Bits Bucket For July 23, 2010
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Bloomberg Mulling Charging For Garbage Pickup
Forget Your Taxes, Mayor Considering Additional ‘Pay As You Throw’ Fee To Help Cash-Strapped New York City
Under Plan You Could Be Charged Based On How Much You Throw Away
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
There was a move Thursday to spin garbage into gold.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he’s thinking about plugging his budget gap by charging New York City residents a fee for trash removal.
City residents produce 11,000 tons of trash every day. Collecting it is covered by taxes.
But there is a proposal to separate garbage collection from general taxes, and charge people for what they throw away, based on how much it is.
Plenty of New Yorkers are turning up their nose at the idea.
“I’m very much against it,” one resident said.
“I think we pay a lot of taxes already,” another added.
Mayor Bloomberg said while a trash fee is far from “in the bag,” he refused to rule it out as the city struggles with a financial crisis.
“Everything will be on the table,” Bloomberg said.
I hope there is some threshold where there’s either a fixed priced or free. Could you imagine a garbageman with a clipboard, checking off how many bags each residence(?) throws away, or people putting their bags in front of other people’s homes? It will cost more $$ than they collect in fees.
In the same way I can’t imagine some anti-immigration conservative-authoritarian hate zealot say “let me see your papers”.
You mean kind of like those people who:
- Check your ID whenever you buy groceries
- Check your ID whenever use a credit card
- Check your ID when you get pulled for speeding
- Check your ID when you take an airplane
- Check your ID when you renew your drivers license
etc. etc.
That’s a dang lot of anti-immigration conservative-authoritarian hate zealots, I have to say.
You mean kind of like those people who ??
I agree Packman…Its a double standard really…I almost wish for some kind of civil revolt so the States could get away from the stranglehold of the Fed’s…Let the states make their own decisions…You don’t like it, move to another state…IMO, it would eliminate much of the polarization that is Paralyzing
this countries ability to preform…Pro-life, move to the Carolina’s…Pro-choice, move to California…Pro legalization of MJ, move to Oregon…Anti legalization move to Utah…
People check your ID when you buy groceries?
People check your ID when you buy groceries?
Whenever I buy alcohol yes; well - they used to anyhow. Though they still do sometimes when I used my CC, which is usually (gotta love 5% cash back).
SC Dave, I like that idea. For as much decentralization as possible.
“gotta love 5% cash back”
Where the heck do you get 5%, packman?? I usually only about 1.5%…
People check your ID when you buy groceries?
I’ve had my ID checked at the grocery store for buying children’s cough medicine. I’m 44 years old. I’m so offended, I think I’ll revolt!
Where the heck do you get 5%, packman?? I usually only about 1.5%…
AMEX blue gives 5% on groceries.
I have American Express Blue Cash, I get 5% back on groceries, gas, and drug stores, and I think 1.5% everywhere else. The sweet thing is, I get the 5% back on gift cards I buy at the grocery store (I haven’t tried it at drug stores.) BUT, I have to charge $6,500 before I get the 5%. Does anyone know a card that gives you the 5% from your first dollar?
I heard a radio spot w/Katie Couric on immigration yesterday.
You know the quote:”Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free…”
The media and the pro-illegals deligation disregard that is a poem by Emma Lazarus, on the Statue Of Liberty, and not govt policy.
Don’t spoil Katie’s fun with the facts.
There are people in my town that walk their trash to hotel dumpsters. Nobody seems to mind.
I’m going out on a limb here, but my guess is that your town’s population is much smaller than 8 million people.
The scale and population density of New York brings complexity to even the most mundane matters.
There are people in my town that walk their trash to my dumpster. I do mind I get billed for the extra dumps. I also have to clean up the mess, my dumpster is for waste the we bring back from construction jobs. The dumped trash is household garbage and it attracts the bears and they are messy and dangerous.
the folks are gonna dump their trash there anyway…so you should just put out two dumpsters.
(damn…it hurt for me to even type that logic)
Or a lock on the dumpster (except for pickup days) and a webcam on a pole with a sign (”we’re watching you dump your trash”).
You may not even have to hook up the webcam to be effective.
“…attracts bears…”, sounds like you’re living someplace nice if there are still bears running around, wish I were there…
This is called theft of services. It is illegal to use someone else’s dumpster.
In both MA and here outside Syracuse, we see a lot of garbage bags left on the side of the road. In MA, our property abutted an abandoned lot where there was a foundation. You wouldn’t believe what got tossed in there in the middle of the night: couches, tvs, microwaves. I never heard them. So besides the back taxes that were piling up, there was quite the toxic / safety violations the town regularly had to attend to. I suppose in our dystopian future that lot’s problems would just be left to fester. I did worry about our well water.
It’s amazing what people will throw out. Goodwill, Amvets and many other organizations would gladly pick that stuff up for free. Even in my middle-class area, the things people put out for trash pickup make me sick about the waste. Fortunately there are scavengers who regularly cruise the neighborhood just before garbage pick-up and save a lot of bulky stuff from going into the landfill.
In the DC area Goodwill won’t come to get stuff unless you have at least 8 large items. In Maryland, even with that restriction, they have no slots open until September. They have just started a new program to get pick up more quickly and for fewer items but you have to pay for it.
What you are hearing is the sound of “undocumented workers” doing the jobs that Americans won’t do………..like illegally dumping waste in places not meant to be used as dump sites.
To “legally” dump materials you will usually either need to pay for it, or provide some type of identification and residence information to show that you are allowed to use the dump.
Illegals who are doing clean-up work, do use those facilities.
They need your vacant lot as an alternative waste disposal facility.
Not here in NYC. The biggest problem is there is no room to park, and cops will ticket the goodwill truck for double parking……so there is lots of great items people just toss out…
How do you carry home a bookcase on a subway? or a 35″ tv?
Goodwill, Amvets and many other organizations would gladly pick that stuff up for free
I have personally come across what I believe to be illegal alien landscaper dump sites while using public lands. The telltale sign is the proliferation of Jarritos bottles, Budweiser cans, and tortilla wrappers within the waste. This is one of many reasons why they can offer greedy homeowners lower rates on work.
How do you know it illegal land scapers, maybe it is an american land scaper that was doing lawn care at a house where someone likes that type of food?
“maybe it is an american land scaper that was doing lawn care at a house where someone likes that type of food?”
And they would take the homeowner’s garbage away for them…… why exactly?
I have a 20-acre lot in 34786 (Tiger Wood’s zip code, too!) and we get people dumping on it.
Sometimes we try to trace the source through identifiable names on the items, but the Police aren’t too interested in pursuing it.
I suppose I need to camp out in a duck blind with a gun! (Presumably legal in Florida because of the SB 436 law…but I don’t think I’d want to test it.)
Wow. Alice’s Restaurant.
What you are hearing is the sound of “undocumented workers” doing the jobs that Americans won’t do………..like illegally dumping waste in places not meant to be used as dump sites.
I’ve had a few acquaintances suggest w/a wink they were road dumpers. Not illegals, just born and bred Americans that felt the fees were unfair. I suppose that was their idea of resisting “the man”. I usually have to walk away cuz the practice po’s me so much. Yeah, “the man” pays for nothing you idiots. It just gets passed onto people like us in other forms.
get ready for the return of the “midnight dumper”
What we do in Loveland is the following:
1) You pay a flat fee and get a city trashcan. Whatever you can fit into it gets picked up. We also get a big recyclables trashcan as well. Yard waste can be stored in a thrird green trash can (separate fee)
2) You can but trashbags with the city logo on then at local grocery stores.
3) You can contract with 3rd party (say Waste Management)
Step 1) Fire up pigtail
2) Excavate hole
3) Fill hole with debris
4) Backfill hole
5) Spread excess fill
Could you imagine a garbageman with a clipboard, checking off how many bags each residence(?) throws away,
I pay based on how much I throw away here in WA. It’s not that they measure it - it’s that there are different sized bins, and you pay based on which size bin you have.
Actually, I believe it was the same when I was in TX.
Same in CA. I was charged based on how big of a bin I had, and how many bins (if more than one). Didn’t matter how full it was. If the garbage wasn’t in the bin, they didn’t pick it up (it was done via an automated truck arm, not men riding on the back).
I actually didn’t have a problem with that. Generally each week a given person has about the same amount of garbage to throw out, except for a couple week or so a year of exceptions. During those times just spread out the extra garbage over a couple of weeks. It was a pretty good system, IMO.
That system has just gotten started in my ‘burb. It works pretty well. The garage had to be rearranged to fit the bigger recycling container, so it was a good time to clean out the garage.
After my dad passed, we switched my mom to a small trash bin (Ventura, CA). It was very small, and they charged her only ten bucks less than the $40 they charged for the large bin.
Oxide, in upstate enclaves garbage is never included in the tax base. You might be in a town where you are required to hire your own serice. In the town I’m in now, they recently had a program where you’d have to buy stickers that you put on each bag. I believe each sticker cost $1. Course I’m sitting on $20+ dollars worth of stickers I purchased just before they eliminated the program.
When I lived in Syracuse proper, garbage pickup was included (but then again, I rented).
When I moved to the Town of Volney (outside the city of Fulton), I hired a private trash collector (lived down the road from me but had his own truck).
But in Oswego county, a person can buy an annual pass to use the county dump (actually, about 4 or 5 dumps in the county) all you wanted. So I did that for awhile, taking my trash to the county dump myself.
Where I live in Ohio, we do not have a county dump open to the public. I really miss that.
Well, if they charged based on the amount of trash, maybe some products could reduce unneeded packaging.
Here’s a couple that’s taking your idea to heart.
In Germany, they charge for each item, it’s in the price you pay at the store. They call it Grune Punkt (Green Dot).
And in NYC the larger buildings (office and residential) are already required to use private haulers, so this will only impact smaller buildings and houses…
Can’t see how cost of administering wouldn’t be more than any fees generated.
They could allow one trash bag weekly and require you to purchase specially marked trash bags from the local grocer for any additional trash.
That’s how they do in my hood.
Is there a black market in counterfeit specially marked trash bags?
I didn’t know that trash pickup was “free” in New York. In California, depending on the city I have either paid the city or a private vendor for trash collection. In Sacramento it’s included in my $111 per month utilities bill (trash, recycling, greens pickup, water, sewer).
I didn’t know that trash pickup was “free” in New York.
Yeah, never mind the 3.65% income tax that we pay on our incomes. It is FREE.
Welcome to the 21st Century, NY. In Washington State this has been the method of collecting garbage for years. I pay per container - $10/container per pickup. Recycled items are picked up every week for free, and (in my situation) my garbage can is picked up once a month, so I get billed $20 every two months.
The market for recycled materials fluctuates, so this creates a headache for the waste handler, but generally they manage it well - at least from my conversations with those at the company.
It always amazes me on my trips back east how for a flat fee you can put out as much garbage as you’d like, and they take it away, no questions asked.
I think it’s a great idea. I’m amazed at what people throw away and I’m not talking about TVs and couches. I’ve gotten into the habit of recycling all packaging such as all plastic food containers. About the only thing they won’t take is styrofoam. I’ve gone weeks without throwing anything away.
Any IDIOT knows… that if you CHARGE FOR GARBAGE COLLECTION… people will save $$$ by… you guessed it… littering… throwing away trash illegally… in vacant lots… alleys… vacant house backyards… etc… filling the city with ugly & hazardous trash!!
This is a great recipe for BLIGHT!!
Correct, Timmy.
Our mostly rural county has collection centers which are staffed drop-off points for most kinds of garbage and trash. They don’t charge when you bring stuff to them. If they were to charge even a nominal fee I know there would be 10 times the amount of trash dumped alongside all the roadways.
Except, Bill and Timmy, the citizens are paying for it, just not directly.
As long as people don’t vote with their feet, this is what they get.
Good ‘Ol Lurch Kerry, one of the top turds in the cesspool.
Sen. John Kerry skips town on sails tax. July 23, 2010
Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.
Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.
But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.
Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?
Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.
I’m so glad Kerry didn’t win that election. Can you imagine the mess we’d be in today?
Can you imagine the mess we’d be in today ??
Whew…We really dodged a bullet there…Thank God Bush was re-elected…
That’s the problem when your two choices are crap. However Lurch sucked mighty bad.
Nobody had the balls to take the steps necessary to slow the rise of home prices. Nobody.
We’d be in the same mess either way.
Can’t say I’m very happy with the financial reform bill. I have no problem with fixing “too big to fail”, etc. However, the bill drags in a LOT of small investment companies into bureaucracy unnecessarily. These are companies that are already restricted to the type of investors they have (wealthy and sophisticated). These are also companies that are not too big to fail and got no handouts.
I’m not a fan of unnecessary expansion of government, and that’s exactly what happened.
“…Can you imagine the mess we’d be in today?”
Halliburton sure could.
+1 Hwy…
No kidding!
Really. I mean, look how Obama has turned 180 degrees on all our Middle East misadventures… not.
Nothing has changed of any significance. Nor would it have changed under Kerry.
Nothing has changed of any significance ??
Starting the pregnancy is the easy part (Bush).
Ending it is the difficult part and the one who started it does not need to make that tough decision…
It’s amazing to watch so many surfs left and right coming to the defense of the ruling class. The ruling class doesn’t even have to break a sweat to stomp on our rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we do all of the work for them.
serfs.
This serf (moi) never defends the ruling class.
Yeah, a balanced budget, no wars, basic competence in government, no housing bubble, etc. etc. Horrors! Thank God George Bush managed to save us from that.
Put down the bong. Kerry is another elitist boob that is greedy to the core. The Democrats have proven to be just as incompetent and corrupt as the Republicans. **Cough, Charlie Rangel **Cough. Or how about the pompous a$$ Al Gore that has aligned himself with a slew of Goldman gangsters to earn millions and millions of dollars on his little green initiative. The only green he cares about is the green lining his pockets.
The housing bubble was caused by the monetary policies of the Fed. That is the policy determined by the Chairman and if you recall Opie renewed the contract for Mr. Bernanke just as Bill Clinton kept on Greenspan and never uttered a word when he was flooding the world with liquidity. Or do you forgot how the Fed induced liquidity pumped up the stock market and led to the phantom “surplus” that every Dem parrot loves to blah, blah, blah about. That budget surplus was pure nonsense.
