A Federal Gravy Train May End

A big thank you to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Some Key Points of the article in case you are too lazy to read it:

Already, public sector workers make, on average, about a third more than their private-sector counterparts, studies show. (This is outrageous when you add in the Federal health and pension plan)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has filed a request with the Government Accountability Office [GAO], the Congressional watch dog agency, to audit once more the nearly century old federal workers’ disability program, where federal workers get lucrative disability payments. The government lists beneficiaries in their 100s receiving these taxpayer-funded payments.
Senator Collins says in a statement that the Labor Department unit which oversees the program paid out about $2.8 billion in disability payments over a recent 12-month span, without ensuring whether federal workers employees are exploiting the program.


Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/01/12/federal-gravy-train-end/#ixzz1AyyI5iyJ

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/01/12/federal-gravy-train-end/#ixzz1AyxCniSW

Clay Matthews: 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year

Congratulations Clay. He created HAVOC even when he wasn't generating sacks or tackling the opposing RB in the backfield. His double teams create opportunity's for the rest of the defense. Congratulations also goes out to Dom Capers. You don't have two consecutive Defensive Players of the Year without the right man calling the shots.

Bang it here for the whole story from The Sporting News.

Should Sheriffs be Party Affiliated?

I had this discussion with a friend during the last election, the recent tragedy and the following rhetoric in Arizona made me think of it again.

What is the benefit of Sheriffs running as Democrats or Republicans? Isn't it their job to simply protect and serve the people of their County? Why should politics play into this? Should Sheriffs be appointed by the County Board where they can be hired on merit instead of who has the most yard signs and radio spots?

Thoughts?

Oh Canada!

Dire Straits' 'Money for Nothing' Deemed Offensive In Canada, Can't Air.

What a bunch of politically correct BULLSHIT! This song has been out for 25 years. Next time I visit Canada I am going to pull out my old cassette tapes and BLAST this tune the entire trip. You think they already banned Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn?

Click here for more from foxnews.com

5 Facts of the Green Bay Packers

1. The Packers Hall of Fame was the first sports museum ever dedicated to a single team.

2.Packer Founder, Player and Coach, Curly Lambeau coached 2 other NFL teams The Chicago Cardinals and The Washington Redskins.

3.WR Greg Jennings caught at least one pass in each of the first 44 games of his NFL career.

4. HB/K Paul Hornung led the NFL in scoring 3 years in a row beginning in 1959.

5. Since the charter induction class of 1963, 26 individuals who have played or coached for the Packers have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

From the Observer: Hwy14/138 Rebuild Meeting is January 25 in Oregon.

This is going to SUCK for those of us that commute into Madison. At least when I smoked I had something to do while sitting in traffic.


Here's the link.

Evansville approves ban of synthetic pot

Plain and simple, the right thing to do. Oh, and welcome Cheryl to our City Council.



Click Here for the news from Gina.

Walker Says Campaign Targeting Illinois Coming

Whether you like him or not, you have to give him credit for coming out of the box swinging.

I remember in the early 90's when the Jim Thompson was the Governor of Illinois and Tommy was the Governor of Wisconsin there was a sign at the border on 94 that read:
"Governor Thompson urges you to move your business to Illinois"    Turnabout is fair play I guess.




Hit it here for the story from Channel 3000.

5 Useless Facts of the Day

1. Coca-Cola would be green if coloring weren’t added to it. ( Bet Pepsi wishes they went with that)
2. Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue. (How would anyone really know this? Has someone looked through the eyes of an Owl?)
3. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. (I am sure there is an evil reason for this I just have not figured it out yet.)
4. On average a hedgehog's  heart beats 300 times a minute (Who cares enough to figure this out?)
5. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle. (Now I understand why he was such a prick.... He was hungry and was a premature ejaculator)

Eagles Fans Suck!

All Philly sports fans have a bad reputation. Why would anyone do this? It's just Football people. 

 Bang it here from The Morning Call.

Only so much money to go around, sorry 4K, no more left for you

OK, so we (Evansville school district property owners) are already averaging close to $4800 per year, with %40 of that going to our school district. I found it very distressing as I evaluated my property tax statement to see that the value of my home went DOWN, and the amount of school tax INCREASED by $300. NOW there is talk of adding a 4K. I see two issues with that 1. MONEY, 2. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. I'll address each. FIRST, I do agree that our children's' education is a very important to our nations future. However my father said to me while I was young, you cant spend money you don't have, basic accounting. With our State being $3.3 BILLION in debt, we as a community need to stop ignoring the 300 lbs gorilla and start being RESPONSIBLE. If our children are so far in debt that we have an economic melt down, our country/ state will take decades to fully recover, how do you think our education will look like then? SECOND, as a parent it is our responsibility to PARENT our children, and yes that includes spending some of your precious time TEACHING them important skills, like reading, talking, bathroom training, MANNERS, how to play, and communication. By adding a year to school in the beginning, you are taking away quality time with your child. This may offend some of you, but MAN UP, take responsibility for your creation, your decision to bring a child in to this world, the person that will be eventually be taking care of you when you are too old to do it for your self. I can not support adding 4K to our school for these two reasons, these economic times or any time for that matter, AND I believe it is our PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY to teach our children.

From the Observer: Oscar Meyer workers win worktime lawsuit

What a crock of shit. We all have to wear clothes to work. Now they get paid to put their work clothes on?
http://evansvilleobserver.blogspot.com/2011/01/oscar-meyer-workers-win-worktime.html#links

ObamaCare's Reality Deficit If you believe that a new entitlement saves money, you'll believe anything.

