Didn't take a lot of work, nor time, for this to surface:
The evidence shows that Panetta had a close and personal relationship with a member of the Communist Party by the name of Hugh DeLacy, whose record included meeting with communist espionage agents.
That's the "Panetta" who is currently running CIA and is nominated for D of Defense.
Rrrrrrright!
In October 2010 FBI agents raided the homes of far left activists in Chicago and Minneapolis who were linked to the Marxist FARC terrorists and Islamic radicals as part of a terrorism investigation. The home of radical Hatem Abudayyeh, a friend of Barack Obama, was raided in the terror sweep.
Not just a "friend", either. He is a Friend With Benefits!!
Not only was Hatem Abudayyeh’s radical organization given $40,000 by Barack Obama and the Woods Fund but his organization also collected nearly half a million in taxpayer money.
Well, so far, neither DeLacy nor Abudayyeh have been linked to Sandy Pasch.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Romney on The 'Stan
This is not only reasonable, it's correct:
...I think we’ve learned some important lessons in our experience in Afghanistan. I want those troops to come home based upon not politics, not based upon economics, but instead based upon the conditions on the ground determined by the generals. But I also think we’ve learned that our troops shouldn’t go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation. Only the Afghanis can win Afghanistan’s independence from the Taliban....
(CNN 'debate')
Apparently the War Party (Kristol, Wolfowitz, et al) peed their pants when Romney said that.
Good. Nothing preventing BillyBoy from suiting up and helping fight the war himself!
AOSHQ
...I think we’ve learned some important lessons in our experience in Afghanistan. I want those troops to come home based upon not politics, not based upon economics, but instead based upon the conditions on the ground determined by the generals. But I also think we’ve learned that our troops shouldn’t go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation. Only the Afghanis can win Afghanistan’s independence from the Taliban....
(CNN 'debate')
Apparently the War Party (Kristol, Wolfowitz, et al) peed their pants when Romney said that.
Good. Nothing preventing BillyBoy from suiting up and helping fight the war himself!
AOSHQ
Work 36 Years, Retire at 104% of Pay
Not bad at all.
During his 36 years with the county, Blaske worked in parks and building maintenance. ...He said he agonized over the retirement decision because he loved his job, which paid about $50,000 a year in base pay. Overtime bumped his total pay to nearly $65,000 in 2009.
During his 36 years with the county, Blaske worked in parks and building maintenance. ...He said he agonized over the retirement decision because he loved his job, which paid about $50,000 a year in base pay. Overtime bumped his total pay to nearly $65,000 in 2009.
...Blaske, 56, left the county with a $340,119 backdrop lump sum, plus $2,715 in monthly pension payments. Without the backdrop, his monthly checks would have been almost $4,500.
The guy can't be blamed for taking the deal that Ament gave him.
But 104% of base after 36 years? AND, by the way, there's a health-insurance plan in there, too--unmentioned by the "newspaper."
Teh Jackwad: Nope, It's Not a "War"
It's not hard to figure out why the average citizen absolutely despises lawyers.
The White House is telling Congress that President Obama has the legal authority to continue American participation in the NATO-led air war in Libya, even though lawmakers have not authorized it.
Shove it where the sun never shines, B Hussein.
The White House is telling Congress that President Obama has the legal authority to continue American participation in the NATO-led air war in Libya, even though lawmakers have not authorized it.
Shove it where the sun never shines, B Hussein.
Stamping Their Widdle Feets All the Way to Court, Again
What a surprise.
One day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of collective-bargaining legislation that potentially affects thousands of public-sector employees, a coalition of unions filed suit in federal court seeking to block it.
Given that it's filed in Madistan and will be heard by Conley, there's better-than-even odds that it will get to the 7th Circuit before it gets shoveled into the dustbin of history.
One day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the reinstatement of collective-bargaining legislation that potentially affects thousands of public-sector employees, a coalition of unions filed suit in federal court seeking to block it.
The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO on Wednesday joined a number of other unions seeking to halt Gov. Scott Walker's controversial collective bargaining legislation.
The groups include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 24, AFSCME Council 40, AFSCME Council 48, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the Wisconsin State Employees Union, The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union – Health Care Wisconsin (SEIU).
Good luck with that, boyzzzz.Given that it's filed in Madistan and will be heard by Conley, there's better-than-even odds that it will get to the 7th Circuit before it gets shoveled into the dustbin of history.
A Balanced Take on the Music of the Mass
A couple of excerpts from a lecture/essay delivered at the CMAA conference in Pittsburgh. (Happy to note that I was at the first of these conferences, held at Christendom College---AND at several of its distant antecedents here in Milwaukee and Omaha.)
Mgr. Wadsworth:
...In our Catholic tradition, liturgical chant is first and foremost cantillation, a song which arises from the text, a song which is essentially a heightened proclamation of a verbal message and which takes its emphases from the natural accentuation of the text and finds its melodic rhythm from the cadence which is already within the words.
...I have outlined what I believe to be the characteristics of the liturgical song of the Catholic Church. It is, I would hold, not merely a subjective formulation on my part, but an accurate description of the character and function of liturgical song as inherited by the Church from the People of Israel, in an unbroken tradition and set before the Church by the Magisterium in every age up to and including our own. The challenge I wish to make is to ask if this is how you and most members of the Latin Rite experience liturgical song, and if not, why not?
...The first reason why this is the case, is that many of our people remain essentially reticent when it comes to singing at Mass. A number of years ago, there was an insightful study by an American academic, Thomas Day, entitled “Why Catholics Can’t Sing”.
He goes on to identify a “liturgical post-modernism” which he suggests has resulted in noisy and forced participation from the laity, and encourages a kind of church-wide narcissism that can represent a serious threat both to individuals and the institution of the Church.
(That 'narcissism' is also evident in a lot of Church musicians, who seem to think that one of the purposes of musica sacra is to 'glorify the musician,' a point confirmed later in this essay.)
...It would be a mistake to characterize this dilemma purely in terms of what has happened since Vatican II. Advocates of chant in particular have an annoying tendency to rewrite history in relation to what was common praxis in our parishes until the late sixties, thereby contextualizing the debate in an unreliable ‘nostalgia’ for something which was never the case.