The political zealotry on this site borders on the religious zealotry of the Middle Ages. I guess when you substitute politics for religion that is what happens. Trying to portray Obama, Pelosi, Gore, Kerry, Schumer, Frank, Dodd, Waters, Rangel, the Clintons and the rest of these turncoats as saints is beyond stretching the credible. But go back to the silly beliefs that we would have no wars, balanced budgets and general competence in government if only Bush hadn’t been elected. Zealots must be filled with zeal, amongst other things.
+1E6
But go back to the silly beliefs that we would have no wars Bush hadn’t been elected ??
We would not be in Iraq thats for sure…Just ask Colin Powell…
“Put down the bong.”
Never!
You just came off as the very zealot you are touting everyone else not to be. I could have believed you if you could also have criticized the Repubs as well as the Dems.
For a minute there I thought you were going to give a comparative example of a time in USA history where a Presidential administration + congress decided to reduce taxes for its wealthy citizens with electing to engage in x2 foreign Wars fought with low-cost military equipment & private “No-Bid” contractors.
I quote: “I’m the Decider!”
I am PC. I am an equal opportunity detester of all those who want to conserve the big government. By the way, they are the real conservatives and include so-called “liberals” and “conservatives,” but not reaal liberals.
What? That is some really good stuff you are smoking.
OMG, does anyone think the Kerry’s are the only ones that do this? Anyone that sails or really anyone that boats knows this is common and has been long since before I was born. Ringo Starr’s vessel was moored in my Dad’s harbor a lot of the summer avoiding those European taxes. That was the mid ’70s. In the ’90s, the boats in our MA harbors were registered from all over the place…..yeah, they flew in every weekend just to sail off Marblehead…..right.
This story is for political leverage. If you’re gonna out the Kerry’s let’s go after everyone. Dang! Talk about the state windfall that would create.
The difference between Kerry and Ringo Starr is that one of them is a musician and the other is a Congress person and at least indirectly responsible for determining the MA tax rate, which he himself is not willing to comply with.
It’s not the tax rate. It’s that a Democrat — who gets elected on the platform of caring for the little guy — has a 65-foot yacht at all. The exact same hypocrisy as the family-value Republicans “having a zipper problem.”
It’s the hypocrisy, stupid..
(say what you will about Gaffer Biden, at least he walked the walk. He was consistently the poorest Senator.)
say what you will about Gaffer Biden, at least he walked the walk. He was consistently the poorest Senator.
Not only that, he commuted by train.
And, IIRC, if you were a constituent and had a concern, you could talk to him during the 1-hour trip between DC and Wilmington, DE.
Are you trying to say you have to be poor to be able to help and guide the poor? Truth be told Kerry’s family of origin isn’t rich. It’s probably Theresa’s wealth that covered the boat. If marrying wealth or becoming wealthy prevents one from being sympathetic to the poor, than most of them shouldn’t be in DC. But if someone is so ineffectual they don’t own anything of substance, I don’t really want them in a position to make decisions that impact not only this country but sometimes the entire world (as in war, disaster funds).
***********
“It’s not the tax rate. It’s that a Democrat — who gets elected on the platform of caring for the little guy — has a 65-foot yacht at all. The exact same hypocrisy as the family-value Republicans “having a zipper problem.””
I don’t think she is criticizing the fact that he married wealth (although a psychoanalyst would have a field day with Kerry’s life), but the fact that he bought an F-ing SIXTY-FIVE FOOT YACHT. And then avoided paying F-ing TAXES on it in Massachusetts.
Doesn’t Mass. have a “use tax”?
If a CA resident buys something out-of-state, he is expected to pay a use tax in lieu of sales tax on that item (e.g. buying books via Amazon). Can’t MA go after Kerry for use tax on that boat? Anything with a legal title like that boat has a paper trail.
As I’ve said, only the stupid rich pay their full tax bracket rate.
“The Realtors and real estate brokers are a major political force,” he said. “I’m hearing from them constantly.”
Real estate agents want oil spill compensation
By LARRY MARGASAK The Associated Press
Posted: 11:49 a.m. Wednesday, July 21, 2010
WASHINGTON — The administrator of a $20 billion oil spill compensation fund said Wednesday he’s been besieged by real estate agents and brokers, demanding that they become eligible for payments.
Kenneth Feinberg, in congressional testimony singled out the real estate agents’ demands as one of many tough eligibility decisions he’ll have to make in the coming weeks.
Feinberg told the House Judiciary Committee he’s working only for victims, not BP or the Obama administration. Operations of the independent fund will begin next month, starting with six-month emergency checks that will be processed within a day and paid out within the next two days.
The emergency payments will not require a release from future claims. Long-term settlements — for current and future injury or loss — will require agreements to accept the offer as final payment. Victims can reject the money and pursue claims independently in court.
Feinberg said he has heard from many real estate agents and brokers about their lost income, and promised to address their concerns.
“The Realtors and real estate brokers are a major political force,” he said. “I’m hearing from them constantly. I’m not sure whether they have a valid legal claim. I’m not sure they can win if they litigate.
“If I am going to do justice here, we’ve got to do something.”
Again, I conflate these realtards with strippers trying to get money because the fishermen aren’t hitting the strip clubs anymore.
Ken Feinberg gave an interview on PBS where he said they are still establishing where to draw the line. He gave a hypothetical example of a hotel in Vegas which made its money on Gulf Shrimp dinners, as probably not getting BP money. Should be interesting to see what he comes up with in the end.
When the big banks who got TARP money but didn’t need it starting using it as gamble money, it was Feinberg who cut the exec pay in half. and wow, those banks suddenly started giving back the TARP. Say what you will about Feinberg, he gets results.
It should be pretty obvious that incomes DIRECTLY tied to pulling stuff out of the water, doing stuff on or under the water, or in some other way completely disallowed by the oil spill should be compensated. Them getting the money will trickle through into the local economies that are impacted.
A realtor can still sell houses. They are not out of work. Making up their ‘commissions’ is bull. Same thing for strippers/grocery store owners/etc. Tour boat operators and fishermen/etc, should be getting money, but by being hired to help out with the spill, and if they can’t help, only then being compensated for doing nothing.
Tour boat operators and fishermen/etc, should be getting money…
That just makes way too much sense.
Where do you draw the line in tourist towns? Just about every business there is based on tourism, and if tourists don’t come because of the spill, then it seems to me BP owes all those businesses some money. That could add up.
I had this wonderful nubian gal in one skin joint always monopolizing me for a lap dance in one big city. The other girls who were “lucky” to get to me when “Alexis” was in the other room told me how upset they were that Alexis would monopolize me.
Oh how fun it is to be a single red blooded American male! Fought over!
Florida Home Sales Up in June:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/florida-home-sales-rise-15-percent-from-june-2009/1110443
From the comments:
The realtor who listed my home said that forclosures and short sales are the only thing driving the market. There are a ton of potential forclosures still out there because the mortgage companies and banks are purposely dragging their feet and releasing them very slowly.
There are a ton of potential forclosures still out there because the mortgage companies and banks are purposely dragging their feet and releasing them very slowly.
And, while they’re taking their sweet ole time, the bank-owned houses are looking a lot like the ones that Ben photographed on his recent HBB tour. Which means that they’re going to need a lot of work to be brought back up to snuff — and that isn’t always feasible.
Good excuse for a home improvement HELOC! you see the beast just keeps feeding itself…
Can’t blame them. Up to now they’ve observed the pumping action from the government and Fed, and are rightly waiting for home prices to turn around - which they have over the past year.
However they’re probably freaking out right now as these propping efforts aren’t be renewed. Especially at the administration’s comments the other day about maybe homeownership not being all it’s cracked up to be. I wonder if that comment alone will cause a big rise in foreclosures hitting the market.
““Everything will be on the table,” Bloomberg said.”
Except of course gold plated public pensions, high salaries and the largesse of other politically connected groups. This should read, “everything will be on the table that doesn’t involve organizations that practice political strong arm tactics”. All of the little people can just go screw themselves.
The exit is looking better and better. Especially when it is 90 f—ing degrees every day.
Where are you thinking of going, NYCB?
Debt free and no asset attachments - the possibilities are endless.
Sometimes, like the past week when I was up there, I fantasize about retreating to my shack in the hills. It’s paid for, taxes about $200 a month … only problem, besides bringing in enough dough to get to Soc Sec, is it’s IN NEW YORK STATE. Whatever good situation we have there now is probably doomed longer-term by the thieves on Wall St. and in Albany.
What will the winters be like there?
Ditto. Been seeing the value of that freedom more and more everyday in so many ways from housing to books to just about everything. “Why am I keeping physical copies of these Alice in Chains CDs again?” and such…
Well i love music and a mp3 or aac version is not good enough for serious listening…same with records….
But i made about 150 mp3 cd’s to take on gigs…80-100 songs on each
plus i still like touching the music
———————–
“Why am I keeping physical copies of these Alice in Chains CDs again?
“…All of the little people can just go screw themselves.”
Will this be Time magazines quote of the year?
“These f@!king Guys!,” Jon Stewart
I’m wondering if what’s happening in Bell, Ca might not start spreading. You can Google-news it. It’s a poor lower-class part of LA where the police dept was sucking up 1/2 the municipal budget and the city manager made 800K per year on the backs of residents who are scraping by on 32K or so. There’s a good NYT article about how they outsourced their entire city government to contractors and nearby agencies and things actually improved.
Just go to the LA times,…I’ve been eating Neil’s All Natural Popcorn and posting ’bout earlier this week…
It’s about time a small journalistic story turned into a “TrueTruthSlayer™” moment!
Egg, you have the first half right. But it’s a different town, Maywood,that laid off all the government workers. No criminality in Maywood. Lots in Bell. I heard on CNN tonight that the manager resigned. I hope he gets some jail time, though it probably wasn’t anymore illegal for him to pay himself $800,000 per year than for Citi banksters to pay themselves tens of millions in bonuses after being bailed out with no hope of repayment.
I’ll bet those brother-in-law, political favor, jobs and contracts won’t be on the table.
“On Larry Summers: This doofus practically ruined Harvard when he headed it. I can’t think of a worse choice to be chief economic advisor. I wouldn’t trust Summers to manage a Starbucks franchise.”
-Richard Russell
After manipulating economic policy that helped ruin the country’s economy Larry Summers should have stepped down in disgrace, but there is no shame; arrogance.
Actually, running a Starbucks would be more economic experience than the doofus would have had in the “real world” advising presidents and congress. It’s a real problem for the inexperienced President of the USA who also has had no “real world” experience in any type of business other than extorting money out of local governments as a “community organizer”. Community Organizer? what is that?
By the way, I saw a breakdown on the President’s cabinet yesterday, comparing the number of people who come from industry with the number who are Academics. 1/12 is the ratio. Or 8%.
It is the lowest level of any president in the USA, ever. His entire group of high level advisers are Intellectuals, with no experience running any business, and yet, that group is going to meet to discuss how to get business back to work. I need to look this up and verify.
I just saw the report in passing and thought, well, that makes sense.
Obama is just canceling out the ex-business influence from the last Admin. Not just the Secretary of the Treasury, but President and Vice President themselves.
You know, I suddenly realized something. This must be the reason that the President can’t commit to making major decisions.
He either turns it over to Committees to work out all the details, or creates a “BLUE RIBBON COMMISSION” to study the problem and report back with recommendations, which will be summarily adopted.
The “crisis” in the Gulf needed immediate attention, most specifically bringing in skimmers to clean up the oil before it hit the beaches. His administration blocked any boats from coming and he provided no assistance, whatsoever, so he could fly down and take photos after the oil hit the shoreline. It’s been a pathetic performance and Americans should be outraged. Instead, the media focus has been on BP. Their darling gets a pass.
What did you expect? The guy had NO executive experience whatsoever. Wasn’t a mayor or governor, had no real-world business experience. He’s well versed in Chicago-style machine politics, however.
Trouble is, the alternative in 2008 was just as bad, but for different reasons.
And if Reagan did those things, he would be hailed as “seeing the big picture” and “not being a micromanager” and “knowing how to delegate.” But hey, at least Obama is a “great communicator!!”
Does someone have a link where I can learn about “the Chicago way” of politics that everyone is now an expert on? And how it differs from “the New York way” and “the Dallas way” and “the Greensborough way?”
chili,
You can always start here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley
It differs only in its brashness and level of finesse.
The President has gotten nothing done? Oh- you mean like pass a healthcare bill and financial reform in the space of a year?
Trouble is, the alternative in 2008 was just as bad, but for different reasons ??
Well, I would argue that the alternative was far worse due to the Nit Wit VP running mate….Just about any of the candidates running in the Dem primary would have won…Hilary would have easily won…
You mean the healthcare bill and financial reform bill that no one’s applauding? The reforms no ones applauding due to the feeling they’re really aimed at further fleecing the public?
We’re still waiting for him to give the little people reason to hope, not just the insurance and banking industries.
The health care bill was supposed to have a public option. But that got tossed out early — back room deal to appease the insurance industry and all that.
However, the public option seems to have legs. Matter of fact, it’s back in the House.
The scary thing is that there’s some out there thinking Palin might actually run in 2012. I would not put it past the American people to actually vote her in as President. If that’s the case I do have relatives in Australia even though they have a rather nasty housing bubble as we speak.
American people to actually vote her in as President ??
Zero chance….
American people to actually vote her in as President ??
Zero chance….
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
“You mean the healthcare bill and financial reform bill that no one’s applauding? The reforms no ones applauding due to the feeling they’re really aimed at further fleecing the public? ”
A considerable chunk of the US population do approve. Both of the financial reform bill and the healthcare bill. An almost equal proportion don’t. Thus its not exactly accurate to say “Nobody wants” these things. If both parties had not bickered so much perhaps they would’ve been executed better. At least one unnamed party did nothing.
The economy was screwed a long time ago.We’ve been “building” an economy purely on debt for the better part of 30 years. Its going to take years to fix things - if they are at all fixable given that the US is rapidly losing its places in the world economy. If Americans fully expect a return to the happy-go-lucky days where everyone had a 2 bedroom house in the burbs with a cocker spanial in the yard, 2 cars in the garage, and fully operational public schools and public services, then I’m afraid they’re in for some disappointment.
No matter who had gotten elected, a President who comes at the initial stages of a recession- especially an unprecedented one like this- is going to get blame for not “fixing” things right away.
“…The President has gotten nothing done? Oh- you mean like pass a healthcare bill and financial reform in the space of a year?”
Ha, you know why Ol’ Abe was so successful getting laws past in his administrations? These guys decided to quit talking in Congress and start forcing things THEIR way, so Ol’ Abe didn’t have to deal with any of this strategy that has come back circa 2010:
“TrueDoNothing™ / “TrueObstructionists™ / TrueGridLokers™”
“Zero chance….”