Click Here: from the Wall Street Journal.

Interesting piece from the WSJ. I love the headline, make sure to check out the "fuzzy" math the CBO used. I believe as the Republicans ran on it that they must vote to repeal even if it has no chance to get by the Senate or the Presidents veto pen.

Arizona...

Terrible tragedy. But it is by no means that idiot Sarah Palin's fault. The following is a facebook conversation your old Uncle Smitty has been having. Names are deleted for the idiots sake. I think their nicknames say it all.

DOUCHE...is getting a little tired of the wining [sic] coming from the tea party and their rightist supporters. It is pretty simple political algebra, if you use violent gun filled rhetoric and a democratic politician you 'targeted' gets shot you are going to get blamed. Suck it up, say your sorry and change your ways

• • REASONABLE, RATIONAL, MINORITY- I am no fan of any political party and frankly every party, foreign and domestic runs on rhetoric, it is their life-blood but to throw blame for this tragedy in Arizona on political rhetoric from one party by the other when it is quite obvious that this is the due to mental illness, a problem not adequately dealt with by either party, is both ironic and hypocritical.

    
    
  • DUMMY- how come all the mentally ill people are on the right wing? Eric Rudolph was the Abortion clinic bomber, Timothy McVey was the Oklahoma City Bomber; I don't know any left wing killers
  • 
    

    DOESN"T GET IT AT ALL (AND DOESN'T EVEN KNOW THE FACTS)- It's not the political party. It's the crazy making rhetoric. People who are unstable are easily inflamed and suggestible. Things like cross hairs on someone's back gives some people ideas. It just so happens we hear the most crazy rhetoric from one faction of one political party.

    
    
  • FUEL TO THE FIRE- And don't forget, the doctors: Tiller, Slepian, Britton, and Gunn killed for providing abortions. This doesn't even include the bombings that have killed and wounded people. Also the Unitarian Church shooting in Knoxville in 2008. The list is very long and very one-sided.

    
    

    DOUCHE- Awesome guy, we could have a debate about what sets off mentally instable people to commit murder but that is actually not my point. My point is that the puntentry on the right is being politically stupid to think they are not going to take a hit... on this and I am tired of them whining about it. You are right, rhetoric is the life blood of politics and sometimes that rhetoric comes and bites you in the ass.
    And, mentally unsettled people are definately more likely to act on what mentally healthy folks would recognize just symbolism. The left has their own example of this in the person of the Unibomber. But the right clearly uses the rhetoric of violence way more than the left so it is not surprising that there is a much longer list of rightwing nuts shooting things up, including a Unitarian Universalist church where I had friends who where injured.

    
    
  • REASONABLE, RATIONAL, MINORITY- None of this is my point. My point is both sides should deal with the real issue here which is the lack of care provided to this country's mentally ill and unstable rather than "whine" about who is at fault for rhetoric that either has been... taken the wrong way or just been plain poor in taste. I would never defend that wing-nut in Alaska, but it has not even been shown that this guy knew about that. In fact there are reports that he had contact with her years ago and has had a long time, unhealthy obsession with the congresswoman (along with ideas of mind-control and the 2012 Mayan end-of-the-world idea).
    
    Talking about the rhetoric just fuels more rhetoric and gets societal needs no where. Let us deal with the issue of mental illness. As a lawyer who deals with mentally ill clients on a near daily basis I will tell you all any comment from any party can and will be taken out of context by people who have paranoid fears. Why do we feel that we have to attribute the actions of some people, whether they are easily influenced or not, to others? Instead shouldn't we be blaming the system that is failing these sick individuals? Aren't all these nuts part of the system? Was JD Salinger the biggest asshole in the world because every person diagnosed with schizophrenic paranoia disorder that has read 'Catcher in the Rye' may be a harm to themselves or others without proper care and/or medication? That is my point.
    

Well that was fun.

Cha-ching...

Saw this the other day...

Did You Know ?
Health insurance premiums for federal employees and retirees will increase an average of 7.3% in 2011, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In the private sector, an 8.8% average increase is projected by a Hewitt Associates survey of 325 large employers. Of those increases, 1.7 percentage points results from mandates in the new health reform law.

Source: www.workforce.com

This excerpt is from the January edition of the CPA Client Bulletin. So how is Obama Care working so far? I recently re-filled one of Uncle Smitty's many prescriptions and low and behold I had to pay a co-pay that was more than the cost of the script itself. So I had to dig down and pay cash. What the heck is going on?

We didn't need health care reform, we needed health INSURANCE reform. And none of those wastes of air in Washington will do it because they are too stupid, don't care because they have Cadillac health care or they are in the pockets of the health insurance industry!

Maybe if this health care reform actually worked than that loony would have been medicated and not shot those folks in Arizona. So it isn't Palin's fault, it's Obama's! (That sounds about as stupid as people blaming the independent acts of a mentally ill person on the dipshit from Alaska.)

Many Americans are like zombies, but with no interest whatsoever in brains!

Snow Headed Our Way.

1" - 4" expected between tonight and tomorrow. Drive safe.

Go Packers!

We're going to need a big day from Clay and the rest of the defense to stop Vick & Co.

My pick Packers 30 Eagles 24.

Denver wants to interview Dom Capers for their head coaching position

This would be a huge loss for the Packers. Ted Thompson needs to do whatever it takes to keep Capers on the staff. 

Here's the link. Compliments of greenbaypackernation.com


Thoughts?