For English-speaking Catholics, I think it is fair to say that a predominantly ‘Low Mass’ culture in which music is essentially an addition to the liturgy rather than intrinsic to it, was already a centuries-old tradition at the time of Vatican II...
He's absolutely correct.
...In this respect, the current enthusiasm for chant, and a growing competence in its performance, particularly in celebrations of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, is not so much the recovery of a recently lost tradition, but rather the realization of the authentic principles of the Liturgical Movement as canonized by Pope St Pius X in his motu proprio of 1903, Tra le sollecitudini, underlining the centrality of Gregorian Chant, guidelines which were largely unimplemented both at the time of the Council and in its wake.
Again, dead-on observation.
...Some sixty years later, the Pastoral Liturgical Movement, as it had become, had largely abandoned the principles which motivated Dom Guéranger and the renewal he initiated, in favor of influences which are more broadly ecumenical and introduce into the Roman Liturgy elements which are more commonly found outside the Catholic Church. Nowhere was this influence more keenly felt than in the realm of liturgical music, for the principle that a repertoire of liturgical chant which had been proper to the Mass, at least in its most solemn celebrations, was largely and almost universally set aside in preference for music which might be most accurately described as ‘non-liturgical’ in character, given its frequent lack of dependence on liturgical or biblical texts and its introduction into our liturgical celebrations of a voice which is in many ways alien to the spirit of the liturgy.
It gets even better.
It is vital to grasp that this is not only true of much music which is contemporary in style but it is also evident in hymnody which is so often of a devotional rather than liturgical character and which was transplanted into the Mass from non-catholic forms of worship which are constructed on entirely different principles. This is the modern-day inheritance of the ‘Low-Mass’ culture which envisages a largely spoken liturgy punctuated at key moments by congregational singing.
By the way, it's also the case that the Extraordinary Form "High Mass" attendees very often view liturgical music as "add-on" decoration. The people in the pew are dead-silent--which certainly was not in the mind of Pius X (or XII, or John XXIII, or Paul VI, or JPII, or B-16.)
Mgr. Wadsworth is of the opinion that the new translation, coming in Advent, will be another inflection-point for the Mass which will reverse the dreadful course of the last 50 years.
Let's hope so.
Mgr. Wadsworth:
...In our Catholic tradition, liturgical chant is first and foremost cantillation, a song which arises from the text, a song which is essentially a heightened proclamation of a verbal message and which takes its emphases from the natural accentuation of the text and finds its melodic rhythm from the cadence which is already within the words.
...I have outlined what I believe to be the characteristics of the liturgical song of the Catholic Church. It is, I would hold, not merely a subjective formulation on my part, but an accurate description of the character and function of liturgical song as inherited by the Church from the People of Israel, in an unbroken tradition and set before the Church by the Magisterium in every age up to and including our own. The challenge I wish to make is to ask if this is how you and most members of the Latin Rite experience liturgical song, and if not, why not?
...The first reason why this is the case, is that many of our people remain essentially reticent when it comes to singing at Mass. A number of years ago, there was an insightful study by an American academic, Thomas Day, entitled “Why Catholics Can’t Sing”.
He goes on to identify a “liturgical post-modernism” which he suggests has resulted in noisy and forced participation from the laity, and encourages a kind of church-wide narcissism that can represent a serious threat both to individuals and the institution of the Church.
(That 'narcissism' is also evident in a lot of Church musicians, who seem to think that one of the purposes of musica sacra is to 'glorify the musician,' a point confirmed later in this essay.)
...It would be a mistake to characterize this dilemma purely in terms of what has happened since Vatican II. Advocates of chant in particular have an annoying tendency to rewrite history in relation to what was common praxis in our parishes until the late sixties, thereby contextualizing the debate in an unreliable ‘nostalgia’ for something which was never the case.
For English-speaking Catholics, I think it is fair to say that a predominantly ‘Low Mass’ culture in which music is essentially an addition to the liturgy rather than intrinsic to it, was already a centuries-old tradition at the time of Vatican II...
He's absolutely correct.
...In this respect, the current enthusiasm for chant, and a growing competence in its performance, particularly in celebrations of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, is not so much the recovery of a recently lost tradition, but rather the realization of the authentic principles of the Liturgical Movement as canonized by Pope St Pius X in his motu proprio of 1903, Tra le sollecitudini, underlining the centrality of Gregorian Chant, guidelines which were largely unimplemented both at the time of the Council and in its wake.
Again, dead-on observation.
...Some sixty years later, the Pastoral Liturgical Movement, as it had become, had largely abandoned the principles which motivated Dom Guéranger and the renewal he initiated, in favor of influences which are more broadly ecumenical and introduce into the Roman Liturgy elements which are more commonly found outside the Catholic Church. Nowhere was this influence more keenly felt than in the realm of liturgical music, for the principle that a repertoire of liturgical chant which had been proper to the Mass, at least in its most solemn celebrations, was largely and almost universally set aside in preference for music which might be most accurately described as ‘non-liturgical’ in character, given its frequent lack of dependence on liturgical or biblical texts and its introduction into our liturgical celebrations of a voice which is in many ways alien to the spirit of the liturgy.
It gets even better.
It is vital to grasp that this is not only true of much music which is contemporary in style but it is also evident in hymnody which is so often of a devotional rather than liturgical character and which was transplanted into the Mass from non-catholic forms of worship which are constructed on entirely different principles. This is the modern-day inheritance of the ‘Low-Mass’ culture which envisages a largely spoken liturgy punctuated at key moments by congregational singing.
By the way, it's also the case that the Extraordinary Form "High Mass" attendees very often view liturgical music as "add-on" decoration. The people in the pew are dead-silent--which certainly was not in the mind of Pius X (or XII, or John XXIII, or Paul VI, or JPII, or B-16.)
Mgr. Wadsworth is of the opinion that the new translation, coming in Advent, will be another inflection-point for the Mass which will reverse the dreadful course of the last 50 years.
Let's hope so.
Not Exactly Funny
First thing, make sure your crane-operator is qualified with something other than Sesame-Street papers.
RenMan, again!
RenMan, again!
Ethical Drug Shortage? Guess What Causes That!
Teh Won's Ideal State approaches.
Doctors at the Johns Hopkins cancer center are rationing cytarabine, a drug used to treat leukemia and lymphoma. They are literally deciding who will live and who will die. The drug is also in short supply at the Stanford, Wisconsin and Nebraska university medical centers.