Oh, come on now…it’s beautiful just to imagine:
Palin / Jeb III 2012
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people” H. L. Mencken
Why do I get the feeling that Goldenmansucks is already placing their bets allowing them to continue: “…doing God’s work”?
Comedy Central would suddenly have a huge amount of comedic material to work with.
Comedy Central would suddenly have a huge amount of comedic material to work with.
The Capitol Steps would have a field day too.
I sometimes wonder if the choice of Palin was a deliberate move to lose the election so that the Democrats would have to deal with the recession and get egg on their face.
I find it hard to believe that nobody saw the crisis coming. I do think Bush hoped it would wait until the next President was in office.
And I also think they had an OMG! moment when they saw how quickly things were falling apart.
But maybe I give them too much credit.
And I also think they had an OMG! moment when they saw how quickly things were falling apart.
But maybe I give them too much credit.
During the presidential transition, the Obama people put up a website called Change.gov. It was interesting to watch the weekly address videos. You could tell that Barack was having some major “Oh, shhh!” moments.
I’m currently reading “American Dreamer”, a bio of Henry Wallace. He was FDR’s Ag. Sec. for two terms before becoming his VP. Wallace was a hard-core farm technologist and practically invented the hybrid corn seed industry in the US. He founded the Pioneer Hi-Bred seed company which is still one of the biggest seed companies, second only to Monsanto.
The book gives one pause because Wallace is so far away from the ivy-league ivory-tower academic that populates government these days.
Wallace’s views on the USSR were awful so it’s good that FDR dumped him for Truman as 4th term VP. But Wallace was a good fit for Ag. Sec. in those days.
It is the lowest level of any president in the USA, ever. His entire group of high level advisers are Intellectuals, with no experience running any business, and yet, that group is going to meet to discuss how to get business back to work. I need to look this up and verify.
I seem to recall reading the same thing about Kennedy’s Best and Brightest. Fat lotta good they did us.
Oh, but you forget the exception to every rule: Robert McNamara.
Being a Vietnam vet, I had to stifle my gag reflex several times while typing his name. He’s another one who deserves a urinal instead of a headstone, for all the guys who come to pi$$ on his grave.
Yes, I just contradicted my earlier post. There are indeed exceptions to every rule.
McNamara…Ha, I remember that dudette:
“…U.S. involvement escalated after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August 1964 when North Vietnamese naval vessels were falsely reported as firing on two U.S. destroyers. McNamara was instrumental in presenting this event to Congress and the public as a pretext for escalation.”
Cheney-Shrub Legacy # 7: “Go to the UN and stick it to ‘em Colin, …good boy!”
August 1964 when North Vietnamese naval vessels were falsely reported as firing on two U.S. destroyers ??
Fast forward to July 2010….
North Korea fires on US Navel War ships on military exercises with South Korea…
What’s that you say? Freedonia’s going to war…again?
We are one spark & one headline away from meltdown…My shoulder harness is securely fastened for the ride….
I think about that alot because it appears that all the political capital from the previous crises has been spent, and there is much more on the PTB agenda to be pushed.
Robert McNamara.
He darn near apologized and admitted he/they were wrong in the documentary “Fog of War”.
I wouldn’t trust HALF of the people running things to run a lemonade stand! And the other half I’m not sure about!
They ought to just offer a $1,000 cash reward to anyone who submits a contractors name / pending conviction.
(This might be a good experiment for the state of AZ as well, instead of relying on the US Gov’t bureaucracy, reward US citizens with cash $$$$ for turning in non-citizens & the “bidnesses” that hire ‘em)
O.C. man fights state’s ‘fraud epidemic’:
July 23rd, 2010, by Jan Norman, small-business columnist / OC Register
“Businesses that are dodging payroll taxes and workers comp insurance have become an epidemic costing hundreds of billions of dollars in California, according to Alan Smith, who owns a business in Orange and is chairman of the National Plasterers Council.
The swimming pool industry has set up a demonstration project in the Coachella Valley to demonstrate another way to investigate the problem, Smith says.
First, companies know who’s cheating, so they provide names of companies to check. Then the trade associations can tell how many man hours are worked based on how many bags of cement a contractor buys for a specific job. Finally, government agents auditing a company can compare purchases with payroll to determine if it is under-reporting payroll taxes.
“Sixty to 80% of whole industries are cheating,” says Smith, who has owned Alan Smith Pool Plastering, which has 80 employees, for 26 years. But he says this “unbridled fraud” will soon drive him out of business. “I lose a million dollars in business each year.”
Smith says he pays $35 an hour including taxes and workers comp insurance, but many competitors pay workers $15 cash and nothing to the state.
Smith along with the California Spa & Pool Industry Education Council are pushing several bills in the legislature to stem this underground economy ways:
1. Stop licensed contractors from getting an exemption from buying workers comp insurance because they claim not to have any employees.
2. Halt companies that pay workers cash in order to avoid payroll taxes and workers comp insurance
3. Stop unlicensed contractors that work for cash to avoid paying taxes
4. Stop divorced dads who skip out on their child support payments by working for cash for companies in the above categories.
Smith says California’s burgeoning underground economy predates the recession. “It goes back at least 10 years because government spending is out of control and enforcement is lax.”
I notice that the pool lobby wisely addresses the “cash” aspect of the fraud rather than the coming right out against illegal immigrants. One solution is to simply require workers to accept pay as direct deposit. That alone would knock out a great deal of the undocumented market.
In 2007 I saw a local economics show on public TV. Two experts were discussing how to “bring the poor into the system.” One expert was pushing — repeatedly — you guessed it: home ownership. Must get these people to buy a house because it paves the way to wealth, yada yada. Total idiot. The other expert said “Buy a home? Most of them don’t even have checking accounts!” Which is true. The poor and undocs use the payday loan place as their bank. And it will become even more widespread as banks start charging more and more fees.
The underground economy is rampant, even the dominant economy, in many countries. With what it costs in taxes, UE insurance, etc. to be in compliance here, the trend will be for our underground economy to increase as well.
I agree Bill….It ‘is” the elephant in the room with regard to tax fairness….For some, it is impossible to get paid off the books just due to the way they are paid (paper trail)….For many others, its easy and no paper trail…
“…with regard to tax fairness”
An ancient “throw-back” commentator
Chapter Seventy-five:
Why are the people starving?
Because the rulers eat up the money in taxes.
Therefore the people are starving.
Why are the people rebellious?
Because the rulers interfere too much.
Therefore they are rebellious.
Why do the people think so little of death?
Because the rulers demand too much of life.
Therefore the people take death lightly.
Having little to live on, one knows better than to value life too much.
Bill:
I’ve said it many time Bush was the greatest president in creating Underground jobs…. I was doing OK under bush…cash jobs were no problem.
I tried turning in them in. There was no place to do it, no phone number nothing. That’s the exact reason we in AZ have to take things into our own hands.
Children throwing rocks at passing cars, fastfood employees throwing food at customers. Got hit in traffic by a guy with no insurance. It’s getting bad.
Mine the border.
And, here’s another Arizonan’s take on things: If SB 1070 gets struck down by the federal courts, just you watch. The Arizona legislature will come back with another bill that passes muster with the feds.
Meanwhile, other state legislatures are considering similar laws. And they’ll be using Arizona as a case study on how to go about it.
Might this be the tipping point that leads to “Secession II”?
The illegal problem is not as bad here, yet there is a great deal of interest in giving illegals the boot, especially as a 1 billion dollar budget gap is projected for 2011-12 here in the Centennial state.
I wonder that too, frustration is getting really high here in AZ. At what point do people start shooting?
Something needs to be done, I don’t want anyone hurt, but things need to be so miserable they leave and don’t come back. Maybe a tent city near the border where illegals get to cook for a summer before being processed. Close to the mine fields where one can hear them detonate once in a while.
I’d also like to see alot of propaganda. Leaflets saying how bad you will be treated, the danger of mine fields. One doesn’t have to hurt anyone, just spread paper. Put up some three wire with some posters. Cool thing about mine fields, it’s the threat that makes it work.
I worked in CA one year. I’ve never worked in a more corrupt state in my life.
That state deserves everything it has coming to it.
Gotta love Gubmint Motors going back into the sub-prime auto loan bidness. GMAC did so well with their 0% loans in the past. What will they think of next? Sub-prime RE loans? To “tap” that market.
Well, late in their business model, long after they became a Union benefit trough, we used to joke that GM was a Credit Company that also made cars. It was quite true. That would become evident if you wanted to buy from them. They could sweeten the deal if you chose GMAC financing as opposed to paying cash. They didn’t want the cash, they wanted the cash-flow.
And the interest payments!
1. Take the cash now and buy a CD: earn 1.5% apr.
2. Lend to the customer thru GMAC: earn 4.5% apr.
And if you stretch it over a six year
loan, you can hike the price of that dually and collect even more interest. That’s a simplified example, but it’s the general idea.
worse than that. They securitized these loans.
My parents have been paying cash for cars for as long as I’ve known them.
They’ve also been customers of the same VW dealership since the 1960s. This dealership has no problem with their cash-paying ways. If they did, my folks would take their biz elsewhere.
I’ve never had any car dealership turn down my cash or balk, Slim. Tell your mom and dad to start shopping around for the best price.
The last several cars we bought, I asked the salesman each time, “How much better a deal can we get if we use your financing?” In no case was there any difference compared to paying in cash.
However, these were not Detroit Three cars.
Filed under: “The War that never officially ended”…or… “Trade-a-nuke-for-much-needed-cash”:
(Will the Swiss remain neutral?)
North Korea threatens ‘physical response’ to US military exercises:
Justin McCurry / UK Guardian / Friday 23 July 2010
“Regime sees naval and air drills as sign of hostility as US urges Asian nations to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea
“Even before the Cheonan incident, the US was tracking around 200 North Korean bank accounts in banks in China, Russia and even eastern Europe and Africa that are believed to be involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction and the export of drugs, counterfeit money, fake cigarettes and weapons,” the Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
The paper said the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, is believed to hold a US$4bn slush fund in secret accounts in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.
…and poorly pirated VHS tapes…
The real question is will we LET the Swiss remain neutral?
You do know that the IRS is now telling the Swiss (and the rest of the world) how to run their banking business? (details later if you need them) Needless to say, they aren’t liking this one bit.
“And a lot of that is simply because again — you know, this is a crisis in part because — caused by the fact people were living beyond their means for a long period of time. And so inevitably we were going to go through a very difficult transition as people save more, reduce their debt burdens,”
~ Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Charlie Rose.
Of course The United States Treasury is having none of that debt reduction. Not when their bubble-headed buddy can finance their ridiculous deficits, perpetual wars and their vote buying machine.
Troop levels in Afghanistan… Iraq …Total.
FY2002 5,200 0 5,200
FY2003 10,400 67,700 78,100
FY2004 15,200 130,600 145,800
FY2005 19,100 143,800 162,900
FY2006 20,400 141,100 161,500
FY2007 23,700 148,300 172,000
FY2008 30,100 157,800 187,900
FY2009 50,700 135,600 186,300
FY2010 63,500 88,300 151,800
FY2011 63,500 42,800 106,200
FY2012 63,500 4,100 67,500
The Afghanistan number are subject to change, but the Iraq numbers are pretty intriguing.
Congressional Research Service.
www dot fas dot org/sgp/crs/natsec/R40682.pdf
My boy coming home in 2 weeks from Iraq - thank GOD!!
Congratulations, Shelby. I admire you and your son.
+1
I am completely against the war in Iraq. But thank your son for me and for everyone else who appreciates our troops and all that they do for us even if we think the politicians(s) responsible for deciding what they should do are complete morons.
Did we get one thing out of the Iraq conflict that warranted the time you had to spend worrying about your son? I doubt it very much. And I know we didn’t get anything worth the lives of the soldiers who fought for their country.
“perpetual wars”
2008 voting option “Plan B”:
The “TrueMaverick™” + The “TrueRogue™” Sarah The Barracuda =
“…100 years in Iraq… if necessary!”
Yeah…Eddie’s example of republican moderates…
Dude, your side is running everything now. If you want out of these “perpetual” wars, get out. Nobody’s stopping you. Obama could order everyone out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow if he wanted.
And why stop there? Close down the bases in Germany and Japan.
It’s been 2 years since the election and you still can’t take any responsibility for the man-child’s actions. Grow up.
“…caused by the fact people were living beyond their means for a long period of time.”
Yeah, about 30 years. The time it took to offshore the jobs, lie about real inflation and engineer a few recessions to force lower wages on everyone.
I sent this letter last night to Marcia Pounds at the Sun Sentinal here in Florida who writes a column on economy and current events, a sort of question and answer:
Hi Marcia.
I was reading your on-line column yesterday as i searched the web for information on unemployment benefits extensions. I have an interest, as my regular benefits expired May 22nd of this year. I got my final check sent out on May 29th and was told I needed to call the Agency for further information.
It took a few days, but when I finally got a person on the phone I was told that my benefits had expired and no further benefits were forthcoming unless the legislature voted to extend benefits. It turns out that that wasn’t entirely true. I was eligible to file for extended benefits and would be eligible if I made an application for the extension by June 5th. I would have been eligible at that time for another week, then would have been on-line to receive the current extension by Congress, as I would have applied by the June 5th deadline established by the Florida legislature.
As it turns out, anyone who hasn’t filed by the June 5th deadline will get no extension of benefits in Florida. The legislature needed to extend the deadline during their special session just concluded, which they had been informed was necessary, but chose not to do so.
Consequently, any people currently losing their regular or extended benefits in Florida will not be getting any addition benefits until the Florida Legislature re-convenes and votes to allow the extension, or unless the Governor can provide an executive order over-riding the current rules.
The legislature isn’t scheduled to reconvene until September.
We won’t be getting any benefit extensions in Florida until then at the soonest. About 5000 Floridians are losing their benefits each day, adding to the approximately 300,000 that have already exhausted their current benefits.
Just thought you might want to look into my investigations and advise your readers accordingly. It’s amazing that the Legislature would pass over the Federal Money made available to a very large number of Floridians that are without any form of income.
Regards,
Diogenes (not my real name, which was in the e-mail sent)
Tampa…..
Diogenes, sorry to hear that the FL B@stards of Bureaucracy hit ya like that.
