Lane Kiffin's decision to leave UT for USC Trojans did not sit well with Tennessee fans.
From the Huffington Post:
"Riots broke out across the Knoxville campus and flames are visible in some photos posted on Twitter. Fans even went so far as to deface the legendary Tennessee Rock, scrawling numerous obscenities and threats"
Well, the students past the spelling test on the rock... as well as the anatomically correct diagrams.
Warning: Images at link NSFW.
Orange teams are wrong, really.
Go Dawgs.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
I Joined a Credit Union Part 2: Move your Money Movement
I wrote an earlier post on closing my accounts at the "too-big-to-fail-bank" and moving to the credit union. I have talked to friends about this and two people I know have done this as well.
The Huffington Post is promoting a "Move Your Money" movement. Here is a posting with a video from Bill Maher regarding this populist movement.
You can find a credit union at this link.
Let's face it, "The Masters of the Universe" are only getting more powerful and using our tax money to stay in power and these clowns feel they "earned" all this by bringing the economy to its knees. These are not achievers or producers. They are crooks.
This is a movement that the Left and the Teabaggers can get together. Lord, I NEVER THOUGHT I would ever say anything like that.
The Huffington Post is promoting a "Move Your Money" movement. Here is a posting with a video from Bill Maher regarding this populist movement.
You can find a credit union at this link.
Let's face it, "The Masters of the Universe" are only getting more powerful and using our tax money to stay in power and these clowns feel they "earned" all this by bringing the economy to its knees. These are not achievers or producers. They are crooks.
This is a movement that the Left and the Teabaggers can get together. Lord, I NEVER THOUGHT I would ever say anything like that.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Cagle's Senate Budget Task Force
Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has announced the members of his task force to make recommendations regarding the state's budget crisis.
According to the AJC "The members of the seven-member task force are: Max Blocker, of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Monye Connolly, president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Geogia; Greg Duncan president of North American Operations at UCB, Inc.; Edward Heys of Deloitte & Touche; Ronnie Labrato of Georgia Power; Kelly McCutchen of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation; and Suzanne Sitherwood of Atlanta Gas Light."
Pretty much a "Who's Who" of business. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation is an alleged non-partisan, "pro-market" think tank that are proponents of privatization of public services and tend to lean against environmental regulation. The others are from Georgia's largest businesses.
This group looks quite similar in make-up to Sonny Perdue's task force leaders to solve the ongoing Chattahoochee River Basin water wars: John Brock, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Tim Lowe, president of Lowe Engineers, are co-chairmen of the Governor’s Water Contingency Task Force. In an article by Jay Bookman in the AJC the 87 member water task force has just one environmental group represented.
The budget task force will make recommendations before the end of the session,
Stay tuned to see what policy changes will be recommended to benefit the big businesses of Georgia and some folks running for office this election year.
According to the AJC "The members of the seven-member task force are: Max Blocker, of PricewaterhouseCoopers; Monye Connolly, president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Geogia; Greg Duncan president of North American Operations at UCB, Inc.; Edward Heys of Deloitte & Touche; Ronnie Labrato of Georgia Power; Kelly McCutchen of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation; and Suzanne Sitherwood of Atlanta Gas Light."
Pretty much a "Who's Who" of business. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation is an alleged non-partisan, "pro-market" think tank that are proponents of privatization of public services and tend to lean against environmental regulation. The others are from Georgia's largest businesses.
This group looks quite similar in make-up to Sonny Perdue's task force leaders to solve the ongoing Chattahoochee River Basin water wars: John Brock, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises, and Tim Lowe, president of Lowe Engineers, are co-chairmen of the Governor’s Water Contingency Task Force. In an article by Jay Bookman in the AJC the 87 member water task force has just one environmental group represented.
