Please open this message and see who really pushed for sub-prime loans and who warned of dire consequences.
Who warned congress? The Bush Administration in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Alan Greenspan, could have used stronger language in warning of problems looming ahead. Barney Frank and Charles Schumer said increase sub-prime loans. Now the Democrats are in charge for 20 months and it's all the Republicans fault.
Please enter the web site on your computer and see how we got in this financial mess! Very interesting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPSDnGMzIdo
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sub-prime Borrowers, Welfare, or Just Unfortunate Citizens?
Sent to me by a friend. It is the same story many heard but ignored about events during and after Katrina. The socialistic liberal left wingers were too anxious to unload the blame on the Bush Administration.
A different perspective. This one is real. Checdk this story out.
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http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=8989550
Before everyone thinks I am a terrible, prejudiced, horrible person, but wanted to send a copy of the letter I sent to the Times editors and Bill O'Reilly. Please pray that Hurricane Ike will NOT come to Louisiana - I don't think I have the attitude of Christ yet! Sherri
Dear Editor,
I am a nurse who has just completed volunteer working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport , Louisiana over the last 7 days. I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective. Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and 'horrible' conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.
True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification.
At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?
Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?
Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?
Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?
Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?
Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?
Why does it incense me to hear a man say 'I ain't goin' home 'til I get my FEMA check' when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?
Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?
Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a 'daycare'?
Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work?
Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, feeling threatened and fearing for my personal safety in the shelter?
Exhausted and battered,
Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN
A different perspective. This one is real. Checdk this story out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=8989550
Before everyone thinks I am a terrible, prejudiced, horrible person, but wanted to send a copy of the letter I sent to the Times editors and Bill O'Reilly. Please pray that Hurricane Ike will NOT come to Louisiana - I don't think I have the attitude of Christ yet! Sherri
Dear Editor,
I am a nurse who has just completed volunteer working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport , Louisiana over the last 7 days. I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective. Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and 'horrible' conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.
True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification.
At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?
Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?
Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?
Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?
Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?
Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?
Why does it incense me to hear a man say 'I ain't goin' home 'til I get my FEMA check' when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?
Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?
Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a 'daycare'?
Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work?
Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, feeling threatened and fearing for my personal safety in the shelter?
Exhausted and battered,
Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN
Monday, September 29, 2008
Credit Bad? - You Need a Loan? - Call Your Democrat Congressman
Sure, Ms. Pelosi, it's all George Bush and those spending Republicans.
What a bunch of liars. 1999 article from New York Times:
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New Yorkmetropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What a bunch of liars. 1999 article from New York Times:
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New Yorkmetropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.
In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.
''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''
Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260
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Smaller, More Effective Government
The causes of our current economic crisis are best summed up on YouTube, "Burning Down the House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis". Find at http://www.youtubecom/watch?v=H5tZ8oHo (I just learned you can't view this as Warner Bros., a far left organization has claimed a copyright).
Big, unwieldy bureaucratic type governments with posturing party leaders, will one day be subject to changes they won't like. Democrats and Republicans could avoid these "changes" by making the changes themselves. At this point we are not yet a socialist government even though congresspeople are receiving thousands of phone calls from what appears to a majority of the population to forgive all who made bad decisions.
Majorities are often wrong because they have not taken the time to inform themselves nor do they access information to help them make correct decisions. Many elected officials, fearing the votes they may lose, succumb to populist appeals of the uninformed, the uneducated, the half educated and those who are brain-washed by left leaning liberal teachers and professors, who have helped lead us into the situation that culminated today in the largest one day drop in the stock market in 10 years.
This drop, on top of many previous drops, affects almost everyone, certainly not just the ownership and the stockholder, but those basically innocent of what is happening in Washington, on Wall Street, our State Capitols, and greedy government sponsored and some greedy, arrogant, wealthy private financial institutions and their "talented' leadership.
I know it is easy to find a scapegoat in President Bush. But the saying goes that "no man is an island", members of his administration, members of both parties, leaders of intelligence, careers diplomats and bureaucrats and those who don't vote, the uniformed voter and lobbyists, lairs and cheats have all contributed to the current situation.
Most of us do not want government to take over businesses especially when government is responsible for creating victims of unsound business practices. Yet, most of us agree that the basically innocent victims must be helped, if they will help also, to get back on their feet. Let the unsound businesses who made bad decisions go broke as long as there are sound businesses to take their place. Let those who made foolish investments such as buying or building houses or borrowing more than they could afford to pay back IF the economy soured, go under.
No matter how compassionate this country and it's citizenry, it is always was and still is, a cruel world.
Our capitalist form of government is under attack like it may never have been in the past 80 years. Part of the cause is radical activist groups like the corrupt Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) that supports Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, who once ran a voter registration drive and later, as a trainer and its lawyer in election law cases. Obama, in turn, is supported by ex-Weatherman, unrepentant bomber, Marxist leaning, Bill Ayers. Obama cultivated relationships with Ayers, Reverend Wright, and Farrakand in his years as a "Community Organizer" in Chicago.
Another leading cause of our sub-prime default mess is the radical left wing CRI who pressured the "too poor to afford" home down payments to buy anyway because they were "entitled" to a home, whether they could pay for maintain it or not.
Did all of these people and groups do some good? Absolutely, they intended and did help many of the poor but for their own ambitions and glorification.
I believe my readers may be surprised at the number of people who would like this country to be socialist similar to Sweden.
I warn that from socialism may come dictatorships. We were warned many years ago that few thought socialist Germany would become a dictatorship; warning us that conditions in the U.S. were becoming similar to pre-WWII Germany.
Out of chaos, eventually comes order. It may be an "order" we dislike more than the "order" our left leaning liberals Congresspeople, weak administrations, a "chattering" populace and greedy "tort" business people have now created.
Many people and businesses bounce back from bankruptcies. Unfortunately, some don't. We are learning, perhaps, a costly lesson.
Big, unwieldy bureaucratic type governments with posturing party leaders, will one day be subject to changes they won't like. Democrats and Republicans could avoid these "changes" by making the changes themselves. At this point we are not yet a socialist government even though congresspeople are receiving thousands of phone calls from what appears to a majority of the population to forgive all who made bad decisions.
Majorities are often wrong because they have not taken the time to inform themselves nor do they access information to help them make correct decisions. Many elected officials, fearing the votes they may lose, succumb to populist appeals of the uninformed, the uneducated, the half educated and those who are brain-washed by left leaning liberal teachers and professors, who have helped lead us into the situation that culminated today in the largest one day drop in the stock market in 10 years.
This drop, on top of many previous drops, affects almost everyone, certainly not just the ownership and the stockholder, but those basically innocent of what is happening in Washington, on Wall Street, our State Capitols, and greedy government sponsored and some greedy, arrogant, wealthy private financial institutions and their "talented' leadership.
I know it is easy to find a scapegoat in President Bush. But the saying goes that "no man is an island", members of his administration, members of both parties, leaders of intelligence, careers diplomats and bureaucrats and those who don't vote, the uniformed voter and lobbyists, lairs and cheats have all contributed to the current situation.
Most of us do not want government to take over businesses especially when government is responsible for creating victims of unsound business practices. Yet, most of us agree that the basically innocent victims must be helped, if they will help also, to get back on their feet. Let the unsound businesses who made bad decisions go broke as long as there are sound businesses to take their place. Let those who made foolish investments such as buying or building houses or borrowing more than they could afford to pay back IF the economy soured, go under.
No matter how compassionate this country and it's citizenry, it is always was and still is, a cruel world.
Our capitalist form of government is under attack like it may never have been in the past 80 years. Part of the cause is radical activist groups like the corrupt Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) that supports Presidential candidate, Barack Obama, who once ran a voter registration drive and later, as a trainer and its lawyer in election law cases. Obama, in turn, is supported by ex-Weatherman, unrepentant bomber, Marxist leaning, Bill Ayers. Obama cultivated relationships with Ayers, Reverend Wright, and Farrakand in his years as a "Community Organizer" in Chicago.
Another leading cause of our sub-prime default mess is the radical left wing CRI who pressured the "too poor to afford" home down payments to buy anyway because they were "entitled" to a home, whether they could pay for maintain it or not.
Did all of these people and groups do some good? Absolutely, they intended and did help many of the poor but for their own ambitions and glorification.
I believe my readers may be surprised at the number of people who would like this country to be socialist similar to Sweden.
I warn that from socialism may come dictatorships. We were warned many years ago that few thought socialist Germany would become a dictatorship; warning us that conditions in the U.S. were becoming similar to pre-WWII Germany.
Out of chaos, eventually comes order. It may be an "order" we dislike more than the "order" our left leaning liberals Congresspeople, weak administrations, a "chattering" populace and greedy "tort" business people have now created.
Many people and businesses bounce back from bankruptcies. Unfortunately, some don't. We are learning, perhaps, a costly lesson.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
e-mails
Because of frequent attempts to disrupt my computer by people who evidently do not like what I write, I still do not open emails from names I do not recognize. I'm in the phone book. though.
Thanks,
Merle
Thanks,
Merle
Jehan Gordon - Does She Fit The Mold of a "Politican"?
I don't believe all politicians are liars. Incompetent at times, truths stretchers at times, "rub my back, I'll rub yours", sometimes, have exceeded the "Peter Principle" a lot of the time and yes, there are politicians who are out and out liars such as candidate Jehan Gordon.
Saturday's Journal Star, B6, in an article by journalist John Sharp, exposed her again where lies easily flow of her tongue. She made the ridiculous claim that her Republican opponent, Joan Krupa missed 25% of meeting she was obligated to attend as a County Board member over her terms. The JS exposed the truth, Krupa attended 84 meetings out 86.
She missed just 2 meetings.
In a mailer just received from Gordon's campaign manager, the mailer says "How do we know Republican Joan Krupa will raise taxes and fees on the middle-class families? Krupa voted to raise her own taxpayer-funded salary and the salary of political insiders". She quotes this as facts gleaned from Peoria County.
The claims are easily proved patently false. The County Board only votes to raise (or lower)the salaries of ELECTED officials and ELECTED board members and the County Administrator . The County also bargains the hourly rates of union employees. The union salaries are bargained & set at the end of a contract and the board and elected officials salaries are decided upon by the FULL board every four years.
Let's sort it out. On record at the Courthouse, it says that in 1983 County Board members were paid $5200 per year. When I was elected to the County Board in 2000, seventeen years later, elected board members were paid $5400 a year. A gain of only $200 a year for the period Krupa served on the County Board. The board, with a Democrat majority, 13 to 5, has raised board members salaries to $7900 a year since year 2000. I attend approximately 70 meetings a year.
In the meantime the elected County Officials such as the Circuit Clerk,etc., "middle class people", these must be the "insiders" Gordon is talking about, have had their salaries approximately TRIPLED.
What lies and truth stretching.
Gordon also accuses Krupa of raising fees on the middle class. For a person wanting to serve the people she should know that fees she is talking about know no class. These fees, such as marriage licences, traffic tickets, passports, child abuse, child care, animal licences, divorce, etc., and fines of any kind, are paid by all classes of people.
Many raises in fees are recommended or dictated by the State of Illinois. All 18 board members can vote "yea' or "nay" for any actions taken by the County Board, each board members vote counts as "one vote".
George Shadid and Billy Halstead and the Democrat Central Committee are surely concerned that they evidently didn't "know" this person they put up for election. Or did they think she fit a "stereotype" that the country appears to be accepting now? If they believe they did properly "vet" her, I can only pray that the majority of the voters will decide what type of leadership they are seeking in Springfield.
Her handout also shows a picture of a nice home that is not the Krupa families home.
To my Democrat friends, this candidate is a disgrace to your party. She is not fit to serve as an honest politician we need in our governmental bodies.
(This blog may be downloaded for the reader for forwarding to voting Democrats, Republicans or Independents)
Saturday's Journal Star, B6, in an article by journalist John Sharp, exposed her again where lies easily flow of her tongue. She made the ridiculous claim that her Republican opponent, Joan Krupa missed 25% of meeting she was obligated to attend as a County Board member over her terms. The JS exposed the truth, Krupa attended 84 meetings out 86.
She missed just 2 meetings.
In a mailer just received from Gordon's campaign manager, the mailer says "How do we know Republican Joan Krupa will raise taxes and fees on the middle-class families? Krupa voted to raise her own taxpayer-funded salary and the salary of political insiders". She quotes this as facts gleaned from Peoria County.
The claims are easily proved patently false. The County Board only votes to raise (or lower)the salaries of ELECTED officials and ELECTED board members and the County Administrator . The County also bargains the hourly rates of union employees. The union salaries are bargained & set at the end of a contract and the board and elected officials salaries are decided upon by the FULL board every four years.
Let's sort it out. On record at the Courthouse, it says that in 1983 County Board members were paid $5200 per year. When I was elected to the County Board in 2000, seventeen years later, elected board members were paid $5400 a year. A gain of only $200 a year for the period Krupa served on the County Board. The board, with a Democrat majority, 13 to 5, has raised board members salaries to $7900 a year since year 2000. I attend approximately 70 meetings a year.
In the meantime the elected County Officials such as the Circuit Clerk,etc., "middle class people", these must be the "insiders" Gordon is talking about, have had their salaries approximately TRIPLED.
What lies and truth stretching.
Gordon also accuses Krupa of raising fees on the middle class. For a person wanting to serve the people she should know that fees she is talking about know no class. These fees, such as marriage licences, traffic tickets, passports, child abuse, child care, animal licences, divorce, etc., and fines of any kind, are paid by all classes of people.
Many raises in fees are recommended or dictated by the State of Illinois. All 18 board members can vote "yea' or "nay" for any actions taken by the County Board, each board members vote counts as "one vote".
George Shadid and Billy Halstead and the Democrat Central Committee are surely concerned that they evidently didn't "know" this person they put up for election. Or did they think she fit a "stereotype" that the country appears to be accepting now? If they believe they did properly "vet" her, I can only pray that the majority of the voters will decide what type of leadership they are seeking in Springfield.
Her handout also shows a picture of a nice home that is not the Krupa families home.
To my Democrat friends, this candidate is a disgrace to your party. She is not fit to serve as an honest politician we need in our governmental bodies.
(This blog may be downloaded for the reader for forwarding to voting Democrats, Republicans or Independents)
Friday, September 26, 2008
Congress Republicans and Democrats Strike Pose
Our elected officials say on TV today that "We will not bail out Wall Street". I couldn't agree more. This mess did not happen overnight and it wasn't all caused by Wall Street and the Republicans. However, their role is not to be diminished.
Where were you "talented" Democrat and Republican politicians in D.C. the last few years? You talented politicians and your swarm of bureaucrats helped bankrupt a few million people and put millions of more retirees between a rock and a hard spot. You encouraged them to buy homes they couldn't make payments on let alone keep them up. Your failure to provide instruments of transparency in the market place caused individual investors to lose more than a trillion dollars. Yes, investors were also mis-led by analysts the likes of Jim Kramer and many stockbrokers; mis-led to make what appeared to be "relatively safe" investments. Now people are even pulling billions out of "safe" money markets".
I suggest the "good old boys and girls club" in D.C. will be sure that Bernanke, Cox and other keep their jobs. And Barney Frank, House Financial Committee Charirman and Charlie Rangle could rob a bank and still get reelected.
At least John McCain make and intelligent statement "for a responsible b-partisan agreement to protect homeowners (he should have said "unlucky" homeowners, not ones lacking any judgement who made stupid investments), tapayers (who had nothing to do with this mess), and small business owners".
I told you McCain was a "bit of a populist".
We will now see if our elected officials prevent a world wide recession......
Too late to fire Greenspan.
Where were you "talented" Democrat and Republican politicians in D.C. the last few years? You talented politicians and your swarm of bureaucrats helped bankrupt a few million people and put millions of more retirees between a rock and a hard spot. You encouraged them to buy homes they couldn't make payments on let alone keep them up. Your failure to provide instruments of transparency in the market place caused individual investors to lose more than a trillion dollars. Yes, investors were also mis-led by analysts the likes of Jim Kramer and many stockbrokers; mis-led to make what appeared to be "relatively safe" investments. Now people are even pulling billions out of "safe" money markets".
