Travel Broadens the Mind, But . . .

The Arkansas Board of Education voted last week to take over the Little Rock School District because six of its schools are "in distress" (the measurements of which are a little fluky). As you may know, Little Rock schools have been on double secret probation for years now, for various reasons, even though it has good test scores overall, and numerous National Merit Finalists. I'm not exactly in favor of this plan -- it appears to be simply a different set of bureaucrats that just swooshed in and disenfranchised Little Rock voters who just seated a new school board last fall. The Superintendent will be retained and there has been no plan announced to address the distressed schools' issues.

A local (satirical) website, The Rock City Times (subtitled "Arkansas' 2d most unreliable news source"), however, announced a plan earlier this week. Let's see if it will copy and paste:

Little Rock to Begin Bussing Students to Northwest Arkansas Following School Board Takeover

Greg Henderson — January 29, 2015

1 0

   

Following yesterday’s State Board of Education’s decision to takeover the Little Rock School District, the board now says that beginning in fall students will be bussed from Little Rock to various higher performing schools around Northwest Arkansas.

The Board of Education’s 5-4 decision came after six of the district’s schools were labeled “academically distressed”.  The move to Northwest Arkansas would introduce Little Rock’s 25,000 students to some of the highest performing schools in the state.

“The problem is these schools are underperforming and students are not receiving the quality education that they deserve,” School board spokesperson Roger Waters tells us. “We certainly could fire all the teachers, pump millions of dollars into education for Little Rock, but we feel that would be too dramatic and a possible waste of resources. Especially when we have one of the country’s top performing education regions a little over three hours away.”

Under the plan students would be bussed daily from Little Rock to a selection of schools across Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, and Siloam Springs. Parents will be required to have their children ready for bus pickup at 4 a.m. each morning so that students will arrive by the 8:00 start time. Students are expected to return home by 7:30 each night. Tutoring will be available free of charge during the afternoon commutes.

Most of the existing Little Rock School buildings will be converted into satellite campuses for the upcoming technology park. Meanwhile Central High School is expected to change to a Robert E Lee museum and Forest Park elementary will be the new home of a food truck culinary school.

The board says that it does plan to retain former LRSD superintendent Dexter Suggs along with various faculty members from Little Rock Schools.

“Due to the dramatic increase in bus drivers needed, we have extended driving positions to Dr. Suggs and other principals and faculty at high performing schools,” Waters says. “We believe it represents a unique opportunity for all involved to help grant kids the advanced kids the advanced education opportunities we blindly think they deserve.”

In addition to the schools opening their doors to Little Rock students, the Duggar family has offered to expand their home schooling to accommodate 200 homosexual curious children in need of re-indoctrination.

The Duggars.  Heh.

And the misspellings of "busing" and "bused" make me grit my teeth, but all-in-all this is pretty clever. Unfortunately, I can't rule out something as improbable as this coming from the State. 

Poor kids.

At Loose Ends Here

I'm kind of in a funk. Just kind of antsy for some unknown reason.

And I'm seriously sick and tired of governments getting more and more involved with the minutiae of daily living. Take Dallas, for example.

On New Year's Day, a new ordinance took effect in Dallas that imposes a new "environmental fee" on paper and plastic bags used to transport purchases made at retail stores.  Five cents per bag! The "fee" purports to be a means to reduce litter and the customer is permitted to bring his own reusable bags or purchase them from the merchant. AP reports, "The Dallas rules have sparked some confusion. But officials say the idea is to encourage shoppers to bring their own, reusable bags — thus avoiding the new fees."

I'm sorry, but this sounds like a "nudge" to "encourage" sanctioned behavior and a revenue generator all rolled into one handy-dandy rule. A tax by any other name . . . .

So, I think I'll go along with Calvin in the upcoming year:

Gee, I miss Calvin and Hobbes.

And, I need a hug.

There's a Whole Lot of Back-scratching Going on in DC

Lest you think that government entities don't "talk" to one another out of some misguided desire to maintain citizens' privacy, allow me to share this little tidbit and disabuse you of that Utopian notion.

Pepper and I are doing a re-fi on Moogie's Manor. Our lender set it up to qualify to run through Fannie Mae (and Fannie Mae is not even a real federal government entity, you understand) for secondary market purposes. To make her happy and feed her enormous ego, one must submit some thirty-odd pages of Application to Miss Mae, including one's most recent tax return.

Here's where it starts getting a little complicated.

Due to some investments and partnerships, we always get an extension to file our 1040s until October. This means the last Returns we have on hand at present are for 2012. Not 2013. Fannie Mae was not happy about this. Even though she has nothing to do with collecting taxes, she wanted to talk to her buddies over at the IRS to be sure we had filed an actual Extension and weren't just slacking and failing to file. She scratches her IRS-Bud's back and they scratch something of hers. I mean, the revenue we pump into the IRS is shared by the whole government, right?

Anyway, there's some silly federal rule designed to protect the privacy of we insignificant citizens, and Fannie Mae isn't permitted to talk to Internal Revenue without the citizen's permission. So, she has a handy-dandy form that the citizen "may" sign that says, in essence, "Sure! You gubmint guys chat about me and share anything about me with one another that your nosy little bureaucratic hearts desire! Live it up!"