The budget task force will make recommendations before the end of the session,
Stay tuned to see what policy changes will be recommended to benefit the big businesses of Georgia and some folks running for office this election year.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Georgia's Lawmakers Begin 2010 Legislative Session
"The budget is in bad shape," said Rep. David Ralston (R - Blue Ridge), in reference to the many cutbacks that will have to made during this year's legislative session. Tax collections for the first half of the fiscal year were down $1.1 billion. Part of this has been offset by $1.4 billion dollars of stimulus money and state reserves. However stimulus money is expected to decline after the beginning of the next fiscal year in July. Lt. Governor Casey Cagle will introduce a committee of seven executives from Georgia companies and accounting firms to make recommendations on state government restructuring before the session is over in February. This has been reported in the Rome News - Tribune.
"In the General Assembly, so-called study committees are often created to research issues between legislative sessions, usually made up exclusively of lawmakers and offering their recommendations either jointly to the House and Senate or to one of the chambers. However, no chamber in recent memory has called on a committee entirely of outsiders to research during a legislative session and report back before adjournment."
Ethics, transportation, education and the banking crisis in Georgia will also be hot issues.
This is also an election year.
As they say, "Get the popcorn ready!"
"In the General Assembly, so-called study committees are often created to research issues between legislative sessions, usually made up exclusively of lawmakers and offering their recommendations either jointly to the House and Senate or to one of the chambers. However, no chamber in recent memory has called on a committee entirely of outsiders to research during a legislative session and report back before adjournment."
Ethics, transportation, education and the banking crisis in Georgia will also be hot issues.
This is also an election year.
As they say, "Get the popcorn ready!"
Friday, January 8, 2010
City of Milton, GA Ends Privatization Contract with CH2M Hill
According the the AJC Milton, Ga has ended its privatization "experiment" of city services. CH2M Hill was contracted to perform the "day to day duties" of municipal government such as sanitation, keeping the roads in good repair and keeping up with zoning compliance.
“We just elected to eliminate the middle man,”according to Chris Lagerbloom Milton's City Manager.
The municipality hired 20 of CH2M Hill employees to stay on with the city AND GAVE THEM A SMALL PAY RAISE with existing benefits. One employee said that CH2M Hill did not offer her to continue working for the company according to the article.
The city will save about $1 million dollars a year. How about that " business is more efficient than government?" What the hell happened here?
During The late 90's and early 00's water privatization in large cities was viewed as a way for municipalities to save revenues. Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta in 1998 entered a water works contract with United Water Services. The Atlanta Business Chronicle in August 2002 detailed the souring of this relationship between Mayor Shirley Franklin and United Water. The complaints from the city included "billing, maintenance, timely emergency responses and consistent record-keeping." During this time I do recall friends of mine getting water bills that were up in to hundreds of dollars for one month's use. The Downtown area's antiquated water system was in desperate need of complete overhaul as storm runoff and sewage were going through the same lines and the city was levied huge fines from the EPA for all the disrepair. United Water was just not the answer to all these issues.
So, free market folks, tell me why this did not work?
Remember when President Bush proposed that part of payroll taxes for Social Security into private saving accounts that would be invested in stocks? These accounts are like 401(K) accounts. Let me ask you this: over the past ten years how much did you earn on your 401(k) after the the market booms and busts and all the fees? Probably would have done better putting it in a jar and burying it in the back yard. Privatized accounts would have been reduced as much as 20% to 30% by fees charged by investment bankers, trustees and account administrators. "This occurred in Great Britain, Chile and other countries that adopted privatization. In both Great Britain and Chile, privatizing Social Security has been judged a failure because retirees' benefits were greatly decreased by 'fees.' " More facts on that here.
I am not against companies doing business and making a profit. I am against business taking over functions that the government should handle. Things that are for the public good, that everyone needs, that will benefit everyone. Like education, health care and clean water.
Damn. I am such a commie.................
“We just elected to eliminate the middle man,”according to Chris Lagerbloom Milton's City Manager.
The municipality hired 20 of CH2M Hill employees to stay on with the city AND GAVE THEM A SMALL PAY RAISE with existing benefits. One employee said that CH2M Hill did not offer her to continue working for the company according to the article.
