RANT: See where bailouts take you? To absurdity and beyond!

Friday, January 9, 2009

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/stimulus/2009/01/08/why-a-tiny-alabama-town-wants-a-375-million-chunk-of-the-stimulus.html

Why a Tiny Alabama Town Wants a $375 Million Chunk of the Stimulus
By Amanda Ruggeri
Posted January 8, 2009

*** begin quote ***

At first glance, the town of Edwardsville, Ala., with a population of 194 people, might raise a few eyebrows with its bid to receive $375 million from the economic stimulus package being assembled by Barack Obama and lawmakers in Congress.

The tiny town, located near the Georgia border and 26 miles from the nearest “big city” of Anniston (population: 24,276), added 33 proposals—about two thirds of them related to “green” energy—to the list of “ready- to- go” projects assembled by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Total sum: $375,076,200.

*** end quote ***

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95J4DV00&show_article=1

Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus
Jan 8 01:29 PM US/Eastern
By JENNIFER LOVEN
AP White House Correspondent

*** begin quote ***

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) – President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and long-lasting consequences if Congress doesn’t pump unprecedented dollars into the national economy, making an urgent pitch Thursday for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since the election.

{Extraneous Deleted}

Obama laid out goals of doubling the production of alternative energy over three years, updating most federal buildings to improve energy efficiency, making medical records electronic, expanding broadband networks and updating schools and universities.

*** end quote ***

www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2009/01/08/flynt_porn_bailout.html

*** begin quote ***

Jan 8, 2009 … In an announcement that launched a thousand unprintable puns, adult- entertainment moguls Larry Flynt and Joe Francis said Wednesday that …

*** end quote ***

There must be something in the air in the District of Corruption. The smell of the People’s money being available?

We really should thank Larry Flynt for pointing out the absurdity of the whole circus!

Have you contacted your congresscritter yet?

http://www.downsizedc.org/  

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NJ: in-state tuition at public colleges and “driving privilege cards” for illegal aliens

Friday, January 9, 2009

http://lonegan.com/Where_Steve_Stands.aspx  

*** begin quote ***

NO IN-STATE TUITION AND DRIVERS LICENSES FOR ILLEGALS!

Last night I was on Fox 5 News talking about a report from a Corzine-stacked panel of left-wing liberals endorsing in-state tuition at public colleges and “driving privilege cards” for illegal aliens.

I strongly oppose these ideas and have urged legislative Republicans to stand united against these proposals.

There’s no doubt that state spending is out of control and needs to be reduced, not increased as the in-state tuition proposal would do. And giving illegal aliens drivers licenses — regardless of the name, not only makes our state a magnet for illegal aliens who are a net drain on taxpayers, but also tells our children that the law is a joke.

One potential candidate against me in the primary has endorsed the Corzine Administration position that illegal aliens are “here to stay” and we should give them not just amnesty but the same rights as those who came here legally. I respectfully disagree. Strong enforcement actions in states like Arizona have completely turned around an out-of-control situation where illegal aliens were straining social service budgets and creating enormous burdens on the health care system.

As a society we must send a message that those who laugh at our laws will not be coddled any more. The politically correct liberal way has failed and New Jersey is the best example anywhere of that. While conservatives in Congress like Scott Garrett will be working to stop Illegal Alien Amnesty in the next two years, we can take steps right here in New Jersey to tell those here illegally to go somewhere else and that is to end government benefits to illegal aliens — not expand them.

It’s as simple as that.

*** end quote ***

Well, there are many problems in the whole area of immigration.

I don’t want to put a plastic garbage bag over the Statue of Liberty.

As a little L libertarian, I think there are so many issues with all that the gooferment does. Force creates problems.

Why is the gooferment involved in education and “licensing” driving in the first place?

Let’s take the in-state tuition issue. Why is the state gooferment involved in it at all? Spin them off to survive on their own. End of a political issue. And, a whole lot of bureaucrats are now out in the economy.

