Tag Archives: Abuse of Power

Screw Soviet Russia – Fear California

Posted on November 14, 2009 | 10 comments

In all of our hast to announce that America is turning into a Socialist State, we may be missing the creep of government here.  via Kids Prefer Cheese

San Francisco resident Carla Ruff’s safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked “owner unknown.”  “I was appalled,” Ruff said. “I felt violated.”

Unknown? Carla’s name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address — a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too — still does — and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she’s the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her.

To make matters worse, Ruff discovered the loss when she went to her box to retrieve important paperwork she needed because her husband was dying. Those papers had been shredded.

//

And that’s not all. Her great-grandmother’s precious natural pearls and other jewelry had been auctioned off. They were sold for just $1,800, even though they were appraised for $82,500.

“These things were things that she gave to me,” Ruff said. “I valued them because I loved her.”

Okay, okay.  So the bank made a mistake, right?  A horrible one.  But a mistake.  Right?  Huh, not right?

California law used to say property was unclaimed if the rightful owner had had no contact with the business for 15 years. But during various state budget crises, the waiting period was reduced to seven years, and then five, and then three. Legislators even tried for one year. Why? Because the state wanted to use that free money.

“That’s absolutely correct,” said California State Controller John Chiang, who inherited the situation when he came into office. “What we’ve done here over the last two decades has been dead wrong. We’ve kept the property and not provided owners with the opportunities — the best opportunities — to get their property back.”

Chiang now faces the daunting task of returning $5.1 billion worth of unclaimed property to people. Some states keep their unclaimed property in a special trust fund and only tap into the interest they earn on it. But California dumps the money into the general fund — and spends it.

“It’s supposed to be segregated and protected,” Palmer said. “California has taken all of that $5.1 billion and has used it as a massive loan.”

Awesome!  Go California!

10 Comments

Posted in Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

Tagged , ,

This Isn't Going To End Well

Posted on October 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

We know what happens when the government pressures banks to lend to people they wouldn’t otherwise lend to, right?

So, what does Obama wanna do when banks won’t lend to people they don’t want to?  He pressures ’em.

President Obama is prepared to take “every appropriate step” to pressure banks to lend more money to small businesses, he said Saturday, the latest in a week of salvos his administration has directed toward financial institutions.

Obama said banks should return the favor for a $700 billion taxpayer-financed financial bailout package by lending more money to small businesses, without specifying what steps he would be willing to take to mount pressure on the banks.

Too many small business owners remain unable to get credit, Obama said in his weekly radio address, despite his administration’s efforts to jump-start lending, which was virtually frozen when the financial crisis took hold last year.

“These are the very taxpayers who stood by America’s banks in a crisis, and now it’s time for our banks to stand by creditworthy small businesses and make the loans they need to open their doors, grow their operations and create new jobs,” Obama said.

“It’s time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to help ensure a wider recovery, a more secure system and more broadly shared prosperity,” said Obama.

Because 9.8% unemployment just isn’t high enough.  You know what happens when you start a Rookie?  He gets beat.

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy

Tagged , , , , , ,

Why Would We Tax Chinese Tires?

Posted on September 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

When American’s are really struggling right now to make ends meet, why would the United States impose a tax on tires being shipped to the country?  I mean, if we are really trying to give our consumers the opportunity to save and spend money, why, why would we tax something that they need?

“China strongly condemns this grave act of trade protectionism by the U.S.,” the spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, Yao Jian, said in a statement issued on the Ministry website (www.mofcom.gov.cn) Saturday.

“This step not only violates the rules of the World Trade Organization, it is also contrary to the relevant commitments that the United States government made at the G20 financial summit.”

I am having a hard time understanding why we would impose trade restrictions that would endanger our relationship with China; one of our largest trading partners.

I should re-read this thing–be right back.

Oh, I see now:

The United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many U.S. tire production plants, filed a petition earlier this year asking for the protection.

It said a tripling of tire imports from China to about 46 million in 2008 from about 15 million in 2004 had cost more than 5,000 U.S. tire worker jobs.