Let's stop here briefly to reflect upon the fact that Fannie Mae has nothing to do with collecting or disbursing or determining the amount of taxes that anyone pays. Let's further reflect upon the fact that whether you file your tax returns has nothing to do with whether you can re-pay a loan.

Then let's think about the fact that your loan application will be peremptorily rejected if you refuse to authorize Miss Mae to snoop into your IRS records to satisfy her overactive curiosity and/or to give her ammunition to rat your slacking butt out to the IRS. Even though she has zero to do with taxes!

Did we sign it? Well, duh. (But only after a colorful rant about crony government and Big Brother by my roommate.) Just don't let yourself be fooled into believing that there's a functional firewall among government entities that protects we, the people.

And do not get Pepper started on Fannie Mae. He's been mumbling something about a class action lawsuit.

A Smidgen of This, a Smidgen of That, and a Heapin' Helping of BS

So.  It seems that the Congressional Ways and Means Committee released a few choice internal IRS emails today from Lois Lerner's government account. It would be an extreme understatement to suggest that the content indicates a "dislike" of Conservatives on Ms. Lerner's part. The HuffPo reports:

In one email, Lerner called members of the GOP crazies. In the other, she called them "assholes." The committee redacted the wording to "_holes" in the material it released publicly but a committee spokeswoman confirmed to the AP that the email said "assholes."

Congress and the Justice Department are investigating whether the IRS improperly scrutinized applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups.

(See also The Daily Caller and The Daily Beast.)

Now, wait a minute. I thought Justice has declined to wade into this scandal. Yep. Justice is dragging its feet, arms, torso, and skull. House Judiciary Committee Chair noted (emphasis mine):

“Earlier this year, unnamed Justice Department officials leaked information to the Wall Street Journal suggesting that the department does not plan to file criminal charges over the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups,” he added. “On Super Bowl Sunday, President Obama stated that there was ‘not even a smidgen of corruption’ in connection with the IRS’s admitted targeting of conservative groups based upon their beliefs.”

I think there's more than a smidgen, a pinch, or a dollop of corruption and malfeasance on the Hill.  There are at least two participants in the communication released today, and it's unlikely that they're the only two who adhere to the opinion so eloquently expressed therein. There's clearly a whole culture of corruption and vengeance in the IRS, and they've already wielded the power of the Revenoors as a bludgeon. Does anyone really think, with a straight face, that the White House doesn't have at least nine fingers in this pie?

But, is it possible that these magic emails (and here I thought all Lerner's emails were lost, or corrupted, or stolen by aliens) will get Justice off the pot and force the appointment of a Special Prosecutor for the IRS scandal?

Unlikely.

Perhaps the media and the White House should be pounding on impeachment for Holder instead of Young President Impotent.

Maybe just a smidgen.

You Know How to Whistle, Don't You? (Updated and Fixed!)

Posting on the iPhone in the car on the way home after a wonderful, jam-packed week in New Orleans, so there may be some interesting spellings. And, I'm pretty worn out, so expect random blatherings. Disclaimer complete. (Fixed!)

During a dinner conversation with some of our delightful hosts, a childhood memory escaped from its drawer in my head and made its presence known:

When I was in elementary school, my Daddy owned a 1/3 interest (together with other Korean War vets) in a pontoon party barge on Lake Maumelle just outside Little Rock. We spent many happy times aboard, tooling around the lake, occasionally getting a fishing line wet. The boat was christened the "FUBAR Maru." I was well into adulthood before I learned the acronym doesn't stand for "FOULED Up Beyond All Recognition."

Yeah, Moogie led a pretty sheltered childhood.

Today, with all of the hullabaloo going on in Ukraine, together with all the impotent, indecisive inaction going on in DC, as a scales-fallen-from-the-eyes adult, I can without doubt or hesitation, assert that the acronym most definitely fits hand-in-glove with the Obama administration.

And it's only getting worse.

IRS scapegoat chick, Lois Lerner, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment in this morning's Congressional hearing concerning the IRS's targeting and unequal treatment of conservative groups seeking 501(C)(4) status.

Nothing suspicious there.

But . . . I'm just the tiniest bit hopeful that a breeze is building and heading toward the Obama FUBAR House of Cards.  So, let's all pucker up and blow!

The Imperial Carrot and Stick

I'm about to lose it. 

First, the Obama administration announces that it simply won't answer the phone when Arizona law enforcement calls ICE to check on someone's immigration status.  ICE will only investigate the status of the folks they pick?!?!?! The Executive Branch has been thumbing its collective nose at we, the People, waaaaay too much lately.  Not to mention at the Supreme Court.

Then some Senatorial twit from New Jersey proposes doing a Mayor Bloomberg on the rest of the country by having the federal government study whether large, sugary drinks contribute to obesity, and whether they should be banned.  WTF?!?!?!?!  Busybody Extraordinaire, Senator Frank Lautenberg, said:

"We owe it to our kids and our country to learn more about what is causing this plague. We need to know what impact sugary drinks have on obesity and if proposals that encourage Americans to drink fewer high-sugar drinks will reduce obesity."

Proposals that encourage Americans to drink fewer high-sugar drinks?!?!  When did I wake up to find myself living in George Orwell's mind?

