Although my political predictions often miss the mark, I do want to take this opportunity to congratulate myself on a prediction I made on this blog, last August.
I predicted 7 Michigan wins and Rich Rodriguez getting fired.
You responded:
@Larry
John Galt goes on to quote me:
P.S. I do like to make predictions. I’m also predicting Michigan will win 7 games and Rodriquez will be fired (TG’dness). I’m not so foolish as to “guarantee” anything.
John responded:
Seems you and I are in different camps here as well, lol. I would say that if RR wins 7 games, and UM fires him, that would be a travesty. It’s not often in sports anymore that a guy is given enough time to truly implement his systems, in play, teaching, and types of players, to truly see what he can do. I personally like RR and hope that this can be a breakout season for the program under his watch.
Go Blue!!!
And then I got more specific:
openid.aol.com/runnswim says:
UConn — Win
ND — win
UMASS — win
BG — win
Indiana – win
MSU — loss
Iowa — loss
Penn St — loss
Illinois — win
Purdue — win
Wisky — loss
tOSU — loss
RR wins 7 games, but loses 5 of the last 7 and he’s out of there.
Offense will have moments. Defense will have some big embarrassments in the secondary.
What was great about Bo was that he was in every single game until the end, because he always had a great defense. He never learned to pass, but Lloyd Carr did. RR had the nucleus of a very good defense bequeathed to him, but fired Carr’s defensive coordinator and still doesn’t have anyone who knows how to coach defense.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.
– L, formerly of A2
What was the result?
Every single one of my predictions was true. I accurately predicted the outcome of all 12 of Michigan’s regular season games, the poor performance of the defense, the occasional flashes of brilliance of the offense, and the ultimate firing of the head coach.
Just call me the Nostradamus of college football!
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
gregory_dittman
14 years ago
I shee the military industrial complex is already gearing up over the new Chinese “stealth fighter.” One has to be reminded the time when Soviet generals showed a nuclear payload bomber flyover to U.S. generals. The Soviets had three bombers which they flew in circles. The U.S. generals reported seeing 300 bombers. That led to the nuclear arms race.
It’s best to force China to prove that it is not only really a stealth fighter, but that they can make enough to become a real threat.
Let’s see. A (Chinese ?) rocket contrail off the coast of California, a Chinese sub surfacing amongst a U.S. carrier group that never saw it coming, and now a Chinese stealth fighter jet. “Can they make enough to be a real threat?” They’ve been absolutely open about wanting to be the world’s superpower and all indications are they are working night and day to achieve it. It shouldn’t be too hard, since the current administration seems intent on gutting our defense, looting the treasury and sending all manufacturing overseas.
Missy
14 years ago
Toothfairy, really cute avatar!
The current CIC knows not what he’s doing. He needs to install a Help Dress Barry Czar, he can’t even correctly button his own coat, there’s so much wrong with this photo, sheesh!
“ Groundhog Day 2011
This coming year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day.
It’s an ironic juxtaposition of events; one event involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of limited intelligence for prognostication…while the other involves a groundhog.”
Is the new site in its final form – as in finished? On my monitor, the “featured post” on the right is nothing but a black rectangle with a few random letters down the left edge.
And the date obscures part of the title of each article and/or a picture (if there is one).
Is there something that I should, perhaps, be doing – or are these things that will be corrected?
Nan G
14 years ago
BREAKING NEWS!
The Congressional Budget Office , in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021.
That number represents the cost of the new provisions, minus Medicare cuts.
Repealing the bill would also eliminate $770 billion in taxes.
It’s the tax hikes in the health care law (along with the Medicare cuts) which accounts for the $230 billion in deficit reduction.
December’s unemployment rate was released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U-3 unemployment dropped from 9.8% last month to 9.4% this month.
The U-6 number dropped from 17% to 16.7%.
Only 103,000 jobs were added, however, which indicates that the drop in unemployment was more due to people leaving the labor force than getting jobs. [This job number is based on a survey of industry, rather than actual payrolls.]
It’s actually following Geithner’s prediction from last Spring pretty closely (the green dots). Geithner basically tells us,”Yup, that’s how bad it’s going to suck, and I have no plan to fix it.”
Labor participation rate has dropped to its lowest percentage since 1983, falling from 64.5% last month to 64.3% this month. That likely indicates a large pent-up labor supply that is not included in the U-6 unemployment numbers.
