My Job, Your Bonus

Wow, apologies for the light summer posting. . .

Thank the Gods of Kobol we have the best media on the planet here in the good 'ol USA, so that our greatest King of all time can receive the worship and adoration He deserved!!!!

Seriously, Michael Jackson was a great entertainer and artist. Like the best ones, his tortured life somehow birthed incredible art.

A funny story . . . when I was a morning DJ at a radio station in Kearney, NE in 1987, we were giving away MJ concert tickets. My show was the highest rated during that time because of those tix, not my talent, LOL

Did you watch the service? I don't know what grossed me out the most . . . a funeral at the staples center, people screaming like after getting tix like the beatles were back from the dead and together, or the red carpet for pictures before the service. (h/t/ americablog. )

It's not like our economy is on the brink or anything. Or North Korea firing off missles, or that our national security structure was under cyber attack . . . .

LOOK OVER THERE! SARAH PALIN IS DOING SOMETHING!
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I wanted to talk for a second about what might be an interesting bit of data . . . an ex-employee of my old firm released the names and dollar amounts for top exec bonus' for 2008. He/She was plenty pissed.

Know something interesting? The amount paid out to the the top dogs in bonus' is just about the same amount as the payroll of all employees terminated.

You see . . . gotta keep the gravy train rolling at the top when overall firm revenues are down.

How many other companies are the same? How many cuts were made in exec bonuses rather than staffing? Not many.

Hard to know with private companies. Public corps maybe . . .

-Prodigal Son
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Finally a quick list . . . spending you cut out when out of work and busted . . .

Entropy is still ALL POWERFUL!

-Doctor visits (except kids)
-Dentist visits (sorry kids, brush, brush!)
-Zoo and other family memberships
-Utilities awareness, NUFF SAID!
-Family vacation
-Church tithes
-Baby sitting
-Charitable giving
-Yearly high pressure house wash
-New kids crocs (other shoes in posession are fine for now)
-Cable TV
-Annual flowers for yard beds
-Healthier, but more expensive food
-Name brand frakkin' anything!
-Latest cool toy
-Eating out
-Wife's laptop repair (screen went out)
-Mower maintenance
-Dry cleaning
-Car oil changes
-Watering the lawn
-Watch band broken
-Extravagant date nights for me and wifey

Ya know, you really can live without a lot of stuff. This new reality is something I will continue, as well as a lot of Americans. I have some debt like the car, and credit cards I will pay off ASAP. Then, the service economy can fend for itself. I have even reconsidered our retirement strategy and kiddos' college, etc.

To hell with the Joneses. Turns out they worked for Goldman Sachs

-PS

Tea Party Protest Should Focus on Local Govts

The Amarillo Tea Party will host a rally July 4 to protest high taxes. The last Tea Parties turned into anti-Obama-anti-federal government rallies as much as a complaint against taxes.

And while the Tea Party’s manifesto calls for limited government, limited spending and lower taxes at all levels of government, taking to the streets, even peacefully, isn’t the way to deal with lowering local taxes. The way to lower the burden of government in Potter and Randall counties is to look at two areas.

First, citizens must pay more attention to the costs of local government, especially salaries. The Amarillo Independent did a story some months ago about city salaries and the amounts the staffers are paid is staggering. Of course, questioning those salaries leads to a huge effort in bureaucratic justification, with claims that to get “good” people to work here means paying higher salaries. Then, they’ll trot out all kinds of little studies of comparable salaries from other jurisdictions — studies that are paid for by the city’s consultant and not reviewed independently by an objective observer. C’mon, we know how this game is played.

But the second, and more insidious, form of taxation and tax increases has to do with the Potter-Randall Appraisal District. With caps on tax rates, the only way PRAD can generate the income for the governments it serves is to inflate the values of properties. PRAD doesn’t question how much those governmental entities need. One of the dirty secrets is that the jurisdictions tell PRAD how much they need, PRAD adds up the bill and then sticks it to property owners.

And it does so with outrageous impunity. In a down market, these arrogant bureaucrats inflate the appraisal of homes by knowingly faulty statistical methods. Even worse, the protest board backs the bureaucrats. Homeowners don’t have a chance because these senile old beasts are buddy-buddy with the staffers and have their minds made up before the hearing even begins.

If the Amarillo Tea Party people want to mount a protest, they may have more of an impact if they packet and protest at local government offices and at PRAD at 5701 Hollywood Road.

Coleman Concedes .... (finally!)

In settlement, Republicans cede all future rights to "Sore-Loserman" bumper stickers.

spacedark

Tom Schieffer

YOU ARE INVITED TO A RECEPTION

FOR TOM !