I suggest the "good old boys and girls club" in D.C. will be sure that Bernanke, Cox and other keep their jobs. And Barney Frank, House Financial Committee Charirman and Charlie Rangle could rob a bank and still get reelected.
At least John McCain make and intelligent statement "for a responsible b-partisan agreement to protect homeowners (he should have said "unlucky" homeowners, not ones lacking any judgement who made stupid investments), tapayers (who had nothing to do with this mess), and small business owners".
I told you McCain was a "bit of a populist".
We will now see if our elected officials prevent a world wide recession......
Too late to fire Greenspan.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Executive Talent
David Dimston of Austin, Texas writes about the article in the WSJ on 9/20/08 titled, "Lobbyists Scramble to Sway Deal", the Financial Crisis.
David says, and I agree, "If this is not an example of what is wrong with the financial services-industry and D.C., I don't know what is.
I would say two things about the brokerage industry's fears that caps on salaries might hurt their ability to attract and retain executive "talent" when it is that "talent" that got us here in the first place and where is this talent going to go"?
David evidently isn't familiar with some of the top talent that eventually landed in Peoria. A lot of "top talent" pad their resumes, list endless degrees they most likely would have received automatically for being "present" and marking correct answers on "paper", and all regardless of capability. They bring friendly references, demand golden parachutes and often leave this community in worse shape than it was before they arrived.
In this financial mess or any other messes created, who is more responsible than any board of directors? More than George Bush, a John McCain or a Barack Obama. The way boards are chosen is one of the major problems in this country. Board of these companies are basically hand selected and usually become "good old boys and girls club" type of boards.
I could write a book on boards and the incompetence of many who are and have created the chaos we are seeing on Wall Street, in Congress, in our administration, our two major parties and their leadership and the direct effect we see and feel in our national and local economies and how this lack of "devils advocate" members, affects our life in general. When all members of a board always agree, that entity usually winds up in trouble. I suspect that is the major problem in our country today and is responsible for the messes we are in, not just financial.
I'll admit I was well along in life before I really started paying attention to what was happening around here and the country. It became "a wake up", Merle, and that is what keeps me blogging when I could be in a gated community around many people I really wouldn't like that well.
Always remember, their are more people not in jail for theft and fraud, who would and do steal from others when they believe the amount stolen would more than compensate them financially for imprisonment IF they might get caught.
These thieves who managed to stay under cover, most will steal away with all the questionable wealth they had already accumulated plus their golden parachutes to live in mansions and gated communities with their ilk for the rest of their morally corrupt lives.
We Americans love to be flattered and conned. Think of some people in your own community. You know some people are conning you and you love it. That is until they get caught or you can actually feel the financial damage being done to you personally.
In the upcoming election; the "changes" over the next four years may stun many of you who are being swayed by charisma and demagoguery. For most of you the changes so badly sought may be just a shift of a charismatic "talent" to another place or position.
Financial issues have diverted attention from our seeking facts and records of those who would be lead this great country. Who do we honestly believe is the leader we are seeking for change?
No entity can exist for a long time without a leader who has a great love for this country, who has a sense of community and has a record of common sense leadership. This leadership must have as great a concern for helping others at the same time demanding while helping those capable to help themselves..
W are a compassionate nation. We must not become more of a welfare nation than we are.
I note in the JS today, one prominent Democrat talking about the financial crisis and restructuring, asks "What's in it for us the working class people? It needs to be done in a way that everyone gets help, if needed."
I ask a "Clintonese" type question. What is Billy"s definition of everyone gets help, if needed"?
Hmmmmmmm.
David says, and I agree, "If this is not an example of what is wrong with the financial services-industry and D.C., I don't know what is.
I would say two things about the brokerage industry's fears that caps on salaries might hurt their ability to attract and retain executive "talent" when it is that "talent" that got us here in the first place and where is this talent going to go"?
David evidently isn't familiar with some of the top talent that eventually landed in Peoria. A lot of "top talent" pad their resumes, list endless degrees they most likely would have received automatically for being "present" and marking correct answers on "paper", and all regardless of capability. They bring friendly references, demand golden parachutes and often leave this community in worse shape than it was before they arrived.
In this financial mess or any other messes created, who is more responsible than any board of directors? More than George Bush, a John McCain or a Barack Obama. The way boards are chosen is one of the major problems in this country. Board of these companies are basically hand selected and usually become "good old boys and girls club" type of boards.
I could write a book on boards and the incompetence of many who are and have created the chaos we are seeing on Wall Street, in Congress, in our administration, our two major parties and their leadership and the direct effect we see and feel in our national and local economies and how this lack of "devils advocate" members, affects our life in general. When all members of a board always agree, that entity usually winds up in trouble. I suspect that is the major problem in our country today and is responsible for the messes we are in, not just financial.
I'll admit I was well along in life before I really started paying attention to what was happening around here and the country. It became "a wake up", Merle, and that is what keeps me blogging when I could be in a gated community around many people I really wouldn't like that well.
Always remember, their are more people not in jail for theft and fraud, who would and do steal from others when they believe the amount stolen would more than compensate them financially for imprisonment IF they might get caught.
These thieves who managed to stay under cover, most will steal away with all the questionable wealth they had already accumulated plus their golden parachutes to live in mansions and gated communities with their ilk for the rest of their morally corrupt lives.
We Americans love to be flattered and conned. Think of some people in your own community. You know some people are conning you and you love it. That is until they get caught or you can actually feel the financial damage being done to you personally.
In the upcoming election; the "changes" over the next four years may stun many of you who are being swayed by charisma and demagoguery. For most of you the changes so badly sought may be just a shift of a charismatic "talent" to another place or position.
Financial issues have diverted attention from our seeking facts and records of those who would be lead this great country. Who do we honestly believe is the leader we are seeking for change?
No entity can exist for a long time without a leader who has a great love for this country, who has a sense of community and has a record of common sense leadership. This leadership must have as great a concern for helping others at the same time demanding while helping those capable to help themselves..
W are a compassionate nation. We must not become more of a welfare nation than we are.
I note in the JS today, one prominent Democrat talking about the financial crisis and restructuring, asks "What's in it for us the working class people? It needs to be done in a way that everyone gets help, if needed."
I ask a "Clintonese" type question. What is Billy"s definition of everyone gets help, if needed"?
Hmmmmmmm.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Obama and Biden - How did they vote on the "Bridge to Nowhere?
So much information to get out to the voters and so little time. Don't expect the liberal left wing news media to get the facts out. They aren't and they won't,
Merle
September 23, 2008
By Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston
GOSH!! Some actual investigative reporting out of CNN ON the Democrat candidates VOTING RECORDS?? I AM SHOCKED. The blatant hypocrisy (and often downright lies) from these two is becoming totally sickening. TRUSTWORTHINESS AND CHARACTER...NIL....ZERO.
DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) -- Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden campaigns in Washington on Tuesday.
Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.
And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.
An amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, would have stripped the money appropriated to connect the Alaskan coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island and diverted the money to Louisiana.
But Biden and Obama and 80 of their colleagues rejected the measure, an amendment to a massive 2005 transportation bill that funded thousands of projects across the country. Watch how Biden has blasted Palin »
"That is probably the most disturbing element of this and the campaigning on the Bridge to Nowhere," said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a taxpayer watchdog group. "Because, yes, they had a chance to vote specifically against the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to redirect the money to people, to bridges and infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina going in to New Orleans, and they chose not to."
The final version passed the Senate 93-1. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has made his opposition to congressional "pork-barrel" spending a cornerstone of his campaign, did not vote on either the Coburn amendment or the final bill.
Palin, whom McCain chose as his running mate in August, has regaled crowds at the Republican convention and on the campaign trail with her declaration of "Thanks, but no thanks" for the bridge. But her conversion came after she became Alaska's governor in 2006 and after the bridge became a national symbol of congressional waste.
The record shows that she supported the bridge as a gubernatorial candidate, and Democrats have seized on the flip-flop, perhaps no one with as much relish as Biden.
"I got also a bridge I got to sell you here, and guess what, it's in Alaska, and it goes nowhere," Biden mocked Palin on the campaign trail last week in Maumee, Ohio. And in Canton, Ohio, he tied it to McCain.
"If you look at it John McCain's answers for the economy, and we're in such desperate shape, is the ultimate bridge to nowhere. It's nowhere," Biden said. "It takes you nowhere."
But while the applause line appealed to the Democratic faithful, it could come back to bite the Delaware senator.
This year, Delaware has requested 116 congressional earmarks through Biden, its longtime senator, at a cost to taxpayers of $342 million. In an appearance on CNN's "American Morning" with anchor John Roberts, Biden said that he had been open about those requests and that they all can be justified.
"Everyone has seen them, and we have no Lawrence Welk Museums and have no bridges to nowhere in Delaware. It's all straight up," Biden said.
Among his requests: $1 million for renovation of an opera house in Wilmington, another million for the construction of a children's museum and thousands of dollars for a water park renovation in Lewes.
"I think opera patrons generally can afford to -- you can raise money for an opera house; you can refurbish things a lot of different ways," Allison said.
"To have federal taxpaying dollars -- which is coming from people all over the country; low-income, middle-income people, as well as the wealthy -- to go to pay for the renovation of something that is really a luxury for Wilmington ... There are far more vital projects that anyone could think of that needs money. You got health care. You got education. You got all other types of things. Instead, we are redirecting money to refurbish an opera house in Wilmington or to build a children's museum."
And Biden's request includes a bridge that even the head of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce says is not crucial at this juncture.
The Indian River Inlet Bridge is a vital link between two popular beachfront towns: Dewey and Bethany. Without it, the estimated 30,000 summer visitors would have to travel an additional 35 minutes to get to the towns.
"We need a new bridge, and we are fortunate to be at a place where it is finally going to happen," said Carol Everhart, the chief of the Chamber of Commerce.
The existing bridge has some erosion problems, and if it ever collapsed, Everhart said, it would cause an economic disaster in the community. But it's safe for now.
"The bridge, as it is, is perfectly safe," she said.
Still, Biden asked for $13 million to help shore up the existing bridge and begin construction of a new one. And that's what troubles the Sunlight Foundation's Allison.
"This bridge is not in any danger of collapse, and essentially what Sen. Biden is doing is saying, 'My state bridge gets the priority dollar even though it is not a priority project,' " Allison said.
He said the Department of Transportation, rather than U.S. senators, should be deciding which bridges get priority funding in the country. That way, the bridges in the U.S. that need immediate repair would be first in line for the dollars needed to do the work.
As he embarked on his presidential bid in 2007, Obama said he would no longer ask for earmark projects. McCain, who has been a longtime critic of the process, does not seek any for his home state of Arizona.
CNN asked Biden's campaign whether it could ask the senator about his earmark requests and his votes on the Bridge to Nowhere.
In response, a staffer e-mailed, "You've interviewed Gov. Palin re: her completely made up position on the Bridge to Nowhere right?"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/biden.earmarks/
Merle
September 23, 2008
By Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston
GOSH!! Some actual investigative reporting out of CNN ON the Democrat candidates VOTING RECORDS?? I AM SHOCKED. The blatant hypocrisy (and often downright lies) from these two is becoming totally sickening. TRUSTWORTHINESS AND CHARACTER...NIL....ZERO.
DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) -- Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden campaigns in Washington on Tuesday.
Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.
And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.
An amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, would have stripped the money appropriated to connect the Alaskan coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island and diverted the money to Louisiana.
But Biden and Obama and 80 of their colleagues rejected the measure, an amendment to a massive 2005 transportation bill that funded thousands of projects across the country. Watch how Biden has blasted Palin »
"That is probably the most disturbing element of this and the campaigning on the Bridge to Nowhere," said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a taxpayer watchdog group. "Because, yes, they had a chance to vote specifically against the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to redirect the money to people, to bridges and infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina going in to New Orleans, and they chose not to."
The final version passed the Senate 93-1. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has made his opposition to congressional "pork-barrel" spending a cornerstone of his campaign, did not vote on either the Coburn amendment or the final bill.
Palin, whom McCain chose as his running mate in August, has regaled crowds at the Republican convention and on the campaign trail with her declaration of "Thanks, but no thanks" for the bridge. But her conversion came after she became Alaska's governor in 2006 and after the bridge became a national symbol of congressional waste.
The record shows that she supported the bridge as a gubernatorial candidate, and Democrats have seized on the flip-flop, perhaps no one with as much relish as Biden.
"I got also a bridge I got to sell you here, and guess what, it's in Alaska, and it goes nowhere," Biden mocked Palin on the campaign trail last week in Maumee, Ohio. And in Canton, Ohio, he tied it to McCain.
"If you look at it John McCain's answers for the economy, and we're in such desperate shape, is the ultimate bridge to nowhere. It's nowhere," Biden said. "It takes you nowhere."
But while the applause line appealed to the Democratic faithful, it could come back to bite the Delaware senator.
This year, Delaware has requested 116 congressional earmarks through Biden, its longtime senator, at a cost to taxpayers of $342 million. In an appearance on CNN's "American Morning" with anchor John Roberts, Biden said that he had been open about those requests and that they all can be justified.
"Everyone has seen them, and we have no Lawrence Welk Museums and have no bridges to nowhere in Delaware. It's all straight up," Biden said.
Among his requests: $1 million for renovation of an opera house in Wilmington, another million for the construction of a children's museum and thousands of dollars for a water park renovation in Lewes.
"I think opera patrons generally can afford to -- you can raise money for an opera house; you can refurbish things a lot of different ways," Allison said.
"To have federal taxpaying dollars -- which is coming from people all over the country; low-income, middle-income people, as well as the wealthy -- to go to pay for the renovation of something that is really a luxury for Wilmington ... There are far more vital projects that anyone could think of that needs money. You got health care. You got education. You got all other types of things. Instead, we are redirecting money to refurbish an opera house in Wilmington or to build a children's museum."
And Biden's request includes a bridge that even the head of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce says is not crucial at this juncture.
The Indian River Inlet Bridge is a vital link between two popular beachfront towns: Dewey and Bethany. Without it, the estimated 30,000 summer visitors would have to travel an additional 35 minutes to get to the towns.
"We need a new bridge, and we are fortunate to be at a place where it is finally going to happen," said Carol Everhart, the chief of the Chamber of Commerce.
The existing bridge has some erosion problems, and if it ever collapsed, Everhart said, it would cause an economic disaster in the community. But it's safe for now.
"The bridge, as it is, is perfectly safe," she said.
Still, Biden asked for $13 million to help shore up the existing bridge and begin construction of a new one. And that's what troubles the Sunlight Foundation's Allison.
"This bridge is not in any danger of collapse, and essentially what Sen. Biden is doing is saying, 'My state bridge gets the priority dollar even though it is not a priority project,' " Allison said.
He said the Department of Transportation, rather than U.S. senators, should be deciding which bridges get priority funding in the country. That way, the bridges in the U.S. that need immediate repair would be first in line for the dollars needed to do the work.
As he embarked on his presidential bid in 2007, Obama said he would no longer ask for earmark projects. McCain, who has been a longtime critic of the process, does not seek any for his home state of Arizona.
CNN asked Biden's campaign whether it could ask the senator about his earmark requests and his votes on the Bridge to Nowhere.
In response, a staffer e-mailed, "You've interviewed Gov. Palin re: her completely made up position on the Bridge to Nowhere right?"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/biden.earmarks/
Financial State of the Union
If you listened to President Bush's address to the nation tonight, you may disagree with the action being proposed by the administration and financial leaders. The $700 billion proposed as a bailout may not all be needed. Congress, who helped create this mess, will pose, and blame the administration. As already stated by others, there is plenty of blame to go around including the gullible home buyers as I've mentioned in a previous blog.
The time for blame is not immediate. Protecting the interests of pension funds and retirement income providing investments of common people is of major concern. Failing to do so could cause a domino effect and bankrupt the country and cause record foreclosures and total lack of confidence in our financial systems worldwide.
While governments role is to do no harm, it would do more harm to let this country fall into a major depression.
The $700 billion is not a gift. If Congress goes along with the loan they must recoup their investment when the properties they will buy at say 10 cents on the dollar, recover along with the economy and make a return of say 300% back into public coffers.
Now is not the time for Democrat leadership to strike photo poses of indignation. After all, the Democrats have been in power for 20 months and Democrat Charles Rangel is head of the Congressional Banking Committee.
