Kabul Press calls Massachusetts more corrupt than Afghanistan

My wife and I were discussing the issue of the "Government Critters" on both sides of the world, and that there really is no real difference as the Government at home and the Government here are inhabited by the same level of ineffective and overpaid staff. They aren't very effective and are highly overpaid for the work that they do. It doesn't matter if you are in Afghanistan or the USA, these fools have taken over the Government that is supposed to work for us. Instead they have made it all about themselves.

Here's a point-of-view from the AFGHN side where the local press in Kabul describes how they see the State of Massachusetts as corrupt (if not more so)than those in Afghanistan.

With DEVAL PATRICK in charge in the State of Massachusetts, I can kinda see this guy's point. Governor Patrick is the best buddy with the President, who is the epitome of ineffective, bloated, overpaid Government. They are a pair of inept frauds who scammed their way into elective office. We would be much better off with both of them out of office and going back to some other line of work.

Massachusetts Corruption Dwarfs Afghan Corruption

International corruption statistics are distorted to protect Western nations and China - Saturday 18 August 2012, by Matthew J. Nasuti - Kabul Press http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article120954

Government corruption in the United States is hundreds of times more pervasive and costly than in Afghanistan. Every day American newspapers recount the scandals. One day it involves U.S. Customs officials, the next day it is the Secret Service, then the General Services Administration, then the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Every month there are new scandals involving foreign aid and other funds administered by the U.S. Department of State, the latest involved the waste of billions of dollars in “global warming” funds squandered by Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones and her predecessor, Claudia A. McMurray. Despite the State Department being perhaps worst administered agency in the Federal Government, no one dares utter even a whisper of criticism at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, so the corruption continues.

While billions of dollars in domestic spending and foreign aid are misappropriated, corruptly awarded and mismanaged each year, that corruption is easier to conceal, because the U.S. is a wealthy country with many distractions. Despite the publicity, few members of the public seem able to grasp the size and scope of the cancer of corruption and nepotism that is eating away at the country.

Internationally, government corruption is ranked under a flawed system established by such groups as “Transparency International.” They rank corruption in countries like Afghanistan and the United States based on subjective “perceptions” of corruption. Because the rankings are not based on the actual volume of corruption, this system unfairly maligns developing countries. If the system were based on the dollar amount of corruption, it would list many Western, Arab and Far East nations as the most corrupt.

Supposedly non-profit groups such as Transparency International are anything but transparent. Its co-founder, Michael Hershman, is a former official with USAID and he is also the chairman of the Fairfax Group. Fairfax makes it profits from the corruption that Transparency International “discovers.” Fairfax holds itself out as an expert consultant on foreign government corruption and as a result it has been awarded numerous U.S. government anti-corruption contracts. Transparency International’s U.S. Board of Directors and Advisory Council is filled with former government officials, lawyers for major Washington, D.C. law firms, government consultants and other representatives of organizations affiliated with the U.S. Department of State. Many of these people make money from or advance their careers by pointing the corruption finger overseas, rather than where it belongs, which is at the Federal, State and local governments in the United States.

In the United States, the systemic government corruption is not limited to the loss of public funds and cronyism, but extends to a wide range of dishonest and illegal practices which shield those with political connections. American is literally a land of two peoples; those to whom the law applies and those who are above the law. The problem is too large for a single article to examine, so just one of America’s 50 states (Massachusetts) was chosen for this article and even for that state, there is only space to summarize a tiny percentage of its public corruption.

Timothy Murray Scandal: The current state government in Massachusetts is called the Patrick/Murray Administration after Governor Duval Patrick and Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray. On November 2, 2011, at 5:26 a.m. Murray was driving his State-owned Crown Victoria automobile in Sterling, Massachusetts, when he crashed the vehicle, completely destroying it. Murray told the police that he was driving at the legal speed limit of 55 miles per hour and lost control of the vehicle. He claimed to be on official business inspecting (in the dark) storm damage in the area. The police determined that he was driving at 108 miles per hour and fell asleep at the wheel. Every statement made to police by Murray was false. Despite that and Murray’s lack of remorse, local prosecutors refused to prosecute him for his false statements or for reckless endangerment. As a reward, Governor Patrick gave Murray a new $40,000.00 State automobile to replace the one he destroyed. Murray had previously been cited in 1992 and 2006 for speeding. Attempts by the Boston Herald to further investigate this scandal have been blocked by lawyers in the Governor’s Office, including E. Abim Thomas, who claims that the records are exempt from public release. ,br />
Chelsea Housing Authority Scandal: Massachusetts has 242 public housing authorities and some of the top jobs within these agencies have historically been patronage appointments, a system prone to abuse. For most of the past year, the Chelsea (Boston) Housing has been rocked by sandals. On June 15th of this year investigators questioned Lieutenant Governor Murray about allegations that Chelsea officials were illegally fundraising for him. Murray has refused to brief the people of Massachusetts regarding any of these allegations. Since then there have been no public updates. The concern is that this criminal investigation, like so many others, has been quietly dropped.

MBTA Scandal: On August 6, 2012, the Boston Globe reported that there were only two bidders on a $1 billion State MBTA transportation contract. Initially, 25 companies expressed an interest in bidding but except for the favored contractors (Mass Bay) and a little known French company, all the rest of the bidders ultimately declined to bid. The reason that 23 companies withdrew from the process is that there is a wide-spread belief that State officials had rigged the bidding in favor of Mass Bay. Governor Patrick has done nothing to dispel this apparently accurate assessment. Due to the lack of competition and in order to try and restore public confidence, Governor Patrick should withdraw bidding authority from MBTA General Manager Jonathan R. Davis, assign the bid evaluation to an independent panel and order that panel to rebid the work. This of course will never happen because the Governor seems quite content with the present corruption.