The city will save about $1 million dollars a year. How about that " business is more efficient than government?" What the hell happened here?
During The late 90's and early 00's water privatization in large cities was viewed as a way for municipalities to save revenues. Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta in 1998 entered a water works contract with United Water Services. The Atlanta Business Chronicle in August 2002 detailed the souring of this relationship between Mayor Shirley Franklin and United Water. The complaints from the city included "billing, maintenance, timely emergency responses and consistent record-keeping." During this time I do recall friends of mine getting water bills that were up in to hundreds of dollars for one month's use. The Downtown area's antiquated water system was in desperate need of complete overhaul as storm runoff and sewage were going through the same lines and the city was levied huge fines from the EPA for all the disrepair. United Water was just not the answer to all these issues.
So, free market folks, tell me why this did not work?
Remember when President Bush proposed that part of payroll taxes for Social Security into private saving accounts that would be invested in stocks? These accounts are like 401(K) accounts. Let me ask you this: over the past ten years how much did you earn on your 401(k) after the the market booms and busts and all the fees? Probably would have done better putting it in a jar and burying it in the back yard. Privatized accounts would have been reduced as much as 20% to 30% by fees charged by investment bankers, trustees and account administrators. "This occurred in Great Britain, Chile and other countries that adopted privatization. In both Great Britain and Chile, privatizing Social Security has been judged a failure because retirees' benefits were greatly decreased by 'fees.' " More facts on that here.
I am not against companies doing business and making a profit. I am against business taking over functions that the government should handle. Things that are for the public good, that everyone needs, that will benefit everyone. Like education, health care and clean water.
Damn. I am such a commie.................
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
How is this Affordable Health Care?
Reagan was elected in the early '80's when I was coming of age. When I was working for a pizza franchise back then I has free medical, hospitalization, vision, dental, disability and life insurance. This job I had was above the minimum wage but, I was by no means rich. In fact all full time positions I held came with these benefits. Those were the times of high interest rates so I suspect the premiums paid by my employers were then fairly low and the insurance companies were investing the premiums with great returns and able to pay claims easily. I guess the population then was much younger overall so less expensive to give care.
The '90's, as I swung into full career mode, health care changed a little. Co-pays, much higher deductibles and co-pays for prescriptions were appearing. I work for a small research lab and the owners were beginning to feel the strain of higher premiums. Folks in our small workforce were having the normal life things going on: having kids, the beginning of relatively normal chronic ailments, mostly things that folks that are approaching middle age have. The owners of this business prided themselves by providing health care for free to us, but, it really staring to cut into their bottom line.
That was when I began to really notice the creeping health care crisis. Hillary Care was killed and problems of folks getting coverage really started gathering steam.
In the late '90's I was self employed. I bought a "catastrophic" health plan. I was in great health at the time, so I figured that was all I needed. Boy, it was real expensive. $200.00 a month got me a $5000.00 deductible to pay for the hospital. That was all I got. No doctor visits, no prescription, no primary care.
I don't really have to go much more into time to demonstrate how costs for health have just skyrocketed in to the stratosphere. For the past 9 years or so I know a lot of folks that have not received any real raises because their employers want to keep high quality health care for their employees. So many have lost jobs and lost employer coverage. Those who can afford it face uncertainty in the health care market that what they buy from these health insurers will actually cover them.
I posted a while back why the Senate Bill was a real bad deal for the middle class. I used Nate Silver's graph of a family of four's cost under this plan. Nate Silver argued that this was such a better deal for these folks. Good Lord. He exposed himself as an out of touch member of the elite. Dang. (And I actually wanted him to be my boyfriend. I think smart is real sexy. Oh, well. Sigh.)Nate actually thought that a family cutting back on luxuries could make it. Got news for you, Nate, a family of 4 on $54,000 a year HAS NO LUXURIES. OK? You can return to Versailles with the other out of touch librul elites, now, and have this absurd conversation with your other friends. You are not helping, sorry. Your arguments are getting in the way.