...Currently, there are about 246 drugs that are in short supply and as the chart shows, the number has been growing for some time. There were 74 newly reported drug shortages in 2005; the number dipped slightly to 70 in 2006, then rose to 129 in 2007, 149 in 2008, 166 in 2009, and 211 in 2010
...A new report from the Premier healthcare alliance that found that drug shortages have risen to “critical levels,” endangering the public’s health. Hospitals are scrambling to make up the shortfall, in some cases rationing medications, postponing surgeries and using alternative drugs
Whassup?
The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been stepping up its quality enforcement efforts — levying fines and forcing manufacturers to retool their facilities both here and abroad. Not only has this more rigorous regulatory oversight slowed down production, the FDA’s “zero tolerance” regime is forcing manufacturers to abide by rules that are rigid, inflexible and unforgiving.
Well, quality-control is good, right?
Not when The Bureaucrats are in charge:
For example, a drug manufacturer must get approval for how much of a drug it plans to produce, as well as the timeframe. If a shortage develops (because, say, the FDA shuts down a competitor’s plant), a drug manufacturer cannot increase its output of that drug without another round of approvals. Nor can it alter its timetable production (producing a shortage drug earlier than planned) without FDA approval.
F*&^ng IDIOTS.
HT: RenMan
Doctors at the Johns Hopkins cancer center are rationing cytarabine, a drug used to treat leukemia and lymphoma. They are literally deciding who will live and who will die. The drug is also in short supply at the Stanford, Wisconsin and Nebraska university medical centers.
...Currently, there are about 246 drugs that are in short supply and as the chart shows, the number has been growing for some time. There were 74 newly reported drug shortages in 2005; the number dipped slightly to 70 in 2006, then rose to 129 in 2007, 149 in 2008, 166 in 2009, and 211 in 2010
...A new report from the Premier healthcare alliance that found that drug shortages have risen to “critical levels,” endangering the public’s health. Hospitals are scrambling to make up the shortfall, in some cases rationing medications, postponing surgeries and using alternative drugs
Whassup?
The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been stepping up its quality enforcement efforts — levying fines and forcing manufacturers to retool their facilities both here and abroad. Not only has this more rigorous regulatory oversight slowed down production, the FDA’s “zero tolerance” regime is forcing manufacturers to abide by rules that are rigid, inflexible and unforgiving.
Well, quality-control is good, right?
Not when The Bureaucrats are in charge:
For example, a drug manufacturer must get approval for how much of a drug it plans to produce, as well as the timeframe. If a shortage develops (because, say, the FDA shuts down a competitor’s plant), a drug manufacturer cannot increase its output of that drug without another round of approvals. Nor can it alter its timetable production (producing a shortage drug earlier than planned) without FDA approval.
F*&^ng IDIOTS.
HT: RenMan
Alinsky, the Bishops, and USCCB
Quite a series of essays here, with the longest being on Alinsky and the Bishops.
The history is valuable, and Milwaukee agitators Flood, Becker, and Groppi are mentioned!!
[In the 1960's ...a]mong both the powerful and the powerless, the work of Catholic priests was headline news in the 1960s, work which further propelled U.S. Catholicism into the upheaval. Among the priests and their issues were Monsignor George Higgins and the labor movement,(21) Monsignor Geno Baroni and ethnic urban neighborhoods,(22) Fathers Philip and Daniel Berrigan and the antiwar movement,(23) Father James Groppi and the civil rights movement,(24) Monsignor Jack Egan and Alinsky's community organizations,(25) Thomas Merton and his social critiques from the monastery,(26) and John Courtney Murray and U.S. civil discourse.(27)
All very familiar names.
Now we add a bit more to the mix.
The [Second Vatican] council marked a shift in the Church's self-understanding. Implicit in Pope John's aggiornamento was a constructive encounter with modernity. Under Pius IX and Leo XIII the Church had taken a defensive position against post-Enlightenment thought. The dominant grounding for that position was a neo-Scholastic synthesis between faith and reason, a synthesis that provided a unified Catholic worldview that collapsed at Vatican II.(32) While there is some consensus about a postconciliar shift away from the primacy of natural law in theology to a more inductive, biblically based, interdisciplinary, democratic, and empirical theological methodology,(33) there has been substantial debate whether this shift has had a positive or negative impact and whether natural law itself remains a viable approach.
What also occurred, much more significant, was an interpretive hermeneutic of "change" which was rammed into the pew-sitting Catholic with great effectiveness--never mind whether such "change" was ordered by the Council. Remember, this was still the era of "Father says...."
Then, in 1969, the founding of the Campaign for Human Development.
...On the occasion of the 25th-anniversary celebration of the CHD on August 25, 1995, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin delivered a keynote address in Chicago entitled "The Story of the Campaign for Human Development: Theological and Historical Roots."(38) He noted that, "as General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at the time, [he] was directly involved in this exciting endeavor."(39) As general secretary, his direct involvement consisted in the executive oversight of the design, development, and establishment of the CHD. Bernardin had been brought to the NCCB in 1968 by Archbishop John Dearden of Detroit
With those two names, you know everything you need to know. FLEE!!
At least Bernardin was fairly honest about Campaign for Human Development's roots:
"It is fitting that we are gathered here because since the beginning, Chicago has been important to the Campaign and the Campaign has been important to Chicago. As you may know, Msgr. George Higgins of this Archdiocese wrote a Labor Day message that pointed the way to the Campaign; Auxiliary Bishop Michael Dempsey of Chicago was the CHD's first spokesperson; Msgr. Jack Egan organized the "Friends of CHD" in the mid-1970s, and for decades has been an inspiration to the Campaign's work; the great work of community-organizing began in Chicago, and Chicago has many important networks and training centers; CHD enjoys a rich tradition of support here, both in the form of active and enthusiastic participation by people in organizations and projects funded by CHD, and in the generous donations to the annual CHD Collection....
Yes, indeed. Citizen Action Wisconsin people were 'networked' and 'trained' in Chicago, (Midwest Academy)which should tell you all you need to know. Barry Obozo got his training there, too. Getting the picture?
Alinsky was not stupid. He knew that there were two vehicles for his success:
...In 1941 Alinsky wrote that "two basic social forces ... serve as the cornerstone ... to effect constructive changes in the life of the Back of the Yards neighborhood. These two elemental social institutions are, first, the Catholic church and, second, organized labor."