The number of long-term unemployed is at its highest value ever, increasing from 6.33 million to 6.44 million. http://ace.mu.nu/archives/310361.php
@Missy: Thanks. I thought your kitten and Beezy’s bee were cute, too.
As for Ozero, in this pic it looks like his once lanky legs are beginning to look like Mechelle’s. In some of the others, he’s got a noticeable pot belly. I guess two years of Wagyu beef will do that to ya!
Ivan
14 years ago
What a great video.
TSgt Ciz
14 years ago
Hey, how can I ad an icon to my profile?
Or maybe I should ask, Can I ad an icon to my profile?
Or maybe I should ask, Can I ad an icon to my profile?
Why, yes, you can.
Here’s how:
1) Go to gravatar.com and create an account with them (it’s free).
2) Once registered, enter the e-mail address that you use here at FA. (It has to be an actual e-mail for activation and it has to be exactly as you entered it here at FA.)
3) Choose an image for your avatar and follow the instructions there for activation.
TSgt Ciz, hi, I’m not the best for info but what I did is go to gravatar.com and you give same name and email than FA, AND ANOTHER NAME TO THEM FICTIF FOR THEIR FILE,
and I left thinking it was them to choose my logo, that didnot come so someone gave me a image,
from google art with the long email url. I copy by hand on a paper and went back
where you choose your image and type in slowmotion that 2lines long url email and they came with a choice of image. only one for me, they must have been in a hurry to get rid of me so I click on the image and came to fa and comment to check and they [bees] where all over my previous comments
there might be an easyer way for you have more knowledge than me, good luck, never give up
bye
Dick Winters, the former World War II commander whose war story was told in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” has died.
Dick Winters led a quiet life on his Fredericksburg farm and in his Hershey home until the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers” threw him into the international spotlight.
Since then, the former World War II commander of Easy Company had received hundreds of requests for interviews and appearances all over the world.
He stood at the podium with President George W. Bush in Hershey during the presidential campaign in 2004. He accepted the “Four Freedoms” award from Tom Brokaw on behalf of the Army. He was on familiar terms with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, producers of the HBO mini-series, the most expensive television series ever produced.
Winters was always gracious about his new-found celebrity, but never really comfortable with it. He never claimed to be a hero and said that he had nothing to do with the national effort to get him the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor.
When people asked him if he was a hero, he liked to answer the way his World War II buddy, Mike Ranney, did.
“No,” Ranney said. “But I served in a company of heroes.” That became the tag line for the miniseries.
In an interview shortly before the miniseries debuted, Winters said the war wasn’t about individual heroics. The men were able to do what they did because they became closer than brothers when faced with overwhelming hardships.
They weren’t out to save the world. They hated the blood, carnage, exhaustion and filth of war. But they were horrified at the thought of letting down their buddies.
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Winters and his troops from Easy Company, 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, parachuted behind enemy lines to take on a German artillery nest on Utah Beach. Winters made himself a promise then that if he lived through the war, all he wanted was peace and quiet.
His company fought through the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of a death camp at Dachau and to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.
The war described in “Band of Brothers” is ugly, but the young men developed character under fire, Winters said. He was glad the miniseries showed war realistically, not either glorified or demonized as in so many movies.
He wanted people to understand that success in war depends not on heroics but on bonding, character, getting the job done and “hanging tough,” his lifelong motto. In combat, he wrote 50 years after the war, “your reward for a good job done is that you get the next tough mission.”
When the war ended, Winters kept his promise to himself. He married Ethel, bought a bucolic farm in Fredericksburg, raised two children and worked in the agricultural feed business. He didn’t talk about the war until the late historian Stephen Ambrose wanted to put Easy Company’s exploits on paper.
Following the miniseries, Winters turned down most requests for interviews because he said he didn’t want to appear like he was bragging.
But he did feel the story of Easy Company was an important one, especially for young people. He was more likely to accept invitations by local school groups and spent time with students at Cedar Crest High School, among others. A talk he gave at Palmyra Middle School drew hundreds of spectators.
People who knew Winters during and after the war said he is exactly what he appears to be. He could lead without ever raising his voice or swearing. His friend Bob Hoffman, a Lebanon architect, said Winters’ eyes could “burn a hole right through you.”