And, just what might one of these encouraging "proposals" be?  Can you say, taxes?  Yep. Another bleeping tax is coming down the pike.

I'm afraid I'm about to morph into some wild-eyed survivalist who believes that anarchy is the way to go.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

This has been a day in which every facet of the federal government has shown its ugliest face and put its most imperial foot forward.  Thinking about tomorrow is suddenly very, very scary.

Maybe the federal government should ban thinking.

I think I'll go have a Diet Coke.

Feed the Children?

First authorized in 2010 by President Barack Obama, financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and administered by the Louisiana Department of Education, a new program has been initiated in New Orleans that provides evening meals to local school children from low-income families. The balanced meals are prepared by Second Harvest and served at seven sites, including three after-school programs, in "at risk" areas at a cost of $2.72 per meal.  A recent article in the Times-Picayune describes the program which hopes to serve 1,200 children by the end of the school year.

The article also recounts a few troubling things, some of which concern me a little bit, too.

Don't get me wrong -- I have no problem contributing to the nutrition of children and families in need.  The private sector does a pretty good job of addressing the problem -- Second Harvest is among that number, and we have regularly contributed to help it stay afloat.  We did the same for Potluck while living in Little Rock.  Public schools have done fairly well with breakfast and lunch programs, too, with glaring exceptions such as the recent North Carolina Nazi Food Police, and the ketchup-as-vegetable debacle, among other things. And, I understand and recognize that there is genuine hunger out there, even in these United States.  But . . . .

But.  One of the children featured in the article, 9 year-old Lawrence, is said to have a full belly at 6:00 when his mother picks him up now from his after-school program instead of a growling one.  An active 9 year-old boy could be hungry at 6:00 in the evening?  Well, duh!

Did Lawrence's family not have enough money to buy food and prepare it at home?  The article suggests that the family was perfectly capable of feeding itself:

Sometimes his dad would be cooking a pot of something at home.  If his father was working late at Lowe's, they might grab fast food.

But, now there's no nightly rush to feed Lawrence.  Between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., he and the 50 other children at the North Rampart Community Center sit down and eat a healthy meal, complete with fresh fruit.

There's no need to tend to one's child's needs.  The government will see to that.  And, the government will determine what, where, and when the children will eat.

And, what about the impact of this program on families?  Even a principal at one of the schools was concerned about detracting from family time around the dinner table engendered by the program.  She abandoned that concern, however, when she realized that few families at her school actually shared evening meals at home together, "recounting overheard conversations between students and parents, debating whether to stop at McDonald's or Burger King on the way home."

What?!? They couldn't sit down together at a fast food joint and have a family meal?  Or take the fast food home and share it along with conversation about their day?  Fast food every day isn't the best way to eat, but it's certainly a way when time is short.

So, it appears that the overarching concern here is not actual, debilitating hunger, or the significance of the nuclear family -- it  appears to be all about what goes into the family's mouth.  And government needs to make that decision.  And the taxpayer needs to foot the bill.

Not only does the government have an aching need to tell us what to eat, this program also models to children that they can rely on the government to tend to their "needs," wherever.  That same concerned principal who was won over to the feeding program noticed that at least one-third of the students take the meals home.  There is speculation that maybe the meal is taken home to eat with the family, or to give to Grandma, or for Dad's lunch at work the next day. 

Huh?!?

The meals are intended for children, to help them be better prepared to learn by not suffering from the effects of poor nutrition.  And those children see those meals going to adults elsewhere?  What does this teach them?  How are they being conditioned to rely on the government as they age?

What does it teach them about following rules?  Or about gaming the system.

Another well-intentioned Progressive plan gone awry.

I'm beyond angry -- I'm afraid. I'm just afraid.

We're the Government and We're Here to Help You

So.  The Young President signed the "Plain Writing Act" last fall, and it will become effective in October.  Apparently, the measure will require federal government entities to use straightforward words when communicating with John Q. Public, and to avoid "pompous gibberish" and jargon, according to the Associated Press.

At first blush, I thought how very refreshing that idea was. 

Then I read the rest of the article.  Check out what the motive behind the Act is:

"It is important to emphasize that agencies should communicate with the public in a way that is clear, simple, meaningful and jargon-free," says Cass Sunstein, a White House information and regulation administrator who gave guidance to federal agencies in April on how to implement the law.


Bad writing by the government, he says, discourages people from applying for benefits they should get, makes federal rules hard to follow and wastes money because of all the time spent fixing mistakes and explaining things to a baffled populace.

But can clarity and good grammar be legislated?

That remains to be seen. The law lacks teeth. You won't be able to sue the government for making your head spin after October. And regulations are exempted.

Good grief.  Discourages people from applying for benefits they should get?!?!  If it would continue to discourage people from applying for benefits, I'd applaud Shakespearean or King James verbiage!! 

And regs are exempted?  That's where most of the boilerplate and convolutions live!

I wonder how one gets a job as "a White House information and regulation administrator who [gives] guidance to federal agencies?"

Oh, yeah.  Now I see.  The administrator is renowned Communist, Cass Sunstein.

We're doomed.

The Helpful Department of Transportation, Part II, . . .