What did I just say about Citizen Action Wisconsin?
And look who else was involved!
John L. Lewis also gave his imprimatur to the campaign. Lewis's Congress of Industrial Organizations was in the midst of a bitter organizational drive in Chicago's stockyards
Recall that the CIO was identified as a major Communist Party outfit and was forcibly cleaned up by the AFL under George Meany, who was an American patriot (which is why they are AFL-CIO.) That merger wasn't exactly friendly.
Well, Alinsky & Co. defeated the meat-packers, following which:
Invitations to organize came from cities throughout the nation, and within every campaign Catholics played a prominent role.(63) Through these activities Alinsky developed hundreds of relationships with Catholic leaders. Alinsky's friendship with Thomistic philosopher Jacques Maritain is perhaps the most fascinating Catholic connection.
And the connection with Maritain produced something else of interest:
Maritain was so enthralled with Alinsky's writing and organizing that in 1958 he personally urged Archbishop Montini of Milan, the future Pope Paul VI, to meet with Alinsky
The temptation to mention Windswept House is irresistible.
Alinsky took a priest, Jack Egan, under his wing and taught him everything he needed to know.
Egan developed the first Office of Urban Affairs in Chicago with a mission to "focus the power of the Church on the problems of the city." With this institutional credibility, Egan recalled, "Saul and I began working very closely." ...Like Bishop Sheil in the Back of the Yards 20 years earlier, Egan gave community-organizing a Catholic mantle of credibility, accessed funds, motivated people, and articulated the theological premises for church involvement in community organization.
Egan accessed archdiocesan funds for each of Alinsky's three Chicago organizations in the 1960s. To raise funds for the Woodlawn Organization, Egan and Alinsky met with Cardinal Albert Meyer. Egan recalls, "I was alone with the Cardinal and Alinsky. The Cardinal made a commitment for 150,000 dollars for three years, 50,000 dollars a year."(78) In his anniversary keynote, Cardinal Bernardin stated that he was personally involved in the Chicago Metropolitan Sponsors, an Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation organization that received $116,000 from the campaign in 1995. CHD guidelines state that the campaign funded organizations for three years.(79) These are fascinating parallels: two Chicago cardinals more than 30 years apart, both supporting Alinsky organizations with Catholic money for a three-year period.(80) The striking difference is that Meyer committed local archdiocesan Catholic funds whereas Bernardin committed national CHD funds
You can decide for yourselves whether promoting Stritch and Meyer to Chicago was a good thing. We already know what to think about putting Bernardin there.
Now a most interesting factoid:
...In 1968, when Cardinal John Cody became the archbishop of Chicago, the Office of Urban Affairs was discontinued. Suddenly, archdiocesan financial support for Alinsky and the mantle of credibility for community organization were gone. Egan had been laid out "on the canvas."(81) With these events, President Theodore Hesburgh invited Egan to the University of Notre Dame for a sabbatical, an invitation that led to Egan's staying there for 14 years.
Cody later moved to Rome and just-by-coincidence suffered character assassination there when heading the Vatican Bank. I'd bet that the Paul VI connection.......well........maybe someday the WHOLE story of that affair will be told.
Egan used ND as a handy tool.
Founded in 1967, the Catholic Committee on Urban Ministry had an impressive membership: Monsignor Geno Baroni of the Archdiocese of Washington's Urban Office; Father Eugene Boyle of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, active with the United Farmworkers of America; [UFWA was heavily supported by Roger Mahony while he was in Sacramento and later in Los Angeles] Father Patrick Flood of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, active in race matters; Father P. David Finks of the Diocese of Rochester, active in Alinsky's FIGHT organization; Father John McCarthy who was assistant to labor priest George Higgins; Father Phil Murnion of New York who was to direct the National Institute on Pastoral Life; Father Marvin Mottet of Davenport who was to become the director of the Campaign for Human Development, and other clergy.(86) These priests were at the forefront of Catholic activism and had experience in organizations focused on self-determination: community organizations, economic development organizations such as worker cooperatives or credit unions, housing initiatives, and neighborhood associations.
And of course, there was a need for more money.
In June 1969, Father Baroni, now chairman of the Urban Task Force Advisory Board, presented the "Agenda for the 70s" to the bishops. The report read: "The NCCB could establish an annual collection for human development in the United States.
...In August 1969, Baroni had called the Cumbermeare gathering to come up with ideas on how the Church through the Urban Task Force could respond to the urban crisis.(97) Attending the meeting with Baroni were McCarthy, Finks, Michael Groden of the Archdiocese of Boston, Patrick Flood, and his assistant Dismas Becker.
Isn't it wonderful that Milwaukee supplied so many of these fellows?
If nothing else, Catholics were generous.
...At Cumbermeare in August 1969, the foundational elements of a national Catholic campaign were agreed upon. The campaign would be a national mechanism responding to the urban crisis, one similar to Protestant efforts committing financial resources. The Catholic commitment would be $50 million, a sum matched by no other denomination to that date. Funds would be designated specifically for "organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power in their own communities," "self-help funds" for such "projects as voter registration, community organizations, seed money to develop non-profit housing corporations, community-run schools, minority-owned cooperatives and credit unions, capital for industrial development and job training programs, and setting up of rural cooperatives."
Familiar endeavors, no?
You can search all you wish; there is no Roman Catholic encyclical, doctrine, or dogma which endorses the incipient C.H.D./Alinsky/Baroni/Finks agenda, to wit:
..."we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people, to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace, cooperation ... the creation of those circumstances in which man can have the chance to live by values that give meaning to life."...
That kind of crap is why you see the bumper-sticker which declares that "Jesus was a Community Organizer". Yes, it's a reductio ad absurdum; in addition to that, Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth" (Vol. 1) directly contradicts such inanity.
In 1969/70, Baroni and Finks wrote the paper which was adopted by the Bishops in 1970. It called for a "5-Year Plan". Thus, C.H.D. joins those Gummint Programs mentioned by Reagan as "immortal."
And sure enough, McHugh of Camden copy/pasted Alinsky:
The resolution's wording that "there is an evident need for funds designated to be used for organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power in their own communities"(137) was language used for the first time in NCCB legislative history.