Deerfield River Levee Scandal: In the Fall of 2011, a group of wealthy agri-businesses in Deerfield, Massachusetts created several kilometers of sand levees along the Deerfield River in an attempt to prevent future flooding of their low-lying farm fields. The 10-15 foot levees, in some places push into tree-lines and right up to the river’s edge. The legal issue is that State law prohibits any construction work within 200 feet of a river without a permit, which the farmers failed to apply for. The Massachusetts River Protection Act is very clear and it mandates that the levees be removed. According to informed sources, inspectors for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recommended in 2011 that enforcement action be commenced against the violators. A letter was sent on December 15, 2011 to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley from Cynthia M. Pepyne of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office requesting a State review of these potential environmental violations. To-date however nothing has happened. The reason is that the agri-businesses involved have close political ties to the Patrick-Murray Administration and party loyalty matters more to these State officials than the environment or the law. It is not clear who within Ms. Coakley’s office or the DEP quashed the enforcement action. The case is presently sitting on the desk of Brian Harrington, Assistant Administrator for DEP’s Western Region. It has been sidelined with the support of DEP attorney Kathleen Delaplain, but the real decision authorities may have been DEP Director Kenneth L. Kimmell and Western Regional Administrator Michael Gorski. In contacts with these officials, they claim that the enforcement action is still under “active consideration” but it is impossible to obtain the truth from any of these individuals.

Department of Revenue Scandal: An investigation in early 2012 revealed that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue has a new tactic that it is using against the poor. It is called the “desk audit.” For wealthy and corporate taxpayers, the Department will conduct field audits in which revenue agents travel to the home or place of business of the wealthy to review the taxpayer’s records. However, for indigent taxpayers, the Department misuses a device called the desk audit and it orders the taxpayer to copy all of his or her records for one or multiple years and mail all of them to the desk auditor. If the taxpayer cannot afford to do this, the Department labels them as “refusing to comply with the law” and rejects all their deductions, imposing large penalties on them. If the indigent taxpayer tries to appeal this unjust assessment, he or she is hit with the one-two punch by the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board (ATB). The ATB has ignored rulings from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and decided that it will not waive filing fees for the poor. As a result of this misconduct, some indigent taxpayers are barred from appealing State abuses. Even if the indigent could somehow obtain the required filing fees, the ATB requires that all hearings be held in Boston, a long trip for the elderly and in some cases an impossible trip for the poor. The ATB refuses to travel around the State in order to hear cases locally, however, the ATB will travel the circuit for wealthy parties who are contesting property tax assessments. It will hold court for property tax cases for the rich in such upscale western towns as Northampton, but it will not accommodate the poor by holding income tax hearings in Springfield or Greenfield. One of these indigent taxpayer cases is currently being prosecuted by Department of Revenue attorney John DeLosa. Commissioner of Revenue Amy Pitter and ATB Chairman Thomas W. Hammond, Jr. apparently are quite comfortable with these abuses, as they have done nothing to correct them. USDA - Massachusetts Scandal: There is an investigation currently underway by U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and the FBI into the corrupt awarding of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Bill funds in Massachusetts. The case has been briefed to top officials in Tom Vilsack’s office. Mr. Vilsack is the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States. The evidence is that USDA officials in Massachusetts have been awarding grants primarily to friends, family members and to a small group of wealthy farmers with close ties to the Patrick/Murray Administration. The grants are under two programs called the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and the Environmental Quality Improvement Program (EQIP). The public has not heard about this case and it will not be hearing about this case for a while because, unfortunately, the U.S. Attorney’s investigation appears to be on hold until after the November election, so as not to embarrass President Obama. Corruption at the Federal, State and local levels within the United States varies from agency to agency, from State to State and from town to town. Overall, the sheer magnitude of abuses outstrips anything present in Afghanistan. The American metrics far outpace Afghanistan on the dollar number of funds misappropriated, number of instances of corruption and number of people and companies who are immune from and above the law. This is not to condone the level of corruption within Afghanistan, which is believed to be considerable and unacceptable. Hypocracy has always been a staple of international diplomacy and therefore Afghanistan will have to live with the condescending arrogance of American diplomats who see corruption everywhere but in their own back yard

While BOSTON is home of World Class Sports Teams, it is also home to World Class HACKS/POLS/ GREEDY UNION TYPES

While the RED SOX and BRUINS show all that BOSTON is home of WORLD CLASS TEAMS, we have the other side of what happens in our state that shows we have some WORLD CLASS IDIOTS too....

THREE ARTICLES say it all when it comes to MASSACHUSETTS HACKS/POLS/GREEDY UNION TYPES - all three of these stories are reported on one day...

T UNION TREASURER steals $250K from fellow Union members to afford himself a very nice lifestyle...still has T job even though he has admitted he took the cash...This type of fool got his job because he knew somebody...turns out they trusted this greedy idiot and paid the price...

A WESTERN MASS HACK (aged 38) gets a PATRONAGE position from GOV. DEVAL " SPEND IT ALL" PATRICK that guarantees him $110K pay & benefits for life....likely up to 50 years as he is retiring at age 38....Deval Patrick supporter ya know.....

And just when you thought it couldn't get worse, GOV. DEVAL " SPEND-IT-ALL " PATRICK decides he doesn't care what voters think, he is giving 4000 State Managers a RAISE not caring that this will pull $10 MILLION dollars MORE out of the budget where the levels of funding for programs are at drastic levels already....


SO to sum up.... We have a Union Thief (Isn't that redunant?), Hackorama retiree robbing you for 50 years worth of $$$ for almost NO WORK and an Idiot Governor who hasn't got a clue - Did I miss anything???

Sad to say, no I didn't.

T union tells court ex-officer stole dues
Local 600 says its treasurer took $250,000
By Eric Moskowitz - BOSTON GLOBE
Globe Staff / June 10, 2011

The MBTA Inspectors Union says its former treasurer stole $250,000 from membership dues, withdrawing cash, writing checks to himself, and spending freely with a union credit card.

Officials at the union, known as Local 600, say they discovered the alleged theft only after Brian C. Sheehy ran unsuccessfully for the union presidency, then scrambled in vain to retain his old post and avoid turning over bank records to the new officers of Local 600.

The union’s allegations have come to light in US Bankruptcy Court, where Sheehy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection one day before he was scheduled to be tried by a union tribunal seeking to recover the money.

The union has asked Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Bailey to prevent Sheehy from using Chapter 7 to avoid repaying Local 600. And the US trustee charged with administering the bankruptcy has asked the judge to dismiss Sheehy’s filing altogether, saying his $70,000 income from the MBTA is too much for him to qualify for Chapter 7 protection.

Sheehy, a 41-year-old Quincy resident, still works for the T as an inspector on the Red Line, because he has not been accused of stealing from the MBTA and because the matter is pending, said a spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Sheehy then paid the union $93,000, apparently hoping the new officers would accept the sum and drop the matter, according to the filings.

