Another Failing Institution Handing Out Bonuses

clipped from online.wsj.com WASHINGTON — While Congress has been flaying companies for giving out bonuses while on the government dole, lawmakers have a longstanding tradition of rewarding their own employees with extra cash — also courtesy of taxpayers. Capitol Hill bonuses in 2008 were among the highest in years, according to LegiStorm, an organization that tracks payroll data. The average House aide earned 17% more in the fourth quarter of the year, when the bonuses were paid, than in previous quarters, according to the data. That was the highest jump in the eight years LegiStorm has compiled payroll information. Payments ranged from a few hundred dollars to $14,000. Lawmakers, at their own discretion, gave the money to chiefs of staff, assistants, computer technicians, and more than 100 aides who earned salaries of more than $100,000 a year.

G20 Last Supper

Thanks to the Times of London:

Ballot Initiatives for Sale

Well, my State House Representative–Amy Stevens–tried, but it looks like the Democrats still prefer to be able to pay people to keep initiatives off the Colorado ballot.

The House State Affairs Committee killed a bill Tuesday that would have made it illegal to remove a ballot initiative in exchange for compensation of any kind.

Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, sponsored the legislation in response to a 2008 pre-election deal between business leaders and unions that resulted in the removal of four anti-business initiatives from the statewide ballot in exchange for $3 million to the unions.

Now doesn’t that present an interesting situation?  Here’s how Jon Caldera described it:

Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, testified in favor of the bill. He was a primary backer of Amendment 49 and told the committee that on the eve of the deadline to remove initiatives from the ballot, he was offered $800,000 to pull the initiative. “What an idiot I was not to take that $800,000,” Caldara said, sarcastically adding he now has incentive to put bad measures on the ballot in order to gain financial benefit.

Wouldn’t some slick little hustler have a field day with this kind of setup – which the Democrats and unions stood up for:

Democrat go-to attorney Mark Grueskin, who served as legal counsel for the unions during the 2008 election, testified in opposition. He argued the bill would violate free speech by banning a monetary exchange for removing a ballot measure. “Like it or not money is speech under both [the Colorado and U.S.] Constitutions,” he said.

The bill was ultimately killed on a 6 to 5 vote, with McCann being the only Democrat to vote in favor. Stephens was disappointed, but said she would continue to pursue the issue. “Now that we know those are the terms, we have a new Chicago-style politics,” she said.

Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, was the bill’s Senate sponsor and called its defeat the “Blagojevich-ization” of Colorado.

Not the best of pictures, but Amy is looking on there in the center

I just love that “money is speech” line from a Democrat Union attorney.  These are the ones who want to place restrictions on Republican money and then throw their slush funds behind the latest crook (nee The Messiah) while their oppoents hands are tied.

Anybody want to work to get some union-busting ballot initiative going?  We can split the bucks when the thugs come to pay us off.

Memo to California

We keep hearing about how you have budget deficits and now can’t even cut tax refund checks since you are out of money.  So here’s an idea:

• tax gasoline
• tax electricity
• tax every house
• tax empty land
• tax every place of business
• tax every minute of work by every citizen in the state
• tax every item sold
• tax every car
• tax every truck
• tax every motorcycle
• tax every property transaction
• tax movie tickets
• tax sports tickets
• tax food
• tax every service provided by every productive (non-government) person
• tax water
• tax minerals
• tax oil
• tax the very breath expelled by each of your citizens

What’s that?  You say you already do that?  or you will soon?  Then what are you going to do?  You are only driving out 250,000 citizens every year.  You obviously need to do something that will continue to encourage everyone who works that living in this state is like living in an insane asylum where the inmates (Democrats) are in charge.

And pleeze don’t give me that Arnie is a Republican crap.  You know just as well as I do that he’s just a millinonaire who married into the Kennedys and he doesn’t give two hoots about what the state takes or spends.  He gets to smoke cigars in the tent outside the Capitol and that’s enough for him.

Here’s a few more wealth and economy destroying ideas for you:

• continue to encourage every lawyer in the state to sue every business.  Court fees will increase and it will give your unelected idiots with the Messiah complexes (judges) more chances to make up laws that will make more people and buisnesses leave
• mandate mileage monitors in every vehicle and charge taxes by the inch travelled.  Including forcing people from out of state to stop at the state line to have their monitors installed.
• shut down every nuclear power plant
• insist that the Federal government close every military base in the state
• mandate that every college (including private colleges) must accept anyone who applies regardless of their qualifications
• ammend the state constitution to indicate that every person anywhere in the world is automatically a citizen of California once they set one toe on your soil.
• change marriage laws to not only include gays, but polygamy, polyandry, pedophilia, and necrophilia.  Be really inclusive.
• outlaw English as a language of government

True Love’s Cost of the 12 Days of Christmas: Chirstmas Price Index

True Loves to face most expensive Christmas ever as PNC Christmas Price Index jumps 8.1% in 2008.

Cost of “The 12 Days of Christmas” Song Items Reflect Consumer Pricing Trends; Interactive Web Site Provides Teachers and Students With Insights on U.S. Economy.