You can read the rest of the essay, of course, at the link above. Suffice it to say that C.H.D. then funded a number of Alinsky-ite organizations about which we've written previously, such as "Gamaliel" and "Esther", "Joshua", "Amos" and "Jonah." We also mentioned this whole bag of worms here.
HT: Skellmeyer and Apostacy
The history is valuable, and Milwaukee agitators Flood, Becker, and Groppi are mentioned!!
[In the 1960's ...a]mong both the powerful and the powerless, the work of Catholic priests was headline news in the 1960s, work which further propelled U.S. Catholicism into the upheaval. Among the priests and their issues were Monsignor George Higgins and the labor movement,(21) Monsignor Geno Baroni and ethnic urban neighborhoods,(22) Fathers Philip and Daniel Berrigan and the antiwar movement,(23) Father James Groppi and the civil rights movement,(24) Monsignor Jack Egan and Alinsky's community organizations,(25) Thomas Merton and his social critiques from the monastery,(26) and John Courtney Murray and U.S. civil discourse.(27)
All very familiar names.
Now we add a bit more to the mix.
The [Second Vatican] council marked a shift in the Church's self-understanding. Implicit in Pope John's aggiornamento was a constructive encounter with modernity. Under Pius IX and Leo XIII the Church had taken a defensive position against post-Enlightenment thought. The dominant grounding for that position was a neo-Scholastic synthesis between faith and reason, a synthesis that provided a unified Catholic worldview that collapsed at Vatican II.(32) While there is some consensus about a postconciliar shift away from the primacy of natural law in theology to a more inductive, biblically based, interdisciplinary, democratic, and empirical theological methodology,(33) there has been substantial debate whether this shift has had a positive or negative impact and whether natural law itself remains a viable approach.
What also occurred, much more significant, was an interpretive hermeneutic of "change" which was rammed into the pew-sitting Catholic with great effectiveness--never mind whether such "change" was ordered by the Council. Remember, this was still the era of "Father says...."
Then, in 1969, the founding of the Campaign for Human Development.
...On the occasion of the 25th-anniversary celebration of the CHD on August 25, 1995, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin delivered a keynote address in Chicago entitled "The Story of the Campaign for Human Development: Theological and Historical Roots."(38) He noted that, "as General Secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at the time, [he] was directly involved in this exciting endeavor."(39) As general secretary, his direct involvement consisted in the executive oversight of the design, development, and establishment of the CHD. Bernardin had been brought to the NCCB in 1968 by Archbishop John Dearden of Detroit
With those two names, you know everything you need to know. FLEE!!
At least Bernardin was fairly honest about Campaign for Human Development's roots:
"It is fitting that we are gathered here because since the beginning, Chicago has been important to the Campaign and the Campaign has been important to Chicago. As you may know, Msgr. George Higgins of this Archdiocese wrote a Labor Day message that pointed the way to the Campaign; Auxiliary Bishop Michael Dempsey of Chicago was the CHD's first spokesperson; Msgr. Jack Egan organized the "Friends of CHD" in the mid-1970s, and for decades has been an inspiration to the Campaign's work; the great work of community-organizing began in Chicago, and Chicago has many important networks and training centers; CHD enjoys a rich tradition of support here, both in the form of active and enthusiastic participation by people in organizations and projects funded by CHD, and in the generous donations to the annual CHD Collection....
Yes, indeed. Citizen Action Wisconsin people were 'networked' and 'trained' in Chicago, (Midwest Academy)which should tell you all you need to know. Barry Obozo got his training there, too. Getting the picture?
Alinsky was not stupid. He knew that there were two vehicles for his success:
...In 1941 Alinsky wrote that "two basic social forces ... serve as the cornerstone ... to effect constructive changes in the life of the Back of the Yards neighborhood. These two elemental social institutions are, first, the Catholic church and, second, organized labor."
What did I just say about Citizen Action Wisconsin?
And look who else was involved!
John L. Lewis also gave his imprimatur to the campaign. Lewis's Congress of Industrial Organizations was in the midst of a bitter organizational drive in Chicago's stockyards
Recall that the CIO was identified as a major Communist Party outfit and was forcibly cleaned up by the AFL under George Meany, who was an American patriot (which is why they are AFL-CIO.) That merger wasn't exactly friendly.
Well, Alinsky & Co. defeated the meat-packers, following which:
Invitations to organize came from cities throughout the nation, and within every campaign Catholics played a prominent role.(63) Through these activities Alinsky developed hundreds of relationships with Catholic leaders. Alinsky's friendship with Thomistic philosopher Jacques Maritain is perhaps the most fascinating Catholic connection.
And the connection with Maritain produced something else of interest:
Maritain was so enthralled with Alinsky's writing and organizing that in 1958 he personally urged Archbishop Montini of Milan, the future Pope Paul VI, to meet with Alinsky
The temptation to mention Windswept House is irresistible.
Alinsky took a priest, Jack Egan, under his wing and taught him everything he needed to know.
Egan developed the first Office of Urban Affairs in Chicago with a mission to "focus the power of the Church on the problems of the city." With this institutional credibility, Egan recalled, "Saul and I began working very closely." ...Like Bishop Sheil in the Back of the Yards 20 years earlier, Egan gave community-organizing a Catholic mantle of credibility, accessed funds, motivated people, and articulated the theological premises for church involvement in community organization.
Egan accessed archdiocesan funds for each of Alinsky's three Chicago organizations in the 1960s. To raise funds for the Woodlawn Organization, Egan and Alinsky met with Cardinal Albert Meyer. Egan recalls, "I was alone with the Cardinal and Alinsky. The Cardinal made a commitment for 150,000 dollars for three years, 50,000 dollars a year."(78) In his anniversary keynote, Cardinal Bernardin stated that he was personally involved in the Chicago Metropolitan Sponsors, an Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation organization that received $116,000 from the campaign in 1995. CHD guidelines state that the campaign funded organizations for three years.(79) These are fascinating parallels: two Chicago cardinals more than 30 years apart, both supporting Alinsky organizations with Catholic money for a three-year period.(80) The striking difference is that Meyer committed local archdiocesan Catholic funds whereas Bernardin committed national CHD funds
You can decide for yourselves whether promoting Stritch and Meyer to Chicago was a good thing. We already know what to think about putting Bernardin there.