When that failed, he filed for bankruptcy and made what Local 600 says were legal maneuvers to avoid repayment and shelter assets that include a vacation home in Dennisport that he shared with his wife, an executive at an investment firm.

The alleged theft has roiled Local 600, the union that represents the 320 inspectors and chief inspectors who work in the MBTA subway and bus system, managing stations, responding to emergencies, helping customers, and providing a uniformed presence.

Those inspectors contribute 1.5 percent of their pay for union dues, money that was supposed to fund organizing, labor negotiations, member defense in job disputes, and other expenses, but much of which is now missing. The union, run by a full-time president and volunteer board, lacked financial safeguards and other controls to discourage theft.

The Sheehys have apparently separated. Sheehy, who is due back in court June 28, told the court last month that he had moved from their four-bedroom home in Quincy to an apartment nearby.

Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com.


Who says $100 doesn’t buy what it used to?
By Howie Carr - BOSTON HERALD
Friday, June 10, 2011

This time it’s an anonymous back-bencher state rep, Chris Speranzo of Pittsfield. He’s been handed extremely early retirement as the next clerk magistrate of the Pittsfield District Court for approximately $110,000 a year.

Not bad for a 38-year-old hack who can now hold this no-heavy-lifting job for the rest of his layabout life. Did I mention he’s a Democrat?

Speranzo will be replacing a guy who’s been gone for two years, one Leo Evans. I’ll bet you didn’t even know Evans was gone. I’m also guessing you never heard of this Speranzo character until this moment. I wonder whether he voted for the very ethical Sal DiMasi for speaker in 2007.

In 2006, Speranzo donated a C-Note to Deval Patrick. Not a bad return on investment — $100 in return for, according to actuarial tables, more than $5 million over the next 50 years or so. And that doesn’t include the free health insurance, plus all the extra dough the clerk magistrate can collect from OKing bail for the local perps.

What’s hard to figure is just how little the kleptocracy cares about pretending to observe the niceties of those proverbial nationwide searches. The Dreaded Private Sector continues to wither, and yet one after another, these worthless unemployable Democrat coatholders are taken care of, one way or another.

Consider the last couple of months. The wife of the state rep from Hingham: a judgeship. The defeated Democrat candidate for sheriff of Bristol County: a $103,000-a-year job as a college hack. The 78-year-old retired senator from Bristol county: a $120,000-a-year sinecure at a different community college.

I called Mary-Ellen Manning, the Democrat governor’s councilor who in a few weeks will have a chance to vote on this Sal DiMasi acolyte.

“He is 38 years old — odds are he’ll be collecting a paycheck for 50 years,” she said. “A half century. This is supposed to be a justice-delivery system, not a jobs program for Deval’s contributors. It’s a closed shop. You only have a chance if you’re on the team. Something is really wrong out west.”

Speranzo did not return a call yesterday seeking a comment.


Deval Patrick raises eyebrows, ire
By Hillary Chabot - BOSTON HERALD
Friday, June 10, 2011 -

Lawmakers and unions slammed Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday for triggering a pay-raise bonanza to the tune of nearly $10 million with a 3 percent salary hike for as many as 4,000 state managers — even as Bay State residents face frozen salaries and unemployment.

“There are people in the private sector who haven’t seen a raise in years. Most people feel lucky if they have a job,” said outraged state Rep. James Miceli (D-Wilmington).

Jay Gonzalez, Patrick’s finance and administration secretary who released the news of the pay raise, argued that state managers haven’t gotten a raise since July 2007.

It’s do as they say, not as they do,” said Steve Killion, president of the Cambridge Police Patrolman’s Union. “It’s unfortunately the way (Patrick) does business. He does what he wants and he hurts all the hard-working people in this state.”

Shortly after the administration announced the raises yesterday, the state Senate hit back, unanimously approving an amendment that would force the governor to control his personnel costs and detail efforts to control spending on staffing.

“This perfectly illustrates the point as to why you have to have reporting on spending and accountability,” said Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), who filed the amendment. “You can imagine our surprise — he’s issuing a broad-based pay increase when we’re in the middle of a conference committee and struggling with serious (budget) cuts.”

Senators are trying to close a $1.9 billion budget gap — made worse by a cutoff of federal stimulus funds. Students at the University of Massachusetts will be whacked with a 7.5 percent fee hike while cities and towns took a $65 million cut in state funding. The pay hike, set to go into effect on July 1, comes only months after Patrick ousted MassDevelopment director Robert Culver for considering pay hikes at the quasi-public authority.

TAXPAYERS SAY, "ENOUGH ALREADY- Stop feathering the nest of municipal workers at everyone else's expense

NO WHERE in this article from the Boston Globe does it mention that the town will ask town workers to pick up a larger share of their own benefits. Instead they will continue to cut positions and reduce services.....so the net-net of this is they preserve the high standard of living for the few at the expense of the majority.

It is galling that the people who work for our towns and cities don't grasp the simple principle that the taxpayer has had to shoulder increased costs for their benefits each year over the last 10-15 years.....now, when anyone in town government suggests that municipal and state workers should do the same, the Unions scream like the stuck pigs they are.....

Millis voters spoke loud and clear.....stop screwing around and put things in order. Stop "feathering the nest" of the few inside town government at the expense of others. Too bad the ones in charge of the decision making process are stone deaf to the taxpayer's directions and a HUGE part of the problem.


Without override, cutbacks expected
Voters rejected $1.1m tax increase
By James O’Brien
Globe Correspondent / May 8, 2011

Voters in Millis,MA rejected a $1.1 million tax increase last week, and town and school officials said the cuts to staff and services that they had hoped to avoid are all but assured.

The officials had proposed the Proposition 2 1/2 override measure to counter a projected $535,183 deficit in the budget for next fiscal year, based on requests from municipal and school administrators. The additional tax revenues would also have provided a five-year financial buffer against projected deficits and a prolonged economic slump, and create funding for capital projects, officials said.

Following the 965-908 vote against the measure in Monday’s town election, however, the budget presented to Town Meeting tomorrow night will call for a number of personnel and program cuts for the year starting July 1.

“All I can say to the people is that the voters have spoken, and we’ll go to Town Meeting with a balanced budget,’’ said David Baker, chairman of the School Committee. “There’s no fat, there’s no muscle; we’re talking only bone.’’