. . . along with their compadres at the TSA. 

We'll have new international regs about baggage and stuff come August.

Dang!  I'm glad I'm not flying anytime soon.  It's just no fun anymore.

I Don't *Heart* the USPS Bureaucrats

Younger Daughter received the cute wedding ring/wedding cake stamps last week that I had ordered online so she could mail her elegant wedding invitations (that require extra postage, of course).  I did a Little Rock road trip over the weekend to go to a few parties -- lingerie shower and welcome-home-to-The-Son -- so we spent Friday evening stamping and stuffing all those envelopes.  We couldn't deposit them in a mailbox, though, because the return address labels weren't ready (somehow, we neglected to have return address labels printed on the envelopes, and the sweet young friend who addressed all those envelopes didn't have the strength to do returns).

Guess what happened on Sunday?

Yep.  Postal rates went up for "oddly-shaped first class items." 

Yep -- 3 cents per.

Who knew that a square is an "odd" shape that makes things heavier?

The USPS doesn't make cute wedding-ish 3 cent stamps.

Younger daughter wants this to be over with, so she couldn't wait out having custom stamps made from one of those neat websites out there, and I didn't want to argue with her about it.  "I want them out of my house," she said through teeth that I could hear clenching up over the phone.  (That small voice in my head whispered, "Choose your battles," and I chose to heed the voice.)

At least she didn't go all "postal" in the Post Office substation when she got the bad news after going in to check whether the rate increase we heard about on the Sunday news briefs would apply in this circumstance.  I think she might have gotten a little teary-eyed, though, because the kindly Post Office clerk told her she could probably give it a shot and maybe they'd let the invitations slip through since it's so close to the rate change.  But, she didn't want to take the chance of having all those invitations being returned for insufficient postage, and a line was developing behind her. 

A kind lady in line behind her expressed sympathy for this latest pothole in the road to wedded bliss and asked how many extra stamps she would need.  When Younger Daughter sweetly, yet tersely, replied, "Two hundred sixty," the kind lady's face kinda drained of color and she repeated her sympathies.  She did not, however, offer to help re-stamp all those invitations.

*sigh*

We're From the Department of Transportation and We're Here to Keep You Safe

So, the AP reports that Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's solution to drowsy air traffic controllers is adding an extra hour between shifts and -- get this -- "[m]ore managers . . . on duty during the early morning hours and at night to remind controllers that nodding off is unacceptable."

Yeah. That should do the trick.

Of Big Brother and Postage Stamps

So, I just ordered stamps for wedding invitations online from the USPS website.  I've been procrastinating a bit because I just dread the idea of dealing with government-related websites, but it's better than standing in the interminably slow lines at the actual Post Office substation.

This is the first time I've ordered stamps online -- it's just so easy to buy them at the ATM, but Younger Daughter wanted "specialized" wedding ring and cake stamps, so I suckered in and went to the website.

It's not the easiest site to navigate, in all honesty.  But, I finally found Items 574240 and 574140, entered the quantity, and expected the shipping or payment screen to pop up.  But, no!  A "sign in or register" screen popped up.  With no option to order simply as "guest" without registering.

I hate websites like that.  I mean, who wants to register at five hundred thirty-seven thousand websites and keep up with five-hundred thirty-seven thousand passwords and usernames?!?!

So, being the wonderful mother I am, I registered so my baby could get her cute stamps, using the password "USPS3sucks," and not allowing it to remember my credit card info or send me exciting emails about new products and services from my postal service.  Then, I clicked "continue" expecting the shipping or payment screen to pop up.  But, no!  A "you must acknowledge our privacy policy" screen popped up.  A rather pushy "you must acknowledge our privacy policy" screen.  This is what it said (italics mine):

"The information you supply will be used to provide you online registration capability for Internet-based services, and to provide those services. Please be aware that this service is voluntary, but that requested information is required to provide the service. Collection of information for this service is authorized by 39 U.S.C. 401, 403, and 404. We do not disclose your personal information to anyone, except in accordance with the Privacy Act.


Authorized disclosures include limited circumstances such as the following:
(a) in a legal proceeding in which the USPS is a party or has an interest, or pursuant to federal court order;
(b) to a congressional office at your request;
(c) to an independent certified public accountant during an official audit of USPS finances;
(d) to an authorized credit bureau or other government agency for purposes of identity verification;
(e) to a Postal Service contractor, such as a technology or service provider, if the disclosure is necessary to fulfill an agency function;
(f) to a payee or financial institution for billing payment; and
(g) to a government law enforcement agency pursuant to a federal warrant.

For information about additional protections we provide you, please visit our privacy policy via the link below."

And the referenced link is kinda hard to locate, too.

So, in essence, it's purely optional ("voluntary") for you to provide the information requested by the website, but you won't get your stamps unless you do.  And they won't share any of your info unless one of Uncle Sam's other nieces or nephews asks for it.  Or unless the USPS really screws up and lands in litigation.

Holy.  Crap.

Now they really know where to find me! 

I'm thinking I should have stood in line at the substation. 

In Today's Inbox

[I don't know who started this email, but I like it. Not the idea behind it, of course, I just like the way it crawls down into your stomach and just grinds. Sorta.]:




Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert.

Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night."

So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?"

So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?"

So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?"

So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people.


Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?"

So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one Year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back."

So they laid-off the night watchman.


Let this last statement slowly sink in.


Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter.




Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY.....
during the Carter Administration?

Anybody?

Anything?

No?


Didn't think so!

Bottom line is, we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency....the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember!

Ready??

It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate.

The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977,


TO REDUCE OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL.

Hey, pretty efficient, huh???

AND NOW IT'S 2011 -- 34 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB IT HAS DONE!

(THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?")

33 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports.

Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy.

NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT?



Hello!! Anybody Home?

[Can you say "Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act?" Gives you the creeps, doesn't it?]

The Cemetery Saga and Stuff, Over-uneasily -- A Whole Lot of Shaking Going Down

UPDATE:  The Cemetery Shakedown Saga

It seems that three more families have spoken up about being shaken down by the charming woman at the city's Division of Cemeteries.

You'll recall that a Mrs.Gardner, city employee extraordinaire, tells bereaved family members to bring large chunks of cash with them to pay for gravediggers at the interment of a loved one.  Now it comes out that quite a bit of that large chunk of cash goes to her grandson, who sometimes shows up to open a grave and sometimes doesn't.

That's a pretty sorry state of affairs, but even sorrier is the odd fact that it would be perfectly acceptable, and within city procedures, if Mrs. Gardner had simply added her grandson's name to a list of "approved" gravedigging contractors compiled by the city and given the list to the bereaved.  You can read about the latest travesty here.  I have to admire those families who've just thumbed their noses at the whole shebang and dug graves for their loved ones themselves (supervised, of course, by a $100 gravedigging Supervisor).

Simply shameful.

Also.  There's this to ponder -- 

Margaret Hamburg (there's a bad joke in that name somewhere, but I won't go there today), Chief of the Food and Drug Administration, is speaking out in connection with the egg-induced bouts of salmonella making the rounds lately.  The FDA needs, according to Hamburg and others, more authority to put preventive controls in place and "hold companies accountable" for outbreaks of food-borne illnesses.  And, it's not just the FDA that's speaking out.  Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest agreed: "You can’t produce food at that level without a food safety cop on the beat."

Did she really say that out loud?  Food Safety Cops?!?!  Literal food safety cops?!?!

Now, I'm certainly not a big fan of salmonella.  Let me make this perfectly clear (heh), suffering from food poisoning of any sort is nowhere near the top of my wish list.  But enacting legislation that would enable another governmental agency to order a recall of a product (instead of having to wait for the business to issue a voluntary recall) just scares the holy fool out of me. 

The current system of having producers suck it up and admit that their product is faulty or unsafe resonates much more with me than having Uncle Sam do it for them.  Plus, lawsuits start flowing pretty soon to get a little help for injured parties.  To mess with the current procedure would cause a sea change in getting consumers reparations for their injuries.  The prospect of having to say a mea culpa  on a national platform plus the threat of endless, expensive litigation seems to me to be a pretty powerful incentive to get it right from  the get-go.  The threat of inspections, and "being held accountable," is not the best motivator, especially with federal government's track record of "inspections" (read: shake downs.)  Smells to me like more "penalties" going into the federal kitty and fewer damages being available for injured folk.

We need less government intrusion into our live these days -- not more. 

But I suppose "egg inspector" would be a "green job" of sorts for the White House to add to the tally.  

Hmmmm.

Just sayin'.

Calling Mr. Diogenes!

This cartoon depicts how the story unfolded for the woman with a "unique set of life experiences."

But, American Thinker sees "the rest of the story."

I thought something smelled funny. Still does. We should have listened when the Secretary was trying to tell us about Ms. Sherrod's "claims" against USDA.

Is there anyone who works for government that is not in it just for himself? Where is Diogenes when we really need him?!?!

A Timeline to Where, Exactly?

Let's see. The BP Deepwater explosion took place on April 20, snuffing out 11 lives and be-fouling the Gulf of Mexico.

On May 27th, President Obama announced, "The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. . . Make no mistake, BP is operating at our direction." He also suspended exploratory drilling off the coast of Virginia and placed a 6-month moratorium on all offshore drilling in the Gulf.

Make no mistake, thousands of Gulf South residents were immediately thrown out of work.

On June 1st, two weeks after establishing it, Obama gave his "independent commission" and its co-chairs -- neither of whom are representatives of the oil industry -- orders to investigate the causes and effects of the spill, come back, and make recommendations six months hence. He was apparently not in any kind of hurry, however, because on that very day he still had yet to round out the commission, lacking five more appointments. June 1 was the first time he had met with any commissioners.

Six month moratorium, six-month deadline to report back.

The fishing industry was taking a serious lick by this time with many oyster beds shut down. Tourism was sure to follow.

On June 16th, Obama addressed the nation in his first-ever televised speech from the Oval Office. He told his captive audience, "Make no mistake, . . . We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes."

"As long as it takes" to accomplish exactly what the Young President didn't make quite as clear. Making no mistake, I'm almost afraid to speculate.