The men who served under him and people who only met him later in life call him a hero, no matter what he says.
According to the book, one wounded member of Easy Company wrote Winters from a hospital bed in 1945, “I would follow you into hell.”
He received a standing ovation from 500 veterans when he spoke at the dedication of the Army’s Military History Institute in Middlesex Township in September.
When President Bush was in Hershey in April, he called Winters “a fine example … for those brave souls who now wear our nation’s uniform.”
Ambrose, the author of “Band of Brothers,” said in a 2001 BBC interview that he hopes young people say. “I want to be like Dick Winters.”
“Not necessarily as soldiers, but as that kind of leader, that kind of man, with basic honesty and virtue and an understanding of the difference between right and wrong,” Ambrose said.
OLD TROOPER 2, thank you for giving that life story, a patriot died,
left so much to his country to always remember who is a patriot,
like many other still living and forgotten by some, but remembered ALWAYS by the best of this AMERICA,
BYE
My dad sent a book to me, “Give Me Tomorrow” by Patrick O’Donnell. A story of G Company, made up of WWII and WWI vets along with Marine reservists that had no training and were carrying grenades attached to their ammo belts by the pins. They landed at Inchon and fought at Chousan. It s a fascinating book of heroism that is hard to put down. You might pick it up if you see it, it will make a plane ride across the pond go a lot quicker. Good luck and I hope you are back on the ranch soon!
I knew some of those guys from that era, I wish I’d spent more time with them. Really good guys, just kind of withdrawn, I understand why, now.
Nan G
14 years ago
Jerry Brown is trying to eject the old property owners (who benefit the most from Prop 13) via his budget……
Brown’s budget eliminates the Medi-Cal Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) program.
Medi-Cal that provides health care at no or low-cost to the poor is facing a $1.7 billion cut.
Brown proposes to make significant cuts to the program.
Brown’s proposal calls for making co-payments mandatory for beneficiaries beginning in October (currently co-payments are voluntary) and eliminating adult day health care and so-called optional benefits like podiatry and chiropractic services.
In-Home Supportive Services: Facing a $486 million cut (75% of total)
IHSS as its known provides house cleaning, transportation and other personal support services for the aged, blind and disabled.
Brown proposes to cut costs here by enacting an across-the-board reduction in service hours, eliminating domestic services (housecleaning, shopping and cooking) for IHSS recipients.
What is NOT cut?
State employee UNION pensions.
See, an older home owner is paying thousands less in property taxes than his new neighbor.
(In our case we pay ~ $250/year total property tax. Our newest neighbors are paying over $3,000….or they would be had they not walked away from their condo.)
Mamba 1-0
14 years ago
Still nothing but a big , black box where the featured post should be. It does have a slider on the left now – but it doesn’t do anything.
And, the dates no longer obscure part of the article title. They seem to have mostly disappeared to the left of the article, outside the box.
What you do in any difficult negotiation is to shock them with your opening offer.
Let’s see how this actually does play out. Jerry Brown has no further political ambitions. He’s into legacy building and fixing California’s current budget problems will ensure that he’ll go down in history as California’s greatest ever Governor — a title already bestowed on him than none other than very conservative economist Art Laffer, advisor to Ronald Reagan.
Jerry Brown could have recommended any or all of these ideas:
* Reduce benefits for newly-hired public employees
* All newly hired employees should be shifted to a defined contribution pension model
* Current employees who are not yet vested in their benefits might be shifted along with newly hired employees to a defined contribution plan. This step could produce savings to existing DB plans while moving more quickly to a sustainable pension model for public employees.
But Jerry Brown did none of that.
Remember when that guy who dressed as a pimp came into CA and got some ACORN officials in hot water?
What did Jerry Brown, then Atty Gen, do?
He made sure the ACORN office in question knew two days before his office was coming to search so that the ACORN documents could be shredded.
Sadly, for Brown and ACORN, the low-paid ACORN flunkys simply threw out all of the documents which were found by the media.
Later, while actively running for gov. Jerry Brown met with a Union and told then I have to be Mr. Nice Guy, so YOU will have to be the bullies.
So, I just don’t see him throwing his base under his bus as Obama has done with so many of his splintered base.
