would want.

He’s an Eagle Scout, on the honor roll, taking Advanced Placement classes, and never been in trouble with the law. He’s received commendations from the City of Troy and the Boy Scouts of America for saving a woman’s life, and this past summer, he completed Army basic training. All of it was accomplished before the age of 17.

“I’m just trying to do what I can while I can,” Matthew says.

His goal is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a dream since he was in grade school.

“I have a first-grade yearbook that says I want to be driving tanks in the Army,” Matthew says. “I mean, this is something that I know I’ve always wanted to do.”

But the dream could be in jeopardy, thanks to a two-inch pocket knife that officials at Lansingburgh Senior High School found in Matthew’s locked car last month. The pocket knife was a gift from his grandfather, Robert Whalen, who’s the Hoosick Falls Police Chief. Matthew says he kept the knife in a side compartment and never tried showing it off or threatening anyone with it. Instead it was a part of the survival kit that was his car.

*** end quote ***

A stupid rule. (Considering guns in school. Chicago violence. And, all manner of other more important issues.) An illegal search. A kangaroo court. And, the komisars of eddykation with their leftist world views.

The article goes on to comment on a tire iron being a “weapon”. How about the car being its own weapon?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Sheeple get a “bargain”!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Subject: FW: Cash for Clunkers Math another Government Ponzi Scheme!!!!

Here’s what a friend had to say about “Democratic Math”. Ignore all the gas crap, and just look at how the stupid car buyer got taken to the cleaners:

If you traded in a clunker worth $3,500, you get $4,500 off for an apparent “savings” of $1,000. However, you have to pay taxes on the $4,500 come April 15 (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1,350 on that $4,500.

So, rather than save $1,000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making.

But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer.

For example, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the “cash for clunkers” program started. When “cash for clunkers” came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3,000 more than you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota, and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did).

So lets do the final tally here:

You traded in a car worth: $3,500

You got a discount of: $4,500

  

Net so far $1,000

But you have to pay: $1,350 in taxes on the $4,500

  

Net so far: -$ 350

And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before.

Net so far: -$3,350

We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, etc.) on the extra $3,000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but lets just stop here.

So who actually made out on the deal? The feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4,500 they “gave” you. The car dealers made an extra $3,000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. And the poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

Obama and his band of merry men convinced Joe consumer that he was getting $4,500 in “free” money from the “government” when in fact Joe was giving away his $3,500 car and paying an additional $3,350 for the privilege.

Thanks a lot guys!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: VA care is disgraceful

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_645645.html#

Veterans Affairs won’t release any more care home reports

By Walter F. Roche Jr., TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Facing congressional scrutiny over details revealed in a review of care given to veterans at one of its Pennsylvania facilities, the Department of Veterans Affairs slammed the door on the release of similar reports nationwide.

In a directive dated Friday, VA officials in Washington informed local agency officials that inspection reports like the one on the VA nursing home in Philadelphia are not to be released to the public.

The directive came less than a week after the Tribune-Review disclosed details of a 2008 report on the VA’s Philadelphia nursing home that concluded the VA “failed to provide a safe and sanitary environment for their residents.”

Such reports from the Long Term Care Institute — which the VA hired to inspect its facilities — are considered “protected” documents under the provisions of a federal law designed to promote improved quality, the directive states.

*** and ***

The report cited by the Trib was released by VA officials in Philadelphia under a public records request. It described how one veteran had to have his leg amputated after a serious infection had gone untreated for so long that it attracted maggots. It described blood-stained floors, a fly infestation and life-threatening treatment of veterans dependent on tube feeding.

Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joseph Sestak — two Democrats vying for Senate in next year’s primary — visited the nursing home last week and questioned why it took a public records request to get the report made public.

Sestak called on VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to “release any other inspection reports of this nature.”

Withholding such documentation “only adds to the perception that the VA does not take the principles of accountability seriously,” Sestak wrote in an e-mail response Tuesday to the VA action.

“If the VA is unable to provide this necessary reform at the administrative level, legislation must be introduced,” Sestak wrote in a letter to Shinseki.

Specter also disagreed with the report-release ban. “This runs contrary to the VA’s desire to be an open and accountable agency,” his statement said. “I believe these documents should be made public.”

*** end quote ***

And, you want these same bozos to run our health care, health insurance, and anything else health related like drugs?

I wouldn’t let them run a dog kennel!

Sheeple, wake up!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Terps get screwed!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/09/militarys-forgotten-terps-get-some-love/

Military’s Forgotten ‘Terps’ Get Some Love
    * By Nathan Hodge Email Author
    * September 22, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Foust and Hsia aren’t the first ones to take up the cause of the interpreters. Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have tried to help their interpreters — many of whom face death threats — get special immigrant visas. Writing last year in the New York Post, Marine Corps vet Owen West expressed his frustration with the maddening bureaucratic process. “As a Marine, I was taught never to leave a comrade-in-arms behind on the battlefield,” he wrote. “But that’s exactly what the State Department is doing to men and women who’ve sacrificed everything to help our troops – our Iraqi interpreters.”