June 22nd saw a federal district court dissolve the administration's 6-month moratorium of all offshore drilling, finding the moratorium to be overly broad, arbitrary, and capricious.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused the government's request to stay the District Court's order on July 9th. Spirits were raised a bit, but evidence that drilling would soon resume failed to materialize, primarily as a result of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's promise to overhaul the moratorium and re-institute it tout de suite, coupled with a late August hearing date for full arguments before the Fifth Circuit, expedited though it is.

Today, the migration of oil rigs from the Gulf flows like oil from the Deepwater Horizon breach, towing ever more jobs along in its wake.

Tomorrow, July 12th, in New Orleans, the nominally "independent" presidential commission will hold its first public hearing. The first public hearing will take place nearly two months after the commission was constituted. I can hear feet dragging from my front porch as Gulf families struggle to figure out their futures.

Inexcusable. Disgusting.

When it finally gets down to work, the commission would be wise to take a look at the bigger picture -- this is not just an environmental issue, although the environmental issue is indeed an overarching concern. And the commission would be wise and compassionate if it heeds the advice offered in today's Times-Picayune op-ed piece:

Louisianians are not advocating letting deepwater drilling continue as if nothing has happened and under the flawed enforcement of the past. Quite the opposite, no one in this region wants a repeat of the BP oil spill and its devastating environmental and economic impact.

But we also understand that the administration's blanket moratorium can cause as much or more economic damage as the spill. Up to 8,000 jobs could be lost on the rigs themselves, and another 24,000 jobs could be shed by companies that supply the rigs. Independent scientists and experts consulted by the Interior Department have argued that a more tailored moratorium, coupled with other safety measures, could be more effective. That's a sensible position.

. . . .

Louisianians understand that a catastrophe like the BP oil spill warrants a serious review, so accidents can be prevented in the future. But the president's commission
needs to keep an open mind and make a balanced assessment of our need for oil
and of ways to mitigate the risks.

No one wants another Deepwater Horizon. But an entire industry that's vital for our state and the nation should not be easily written off because of the mistakes of some. Louisiana, the Gulf Coast and the nation deserve an honest and objective assessment that takes into account concerns from all sides.

I couldn't have said it better myself -- but I would add one more admonition to the commission: act quickly, as if your hair was afire. Because life and culture on the Gulf is going down in flames.

Continuing Census Education

I just saw this at Michelle Malkin's blog. It makes the Census waste detailed in my little post a few days ago look thrifty.

As an added bonus, this anonymous Census Corps emailer also enlightens us about even more Census Bureau titles and jobs -- Census Enumerator and Census Quality Controller. Plus, we get a vivid description of our government at work, teaching the masses in the heretofore unknown bastion of higher education, Census University!





By Michelle Malkin • March 30, 2010 04:10 PM

If even half of what this anonymous reader who e-mailed about his experience as a Census worker is true, imagine the squandering of tax dollars taking place on a mass scale. Crikey.

Hi, Michelle:

I would first like to apologize for stealing your tax dollars, but if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else. I am an underemployed 20-something Tea Partier, and after reading about how much government waste was going to the 2010 census, I figured that I might as well “git me some of dat Obama money” until I find something more solid.

…I’m currently in my second tour of “temporary employment” with the Bureau….I’m not participating in or approving of what the census data I collect could likely be used for, but all I am is data entry at the moment.

Last summer I participated in the ‘address canvassing’ (AC) project. What this entailed was walking around a neighborhood, literally door to door, with a little hand held computer. My job was not to enter addresses so that these people could receive their form, but to make sure that the addresses that the first wave of people put into the system and appeared on the computer was actually there. 99% were. Sure there were a few missing that you did have to manually enter, but out of the thousands of address that I checked, we’re talking 20 or less that had to be manually entered. I didn’t have to knock on any doors or ask any questions, unless someone came out and was angry that I was walking around the neighborhood looking at pretty address numbers on door frames. If they were mad, I gave them a little sheet that explained the confidentiality of the census. But mostly, it was me getting paid $15.25/hour plus mileage to take my dog for a walk and pushing a few buttons.

In an average suburban neighborhood where the houses are somewhat close to each other, it was no problem to do about 35-40 addresses per hour once you learned how to quickly enter data into the computer. The census said that I should be doing about 12-15 per hour. My direct bosses told me that I should NOT be doing 35-40 because it was making them and other people look bad. So instead of walking at a snails pace, I just did my 35-40/hour and doubled my time when I submitted my hours. Again, sorry for the tax dollar grab, but I was told not to be so darned efficient or else I’d be cut!

To recap: A first wave of people spent god knows how many hours finding the addresses on every street in America. I’m in the second wave, making sure they did their jobs. Then there were people (Quality Control), who were the third wave, making sure I did my job! I was not fortunate enough to get a QC position.

Let me get into another area. Training. To do the above job, I could have been trained in a single morning learning computer functions and mapping, maybe a little bit of recap after a lunch break. No way it should have gone longer than 5 or 6 hours, being generous. Turn on the computer, find your area that you were assigned, learn how to enter the different kinds of dwellings, and how to use a stylus. But no. We were subjected to a 5 day, 40 hour training period that made me want to tear my hair out. Because what I, a college educated non-moron, could have learned in 5 hours, 80% of my class of trainees were aggravatingly slow and confused by the process. Old people, high school dropouts, flat-out idiots. The census takes all comers. Oh and the stupid questions they ask! Thinking back gives me nightmares. I’m really not turning my nose up at these people, but it just saddened me to see good people struggling with such a menial task.