Forget I asked.  These are not the droids you are looking for.

Leave a comment

Posted in Economics, Politics: International

Tagged , , , ,

The Chairman’s Weekly Radio Address: February 21, 2009

Posted on February 25, 2009 | Leave a comment

Barack Obama’s Weekly Radio Address

February 21, 2009

Earlier this week, I signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the most sweeping

Sweeping is a word.  Not the one I would have picked, but, hey, who am I?

economic recovery plan in history.  Because of this plan, 3.5 million Americans

How do you know?  Where did you get this number?  3.5 million…..

will now go to work

This is tricky of you Mr. Chairman!  Very very tricky.  You make it sound like these 3.5 million, of which 3.5 million are unemployed, will go to work.  Now.  Gotta hand it to ya sparky, sure got the Chicago style down pat, dont’cha?

doing the work that America needs done.

I’m grateful to Congress, governors and mayors across the country, and to all of you whose support made this critical step possible.

Lot less of them that ya thought, though, huh?  All this hope and change?  Yeah, me either.

Because of what we did together, there will now be shovels in the ground, cranes in the air, and workers rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, and repairing our faulty levees and dams.

Those things, those things should have been being done ANYWAY!!!

Because of what we did, companies — large and small — that produce renewable energy can now apply for loan guarantees and tax credits and find ways to grow, instead of laying people off; and families can lower their energy bills by weatherizing their homes.

Blink.  Blink.  Weatherize our homes?  Next you’ll be tellin’ me to inflate the tires on my car!  Hahahah–wait, what?  You already said that?  Oh my.

Because of what we did, our children can now graduate from 21st century schools and millions more can do what was unaffordable just last week — and get their college degree.

Whoa whoa whoa sparkey.  More money in the schools ain’t what keeping kids from graduation.  You got that!?

Because of what we did, lives will be saved and health care costs will be cut with new computerized medical records.

Awesome idea.  Really really is.  But not stimulative.  Just not.  Write it up in a bill and pass it.  But don’t lie to me.  Change my ass.

Because of what we did, there will now be police on the beat, firefighters on the job, and teachers preparing lesson plans who thought they would not be able to continue pursuing their critical missions.  And ensure that all of this is done with an unprecedented level of transparency

Cough  —bullshit— cough.  You didn’t even let Republican LAWMAKERS in the room when this was written.  You SAID daylight.  5 days.  For us to see.  Transparency.  “I don’t think that word means what you think it means!”

and accountability,

Right.  Forgive the disbelief.

I have assigned a team of managers to make sure that precious tax dollars are invested wisely and well.

Right.  Forgive the disbelief.

Because of what we did, 95 percent of all working families will get a tax cut — in keeping with a promise I made on the campaign.

This one you keep?  THIS one?  Awesome you “non tax cutter”

And I’m pleased to announce that this morning, the Treasury Department began directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from paychecks — meaning that by April 1st, a typical family will begin taking home at least $65 more every month.  Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hardworking Americans.

But as important as it was that I was able to sign this plan into law, it is only a first step on the road to economic recovery.

Aaaahhh, here comes the punchline.

And we can’t fail to complete the journey.  That will require stemming the spread of foreclosures and falling home values, and doing all we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes, which is exactly what the housing plan I announced last week will help us do.

Serious?!?  Are you F$%#ckin’ KIDDING me?  Do you read the papers?  Do you READ what is going on?  Do you have a CLUE as to what got us in this mess?  Home ownership?  Come on man!  Stay out of the way.  Let the market clear.

It will require stabilizing and repairing our banking system, and getting credit flowing again to families and businesses.  It will require reforming the broken regulatory system

Google “Mark to market” you regulatory guy you.

that made this crisis possible, and recognizing that it’s only by setting and enforcing 21st century rules of the road that we can build a thriving economy.

And it will require doing all we can to get exploding deficits

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Breath.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.