Now a most interesting factoid:
...In 1968, when Cardinal John Cody became the archbishop of Chicago, the Office of Urban Affairs was discontinued. Suddenly, archdiocesan financial support for Alinsky and the mantle of credibility for community organization were gone. Egan had been laid out "on the canvas."(81) With these events, President Theodore Hesburgh invited Egan to the University of Notre Dame for a sabbatical, an invitation that led to Egan's staying there for 14 years.
Cody later moved to Rome and just-by-coincidence suffered character assassination there when heading the Vatican Bank. I'd bet that the Paul VI connection.......well........maybe someday the WHOLE story of that affair will be told.
Egan used ND as a handy tool.
Founded in 1967, the Catholic Committee on Urban Ministry had an impressive membership: Monsignor Geno Baroni of the Archdiocese of Washington's Urban Office; Father Eugene Boyle of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, active with the United Farmworkers of America; [UFWA was heavily supported by Roger Mahony while he was in Sacramento and later in Los Angeles] Father Patrick Flood of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, active in race matters; Father P. David Finks of the Diocese of Rochester, active in Alinsky's FIGHT organization; Father John McCarthy who was assistant to labor priest George Higgins; Father Phil Murnion of New York who was to direct the National Institute on Pastoral Life; Father Marvin Mottet of Davenport who was to become the director of the Campaign for Human Development, and other clergy.(86) These priests were at the forefront of Catholic activism and had experience in organizations focused on self-determination: community organizations, economic development organizations such as worker cooperatives or credit unions, housing initiatives, and neighborhood associations.
And of course, there was a need for more money.
In June 1969, Father Baroni, now chairman of the Urban Task Force Advisory Board, presented the "Agenda for the 70s" to the bishops. The report read: "The NCCB could establish an annual collection for human development in the United States.
...In August 1969, Baroni had called the Cumbermeare gathering to come up with ideas on how the Church through the Urban Task Force could respond to the urban crisis.(97) Attending the meeting with Baroni were McCarthy, Finks, Michael Groden of the Archdiocese of Boston, Patrick Flood, and his assistant Dismas Becker.
Isn't it wonderful that Milwaukee supplied so many of these fellows?
If nothing else, Catholics were generous.
...At Cumbermeare in August 1969, the foundational elements of a national Catholic campaign were agreed upon. The campaign would be a national mechanism responding to the urban crisis, one similar to Protestant efforts committing financial resources. The Catholic commitment would be $50 million, a sum matched by no other denomination to that date. Funds would be designated specifically for "organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power in their own communities," "self-help funds" for such "projects as voter registration, community organizations, seed money to develop non-profit housing corporations, community-run schools, minority-owned cooperatives and credit unions, capital for industrial development and job training programs, and setting up of rural cooperatives."
Familiar endeavors, no?
You can search all you wish; there is no Roman Catholic encyclical, doctrine, or dogma which endorses the incipient C.H.D./Alinsky/Baroni/Finks agenda, to wit:
..."we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people, to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace, cooperation ... the creation of those circumstances in which man can have the chance to live by values that give meaning to life."...
That kind of crap is why you see the bumper-sticker which declares that "Jesus was a Community Organizer". Yes, it's a reductio ad absurdum; in addition to that, Benedict XVI's "Jesus of Nazareth" (Vol. 1) directly contradicts such inanity.
In 1969/70, Baroni and Finks wrote the paper which was adopted by the Bishops in 1970. It called for a "5-Year Plan". Thus, C.H.D. joins those Gummint Programs mentioned by Reagan as "immortal."
And sure enough, McHugh of Camden copy/pasted Alinsky:
The resolution's wording that "there is an evident need for funds designated to be used for organized groups of white and minority poor to develop economic strength and political power in their own communities"(137) was language used for the first time in NCCB legislative history.
You can read the rest of the essay, of course, at the link above. Suffice it to say that C.H.D. then funded a number of Alinsky-ite organizations about which we've written previously, such as "Gamaliel" and "Esther", "Joshua", "Amos" and "Jonah." We also mentioned this whole bag of worms here.
HT: Skellmeyer and Apostacy
Yup. Black Helicopters!
Well, now we know that Palin is literate, and a pretty-damn-good Governor.
We know that public schools fail the students.
We know that AGW was a money-tree myth.
And NOW it appears that the "Black Helicopter" smear may not be just a smear, either.
...Transportation Security Administration workers covering 5,000 miles and three states, illustrating once again how the TSA is turning into a literal occupying army for domestic repression in America.
We know that public schools fail the students.
We know that AGW was a money-tree myth.
And NOW it appears that the "Black Helicopter" smear may not be just a smear, either.
...Transportation Security Administration workers covering 5,000 miles and three states, illustrating once again how the TSA is turning into a literal occupying army for domestic repression in America.
The TSA, in alliance with a whole host of federal, state, local agencies as well as military personnel, is currently conducting a massive “security exercise” throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
“The participating teams are composed of a variety of TSA assets including federal air marshals, canine teams, inspectors and bomb appraisal officers. They will be joined by state and local law enforcement officials to supplement existing resources, provide detection and response capabilities. The exercise will utilize multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams,” reports the Marietta Times.
Be sure to give them the appropriate "salute."A Phrase You'll Hear Again
Rick Perry gives good speech, according to this report.
Nugget:
His theme is that Washington needs to adopt a Texas-like program, be cut down to size, and leave the states to be “laboratories of democracy.” He referred a couple of times to the “Oz of Washington.”
Damn, that's good!
HT: ColdFury
Nugget:
His theme is that Washington needs to adopt a Texas-like program, be cut down to size, and leave the states to be “laboratories of democracy.” He referred a couple of times to the “Oz of Washington.”
Damn, that's good!
HT: ColdFury
Shocker! Obozo Gives Great Paybacks for Support!
Remember that this was to be a "transparent" and "clean" Gummint, folks.
...After the election, Gips was put in charge of hiring in the Obama White House, helping to place loyalists and fundraisers in many key positions. Then, in mid-2009, Obama named him ambassador to South Africa. Meanwhile, Level 3 Communications, in which Gips retained stock, received millions of dollars of government stimulus contracts for broadband projects in six states — though Gips said he had been “completely unaware” that the company had received the contracts....Zip quoting Politico
Sure, Bush did it too (details may differ, of course.)