Nan G, hi, JERRY BROWN is cutting on the elderly needs and the sicks.
that is not very good for his image anywhere, he should have started with the UNIONS employees,
which they themself employe, not the taxpayers,
very sorry that he has taken that job, it wont benefit CALIFORNIA’s IMAGE
TO MANY, BYE
@Nan: I just tried to post this comment/link, but it just flew off and disappeared. 2nd straight comment this morning which did that. I wonder of there is some sort of new blog software bug?
Anyway, I was just calling attention to the fact that California is not the economic basket case which everyone seems to think it is. People look at the budget deficit and say that it is huge; in point of fact, it’s about average, based as a percentage of the state’s GDP (which is the only valid way to make comparisons).
Here’s a very thoughtful article from a WSJ writer.
The truth about California Commentary: Maligned state is actually saving the rest of us
Excerpt:
Tax base
Now let’s talk about taxes. This is where the lies really earn a Ph.D — as in “piled high and deep.”
The best study of state and local tax burdens comes from the venerable Tax Foundation, an independent non-profit that’s been acting as a taxpayers’ watchdog in Washington since 1937. The Tax Foundation is non-partisan, but by the nature of what it does it leans politically to the right.
According to them, as of 2008 (the most recent year analyzed) state and local taxes in the average state came to about 9.7% of the annual state economy.
What was it in crazy, liberal, communistical, socialistical, un-American, soviet-style California?
Er, 10.5%.
That’s right. The burden was all of 0.8 percentage points higher than the average.
In the late 1990s, when California was riding high, it was…10.6%. Thirty years ago, when even Meg Whitman thought it was a wonderful place to work, start a family, and hire an illegal immigrant to raise your kids, it was…10.1%.
But if you think the lies stop there, think again. Because we haven’t even gotten to the biggest of all.
That California “bailout.”
There’s no such thing.
California bails us out. It has been bailing out the rest of America since, oh, about 1849 — before it even joined the union.
Californians are so productive that every year they send billions of dollars in surplus dollars to the rest of America. Year after year they have sent vastly more in federal taxes than they ever get back in federal spending.
California isn’t our Greece, it’s our Germany. It isn’t Little Orphan Annie. It’s Daddy Warbucks.
Fact.
The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, which tracks the data, calls this surplus a “fiscal transfer.” I call it a bailout.
The numbers are simply staggering. In the quarter century through 2005 (the most recent year for which we have data), Californians bailed out the rest of America to the tune of about $620 billion in today’s dollars. In 2005 alone it came to nearly $50 billion.
That is 30 times next year’s forecast “budget shortfall” in Sacramento. The only reason California has a budget problem at all is because they have, foolishly, spent so much money subsidizing everyone else.
If it weren’t for that, California could cut its state and local taxes by around $1,300 a person. That’s a $1,300 tax cut for every man, woman and child. Hmmm. Funny you never read about that anywhere, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, take with giant fistfuls of salt those self-serving claims of fiscal rectitude you’re apt to hear from politicians in other states, especially in the South and the West. These states haven’t balanced their own budgets with their own money in living memory. Without bailout money from states like California, New York and New Jersey, their taxes would be much higher and their citizens poorer.
• Here we go again. More lies. More “Forced to consider cuts” slogans, as if poor government officials, backs against the wall, have no choice. Oh, but they do. And like hardened bullies, they target the weak. After all, not many wheelchair- using-oxygen tank-toting 90-year olds, are known to overturn cars and torch a neighborhood. Slash funds for Adult Day Care Centers, advice the appointed anointed, as they sip costly coffee, around custom, dark cherry stained, hand rubbed oil finished conference tables. Partially funded by tear stained citizens they now want to rub out. No worries. “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich — both come to poverty.” Proverbs 22:16. So live it up ladies and gents who casually cut funds to elderly, poor and disabled citizens, because partying on the pennies of the poor won’t last forever. Cut. Cut. Cut away. Off you go to another 5 star getaway. Close your eyes now. Don’t think about the autistic adult whose having another seizure and needs nursing care. Or the once coveted physician who was struck by a train and needs help changing his diapers. And never ever think about those poor families. Fathers and mothers. Daughters and sons. Firefighters. Police officers. Marines. Teachers. Yes, they are up, crack of dawn, sometimes all night, running this rat race, to care for aging, sick or severely disabled relatives. But don’t think about now you important, important people who have your slush funds and secret agendas. Oh no, don’t think about those things, because it’s too “painful” just like it must be when you tell the public about these “painful cuts.” Cut. Cut. Cut away, for as you do, you cut your heart out with each slashing. “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.” Proverbs 28:27. Good luck with that Jerry and the rest of you sweet, caring lovely people in government.