“…It took a few days, but when I finally got a person on the phone…”
i didn’t really get too upset about the telephone runaround. i suspect that with the high number of unemployed here that they actually are understaffed with telephone agents.
what upset me was that i was given the wrong information. i was told that i was dropped off the roles and didn’t have any additional benefits. i actually did have ONE WEEK of extended benefits: $275.
I needed to file a new application for “extended benefits” in order to get the money. I found that out on my own by surfing the net and reading about TIER benefit deadlines.
I called back a week later, and was told, yes, i was right, i had another full week i could file for. By then, it was too late. I missed the deadline to file.
But worse, if i had filed “by the deadline”, i would now be eligible for additional weeks, but will not get any due to the way the Florida Legislature handled this.
If i don’t have a new job by September, I will have been without any “benefits” that I am supposedly entitled to for about 4 months. This is the second time in my working career that I have collected any benefits for which I have been paying half a lifetime.
But, the “system” isn’t too concerned about me. I’m supposed to be on the paying side, not the receiving side. I am considering “opting out” as a consequence. I’ve paid in enough.
“…I am considering “opting out” as a consequence”
Good for you.
My Puerto Rico cousin Jose (always said with a large smile & hearty laugh): “Hwy, don’t get mad, get even!”
I understand your anger, Diogenes. But before you opt out in the future, weigh the chances of your requiring benefits in the future. I have a truck driver patient in his 50s who never signed up for unemployment. He now has lots of medical problems and can’t collect unemployment when he’s out of work, even after a truck accident that wasn’t his fault (he also opted out of workers comp). He’s been forced back into the indentured servitude of an “independent” (ha!) truck driver. I don’t think he’ll last long. He’s contacted an attorney to help him join the ranks of the Social Security disabled.
I think the amount you pay into unemployment is relatively small compared with what you get,similar to Social Security.
Theoretically, “you” don’t pay anything into the UE compensation fund. Not directly at least. The company pays the full freight.
I’m pretty sure part of my payroll taxes go towards UE, as well as a contribution by my employer.
What kind of work situation allowed this guy to opt out of UE and worker’s comp?
Seems to me that individuals who take a small short term gain in income by being allowed to opt out of these things cost taxpayers more in the long run.
Opting out is simple. You just do everything for cash and don’t take a job where you file taxes. It’s what illegal aliens do, and many Americans. I have an acquaintance that makes a couple hundred thousand dollars a year doing a small business.
He doesn’t report earnings and pays no taxes.
He hasn’t paid any income tax since i have known him, which is about 20 years. He was a big Obama supporter and has all kinds of ideas about how the “federal government” should spend its money. He even applied for social security disability because he has chronic fatigue.
He was denied the disability because he has never paid a dime into the system.
There are Millions of Americans and Millions of illegal aliens that live under the radar while the rest of us pay the tax bills.
I would like to have all the money that me and my employers have paid in Social Security taxes during my working lifetime. It would add a couple hundred thousand dollars to my savings, without any interest.
The SS administration thinks i should work 10 to 15 more years and continuing paying in to get back about $1700 per month at age 67 or 70. At the same time, the give money to support all kinds of people who just came across the border and don’t have a 40 year work history. Is it fair? No. Of course not. But I can’t do anything about it, other than cheat like so many others. I am becoming more and more inclined to telling the government to stick it. I’m not paying anymore.
That’s what I mean by “opting out”. If you play the legal game, you have no choice but to be shorn by the butchers of Wallstreet and their political cronies.
Don’t you love their little games?
Crist signed that executive order to reinstate UI benefits today.
Here’s a walk-away from Ladera Ranch, CA. Someone likely lost real money on this project, and didn’t get to spend a single evening in it.
http://www.covenanthills.com/listing/s606221-66-bell-pasture-rd-ladera-ranch-ca-92694/
Ha, “The OC”
I believe this “prestige” OC city relies on Mello-Roos taxes in addition to standard CA property taxes.
Also, there’s probably very little “all-ready-finished-houses” to seriously make a potential buyer to consider other “options’ ;-/
Mass. Sen. Kerry docks yacht in RI, saving $500K
BOSTON — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is docking his family’s new $7 million yacht in neighboring Rhode Island, saving roughly $500,000 in Bay State taxes.
The Boston Herald reported Friday the 76-foot, New Zealand-built sloop has two cabins, a pilot house fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage. It is owned by a limited liability corporation in Pittsburgh, the longtime home of Kerry’s wife, philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry.
If the boat were docked at the couple’s summer vacation home on Nantucket, they would be liable for $437,500 in one-time sales tax. They’d also have to pay $70,000 in annual excise taxes.
Instead, Rhode Island has repealed those taxes.
Amongst the circles he moves in, this behavior is called having good business sense, and is considered a matter of course.
Morality and guilt are for the little people, leftovers from the dark ages, conveniently deployed to manipulate as the PTB sees fit. If the little people thought like the politicos they so deeply admire (shown by the latter’s reelections) - they would walk away from their underwater obligations and never look back.
“…they would walk away from their underwater obligations and never look back”
Re-write:
“…they would walk away from their meager underwater obligations and never look back”
they would walk away from their underwater obligations and never look back.
Oh, wait…
No wonder the banks are huffy.. the little guy is catching on.
“Heinz”
How The Rich Are Winning
by Brett Arends / Tuesday, July 20, 2010 / Reuters News:
Filed under: “None Dare Call It a Conspiracy”
AFAIC, he threw ‘04 - the guy’s a total wanker.
Don’t taze me, bro!
Ha, Kerry really should have used Edwards barber, might have helped him.
Then again the “Swift-Boaters” established what a fake un-Patriotic American soldier he was anyways, thank goodness.
His response to that was belatedly pathetic. A determined and compotent political strategist could have diffused that.
Still, it’s funny how some things stick in the public conscience and others don’t - there is no ryhme or reason. Imagine if the birthers had hired the boaters as consultants?
guy’s a total wanker ??
Are you a Scott EJohn ??
“Swift-Boaters” established what a fake un-Patriotic American soldier he was anyways ??
Kerry volunteered for service and went to Vietnam….
Bush volunteered to play wannabee pilot and never left US soil…
Nuff Said…
“Swift-Boaters” established what a fake un-Patriotic American soldier he was anyway
scdave,…Lost in translation:
:-/
Swiftboaters equal a-holes…Tortured Kerry and gave Bush a pass…
Does that make the MSM a bunch of a-holes as well? ALL of them torture one side, with lies if necessary, while giving the other side a pass.
Heard about Journolist? Google it. Be sure to spell it as shown.
Well, to be fair both Kerry and Bush used connections to get into the reserves to avoid the draft. Bush figured on flying planes stateside and Kerry figured on being safe in a big ship someplace. It was probably a shock to Kerry when they told him he was to command a tiny boat going up rivers into combat.
Disclosure: I turned 18 in 1971 and simply didn’t get drafted. No “college deferments” by then, I was 1-A, but they just weren’t drafting that many.
Well, to be fair ??
What was “fair” about what the swiftboaters did to Kerry ?? I did not think there was any honor in those Vet’s turning on another vietnam vet like that…It stunk of neocon’s…
By the way…I had similar fate that you did in 1971…Lottery #345
MSM a bunch of a-holes as well ??
I suppose so but that is pretty broad accusation…
What is fact is that Kerry served in Vietnam…Under what conditions is irrelevant…
The swiftboat Vet’s from Vietnam ruthlessly attacked another Vet from Vietnam…Where is the honor for your fellow vet brother no matter what political bent you may have…One of the most disgusting political attacks I have ever seen…
Bush volunteered to play wannabee pilot and never left US soil…
Nuff Said…
Bush asked to be deployed to Vietnam and was denied. The air campaign (at least for the type of aircraft he had trained in - F-102??) had wound down significantly by that time and they weren’t sending pilots over there.
I respect both of them for serving.
Essentially this like most taxes ends up being a tax on the upper middle class. The guy makine 250k a year with a 60,000 boat. It doesn’t pay for them to dock their lower priced boat in RI, and they don’t pay someone to sail it up to them when they are at their summer home.
I agree measton….And it goes across a multitude of categories….These taxes are structured for the masses in the middle…Not for the top or bottom…
Why would Rhode Island do that? They are in serious trouble, and now they’ve lost an easy tax source.
To get a ton of boats anchored there using the dock services and businesses. It drives money into the state through slip fees and other business taxes.
and businesses ??
I bet food service in those marina’s do quite well…
“Mass. Sen. Kerry docks yacht in RI, saving $500K”
I see your boat parking wanker, and I raise:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/23/1743175/greene-denies-his-anchor-damaged.html
Ah, billionaire congressmen. I’m so glad that J6P relates to them well enough to keep electing rich people who couldn’t give a damn about them.
“Rich guys do what’s best for everyone!” - Homer Simpson, “The Simpsons”
We have plenty of empty near broke condo’s here in S.C. I am very surprised the $3.5 million dollar ones aren’t being snapped up.
Pricey condos in foreclosure
The Post and Courier ~ July 23, 2010
CHARLESTON — Lenders are foreclosing on the newly built Anson House luxury condominiums, a four-story, 32-unit complex on the city’s east side that has struggled to draw buyers in the economic slump.
Eighteen condominiums remain unsold at the $40 million development at Concord and Laurens streets. Without buyers for those units, developer Wharfside Associates missed payments on a construction loan this year, according to court documents filed in Charleston County.
Bank of America officials began foreclosing on the development this month, saying the company owed $9.9 million, documents show.
Bank of America has begun foreclosure on the Anson House luxury condominiums in downtown Charleston.
“It has nothing to do with the qualify of construction or any kind of other types of lawsuits that other condominiums get mixed up in,” said Wharfside Associates attorney David Swanson. “The developer, along with a whole bunch of other people, got caught in the economic downturn, and it’s caused a big problem.”
Wharfside Associates’ majority owner was Mount Pleasant developer John Zervos, who died this year. His brother, Michael, who is now in charge of John Zervos’ estate, declined to comment on the matter, except to say that Wharfside Associates has no other projects.
Wharfside Associates took out a $32.8 million loan in February 2007 to pay for the project. John Zervos attracted buyers for the project early on, opening a design center a few blocks away on Calhoun Street to showcase the development’s planned high-end interior features.
Most of the building’s 14 unit-owners signed contracts early in the project’s history, “prior to any real estate crisis in our real estate market,” Swanson said.
Remaining units are priced between $695,000 and $3.25 million.
“…Remaining units are priced between $695,000 and $3.25 million”
Am I to understand that the folks buying one of these most likely drives an automobile upon which they pay a maximum of $300.00 sales tax?
$3 MILLION condo = fools and money
A few days ago, there was some discussion of the free lunch program in California. It appears we have a similar program here in Hillsborough County (Tampa area). It is federally funded, but administered by a county agency. Although it is intended for kids, because it is federally funded, anyone can chow down. Who wants to meet me for lunch?
http://southshore2.tbo.com/content/2010/jul/22/county-offers-free-lunches-area-youths/news/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tbo%2Fsouthshore+%28TBO+%3E+South+Shore%29
Palmy,
This is just a shortened version of the “vision” that the leftists in our government have concerning the work of government. I don’t know if you recall, by several years ago there was an attempt to make our schools “full service schools”. This meant that not only could you go there for breakfast and lunch, even though you were collecting free food credit cards from the US government, you could get your medical care, see the nurse and get other “social services” that should really be combined into a “one stop” service center.
It’s a vision of government that government is there to “serve” the people by providing them with benefits should as food and housing and medical care.
We’ve really gone so far overboard that many people now consider these things basic human “rights”, a term that gets misused regularly.
How absurd is it that you consider it a right to receive something that someone else must work to provide. “Rights” don’t cost anything. It costs nothing to allow you to keep your life and live in basic liberty. Food costs money. Housing, too. and Medical care is very costly. I’m amazed how far we’ve gone over the edge. It used to just be “free public education”.
But, I can’t see a way to stop it until the system collapses under its own weight. I would like to expedite that inevitability……….so, I say,
let’s go get some of that “free lunch”. If enough of us show up we can probably overload the system and create a crisis. FREE CHOW!!!
Yea!! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!
Having worked at a school, I’ve seen the meals they serve firsthand. A lot of these kids won’t make it to forty - let alone collect social security.
The hashbrowns appeared translucent from all the grease.
OK, then switch the menu to soylent green.
Basically, this is an example of how the fedgov is used as a bloatation device.
This is apalling, actually. Like Diogenes said, people already have government food cards. Not to mention the food bag charities that abound around here. I’m not kidding, it has to be seen to be believed. In fact one charity was very proud of the fact that they “listened to their customers” and added rice and beans on demand to the feedbag.
The redundancy here is unbelievable. A true example of government bloat and why we’re in big trouble.
Yes, having worked at schools, you may not want to eat there. Might be better to go without.
One day my students were video taping the sewage running across the kitchen floor…
In the school I attended during second and third grade, the cafeteria food was so bad that I threw up. After that, I was a brown-bagger.
“so, I say,
let’s go get some of that “free lunch”. If enough of us show up we can probably overload the system and create a crisis. FREE CHOW!!!
Yea!! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!”
I’m tellin’ ya, I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe getting a little carpool of retirees over here and going there for lunch. It’s amazing to read the list of locations, because they’re “strategically” located to serve the undocumented crowd, for the most part. Even the Apollo Beach location.
Locusts.
At the old folks subsidized home down the street from me, most of the residents show up for their “free” gubmint cheese get an arm load and then give most it to their chidrens.
It costs nothing to allow you to keep your life and live in basic liberty.
You sure about that?
Well, it shouldn’t be costing the government anything. Aside from basic police services, and infrastructure costs, the government really has no business providing most of the “social services” that it does.
I do realize that under public health we need to provide vaccinations and quarantines and basic water/sewer and sanitation provisions, such as garbage collection.
Ironically, the City of New York wants to collect more taxes for what i consider “basic” services. the “benefits” side just expands.
“the “benefits” side just expands.”
Yep, no end to the free cheese. Anyone want to take a guess as to what will happen with the south-of-the-border crowd when the free cheese ends? The various protests over amnesty, Arizona, etc. are just a little preview. Greece will look like a garden party.
Check Cassandra’s post above…Its getting ugly in AZ…
Yep, no end to the free cheese. Anyone want to take a guess as to what will happen with the south-of-the-border crowd when the free cheese ends?
They’ll probably go home, as their savings will last longer down there. Plus they get to show off their “troka” to the folks back the village.