So much time was wasted on the first day, for the rest of the days, I just sat in the back reading the paper, books, staring at the ceiling. At the end of the training, you are given a written test. You have one hour to complete the exam and only need to get 60%. I flew through it in 15 minutes, missed one question, and was a full-fledged graduate of Census university. For $15.25/hour, plus my mileage at 50 cents per mile to a facility which was round trip about 80 miles. So training alone wasted about 35 hours and 320 miles. That’s about $700 right there. Thanks, taxpayers!

Now to my second wave, which is something called Group Quarters Enumeration. This is something I could have learned to do over breakfast. We got a 3 day training. This one is going to places considered group quarters, i.e. nursing homes, soup kitchens, churches where priests live, and the like. Not apartment buildings or anything like that. And of course homeless, people, let’s not forget that.

This one is about to start. My first assignment is a [redacted] in which I have just learned there are no inhabitants who live there full-time or the majority of the time. After talking this over with my boss and feeling cheated that I’m losing hours since there’s nobody to distribute census forms to, I have been told to drive to this [place] (25 minutes from my house), confirm in person, and drive back. Credit me with half an hour there, half an hour back, and half an hour confirming, and I’m getting an 1.5 hours plus the mileage. What a wonderful use of funds!


Why didn't I think about doing this?!?!

The Census is Blowing in the Wind -- UPDATED!

And it just keeps getting better. . . .

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports today that there are more Census shenanigans afoot in northwest Arkansas. It seems that several folks in Springdale, Arkansas, have received personalized, bar-coded Census forms that list Fayetteville as their town of residence. Trust me -- there is little love lost between Fayetteville and Springdale, so the Springdale mayor is all over it making sure that Springdale won't come up short.

Nonetheless, several folks were perplexed by the Census foul-up and contacted the Census Bureau to get some answers. Carl Henson, a Census office manager, said, "he does not know how many questionnaires were listed under 'Fayetteville' addresses, and . . . doesn’t know how Fayetteville made it onto the Springdale forms. 'It would be very unprofessional for me to speculate on that.'”

So, it looks like we now have federal employees whose "profession" is "Census Expert."

Bar-codes being bar-codes, and Springdale's mayor aside, there is little likelihood that Fayetteville will be glomming onto a bunch of Springdale's "federal funding" because the zip code will be the ultimate arbiter. But, there is something else that troubles me a little bit more -- at least one lady in Springdale received two incorrectly addressed sets of forms and she sent them both in, appending a note to the second form notifying the Census Professionals that she received 2 forms, filled out 2 forms, and mailed in 2 forms. She said the whole experience left her "less than confident in the process."

You gotta love understatement!

And there's more!

The above photos depict the source of my "less than confidence" in the Census process.

Down here in post-Katrina New Orleans, we have experienced what has come to be known as "diaspora" -- lots of our population remains scattered to the winds after The Thing in 2005, and lots are living in less than upscale (think: deplorably inhuman) conditions, some without official "mailing addresses." So, to try to get the very best nose-count of folks living in our fair metropolitan area, the Census Professionals hired oodles of folks to stump around the area not only to verify addresses, but also to do a little one-on-one face-time with everyone who would answer the knock at the door to explain how very important the Census numbers are. I expect that many of the Face-Time Census Professionals are bi-lingual.

Perhaps a good idea, probably poor execution.

The Face-Time Census Professionals' marching orders included instructions to leave the Census forms hooked on the doorknob in a nicely labeled plastic sack (think: personalized car wash trash bag) if no one answered the door. There are some problems with that process, to-wit:

No one can get access to our doorknobs without our fore-knowledge because we leave the wrought iron gates locked to keep dogs in and undesirables out. Accordingly, our neighborhood Face-Time Census Professionals left our car wash trash bags hooked onto the gates for both street numbers assigned to our house (we're zoned for an apartment in one part of the house that we now use as guest quarters).

Note that the Face-Time Census Professionals hooked the all-important Census car wash trash bags on the inside of the fence where Bouie probably would've had a shred-fest field day if he had gotten to the bags before I did!

Now think about the Face-Time Census Professionals leaving the bags on our gates shortly before a whopper of a cold front moved through the state. And think about them attempting the same for several neighbors whose doorknobs aren't quite as long as the posts on our gates.

You guessed it -- I can't tell you how many personalized car wash trash bags I saw blowing down the streets of Uptown New Orleans. It looked kind of like a kite-flying festival. A very expensive, taxpayer-funded kite festival.

So, let's review -- the Census Professionals' office:

(1) sent out paid canvassers and used satellite GPS to verify addresses all last year;

(2) mailed first-class-postage letters to all of us letting us know our Census forms were on the way to generate excitement and anticipation (cue Carly Simon);

(3) mailed first-class-postage forms to most of the country, sometimes twice, addressed to the wrong city, and containing yet more postage-paid return envelopes (cue The Box Tops to open with "The Letter");

(4) ordered and purchased a substantial number of personalized car wash trash bags;

(5) sent out paid Face-Time Census Professionals in southeast Louisiana to tutor about and/or leave the forms, many of which weren't adequately secured to withstand weather conditions, thus leaving many postage-paid envelopes blowing in the wind (cue Peter, Paul, and Mary); and

(6) will send out more face-time Census Professionals to try to locate folks whose bar-coded forms aren't returned in some April-ish time-frame (cue Dr. John to belt out "Right Place, Wrong Time").