Nor the Republicans or the Administration or the candidates.
As to those in the private sector that are morally bankrupt they might be wise to stay in their gated communities or double their bodyguards as there is a lot of hatred directed at the greedy, dishonest, morally corrupt wealthy elite who laughed at we suckers all the "way to the bank".
Who are these people? Read the financial newspapers so we don't paint all wealthy elite with the "same brush". The "chatterers" you will read in "Letters to the Editor" are mostly written by people who know less than half of the story. Expect these "chatterers" to be heavily published by the most liberal media in the next few days blaming George Bush and the Republicans.
The time for blame is not immediate. Protecting the interests of pension funds and retirement income providing investments of common people is of major concern. Failing to do so could cause a domino effect and bankrupt the country and cause record foreclosures and total lack of confidence in our financial systems worldwide.
While governments role is to do no harm, it would do more harm to let this country fall into a major depression.
The $700 billion is not a gift. If Congress goes along with the loan they must recoup their investment when the properties they will buy at say 10 cents on the dollar, recover along with the economy and make a return of say 300% back into public coffers.
Now is not the time for Democrat leadership to strike photo poses of indignation. After all, the Democrats have been in power for 20 months and Democrat Charles Rangel is head of the Congressional Banking Committee.
Nor the Republicans or the Administration or the candidates.
As to those in the private sector that are morally bankrupt they might be wise to stay in their gated communities or double their bodyguards as there is a lot of hatred directed at the greedy, dishonest, morally corrupt wealthy elite who laughed at we suckers all the "way to the bank".
Who are these people? Read the financial newspapers so we don't paint all wealthy elite with the "same brush". The "chatterers" you will read in "Letters to the Editor" are mostly written by people who know less than half of the story. Expect these "chatterers" to be heavily published by the most liberal media in the next few days blaming George Bush and the Republicans.
OPM
Passed on to me by others. From what I've read over the years, I have no doubt about this informationabout our genoristy. Just remember that the people we are electing are spending your money. Sure they are spending their own, but have you ever seen a poor retired major politician?
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
Qatar votes against < /FONT> the United States 67% of the time
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes again st the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against< SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: teal; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time. &n bsp;
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States
And receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States
Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States
Receives $143,699,000 annually.
Someone please answer me why we are giving Egypt 6 Billion dollars, for what? And that's not even mentioning the 100's of millions of dollars for the rest of these countries that hate us. What is this money for? And all of this money leaving our country while our tax payers struggle to put gas in their cars and food on their tables because these ass holes continue to raise the price of oil while burning our flag and protesting us on every issue. Lets get someone elected that will piss on them.
Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline) .
Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know.
Disgusting.
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
Qatar votes against < /FONT> the United States 67% of the time
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes again st the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against< SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: teal; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time. &n bsp;
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States
And receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States
Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States
Receives $143,699,000 annually.
Someone please answer me why we are giving Egypt 6 Billion dollars, for what? And that's not even mentioning the 100's of millions of dollars for the rest of these countries that hate us. What is this money for? And all of this money leaving our country while our tax payers struggle to put gas in their cars and food on their tables because these ass holes continue to raise the price of oil while burning our flag and protesting us on every issue. Lets get someone elected that will piss on them.
Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline) .
Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know.
Disgusting.
Caterpillar Insider Stock Sales
On 9/19/08, Caterpillar insider and General Counsel James B. Buda sold 57,750 shares of Cat stock for $74.50 per share. At the time of his sale, Cat stock was trading on the open market in the $63 range. Mr. Buda also exercise 57,750 shares on 9/19/08 for $26.06. Mr. Buda has 34,572 remaining shares of Cat stock.
I don't know Mr. Buda but I'm asking him as a friendly gesture to contribute my wife's and my portion of the Downtown Museum fund raising drives. I'm glad for his lucky fortune.
My wife and I are both holding our Cat stock trading today at $62. Three years ago Cat stock was trading at $58.
We will not be contributing anything to the Caterpillar promoted museum. Instead, I ask Caterpillar to take the $79 or so million they are planning to spend downtown and invest it in something that will grow the value of their stock to their stockholders. Stock that has only an %8 increase in value or approximately 2+% a year..
Caterpillars first obligation is always to increase the value of investors stock to their stockholders. They have done so in the past, but very little lately.
When anyone sells at $82 there also has to be a buyer at $82. This buyers stock is today worth only $62 a share. Those who bought Mr. Buda's 57,000 shares and held them have a paper loss of approximately $1.4 million.
Another insider trading in May, is former Bradley University President John Brazil. He sold 8,000 shares at $82.47 after exercise of $29.43 leaving him with a remaining 8803 shares.
More good fortune to possibly help Bradley with their $100 million fund drive.
As Kenny Rogers, (sorry, I originally posted Glen Campbell) sang "You got to know when to hold to 'em, know when to fold 'em", but with the lack of transparency in the marlet, insiders have the best chance to know when to fold them.
I shouldn't leave our neighbor 80 miles up the road off the hook. John Deere CEO, picked an insider time to exercse an option on 703,256 shares of DE stock at $25.99 and sold 1/4 of it the same day for $82.58, the same day the stock peakeds
All insiders can't sell at the same time or they would be subject to an SEC inquiry. Some insider people just have good luck.
I don't know Mr. Buda but I'm asking him as a friendly gesture to contribute my wife's and my portion of the Downtown Museum fund raising drives. I'm glad for his lucky fortune.
My wife and I are both holding our Cat stock trading today at $62. Three years ago Cat stock was trading at $58.
We will not be contributing anything to the Caterpillar promoted museum. Instead, I ask Caterpillar to take the $79 or so million they are planning to spend downtown and invest it in something that will grow the value of their stock to their stockholders. Stock that has only an %8 increase in value or approximately 2+% a year..
Caterpillars first obligation is always to increase the value of investors stock to their stockholders. They have done so in the past, but very little lately.
When anyone sells at $82 there also has to be a buyer at $82. This buyers stock is today worth only $62 a share. Those who bought Mr. Buda's 57,000 shares and held them have a paper loss of approximately $1.4 million.
Another insider trading in May, is former Bradley University President John Brazil. He sold 8,000 shares at $82.47 after exercise of $29.43 leaving him with a remaining 8803 shares.
More good fortune to possibly help Bradley with their $100 million fund drive.
As Kenny Rogers, (sorry, I originally posted Glen Campbell) sang "You got to know when to hold to 'em, know when to fold 'em", but with the lack of transparency in the marlet, insiders have the best chance to know when to fold them.
I shouldn't leave our neighbor 80 miles up the road off the hook. John Deere CEO, picked an insider time to exercse an option on 703,256 shares of DE stock at $25.99 and sold 1/4 of it the same day for $82.58, the same day the stock peakeds
All insiders can't sell at the same time or they would be subject to an SEC inquiry. Some insider people just have good luck.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
More Peoria Public School District #150 Series of Forums?
Last week, a small article appeared in the JS "District 150 to host public forums on education". The first of those meetings will be from 6 - 7:30, Sept. 30 at the Woodruff High School Commons at 1800 N.E. Perry.
Those attending will be asked to break into discussion groups on the following topics: student responsibility, accountability, QUALIFIED parental involvement in the high school, charter schools and another topic to be determined.
Having attended forums including the 3 day Summitt in 2002, I get the feeling this is another #150 "were listening to you, feel good community involvement series of administration dominated forums". In discussing charter schools, expect the union to dominate. Charter schools are competition to the union which they strongly resist unless they can pick union teachers and select the tenured principals, hours, etc.
When, in 2003, the district convened a $60,000, 30 hour, closed door session the JSEB wondered "Didn't the so-called District 150 Summitt do the same thing last summer? Oh, it's nice that District 150 involved people from the community, instead of thinking its employees have all the answers, etc. Setting goals is a good thing, especially if it's something you can get your arms around like drop-outs (I might add like math and sports programs where kids seldom practice but get to play if they just show up for supposedly competitive games and coaches pad their retirement benefits, like tennis at Manual, Woodruff and Central)".
For a refresher on Summits and Forums, I invite you to visit my blog archive dated 5-3/08 and read or re-read "Education Summit - Peoria School District # 150 - June 2002".
If there is one thing that need "change" it's the National public schools system. Don't expect anything more than higher taxes and more union control of schools if "CHANGE Obama is elected in November.
I approach every new school year with optimism only to be disappointed. Some progress has been made. For a system costing $150 million a year, a lot of positive changes should be made. But #150 is still holding forums on such worn out cliches as "responsibility and accountability".
Associate Administrator Herschel Hannah is credited with this classic statement, "Students need to take responsibility for their own school success and administration has to make demands that this responsibility is met".
Let's hold another forum to justify Mr. Hannah's $170,000 plus salary including health, paid vacations, sick days and a 60-70% of his last four year earnings as a lifetime retirement benefit.
Responsibility and accountability as a community forum? Those are "given's" to which kids should have been held for the past 100 years.
Good grief!
Those attending will be asked to break into discussion groups on the following topics: student responsibility, accountability, QUALIFIED parental involvement in the high school, charter schools and another topic to be determined.
Having attended forums including the 3 day Summitt in 2002, I get the feeling this is another #150 "were listening to you, feel good community involvement series of administration dominated forums". In discussing charter schools, expect the union to dominate. Charter schools are competition to the union which they strongly resist unless they can pick union teachers and select the tenured principals, hours, etc.
When, in 2003, the district convened a $60,000, 30 hour, closed door session the JSEB wondered "Didn't the so-called District 150 Summitt do the same thing last summer? Oh, it's nice that District 150 involved people from the community, instead of thinking its employees have all the answers, etc. Setting goals is a good thing, especially if it's something you can get your arms around like drop-outs (I might add like math and sports programs where kids seldom practice but get to play if they just show up for supposedly competitive games and coaches pad their retirement benefits, like tennis at Manual, Woodruff and Central)".
For a refresher on Summits and Forums, I invite you to visit my blog archive dated 5-3/08 and read or re-read "Education Summit - Peoria School District # 150 - June 2002".
If there is one thing that need "change" it's the National public schools system. Don't expect anything more than higher taxes and more union control of schools if "CHANGE Obama is elected in November.
I approach every new school year with optimism only to be disappointed. Some progress has been made. For a system costing $150 million a year, a lot of positive changes should be made. But #150 is still holding forums on such worn out cliches as "responsibility and accountability".
Associate Administrator Herschel Hannah is credited with this classic statement, "Students need to take responsibility for their own school success and administration has to make demands that this responsibility is met".
Let's hold another forum to justify Mr. Hannah's $170,000 plus salary including health, paid vacations, sick days and a 60-70% of his last four year earnings as a lifetime retirement benefit.
Responsibility and accountability as a community forum? Those are "given's" to which kids should have been held for the past 100 years.
Good grief!
Democrat's "Good Old Boys and Girls Club"
Just as a reminder, the Joe Biden's donated 0.02 of their income to charity last year. Hmmmmmmmm. All this is a matter of public record never published in the liberal media.
A son and a brother of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) are accused in two lawsuits of defrauding a former business partner and an investor of millions of dollars in a hedge fund deal that went sour, court records show.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate's son Hunter, 38, and brother James, 59, assert instead that their former partner defrauded them by misrepresenting his experience in the hedge fund industry and recommending that they hire a lawyer with felony convictions.
The legal actions have been playing out in New York State Supreme Court since 2007, and they focus on Hunter and James Biden's involvement in Paradigm Companies LLC, a hedge fund group. Hunter Biden, a Washington lobbyist, briefly served as president of the firm.
A lawsuit filed by their former partner Anthony Lotito Jr. asserts in court papers that the deal was crafted to get Hunter Biden out of lobbying because his father was concerned about the impact it would have on his bid for the White House. Biden was running for the Democratic nomination at the time the suit was filed.
Hunter Biden was made president with an annual salary of $1.2 million, despite his inexperience in the hedge fund industry, the lawsuit said. Before that, he had been part of the Washington law firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair, which earned $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006, according to Congressional Quarterly's CQ MoneyLine. One of its biggest clients is the National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys, a District-based group representing law firms specializing in investment and corporate law.
Hunter Biden is one of many children and relatives of prominent members of Congress who have made their careers as lobbyists. He returned to lobbying after less than a year with Paradigm.
Lotito's lawsuit alleges that James Biden called him in January 2006 to arrange a job for Hunter Biden. It says James Biden told him that his brother (Sen. Biden) "was concerned with the impact that Hunter's lobbying activities might have on his expected campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination," and, "Biden told Lotito that, in light of these concerns, his brother had asked him to seek Lotito's assistance in finding employment for Hunter in a non-lobbying capacity."
Lotito does not provide any direct evidence of the senator's involvement and offers no witnesses to the assertion.
The campaign of Sens. Barack Obama and Biden declined to comment on the case, referring questions to Nicholas Gravante Jr., a lawyer representing Hunter and James Biden. Gravante said assertions that Joseph Biden told his brother he was concerned about his son's lobbying are "absolutely false."
"This lawsuit has nothing to do with Joe Biden, and there is absolutely no truth to those allegations," Gravante said. "It is a business dispute between former partners. The suit is baseless."
Brian C. Wille, an attorney for Lotito, said the lawsuit alleges no wrongdoing by Sen. Biden, only that his concerns set in motion the business deal.
"There was a concern that Hunter Biden's role as a lobbyist would have an impact on the senator's proposed presidential run," Wille said. "That's what James Biden told Mr. Lotito. . . . Was it true? Who knows? There is no allegation the senator was involved in any of these events."
In an affidavit, Hunter Biden said his father had nothing to do with the deal and that it is Lotito who swindled the Bidens.
He said Lotito lied about being a "fully licensed and accredited securities professional" with hedge fund experience.
In addition, he said Lotito recommended a lawyer to vet the business deal who was under investigation and was ultimately convicted on several felony charges of conspiracy and wire and mail fraud in a scheme to steal millions from a computer company.
In the hedge fund business deal, Lotito and the Bidens created a company called LLB Holdings USA and together agreed to pay $21.3 million for 54 percent interest in Paradigm.
In the lawsuit, Lotito said that soon after creating LLB, the Bidens crafted a "secret deal" to create their own company that was designed to buy out his shares in Paradigm for a low rate, to which he agreed. He said he knew nothing of the secret deal until later and now believes he was defrauded out of millions of dollars and his share in the company.
In the second lawsuit against the Bidens, which was filed in June, Lotito is also named as a defendant. Stephane Farouze, now an executive with Deutsche Bank, seeks $10 million, saying the Bidens and Lotito promised to buy his shares in the hedge fund company but reneged.
A son and a brother of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) are accused in two lawsuits of defrauding a former business partner and an investor of millions of dollars in a hedge fund deal that went sour, court records show.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate's son Hunter, 38, and brother James, 59, assert instead that their former partner defrauded them by misrepresenting his experience in the hedge fund industry and recommending that they hire a lawyer with felony convictions.
The legal actions have been playing out in New York State Supreme Court since 2007, and they focus on Hunter and James Biden's involvement in Paradigm Companies LLC, a hedge fund group. Hunter Biden, a Washington lobbyist, briefly served as president of the firm.
A lawsuit filed by their former partner Anthony Lotito Jr. asserts in court papers that the deal was crafted to get Hunter Biden out of lobbying because his father was concerned about the impact it would have on his bid for the White House. Biden was running for the Democratic nomination at the time the suit was filed.
Hunter Biden was made president with an annual salary of $1.2 million, despite his inexperience in the hedge fund industry, the lawsuit said. Before that, he had been part of the Washington law firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair, which earned $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006, according to Congressional Quarterly's CQ MoneyLine. One of its biggest clients is the National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys, a District-based group representing law firms specializing in investment and corporate law.
Hunter Biden is one of many children and relatives of prominent members of Congress who have made their careers as lobbyists. He returned to lobbying after less than a year with Paradigm.
Lotito's lawsuit alleges that James Biden called him in January 2006 to arrange a job for Hunter Biden. It says James Biden told him that his brother (Sen. Biden) "was concerned with the impact that Hunter's lobbying activities might have on his expected campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination," and, "Biden told Lotito that, in light of these concerns, his brother had asked him to seek Lotito's assistance in finding employment for Hunter in a non-lobbying capacity."