For the school system, which Baker said would absorb about 85 percent of the deficit, amounting to roughly $459,000, a balanced budget means the reduction of 2.9 full-time-equivalent positions, and the elimination of freshman sports at the high school.

Baker said seven teachers will have their hours reduced, and class sizes will increase. The elementary-level Spanish immersion program would increase from 24 to 28 students per class, he said, and the middle school’s television production, drama, and band classes will have about 30 pupils per session.

The schools will also be cutting back on professional training and curriculum instruction, reducing orders of materials and supplies, and taking money from maintenance and operations funding.

“There are not a lot of expenses from which we can cut,’’ said Baker. “Our fuel costs are going up, our heating cost is going up. We’re trying to do everything we can to save teaching positions.’’

On the municipal side, Town Administrator Charles Aspinwall said the 2012 fiscal year’s budget will drop by about $76,000.

Aspinwall said that administrative help would be cut, taking one part-time position from his office, one from the office of the town clerk, and one from the treasurer’s staff.

“This is on top of losing staff since probably 2002,’’ he said.

Staffing at Town Hall will be down to the bare minimum, Aspinwall said. “I used to have three people in my office, now there’s one. The town clerk’s office is down to one person, one full-time administrative assistant.’’

The outcome of that, he said, could be fewer office hours for town business.

Additionally, Aspinwall said, there would be changes in how the town maintains its assets.

“Next year, the DPW can’t pay the water bill,’’ he said, regarding the approximately $13,000 tab for watering the town’s fields. “We’re going to have to shift that responsibility to recreation, and have them charge more for their programs to cover the cost.’’

Officials said Millis has tried in recent years to avert the kind of budgetary decisions that led to the override request.

Baker said the recent contract for teachers had no raises in its first year, but now the second year raises are going to kick in.

Christopher Smith, chairman of the town Finance Committee, said Millis joined the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission in 2008 to take advantage of lower rates in the state’s health insurance plan, and the town moved retirees to a Medicare supplement plan.

“These create a larger pool and spread out costs more evenly,’’ said Smith. “And Millis was one of the first towns in the Commonwealth to do both. If we hadn’t, our problem would be a lot worse right now.’’

In his nine years on the school board, Baker said, only 2004 to 2006 were what he would call good times, and those came largely because of a change in how the state formulated public school funding.

“And then the economy fell off the face of the earth,’’ he said, describing the reason why state aid has been reduced.

In his 20 years as town administrator, Aspinwall said, he’s seen Millis on the financial upswing, but called the recent years a cruel reversal.

“It’s a terrible thing to see things improve, to see schools improve, to see our bond rating improve, to see our infrastructure improve, and then to see it slowly chip back away,’’ Aspinwall said. “If you had told me the ’90s were the good old days, I never would have believed you, but . . . I guess they were.’’

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company

Sanity restored in Wisconsin...and some rough business travel for yours truly....

Spent the day on business travel....The business part went well it was the "travel" part that was a slog.....delays and the Airlines showing that they have a long, long way to go to demonstrate that they understand customer service....Case in point, flying into Washington, DC at Reagan International Airport and having to wait on the tarmac for a 1/2 hour because " the gate we needed was being used" according to our Captain.....after a 1/2 hour wait, we finally get to pull up to the terminal only to find 4 open gates side-by-side....

Me thinks the Airlines need to get their act together.....it was not a happy group of passengers on our plane.....

Meanwhile, In Wisconsin, Sanity is restored as the Union Thugs and Overpaid State hacks finally see that they cannot derail the legislative process no matter how childish they want to act.....This shows that the Voters and more importantly the Taxpayers are the ones who set the tone of our Political Course in our country, not the Unions and certainly not the Public Sector. After all, they work for US, not the other way around.



Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald Statement on Senate Action
Posted: Mar 09, 2011 7:38 PM EST

MADISON, WI (Press Release) … After nearly a month of debate on the budget repair bill, nearly three weeks of childish stunts and delay tactics from the Democrats, the longest public hearing in state history and the longest Assembly debate in state history, the Senate met tonight to pass the non-fiscal items in the Budget Repair Bill. Sen. Fitzgerald released the following statement:

"Before the election, the Democrats promised "adult leadership" in Madison. Then a month and a half into session, the Senate Democrats fled the state instead of doing their job.

"In doing so, they have tarnished the very institution of the Wisconsin state Senate. This is unacceptable.

"This afternoon, following a week and a half of line-by-line negotiation, Sen. Miller sent me a letter that offered three options: 1) keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 2) take our counter-offer, which would keep collective bargaining as is with no changes, 3) or stop talking altogether.

"With that letter, I realized that we're dealing with someone who is stalling indefinitely, and doesn't have a plan or an intention to return. His idea of compromise is "give me everything I want," and the only negotiating he's doing is through the media.

"Enough is enough." "The people of Wisconsin elected us to do a job. They elected us to stand up to the broken status quo, stop the constant expansion of government, balance the budget, create jobs and improve the economy. The longer the Democrats keep up this childish stunt, the longer the majority can't act on our agenda.

"Tonight, the Senate will be passing the items in the budget repair bill that we can, with the 19 members who actually DO show up and do their jobs. Those items include the long-overdue reform of collective bargaining needed to help local governments absorb these budget cuts, and the 12 percent health care premium and 5 percent pension contribution.

"We have confirmed with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Reference Bureau that every item in tonight's bill follows the letter of the law.

"The people of Wisconsin elected us to come to Madison and do a job. Just because the Senate Democrats won't do theirs, doesn't mean we won't do ours."

Backbreaker....

Massachusetts angling to deprive citizens of their 2012 Primary Vote ....more crappola from Obama's Buddy Deval "Spend-it-all" Patrick

The budget is now being used as justification for elimination of the 2012 Primaries??

This coming out of Massachusetts (with Obama's Buddy Governor "Spend-it-all Deval Patrick).....Funny how the OBOTS are backing the UNIONS but want to take away the citizens right to vote.

We have enough money to give the retiring Chief of Massport a $450K payment of Unused Sicktime and a $200K a year pension but we can't pay for the Presidential Primary??

This is how the DEMS show people that their vote doesn't count because they will gin up a "crisis" and use that as a reason to deprive people of their Constitutional Right to VOTE.....and people wonder why we didn't want to re-elect the fool that resides in our State House??