But "Change!"?
No, se puede.
...After the election, Gips was put in charge of hiring in the Obama White House, helping to place loyalists and fundraisers in many key positions. Then, in mid-2009, Obama named him ambassador to South Africa. Meanwhile, Level 3 Communications, in which Gips retained stock, received millions of dollars of government stimulus contracts for broadband projects in six states — though Gips said he had been “completely unaware” that the company had received the contracts....Zip quoting Politico
Sure, Bush did it too (details may differ, of course.)
But "Change!"?
No, se puede.
Well, It's a Bedtime Story. NOT!
This thing is taking off, mostly because it resonates with real-life experiences.
But it is NSFW, and just a touch edgy.
Funny. But edgy.
But it is NSFW, and just a touch edgy.
Funny. But edgy.
The Endangered Re-Election Causes Less Regulations
Heh.
Obozo will run as a "not-A" candidate (really an outstanding essay by Ace...)
Therefore, he will continue NOT to do a damn thing while in office (except alienate the US from all its allies and suck up to all the other Statist/Marxist/Islamists in the world, because only the US economy matters in an election.)
The proposed "boiler MACT rules" were suddenly and unexpectedly yanked last month,
Then on Monday of this week the EPA announced a two-month delay in releasing its long-awaited proposed rules for curtailing greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
...this morning comes the news of a delay in producing new regulations to implement the Dodd-Frank legislation affecting the financial industry, even though the law mandates that it take effect one month from now. From the sound of the news accounts, the regulators are having difficulty figuring out rules that make any sense...
So reports PowerLine.
As to PowerLine's headline-question: yes, the regulatory State has reached its 'cognitive limits', if you mean that continuing regulation will be irrational--that is, non-cognitive.
But it has not, by ANY means, reached its end. For that 'end,' please see the (now-defunct) Soviet Union, or North Korea.
Obozo will run as a "not-A" candidate (really an outstanding essay by Ace...)
Therefore, he will continue NOT to do a damn thing while in office (except alienate the US from all its allies and suck up to all the other Statist/Marxist/Islamists in the world, because only the US economy matters in an election.)
The proposed "boiler MACT rules" were suddenly and unexpectedly yanked last month,
Then on Monday of this week the EPA announced a two-month delay in releasing its long-awaited proposed rules for curtailing greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.
...this morning comes the news of a delay in producing new regulations to implement the Dodd-Frank legislation affecting the financial industry, even though the law mandates that it take effect one month from now. From the sound of the news accounts, the regulators are having difficulty figuring out rules that make any sense...
So reports PowerLine.As to PowerLine's headline-question: yes, the regulatory State has reached its 'cognitive limits', if you mean that continuing regulation will be irrational--that is, non-cognitive.
But it has not, by ANY means, reached its end. For that 'end,' please see the (now-defunct) Soviet Union, or North Korea.
In About Two Weeks...
In about two weeks, all I have to assemble is $50.00 and my DD-214. Yes, I know where to find it, and no, it is not photoshopped.
In all likelihood, I'll not be carrying concealed. How-some-ever, just HAVING that permit will allow me to drive certain people out of the remainder of their 'minds.'
It's kind of a schadenfreude thing.
In all likelihood, I'll not be carrying concealed. How-some-ever, just HAVING that permit will allow me to drive certain people out of the remainder of their 'minds.'
It's kind of a schadenfreude thing.
"Watch for Motorcyclists" Is Wrong Message
You've seen the signs all over town: "Watch for Motorcyclists". They're sponsored by Harley, and they remind us 2-ton drivers that the bikers are back for the summer.
The signs are mis-directed.
In the last two weeks, we've read stories about motorcycle riders who have died after hitting a wolf, hitting a deer, missing a curve, and hitting a farm tractor.
Maybe they should read: "Motorcyclists!! Watch the Damn Road!!"
The signs are mis-directed.
In the last two weeks, we've read stories about motorcycle riders who have died after hitting a wolf, hitting a deer, missing a curve, and hitting a farm tractor.
Maybe they should read: "Motorcyclists!! Watch the Damn Road!!"
Democrats Forcing $250++K in Recall Costs
Easily $250K, probably $750K when all the outstate numbers are added up.
That's the cost of the Democrats' Union-Needs recall elections.
Kudos to Channel 12!
That's the cost of the Democrats' Union-Needs recall elections.
Kudos to Channel 12!
Wincing Through the Channel 4 Morning "News"
The two info-babes on Channel 4 (or their script-writer) are propaganda-pushers. "News"? Not so much.
Describing Act 10's enactment, they repeated the 'rushed through' language at least 3 times.
I don't know about the info-babes, but to me, 20++ hours of debate and folderol isn't exactly "rushed."
But then, maybe they were comparing it to shopping or something.
Describing Act 10's enactment, they repeated the 'rushed through' language at least 3 times.
I don't know about the info-babes, but to me, 20++ hours of debate and folderol isn't exactly "rushed."
But then, maybe they were comparing it to shopping or something.
Shock! PRChina Counterfeiting Parts!
While Levin has a political interest in playing this up, it's still a serious matter.
...Committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, told reporters that a panel investigation revealed that U.S. defense contractors and government agencies traced the sources of most fake defense parts to Shenzhen, in Guangdong province near Hong Kong.
...A report by the Government Accountability Office published in March 2010 stated that the global supplier network used by the Pentagon provides 4 million parts worth $94 billion.
The parts include fasteners used on aircraft, missile guidance electronics, materials used in body armor and engine mounts.
“Counterfeit parts have the potential to cause a serious disruption to DoD supply chains, delay ongoing missions, and even affect the integrity of weapon systems,” the report said.
Ya think??
...the problem is not limited to weapons systems but includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Energy Department, along with private-sector producers of software, commercial aviation, automotive parts and consumer electronics and “can threaten the safety of consumers.
Yah, well, an F-18 falling on your house might 'threaten your safety.'
I'll re-state what should be obvious: manufacturing will be returning to the US, Bruce Murphy notwithstanding.
...Committee Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, told reporters that a panel investigation revealed that U.S. defense contractors and government agencies traced the sources of most fake defense parts to Shenzhen, in Guangdong province near Hong Kong.