Lotito does not provide any direct evidence of the senator's involvement and offers no witnesses to the assertion.
The campaign of Sens. Barack Obama and Biden declined to comment on the case, referring questions to Nicholas Gravante Jr., a lawyer representing Hunter and James Biden. Gravante said assertions that Joseph Biden told his brother he was concerned about his son's lobbying are "absolutely false."
"This lawsuit has nothing to do with Joe Biden, and there is absolutely no truth to those allegations," Gravante said. "It is a business dispute between former partners. The suit is baseless."
Brian C. Wille, an attorney for Lotito, said the lawsuit alleges no wrongdoing by Sen. Biden, only that his concerns set in motion the business deal.
"There was a concern that Hunter Biden's role as a lobbyist would have an impact on the senator's proposed presidential run," Wille said. "That's what James Biden told Mr. Lotito. . . . Was it true? Who knows? There is no allegation the senator was involved in any of these events."
In an affidavit, Hunter Biden said his father had nothing to do with the deal and that it is Lotito who swindled the Bidens.
He said Lotito lied about being a "fully licensed and accredited securities professional" with hedge fund experience.
In addition, he said Lotito recommended a lawyer to vet the business deal who was under investigation and was ultimately convicted on several felony charges of conspiracy and wire and mail fraud in a scheme to steal millions from a computer company.
In the hedge fund business deal, Lotito and the Bidens created a company called LLB Holdings USA and together agreed to pay $21.3 million for 54 percent interest in Paradigm.
In the lawsuit, Lotito said that soon after creating LLB, the Bidens crafted a "secret deal" to create their own company that was designed to buy out his shares in Paradigm for a low rate, to which he agreed. He said he knew nothing of the secret deal until later and now believes he was defrauded out of millions of dollars and his share in the company.
In the second lawsuit against the Bidens, which was filed in June, Lotito is also named as a defendant. Stephane Farouze, now an executive with Deutsche Bank, seeks $10 million, saying the Bidens and Lotito promised to buy his shares in the hedge fund company but reneged.
Chicago - Obama's "Hometown"
Subject: Interesting facts about Chicago
Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago, 221 killed in Iraq.
Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Mayor Richard Daley.....our leadership in Illinois.....all Democrats. Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course they're all blaming each other. Can't blame Republicans, there aren't any!
State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County ( Chicago) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. (Look'em up if you want). Chicago school system one of the worst in country. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. He's gonna 'fix' Washington politics?
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Body count. In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago, 221 killed in Iraq.
Sens. Barack Obama & Dick Durbin, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., Gov. Rod Blogojevich, House leader Mike Madigan, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Mayor Richard Daley.....our leadership in Illinois.....all Democrats. Thank you for the combat zone in Chicago. Of course they're all blaming each other. Can't blame Republicans, there aren't any!
State pension fund $44 Billion in debt, worst in country. Cook County ( Chicago) sales tax 10.25% highest in country. (Look'em up if you want). Chicago school system one of the worst in country. This is the political culture that Obama comes from in Illinois. He's gonna 'fix' Washington politics?
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Obama Supporters Uses Palin as a "Smoke" Screen
O'bama supporters, Hollywood "stars and their admirers, late night "chatterer's" show hosts, populists and left wingers, radical environmentalists, some students and some graduates of our liberal colleges, those who call government "daddy", the liberal media and dyed in the wool Democrats; love the liberal medias attacks on Sarah Palin's womanhood and John McCain's age.
The financial crisis brought on by unwarranted euphoria, the mismanagement by the Democrat Congress and their leadership, think Pelosi and Barney Franks and many minority Republicans. This crisis brought on by poor-planning home buyers, too many unscrupulous salespeople and greedy lenders, high school dropouts who no one ever taught (many were unteachable) to balance a checkbook, dropouts and "slide-throughers" who were charged $17.5 BILLION in overdraft charges in 2007.
All this covers up the scary relationships Communistic and Socialistic idealist Barrack Obama had with un-repentant, Pentagon bomber ex-Weather underground part-founder Bill Ayers.
"Despite authoring two autobiographies, Obama has never written about his most executive experience. From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenburg Challenge (CAC) and remained on the board until 2001. This group poured more than $100 million, much of it grant money, into the hands of "community organizers and radical element education activists groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform now or ACORN, many of it's leadership now in prison or under indictment.
The CAC was the brainchild of extreme radical Bill Ayers. Barack Omam's first run for the Illinois Senate was launched at a 1995 gathering at Bill Ayer's home. Obama supporters downplay the association and Obama calls him "just a guy who lives in my neighborhood". Mr. Ayers sat as an ex-officio member of the board Mr. Obama chaired through CAC's first year. He also served on the board governance committee with Mr. Obama and worked with him to craft CAC's bylaws.
In works like "City Kid, City Teacher', and "Teaching the Personal and the Political," Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. Ayers said he was a radical, Leftist and small "c" communist.
The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers name comes up, claiming "guilt by association." Yet the issue here is not guilt by association, it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Obama was lending leadership, moral na financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle".
Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics ad Public Policy Center is the source of much of this information. You can read his column titled "Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools in today's WSJ, p. A29.
I might remind my readers that Chicago has some of the worst public schools, some of the highest crime rate and is in the grips of one of the most corrupt political machines in the country.
The financial crisis brought on by unwarranted euphoria, the mismanagement by the Democrat Congress and their leadership, think Pelosi and Barney Franks and many minority Republicans. This crisis brought on by poor-planning home buyers, too many unscrupulous salespeople and greedy lenders, high school dropouts who no one ever taught (many were unteachable) to balance a checkbook, dropouts and "slide-throughers" who were charged $17.5 BILLION in overdraft charges in 2007.
All this covers up the scary relationships Communistic and Socialistic idealist Barrack Obama had with un-repentant, Pentagon bomber ex-Weather underground part-founder Bill Ayers.
"Despite authoring two autobiographies, Obama has never written about his most executive experience. From 1995 to 1999, he led an education foundation called the Chicago Annenburg Challenge (CAC) and remained on the board until 2001. This group poured more than $100 million, much of it grant money, into the hands of "community organizers and radical element education activists groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform now or ACORN, many of it's leadership now in prison or under indictment.
The CAC was the brainchild of extreme radical Bill Ayers. Barack Omam's first run for the Illinois Senate was launched at a 1995 gathering at Bill Ayer's home. Obama supporters downplay the association and Obama calls him "just a guy who lives in my neighborhood". Mr. Ayers sat as an ex-officio member of the board Mr. Obama chaired through CAC's first year. He also served on the board governance committee with Mr. Obama and worked with him to craft CAC's bylaws.
In works like "City Kid, City Teacher', and "Teaching the Personal and the Political," Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. Ayers said he was a radical, Leftist and small "c" communist.
The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers name comes up, claiming "guilt by association." Yet the issue here is not guilt by association, it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Obama was lending leadership, moral na financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle".
Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics ad Public Policy Center is the source of much of this information. You can read his column titled "Obama and Ayers Pushed Radicalism on Schools in today's WSJ, p. A29.
I might remind my readers that Chicago has some of the worst public schools, some of the highest crime rate and is in the grips of one of the most corrupt political machines in the country.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The "Humilation and Defeatist" Attitudes of O'bama and Biden
Do you really want this pacifist duo to run our country for the next 4 years? O'bama, who promised his pacifist/populist supporters that once elected he would "cut and run" from the Mideast as fast as he could? Biden, who said he supported the original invasion of Iraq but as late as 12 months ago said the "surge" would not work and we should have pulled out by now?
For you naysayers who still read me, sorry, but my first blog said this would not be a "feel good" blog site, I recommend you read the 9/20-21/08 issue of the the WSJ and the column "Why the Surge Worked" by Matthew Kaminsky, a member of the Journal's editorial board.
Mr. Kaminsky interviewed retired General Jack Keane, who helped formulate the strategy that was a change of mission and not just more troops and tells his story on Page A13.
Thanks to the ilk of O'bama and Biden, "this nation came within weeks or months of defeat in Iraq. These presidential candidates were fundamentally wrong. It is our presence that is helping the Iraqis move forward", says General Keane.
Of course the battle is not over and some our peacekeeping presence will be needed as "peacekeepers" were and are needed in other foreign countries over the past 70 years or more.
President Bush get the credit of pressing the surge action just as he has been a deciding factor of keeping foreign terrorists from any major destruction of our homeland since 9/11. Even then, this act of sheer terror was brewing for months and perhaps years under the Clinton Administration
The interview with national hero General Jack Keane is well worth the read for Republican, Democrat or other.
For those of you who would throw at me McCain's "hundred" years, even though it was a "figure of speech", he was telling it like is really has been for the last 70 years. Why didn't Clinton when in power, remove our troops from Japan, Germany, etc.? Why not? Because he knew better than to show signs of weakness to Russia, China and others with imperialistic ambitions. Same reason a Democrat Congress in power for 20 months hasn't demanded a complete withdrawal.
It wouldn't be a sane thing to do.
For you naysayers who still read me, sorry, but my first blog said this would not be a "feel good" blog site, I recommend you read the 9/20-21/08 issue of the the WSJ and the column "Why the Surge Worked" by Matthew Kaminsky, a member of the Journal's editorial board.
Mr. Kaminsky interviewed retired General Jack Keane, who helped formulate the strategy that was a change of mission and not just more troops and tells his story on Page A13.
Thanks to the ilk of O'bama and Biden, "this nation came within weeks or months of defeat in Iraq. These presidential candidates were fundamentally wrong. It is our presence that is helping the Iraqis move forward", says General Keane.
Of course the battle is not over and some our peacekeeping presence will be needed as "peacekeepers" were and are needed in other foreign countries over the past 70 years or more.
President Bush get the credit of pressing the surge action just as he has been a deciding factor of keeping foreign terrorists from any major destruction of our homeland since 9/11. Even then, this act of sheer terror was brewing for months and perhaps years under the Clinton Administration
The interview with national hero General Jack Keane is well worth the read for Republican, Democrat or other.
For those of you who would throw at me McCain's "hundred" years, even though it was a "figure of speech", he was telling it like is really has been for the last 70 years. Why didn't Clinton when in power, remove our troops from Japan, Germany, etc.? Why not? Because he knew better than to show signs of weakness to Russia, China and others with imperialistic ambitions. Same reason a Democrat Congress in power for 20 months hasn't demanded a complete withdrawal.
It wouldn't be a sane thing to do.
Bob Hoerr from E. Peoria Tells It Like It Sometimes Is
Bob says, in a "Letter to the Editors" in today's JS, "Having personal core beliefs and values does not guarantee that your children, possessed of free will and human imperfections are always going to march along in lockstep. It doesn't even guarantee that we will ourselves. All of us fall short of our own as well as God's expectations at times."
Mr. Hoerr tells a story not uncommon for many people that we err along life's way. That doesn't make Bristol Palin and her family bad people as the liberal left and the far right would like to paint the Palin's and others they envy. They attack the success of Sarah Palin and want to take it out on Sarah and her family with vicious slander the likes I have never seen in my lifetime.
All to take the searchlight away from Barack Obama's interesting and shady factual connections with his past.
All of us have personal beliefs. We do not debate ones personal beliefs unless they are presented as falsehoods and slander. Being STILL, and I say still, "a Christian country, it is classic Christianity to hate the sin and love the sinner", says Mr. Hoerr and I agree.
It is very difficult for me to love some of the vicious slanders and half-truth sayers" so I will accept my weakness and tell the reader how I really feel.
I hate them and wish they were not part of this country I love.
Sorry, Mr. Hoerr, I can't always live up to your personal beliefs. Many of us really appreciate your expressions and admire you for writing a sensible letter of which not enough appear in the JS these days. Many letters are opinions based on half-truths or no truth, just slander.
Mr. Hoerr tells a story not uncommon for many people that we err along life's way. That doesn't make Bristol Palin and her family bad people as the liberal left and the far right would like to paint the Palin's and others they envy. They attack the success of Sarah Palin and want to take it out on Sarah and her family with vicious slander the likes I have never seen in my lifetime.
All to take the searchlight away from Barack Obama's interesting and shady factual connections with his past.
All of us have personal beliefs. We do not debate ones personal beliefs unless they are presented as falsehoods and slander. Being STILL, and I say still, "a Christian country, it is classic Christianity to hate the sin and love the sinner", says Mr. Hoerr and I agree.
It is very difficult for me to love some of the vicious slanders and half-truth sayers" so I will accept my weakness and tell the reader how I really feel.
I hate them and wish they were not part of this country I love.
Sorry, Mr. Hoerr, I can't always live up to your personal beliefs. Many of us really appreciate your expressions and admire you for writing a sensible letter of which not enough appear in the JS these days. Many letters are opinions based on half-truths or no truth, just slander.
Sally Wade from Galeburg
Today's "letter to the Editors" in the JS is by an apparent "feminist" who believes that Governor Palin should succeed but not by becoming a man. Governor Palin doesn't look, act or talk like a man to me and my friends. (Penis envy must be a terrible thing to some women) She says this is not a good time for Palin to "abandon" her Alaskan nest. What did you cook for supper for me and the kids tonight, mom?
She says "what happens if a hockey mom goes off to Washington"? She begrudgingly admits that Mrs. Palin is a former mayor and present Governor of the largest land mass State of the 50 states in our union, not 57 as one Democrat candidate for president once confused with "57" Islamic States. I suspect it will be a tremendous experience for Vice-President Palin and all her family.
As a feminist, Ms. Wade is a pusher of women's rights yet she evidently believes women should stay at home until their kids have flown the coop.
Bet Ms. Wade still regularly reads "Little House on the Prairie". That books describes what life was like to women in years past. Mrs. Palin and her type of "feminist" is most women's window of opportunity TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE.
Hmmmm.
She says "what happens if a hockey mom goes off to Washington"? She begrudgingly admits that Mrs. Palin is a former mayor and present Governor of the largest land mass State of the 50 states in our union, not 57 as one Democrat candidate for president once confused with "57" Islamic States. I suspect it will be a tremendous experience for Vice-President Palin and all her family.
As a feminist, Ms. Wade is a pusher of women's rights yet she evidently believes women should stay at home until their kids have flown the coop.
Bet Ms. Wade still regularly reads "Little House on the Prairie". That books describes what life was like to women in years past. Mrs. Palin and her type of "feminist" is most women's window of opportunity TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE.
Hmmmm.
Terry Mattingly - Far Left of Left Liberalism
The JS quoted Mattingly, Director of the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, as saying "When it comes to faith and politics, the values of McCain's "handpicked running mate, Sarah Palin, more resembles those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do of the founding fathers. On censorship, the teafchng of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts.
What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick."
How can this liar, half-truths teller and educated idiot purport to be a director of anything pertaining to religion? With such slander in many other countries he and many other he quotes in his vicious attack on Governor Palin, would be hustled off into the night, never to be heard of again.
i would not miss any of them.
By calling him and "educated" idiot, I do a disservice to the term idiot.
What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick."
How can this liar, half-truths teller and educated idiot purport to be a director of anything pertaining to religion? With such slander in many other countries he and many other he quotes in his vicious attack on Governor Palin, would be hustled off into the night, never to be heard of again.
i would not miss any of them.
By calling him and "educated" idiot, I do a disservice to the term idiot.
Railroad Fair 2008
The Railroad Fair continues today 10-5 at Pioneer Parkway and Barracks Catering. Free parking, free event.
Bring the kids
Bring the kids
Friday, September 19, 2008
Palin's National Security Experience
Forwarded to me by my friend Robert E. Huschen. Please pass on. Thanks.
Ph. 309-923-6101
Cell 309-369-8278
Just picked up some little known info on Palin's National Security Credentials. Some have shrugged off her position as Commander of the Alaskan National Guard but see this:
"Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It's on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units.
As governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues,homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden's.
She's also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF), a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security's counterterrorism plans.
Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country's defense. Given Alaska's proximity to Russia, she may have security clearances we don't even know about.
According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets.
She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is."
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Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
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Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.6.16/1652 -
Ph. 309-923-6101
Cell 309-369-8278
Just picked up some little known info on Palin's National Security Credentials. Some have shrugged off her position as Commander of the Alaskan National Guard but see this:
"Alaska is the first line of defense in our missile interceptor defense system. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation from ballistic missile attacks. It's on permanent active duty, unlike other Guard units.