Not enough money for a 2012 primary?
A handful of states, including Massachusetts, are considering abolishing their presidential primaries — mainly because there's not enough money in the budget:
Politico Blog - Ben Smith

Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin says there’s not enough money to run a primary in March 2012, according to Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget for the next fiscal year.

“The number that was submitted by the governor despite the fact that he suggested, or his administration suggested, that it would be a 2 percent cut, in fact is a far more drastic cut. My budget will go down anyways for the coming fiscal year in the elections area because we have one fewer election in the upcoming fiscal year than we did in the last. But nevertheless, it’s a problem to run this March 6, 2012 event based upon the numbers they’ve submitted,” Galvin told WBZ.

The result of a state abolishing its presidential primary would likely be a state-party funded caucus system — but those state parties could also choose a different nomination method

Public Employee Unions need to get a clue - "This is the new norm. It's a different day for public sector employees."

When you look at how things are rigged in favor of Public Employee Unions, you realize that if anyone in private business operated this way, you'd be able to support an indictment for Racketeering.

Of course, the Union Bosses and members don't see it that way but in the new economy, they are trying to hold on to promises that were made by people who had no idea how bad our economy would be at this time.

Public Sector employees need to adjust to the new reality as the taxpayers have had to do so for some time now....and I am getting a little tired of listening to their gripes when the rest of us, (The Majority of Workers), have little sympathy for Unionized Government Workers when all other workers have suffered severe pay cuts, loss of benefits and job cuts.

The tax dollars we pay must benefit all citizens, not just those lucky enough to be inside the system....The Hacks need to get over themselves....really.



Unions Mobilize Against Curbs
By KRIS MAHER And JEANNETTE NEUMANN - Wall Street Journal

Several big public- and private-sector unions are launching a campaign aimed at stopping a growing push by states to curb union bargaining rights and benefits.

Union members, clergy and community leaders were using a pre-Martin Luther King Day candlelight vigil in Cincinnati on Friday to protest proposals by Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich to eliminate collective-bargaining rights for thousands of home health-care workers.

Mr. Kasich is considering changes to union rights and benefits in light of a pending big budget gap, said Rob Nichols, a spokesman for the governor. Mr. Kasich also supports banning strikes by public school teachers.

"There are going to be concessions in many facets of government," Mr. Nichols said. "Everyone needs to be contributing."

The Cincinnati event is one of several planned over the next few months, coordinated by both private and public unions. Those representing government workers face a tough battle this year to convince lawmakers and the public that precious tax dollars should be spent on their pensions and health-care benefits amid widespread government budget woes.

Unions are also filing lawsuits challenging cutbacks and offering lawmakers other suggestions on how to cut costs and raise revenue.

"Every segment of the labor movement is under attack right now," said Naomi Walker, director of state-government relations for the AFL-CIO, which is working with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the U.S.'s biggest public-sector union; the Service Employees International Union; the American Federation of Teachers; and others.

The pay and benefits of the highly unionized public-sector work force have become prime targets for cuts as many states face budget shortfalls. Some politicians argue that union workers, who typically enjoy stronger job and benefit protections than those in the private sector, will have to make sacrifices.

The union campaigns—targeted now on Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and New Jersey—will include phone calls and visits to union members, as well as demonstrations and meetings with elected officials. The goal is to get union members to convince state officials to oppose these measures and turn public opinion in their favor.

Labor expects the fights to be most intense in typically union-heavy states, such as Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Changes are being considered in those states that include right-to-work proposals that would eliminate mandatory union membership and dues in organized workplaces.

Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said eliminating bargaining rights for public-sector workers is one option to help rein in costs and help control the state's budget gap, which is $158 million now and set to grow to $3 billion in the next fiscal cycle.

Some unions are trying to prevent cuts affecting their members by proposing ways for states to address shortfalls.

"They are seeking to put out their ideas and to engage the budgets in some new and innovative ways," said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in labor issues.

Other unions are turning to the courts. In Miami, the firefighters' union last fall filed a lawsuit in state circuit court saying the city circumvented full collective bargaining and then cut wages, health insurance and pension benefits for current workers because of what the city called financial urgency.

"The bottom line was that wages and pensions are the biggest chunk of our budgets," said Julie Bru, Miami city attorney. "This is the new norm. It's a different day for public sector employees."

Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com

Massachusetts Gov. Patrick replaces Veterans' Services Secretary Thomas G. Kelley, Medal of Honor recipient with a hack campaign supporter

Politics as usual....Gov. Patrick shows that he isn't interested in having the best person in a cabinet position. Rather, he shows patronage is alive and well in Massachusetts.

Patrick ousted Veterans' Services Secretary Thomas G. Kelley, a Medal of Honor Recipient and seen as one of the most effective Veterans advocates in the country. So what prompted his ouster? They told Kelley that both the governor and lieutenant governor “want to move the agency in a different direction.”

Now there is a BULL-SHITE answer if there ever was one...Gov. Doofus appointed a parole board that let a career criminal out who killed a cop on the holidays and now he & his hack buddies throw a Medal of Honor Winner under the bus....This is what people voted for - A HACK Governor and a tool of the Unions....pathetic


VFW criticizes Patrick's ouster of veterans' secretary
by Martin Finucane December 29, 2010 04:19 PM
Globe Staff

The state Veterans of Foreign Wars organization criticized Governor Deval Patrick today for asking for the resignation of Veterans' Services Secretary Thomas G. Kelley, a Vietnam War hero and Congressional Medal of Honor winner who has served four governors.

The governor's actions in the "unceremonious dismissal" of Kelley "leave a very bad taste in our mouths," the VFW said in a statement. "The Governor owes Secretary Kelley an apology; he owes every recipient of the Medal of Honor an apology."

Patrick on Tuesday called Kelley a "true American hero" and thanked him for his "extensive and selfless service." Kelley told the Globe that he had been notified by Health and Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby that the governor and lieutenant governor wanted to move in a new direction. I'm not part of that new direction," he said.

Kelley, 71, was named commissioner of veterans' services in 1999 and became secretary in August 2003. He served under Republican governors Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift, and Mitt Romney. But his future with the Democratic Patrick administration appeared uncertain when he was excluded from Cabinet meetings, the Globe reports today.