“Rights” don’t cost anything. It costs nothing to allow you to keep your life and live in basic liberty.
So the police work for free where you live?
How absurd is it that you consider it a right to receive something that someone else must work to provide.
You make good points but take things too far to the extreme sometimes. Think of some of these things (and some are bs too) as societal values and not as “rights”.
The fact is, we live in a civilized society that values certain things like paying a little money so that other people don’t starve for example. Obviously if you don’t value something like this, you are in the minority but that’s fine too.
We all pay a price to live in a civilized society.
“Civilization” is often used as a synonym for the broader term “culture” in both popular and academic circles.[2] Every human being participates in a culture, defined as “the arts, customs, habits… beliefs, values, behaviour and material habits that constitute a people’s way of life” wiki
I agree Rio…
Actually, i don’t think my points are extreme in the least. I believe that the American public has been so completely brainwashed by the “media giants” and public education houses that they have absolutely no sense of what a free society is and ought to be.
The concepts you bring up about “culture” vary from nation-to-nation and ours was primarily a Christian society who’s basis was that our “RIGHTS” are God-given, and therefore no MAN has the right to take them from us, without due process, meaning that the individual has proven incapable of living in a free society and has committed crimes against his fellows or his country (plural of fellows).
Most of the things you think the government should be doing is what individuals in Christian societies take upon themselves as duties to provide…..caring for the sick, the poor, the indigent, the widow, the fatherless, the elderly.
The problem is that godless aetheists have decided to call these “values” and put that role into some form of government mandate and entitlement. It creates massive abuse and re-orders society. When private citizens provide “charity”, they can monitor their work and see what happens when they provide “services”. If the alcoholic uses the funds to get more alcohol, they withhold the funds and provide food only.
When a government agency is created, it just hands over the money, and the reasons for handing it over grow exponentially.
Consider disabilities. We used to understand that persons with physical handicaps had limiting disabilities and provided for that. Now, MOST of the money goes to families with Children, claiming ADHD and similar Psych problems, along with alcoholics and drug abusers. Most of it is fraud.
It’s a way to rob the public purse, another form of welfare.
I think most people that think as you do believe that the “public” should provide the programs that it does because it really doesn’t cost them anything, or very little. But the truth is that the costs that have been projected can never be paid.
The country is bankrupt…….and every country that has tried these schemes eventually finds that fraud and greed play into the system and the people supporting the whole rotten edifice eventually give up supporting it, except at the point of a gun.
It leads to the END of freedom, because it cannot support itself, and free people don’t like being taken advantage of.
I’m tired of typing, so i’ll leave it at that. I don’t think this is extreme, just the way things work when do-gooders get hold of the purse-strings.
Most of the things you think the government should be doing is what individuals in Christian societies take upon themselves as duties to provide…..caring for the sick, the poor, the indigent, the widow, the fatherless, the elderly.
On a national level I know of no Christian Country in the world that adequately provides all of the above solely via private funds. Maybe there are none because it can’t be done.
I think most people that think as you do believe that the “public” should provide the programs that it does because it really doesn’t cost them anything, or very little.
I believe the public should provide some programs but not all. I, as most taxpayers know, know we are taxed for it.
As far as the deficit, every government spending program is proportionally responsible for it, not just entitlements. I would value the food stamp program more than endless wars for oil, tax cuts for the rich, propping up Wall Street and bailing out banks but I admit this is subjective.
I heard a radio spot w/Katie Couric on immigration yesterday.
You know the quote:”Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free…”
The media and the pro-illegals deligation disregard that is a poem by Emma Lazarus, on the Statue Of Liberty, and not govt policy.
A poem marketed as govt policy. How low has the propaganda machine sunk?
(This is a re-post from above.)
You people are seriously saying that children should starve and not receive medical care.
Looks good on ya.
I’m really tired of this “starving child” argument. Have you seen how fat most them are? Most could go a year without food.
I see how fat MOST Americans are these days.
But fat != health. And medical treatment is important in preventing epidemics.
You people are seriously saying that children should starve and not receive medical care.
I’m saying that *YOU* have no right to decide that *MY* money should go to stop them from starving.
It’s not about what they money’s going to. Unless you grasp that, there’s nothing more to talk about.
I remember hearing similar arguments about government spending on the Vietnam War. “I don’t want MY money to pay for it”.
I think it would be interesting to have Form 1040 designate how MY money should be spent. I could choose to spend mine on the CDC and education and scientific research projects. You could choose to have yours spent on whatever you prefer.
I wonder how many people would choose to pay Congress?
What I find interesting is how many of the anti-abortion folks are also against social programs. Make a woman have a baby, but don’t support her baby once he is here (whether with the mother or as an adoptee). It seems inconsistent to me.
Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid committee corrals federal stimulus money for jobs program
By: John Pletz July 19, 2010
It’s not the Olympian economic bonanza Mayor Richard M. Daley envisioned, but his failed bid for the 2016 games has produced a consolation prize in the form of federal stimulus money for a neighborhood jobs program.
The 2016 Fund for Chicago Neighborhoods used $2 million left over from the bid to attract $18 million in federal matching funds to help the unemployed in hard-hit communities such as Englewood, Lawndale, Washington Park and Woodlawn (in-kind contributions total another $2 million). The same areas were expected to benefit from a Chicago Olympics.
“Turning $2 million into $22 million is sort of a loaves-and-fish situation,” says Terry Mazany, CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, which administers the fund and landed the stimulus dollars. “The money was originally envisioned as being spent providing training for jobs related to staging the Olympics. But Plan B is pretty good.”
Mr. Mazany says the extra $18 million means the JobStart program can add hundreds more people to its rolls.
JobStart will spend about $9,000 each for 2,200 participants, providing job-skills training and paying their wages of $8.25 to $10 an hour, as well as transportation and other assistance, for up to four months. Officials hope 60% of the participants will get permanent jobs, or continue on to other job-training or education programs.
So far, JobStart has placed 527 people in temporary jobs at businesses ranging from day care centers to accounting firms.
“Without (federal funding), it would have meant helping just a fraction of the people, perhaps only a few hundred,” says Maria Hibbs, executive director of the 2016 Fund for Chicago Neighborhoods.
“Officials hope 60% of the participants will get permanent jobs…”
Where? On the bright side, this may help keep a lid on things here this summer.
There’s always “hope”.
No kidding. Where? is right.
Anybody want to guess where the bulk of that $22 MILLION will end up? Hint: it won’t in the job seekers pocket.
So much for all those pleas for rate increases because health care costs keep going up:
Consumer group: Insurers kept surplus while hiking premiums
SUCKERS!
Plugs Bite-Me will be in our city today tying up traffic, to waste time on a waste of money dedicated to another clown.
Biden-Hollings link stretches back four decades
Former senator’s longtime friend to be at opening of $18 million USC facility. The State
The bonds that have drawn Vice President Joe Biden to South Carolina again today stretch back through four decades of friendship with former U.S. Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of Charleston.
Officially, Biden is coming to Columbia today to serve as the keynote speaker for the opening of the new $18 million, 50,000-square-foot Hollings Special Collections Library, located on the campus of the University of South Carolina. But the unofficial purpose is for Biden to pay tribute to Hollings, an old colleague and friend who was a mentor and political soul mate during their 30 shared years in the U.S. Senate.
Eh, don’t feel bad. In May I got stuck in traffic on the way to Baltimore because Sister Sarah was speaking.
Have these people never heard of “helicopters?”
At some point China will switch.
China may switch to currency basket for forex rate
Central bank official suggests move away from dollar as benchmark
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — A top Chinese central bank official suggested switching away from the U.S. dollar as a benchmark for the yuan’s foreign-exchange rate, switching instead to a basket of currencies, according to remarks published Thursday.
Is Thailand a good place for investment?
Stock Exchange of Thailand President Charamporn Jotikasthira shares his views on the difficulties of selling Thailand as a destination for equity investment after recent political violence.
In comments posted to the People’s Bank of China Web site, the central bank’s Deputy Gov. Hu Xiaolian said using a basket of currencies from the nation’s top trading partners would allow the Chinese yuan to better reflect trading fundamentals.
“Compared with pegging to a single currency, the exchange-rate regime with reference to a basket of currencies will help adjust exports and imports, current account, and balance of payment in a more effective manner,” she said.
China’s central bank currently sets a “central parity rate” against the U.S. dollar each day, with that day’s trading range confined to 0.5% above or below that level.
But Hu said focusing on the dollar-yuan rate ignored China’s bigger trade picture.
“A floating exchange rate has impact on total imports and exports of an economy,” she said. “Therefore, the floating cannot be aimed to adjust [only the] bilateral trade balance, and it is not advisable to just look at the [dollar-yuan] exchange rate.”
I have another in a series of dumb questions….
Why don’t they charge sales tax on the sale of houses?
Most other items you purchase get charged sales tax. Even used items get charged when there’s a way for the government to track the sales, e.g. sales of used cars. In some states (e.g. CA) there are exempt items such as food and drugs based on their being “necessities”, but the purchase of a house hardly qualifies as a necessity. In other states (e.g. ID) there are no exempt items, but you can claim a “food purchase credit” to offset sales tax when you file your state income tax return. Finally, in some states (e.g. OR) there is no sales tax, but they make up for that by jacking the property tax.
Couldn’t California solve their budget problems by imposing a sales tax on the sale of houses? The purchase of a $1 million house would generate someplace in the neighborhood of $80K - $90K in tax revenues depending on the city and county.
I guess the argument is that a house is not a consumable item, but considered an asset/investment. You don’t pay tax on a share of IBM, nor should you.
California’s problem is twofold in my opinion:
1. State pension system is completely out of control; and
2. See #1.
In all seriousness, the second problem is Prop 13. Prop 13 should apply to primary residences only. End of story. By applying to all property (commercial and residential), over time, a greater and greater proportion of income needs to come from the productive residents (those who have jobs and are working), and less and less from people who simply own CA property (who utilize CA services).
Prop 13 should apply to primary residences only. End of story ??
Why ?? For the reasons you state in your post ??
You need to look at the “reason” prop #13 passed for “all” real estate…Its because government saw “real estate taxation” as their own private little piggy bank…Need some money, just raise the tax…Your arguments are contradictory and have no merit whatsoever particularly in that you suggest the government spending on the pension system is out of control…
scdave, I don’t see why you’re so exercised. The legislature didn’t pass Prop 13, it was on the ballot. And it prevents property taxes from being raised by government.
And you don’t think that the California state pension system is out of control? You are wrong.
http://reason.org/files/california_pension_crisis_reform_study.pdf
This paper accurately outlines the scope of the California pension problem. His recommendation is to switch to defined contribution plans. Other experts say that just undoing the pension sweetener SB40 passed in 1999 would relieve the deficit problem. Something has to be done, but California government is broken.
why you’re so exercised ??
I am not…I just responded to Rental Watch suggestion that there should be a “split” real estate tax roll “End of Story”….
As far as pensions, government at all levels in California has become completely unhinged…Can you imagine what they would be doing without prop #13…That sucking sound you here would be whatever major employers that we have left leaving at light speed…
Curious SC Dave, why would employers leave if Prop 13 applied only to primary residences? Very few business owners own their own property. And those that do would be faced with the same property tax issues in other states. Prop 13 is a gift to property owners when compared to other states in the US.
There would be less pressure on governments to tax business (license fees, etc.) with an altered Prop 13. Many business owners that I talk to (rabid Republicans) are actually in favor of such a change to Prop 13.
why would employers leave if Prop 13 applied only to primary residences?
Very few business owners own their own property ??
Prop 13 is a gift to property owners when compared to other states in the US ??
1st q; why would employers leave if Prop 13
Major employers exposed to constant increases in there real estate tax would look to alternatives…All you need to do is see what some states do to attract industry…First thing on the list tax subsidies..Lot of the time for real estate and capital improvement taxes…Intel headquarters has been in my town (along with many other large company’s) for a very long time…Maybe 40 or more years..Their corporate campus I am sure has very low real estate taxes and the jobs they generate pay a “boat load” of taxes…The increase in real estate taxes for that campus would be “massive” if prop #13 were modified…
2nd q; Very few business owners own their own property ??
Not true…The SBA program is specifically designed to provide financing for business owners to purchase the real estate that they operate out of as long as they occupy at least 51% of the building…Why do you think “commercial condo’s” became so popular over the last 30 years…Small business owners were then able to purchase their units and bring some long term planning and stability to their enterprise…A large part of the value in a business is the “good will” in that people know who & where you are…
Also, ownership of income producing real estate “is” a business no different than any other…
#3 q; Prop 13 is a gift to property owners when compared to other states in the US ??
You could say the same thing about States that don’t have income tax…Or states that don’t have sales tax…Or states that protect your home from bankruptcy attachment.
The list of “gifts” as you call them go on & on…
States get money in limited ways, generally:
1. Tax consumption (sales taxes);
2. Tax income; and
3. Tax properties.
Over time, due to prop 13, taxation of properties has lagged, so with the same level of spending, income is taxed more. If you ask 90% of people why prop 13 is around, they will say that it is so grandma won’t lose her house because of the taxes she would have to pay because of the appreciation in the value of her home.
My very simple question is this–why should a resident of Nevada, who has owned a house in CA for 30 years pay a small fraction of the property taxes that the identical house next door in CA pays (where the owner has a higher basis)?
On the pension side, the government is the backstop to all the payments to the pensioners. I challenge you to find any person with a pension from a private company who finds the benefits paid to state employees as anything other than quite rich (both in terms of amount and the time when someone can start to collect).
so with the same level of spending ??
Do some research on government spending in California before you make a statement like that…
I’m not saying that there is the same level of spending. I should have said, “all else equal”.
I’m saying that a higher and higher proportion of our tax dollars are coming from the taxation of workers, and a lower and lower proportion are coming from property taxes.
And owners of properties are not using less services proportionately.
There is a free rider problem in CA, and it’s getting worse at the expense of the employed and working. The change to prop 13 to apply only to primary residences is a way to reduce the free rider problem.
For what it’s worth. This doesn’t address my comment directly (that income taxes are making up a larger proportion of revenue), but it does show how commercial property owners are paying less and less as a proportion of total property taxes.
http://www.baycitizen.org/ideas/story/taxpayer-advocate-says-prop-13-reform/
is a way to reduce the free rider problem ??
No & NO NO….Its a way to raise more revenue AND revenue is NOT the PROBLEM…
There is always away around it. Hold the house in an LLC, and sell the LLC. The property tax doesn’t change, as the house was never sold.