As governor of Alaska, Palin is briefed on highly classified military issues,homeland security, and counterterrorism. Her exposure to classified material may rival even Biden's.
She's also the commander in chief of the Alaska State Defense Force (ASDF), a federally recognized militia incorporated into Homeland Security's counterterrorism plans.
Palin is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the entire country's defense. Given Alaska's proximity to Russia, she may have security clearances we don't even know about.
According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets.
She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is."
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.6.15/1648 - Release Date: 9/2/2008 5:29 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.6.16/1652 -
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Jehan Gordon - Political Candidate?
Did the Democrat party (Billy Halstead and George Shadid) properly vet Ms, Gordon? Looks like they didn't or if they did they have a motto of "vote Democrat or be damned". For more of the story than just her questionable past, you might want to check out her attendance and reliability.
Try danpelphrey@gmail.com
For more information, click on Joan Krupa's website. You may find Gordon's "absentee" record from school board on, quite interesting.
You really don't want "more of the same in Springfield", do you?
Try danpelphrey@gmail.com
For more information, click on Joan Krupa's website. You may find Gordon's "absentee" record from school board on, quite interesting.
You really don't want "more of the same in Springfield", do you?
Homeownership Push is Rethought
Neither candidate for president has said that the government's basic goal of expanded home ownership is a mistake. George Bush said in April of 2004 "I proposed that mortgages that have FHA-backed insurance pay no down payment...What we're trying to do is make it easier for someone to own a home,. and there's practical ways the government can help."
John McCain said "In the future, Fannie or Freddie or any government organization should never insure a loan which the homeowner doesn't have enough of his or her own capital in the investment."
Obama called for amending the federal bankruptcy law to allow judges to force mortgage lenders to take a loss on their loans as part of a Chapter 13 settlement. Obama and Biden voted for a law to make it easier for lower and middle classes consumers to file for bankruptcy.
If the government had any responsibility to the potential homeowners, they should have been marketing the fact that "buyers" had to have enough money for "operating costs" and a fallback money in case of illness or job loss. Many homeowners should have never put themselves in that position in the first place.
I have no sorrow for the speculators. That was a risk of doing business.
I look at this months wreck of the stock market and the panic and turmoil surrounding some lower, middle-class and upper class people caused by the government aided and abetted FALSE ASSUMPTION that "everybody is happier owning their own homes".
Sure, myself and many others tried to tell people of the disadvantages of owning their own homes but they had already bought into the socialist dream of fiscal equality. What is that philosophy? "If you have it I should have it too; and now". Then they want the government to bail them out when they found out you need more than the ability to make the payment, the overlooked operating costs.
And the "why work hard", greed and "equality" being taught in our liberal high schools and colleges, has become so widespread that our whole society is asking "what's in it for me", "if I don't take, it someone else will" and "I want it now, and "if we can borrow the money, why wait".
What a mess this society has become. Never have so few turned this country into this mess that is being magnified today at the detriment of so many others.
Obama and his ilk have a philosophy of take from the rich and give to the poor. If you think the economy of this country is in bad shape now wait till four years of Obama and Biden.
Please don't overlook the fact that both houses of Congress are controlled by the Democrats for the past 20 months. Also, don't think I have been letting the Republican politicians off the hook. Read my archives.
However, I see a glimpse of smaller bureaucracies, less wasteful spending, and less government interference under a MCCain/Palin administration.
I have lived a long time as a teacher, coach, worked 8 years for one large corporation and spent 28 years owning my own business. No bankrupt or default. When times where bad, I had a government "small business loan" which I paid back on time. Otherwise it was sink or swim. If I was to survive I had to swim.
I swam.
The first commandment of government is to do no harm. The harm being done by government these days is immeasurable.
John McCain said "In the future, Fannie or Freddie or any government organization should never insure a loan which the homeowner doesn't have enough of his or her own capital in the investment."
Obama called for amending the federal bankruptcy law to allow judges to force mortgage lenders to take a loss on their loans as part of a Chapter 13 settlement. Obama and Biden voted for a law to make it easier for lower and middle classes consumers to file for bankruptcy.
If the government had any responsibility to the potential homeowners, they should have been marketing the fact that "buyers" had to have enough money for "operating costs" and a fallback money in case of illness or job loss. Many homeowners should have never put themselves in that position in the first place.
I have no sorrow for the speculators. That was a risk of doing business.
I look at this months wreck of the stock market and the panic and turmoil surrounding some lower, middle-class and upper class people caused by the government aided and abetted FALSE ASSUMPTION that "everybody is happier owning their own homes".
Sure, myself and many others tried to tell people of the disadvantages of owning their own homes but they had already bought into the socialist dream of fiscal equality. What is that philosophy? "If you have it I should have it too; and now". Then they want the government to bail them out when they found out you need more than the ability to make the payment, the overlooked operating costs.
And the "why work hard", greed and "equality" being taught in our liberal high schools and colleges, has become so widespread that our whole society is asking "what's in it for me", "if I don't take, it someone else will" and "I want it now, and "if we can borrow the money, why wait".
What a mess this society has become. Never have so few turned this country into this mess that is being magnified today at the detriment of so many others.
Obama and his ilk have a philosophy of take from the rich and give to the poor. If you think the economy of this country is in bad shape now wait till four years of Obama and Biden.
Please don't overlook the fact that both houses of Congress are controlled by the Democrats for the past 20 months. Also, don't think I have been letting the Republican politicians off the hook. Read my archives.
However, I see a glimpse of smaller bureaucracies, less wasteful spending, and less government interference under a MCCain/Palin administration.
I have lived a long time as a teacher, coach, worked 8 years for one large corporation and spent 28 years owning my own business. No bankrupt or default. When times where bad, I had a government "small business loan" which I paid back on time. Otherwise it was sink or swim. If I was to survive I had to swim.
I swam.
The first commandment of government is to do no harm. The harm being done by government these days is immeasurable.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Pensions Plans May Bankrupt Cities
I'm not saying that pension plans will bankrupt the City of Peoria or Peoria County. But the City has a bigger problem than the County. Columnist George Will wrote in the JS this last week a case history of Vallejo, Calif. citing Mayor Osby Davis, who has lived in this city 60 years. Mayor Davis says "if you have a can that's leaking 2ounces a minute and you put one ounce a minute in it, it will go empty".
That is what happened to this mismanaged city of 120,000 when the City Council finally faced facts and voted 7-0 for bankruptcy. The cris came about partly because each of the cities fireman paid $230 in union dues and policeman paid $254 in union dues EACH month giving their respective unions enormous sums to purchase a compliant City Council. Furthermore, police and firefighters can store up unused vacation and leave time over their careers and walk away, as one of the 20 who recently retired did, with a $370,000.00 check. Last year 292 city employees made more than $100,000.00 a year, not including huge health and retirement benefits. 21 firemen earned over $200,000.00 a year and all firemen and policemen are guaranteed lifetime health benefits after only 5 years of service"
Due to the passing of Proposition 13 in California a number of years ago, Vallejo cannot raise property taxes. In Peoria expect property taxes to escalate rapidly over the next 5 years because we can with 9 or more taxing bodies all raising their tax collection base.
Let's look at my Peoria County property tax bill. In 2006, I paid $408 for Peoria City pensions. In 2007, I paid $444. In 2006, I paid the city $240 for other services. In 2007, I paid the city $224.71 for other services.
In 2006, I paid Peoria County $175.58 for County pensions. In 2007, I paid $198.99. In 2006, I paid the county $415.51 for other services. In 2007, I paid the county $506.35 for other services.
By formula, the city gets about %11 of your paid in property taxes. The county gets about %14 of property taxes. Peoria Public School District collected a staggering %56 of my tax bill including $237.34 up from $176.25 last year.
If those of that read this live in Peoria County you can surely see where we are heading. I asked our administrator to make a 10 year chart on the way we were heading in pension costs to the county. The chart makes a dramatic rise starting about 4 years from now.
Think of all this factual information when you consider on which priorities we should be spending our tax dollars.
I suggest they are on our safety systems, our sewer systems, our infrastructure from bridges to streets to sidewalks, on erosion control including our streams and river, alternate schools including vocational and choice, mental health treatment and prevention, MAINTAINING our money losing public projects like the RiverPlex and zoo, includes stopping the balance of the $125 million dollar expansion, improving our local transportation systems, developing the Innovation Center systems, assisting TRANSPORT to get started, REASONABLE assist to get new "missing" link businesses to get started, selling Bellwood Nursing home with evictions covenants instead of building a new one for $32 million dollars and taking on principle and interest payments on the bond amounting to over $2.1 million a year for 30 years, to name most of the major priorities.
If property taxes continue to escalate, I and a lot of other retirees are going to seek a different type of environment as described in the Week End WSJ such as Bloomington, Indiana.
Read the article entitled, "Young at Heart, a vibrant 39,000 communities that retirees like that way". This community, Bloomington, Ind., also has a FREE museum designed by I.M Pei. Median sales price of a home was $141.000.
In Peoria, the local public schools educational systems will improve little OR none by the building of up to $120 million new schools but even that should be a priority over other enhancements this community is either building or has on the drawing boards.
I first started writing about "Wake Up, Peoria", 10 or more years ago. If you are on a relatively fixed income and pay property taxes (and I should say "worried" about rising taxes; I know many aren't, you better be speaking better out than you did on the $32 million dollar public library referendum). If you noted the publicity given the the libraries participation in school learning systems, I remind you students didn't need new or expanded libraries for that electronic service)
Libraries are usually part of a city but not in Peoria. My library tax rose from $205 in 2006 and to $241 in 2007. I predict $360 by 2010.
And don't forget the "garbage" tax which is really a property tax with lipstick.
That is what happened to this mismanaged city of 120,000 when the City Council finally faced facts and voted 7-0 for bankruptcy. The cris came about partly because each of the cities fireman paid $230 in union dues and policeman paid $254 in union dues EACH month giving their respective unions enormous sums to purchase a compliant City Council. Furthermore, police and firefighters can store up unused vacation and leave time over their careers and walk away, as one of the 20 who recently retired did, with a $370,000.00 check. Last year 292 city employees made more than $100,000.00 a year, not including huge health and retirement benefits. 21 firemen earned over $200,000.00 a year and all firemen and policemen are guaranteed lifetime health benefits after only 5 years of service"
Due to the passing of Proposition 13 in California a number of years ago, Vallejo cannot raise property taxes. In Peoria expect property taxes to escalate rapidly over the next 5 years because we can with 9 or more taxing bodies all raising their tax collection base.
Let's look at my Peoria County property tax bill. In 2006, I paid $408 for Peoria City pensions. In 2007, I paid $444. In 2006, I paid the city $240 for other services. In 2007, I paid the city $224.71 for other services.
In 2006, I paid Peoria County $175.58 for County pensions. In 2007, I paid $198.99. In 2006, I paid the county $415.51 for other services. In 2007, I paid the county $506.35 for other services.
By formula, the city gets about %11 of your paid in property taxes. The county gets about %14 of property taxes. Peoria Public School District collected a staggering %56 of my tax bill including $237.34 up from $176.25 last year.
If those of that read this live in Peoria County you can surely see where we are heading. I asked our administrator to make a 10 year chart on the way we were heading in pension costs to the county. The chart makes a dramatic rise starting about 4 years from now.
Think of all this factual information when you consider on which priorities we should be spending our tax dollars.
I suggest they are on our safety systems, our sewer systems, our infrastructure from bridges to streets to sidewalks, on erosion control including our streams and river, alternate schools including vocational and choice, mental health treatment and prevention, MAINTAINING our money losing public projects like the RiverPlex and zoo, includes stopping the balance of the $125 million dollar expansion, improving our local transportation systems, developing the Innovation Center systems, assisting TRANSPORT to get started, REASONABLE assist to get new "missing" link businesses to get started, selling Bellwood Nursing home with evictions covenants instead of building a new one for $32 million dollars and taking on principle and interest payments on the bond amounting to over $2.1 million a year for 30 years, to name most of the major priorities.
If property taxes continue to escalate, I and a lot of other retirees are going to seek a different type of environment as described in the Week End WSJ such as Bloomington, Indiana.
Read the article entitled, "Young at Heart, a vibrant 39,000 communities that retirees like that way". This community, Bloomington, Ind., also has a FREE museum designed by I.M Pei. Median sales price of a home was $141.000.
In Peoria, the local public schools educational systems will improve little OR none by the building of up to $120 million new schools but even that should be a priority over other enhancements this community is either building or has on the drawing boards.
I first started writing about "Wake Up, Peoria", 10 or more years ago. If you are on a relatively fixed income and pay property taxes (and I should say "worried" about rising taxes; I know many aren't, you better be speaking better out than you did on the $32 million dollar public library referendum). If you noted the publicity given the the libraries participation in school learning systems, I remind you students didn't need new or expanded libraries for that electronic service)
Libraries are usually part of a city but not in Peoria. My library tax rose from $205 in 2006 and to $241 in 2007. I predict $360 by 2010.
And don't forget the "garbage" tax which is really a property tax with lipstick.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Peoria County Property Taxes
Thanks to Diane Vespa for her "Letter to the Editors" of the JS about deadlines for filing an appeal if owners thought their properties were not fairly assessed.
Since I complained of the handling of my property taxes I will give an update. I did file an appeal to my 2007 taxes to the State of Illinois but do not expect to hear from them anytime soon as I understand they have a large backlog of complaints.
I did receive a $5,000.00 lower fair value assessment locally for year 2008.
Comparing other communities, Peoria property taxes are very high. Examples are:
Peoria, Il. - $7100.00 on a $284,000.00 home.
Bloomington, Indiana - $641.00 - $1151.00 for an $141,000.00 home.
Westport, Conn. - $9538.00 on an $1.9 million dollar home.
Harwood, Maryland - $5,022.00 on an $1.69 million dollar home.
St. Paul, Mn. - $3240.00 on a $260,000.00 home.
Langford Park, Mn. - $4800.00 on a $550,000.00 home.
If you are paying attention and care about your property taxes, approximately 50% of the residents of Peoria County pay no property taxes so it is easy for non-property residents to vote yes on property tax increases that do not directly affect them.
As I have said in previous blogs that it is my educated belief that we property holders haven't seen anything yet.
Study your tax bill and see where your tax dollars go and keep watching each year for which taxing bodies increase the dollars they collect from you.
Calvin Avenue, Mn. $9976.00 on a $795,000.00 home.
Since I complained of the handling of my property taxes I will give an update. I did file an appeal to my 2007 taxes to the State of Illinois but do not expect to hear from them anytime soon as I understand they have a large backlog of complaints.
I did receive a $5,000.00 lower fair value assessment locally for year 2008.
Comparing other communities, Peoria property taxes are very high. Examples are:
Peoria, Il. - $7100.00 on a $284,000.00 home.
Bloomington, Indiana - $641.00 - $1151.00 for an $141,000.00 home.
Westport, Conn. - $9538.00 on an $1.9 million dollar home.
Harwood, Maryland - $5,022.00 on an $1.69 million dollar home.
St. Paul, Mn. - $3240.00 on a $260,000.00 home.
Langford Park, Mn. - $4800.00 on a $550,000.00 home.
If you are paying attention and care about your property taxes, approximately 50% of the residents of Peoria County pay no property taxes so it is easy for non-property residents to vote yes on property tax increases that do not directly affect them.
As I have said in previous blogs that it is my educated belief that we property holders haven't seen anything yet.
Study your tax bill and see where your tax dollars go and keep watching each year for which taxing bodies increase the dollars they collect from you.
Calvin Avenue, Mn. $9976.00 on a $795,000.00 home.
Build on High Ground
I lived in my Dad and Mom's home until I was 19 and entered the armed forces. We lived high above the two creeks that merged on our property and we could watch the fences being washed out and the crops being drowned from the safety of our house and farm buildings. My dad always told us that when we grew up to to build on high land. Neither my brother or my seven sisters nor I ever built or bought houses on low land and never experienced a flooded home.
It is difficult for me to understand why people won't read history and yet succumb to the entreaties of the greedy developers, opportunists and realtor's and continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. It is also difficult for me to understand why the government continues to help fund the homeowners to rebuild in the same places under the same conditions.