The VFW statement said that Kelley and his staff had made the state "the leader in benefits and entitlements for service members and their families." The organization said that it also looked forward to working with Coleman Nee, the department undersecretary who will replace Kelley in the interim

Undersecretary Coleman Nee, who will replace Kelley previously worked as a director of a public relations firm and has been active in Democratic Party politics, specifically Govenor Patrick's relection campaign.

UNIONS representing State & Municipal HACKS will spend $1.3 Million to defeat repeal of the Sales Tax in Massachusetts from 6.25 % to 3 %

In Massachusetts, there are Union employees:

476,000 workers - 16.6 % of the Workforce -

That means 2.9 MILLION non-union employees ( 83.4%) do not have the same pull on the Politicians and/or have the influence that the Unions do over the Govenor and the Legislature.

Figures were taken from the AFL/CIO weblink (http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/why/uniondifference/uniondiff16.cfm)

While I feel that Unions were an important force in bringing improvements to workplaces over the last 100 years, they are presently more of an impediment to progress as the sole reason they exist today is to perpetuate the UNION.....they do very little for anyone BUT their own members. At the same time, Public Employee Unions have no issue with how their demands effect the citizens of the towns or State of Massachusetts, as all they care about is getting $$$ and benefits for their members. Their only concern is keep membership high and their coffers full.

While I agree we should have decent wages & benefits, the fact that the Massachusetts Public Employee Unions will spend $ 1.3 Million dollars to attempt to defeat a repeal of the sales tax shows they only care about making sure $$$ rolls into the State to preserve their membership, not services and not jobs for regular non-union employees.

“If this referendum passes, there is no doubt it will have a devastating impact on local services that have already been cut to the bone,’’ said Stephen G. Crawford, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Coalition for Our Communities, which includes the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the Service Employees International Union. " -

Let me translate that for you - If it passes, it means we'll have to see Public Union Employees lose their cushy life-time jobs where they have been insulated from the effects of the economy, effects that the tax-payers have been dealing with for the past 3-4 years......

GEE, I really don't have much sympathy for keeping the HACKS well off when the majority of the citizens have had to make major cut backs on how we live - I think it is HIGH TIME the HACKS feel a little pain too.

Seeing as the Legislature doesn't have the will or intestinal-fortitude to do what's right by the taxpayer, I'm all for taking out the long piece of lumber and whacking the democratic donkey in the Arse to get the State back to a reality based view of what we should be doing with the money we provide them. I hope & pray the Voters see it that way too.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Unions raise $1.3m to fight ballot drive to cut sales tax
Warn of deep drop in local services
By Alan Wirzbicki, Boston Globe Staff September 21, 2010

Determined not to be caught off-guard in a volatile election year, labor unions are pouring money into an effort to fight a deep cut in the state sales tax, campaign finance reports show.

A group of unions — fearing mass layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and other state and municipal workers — has raised $1.3 million so far this year to defeat Question 3, one of two antitax measures on the November ballot. Supporters have raised $76,000.

Similar ballot measures failed in 2002 and 2008, but the money flowing into the campaign to defeat the measure shows that opponents of the ballot question are taking nothing for granted in a year that has already produced political surprises across the country.

Opponents say passage of the question, which would cut the sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, would open up a hole in the fragile state budget of more than $2 billion and lead to Draconian cuts at the state and local levels.

Draconian enough that all three major gubernatorial candidates — Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat; Charles D. Baker, a Republican; and independent Timothy P. Cahill — oppose Question 3.

“If this referendum passes, there is no doubt it will have a devastating impact on local services that have already been cut to the bone,’’ said Stephen G. Crawford, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Coalition for Our Communities, which includes the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and the Service Employees International Union. “Teachers, firefighters, local health care service, police officers — those services will bear the brunt of this referendum question.’’

Supporters of the tax rollback, led by longtime libertarian activist Carla Howell, gathered about 19,000 signatures this year to put the question on the ballot and are hoping to capitalize on the restive mood of the electorate.

“They will have big money; we have a grass-roots campaign,’’ Howell said.

Over a quarter of the money the antitax camp has raised this year, $22,000 in all, came from Chris and Melodie Rufer of Sacramento, who have given to other libertarian causes around the country. Chris Rufer said in a statement last night, “We believe in an open and voluntary market for all people.’’

Howell’s camp, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday, had just $17,422 on hand on Sept. 15. Opponents of the ballot measure, who have spent money on public relations and polling firms, had $861,576. Crawford declined to share more details about the coalition’s strategy.

Another tax question on the ballot, Question 1, would restore a sales tax exemption for alcoholic beverages. Backers reported raising $396,236, mostly from package stores and alcohol distributors who say they have been hurt by the new tax, which took effect last year. They had $234,283 by last week.

Restoring the exemption, which Baker and Cahill support but Patrick opposes, would cost the state about $100 million in annual revenue, which now goes to support addiction treatment programs....

Alan Wirzbicki can be reached at awirzbicki@globe.com.

DEMS provide for the HACKS at the expense of the Average American Workers..and people wonder why I criticize POTUS and his Euro-Jetting Wife

Politics is not a game for those who don't understand that it is a "blood sport"....especially in the venue of the national scene......

I considered myself a " Jack Kennedy " Democrat, which means that the present day DEMS DO NOT represent my beliefs....they are full of the dregs of the hippie movement, PC idiots, 1960's peace movement left overs, and those who believe you can solve problems with "Other people's" money....Not the DEMS that I knew as the real Democratic Party,,,,,more like religous zealots who hijacked the Good Democratic Party for their own perverted ways.....

That made me a " unalligned" voter, who votes his own POV and let's the party politics be damned.....I will criticize candidates based on what they do (or don't do) as I see fit....I vote the candidate and what they represent and steer clear of being "lock-step" with any party lines....

I am not a Republican.....BUT I supported John McCain and felt he was the better canididate for President. He is a bonefide war hero, a man of honor and someone I call my friend as we have met and he knows me.

Read the enclosed article.....The FACT that the DEMS & POTUS rushed back to WASH DC to pass a $26 Billion dollar spending bill to make sure PUBLIC EMPLOYEES don't get lay-offs but leave the average worker to struggle on unemployment for months/years show they are only interested in helping the "HACKS", not the average family who has been struggling for the past two years......It is disgusting as the Public Employees will be getting bennies for life, while the hard working average American has seen their 401k evaporate and will struggle during their retirement.....and for years until they reach retirement.