*** end quote ***

As usual, the gooferment figures out a way for is to screw some of our few friends.

I bet these “Terps” would be as good a citizen as any U of Maryland grad.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: More Gooferment taking over more and more

Sunday, September 27, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/lohczj

House backs bill to overhaul student loan program
USA Today

*** begin quote ***

“The House voted Thursday in favor of the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their creation in the 1960s — a bill to oust private lenders from the student loan business and put the government in charge. The vote was 253-171 in favor of a bill that fulfills nearly all of President Obama’s campaign promises for higher education: The measure ends subsidies for private lenders, boosts Pell Grants for needy students and creates a grant program to improve community colleges, among other things.” (09/17/09)

*** end quote ***

When does the gooferment stop taking over things?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Kennedy seat belongs to the D’s; not the people!

Friday, September 25, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jzO_Ki9dF9tOlEmbHGiBPp0hgzzAD9AU95JG0

Mass. GOP seeks to block Kennedy interim successor
(AP) – 3 hours ago

*** begin quote ***

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Republican Party is seeking to block the interim appointment of Paul Kirk to the Senate seat that was held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

The GOP has filed an injunction in Suffolk Superior Court that will be heard Friday morning.

*** end quote ***

Now I realize that I have my law degree from the Judge Judy school of law,

BUT, (there is always a big butt),

(1) Shouldn’t this be unconstitutional on its face. The state legislators should just write the law that MA Senators have to be picked by the head of the Democratic Party!

(2) Shouldn’t this trigger one of those “This is so outrageous that it offends the sensibilities of the Court. Rule it unconstitutional Ex Post Facto. Et cum spiritu tuo two two oh. Or what ever Latin mumbo jumbo you want to use.

Huh?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Laws don’t apply to your betters

Friday, September 18, 2009

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/13/meninos_office_acknowledges_city_employees_routinely_deleted_e_mails/

Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:36:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon
Subject: Boston city employees routinely deleted e-mail

*** begin quote ***

Menino’s office acknowledges city employees routinely deleted e-mails
By Donovan Slack and Michael Levenson, *The Boston Globe*, 13 Sep 2009

Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s administration, prompted by public records requests from *The Globe*, has acknowledged that city employees were routinely deleting e-mails, a potential violation of the state public records law. This came after *The Globe* filed several requests for e-mails sent and received by Menino’s Cabinet chief of policy and planning, Michael J. Kineavy — who is one of Menino’s most powerful and trusted advisers, intimately involved in nearly everything at City Hall. However, a search of city computers found just 18 e-mails he had sent or received between 1 Oct 2008, and 31 Mar 2009. The unusually low figure prompted administration officials to question him about what happened to the rest of the e-mails he was presumably sending and receiving during that period. Kineavy told them that he deletes all his e-mails on a daily basis, in such a way that they are not saved on city backup computers.

*** end quote ***

Laws? Only for the “little people”!

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Beck calls the FED out

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Glen Beck on his show now just called out the FED.

“Helicopter” Ben testified that the FED would NOT monetize the debt.

Today, Glen, with some help, demonstrated that the FED auctioned debt to the “public” and the next month bought that specific debt on the secondary market.

Can you say “shell game”?

I bet the Chinese are really steamed with their 5T$!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Robbing old people

Monday, September 14, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/136029.html

State of Texas Forces Couple Into Nursing Home, Takes Over Their Finances
Radley Balko
September 11, 2009, 3:36pm

*** begin quote ***

The state refuses to give the Kidds an accounting of how it is spending their money, the reason apparently being that because they were deemed mentally deficient, they lack standing to even ask for financial records. The couple was given a court-appointed attorney (paid for from the Kidds’ savings), but he looks to have worked all of 10 hours on their case. According to neighbors, the state has since allowed the Kidds’ home deteriorate, and didn’t even bother to lock the doors after taking the couple into custody. The local Fox affiliate reported at the end of last month that state officials were also planning to sell the couple’s home at auction. Media coverage seems to have pressured a local judge to put off the sale, at least for now.

*** end quote ***

Everyone have their paperwork in order? It’s easy to rob old people.

:-(

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Disconnect between consumer and cost

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/l56vsx

The best healthcare plan you’ve never heard of
Fox News Forum
by John Graham

*** begin quote ***

“By refusing to even consider consumer-driven healthcare (CDHC), congressional leaders are proving that they’re more interested in putting the government in charge of Americans’ healthcare than in actually improving patient outcomes. Decades of evidence show that CDHC-style reforms can achieve the stated goal of would-be health reformers: high-quality care at low cost. All the reform plans under consideration in Congress fail to address the biggest problem with our healthcare system: third parties, like insurance companies or the government, pay for just about everything. Consequently, Americans have no idea how much the medical services they consume cost. How much is a visit to a primary care doctor? Or a trip to a specialist? The average patient has no idea. Third-party payment shields people from the truth about how much they’re spending at the doctor’s office. As a result, most folks have no incentive to manage their healthcare expenditures, so make little effort to do so.” (09/03/09)

*** end quote ***

Once again demonstrating the foolish disconnect between consumer and cost.

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