Marcy Wheeler spells this out for the ones who don't get the point that the Senate Bill helps only the health providers and really screws the middle class. All this brings a real moral dilemma to bear, because, there is a lot in the bill that will help the extremely poor. No wonder there is such fierce arguments regarding all of this.
The fix is in. This is a "bail out" for health insurers , no doubt. I hope those elected in Congress up for re-election next year enjoy the dollars they earned by screwing us.
Oh, BTW, a few blogs posted this link to see how different folks will come out under the senate and the house plans. Worth looking into........
The '90's, as I swung into full career mode, health care changed a little. Co-pays, much higher deductibles and co-pays for prescriptions were appearing. I work for a small research lab and the owners were beginning to feel the strain of higher premiums. Folks in our small workforce were having the normal life things going on: having kids, the beginning of relatively normal chronic ailments, mostly things that folks that are approaching middle age have. The owners of this business prided themselves by providing health care for free to us, but, it really staring to cut into their bottom line.
That was when I began to really notice the creeping health care crisis. Hillary Care was killed and problems of folks getting coverage really started gathering steam.
In the late '90's I was self employed. I bought a "catastrophic" health plan. I was in great health at the time, so I figured that was all I needed. Boy, it was real expensive. $200.00 a month got me a $5000.00 deductible to pay for the hospital. That was all I got. No doctor visits, no prescription, no primary care.
I don't really have to go much more into time to demonstrate how costs for health have just skyrocketed in to the stratosphere. For the past 9 years or so I know a lot of folks that have not received any real raises because their employers want to keep high quality health care for their employees. So many have lost jobs and lost employer coverage. Those who can afford it face uncertainty in the health care market that what they buy from these health insurers will actually cover them.
I posted a while back why the Senate Bill was a real bad deal for the middle class. I used Nate Silver's graph of a family of four's cost under this plan. Nate Silver argued that this was such a better deal for these folks. Good Lord. He exposed himself as an out of touch member of the elite. Dang. (And I actually wanted him to be my boyfriend. I think smart is real sexy. Oh, well. Sigh.)Nate actually thought that a family cutting back on luxuries could make it. Got news for you, Nate, a family of 4 on $54,000 a year HAS NO LUXURIES. OK? You can return to Versailles with the other out of touch librul elites, now, and have this absurd conversation with your other friends. You are not helping, sorry. Your arguments are getting in the way.
Marcy Wheeler spells this out for the ones who don't get the point that the Senate Bill helps only the health providers and really screws the middle class. All this brings a real moral dilemma to bear, because, there is a lot in the bill that will help the extremely poor. No wonder there is such fierce arguments regarding all of this.
The fix is in. This is a "bail out" for health insurers , no doubt. I hope those elected in Congress up for re-election next year enjoy the dollars they earned by screwing us.
Oh, BTW, a few blogs posted this link to see how different folks will come out under the senate and the house plans. Worth looking into........
Taking Time this Season
I have been enjoying the season and taking more time with the folks and relaxing a bit. I have all kinds of ideas for posting in the coming new year. Also, I have gotten out my blogger handbooks to learn more and add some bells and whistles and really learn more (pretty much for my own satisfaction.)
I will be heading down to the "Forgotten Coast" around Apalachicola, FL for the New Year's holiday. Hope to talk to the folks at the "river Keeper" group to get an idea how the Chattahoochee/Flint Tri-state water wars are playing down there.
I feel asleep so early last night I am up so I brewed some coffee and hopefully can write a few posts before my departure.
I will be heading down to the "Forgotten Coast" around Apalachicola, FL for the New Year's holiday. Hope to talk to the folks at the "river Keeper" group to get an idea how the Chattahoochee/Flint Tri-state water wars are playing down there.
I feel asleep so early last night I am up so I brewed some coffee and hopefully can write a few posts before my departure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