And some have wondered why I criticize POTUS and his Euro-jetting Wife.....please......wake up and see that this elitist fool thinks we are stupid and unworthy of making up our own minds for what works best for our country...

November is coming and the ARSE-kicking that is in store for the DEMS and their clue-less leader will be pure " Schadenfreude".....

( A German word for gaining pleasure at the misfortune of others.)

Go figure that the Germans had a word for that !

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

latimes.com
Democratic candidates all but ignore their legislative successes
Avoid bragging, strategists advise, and warn against putting Republicans back in charge.
By Janet Hook, Tribune Washington Bureau
August 9, 2010
Reporting from Washington

As Democrats fan out across the country to campaign for reelection this month, many are surprisingly quiet about their hard-won accomplishments — the major bills they have passed under President Obama.In an effort coordinated with the White House, congressional leaders are urging Democrats to focus less on bragging about what they have done — a landmark healthcare law, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulation and other far-reaching policy changes — and more on efforts to fix the economy and on the perils of Republican control of Congress.

One year after many town hall meetings were upended by raucous anti-government protesters, congressional Democrats are trying to ensure that this summer's debate sheds a more flattering light on their party as they navigate a bruising midterm election campaign.To bulk up their record on job creation, Democratic leaders have gone to great lengths — even calling House members back from recess for a special session Tuesday — to pass a $26-billion bill to avert public employee layoffs.

And in an effort to turn attention to their opponents, Democrats from Obama on down have taken to warning that giving Republicans control of Congress would be akin to reelecting George W. Bush."The question for 2010 is: Whose side are you on?" Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said to reporters Thursday. He spoke after a closed meeting with Democratic senators, where palm cards itemizing contrasts between the parties were distributed for lawmakers to carry around during the recess."Democrats moving us forward, while Republicans take us back," the card says.

Obama has been reading from the same playbook, comparing Republicans to bad drivers who want to retrieve keys to a car they had driven into a ditch."When you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D,' " Obama said last week at a Democratic National Committee event in Atlanta. "When you want to go back, what do you? You put it in 'R.' "Republicans see those attacks as an effort to divert attention from the weak economy."Democrats plan to spend the next month asking voters to overlook their job-killing policies by distracting them with dishonest attacks on Republican candidates," the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote in a recent memo to House Republicans and GOP candidates.

Democratic strategists privately acknowledge that their party's legislative record, while far-reaching and popular with party regulars, has limited political benefit in swing districts and in a stubbornly sluggish economy."Our candidates' job is not to sell the accomplishments of the past but to send a message that strikes a chord," said a senior Democratic advisor who did not want to be identified while discussing strategy. "I am not one who thinks our candidates should go out and sell healthcare reform. They have to stay focused on jobs, the economy and shaking up Washington."

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), campaigning for an open Senate seat, holds most of his political events at work sites to emphasize his commitment to job creation. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), running for reelection in a GOP-dominated district, uses one of his first campaign ads to highlight his opposition to the healthcare bill and his effort to "protect coal jobs" in a controversial energy bill.Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla.), in a two-day campaign swing through Democratic strongholds in South Florida, barely mentioned the Democrats' legislative record.The focus on the economy is a nod to a political reality documented by polling in both parties.

For most voters, persistent bad employment news trumps perceived or anticipated benefits of Obama's healthcare bill and other initiatives.With the House and Senate adjourned until after Labor Day, the White House and congressional Democratic leaders have coordinated their summertime message and strategy in part to avoid the imbroglio that marked last year's August recess, which laid bare the political risks of the healthcare debate that was underway.Many Democrats' town hall meetings were disrupted by angry conservatives criticizing the legislation — a spectacle that riveted cable news television and amounted to the public relations debut of the "tea party" movement, which portrayed the healthcare bill as the epitome of big-government excess.

This year, town hall meetings are likely to be more low key, in part because many Democrats are seeking alternative venues such as teleconference town hall meetings that are easier to control.But conservatives are also finding it harder to galvanize people around issues rather than candidates now that healthcare is receding in prominence."It's just a little quieter because there isn't an imminent bill to focus on," said Adam Brandon, spokesman for FreedomWorks, a conservative group that has helped fund and organize tea party protests.That's fine with Menendez, who is doing all he can to make sure that voters view the election as a choice between political parties, not a referendum on "whether you like or don't like what we did.""In everything we do, we have to drive that contrast," he said as the Senate wrapped up its legislative business and disbanded Thursday for the August recess.

janet.hook@latimes.com

James Oliphant of the Washington bureau contributed to this report from Miami.
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

“The New Deal is demographically obsolete. You can’t fund the dream of the 1960s on the economy of 2010.”

This was an issue that I brought to the attention of many people when I was on the Town of Middleboro Personnel Board.....Not that anyone in local government gave a damn because they knew they were " in" the system, and had no worries about getting benefits for life.... The HACKS always took care of themselves first with an " I got mine" attitude and "don't give a damn who it hurts" outlook on anyone else.....

We are unable to sustain the amount of funds promised to people 20-30 years ago.....The choice that we will need to make is do we devote a majority of our funds to providing a very comfortable retirement for the privileged few who are "in" the system OR do we ensure that our governments is sustained to serve the need of the majority of our citizens ??? And there in lies the rub......
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Battle Looms Over Huge Costs of Public Pensions
By RON LIEBER
Published: August 6, 2010 - NY TIMES

There’s a class war coming to the world of government pensions.
Who should pay for the trillion-dollar pension gap?

The haves are retirees who were once state or municipal workers. Their seemingly guaranteed and ever-escalating monthly pension benefits are breaking budgets nationwide.

The have-nots are taxpayers who don’t have generous pensions. Their

401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and are not guaranteed. And soon, many of those people will be paying higher taxes or getting fewer state services as their states put more money aside to cover those pension checks.

At stake is at least $1 trillion. That’s trillion, with a “t,” as in titanic and terrifying.

The figure comes from

a study by the Pew Center on the States that came out in February. Pew estimated a $1 trillion gap as of fiscal 2008 between what states had promised workers in the way of retiree pension, health care and other benefits and the money they currently had to pay for it all. And some economists say that Pew is too conservative and the problem is two or three times as large.