Curt: Thanks for the image of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. It has been cleaned since this image was made and is now even more beautiful than before.
Although my political predictions often miss the mark, I do want to take this opportunity to congratulate myself on a prediction I made on this blog, last August.
Here’s the replay:
(To John Galt)
From a post here on F/A August 26, 2010:
(scroll down)
I predicted 7 Michigan wins and Rich Rodriguez getting fired.
You responded:
@Larry
John Galt goes on to quote me:
John responded:
And then I got more specific:
openid.aol.com/runnswim says:
What was the result?
Every single one of my predictions was true. I accurately predicted the outcome of all 12 of Michigan’s regular season games, the poor performance of the defense, the occasional flashes of brilliance of the offense, and the ultimate firing of the head coach.
Just call me the Nostradamus of college football!
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
I shee the military industrial complex is already gearing up over the new Chinese “stealth fighter.” One has to be reminded the time when Soviet generals showed a nuclear payload bomber flyover to U.S. generals. The Soviets had three bombers which they flew in circles. The U.S. generals reported seeing 300 bombers. That led to the nuclear arms race.
It’s best to force China to prove that it is not only really a stealth fighter, but that they can make enough to become a real threat.
Let’s see. A (Chinese ?) rocket contrail off the coast of California, a Chinese sub surfacing amongst a U.S. carrier group that never saw it coming, and now a Chinese stealth fighter jet. “Can they make enough to be a real threat?” They’ve been absolutely open about wanting to be the world’s superpower and all indications are they are working night and day to achieve it. It shouldn’t be too hard, since the current administration seems intent on gutting our defense, looting the treasury and sending all manufacturing overseas.
Toothfairy, really cute avatar!
The current CIC knows not what he’s doing. He needs to install a Help Dress Barry Czar, he can’t even correctly button his own coat, there’s so much wrong with this photo, sheesh!
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Barack-Obama/ss/events/pl/020807obama#photoViewer=/110104/ids_photos_ts/r4068395842.jpg
Coming up soon….
“ Groundhog Day 2011
This coming year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day.
It’s an ironic juxtaposition of events; one event involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of limited intelligence for prognostication…while the other involves a groundhog.”
http://curmudgeonlyskeptical.blogspot.com/2011/01/groundhogs.html
I was curious what the “echo chamber” thinks about Palin’s support of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” repeal?
Why would she do that?
@Ivan: The “Echo Chamber” is between Your Ears.
Ask Her on her website. I haven’t seen her lately.
@Ivan:
Imagining things again, eh?
Clozaril may help.
OLD TROOPER 2, very funny on your 6
Is the new site in its final form – as in finished? On my monitor, the “featured post” on the right is nothing but a black rectangle with a few random letters down the left edge.
And the date obscures part of the title of each article and/or a picture (if there is one).
Is there something that I should, perhaps, be doing – or are these things that will be corrected?
BREAKING NEWS!
The Congressional Budget Office , in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021.
That number represents the cost of the new provisions, minus Medicare cuts.
Repealing the bill would also eliminate $770 billion in taxes.
It’s the tax hikes in the health care law (along with the Medicare cuts) which accounts for the $230 billion in deficit reduction.
………………
More here:
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/07/breaking-cbo-says-repealing-ob
Darn!
There goes a MAJOR Dem talking point!/
LOL!
@Mamba 1-0: What browser are you using?
December’s unemployment rate was released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U-3 unemployment dropped from 9.8% last month to 9.4% this month.
The U-6 number dropped from 17% to 16.7%.
Only 103,000 jobs were added, however, which indicates that the drop in unemployment was more due to people leaving the labor force than getting jobs. [This job number is based on a survey of industry, rather than actual payrolls.]
On ”The Chart” it looks like this:
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/Stimulus-vs-unemployment-December2010small.gif
It’s actually following Geithner’s prediction from last Spring pretty closely (the green dots). Geithner basically tells us,”Yup, that’s how bad it’s going to suck, and I have no plan to fix it.”