Each year, the Christmas Price Index reflects trends in the broader economy. This year, commodities prices, concerns about increased energy and shipping costs, jobs, and a second straight minimum wage increase were major factors in the cost.

Swans have always been expensive because they are rare: in 1995 there were only 14,000. French hens are “cheaper” because they are in less demand. Performance artists such as pipers piping or drummers drumming receive higher wages due to their specialized skills – while maids-a-milking are the only unskilled laborers in the index.

clipped from www.wisdomportal.com clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com The PNC Christmas Price Index increased by a lavish 8.1 percent over last year, the second biggest leap in the history of the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management based on the cost of gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” the cost of the PNC CPI is $21,080 in 2008, $1,573 more than last year. clipped from www.jpgmag.com clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com seven swans a-swimming proved to be a driver of this year’s index, carrying the greatest weight with a whopping 33.3 percent increase due to their scarcity clipped from www.bbc.co.uk clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com True Loves will pay less for the five gold rings this year. Retail prices dropped by 11.4 percent clipped from www.patpalermino.com clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com Two other costs in the CPI dropped this year: three French hens and Six geese-a-laying clipped from mormontabernaclechoir.org clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com eight maids a-milking received a raise for the second straight year, due to another increase in the federal minimum wage clipped from www.bbc.co.uk clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com the drummers drumming, pipers piping and Llrds-a-leaping—jumped a modest 3 percent clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com clipped from www.pncchristmaspriceindex.com True Loves will pay more than ever before—$86,609—for all 364 items, up from $78,100 in 2007 10.9 percent increase

Number Numbness

OK – just how big is $700,000,000,000.00?  Assume you spent one dollar every second of every hour of every day.  How long would it take you to spend that much money – doing absolutely nothing else – just spending 700 billion bucks?

22,181.6 years

Assume 80 years for one generation – this amount of time would emcompass 277 generations.

That’s lots of great great greats on the grandfather line.

And this is just the additional amount above what they have already spent bailing out AIG and Bear Stearns and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

I Wish I Could Write This Well

Just a wonderful post over at The American Thinker about why the left doesn’t understand conservatives, but how we do understand the “progressives”.  I just wish I could write as well as this:

But we also know that when liberals look at conservatives, no such courtesy or openness of mind is extended.  They don’t see considered issues, critical thought, or the faintest possibility of reason. They see white trash men waving bibles at teen brides, while a gaggle of kids groom each other for lice on a cracked linoleum floor. ‘Bitter clingers’ who mindlessly adhere to second-amendment rights so they can shoot baby possum off a tin fence on slow friday nights. The other sort of conservative invariably invokes 19^th century robber barons, plutocrat industrialists swollen with loot plundered from the proletariat, abating their whipping of Dickensian child labor just long enough to polish a monocle.

The whole thing is very much worth your time.  And I will swallow my jealousy and get to work on my writing skills.  Which is probably another conservative thing liberals don’t get.  I know I need to work harder – they just expect someone to forgive their spelling.

When The Check Bounced

House of Erothesenes has a little note which is probably how the liberals will feel in a few years:

Judge to prostitute: “When did you realize that you had been raped?”
Prostitute, wiping away tears, “When the check bounced.”

Men and Women Explained – Part 2

Some Good Advice

From P. J. O’Rourke - not that anyone will actually listen:

1. Go out and make a bunch of money!

Here we are living in the world’s most prosperous country, surrounded by all the comforts, conveniences and security that money can provide. Yet no American political, intellectual or cultural leader ever says to young people, “Go out and make a bunch of money.”

2. Don’t be an idealist!

Idealists are also bullies. The idealist says, “I care more about the redwood trees than you do. I care so much I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. It broke up my marriage. And because I care more than you do, I’m a better person. And because I’m the better person, I have the right to boss you around.”

3. Get politically uninvolved!

All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I’d be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I’ve got three kids and three dogs in my family. We’d be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.

4. Forget about fairness!

Life sends the message, “I’d better not be poor. I’d better get rich. I’d better make more money than other people.” Meanwhile, politics sends us the message, “Some people make more money than others. Some are rich while others are poor. We’d better close that ‘income disparity gap.’ It’s not fair!”

5. Be a religious extremist!

The Bible is very clear about one thing: Using politics to create fairness is a sin. Observe the Tenth Commandment. The first nine commandments concern theological principles and social law: Thou shalt not make graven images, steal, kill, et cetera. Fair enough. But then there’s the tenth: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

Here are God’s basic rules about how we should live, a brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts. And, right at the end of it we read, “Don’t envy your buddy because he has an ox or a donkey.” Why did that make the top 10? Why would God, with just 10 things to tell Moses, include jealousy about livestock?

Well, think about how important this commandment is to a community, to a nation, to a democracy. If you want a mule, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don’t whine about what the people across the street have. Get rich and get your own.

6. Don’t listen to your elders!

After all, if the old person standing up here actually knew anything worth telling, he’d be charging you for it.