Let’s take the “licensing issue”. Why is the state gooferment involved in it at all? Insurance companies might care. We care (supposedly) that all cars are insured. (Ignores the fact that I’ve heard that ¼ of the cars on the road are uninsured.) So, let’s outsource DMV licensing (and registration) to the insurance companies.  End of a political issue. And, a whole lot of bureaucrats are now out in the economy.

Seems obvious to me!

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TECH PRODUCT: Kodak Frame gets an “NR” from a trusted blogger source

Friday, January 9, 2009

http://www.gadgetspage.com/misc/review-kodak-easy-share-wireless-picture-frame.html  

Review: Kodak Easy Share Wireless Picture Frame
from Gadgets Page by Matthew Strebe

*** begin quote ***

Kodak EasyShare W1020 10-Inch Wireless Digital Frame at Amazon.comI purchased the Kodak Easy Share Wireless Picture Frame with a specific purpose in mind: I wanted to immediately transfer motion sensor triggered photos from my Panasonic network camera at my front door onto a screen up stairs so we could see who was at the door before going downstairs to answer it.

{Extraneous Deleted}

Unfortunately, the love ended pretty early for this frame. Without fail, the wireless frame detached from my wifi-network after about two hours and stopped displaying anything, refusing to reconnect to the network until it was disconnected from power and restarted. It always reconnected immediately, which indicates that the problem is with the frame, not with the network (none of my other wireless devices have this problem). This problem makes it impossible for me to recommend this wireless frame until a firmware update that correctly addresses reconnecting to the network automatically is available.

*** end quote ***

This reminds me of the annoying “Continually Reconnect” to the home wifi network behavior that MCBA (Mac Book Air) exhibits.

(For which, I will be stopping by at the Apple Genius Bar next week to grouse about.)

I also rate anything that doesn’t work as “Not Recommended!”

Hopefully, if all bloggers pass this along, KODAK might get the message.

(But I doubt it. Business are tin eared! Look at their stock price and you can see the result!)

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MONEY: you can download Suze Orman’s new book free

Thursday, January 8, 2009

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081119_tows_bookdownload


Here’s a quick reminder that Suze Orman will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show this afternoon to discuss jumpstarting your personal finances in 2009. Serena wrote to let me know that until next Thursday (15 January 2009), you can download Suze Orman’s new book free from Oprah’s web site.

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JOBFINDING: JS gives me three hot ones.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

JS gave me three:

Client Services Coordinator- range $53 – $60K Long Isand, N.Y.

Systems Trainer NYC $55,000

Chief Operating Officer for a “For Profit” IT CONSULTING division of a Non Profit Org

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RANT: Judge Green’s Bell breakup did more than ruin people’s lives.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

FROM LINKEDIN

News Discussion: AT&T Alumni
Does the AT&T Break UP Still Matter? – NYTimes.com
From: New York Times | December 19, 2008

*** begin quote ***

   When AT&T grudgingly agreed to break itself up 25 years ago, it was seen as a truly momentous event in the history of the teleco Read more at New York Times »

*** end quote ***

Gene Russell
   * This article was submitted on December 19, 2008 at 09:00 AM PST

*** begin quote ***

I wrote the marketing and financial sections of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph “Evaluation of Post Divestiture Provision of Customer Premises Equipment” Business Plan while on Jim Moberg’s team reporting to Sam Ginn. Ultimately many of Judge Green’s rules and regulations destroyed a lot of business strength and growth opportunities. For example the newly minted baby Bells were prohibited from manufacturing telephone equipment i.e. CPE. Ultimately we went off shore and created an intense stream of jobs to go away. We went to LG in Korea, some minor players in Hong Kong and ultimately to China. This lightly written and short article needs a much more serious study and review of all aspects of the break up, the restrictive rules imposed by a Judge without a business background. Many people speak about the break up in terms of their personal experience with their phone and phone service. The deeper industrial and corporate wastage and inefficiencies need to be given serous academic review. PhD proposal anyone?