The property tax doesn’t change, as the house was never sold ??
My county assessor actually require copies of LLC’s that transfer title to real estate so they can see if there are any games being played…
That’s the point you never transfer title of the real estate. The LLC is held out of state, no record of it in CA.
Cassandra:
You are correct in a “real world” sense, but not in a legal one.
A transfer of more than 50% of the ownership of any entity holding real property in CA requires you report it to your county assessor and there will be a step-up in the assessed value.
Here’s what could happen if you don’t (from the LA Co. Assessor site):
Are there penalties for not filing the Change of Ownership Statement?
Yes. Failure to file a Change of Ownership Statement within the time prescribed by law may result in a penalty of either $100 or 10% of the taxes applicable to the new base year value of the real property or manufactured home, whichever if greater, but not to exceed $2,500 if that failure to file was not willful. This penalty will be added to the assessment roll and shall be collected like any other delinquent property taxes and subject to the same penalties for nonpayment.
The LLC is held out of state, no record of it in CA ??
Well sure there is a record…First the record in the county the real estate is in…2nd the tax return that must be filed in the State of California…
Why don’t they charge sales tax on the sale of houses ??
They do…Its called a transfer tax….
Real estate has always been treated a bit differently under the law than personal property. My Property professor in law school was a fairly nasty fellow, especially while questioning students about cases. So I decided that I would volunteer on particular days to avoid getting abused on days I wasn’t as well prepared. One of the cases I volunteered for was a controversy over pleadings in which the issue was whether horse $hit that fell on the road was personal property (which it certainly had been while it was still inside the horse) or real propery because it had become part of the road. I don’t remember what the decision was, but the type of pleading for real property was different than the one for personal property. Also, cases involving real property often when through the equity court, not the King’s court, because property was considered unique (getting a piece of land 50 mile from your own property is different than getting the adjoining piece even if they had the same value) and specific performance could be required.
So it doesn’t surprise me at all that a sales tax ended up applying to personal property, not real property. Some jurisdictions (New York for one) have a separate real estate transfer tax.
Some jurisdictions (New York for one) have a separate real estate transfer tax ??
So does California but it is a municipal tax not a state tax…
They do Dennis. For as long as you own your house. They call it something else…. property tax.
They do in Washington State but have no income tax.
It is one of the more financially healthy states.
So what? These so called reports come out all the time, and what happens? Do the fat cats give it back, not no, but hell no! Waste of time and money pointing the obvious.
Federal Report Faults Banks on Huge Bonuses
23 Jul 2010 ~ The New York Times
With the financial system on the verge of collapse in late 2008, a group of troubled banks doled out more than $2 billion in bonuses and other payments to their highest earners. Now, the federal authority on banker pay says that nearly 80 percent of that sum was unmerited.
In a report to be released on Friday, Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Obama administration’s special master for executive compensation, is expected to name 17 financial companies that made questionable payouts totaling $1.58 billion immediately after accepting billions of dollars of taxpayer aid, according to two government officials with knowledge of his findings who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the report.
Yeah, well, Feinberg isn’t asking for one red cent to be returned because “it wouldn’t be fair” or some such horsecrap.
Of course, it comes from the taxpayers, so he doesn’t care.
But he’s gonna be real careful with BP’s money and how that’s doled out.
He isn’t asking for it back because he wasn’t given authority to get it back. What good does asking do? He is telling every one that an overpayment was made. That is all we are going to get. If Congress had wanted the overpayments repaid, they should have asked for it BEFORE the bailouts happened. Now it is just too late.
If someone told you that you had been over paid for the last few years and ought to give a bunch of money back would you? No, of course not. The fact a serious person appointed to look into the matter was the one who said so wouldn’t have an effect on your decision either.
July 22, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT
Bank reform brings mortgage aid for the unemployed
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
New law includes funds for foreclosure prevention, rehab of abandoned homes
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — More help is on the way for unemployed homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments, thanks to funding tucked into the financial reform legislation signed by President Obama on Wednesday.
…
The bill also includes $1 billion for redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes.
…
How do they propose that an unemployed person pay their mortgage? Maybe they should quit worrying about foreclosures and start worrying about jobs.
As Kwai Chiang Cain once said: Why worry about that which you have no control over.
That was heavily paraphrased. The scene was he was riding on top of a stagecoach. The shotgun guy sweating bullets because an ambush was expected. He asks Cain: Aren’t you worried? To which Cain replies: Will my being worried protect us from ambush? Shotgun replies: No. Cain replies: Then why worry?
Go ahead, I dare you. “so I showed him,’’
Man shot in face with shotgun on a dare in Indian River County
July 23rd, 2010 by TCPalm.com
GIFFORD — Indian River County deputies charged David Lee Martin, 62, with attempted murder after they said he shot a coworker in the face with a shotgun about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Community Auto Recycler’s Salvagers, 4845 45th St.
David Lee Martin
The victim, Ronny Bailey, was listed in critical condition at Indian River Medical Center Wednesday evening, said Jim Harpring, acting sheriff’s office spokesman. Detectives Wednesday evening were still investigating the motive for the shooting.
Martin worked as a night watchman for the salvage company and Bailey’s job at the company was not known.
Witnesses said they heard a “loud boom” and later saw Bailey lying on the ground and Martin holding a double-barreled shotgun and removing shells from the gun.
Salvage company manager Eric Hein told detectives that Martin said he shot Bailey on a dare. Hein told detectives that Martin told him that Bailey said he didn’t have the courage to do it, “so I showed him,’’ according to an arrest report.
There are two that need to be tossed from the pool.
Thanks for the laugh, wmbz. Unfortunately, they’ll probably cost the pool more. Mr. Bailey probably is ineligible for Medicare and I would guess the salvage company doesn’t have a great medical plan. So he’s receiving ICU and reconstructive care courtesy of insured patients and the county. And of course Mr. Martin will now become a ward of the state for his remaining years.
There are two that need to be tossed from the pool.
It’s probably too late. At least one probably has grandkids.
Night watchman Ultra high paying job…you need a Harvard ed to get an interview.
If he was found removing presumably-spent shells from a double-barreled shotgun, Bailey got two rounds in the face. Even with a 20 gauge and small shot that might have been fatal, and I’m sure he’s at least blinded in both eyes.
A single round of OO buck from a 12 gauge will cut a guy in half if fired into his belly.
Could be loaded with rocksalt or something else if they expect to need to scare off ‘dem darn kidz whut keep sneakin in’ or something.
Still, both barrels in the face would mess you up even if it was loaded with pixie kisses and unicorn farts.
Salvage company manager Eric Hein told detectives that Martin said he shot Bailey on a dare.
Another example of poor reporting. It was not just a “dare”.
It was actually a Double-Dog Dare.
“NOW it was serious. A double-dog-dare. What else was there but a “triple dare you”? And then, the coup de grace of all dares, the sinister triple-dog-dare.”
market pulse
July 23, 2010, 11:20 a.m. EDT
Bailed-out banks paid execs $1.6 bln: reports
By Wallace Witkowski
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The U.S. Treasury’s pay czar Kenneth Feinberg said that 17 bailed-out banks paid their top executives a total of $1.6 billion during the financial crisis, according to media reports Friday. Feinberg reportedly said he does not have the authority to get the banks in question to repay the lavish payments that were made while the banks were receiving taxpayer funds.
Some great things about financial crises:
1) The usual rules go out the window.
2) Whatever you did but shouldn’t have can be justified later by saying, “The usual rules didn’t apply at the time, because we were in a crisis.”
3) If you took money you shouldn’t have, you are likely to get away with it, on the basis that “it was a crisis.”
The Financial Times
Bankers overpaid by $1.6bn
By Justin Baer in New York
Published: July 23 2010 19:47 | Last updated: July 23 2010 19:47
Citigroup, Bank of America and 15 other bailed-out financial services companies overpaid their top executives by $1.6bn during the height of the financial crisis, according to a review by the White House’s special master on Wall Street compensation.
…
If one’s principles go out the window during a crisis, they must not be very good principles.
Decline in smoking means decline in state revenue. ~ Stateline
Payments to states under the 1998 tobacco settlement are declining.
Americans are smoking less and less. That’s good news for public health, but it creates an ironically nasty side effect for many state budgets. They have grown dependent on an annual stream of money from tobacco companies, and that money is itself dependent on the number of people who consume cigarettes.
The payments to states come each year as dictated by the Master Settlement Agreement, a 1998 settlement between 46 states and most of the big tobacco companies, in exchange for states’ promises not to sue the cigarette manufacturers over health claims. States have received $73 billion to date from participating tobacco companies.
The payments are calculated each year by a formula that partly relies on the smoking rates in each state. Predicting the payments is never an exact science, but this year’s unwelcome 16 percent drop in funds is thought by many experts as the beginning of a long-term downward trend.
Simple:
Decide how much profit the American tobacco Corporations are makin’ selling cigs to 1.34 Billion Chinese, and then reach back into their pockets, again.
Philip Morris split into 2 companies the International division is exempt from this
Legalize and tax the crap out of Marijuana. Tax revenue restored!
Sales Taxes collected inched up in Ft. Collins because of the Medical Marijuana dispenaries that opened.
Maybe at first. Once it’s legal, people will just grow their own plant.
It’s the same thing that happened when they banned smoking in bars, here. Business was cut in half, many bars went out of business and needless to say, tax revenue from liquor sales was cut as well.
Oops.
BWAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAAAAAA!
How much longer do you expect smokers to keep paying $10 a pack just to support a bunch of in your face progressives. I hope everyone quits or purchases black market cigs, not for health reasons, just to scr3w the greedy statists.
Fewer Americans See College as Good Investment. ~ WSJ
As the price of higher education continues to rise through a shaky economic recovery, fewer Americans are considering college a good investment, especially compared to other needs for savings.
In a survey of 3,000 people, 63.5% said a college education is still a good financial investment for young adults given rising costs, compared to 79.1% last year and 80.9% in 2008. The declining sentiment is reflected across all age groups — 63.5% of those aged 18-29 said college is a good investment, compared to 76.7% last year. Just 61.5% of those over 65 years old said it is a good investment — 82.1% said the same in 2009.
Here are a couple of websites that elaborate on the above:
1. Edububble - A site about the Beating the College Bubble book
2. The Five-Year Party - A book about party schools (and their high tuition and fees)
With regards from your HBB Librarian…
I guess it depends. Are you paying $5000 per year tuition at a State U or are yo paying $30K+ at a private U?
And it also depends on whether you’re paying $5K at a good state school for an Engineering degree or $30K at the private U for a degree in Early Elizabethan History.
This is just me sort of voicing my thoughts. But is anyone else rather pleased at the current state of the housing market? I’m still a renter in the Bay Area and have been saving quite a bit of cash for a good 5-6 years now. By the looks of it with all of the tax incentives cut and the jobless rate high, housing is going to be in the doldrums for… years perhaps. That’s fine with me since I can just continue to pay my cheap rent and save up for when we move out of the state.
I sleep rather well these days.
Oh- and adding to this, I was listening to the news today and it was mentioned that fully 90% of the loans being made were for people with extremely high credit scores and 20-30% down payments. That’s $40k for the avg. American home and as much as 100k in places like San Fran.
This got me thinking a bit. We’re probably moving to Austin TX next year or so. I’ve been wondering why TX in general still has somewhat reasonable prices. I’ve talked to a few people there and as it turns out, the state got burned by the savings and loan debacle in the 80’s. As a result banks and the state there have strict lending guidelines. In other words- they are doing what the rest of the country should have been doing, which is to assure that anyone who buys can actually afford the payments and thus this is reflected in the prices. Perhaps TX is more of a barometer of what the avg. American can actually afford.
Jetson…Just be aware of the property tax rate in Texas..Its very high and unlike prop#13 in California it is not “capped”….
it is not “capped”….
Travis county has a 10%/year cap, IIRC.
I was unaware of that dj…
You sound happier nowadays, jetsonboy. Kudos.
I pay $500 more a month for my rental home than my combined house and NY state tax escrow payments were. That was on a rather nice house which was almost paid for. The state of this rental is far below the condition of our last home. Rental inventory is not high eveywhere and is priced accordingly. At some point anything I might save by waiting it out will be swallowed by my $19k a year rental. This rental though is cheap. Many are asking $2200/mon. The homes I’m looking at are only $250-$299k. I can’t imagine more than a $50k savings after a drop. The clock is ticking. The only thing that makes this situation at all worth it is my kids are so much happier here than in the last location which was conspicious consumption, USA. It’s nice to be where people treat each other with respect.
Not only do I feel good about it, but I’m enjoying renting. As a home owner I wasted too many days off fixing this or working on that. Every trip to HD or Lowes cost me too much just to buy what I needed. I liked my house but rarely got a chance to just enjoy my house.
Now that I’m renting I’m saving all the HD and Lowes money (which goes into savings), my car will be paid off in three months. No CC debt, no student loans - nothing. (And the time I have now to spend taking my son to the park vs. painting a room is invaluable)
As for the current market, I’m just happy to see things slow down and decline in higher areas. I’ve been watching a town house on Redfin go from 500K asking price to 120 days on the market now priced at 410K.
“…my car will be paid off in three months.”
Something I also noticed: Cars are much easier to pay off when you aren’t throwing away your money on home ownership.
In fact, we own two paid off cars, one of them bought with cash in Spring 2008 which we could have otherwise wasted on a home downpayment.
Agreed. In fact once it’s paid off I’m going to keep making the same payment into my savings account since the money is already budgeted. It’s a 2006 Grand Cherokee with 51k miles - and I’m gonna drive it until the frame falls off! If I can get five more years out of it I’ll already have the cash for another car!
“…housing is going to be in the doldrums for… years perhaps.”
One natural consequence of measures currently underway to ’stabilize’ (inflate) home prices above where the market is trying to take them will be ‘lower than expected’ future appreciation on owned homes.
Prudent investors will allocate their assets accordingly…
“This is just me sort of voicing my thoughts. But is anyone else rather pleased at the current state of the housing market? ”
Hell yes! Every renter should give him or her self a pat on the back for not falling for the “American Dream” crap that realtors shovel out.
I like the part about the “doldrums for years.” It’s true. When housing reaches its bottom, it’s going to bounce along for at least a decade. At least i hope. There can’t be that much bottom feeder money hanging around to buy ALL of it up. And bottom feeders don’t hang on to inventory.
No hurry of being priced out forever.