So a question of extraordinary financial, political, legal and moral complexity emerges, something that every one of us will be taking into town meetings and voting booths for years to come: Given how wrong past pension projections were, who should pay to fill the 13-figure financing gap?
Consider what’s going on in Colorado — and what is likely to unfold in other states and municipalities around the country.

Earlier this year, in an act of rare political courage, a bipartisan coalition of state legislators passed a

pension overhaul bill. Among other things, the bill reduced the raise that people who are already retired get in their pension checks each year.

This sort of thing just isn’t done. States have asked current workers to contribute more, tweaked the formula for future hires or banned them from the pension plan altogether. But this was apparently the first time that state legislators had forced current retirees to share the pain.

Sharing the burden seems to be the obvious solution so we don’t continue to kick the problem into the future. “We have to take this on, if there is any way of bringing fiscal sanity to our children,” said former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, a Democrat. “The New Deal is demographically obsolete. You can’t fund the dream of the 1960s on the economy of 2010.”

But in Colorado, some retirees and those eligible to retire still want to live that dream. So they sued the state to keep all of the annual cost-of-living increases they thought they would be getting in perpetuity.

The state’s case turns, in part, on whether it is an “actuarial necessity” for the Legislature to make a change. To Meredith Williams, executive director of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, the state’s pension fund, the answer is pretty simple. “If something didn’t change, we would have run out of money in the foreseeable future,” he said. “So no one would have been paid anything.”

Meanwhile,

Gary R. Justus, a former teacher who is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case against the state, asks taxpayers in Colorado and elsewhere to consider an ethical question: Why is the state so quick to break its promises?

After all, he and others like him served their neighbors dutifully for decades. And along the way, state employees made big decisions (and built lifelong financial plans) based on retiring with a full pension that was promised to them in a contract that they say has the force of the state and federal constitutions standing behind it. To them it is deferred compensation, and taking it away is akin to not paying a contractor for paving state highways.

And actuarial necessity or not, Mr. Justus said he didn’t believe he should be responsible for past pension underfunding and the foolish risks that pension managers made with his money long after he retired in 2003.

The changes the Legislature made don’t seem like much: there’s currently a 2 percent cap in retirees’ cost-of-living adjustment for their pension checks instead of the 3.5 percent raise that many of them received before.

But

Stephen Pincus, a lawyer for the retirees who have filed suit, estimates that the change will cost pensioners with 30 years of service an average of $165,000 each over the next 20 years.
Mr. Justus, 62, who taught math for 29 years in the Denver public schools, says he thinks it could cost him half a million dollars if he lives another 30 years. He also notes that just about all state workers in Colorado do not (and cannot) pay into Social Security, so the pension is all retirees have to live on unless they have other savings.

No one disputes these figures. Instead, they apologize. “All I can say is that I am sorry,” said Brandon Shaffer, a Democrat, the president of the Colorado State Senate, who helped lead the bipartisan coalition that pushed through the changes. (He also had to break the news to his mom, a retired teacher.) “I am tremendously sympathetic. But as a steward of the public trust, this is what we had to do to preserve the

retirement fund.”

Taxpayers, whose payments are also helping to restock Colorado’s pension fund, may not be as sympathetic, though. The average retiree in the fund stopped working at the sprightly age of 58 and deposits a check for $2,883 each month. Many of them also got a 3.5 percent annual raise, no matter what inflation was, until the rules changed this year.

Private sector retirees who want their own monthly $2,883 check for life, complete with inflation adjustments, would need an immediate fixed annuity if they don’t have a pension. A 58-year-old male shopping for one from an A-rated

insurance company would have to hand over a minimum of $860,000, according to Craig Hemke of Buyapension.com. A woman would need at least $928,000, because of her longer life expectancy.

Who among aspiring retirees has a nest egg that size, let alone people with the same moderate earning history as many state employees? And who wants to pay to top off someone else’s pile of money via increased income taxes or a radical decline in state services?

If you find the argument of Colorado’s retirees wanting, let your local legislator know that you don’t want to be responsible for every last dollar necessary to cover pension guarantees gone horribly awry. After all, many government employee unions will be taking contrary positions and doing so rather loudly.

If you work for a state or local government, start saving money outside of the pension plan if you haven’t already, because that plan may not last for as long as you need it.

And if you’re a government retiree or getting close to the end of your career? Consider what it means to be a citizen in a community. And what it means to be civil instead of litigious, coming to the table and making a compromise before politicians shove it down your throat and you feel compelled to challenge them to a courthouse brawl.

“We have to do what unions call givebacks,” said Mr. Lamm, the former Colorado governor. “That’s the only way to sanity. Any other alternative, therein lies dragons.”

State & Local Government HACKS facing deep cuts....long overdue

State & Local governments have been rife with "HACKS", i.e. public servants who are dead-wood but once they get in a job there, are all but guaranteed employment & benefits for life, all on the taxpayer's dime....They are the same as "Welfare Queens" only they are on the dole because once they are employed, it is virtually impossible for them to be fired....short of committing a crime. The cost to the tax-payers for this ineffective model of employment is high and has been welded in place by the unions. The cost that these HACKS will bring for their "life-time everything" is a major reason why we are in such dire financial straits in our towns, cities and states...

Well it seems as even the HACKS are becoming victims of the new economy....the WAPO reports that the cuts are coming and they are reaching even those who thought that because they worked for the town and/or state, they were set for life......guess again, fat-arse public servant....

From the WAPO;

" Local governments across the country are facing an intensifying fiscal crisis that is forcing them to make deep cuts in personnel and services just as more hard-pressed residents are seeking their help, according to a report released Tuesday.

These cities and counties -- which have cut jobs significantly since the start of the downturn -- could slash as many as 500,000 more jobs over the current and coming fiscal years. The cuts would affect schools, public safety, libraries, trash collection and social services, according to survey released jointly by the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties and U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Combined with the fiscal stress confronting state governments -- which face a combined budget deficit of $89 billion this year -- the crisis faced by counties and cities hampers the struggling economic recovery, analysts have said. "

It seems that the people are finally on par with Howard Beale from the 1976 movie "Network" and finally making "real change" to those who have been taking a ride-for-life on the taxpayer's dime for too long....To quote Mr. Beale and his famous words of outrage:

Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.

We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

[shouting] You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,

[shouting] 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'

Time to clean house, end life-time rides for the HACKS and bring back sanity to our State & Local Government.