Labor participation rate has dropped to its lowest percentage since 1983, falling from 64.5% last month to 64.3% this month. That likely indicates a large pent-up labor supply that is not included in the U-6 unemployment numbers.
The number of long-term unemployed is at its highest value ever, increasing from 6.33 million to 6.44 million.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/310361.php
@Missy: Thanks. I thought your kitten and Beezy’s bee were cute, too.
As for Ozero, in this pic it looks like his once lanky legs are beginning to look like Mechelle’s. In some of the others, he’s got a noticeable pot belly. I guess two years of Wagyu beef will do that to ya!
What a great video.
Hey, how can I ad an icon to my profile?
Or maybe I should ask, Can I ad an icon to my profile?
@TSgt Ciz:
Why, yes, you can.
Here’s how:
1) Go to gravatar.com and create an account with them (it’s free).
2) Once registered, enter the e-mail address that you use here at FA. (It has to be an actual e-mail for activation and it has to be exactly as you entered it here at FA.)
3) Choose an image for your avatar and follow the instructions there for activation.
TSgt Ciz, hi, I’m not the best for info but what I did is go to gravatar.com and you give same name and email than FA, AND ANOTHER NAME TO THEM FICTIF FOR THEIR FILE,
and I left thinking it was them to choose my logo, that didnot come so someone gave me a image,
from google art with the long email url. I copy by hand on a paper and went back
where you choose your image and type in slowmotion that 2lines long url email and they came with a choice of image. only one for me, they must have been in a hurry to get rid of me so I click on the image and came to fa and comment to check and they [bees] where all over my previous comments
there might be an easyer way for you have more knowledge than me, good luck, never give up
bye
Godspeed, Major Dick Winters
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/01/dick_winters_of_band_of_brothe.html
RIP, MAJOR.
OLD TROOPER 2, thank you for giving that life story, a patriot died,
left so much to his country to always remember who is a patriot,
like many other still living and forgotten by some, but remembered ALWAYS by the best of this AMERICA,
BYE
OT, thanks for the update of a great man.
My dad sent a book to me, “Give Me Tomorrow” by Patrick O’Donnell. A story of G Company, made up of WWII and WWI vets along with Marine reservists that had no training and were carrying grenades attached to their ammo belts by the pins. They landed at Inchon and fought at Chousan. It s a fascinating book of heroism that is hard to put down. You might pick it up if you see it, it will make a plane ride across the pond go a lot quicker. Good luck and I hope you are back on the ranch soon!
I knew some of those guys from that era, I wish I’d spent more time with them. Really good guys, just kind of withdrawn, I understand why, now.
Jerry Brown is trying to eject the old property owners (who benefit the most from Prop 13) via his budget……
Brown’s budget eliminates the Medi-Cal Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) program.
Medi-Cal that provides health care at no or low-cost to the poor is facing a $1.7 billion cut.
Brown proposes to make significant cuts to the program.
Brown’s proposal calls for making co-payments mandatory for beneficiaries beginning in October (currently co-payments are voluntary) and eliminating adult day health care and so-called optional benefits like podiatry and chiropractic services.
In-Home Supportive Services: Facing a $486 million cut (75% of total)
IHSS as its known provides house cleaning, transportation and other personal support services for the aged, blind and disabled.
Brown proposes to cut costs here by enacting an across-the-board reduction in service hours, eliminating domestic services (housecleaning, shopping and cooking) for IHSS recipients.
What is NOT cut?
State employee UNION pensions.
See, an older home owner is paying thousands less in property taxes than his new neighbor.
(In our case we pay ~ $250/year total property tax. Our newest neighbors are paying over $3,000….or they would be had they not walked away from their condo.)
Still nothing but a big , black box where the featured post should be. It does have a slider on the left now – but it doesn’t do anything.
And, the dates no longer obscure part of the article title. They seem to have mostly disappeared to the left of the article, outside the box.
But, overall, the new site really looks nice.
@nan:
Here’s a conservative blogger who thinks that Jerry Brown may have something up his sleeve.
http://hoguenews.com/?p=13328
What you do in any difficult negotiation is to shock them with your opening offer.