“And bottom feeders don’t hang on to inventory.”
Does that include Uncle Sam?
Uncle Sam isn’t a bottom feeder. He’s a knife-catcher, and sought out the sharpest knives.
I don’t wish ill on home-debtors. I know many. But, lower house prices means less money concentrated in the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) sector, which means more money available for productive pursuits in other parts of society. And a heterogeneous economy is much more shock resistant than a homogeneous one.
Additionally, I saw people getting swept up in the mania, drinking deeply of the Koolaid. Dumping meager savings into tiny cr-pshacks in very marginal areas, and then being saddled with albatrosses for years to come. For places they really didn’t want to live in, in the first place.
I’d like to see a lot less of that happening. Had they just rented and rode out the credit bubble, they’d have a lot higher net worth, and a lot less stress on themselves and their marriages, and would have been able to maintain a higher standard of living.
So, yes - I’d like to see a leash put on the FIRE sector, and I’d like to see less housing-ensnared paupers. I’d like to see housing once again be a benefit to society, not a wealth-draining trap.
GM Draws Washington Scrutiny Over Purchase of Subprime Lender
General Motors Co., the automaker 61 percent owned by the U.S. Treasury, is facing criticism over its decision to pay $3.5 billion to buy a lender that specializes in auto loans to shoppers with less than top-notch credit.
While GM plans to use its new lending arm to write auto leases and provide a “modest” boost in subprime loans, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley asked the watchdog of the government’s bank-rescue program to investigate the purchase. And a member of a think tank questioned the wisdom of a company that is majority-owned by the government lending money to people with poor credit after a financial crisis was sparked by risky loans.
“If GM has $3.5 billion in cash to buy a financial institution, it seems like it should have paid back taxpayers first,” Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said in a statement on his website. “After GM’s experience with GMAC, which left GM seeking a taxpayer bailout, you have to think the company and, in turn, the taxpayers would be better off if GM focused on making cars that people want to buy and stayed clear of repeating its effort to make high-risk car loans.”
“If GM has $3.5 billion in cash to buy a financial institution, it seems like it should have paid back taxpayers first,” Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said in a statement on his website. “After GM’s experience with GMAC, which left GM seeking a taxpayer bailout, you have to think the company and, in turn, the taxpayers would be better off if GM focused on making cars that people want to buy and stayed clear of repeating its effort to make high-risk car loans.”
Say what you will about Grassley, but he’s a pretty frugal guy. And he took that characteristic to DC.
I don’t know much about Grassley but he is dead on 100% correct about what GM should be doing. Sub-prime car loans is not one of them.
If GM, like many big ticket retail companies, can’t sell to sub prime, then they WILL go out of business.
Because the reality is that sub prime is the majority of consumers in this country. That’s what happens when you permanently get rid of a few millions of jobs while cutting the wages of those remaining.
California Boy, 4, Battling Undiagnosable Condition. ~~ July 23, 2010
Internal bleeding, recurring sores, asthma and fevers up to 106 degrees – these are just a few of the health issues Reece LoCiero has been facing since he was 10-months-old.
The California boy, now 4, suffers from a condition that has completely perplexed doctors, and no matter how many tests, biopsies and scans they perform, they cannot pinpoint what is exactly causing Reece to be sick, the Glendale News-Press reported.
“He practically lived in a hospital the first years of his life,” Reece’s mom, Natalia LoCicero, told the newspaper. “It’s been a roller coaster.”
But doctors at Los Angeles Childrens Hospital are hoping a new test, involving Reece swallowing a small camera that takes thousands of pictures as it makes its way through his system, will shed some light on what is causing all these symptoms.
They expect test results to be available in the next couple of days.
“At this point, we’re kind of at a loss,” Dr. Byrnie Collins, a gastroenterologist at the hospital said.
“…fevers up to 106 degree”
Definitely his little body is saying something with temperatures that high:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coley%27s_Toxins
Something I seriously studied back in my medical genetic days.
He’s got Housing Fever!
This is California. Maybe some lingering gold rush fever?
no matter how many tests, biopsies and scans they perform, they cannot pinpoint what is exactly causing Reece to be sick
Where’s “House” when you need him?
If this story was out of Florida, I’d be freaking out about Corexit and moving pronto.
I just heard on the radio that the actress Brittany Murphy and her husband died of the same syndrome, just a few months apart - anemia and pneumonia.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20403901,00.html
Marrina BlanthornJul 23
Sounds like black mold in the mattress. A friend lost her T cells from black mold in her mattress ( the tiniest amount).. just like having AIDs without the AIDs.
Looks like the folks in Wisconsin have a real smooth wordsmith here…
When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Candidate For State Assembly Says She’s “Not The White Man’s B*tch”
Ieshuh is Not The White Man’s Bitch
A Wisconsin woman has decided to run for a seat on the State Assembly. There’s just one small problem: Her ballot description says she’s, “not the white man’s bitch.” Pop it to see what the election board had to say about that.
Ieshuh “Cuz I Keeps It Real!” Griffin is off the chain. She has decided to run as an independent candidate for the Wisconsin State Assembly. Unfortunately for her, an oversight committee says the description on her ballot entry is unacceptable.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A legislative candidate from Wisconsin can’t use a profane, racially charged phrase to describe herself on the ballot, an election oversight board decided Wednesday.
Ieshuh Griffin, an independent running for a downtown Milwaukee seat in the state Assembly, wants to use the phrase, “NOT the ‘white man’s b—-.’”
But the state’s Government Accountability Board voted to bar that wording, agreeing with a staff recommendation that it is pejorative and therefore not allowed.
State law allows independent candidates to have five words describing themselves placed after their names on the ballot as long as it’s not pejorative, profane, discriminatory or includes an obscene word or phrase.
Seriously? Five words to describe your policies on an election form? I think she had the right idea. I hope she gets elected just for the lulz factor.
President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho!
Mass Layoffs Up in June ~ Jul 23 2010
More firms engaged in mass layoffs in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results are disappointing. The number of workers laid off through mass actions of fifty or more increased by 7.2% compared to May. But more alarming is the number of firms that participated in these activities, which increased by 16.6%. That’s the biggest jump since August of 2009.
Can I have some sprinkles on my double dip?
China’s Banks Said to See Risks in Loans
Bloomberg News - Jul 23, 2010
Chinese banks may struggle to recoup about 23 percent of the 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) they’ve lent to finance local government infrastructure projects, according to a person with knowledge of data collected by the nation’s regulator.
About half of all loans need to be serviced by secondary sources including guarantors because the ventures can’t generate sufficient revenue, the person said, declining to be identified because the information is confidential. The China Banking Regulatory Commission has told banks to write off non-performing project loans by the end of this year, the person said.
Commission Chairman Liu Mingkang said this week borrowing by the so-called local government financing vehicles may threaten the banking industry. The nation’s five-largest banks, including Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., plan to raise as much as $53.5 billion to replenish capital after the sector extended a record $1.4 trillion in credit last year.
MN lake home sale article. Property taxes becoming a major issue in forcing sales and plus the typical UHS spin.
Inventory, sales up in Detroit Lakes area this year
http://tinyurl.com/25cvm64
Wow, that was unexpected. ; )
What’s another trillion, it’s just debt, no problem.
Muni `Race to Bottom’ May Cost $1 Trillion, Former Los Angeles Mayor Says.
U.S. cities and states may need more than $1 trillion of federal assistance in the next three years to stave off financial failure, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said.
Local governments are in a “race to the bottom” and U.S. taxpayers will inevitably be called on to bail them out, Riordan said in an interview at Bloomberg News’s Los Angeles office. The federal government should make pension, health-care and school reform a condition of receiving the aid, he said yesterday.
“It’s not just L.A., it’s not just California, it’s all over the country, you’re going to see all these entities become totally insolvent,” Riordan said. “I think the federal government has to come in and have a list of what the states have to do to be saved.”
I still say California is too-big-to-fail.
Time will tell whether I am right…
But who is going to pay the bill ??
Non-Californians, perhaps? (Actually not sure how any of these bailout tabs are covered…)
It may be too-big-to-fail, but it’s NOT too-big-to-flail.
We NEED to hit rock-bottom in order to do the necessary reforms. Bailing us out is like giving your cocaine addicted friend a grand to help him ‘pay the rent’.
Governments the world over need to stop snorting the cash up their nose and start using it responsibly.
+1 sfbb…
I agree heartily. Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out.
In the same way that Germans abhored the thought of saving the day for Greece, the more fiscally conservative states aren’t going to be backing CA or IL’s fraud-laden largesse w/their blood, sweat and tears. This may be where more intense backlash appears.
fiscally conservative states aren’t going to be backing CA or IL’s fraud-laden largesse w/their blood, sweat and tears ??
And who could blame them…
Couldn’t happen to a nicer state.
I sincerely hope that this ends the overwhelming influence of CA on national affairs and culture.
Thanks for the gangbangers and rap and junkie celebrities and poo-litical correctnes, CA. Back at-cha!
Cops: Teen Torched Family, Killed Himself
Say Staten Island Blaze Was Set Intentionally; Razor Blade Found Under 14-Year-Old Boy’s Body In Separate Room STATEN ISLAND (CBS) ―
Five tragic deaths have rocked a Staten Island community.
Throats slashed and bodies set on fire, a mother and her four children were found dead Thursday in an apparent murder-suicide.
And police believe the grisly murders happened at the hands of a 14-year-old boy, a member of the family.
The fire moved quickly, punching into the pre-dawn sky. The discovery of the bodies inside immediately made the incident a tragedy. One firefighter told CBS 2 HD the FDNY didn’t think it could get worse, but it did.
Pictures of the three youngest siblings were displayed on the fence outside the daycare center they attended. The already unthinkable tragedy at their home on Nicholas Avenue deepened Thursday night with word that the eldest brother, 14-year-old C.J. Jones, may have murdered his entire family, slicing two sisters with a straight razor before setting the apartment on fire and cutting his own throat.
This kid was probably out of control for years. And the family probably tried everything to get him reined in, but to no avail.
Hate to say it, but there are bad seeds out there. The rest of us need to be protected from them.
NYs cutting of bed #s and treatment resources for the mentally ill probably didn’t help this situation. Resources for this age group have long been considered in crisis mode upstate and still being cut further. I wonder if the situation is any better downstate.
NPR had a pretty good piece on this last week. Basic idea was that certain people, no matter how well nurtured, will always be more responsive to nature. Or as you put it, are just plain rotten from the beginning.
“the family probably tried everything to get him reined in, but to no avail.”
These were black people right?
Where was the father?
You have a 14 year old black male child living in a house full of females with no father?
(((shakin my head)))
Spook….uncanny you’re right
Demographics
Make the Road New York, a community outreach program that serves Port Richmond along with two other distressed New York City communities describes Port Richmond as being “predominantly populated by poor and working class Latinos and African Americans, including many immigrants.”
The organization cites the average yearly income of a family of three in the neighborhood as being below $19,000.[6]
This kid was probably out of control for years. And the family probably tried everything to get him reined in, but to no avail.
Most likely. I know several people who are having the same problem with their disabled children.
But hey! The government shouldn’t be involved in social services! Just ask some folks around here!
Government has taken the role of father and husband from the blk male and phenomena like this are the result.
if you got rid of all welfare programs for blk people, suddenly, healthy able bodied young black males would have the VALUE to the so called “community” that they should have.
All you white people better knuckle up cause your next in line for the “shredder”
Bernanke Says Extending Some of Bush’s Tax Cuts Would Maintain Stimulus
Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, listens to opening statements during his semiannual monetary policy report to the House Financial Services Committee in Washington. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said extending at least some of the tax cuts set to expire this year would help strengthen a U.S. economy still in need of stimulus and urged offsetting the move with increased revenue or lower spending.
“In the short term I would believe that we ought to maintain a reasonable degree of fiscal support, stimulus for the economy,” Bernanke said yesterday under questioning from the House Financial Services Committee’s senior Republican. “There are many ways to do that. This is one way.”
How does he propose to make up for decreasing your revenue by increasing your revenue? I can understand lowering costs to make it up, but increasing taxes to cut taxes seems like a no-op.
“How does he propose to make up for decreasing your revenue by increasing your revenue?”
Guessing: Macroeconomic black magic
Cut taxes for the rich
Cut services, and increase federal and local taxes and fees for the middle class.
Ya think?
What?? The public (health-care) option is being re-introduced in the House?
Does that mean we can expect more fine examples such as this of patriotic Americans respecting other’s freedom of speech and engaging in meaningful debate on the matter?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q7XH8lfGMc
As I’ve said here before, there are three reasons why I believe we’ll have a public option before too long:
1. Small businesses and individuals can’t shoulder double-digit insurance rate increases forever. They’ll drop coverage. And more than a few of them will tell their congress-critters about it. Being what they are, congress-critters will have to do something. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) is. She just introduced H.R. 5808.
2. Remember all those times that Obama said that we need a public option to keep the insurance companies honest? Well, guess what, insurance companies are still acting like the lying sacks of shhhh! that they’ve always been. Obama’s back room deal to nuke the public option is so-o-o last year. We The People haven’t forgotten what he said.
3. In addition to being an environmental disaster, the Gulf oil spill is also turning out to be a huge problem for the health of the people in that region. And, when it comes to dealing with huge health problems, the health insurance industry has provided abundant proof that it isn’t up to the job.
I made a prediction that there will be a Public Option passed by/in 2013. Dems, I think, will be up to 58-59 Senate votes again by then, and one or two Republicans (Snowe) will be convinced that the insurance companies have “pulled the trigger” and at least vote for cloture.
Maybe health care will look like the military: government-run, but with lots of contractor cash to make the private sector crowd happy.
Small businesses and individuals can’t shoulder double-digit insurance rate increases forever. They’ll drop coverage.
We’re going to be pushed into Health Savings Accounts.
Just don’t end up in the hospital.
Supposedly, HSAs are going to lower the cost of health care by turning us into savvier, price-shopping consumers. Well, I’m here to tell you, as a former HSA holder, that nothing could be further from the truth.
You’re paying your own way at the doctor’s office? Well, that will be full freight, buster, and we don’t cut deals with self-employed vermin like you.
In addition to the condescension described above, I also had a lot of trouble with the out of state bank associated with my account. No way to wire funds to them. Or send them via check in a Fedex envelope. They had to go to a post office box in Pittsburgh, and that was that.
The bank was notorious for processing checks first, and then deposits. Just so’s they could charge me a fee. I fought ‘em on that one, and, yes, I won.