Thank you.

under control as our economy begins to recover.  That work begins on Monday, when I will convene a fiscal summit of independent experts and unions, advocacy groups and members of Congress, to discuss how we can cut the trillion-dollar

Pssst.    It’s now well over 3 trillion on it’s way to 7.

deficit that we’ve inherited.

It was the Senator YOU that gave this heapin pile of shit to the Blessed Leader you that is now talkin’ about it!  Dude.

On Tuesday, I will speak to the nation about our urgent national priorities.  And on Thursday, I’ll release a budget that’s sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.

No single piece of this broad economic recovery can, by itself, meet the demands that have been placed on us.

This I agree with.  Nothin you do is gonna do the trick!

We can’t help people find work or pay their bills unless we unlock credit for families and businesses.  We can’t solve our housing crisis unless we help people find work so that they can make payments on their homes.  We can’t produce shared prosperity without firm rules of the road, and we can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.  In short, we cannot successfully address any of our problems without addressing them all.  And that is exactly what the strategy we are pursuing is designed to do.

None of this will be easy.  The road ahead will be long and full of hazards.  But I am confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis.

Careful.  We elected a no name Senator with zero experience and a past history of foolish policies.

And if we do, our economy — and our country — will be better and stronger for it.

Thank you.

Leave a comment

Posted in Weekly Radio Address

Tagged , , , , , , ,

CHANGE!

Posted on February 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

CHANGE

The word was the mantra of Our Blessed Leader’s campaign.  And it was wonderfully successful.  It served to distinguish that what we had was bad.  And further, that we were going to a place where what we had would not be.  That somehow, we would be in a different place.  Further, the assumption would be that it would not only be different, but better!

And so it was.  The Blessed Leader now sits enthroned in DC and things have CHANGEd.  We have CHANGE and the world is right again.  Perhaps Atlas shrugged, but we got him back under control!

Interesting thing, though, that CHANGE.  See CHANGE doesn’t really mean change see.  It just means, well, it means – The Same.  At least as far as Detainee Rights are concerned.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics

Paragraphs rendered:

President Barack Obama’s Justice Department sided with the former Bush administration on Friday, saying detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights.

Shocker.  And while I think the Administration is right here, I am shocked, just SHOCKED I tell you.

“The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we’d hoped,” said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney representing a detainee at the Bagram Air Base. “We all expected better.”

Serious?  You did?

“They’ve now embraced the Bush policy that you can create prisons outside the law,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has represented several detainees.

Anything that pisses off the ACLU is good in my book.  Full CHANGE ahead for me, please!

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: National

Tagged , , ,

I Wish We Had a Cool Governor

Posted on February 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have the same feel for the Good Gov’na Purdue that I have for Obama; not even close.  But how nice it is to listen to some of the best conservatives in the country talk about the stimulus package:?

http://www.wral.com/

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a likely 2012 presidential contender, has said he would reject a portion of the money aimed at expanding state unemployment insurance.

Notice the level of detail intimated by Jindal.  He is not rejecting all of the money, just that money that speaks to unemployment insurance.

Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., said he was considering a similar move. Taking the unemployment dollars, he said, would force his state to eventually raise taxes when the stimulus money runs out, putting in place what he called an unfair tax on employers.

“There is some (money) we will not take in Mississippi. … We want more jobs. You don’t get more jobs by putting an extra tax on creating jobs,” Barbour told CNN’s “State of the Union’ on Sunday.

Again, very detailed analysis of the package.  These guys know the good from the bad; almost as if they–you know, READ the bill.

Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm said there are other states that want and need the new money: “We’ll take it. We’ll take your money.”

States with unemployment rates significantly differ- ent from that of the U.S

States with unemployment rates significantly differ- ent from that of the U.S

Guess who’s state is that highest bar, just left of center?  Yeah, that’s right.  The Great State belonging to Gov. Jennifer Granholm.  That, by the way, is not an accident.

At issue for Jindal and Barbour is a provision in the stimulus bill that could allow people ineligible for unemployment benefits to receive them anyway. That could eventually force a tax increase on employers, both governors have said.