I resent paying higher insurance policies to offset the cost of insuring others who don't seem to understand the risks they are taking or care where there home is located.
No one can comprehend what grief those who thought they built far enough away or behind safe levees to protect their properties from damage of flooding and still watched as their homes were destroyed and the emotional drain they are now trying to endure.
Mother Nature can be and is devastating. People must realize and assess the personal risks they are taking before they decide to challenge her and be ready to accept the risks. They must UNDERSTAND IT IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY for most of these decisions of where to build. It is their responsibility to review at least a hundred year history of the area.
Still, we are a compassionate nation and try to help all despite their sometimes repeated follies.
It is difficult for me to understand why people won't read history and yet succumb to the entreaties of the greedy developers, opportunists and realtor's and continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. It is also difficult for me to understand why the government continues to help fund the homeowners to rebuild in the same places under the same conditions.
I resent paying higher insurance policies to offset the cost of insuring others who don't seem to understand the risks they are taking or care where there home is located.
No one can comprehend what grief those who thought they built far enough away or behind safe levees to protect their properties from damage of flooding and still watched as their homes were destroyed and the emotional drain they are now trying to endure.
Mother Nature can be and is devastating. People must realize and assess the personal risks they are taking before they decide to challenge her and be ready to accept the risks. They must UNDERSTAND IT IS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY for most of these decisions of where to build. It is their responsibility to review at least a hundred year history of the area.
Still, we are a compassionate nation and try to help all despite their sometimes repeated follies.
Peoria Gas Rip-Off?
I bought gas at $3.99+ at Marathon at the same time two Shell Stations on Knoxville were selling the same product at $4.29 +.
On Fox News just now gas prices were shown around the country other than in the immediate and current disaster zones at all under $4.00 a gallon.
Interesting.
On Fox News just now gas prices were shown around the country other than in the immediate and current disaster zones at all under $4.00 a gallon.
Interesting.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Peoria Glen Oak Zoo Snafu
On 9/11/08, JS reporter Terry Bibo reported that PPD board members, "unanimously approved $63,915 for River City Construction to haul away excess dirt fill for the new Africa! exhibit at the Peoria Zoo --and they weren't too happy about it."
"It's hurting both us and the contractor," Superintendent of Planning Rebecca Fredrickson said. "Nobody's winning on this. It is not a good deal. But we have to do it."
She said there were flaws in the design, which originally called for the dirt to be used elsewhere in the project. The cost will be covered by a construction contingency fund set up by the Peoria Zoological Society which already approved the change at it's last meeting.
I asked reporter Bibo where the dirt went, landfill, sold, etc. She said she didn't know. I asked a park board member and he said he was not aware of the situation.
$63,000 dollars would indicate about 100 tandem 14 ton truckloads. Dirt sells for about $12 dollars a ton.
Nobody's winning? Interesting.
"It's hurting both us and the contractor," Superintendent of Planning Rebecca Fredrickson said. "Nobody's winning on this. It is not a good deal. But we have to do it."
She said there were flaws in the design, which originally called for the dirt to be used elsewhere in the project. The cost will be covered by a construction contingency fund set up by the Peoria Zoological Society which already approved the change at it's last meeting.
I asked reporter Bibo where the dirt went, landfill, sold, etc. She said she didn't know. I asked a park board member and he said he was not aware of the situation.
$63,000 dollars would indicate about 100 tandem 14 ton truckloads. Dirt sells for about $12 dollars a ton.
Nobody's winning? Interesting.
JS Article Correction
John Sharp, JS reporter wrote in an article today "Businesses Granted Freedom With Signs", "more signs being erected (in Peoria County) without having any regulations in place".
John probably misunderstood as the ordinance change was heavily debated. No, a person cannot go into the county and put a billboard type sign without first getting a permit. Then the sign would have to meet all other rules as to #of feet from the road, size, location, etc.
Signs In Peoria County are regulated but not in such a restrictive manner as to drive businesses to other counties.
Visit www.peoriacounty.org for more deails on ordinances.
John probably misunderstood as the ordinance change was heavily debated. No, a person cannot go into the county and put a billboard type sign without first getting a permit. Then the sign would have to meet all other rules as to #of feet from the road, size, location, etc.
Signs In Peoria County are regulated but not in such a restrictive manner as to drive businesses to other counties.
Visit www.peoriacounty.org for more deails on ordinances.
The Obama's - Who Are They?
Since I am questioned on sources about the O'bama's, I will state that if Mr. Will didn't ask these questions, I did. I have gleaned my questions and do know most of the answers, from hundreds of different sources. I read a minimum of 7 different newspapers, half a dozen magazines, 2-3 books a week and watch the television at least 3 hours a day yet I have never spent more than 20 minutes a week watching sitcoms. I watch the news information channels like Fox and occasionally the drivel of MSNBC, sports,the History Channel, the stock market channels and do some surfing.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE BY GEORGE F. WILL
May 5, 2008 issue of Newsweek
'Questions for Obama' by George F. Will
"Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: 'We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.' Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law?
. Voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts, you said: Deciding 'truly difficult cases' should involve 'one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy.' Is that not essentially how Chief Justice Roger Taney decided the Dred Scott case? Should other factors,say -- the language of the constitutional or statutory provision at issue matter?
. You say, 'The insurance companies, the drug companies, they're not going to give up their profits easily when it comes to health care.' Why should they? Who will profit from making those industries unprofitable? When pharmaceutical companies have given up their profits, who will fund pharmaceutical innovations, without which there will be much preventable suffering and death? What other industries should 'give up their profits'?
. ExxonMobil's 2007 profit of $40.6 billion annoys you. Do you know that its profit, relative to its revenue, was smaller than Microsoft's and many other corporations'? And that reducing ExxonMobil's profits will injure people who participate in mutual funds, index funds and pension funds that own 52 percent of the company?
. You say John McCain is content to 'watch [Americans'] home prices decline.' So, government should prop up housing prices generally? How? Why? Were prices ideal before the bubble popped? How does a senator know ideal prices? Have you explained to young couples straining to buy their first house that declining prices are a misfortune?
. Telling young people, ' Don 't go into corporate America' , your wife, Michelle, urged them to become social workers or others in 'the helping industry,' not 'the moneymaking industry.' Given that the moneymakers pay for 100 percent of American jobs, in both public and private sectors, is it not helpful?
. Michelle, who was born in 1964, says that most Americans' lives have 'gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl.' Since 1960, real per capita income has increased 143 percent, life expectancy has increased by seven years, infant mortality has declined 74 percent, deaths from heart disease have been halved, childhood leukemia has stopped being a death sentence, depression has become a treatable disease, air and water pollution have been drastically reduced, the number of women earning a bachelor's degree has more than doubled, the rate of homeownership has increased 10.2 percent, the size of the average American home has doubled, the percentage of homes with air conditioning has risen from 12 to 77, the portion of Americans who own shares of stock has quintupled. ? Has your wife perhaps missed some pertinent developments in this country that she calls 'just downright mean'?
. You favor raising the capital gains tax rate to '20 percent or 25 percent.' You say this will not 'distort' economic decision making. Your tax returns on your 2007 income of $4.2 million show that you and Michelle own few stocks. Are you sure you understand how investors make decisions?
. During the ABC debate, you acknowledged that when the capital gains rate was dropped first to 20 percent, then to 15 percent, government revenues from the tax increased and they declined in the 1980s when it was increased to 28 percent. Nevertheless, you said you would consider raising the rate 'for purposes of fairness.' How does decreasing the government's financial resources and punishing investors promote fairness? Are you aware that 20 percent of taxpayers reporting capital gains in 2006 had incomes of less than $50,000?
. You favor eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax, which now covers only the first $102,000. A Chicago police officer married to a Chicago public-school teacher, each with 20 years on the job, have a household income of $147,501, so you would take another $5,642 from them. Are they undertaxed? Are they too rich?
. This November, electorates in four states will vote on essentially this language: 'The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.' Three states -- California , Washington and Michigan -- have enacted such language. You made a radio ad opposing the Michigan initiative. Why? Are those states' voters racists?
. You denounce President Bush for arrogance toward other nations. Yet you vow to use a metaphorical 'hammer' to force revisions of trade agreements unless certain weaker nations adjust their labor, environmental and other domestic policies to suit you. Can you define cognitive dissonance?
. You want 'to reduce money in politics.' In February and March you raised $95 million. See prior question.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Cognitive dissonance is a psychologicalstate that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is, in fact, not true. Similar to ambivalence, the term cognitive dissonance describes conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions) that occur at the same time or when engaged in behaviors that conflict with one's beliefs. In academic literature, the term refers to attempts to reduce the discomfort of conflicting thoughts, by performing actions that are opposite to one's beliefs.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE BY GEORGE F. WILL
May 5, 2008 issue of Newsweek
'Questions for Obama' by George F. Will
"Senator, concerning the criteria by which you will nominate judges, you said: 'We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.' Such sensitivities might serve an admirable legislator, but what have they to do with judging? Should a judge side with whichever party in a controversy stirs his or her empathy? Is such personalization of the judicial function inimical to the rule of law?
. Voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts, you said: Deciding 'truly difficult cases' should involve 'one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy.' Is that not essentially how Chief Justice Roger Taney decided the Dred Scott case? Should other factors,say -- the language of the constitutional or statutory provision at issue matter?
. You say, 'The insurance companies, the drug companies, they're not going to give up their profits easily when it comes to health care.' Why should they? Who will profit from making those industries unprofitable? When pharmaceutical companies have given up their profits, who will fund pharmaceutical innovations, without which there will be much preventable suffering and death? What other industries should 'give up their profits'?
. ExxonMobil's 2007 profit of $40.6 billion annoys you. Do you know that its profit, relative to its revenue, was smaller than Microsoft's and many other corporations'? And that reducing ExxonMobil's profits will injure people who participate in mutual funds, index funds and pension funds that own 52 percent of the company?
. You say John McCain is content to 'watch [Americans'] home prices decline.' So, government should prop up housing prices generally? How? Why? Were prices ideal before the bubble popped? How does a senator know ideal prices? Have you explained to young couples straining to buy their first house that declining prices are a misfortune?
. Telling young people, ' Don 't go into corporate America' , your wife, Michelle, urged them to become social workers or others in 'the helping industry,' not 'the moneymaking industry.' Given that the moneymakers pay for 100 percent of American jobs, in both public and private sectors, is it not helpful?
. Michelle, who was born in 1964, says that most Americans' lives have 'gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl.' Since 1960, real per capita income has increased 143 percent, life expectancy has increased by seven years, infant mortality has declined 74 percent, deaths from heart disease have been halved, childhood leukemia has stopped being a death sentence, depression has become a treatable disease, air and water pollution have been drastically reduced, the number of women earning a bachelor's degree has more than doubled, the rate of homeownership has increased 10.2 percent, the size of the average American home has doubled, the percentage of homes with air conditioning has risen from 12 to 77, the portion of Americans who own shares of stock has quintupled. ? Has your wife perhaps missed some pertinent developments in this country that she calls 'just downright mean'?
. You favor raising the capital gains tax rate to '20 percent or 25 percent.' You say this will not 'distort' economic decision making. Your tax returns on your 2007 income of $4.2 million show that you and Michelle own few stocks. Are you sure you understand how investors make decisions?
. During the ABC debate, you acknowledged that when the capital gains rate was dropped first to 20 percent, then to 15 percent, government revenues from the tax increased and they declined in the 1980s when it was increased to 28 percent. Nevertheless, you said you would consider raising the rate 'for purposes of fairness.' How does decreasing the government's financial resources and punishing investors promote fairness? Are you aware that 20 percent of taxpayers reporting capital gains in 2006 had incomes of less than $50,000?
. You favor eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax, which now covers only the first $102,000. A Chicago police officer married to a Chicago public-school teacher, each with 20 years on the job, have a household income of $147,501, so you would take another $5,642 from them. Are they undertaxed? Are they too rich?
. This November, electorates in four states will vote on essentially this language: 'The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education or public contracting.' Three states -- California , Washington and Michigan -- have enacted such language. You made a radio ad opposing the Michigan initiative. Why? Are those states' voters racists?
. You denounce President Bush for arrogance toward other nations. Yet you vow to use a metaphorical 'hammer' to force revisions of trade agreements unless certain weaker nations adjust their labor, environmental and other domestic policies to suit you. Can you define cognitive dissonance?
. You want 'to reduce money in politics.' In February and March you raised $95 million. See prior question.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Cognitive dissonance is a psychological
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Palin - Some Comparisons
An email forwarded to me. Just passing it on in a blog content.
Subject: FW: Who Am I?
Wall Street Journal
posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 10:58:50 AM
Who Am I?
I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
I have many children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.
Did you guess?
I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And a bit more on Teddy.......
In 1901, as Vice President, the 42-year-old Roosevelt succeeded President William McKinley after McKinley's assassination by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. He is the youngest person to become President. He was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into the Progressive camp. He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved forty monopolistic corporations as a "trust buster". He was clear, however, to show he did not disagree with trusts and capitalism in principle but was only against corrupt, illegal practices. His "Square Deal" promised a fair shake for both the average citizen (through regulation of railroad rates and pure food and drugs) and the businessmen.
Merle said,he also ran on a third party ticket after being rejected by the elite. He lost largely because he was to "politically correct" and had antagonized big money.
Subject: FW: Who Am I?
Wall Street Journal
posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 10:58:50 AM
Who Am I?
I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican Party establishment,
I have many children,
I have a spot on the national ticket as vice president with less than two years in the governor's office.
Did you guess?
I am Teddy Roosevelt in 1900
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And a bit more on Teddy.......
In 1901, as Vice President, the 42-year-old Roosevelt succeeded President William McKinley after McKinley's assassination by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. He is the youngest person to become President. He was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into the Progressive camp. He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved forty monopolistic corporations as a "trust buster". He was clear, however, to show he did not disagree with trusts and capitalism in principle but was only against corrupt, illegal practices. His "Square Deal" promised a fair shake for both the average citizen (through regulation of railroad rates and pure food and drugs) and the businessmen.
Merle said,he also ran on a third party ticket after being rejected by the elite. He lost largely because he was to "politically correct" and had antagonized big money.
"Zooillogical" - Part 5
Today's JS reports that the park board is worried over flaws in Peoria (Glen Oak Zoo) Africa! exhibit. I quote the article, "Board member unanimously approved $63,915.00 for River City Construction to haul away excess dirt for the new Africa! exhibit at the Peoria Zoo--and they weren't too happy about it."
"It's hurting both us and the contractor. Nobody is winning on this. It's not a good deal. But we have to do it", said Superintendent of Planning, Rebecca Fredrickson.
I have some questions which I have posed to the writer of the JS article, Terry Bibo, such as where is this dirt being hauled to? As a reporter on the project, she says she does not know.A landfill? As a conservationist and an environmentalist, I certainly hope not.
What happened to all the beautiful trees that were cut down to make room for the zoo expansion? Did they go in landfill? Ms. Bibo says the trunks are being used to build the zoo. I find it ironic that Park Superintendent Bonnie Noble made a comment during a board meeting when the zoo expansion was being presented and when asked by a board member for a copy of the proposal, she answered that by saving paper "she was saving trees". She also indicated some of the board members wouldn't understand all the complex terms in the proposal anyway.
The taxpaying public who help fund this expansion knows little about what is happening such how much of the $32 million planned expansion is going to be open to the public and when? What will be the admission fees? Where is the parking lot? How are the proposed entrances to the zoo (the PlayHouse would be located by the entrance to the new Peoria Zoo, JS, 2/5/04) being constructed or reconstructed and who is paying for this? The city councilpeople I talked to say they are not aware of any changes in entrances that would cost the city money.
STS, an engineering firm, said they provided the engineering and design services to the PPD for the initial $19 million zoo expansion that is part of an overall proposed $125 million expansion, stated in an advertisement in IB last month.
Proposed $125 million dollar expansion? Is this $125 million flying under the cover of "transparency" or did everybody know about this other than me?
A few month ago a park official made statements that indicated the park is "flush" with money. Yet the $32 million dollar zoo was to open in 2008, park headquarters would by now be in the remodeled old IDOT building by 2007 and that the Children's Playhouse would open in 2007. (Journal Star, 2/5/04).