In the end, I decided that the HSA just wasn’t worth the bother.
Sometimes politicians are bound and determined to use the most costly and wasteful means possible to solve a problem.
Problem: too many geese around NYC.
Their solution: The captured geese are placed alive in commercial turkey crates. The geese would be brought to a secure location and euthanized with methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Euthanized geese would be buried.
Gassed geese have to be buried since the poison renders the meat unfit for eating. What a waste.
Why not have hunters cull the herd? This won’t cost the government much if anything. Geese congregate in parks so you can’t use shotguns, but why not swords? A goose’s neck is a great sword target. One “swish” of a sword and the headless goose will fall down, ready to be stuffed into your game bag. The heads could be placed into a container at the park’s entrance so game wardens could keep a tally.
Linkey
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/state-plans-to-eliminate-170000-canada-geese/?hp
Okay, you made me laugh out loud at work. Quit trying to get me fired! The image of New Yorkers running around beheading geese while shouting “THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!” is now indelibly etched in my brain.
This is about the time during the summer when geese are unable to fly because their feathers are molting. Therefore they stick close by lakes and ponds, as the water is their only escape from predators. Talk about an unholy mess around the perimeter when one of those ponds is on a golf course.
At that time it’s an easy task to grab them and wring their necks. Just be sure you’re wearing boots!
“This won’t cost the government much if anything. Geese congregate in parks so you can’t use shotguns, but why not swords?”
Be advised before you swing and slash all you NYC Swashbucklers, I don’t believe DennisN is really an attorney.
I think he’s a sharpshooter with a warped sense of humor on the NYC SWAT Team and he is having another … very slow day.
(and this was the kid who wanted his very own Davy Crocket M-29 Davy Crockett Weapon System shoulder launched tactical nuclear recoilless gun for the playground recess)
Dennis Bio.
Worked in defense electronics for almost 20 years. Made project engineer for defensive systems for F-16 and A-10. Designed targetting systems for Tomahawk cruise missile. Designed nuclear safety systems for nuclear TLAM varient (aren’t you glad I designed safety systems for nukes?
). Bunch of other stuff. Then USSR collapsed and needed new career.
Went to law school at age 40 and wrangled good paying jobs as a patent attorney, leveraging off my EE work. Retired “accidentally” at age 52 to bail out of over-bubble-priced house in San Jose and move to low-cost-of-living Boise. Found out once the house sold for megabucks that I didn’t really have to work anymore.
Has type-03 FFL and concealed weapon permit. Can equip a small millitia out of my collection in case pesky commies try something.
“Worked in defense electronics for almost 20 years. Made project engineer for defensive systems for F-16 and A-10. Designed targetting systems for Tomahawk cruise missile. Designed nuclear safety systems for nuclear TLAM varient (aren’t you glad I designed safety systems for nukes?”
As a kid, I was sleeping approx. 6 miles from the potential ground zero with the B-52 in “The Goldsboro Incident”.
My best friends Dad was the aircraft commander in that “accident” and we lost him along with 2 other crew members but the last safety switch worked on the one nuke that screamed all the way in.
Sleep well tonight, your Air Force is AWAKE.
Eagles
American eagles
America’s strong
Just as long
As they fly
(Give us some)
More bombers to attack with
More bombers till the skies are black with
Eagles
American eagles
America sings
Of her kings
In the sky
- Irving Berlin
Where and Why are Businesses Closing? [INFOGRAPHIC]
This recession was particularly ravaging to many businesses. ~1.5 million businesses have already closed their doors. Here is a more in depth look at where businesses are closing and why:
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/breaking-news/economy/where-and-why-are-businesses-closing-infographic/?p=14425/
Good find.
Recovery Report: Schools plan layoffs now that much of stimulus aid is gone. ~ Phoenix Business Journal
WASHINGTON — Federal funds from the economic stimulus package helped save teaching jobs at two-thirds of all school districts, but most of those districts plan to lay off teachers during the upcoming school year.
That’s according to a survey conducted by the Center on Education Policy. It found 75 percent of school districts that received funds from the stimulus bill’s State Fiscal Stabilization Fund expect to lay off teachers in the 2010-11 school year because of budget shortfalls. School districts already have spent much of their stimulus funds.
Nearly half of all the school districts that received stimulus funds had to reduce their teaching staffs this year because of local budget cuts, according to the survey.
Minn. Man Falls Off Operating Table, Dies. ~ July 23, 2010
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The family of a man who died after falling from operating table is suing a St. Paul hospital.
The lawsuit filed in Ramsey County District Court says Max DeVries was sedated and waiting for routine surgery at St. Joseph’s Hospital when Velco straps holding the 300-pound patient failed.
It says DeVries rolled off the table and hit his head last March. He died in April after suffering a massive stroke.
His son, Shawn DeVries, says it’s a tragedy that could have been avoided. The Star Tribune says the family contends the hospital lacked appropriate facilities and equipment, including wide enough tables and adequate restraints.
The hospital says it’s conducting an investigation.
Last time I had surgery, boy was I ever tied down. I could move my arms and head, but that was about all.
BTW, this was an operation done under local anesthesia, and Slim came through it with flying colors. I’m no fan of the medical profession, but that surgeon deserved five stars.
One of my sisters is a RN she was telling me years ago that hospitals were have to get up graded gurneys due the fact there were so many fat people, breaking what they had.
I know a EMT that told me of a call where they had to call a tow truck & fire dept. to get a 500lb fat guy out of his house. Anyway the new transport gurneys are good up to 1200 lbs. I am told.
I bet I know what happened, because it nearly happened when I was a resident. Operating on morbidly obese patients is so scary - it’s hard to get an airway and ventilating them while they’re supine is very difficult because of all the extra weight on their chest, and that’s just the beginning. We had a very large man on an extra-large table. When we unlocked the table to position it after he was asleep, it tipped - he was top-heavy - most of his weight was in his upper abdomen. Luckily there were enough of us around to right the table before he slid off enough to hit his head. You can belt people but you have to use enough padding to prevent pressure sores or nerve injuries, so they’re not completely immobilized. How ironic that he’ll take care of his family after he’s gone.
Up another 100
12k by eoy.
Yes, Obama is really doing a great job.
If it gets to 12K by eoy, I guess you will owe thanks to Obama. That would be a 100% increase over where it ended up shortly after W left office.
Good luck!
*snickers* uh huh. Aren’t all the Alt-A and prime ARMs gonna start resetting by the thousands in September this year? Or is that next year?
~Right on the heels of our chief economists report today. Barry stated that we have made tremendous progress. He is right we have, straight to record debt, year after year.
White House predicts record $1.47 trillion deficit
WASHINGTON (AP)– New estimates from the White House on Friday predict the budget deficit will reach a record $1.47 trillion this year. The government is borrowing 41 cents of every dollar it spends.
The new estimates paint a grim unemployment picture as the economy experiences a relatively jobless recovery. The unemployment rate, presently averaging 9.5 percent, would average 9 percent next year under the new estimates.
I know bleeding hearts will not agree, but this guy has been out of a job for 2 years, and could not find another one? I call BS! I know several people that lost jobs in the last two years including a couple in my family, they found work. There are jobs to be had, may not be what you want to do, but they are out there. This guy is on welfare, plain and simple.
When will unemployment checks be mailed? Not soon.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Kevin Landry had to give up his San Diego apartment because he couldn’t afford the rent after his federal unemployment benefits were cut off in early June.
Since then, Landry and his cocker spaniel, Curley, have been sleeping in his 1991 Dodge Dakota in a church parking lot. He sold his possessions and applied for food stamps in order to survive.
And even though President Obama signed a measure Thursday that extends benefits through November, Landry knows he won’t get his $475 weekly check anytime soon.
The last time Congress allowed the benefits to lapse, it took a month for him to start getting payments again.
“I’ll just have to scrape by,” said Landry, who lost his job as a credit manager for K2 Skis in September 2008. “There’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve learned to deal with it.”
Though Congress has finally pushed the deadline to file for federal extended insurance through Nov. 30, it could take weeks before the jobless start getting their checks again.
Back when I was bicycling around the country, I shared an Illinois state park camping space with a family from Alabama.
The father had been laid off from a steel mill, and they were traveling around and living in the car. They paid for their travels by picking up aluminum cans and turning them into cash at recycling centers.
It was pretty easy to pull out the sympathy card, but wait a minute. The kids were helping with this family business effort, and mom was (after a fashion) teaching them the ABCs. They were seeing America on the cheap, and they seemed to be enjoying the adventure.
Oh, did I mention that they invited me to share their dinner?
Nothing wrong with that! They were doing something, not waiting on someone else to do it for them. The kids got a real adventure out of it.
I’ve meet uneducated country folks that were dirt poor, lived by their own devices, and wouldn’t have ever thought they were poor unless someone came along and told them they were.
What kind of marketable skills does a ‘credit manager’ for a ski shop have? My guess is… none.
If he knew how to work on skis (yes, they need repairs too), then he’d have a skill worth selling. But a credit manager? Not even a dime a dozen.
K2 Skis is a brand of skis, not a store. He must have been someone to check out the credit worthiness of ski shops and other retail outlets.
I know a guy who had some serious credentials and it took him a year to find a job.
Wal Mart does not hire people with impressive resume’s. Nor do ANY of the low paying employers.
I disagree wmbz. People line up by the hundreds when jobs become available. The best get the job. The ordinary people don’t, over and over again.
Bragging opportunity: my son’s girlfriend just got a job that 250 people applied for. We’re very proud, but not surprised. She has worked her entire life and is very savvy. New college grads who have never worked don’t have a chance against a girl like her. They’ll go to the Peace Corps or Teach America instead, because they have lots of volunteering on their resumes - she has very little.
“I’ll just have to scrape by,” said Landry, who lost his job as a credit manager for K2 Skis in September 2008. “There’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve learned to deal with it.”
Good for you Kevin, I’ll bet you’ve found skillz you never knew you had:
“If I wasn’t in the rap game
I’d probably have a key knee deep in the crack game
Because the streets is a short stop
Either you’re slingin crack rock or you got a wicked jumpshot”
Just one more paid off clown in the D.C. circus, in wall streets back pocket, what a joke.
Pay czar chose not to go after $1.6B in bank pay
Feinberg didn’t go after $1.6B in executives’ pay, says their shame is penalty enough. ~ July 23, 2010
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration’s pay czar said Friday that he did not try to recoup $1.6 billion in lavish compensation to top executives at bailed-out banks because he thought shaming the banks was punishment enough.
Kenneth Feinberg said 17 banks receiving taxpayer money from the $700 billion financial bailout made “ill-advised” payments to their executives. But he stopped short of calling them “contrary to the public interest” — language that would have signaled a fight to get the money back.
Feinberg couldn’t force the banks to repay the money. But the law instructed him to negotiate with banks to return money if he determined that allowing them to keep it was not in the public interest.
Their shame…. is penalty enough?
Won’t someone PLEASE think of the CEOs?! They should be compensated for their shame as well! Dear god, how barbaric!
Proposed federal rules target for-profit colleges
Federal aid would be cut off if too many students default on their loans
The Education Department proposed much-anticipated regulations Friday that would cut off federal aid to for-profit college programs if too many of their students default on loans or don’t earn enough after graduation to repay them.
“Some proprietary schools have profited and prospered but their students haven’t, and this is a disservice to students and to taxpayers,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a briefing with reporters. “And it undermines the valuable work, the extraordinarily important work, being done by the for-profit industry as a whole.”
To qualify for federal student aid programs, career college programs must prepare students for “gainful employment.”
To qualify for federal student aid programs, career college programs must prepare students for “gainful employment.”
I think that other colleges should do this too. It’s long past time when they can slide by on the excuse that the degree is your job qualification. No it isn’t, and any employer will tell you that.
I disagree. College trade schools like ITT market themselves as preparing their students for careers. Kids take out huge loans for an 18-month program like “construction management” and learn nothing. These “schools” are often scams. They let in illiterate kids to get their money. If the illiterate kids went to community college they would become literate or flunk out, but at least they wouldn’t have $30K of nonrecourse debt.
Thousands show up at Tulsa food pantry Friday. ~ Tulsa World
Iron Gate was forced to suspend its food box distribution program Friday morning due to a large, misinformed crowd.
“We estimate there were 2,000 people here this morning,” said Connie Cronley, executive director. “The heat, the crowd and the incorrect information they have received rendered, in my judgment, a situation that was unsafe.”
Cronley attributed the crowd to false information sent via group e-mails and Facebook regarding supplemental food boxes, 30-pound food boxes paid for by a $2 million federal stimulus grant to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.
“It’s like a bad version of the old telephone game in which children whisper a sentence to one another and it is passed around a circle. At the end, the sentence is not recognizable,” Cronley said.
The message that was circulating was that the food boxes were free for anyone, however they’re actually restricted to families with children younger than 18 and there is an income restriction as well.
Through the program families can receive one 30-pound food box for each child and one box for every two adults. Families also receive one household box (toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste) for every two people younger than the age of 18 in the household. Families may receive these boxes each week.
Iron Gate receives 250 food boxes and 125 household boxes each week
that it distributes Fridays and Saturdays in conjunction with its regular grocery distribution program. The program runs through September.
In June it distributed 382 food boxes and 191 household boxes and these served 165 adults and 217 children.
Cronley said distribution should resume in a few weeks once a better system is in place.
“The need seems to be overwhelming, not only in Tulsa but in the surrounding towns. We need to figure out how to better distribute these boxes. Other agencies are sending people to us for food,” she said.
Top 10 Mortgage Lenders First Quarter 2010
1. Wells Fargo – $77 billion (-25%) 23.90% market share
2. Bank of America – $71.5 billion (-20%) 22.19% market share
3. Chase – $32.8 billion (-16%) 10.16% market share
4. Ally Bank/ResCap (GMAC) – $13 billion (-2%) 4.02% market share
5. CitiMortgage, Inc. – $11 billion (-55%) 3.43% market share
6. U.S. Bank Home Mortgage – $9 billion (-33%) 2.78% market share
7. PHH Mortgage – $7.8 billion (-12%) 2.43% market share
8. SunTrust Bank – $5.6 billion (-58%) 1.75% market share
9. Provident Funding Associates – $5.3 billion (-52%) 1.65% market share
10. Branch Banking & Trust Company – $5.2 billion (-33%) 1.60% market share
The market share information is based on an estimated total market size of $322,551,000,000.
Data from mortgagestatsdotcom