Nice.  So even if the state doesn’t want the money, the Federal Government forces them to take it anyway.  And they have to raise taxes as a result.  How is this legal?

Some Democrats took a harder line at a press conference arranged by the Democratic Governors Association to praise Obama for his leadership on the stimulus. DGA Chairman Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley dismissed GOP detractors as “fringe” Republicans eager to score political points.

“All of us are committed to working with President Obama to pull our nation’s economy out of the ditch that George W. Bush ran it into,” O’Malley said. “If some of the fringe governors don’t want to do that, they need to step aside and not stand in the way of the nation’s interests.”

Sorry, but when you complain of “fringe” Republicans and then say “pull our nation’s economy out of the ditch that George W. Bush ran it into” you lose some all credibility in my book.

The line drew a rebuke from Sanford, the Republican Governors Association chairman.

“I think in this instance I would humbly suggest that the real fringe are those that are supporting the stimulus,” Sanford said. “It is not at all in keeping with the principles that made this country great, not at all in keeping with economic reality, not in keeping with a stable dollar and not in keeping with the sentiments of most of this country.

Finally, Republicans acting like Republicans.

Leave a comment

Posted in Economy, Politics: National, Politics: North Carolina

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

I am My Neighbor’s Keeper

Posted on February 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

North Carolina is somewhat unique in the region, heck, the country, as it relates to annexation laws.  North Carolina allows it’s cities to annex neighborhoods and developments without having to obtain the permission of those residents.  Further, there are no guidelines that the city must adhere to that could possibly allow this practice to help those folks who could really use it.  For example, when the city looks out over it’s borders and sees a new development being built, it can–and does–look into the nature of that development.  What is the mean value of the property?  What type of infrastructure facilities are being built into the development?  The roads and street that serve the development; are they being built in such a manner that would allow the city to assume them without additional cost?

And so it goes, each development has next to it’s name a score, or value.  If and when the city feels that it requores to expand it’s tax base, it just opens that dirty little black book and find the best fit.  And this best fit is the one that brings the most money into the city with the lowest political cost.  How do we know this is true?  Just look at the types of properties and neighborhoods that get annexed, and then look at those who don’t.  In fact, it’s these low value neighborhoods that aren’t brought into the fold even when they WANT to be annexed.

Proponents of this type of annexation will claim that the State’s cities are free of blight, that the services offered by the cities can expand and that, in general, the cities are much more “healthy”.  While it’s certainly true that more programs can be initiated when the tax base is in growth, it’s also true that many of those programs are unnecessary and grossly inefficient.  It’s always better to have less government than government thinks it needs.  So, if that government looks to increase it’s tax revenue, either through tax rate hikes or just more people paying taxes…beware.

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: North Carolina

Tagged , , ,

Maybe Not That Big a Deal

Posted on January 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

I was reading through the News and Observer article describing the Govna’s first day in office.  Now, I have switched jobs, taken responsibility over from someone else and even given responsibility to someone who is taking over my role.  Changes happen.  People think that they have better ideas, or fresh ideas or just, I don’t know, ideas.  I have no issue with that.  But what struck was this her quote on the Board of Transportation.  The article sets it up this way

Perdue ordered that the state Board of Transportation, criticized over the years for approving projects based on patronage and parochialism instead of need, cede its authority to approve road projects to the secretary of transportation. Such decisions would be made by the professional planners and engineers at the department, while the board acts as a planning group.

State law, however, requires that the board be consulted on any spending in districts represented by board members. Perdue acknowledged the statutory obstacle, but said the board will shift gears voluntarily.

Okay, okay, s she has some “politicking to do”.  Or, then again, maybe not:

“Because the governor of this state appoints the DOT board, we will be able to convince them very easily to delegate that authority,” she said.

Hmmm, color me naive, but that doesn’t sound right.

Leave a comment

Posted in Politics: National, Politics: North Carolina

Tagged , ,