All indications indicate the park is not "flush" with money and will need much more from the taxpayers, local, state or federal; its all taxpayer money. And need it by next year or sooner. Of, course, they could always float new bonds. Principle, interest and the bond funds borrowed will need to be re-paid by somebody.
Any factual comments on this site clarifying the situation at the PPD will be appreciated.
"It's hurting both us and the contractor. Nobody is winning on this. It's not a good deal. But we have to do it", said Superintendent of Planning, Rebecca Fredrickson.
I have some questions which I have posed to the writer of the JS article, Terry Bibo, such as where is this dirt being hauled to? As a reporter on the project, she says she does not know.A landfill? As a conservationist and an environmentalist, I certainly hope not.
What happened to all the beautiful trees that were cut down to make room for the zoo expansion? Did they go in landfill? Ms. Bibo says the trunks are being used to build the zoo. I find it ironic that Park Superintendent Bonnie Noble made a comment during a board meeting when the zoo expansion was being presented and when asked by a board member for a copy of the proposal, she answered that by saving paper "she was saving trees". She also indicated some of the board members wouldn't understand all the complex terms in the proposal anyway.
The taxpaying public who help fund this expansion knows little about what is happening such how much of the $32 million planned expansion is going to be open to the public and when? What will be the admission fees? Where is the parking lot? How are the proposed entrances to the zoo (the PlayHouse would be located by the entrance to the new Peoria Zoo, JS, 2/5/04) being constructed or reconstructed and who is paying for this? The city councilpeople I talked to say they are not aware of any changes in entrances that would cost the city money.
STS, an engineering firm, said they provided the engineering and design services to the PPD for the initial $19 million zoo expansion that is part of an overall proposed $125 million expansion, stated in an advertisement in IB last month.
Proposed $125 million dollar expansion? Is this $125 million flying under the cover of "transparency" or did everybody know about this other than me?
A few month ago a park official made statements that indicated the park is "flush" with money. Yet the $32 million dollar zoo was to open in 2008, park headquarters would by now be in the remodeled old IDOT building by 2007 and that the Children's Playhouse would open in 2007. (Journal Star, 2/5/04).
All indications indicate the park is not "flush" with money and will need much more from the taxpayers, local, state or federal; its all taxpayer money. And need it by next year or sooner. Of, course, they could always float new bonds. Principle, interest and the bond funds borrowed will need to be re-paid by somebody.
Any factual comments on this site clarifying the situation at the PPD will be appreciated.
Obama - "Community Organizer"
If you are realy concerned about the background of our possible next president read or skim this copy of an email I received today.
Revolution you can believe in
Tuesday, 9th September 2008
In her game-changing convention speech, Sarah Palin took a swipe at Obama for having been nothing more in his life than a ‘community organiser’.
This prompted the Obama campaign to issue a pained defence of community organisation as a way of promoting social change ‘from the bottom up’. The impression is that community organising is a worthy if woolly and ultimately ineffectual grassroots activity. This is to miss something of the greatest importance: that in the world of Barack Obama, community organisers are a key strategy in a different game altogether; and the name of that game is revolutionary Marxism.
The seditious role of the community organiser was developed by an extreme left intellectual called Saul Alinsky. He was a radical Chicago activist who, by the time he died in 1972, had had a profound influence on the highest levels of the Democratic party. Alinsky was a ‘transformational Marxist’ in the mould of Antonio Gramsci, who promoted the strategy of a ‘long march through the institutions’ by capturing the culture and turning it inside out as the most effective means of overturning western society. In similar vein, Alinsky condemned the New Left for alienating the general public by its demonstrations and outlandish appearance. The revolution had to be carried out through stealth and deception. Its proponents had to cultivate an image of centrism and pragmatism. A master of infiltration, Alinsky wooed Chicago mobsters and Wall Street financiers alike. And successive Democratic politicians fell under his spell.
His creed was set out in his book ‘Rules for Radicals’ – a book he dedicated to Lucifer, whom he called the ‘first radical’. It was Alinsky for whom ‘change’ was his mantra. And by ‘change’, he meant a Marxist revolution achieved by slow, incremental, Machiavellian means which turned society inside out. This had to be done through systematic deception, winning the trust of the naively idealistic middle class by using the language of morality to conceal an agenda designed to destroy it. And the way to do this, he said, was through ‘people’s organisations’.
Community organisers would mobilise direct action by the oppressed masses against their capitalist oppressors. In FrontPageMagazine.Com John Perazzo writes:
These People’s Organizations were to be composed largely of discontented individuals who believed that society was replete with injustices that prevented them from being able to live satisfying lives. Such organizations, Alinsky advised, should not be imported from the outside into a community, but rather should be staffed by locals who, with some guidance from trained radical organizers, could set their own agendas.
The installment of local leaders as the top-level officers of People’s Organizations helped give the organizations credibility and authenticity in the eyes of the community. This tactic closely paralleled the longtime Communist Party strategy of creating front organizations that ostensibly were led by non-communist fellow-travelers, but which were in fact controlled by Party members behind the scenes...
Alinsky viewed as supremely important the role of the organizer, or master manipulator, whose guidance was responsible for setting the agendas of the People’s Organization... Alinsky laid out a set of basic principles to guide the actions and decisions of radical organizers and the People’s Organizations they established. The organizer, he said, ‘must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act.’[40] The organizer’s function, he added, was ‘to agitate to the point of conflict’[41] and ‘to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a “dangerous enemy.” ‘[42] ‘The word ‘enemy,’ said Alinsky, ‘is sufficient to put the organizer on the side of the people’;[43] i.e., to convince members of the community that he is so eager to advocate on their behalf, that he has willingly opened himself up to condemnation and derision.
Obama’s connection with Alinsky, whom he never met but whom he reportedly idolised, was through two bodies promoting the Alinsky model of community organisation, ACORN and the Gamaliel Foundation. John Perazzo again:
Obama was trained by the Alinsky-founded Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Chicago and worked for an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, whose modus operandi for the creation of ‘a more just and democratic society’ is rooted firmly in the Alinsky method. As The Nation magazine puts it, ‘Obama worked in the organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky, who made Chicago the birthplace of modern community organizing...’ In fact, for several years Obama himself taught workshops on the Alinsky method.
But Obama brought a special slant to Alinsky’s radicalism.Far from being – as he has been painted – a ‘post-racial’ politician, Obama’s politics are all about promoting the cause of black people and achieving ‘reparations’ from white society (a perspective through which his whole welfare redistribution agenda is framed). Accordingly, he saw his three-year role as a community organiser in Chicago as mobilising black people for action against their white oppressors. Finding himself hampered in creating an activist network among black churches, he decided to join such a church to give himself more credibility. That’s why he joined the infamous black-power Trinity Church of Christ – a move, it seems, that had less to do with any spiritual quest than as a radical tactic for mobilising the black proletariat.
According to Stanley Kurtz in National Review (subscription required), as a trainer for Gamaliel and ACORN Obama used his influence to secure a major increase in funding for both groups. Kurtz writes of Gamaliel, one of the least known yet most influential national umbrella groups for church-based community organizers:
Gamaliel specializes in ideological stealth, and Obama, a master student of Gamaliel strategy, shows disturbing signs of being a sub rosa radical himself. Obama's legislative tactics, as well as his persistent professions of non-ideological pragmatism, appear to be inspired by his radical mentors' most sophisticated tactics. Not only has Obama studied, taught, and apparently absorbed stealth techniques from radical groups like Gamaliel and ACORN, but in his position as a board member of Chicago’s supposedly nonpartisan Woods Fund, he quietly funneled money to his radical allies -- at the very moment he most needed their support to boost his political career.
Kurtz also quotes Rutgers political scientist Heidi Swarts who, in her book Organizing Urban America: Secular and Faith-based Progressive Movements, lays out the strategy of stealth:
Swarts calls groups like ACORN and (especially) Gamaliel ‘invisible actors,’ hidden from public view because they often prefer to downplay their efforts, because they work locally, and because scholars and journalists pay greater attention to movements with national profiles (like the Sierra Club or the Christian Coalition). Congregation-based community organizations like Gamaliel, by contrast, are often invisible even at the local level. A newspaper might report on a demonstration led by a local minister or priest, for example, without noticing that the clergyman in question is part of the Gamaliel network. ‘Though often hidden from view,’ says Swarts, ‘leaders have intentionally and strategically organized these movements that appear to well up and erupt from below.’
Although Gamaliel and ACORN have significantly different tactics and styles, Swarts notes that their political goals and ideologies are broadly similar. Both groups press the state for economic redistribution. The tactics of Gamaliel and ACORN have been shaped in a ‘post-Alinsky’ era of welfare reform and conservative resurgence, posing a severe challenge to those who wish to expand the welfare state. The answer these activists have hit upon, says Swarts, is to work incrementally in urban areas, while deliberately downplaying the far-Left ideology that stands behind their carefully targeted campaigns.
To avoid seeming like radicals or ‘hippies left over from the sixties,’ Gamaliel organizers are careful to wear conventional clothing and conduct themselves with dignity, even formality. Since liberal social movements tend to come off as naïve and idealistic, Gamaliel organizers make a point of presenting their ideas as practical, pragmatic, and down-to-earth. When no one else is listening, Gamaliel organizers may rail at ‘racism,’ ‘sexism,’ and ‘oppressive corporate systems,’ but when speaking to their blue-collar followers, they describe their plans as ‘common sense solutions for working families.’
If anyone should doubt Obama’s debt to Saul Alinsky, they might ponder this encomium from no less an authority than Alinsky’s own son. In a letter to the Boston Globe, L. David Alinsky wrote of his father’s influence at the Democratic Convention:
All the elements were present: the individual stories told by real people of their situation and hardships, the packed-to-the rafters crowd, the crowd’s chanting of key phrases and names, the action on the spot of texting and phoning to show instant support and commitment to jump into the political battle, the rallying selections of music, the setting of the agenda by the power people.
Barack Obama's training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its effectiveness. It is an amazingly powerful format, and the method of my late father always works to get the message out and get the supporters on board. When executed meticulously and thoughtfully, it is a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen. Obama learned his lesson well.
Obama’s questionable links to various radicals are now well-known: the black power racists Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Fr. Michael Pfleger, the former Weather Underground terrorism supporters Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn. On CNN’s Glenn Beck show a few days ago Jerome Corsi, author of Obama Nation, observed:
Obama began his career, his coming out party in 1995, and Ayers and Bernadine Dorn's home. And then for, you know, some 20 years, Obama has been working with Ayers, certainly since 1995, on a series of foundations: the Annenberg Foundation and the Woods Foundation. The boards of directors together, or in the Annenberg Foundation, Ayers created it, and Obama was on it. And together they spent the money of these foundations to implement their radical socialist agenda.
As EM Forster wrote in a somewhat different context, only connect.
When Hillary Clinton was fighting Obama for the Democratic candidacy, her camp implied that the party would be making a terrible mistake in selecting Obama because, unlike centrist Hillary, he was a left-winger. But Hillary is an even more fervent Alinsky acolyte. In their book The Shadow Party, David Horowitz and Glenn Poe recount how Hillary first met Alinsky through a left-wing church group to which she belonged in high school, and stayed close to him until his death. Indeed, so impressed was she with his beliefs that she wrote a 75-page salute to him in her senior thesis at Wellesley College in 1969, which contained excerpts of the not-yet published Rules for Radicals. She wrote:
If the ideals Alinsky espouses were actualized, the result would be social revolution. Ironically, this is not a disjunctive projection if considered in the tradition of Western democratic theory. In the first chapter it was pointed out that Alinsky is regarded by many as the proponent of a dangerous socio/political philosophy. As such, he has been feared -- just as Eugene Debs or Walt Whitman or Martin Luther King has been feared, because each embraced the most radical of political faiths -- democracy.
That’s not democracy as we know it, more a Marxist conception of people power. On FrontPage, Perazzo writes:
During her senior year, Hillary was offered a job by Alinsky but chose instead to enrol at Yale Law School. Alinsky’s teachings, however, would remain close to her heart throughout her adult life. According to a Washington Post report, ‘As first lady, Clinton occasionally lent her name to projects endorsed by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the Alinsky group that had offered her a job in 1968. She raised money and attended two events organized by the Washington Interfaith Network, an IAF affiliate.’
Alinsky was a radical straight out of the Gramsci playbook. In both America and Britain, Gramsci’s acolytes have been conducting a decades-long march through the institutions. In Britain, they have substantially achieved their aim of subverting western morality and changing the face of British society. No political party stands against this. In the US, they have made huge inroads but haven’t yet won. With Palin on one side and Obama on the other, it is now clear that this US presidential election has taken the culture war to the gates of the White House itself.
Revolution you can believe in
Tuesday, 9th September 2008
In her game-changing convention speech, Sarah Palin took a swipe at Obama for having been nothing more in his life than a ‘community organiser’.
This prompted the Obama campaign to issue a pained defence of community organisation as a way of promoting social change ‘from the bottom up’. The impression is that community organising is a worthy if woolly and ultimately ineffectual grassroots activity. This is to miss something of the greatest importance: that in the world of Barack Obama, community organisers are a key strategy in a different game altogether; and the name of that game is revolutionary Marxism.
The seditious role of the community organiser was developed by an extreme left intellectual called Saul Alinsky. He was a radical Chicago activist who, by the time he died in 1972, had had a profound influence on the highest levels of the Democratic party. Alinsky was a ‘transformational Marxist’ in the mould of Antonio Gramsci, who promoted the strategy of a ‘long march through the institutions’ by capturing the culture and turning it inside out as the most effective means of overturning western society. In similar vein, Alinsky condemned the New Left for alienating the general public by its demonstrations and outlandish appearance. The revolution had to be carried out through stealth and deception. Its proponents had to cultivate an image of centrism and pragmatism. A master of infiltration, Alinsky wooed Chicago mobsters and Wall Street financiers alike. And successive Democratic politicians fell under his spell.
His creed was set out in his book ‘Rules for Radicals’ – a book he dedicated to Lucifer, whom he called the ‘first radical’. It was Alinsky for whom ‘change’ was his mantra. And by ‘change’, he meant a Marxist revolution achieved by slow, incremental, Machiavellian means which turned society inside out. This had to be done through systematic deception, winning the trust of the naively idealistic middle class by using the language of morality to conceal an agenda designed to destroy it. And the way to do this, he said, was through ‘people’s organisations’.
Community organisers would mobilise direct action by the oppressed masses against their capitalist oppressors. In FrontPageMagazine.Com John Perazzo writes:
These People’s Organizations were to be composed largely of discontented individuals who believed that society was replete with injustices that prevented them from being able to live satisfying lives. Such organizations, Alinsky advised, should not be imported from the outside into a community, but rather should be staffed by locals who, with some guidance from trained radical organizers, could set their own agendas.
The installment of local leaders as the top-level officers of People’s Organizations helped give the organizations credibility and authenticity in the eyes of the community. This tactic closely paralleled the longtime Communist Party strategy of creating front organizations that ostensibly were led by non-communist fellow-travelers, but which were in fact controlled by Party members behind the scenes...
Alinsky viewed as supremely important the role of the organizer, or master manipulator, whose guidance was responsible for setting the agendas of the People’s Organization... Alinsky laid out a set of basic principles to guide the actions and decisions of radical organizers and the People’s Organizations they established. The organizer, he said, ‘must first rub raw the resentments of the people; fan the latent hostilities to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act.’[40] The organizer’s function, he added, was ‘to agitate to the point of conflict’[41] and ‘to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a “dangerous enemy.” ‘[42] ‘The word ‘enemy,’ said Alinsky, ‘is sufficient to put the organizer on the side of the people’;[43] i.e., to convince members of the community that he is so eager to advocate on their behalf, that he has willingly opened himself up to condemnation and derision.
Obama’s connection with Alinsky, whom he never met but whom he reportedly idolised, was through two bodies promoting the Alinsky model of community organisation, ACORN and the Gamaliel Foundation. John Perazzo again:
Obama was trained by the Alinsky-founded Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Chicago and worked for an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, whose modus operandi for the creation of ‘a more just and democratic society’ is rooted firmly in the Alinsky method. As The Nation magazine puts it, ‘Obama worked in the organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky, who made Chicago the birthplace of modern community organizing...’ In fact, for several years Obama himself taught workshops on the Alinsky method.