(7) See below.

Whew. Once again, I assert that you can't make this stuff up.

Or pay for it.

Cha-ching!!! Warm up the currency printing presses.

UPDATE: I need to add a #7 up there. Today's mail brought 2 thoughtful postcards (one for the house, one for the apartment) letting us know that the Census Professionals have yet to receive our Census forms. There's another little gazillion dollar expenditure to add to the tally.

I'm still debating whether to check the box on the "race" question as "Other," and fill in "Human." We'll get 'em postmarked by April 1st somehow, I reckon. Kinda like we get that 1040 Extension postmarked by April 15th. April promises to be a busy month for the Postal Service.

Go Down, Mose Jeff . . . .

All right! Now we're making some progress!

For the second time in less than a month's passage, we've looked on as TWO members of the Jefferson political machine family were served their just desserts. Earlier this week, "Dollar Bill's" brother, Mose, was convicted by a local jury on 4 of 7 counts in a federal indictment focusing on bribery of a public official.

It seems that, a few years ago, good brother Mose managed to get some $140,000 into the hands of former Orleans Parish School Board member, Ellenese Brooks-Simms, shortly before she rammed through a contract to purchase a software-based teaching system sold by one of Mr. Jefferson's commercial enterprises. Good ol' Mose argued that the money had nothing to do with the contract -- he was simply helping out a friend who was going through hard times. The trouble with his argument is that Ms. Brooks-Simms had already rolled and pleaded out. So, once again in the Jefferson Family saga, condemnatory recorded conversations surfaced, this time courtesy of the subject of the bribe.

Mose got off on the money-laundering count -- that's okay. Downright bribery is a little worse on the going-to-hell scale than re-purposing a few funds.

Next up -- after sentencing and the filing of an Appeal Petition -- the January trial of Mose, sister Betty Jefferson, her daughter, and a few others (including Mose's main squeeze, Renee Gill-Pratt -- former state legislator and New Orleans City Council member) for stealing funds not from mere school children in one of the poorest and most underperforming school districts in the country, but from other, multiple nonprofit groups dedicated to helping impoverished New Orleanians. That gives a whole new meaning to "movin' on up," don't you think?

The whole thing is beginning to resemble a Greek tragedy wherein hubris acts as the catalyst for the downfall of the once-mighty. Without the "pity" factor.

These people -- these successful people -- are supposed to be "role models" and poster children for pulling oneself out of poverty. But when someone emerges from the quicksand of poverty by climbing on the backs of those still being sucked down, he deserves a special comeuppance. It appears that, insofar as the Jefferson family is concerned, the comeuppance will be an extra heapin' helpin' of just desserts, served up cold, just as one would serve revenge.

With a little sugar on top for added sweetness.

Forget Health Care Reform -- Watch Out For the Bacon Police!

Some skinny, socialist thrall from Folsom, Louisiana, wrote a letter to the Times-Picayune last Saturday expressing his concerns about the stubborn American crisis of obesity.

His primary target: a $50M advertising campaign promoting some double bacon cheeseburger. While noting that personal responsibility is an important part of our lives, he remained convinced that $2B spent annually on advertising by fast food joints has more influence over our food choices than we do and makes us fatty-fattersons.

This is what made the ol' jaw drop (emphasis mine):

"If personal responsibility is to stand up to TV, radio, and billboards
enticing us to consume more food than any society on earth, does
government have any role to play? Why is a 32-ounce soft drink
cheaper than a 12-ounce bottle of water? Why is a hamburger cheaper than an
apple?


"Sometimes company profits begin to undermine the citizens and
government steps in to balance things out. It's time to begin that
process."

This, my friends, could be the future of this once-free land of ours. And fools like this guy, who want to hand the reins to every breath we take over to a centralized government, are the biggest threat to our few remaining freedoms that are tenuously holding on by a fingernail. He actually believes that bureaucrats know what's best for us! The vast majority of bureaucrats are not experts in their fields -- they're civil servants with cushy, tenured jobs and juicy benefits. I am not willing to give them imprimatur over yet another facet of my decision-making. You shouldn't be, either.

The hubby points out how regulation and taxation have almost broken the tobacco industry (Disclaimer: neither of us is a smoker -- although we are proud, hard-fought ex-smokers and he indulges in the occasional cigar). So, his theory to shore up the tobacco industry and prevent folks from gaining any more weight is to require all obese citizens to take up smoking. We all know that smoking is an appetite suppressant, right -- sounds like a plan to me. (I guess we have to make sure they smoke only tobacco and not cannabis, though. The influence on appetite by cannabis tends to be a little on the other side of the suppressant spectrum! Or so I'm told.)

Give government bureaucrats more control over our food choices, my pudgy little foot. Doesn't this guy remember that bacon is a basic food group?!?!