Let’s see how this actually does play out. Jerry Brown has no further political ambitions. He’s into legacy building and fixing California’s current budget problems will ensure that he’ll go down in history as California’s greatest ever Governor — a title already bestowed on him than none other than very conservative economist Art Laffer, advisor to Ronald Reagan.
http://orangepunch.ocregister.com/2010/11/11/art-laffer-jerry-brown-was-californias-best-governor/37346/
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
Thanks for the link, Larry.
But California’s unionized state workers have an UNFUNDED liability for their pensions to the tune of $457 Billion.
See graph here:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/12/wsj-reports-new-jersey-pension-deficit.html
Jerry Brown could have recommended any or all of these ideas:
* Reduce benefits for newly-hired public employees
* All newly hired employees should be shifted to a defined contribution pension model
* Current employees who are not yet vested in their benefits might be shifted along with newly hired employees to a defined contribution plan. This step could produce savings to existing DB plans while moving more quickly to a sustainable pension model for public employees.
But Jerry Brown did none of that.
Remember when that guy who dressed as a pimp came into CA and got some ACORN officials in hot water?
What did Jerry Brown, then Atty Gen, do?
He made sure the ACORN office in question knew two days before his office was coming to search so that the ACORN documents could be shredded.
Sadly, for Brown and ACORN, the low-paid ACORN flunkys simply threw out all of the documents which were found by the media.
Later, while actively running for gov. Jerry Brown met with a Union and told then I have to be Mr. Nice Guy, so YOU will have to be the bullies.
So, I just don’t see him throwing his base under his bus as Obama has done with so many of his splintered base.
But thanks the the idea that he might.
Nan G, hi, JERRY BROWN is cutting on the elderly needs and the sicks.
that is not very good for his image anywhere, he should have started with the UNIONS employees,
which they themself employe, not the taxpayers,
very sorry that he has taken that job, it wont benefit CALIFORNIA’s IMAGE
TO MANY, BYE
@Nan: Rumors of the economic demise of our state are greatly exaggerated:
http://WWW.MARKETWATCH.COM/STORY/THE-TRUTH-ABOUT-CALIFORNIA-2010-11-22
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA
@Nan: I just tried to post this comment/link, but it just flew off and disappeared. 2nd straight comment this morning which did that. I wonder of there is some sort of new blog software bug?
Anyway, I was just calling attention to the fact that California is not the economic basket case which everyone seems to think it is. People look at the budget deficit and say that it is huge; in point of fact, it’s about average, based as a percentage of the state’s GDP (which is the only valid way to make comparisons).
Here’s a very thoughtful article from a WSJ writer.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-truth-about-california-2010-11-22?pagenumber=2
Excerpt:
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
Larry ,I had the same today,
just to say, it’s not only you
I wonder what the up-tick in Obama’s approval rating can be attributed to?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html
• Here we go again. More lies. More “Forced to consider cuts” slogans, as if poor government officials, backs against the wall, have no choice. Oh, but they do. And like hardened bullies, they target the weak. After all, not many wheelchair- using-oxygen tank-toting 90-year olds, are known to overturn cars and torch a neighborhood. Slash funds for Adult Day Care Centers, advice the appointed anointed, as they sip costly coffee, around custom, dark cherry stained, hand rubbed oil finished conference tables. Partially funded by tear stained citizens they now want to rub out. No worries. “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich — both come to poverty.” Proverbs 22:16. So live it up ladies and gents who casually cut funds to elderly, poor and disabled citizens, because partying on the pennies of the poor won’t last forever. Cut. Cut. Cut away. Off you go to another 5 star getaway. Close your eyes now. Don’t think about the autistic adult whose having another seizure and needs nursing care. Or the once coveted physician who was struck by a train and needs help changing his diapers. And never ever think about those poor families. Fathers and mothers. Daughters and sons. Firefighters. Police officers. Marines. Teachers. Yes, they are up, crack of dawn, sometimes all night, running this rat race, to care for aging, sick or severely disabled relatives. But don’t think about now you important, important people who have your slush funds and secret agendas. Oh no, don’t think about those things, because it’s too “painful” just like it must be when you tell the public about these “painful cuts.” Cut. Cut. Cut away, for as you do, you cut your heart out with each slashing. “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.” Proverbs 28:27. Good luck with that Jerry and the rest of you sweet, caring lovely people in government.
california crisis scam, VERY well done your comment should be studied in school by the teachers,
and explainned as it is written, a real gem, bye