But Obama brought a special slant to Alinsky’s radicalism.Far from being – as he has been painted – a ‘post-racial’ politician, Obama’s politics are all about promoting the cause of black people and achieving ‘reparations’ from white society (a perspective through which his whole welfare redistribution agenda is framed). Accordingly, he saw his three-year role as a community organiser in Chicago as mobilising black people for action against their white oppressors. Finding himself hampered in creating an activist network among black churches, he decided to join such a church to give himself more credibility. That’s why he joined the infamous black-power Trinity Church of Christ – a move, it seems, that had less to do with any spiritual quest than as a radical tactic for mobilising the black proletariat.
According to Stanley Kurtz in National Review (subscription required), as a trainer for Gamaliel and ACORN Obama used his influence to secure a major increase in funding for both groups. Kurtz writes of Gamaliel, one of the least known yet most influential national umbrella groups for church-based community organizers:
Gamaliel specializes in ideological stealth, and Obama, a master student of Gamaliel strategy, shows disturbing signs of being a sub rosa radical himself. Obama's legislative tactics, as well as his persistent professions of non-ideological pragmatism, appear to be inspired by his radical mentors' most sophisticated tactics. Not only has Obama studied, taught, and apparently absorbed stealth techniques from radical groups like Gamaliel and ACORN, but in his position as a board member of Chicago’s supposedly nonpartisan Woods Fund, he quietly funneled money to his radical allies -- at the very moment he most needed their support to boost his political career.
Kurtz also quotes Rutgers political scientist Heidi Swarts who, in her book Organizing Urban America: Secular and Faith-based Progressive Movements, lays out the strategy of stealth:
Swarts calls groups like ACORN and (especially) Gamaliel ‘invisible actors,’ hidden from public view because they often prefer to downplay their efforts, because they work locally, and because scholars and journalists pay greater attention to movements with national profiles (like the Sierra Club or the Christian Coalition). Congregation-based community organizations like Gamaliel, by contrast, are often invisible even at the local level. A newspaper might report on a demonstration led by a local minister or priest, for example, without noticing that the clergyman in question is part of the Gamaliel network. ‘Though often hidden from view,’ says Swarts, ‘leaders have intentionally and strategically organized these movements that appear to well up and erupt from below.’
Although Gamaliel and ACORN have significantly different tactics and styles, Swarts notes that their political goals and ideologies are broadly similar. Both groups press the state for economic redistribution. The tactics of Gamaliel and ACORN have been shaped in a ‘post-Alinsky’ era of welfare reform and conservative resurgence, posing a severe challenge to those who wish to expand the welfare state. The answer these activists have hit upon, says Swarts, is to work incrementally in urban areas, while deliberately downplaying the far-Left ideology that stands behind their carefully targeted campaigns.
To avoid seeming like radicals or ‘hippies left over from the sixties,’ Gamaliel organizers are careful to wear conventional clothing and conduct themselves with dignity, even formality. Since liberal social movements tend to come off as naïve and idealistic, Gamaliel organizers make a point of presenting their ideas as practical, pragmatic, and down-to-earth. When no one else is listening, Gamaliel organizers may rail at ‘racism,’ ‘sexism,’ and ‘oppressive corporate systems,’ but when speaking to their blue-collar followers, they describe their plans as ‘common sense solutions for working families.’
If anyone should doubt Obama’s debt to Saul Alinsky, they might ponder this encomium from no less an authority than Alinsky’s own son. In a letter to the Boston Globe, L. David Alinsky wrote of his father’s influence at the Democratic Convention:
All the elements were present: the individual stories told by real people of their situation and hardships, the packed-to-the rafters crowd, the crowd’s chanting of key phrases and names, the action on the spot of texting and phoning to show instant support and commitment to jump into the political battle, the rallying selections of music, the setting of the agenda by the power people.
Barack Obama's training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its effectiveness. It is an amazingly powerful format, and the method of my late father always works to get the message out and get the supporters on board. When executed meticulously and thoughtfully, it is a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen. Obama learned his lesson well.
Obama’s questionable links to various radicals are now well-known: the black power racists Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Fr. Michael Pfleger, the former Weather Underground terrorism supporters Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorn. On CNN’s Glenn Beck show a few days ago Jerome Corsi, author of Obama Nation, observed:
Obama began his career, his coming out party in 1995, and Ayers and Bernadine Dorn's home. And then for, you know, some 20 years, Obama has been working with Ayers, certainly since 1995, on a series of foundations: the Annenberg Foundation and the Woods Foundation. The boards of directors together, or in the Annenberg Foundation, Ayers created it, and Obama was on it. And together they spent the money of these foundations to implement their radical socialist agenda.
As EM Forster wrote in a somewhat different context, only connect.
When Hillary Clinton was fighting Obama for the Democratic candidacy, her camp implied that the party would be making a terrible mistake in selecting Obama because, unlike centrist Hillary, he was a left-winger. But Hillary is an even more fervent Alinsky acolyte. In their book The Shadow Party, David Horowitz and Glenn Poe recount how Hillary first met Alinsky through a left-wing church group to which she belonged in high school, and stayed close to him until his death. Indeed, so impressed was she with his beliefs that she wrote a 75-page salute to him in her senior thesis at Wellesley College in 1969, which contained excerpts of the not-yet published Rules for Radicals. She wrote:
If the ideals Alinsky espouses were actualized, the result would be social revolution. Ironically, this is not a disjunctive projection if considered in the tradition of Western democratic theory. In the first chapter it was pointed out that Alinsky is regarded by many as the proponent of a dangerous socio/political philosophy. As such, he has been feared -- just as Eugene Debs or Walt Whitman or Martin Luther King has been feared, because each embraced the most radical of political faiths -- democracy.
That’s not democracy as we know it, more a Marxist conception of people power. On FrontPage, Perazzo writes:
During her senior year, Hillary was offered a job by Alinsky but chose instead to enrol at Yale Law School. Alinsky’s teachings, however, would remain close to her heart throughout her adult life. According to a Washington Post report, ‘As first lady, Clinton occasionally lent her name to projects endorsed by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the Alinsky group that had offered her a job in 1968. She raised money and attended two events organized by the Washington Interfaith Network, an IAF affiliate.’
Alinsky was a radical straight out of the Gramsci playbook. In both America and Britain, Gramsci’s acolytes have been conducting a decades-long march through the institutions. In Britain, they have substantially achieved their aim of subverting western morality and changing the face of British society. No political party stands against this. In the US, they have made huge inroads but haven’t yet won. With Palin on one side and Obama on the other, it is now clear that this US presidential election has taken the culture war to the gates of the White House itself.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Left Wing Liberal Columnist E. J. Dionne
Dionne is accusing the GOP of covering up Sarah Palin, the most sensible breath of fresh air to emerge from the Republican hinterlands in many a year. No, Mr. Dionne, no, the McCain camp is keeping wolves like you from attempting to tear her apart limb by limb. You and your ilk have found little fault with Obama and try to divert this fairness flaw into an attack on the first woman to ever be nominated to Vice-President of the United States of America. Your ilk has done little challenging of the history of Obama nor have you been able to decipher exactly what he means by "change".
Obama's experience in actually participating in the scheduled legislative sessions in Springfield amount to less than 150 days. Why aren't you talking about that? How many bills did he actually present and how many became law You no the answer; none.
Why aren't you interviewing O'bama's relationships while he was a "community organizer" ( translation; kill the rich and redistribute their wealth) with the indicted, prison term serving Acorn Group? Or his relationship with Chicago boss and probable thug John Stroger, convicted crook Tony Retzko and Weatherman bomber William Ayers?
Dionne says McCain is "cloistering" her. Yes, I'm sure your ilk would like to put her in a nunnery because of your fear and the Obama camp's fear is that she might actually bring some persuasive common sense to Washington where I read and hear that the corrupt Marion Barry will soon be reelected by a "hands out" constituency.
The fox may have invaded the "chicken" coop where all you left-wingers, socialists and populists are frantically squawking.
This time I'm on the side of the fox.
Obama's experience in actually participating in the scheduled legislative sessions in Springfield amount to less than 150 days. Why aren't you talking about that? How many bills did he actually present and how many became law You no the answer; none.
Why aren't you interviewing O'bama's relationships while he was a "community organizer" ( translation; kill the rich and redistribute their wealth) with the indicted, prison term serving Acorn Group? Or his relationship with Chicago boss and probable thug John Stroger, convicted crook Tony Retzko and Weatherman bomber William Ayers?
Dionne says McCain is "cloistering" her. Yes, I'm sure your ilk would like to put her in a nunnery because of your fear and the Obama camp's fear is that she might actually bring some persuasive common sense to Washington where I read and hear that the corrupt Marion Barry will soon be reelected by a "hands out" constituency.
The fox may have invaded the "chicken" coop where all you left-wingers, socialists and populists are frantically squawking.
This time I'm on the side of the fox.
Journal Star - More Goofs
I know money's tight at Gateway and we JS readers are paying the penalty. I have seen so many goofs on "Bridge Page" that I couldn't let today's go without commenting. "West led the Jack of clubs. West didn't hold the jack of clubs. South next took the Q-A of diamonds. South held no diamonds and north held the King and Queen. South led a trump to his queen. Problem is North didn't have the queen of trumps.
I have seen more goofs, more poor use of the English language which seems to show the downhill slope the journal is descending.
The JS recently combined a local weather report with a performance by the Rockettes without even saying in this pictorial article why the Rockettes were in town and how long they would be performing.
The cartoons on the editorial page are often in such bad taste I might imagine reading the drool of Michael Moore or Bill Maher. Cartoons showing our enlisted men as thugs? Did the cartoonist ever visit this prison to see first hand what he was deriding? If not, I would call this cartoonist a traitor to our country and the JSEB a willing shill.
Bad taste? The headline of "Phil Fisher found outside courthouse, where he worked as a sergeant". What journalist with more than a high school degree could have composed this insulting statement? And where was the JS proofreader or do they have any?
I never took Class One in journalism and don't pretend to be a journalist. I do try to present the facts and few challenge what facts I do present. As long as the challenge is civil, I will answer in a civil manner.
I have seen more goofs, more poor use of the English language which seems to show the downhill slope the journal is descending.
The JS recently combined a local weather report with a performance by the Rockettes without even saying in this pictorial article why the Rockettes were in town and how long they would be performing.
The cartoons on the editorial page are often in such bad taste I might imagine reading the drool of Michael Moore or Bill Maher. Cartoons showing our enlisted men as thugs? Did the cartoonist ever visit this prison to see first hand what he was deriding? If not, I would call this cartoonist a traitor to our country and the JSEB a willing shill.
Bad taste? The headline of "Phil Fisher found outside courthouse, where he worked as a sergeant". What journalist with more than a high school degree could have composed this insulting statement? And where was the JS proofreader or do they have any?
I never took Class One in journalism and don't pretend to be a journalist. I do try to present the facts and few challenge what facts I do present. As long as the challenge is civil, I will answer in a civil manner.
Citizens Right to Protect Themselves
************************
A recent "Letter to the Editors" of the JS faulted our Police Chief for not controlling crime. Don't blame the chief. He said he could use 25 more officers on the street. Instead, under pressure from the elite, the City Council gave $28 million unneeded dollars to the libraries. More unnecessary property taxes we will pay for years to come.
Today's JS reports the arrest on a person for first degree murder, the fourth in the city so far this year. The suspect was convicted on weapons charges in 2005 and twice in 2006. He was convicted on the charge of marijuana possession 2007.
Why was the "man" on the streets? Don't blame the Chief. Blame the wording of the law, some of the Judges and the States Attorney. It becomes a more dangerous world every day. I support the right of any authorized and qualified citizen to bear arms. It is a movement I support as a small step for safer communities.
Attached is confirmed report of progress being made in Texas schools.
From Education Week [American Education's Newspaper of Record], / Associated Press, Wednesday, September 3, 2008, Volume 28, Issue 02, p. 4-5. See http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/03/02brief-b1.h28.html?print=1
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NEWS IN BRIEF
Back to School Includes Weapons
Texas district's policy allows approved employees to carry firearms.
By The Associated Press
Along with normal first-day jitters and excitement, students in Harrold, Texas, started school last week wondering which teachers might be toting firearms.
"It was kind of awkward knowing that some teachers were carrying guns," said Adam Lira, a senior. "I don't feel like they should be, 'cause we already have locked doors and cameras. But I didn't feel threatened by it."
Several parents said they had no idea that employees of the 110-student K-12 school were allowed to carry concealed guns on campus until recent publicity about the school board's policy, approved quietly last fall. They said they were upset that the rural community near the Oklahoma border had not been able to give its views.
"As far as I'm concerned, teachers were trained to educate my children-not carry a gun. Even police officers need years of training in hostage situations," said Traci McKay, whose three children attend the red-brick school. "I don't want my child looking over her shoulder wondering who's carrying a gun."
But Harrold Superintendent David Thweatt said the board approved the policy in an October open meeting that had been publicized. He said the decision was made after nearly two years of researching the best security options at the school, just off a highway and 30 minutes from the sheriff's office.
"When you outlaw guns in a certain area, the only people who follow that are law-abiding citizens, and everybody else ignores it," said Mr. Thweatt.
The superintendent said some of the school's 50 employees are carrying weapons, but he would not say how many.
Each employee who wants to carry a weapon first must be approved by the board based on his or her personality and reaction to a crisis, Mr. Thweatt said. In addition to training required for a state concealed-weapons license, they also must be trained to handle crisis-intervention and hostage situations.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has said he supports the policy because "there's a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives."
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A recent "Letter to the Editors" of the JS faulted our Police Chief for not controlling crime. Don't blame the chief. He said he could use 25 more officers on the street. Instead, under pressure from the elite, the City Council gave $28 million unneeded dollars to the libraries. More unnecessary property taxes we will pay for years to come.
Today's JS reports the arrest on a person for first degree murder, the fourth in the city so far this year. The suspect was convicted on weapons charges in 2005 and twice in 2006. He was convicted on the charge of marijuana possession 2007.
Why was the "man" on the streets? Don't blame the Chief. Blame the wording of the law, some of the Judges and the States Attorney. It becomes a more dangerous world every day. I support the right of any authorized and qualified citizen to bear arms. It is a movement I support as a small step for safer communities.
Attached is confirmed report of progress being made in Texas schools.
From Education Week [American Education's Newspaper of Record], / Associated Press, Wednesday, September 3, 2008, Volume 28, Issue 02, p. 4-5. See http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/03/02brief-b1.h28.html?print=1
************************
NEWS IN BRIEF
Back to School Includes Weapons
Texas district's policy allows approved employees to carry firearms.
By The Associated Press
Along with normal first-day jitters and excitement, students in Harrold, Texas, started school last week wondering which teachers might be toting firearms.
"It was kind of awkward knowing that some teachers were carrying guns," said Adam Lira, a senior. "I don't feel like they should be, 'cause we already have locked doors and cameras. But I didn't feel threatened by it."
Several parents said they had no idea that employees of the 110-student K-12 school were allowed to carry concealed guns on campus until recent publicity about the school board's policy, approved quietly last fall. They said they were upset that the rural community near the Oklahoma border had not been able to give its views.
"As far as I'm concerned, teachers were trained to educate my children-not carry a gun. Even police officers need years of training in hostage situations," said Traci McKay, whose three children attend the red-brick school. "I don't want my child looking over her shoulder wondering who's carrying a gun."
But Harrold Superintendent David Thweatt said the board approved the policy in an October open meeting that had been publicized. He said the decision was made after nearly two years of researching the best security options at the school, just off a highway and 30 minutes from the sheriff's office.
"When you outlaw guns in a certain area, the only people who follow that are law-abiding citizens, and everybody else ignores it," said Mr. Thweatt.
The superintendent said some of the school's 50 employees are carrying weapons, but he would not say how many.
Each employee who wants to carry a weapon first must be approved by the board based on his or her personality and reaction to a crisis, Mr. Thweatt said. In addition to training required for a state concealed-weapons license, they also must be trained to handle crisis-intervention and hostage situations.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has said he supports the policy because "there's a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives."
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