WEDNESDAY NIGHT - JULY 1, 2009, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Ambassador Hotel - Ballroom

WHO IS TOM?

Tom Schieffer – Democratic Candidate for Governor

· Lifelong Democrat – Only Current Candidate for Governor

· Former 3-Term Texas St. Rep. From Ft. Worth

· Former Owner of the Texas Rangers Baseball Team

· Former Ambassador to Australia and to Japan

· Brother of Bob Schieffer

Hosts

Abel Bosquez, Robert & Carol Forrester, Selden Hale, Roberta Hicks, Jim & Theresa Otto,

Gina & Dr. Howard Podolsky, Jim & Sylvia Perkins, William H. Seewald, Claudia Stravato

Iran, what can you do?

One small thing:

I have been told that twitter users should set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians' access to the internet down. Cut & paste & please pass it on.

the flyswat heard round the world

I've said before that I like PETA-- although I don't subscribe to their ethic-- because, unlike too much of the far left for the last quarter-century, they have a sense of humor. Twisted, maybe, but so is mine. Also, they have the ability to drive Amarilloans up a tree, which is never a bad thing.

But, um, seriously?

I mean, he told the fly "Get out of here." The fly's choice not to listen led to its demise, right? I mean, if the President told me to "Get out of here," I think I would do so.

Hopefully, future flies, especially North Korean flies will think twice before they ignore President Obama's polite but strongly worded ultimatums.

spacedark

Pigs Fly: My letter to Rep. Thornberry

The Honorable Mac Thornberry
Member of Congress,13th District of Texas

Dear Congressman Thornberry,

Thank you, Congressman Thornberry, for your vote against HR2346, the Supplemental Appropriation for FY2009 that continues funding of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

I applaud your courageous stand and welcome you to the majority of Americans who oppose these wars. It must not have been easy to change your position from supporting war for six years to realizing that we must disengage from these wars and get our troops home. You have rightly utilized Congress' power of the purse to press for ending the wars.

I look forward to your further leadership, along with Representatives Kucinich and Woolsey, in seeking an end to the disastrous war of choice in Iraq and the quagmire of Afghanistan. Let me know how Question War Amarillo can assist you - especially in countering those unreasonable but inevitable claims that those like you and I who advocate not funding war don't "support the troops".

With regards,

Richard Todd
Organizer, Question War Amarillo

Healthy Economy

OK . . . conservative talking points in quotations . . .

1. "There is plenty of healthcare competition already"- Really? Every job I have had has had one choice . . . the companies pre-selected health company. There was no other choice unless you consider none an option. Cobra? $1600/month.

2. "You don't want some beau-ro-crat overriding your doctor!"- Really? As opposed to the person at Blue Cross telling you your bypass surgery is not medically necessary?

3. "We need health savings accounts!"- Can you save up enough to pay for a heart transplant? (The costs for the surgery and first year of care are estimated to be about $350,000. The medical tests and medications after the first year cost about $27,000 per year.)

4. "Guvment run health care is not as efficient as the private sector!"- America was last on the list of six 1st world countries on quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives according to the commonwealth fund.

Like most people, I do not mind paying for something good, but what exactly are we getting for our $$ with private insurers?

Let's run the numbers down . . . let's say you have to pay $600/month for healthcare. 40% is profit and admin costs to Kaiser Perm or $240.

Take that 40% out and you are paying $360/month.

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Here is my 4 step plan for fixing the entire USA healthcare system.

1. Buy out every publicly-traded health care company: Cost? $70 billion. Wanna stay as a rich man's value-added ins company a la' AXA europe.? Go right ahead.

2. Single payer is the way: In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in the U.S. was $6,714, in Canada for example, $3,678. That's just $306 a month. I was paying $700/month at my last gig. Roll it out in 8 quadrants starting somewhere small like the Dakotas to test.

3. A two-fer: No more pharmaceutical company ads. They spend more on marketing than on research. Stop it, and keep your previous marketing budget as profit.

Also, now we can negotiate with the drug companies on price.

4. Malpractice insurance through the gov.-Stop your bitching Docs, gonna cost you a third of what you are paying now.
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Problems . . .

Healthcare company employees: This one is tough. . . there will be a lot of laid off people. What to do? Hire some for the new USA Healthcare, we need a solution for the rest.

Patient record security

What kind of tech CRM tool will be used?

How do Docs get paid?
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What are the dems doing to help? See below . . . . . . . . . .



-Prodigal Son

enough is enough

Good lord, didn't the poor Ukrainians have enough to cope with over the years with the Soviets and Chernobyl and all of that?

Now they have to deal with Les Simpson's patronizing "help"?

spacedark