By Gene Russell President and CEO

*** end quote ***

I know first hand the personal disruption this caused. Family and friends were hurt. I landed on my feet. In some ways, much better off. However, those friends and family never recovered. My mom was forced out after 45 years. She was expecting to work for another 5 years. They did give her 2 years pay. But, she was “her job” and never recovered. My friend was bounced around, ill-treated in the spin outs, and basically tossed. He was out for several years trying to find a slot. There went his “retirement”.

As a country, having been at the Labs a few times, that was the country’s crown jewel. That was nuked.

Western Electric, the manufacturing arm, was nuked as well.

A tremendous cost in people, hardware, and potential.

Down the drain by a bureaucrat in a funny dress.

Argh!

Collective stupidity.

Supposedly to save money?

I just shake my head.

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INTERESTING: Historians battle Wal-Mart over key Civil War site

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090102/D95F79I00.html

Historians battle Wal-Mart over key Civil War site
Jan 2, 3:06 PM (ET)
By STEVE SZKOTAK

*** begin quote ***

LOCUST GROVE, Va. (AP) – Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter within a cannonshot of where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought, a proposal that has preservationists rallying to protect the key Civil War site.

*** end quote ***

Can’t preserve everything? Can’t deny WalMart and the benefits of Chinese plastics?

And, the local politicians need the money!

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JOBSEARCH: How does society deal with employment age discrimination?

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Age discrimination is well-known. It’s an article of faith among seekers and soon-to-be seekers (i.e., old employees).

Akin to the ERISA laws that put a crimp in the aerospace companies that dumped old engineers before they had a chance to earn a pension. Young engineers were cheaper salary-wise, more productive in a dollars sense, and could be induced to work harder (i.e., to pay their dues). ERISA put an end to that pension scam. Once the tactic was exposed, baby engineers weren’t applying at the aerospace firms as a first or second choice.

As the demographics change, and the “social security ponzi scheme” age is ratchets up, we are going to come a time when more “Human Resources” are unemployable and yet unable to collect retirement benefits. It’s the “too old to work” “to young to retire” gap. As a nation, we are losing their contributions to the common wealth. (Not socialistic, but their productivity is lost to the GDP.)

Clearly, “at will” employment has to go.

As well as psuedo “performance reviews”, that are used to cover folks being forced out.

So as a society, what can we construct to fix this problem.

As a little L libertarian, I’m not a fan of gooferment action. But, large corporations are a product of the gooferment, and as such are fair game for regulation.

We see that after 40 the discrimination starts and after 50 it’s rampant and forget after 60.

So we need a way of changing the “cost” of pre-40 and post-40 employment.

“Employment Insurance”?

A company, who hires or continues employing a old person, gets a tax credit?

So the way I would construct it would be a tax and credit scheme.,

20 years @ 5% of a 1$ = $.37

The under 40 payroll would be taxed at $.0037 per dollar of comp. The over 40 payroll would be credited at the same rate.

It would put the gooferment’s thumb on the employment equation just slightly.

Thoughts?

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JOBFINDING: Java programmer for Miami

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

MS needs a strong Java programmer for Miami.

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VETS: Closing the Speicher Case? The People need to “help” the politicians and bureaucrats!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2009/01/closing-speicher-case.html

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Closing the Speicher Case?

*** begin quote ***

The Navy will hold a hearing Monday on the status of Captain Scott Speicher, the F/A-18 pilot who disappeared on the opening night of Operation Desert Storm almost 18 years ago.

Members of the Speicher family believe that Navy Secretary Donald Winter is moving toward changing the aviator’s status from missing/captured to killed. Speicher was initially listed as killed in the hours after his jet went down over Iraq in January 1991. However, his status was changed to “missing in action,” based on an absence of evidence that he died.

A decade later, in October 2002, the service revised Speicher’s status again, listing him as “missing/captured,” although the Navy never explained the reason for the change. The revision came just months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

*** end quote ***

Now no one would suspect that the Navy might want to save a few bucks. I smell politics between the “pentagon perfumed princes” and “congress critters”.

But then I am always suspicious of them and their actions. It’s not like the put servicemen first.

We, the People, need to “help” them understand that they can’t sweep this out of view!

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