...A report by the Government Accountability Office published in March 2010 stated that the global supplier network used by the Pentagon provides 4 million parts worth $94 billion.
The parts include fasteners used on aircraft, missile guidance electronics, materials used in body armor and engine mounts.
“Counterfeit parts have the potential to cause a serious disruption to DoD supply chains, delay ongoing missions, and even affect the integrity of weapon systems,” the report said.
Ya think??
...the problem is not limited to weapons systems but includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Energy Department, along with private-sector producers of software, commercial aviation, automotive parts and consumer electronics and “can threaten the safety of consumers.
Yah, well, an F-18 falling on your house might 'threaten your safety.'
I'll re-state what should be obvious: manufacturing will be returning to the US, Bruce Murphy notwithstanding.
Yup. Kohl Is a Corn-A-Holer
An amendment to simply cut out all Corn-a-Holing subsidies was effectively defeated yesterday.
RoJo voted the right way.
Herbie showed his true colors.
RoJo voted the right way.
Herbie showed his true colors.
Oh, Great. Another Crisis!
We'll see (and feel) what happens, eh?
What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing a global warming problem – is actually headed into a mini Ice Age. RedState quoting The Register
The term "Maunder Mimimum" was used.
What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing a global warming problem – is actually headed into a mini Ice Age. RedState quoting The Register
The term "Maunder Mimimum" was used.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Sumi Slapped Upside the Head; Screechin'Shirley Goes Bananas
Frankly, Kangaroo Sumi got whacked pretty hard in the decision.
"Ab initio" has a special meaning:
...it's expunged from memory altogether as being improperly entertained from the start, which means there is no remand to the lower court to try again. The higher court has said "Not only did you get this wrong, you got it so wrong we don't trust you with another bite at the apple, so we're directing your decision from here. It's over. Done. Finished. Kaput." --Ace/AOSHQ
No surprise. Soooooomeee!! was merely running for re-election, just like the DA out there.
Screechin'Shirley, the bitch-on-wheels of SCOWI doesn't like losing.
Won't do any good to tell her to take it like a man, either.
"Ab initio" has a special meaning:
...it's expunged from memory altogether as being improperly entertained from the start, which means there is no remand to the lower court to try again. The higher court has said "Not only did you get this wrong, you got it so wrong we don't trust you with another bite at the apple, so we're directing your decision from here. It's over. Done. Finished. Kaput." --Ace/AOSHQ
No surprise. Soooooomeee!! was merely running for re-election, just like the DA out there.
Screechin'Shirley, the bitch-on-wheels of SCOWI doesn't like losing.
Won't do any good to tell her to take it like a man, either.
As a Labor Economist, Murphy's a Fine Columnist
Po' Bruce Murphy. Stuck in the moonshine of "high-tech is everything wonderful for all".
...Which brings us to last week’s plan announced by Republican lawmakers to gradually reduce -- by 2016 -- the state tax on the production earnings of manufacturers and agricultural businesses to zero. Yes, that’s a rather radical plan and problematic in several ways.
OMG!! ZERO!!! Murphy had just wailed that E&Y places Wisconsin 35th of 50 States in tax-burden for businesses. He seems to think that being 15th is a "good finish" to a race or something like that. Not according to Lombardi, and not according to anyone else.
Why a tax break for manufacturers and agricultural businesses and not for any other kind of business? At a time when the state is so concerned about attracting high-tech start-ups, why spend so highly on Wisconsin’s traditional economy? And why lower taxes on the sector of the economy – manufacturing – that already gets the best deal?
Bruce obviously doesn't 'get it.' See, Bruce, only about 10% (if that) of Wisconsin kids earn a "high-tech" college degree--however you care to define it. And only about 30% of Wisconsin residents have a college degree, period.
So Bruce: what do you propose to do with the ~70% of Wisconsin people (let's stipulate that is about 50%++ of the workforce) that does NOT have a "high-tech" degree? Send them to writing-school so they can scribble stuff for Milwaukee Magazine? Put 'em all on welfare? At McDonald's? WallyWorld?
No, Bruce.
The Pubbies and Walker think things through. In order to employ Wisconsin workers, jobs which do NOT require "high-tech" degrees are critical. Not just important: critical. See, then those folks pay taxes and buy Milwaukee Magazine, and all like that, hey.
Further, Bruce, you might want to get with the times. A big bunch of manufacturing work is coming back to the US because the Red Chinese produce lousy work, steal everything in sight, and delivery, well........it ain't called the 'slow boat from China' for nothing, Bruce.
So.
The Pubbies notice that metalbending and agriculture are going to be hot over the next 15-30 years, understand that the workforce we have fits into the template reasonably well, and decides that it makes sense.
See?
...Which brings us to last week’s plan announced by Republican lawmakers to gradually reduce -- by 2016 -- the state tax on the production earnings of manufacturers and agricultural businesses to zero. Yes, that’s a rather radical plan and problematic in several ways.
OMG!! ZERO!!! Murphy had just wailed that E&Y places Wisconsin 35th of 50 States in tax-burden for businesses. He seems to think that being 15th is a "good finish" to a race or something like that. Not according to Lombardi, and not according to anyone else.
Why a tax break for manufacturers and agricultural businesses and not for any other kind of business? At a time when the state is so concerned about attracting high-tech start-ups, why spend so highly on Wisconsin’s traditional economy? And why lower taxes on the sector of the economy – manufacturing – that already gets the best deal?
Bruce obviously doesn't 'get it.' See, Bruce, only about 10% (if that) of Wisconsin kids earn a "high-tech" college degree--however you care to define it. And only about 30% of Wisconsin residents have a college degree, period.
So Bruce: what do you propose to do with the ~70% of Wisconsin people (let's stipulate that is about 50%++ of the workforce) that does NOT have a "high-tech" degree? Send them to writing-school so they can scribble stuff for Milwaukee Magazine? Put 'em all on welfare? At McDonald's? WallyWorld?
No, Bruce.
The Pubbies and Walker think things through. In order to employ Wisconsin workers, jobs which do NOT require "high-tech" degrees are critical. Not just important: critical. See, then those folks pay taxes and buy Milwaukee Magazine, and all like that, hey.
Further, Bruce, you might want to get with the times. A big bunch of manufacturing work is coming back to the US because the Red Chinese produce lousy work, steal everything in sight, and delivery, well........it ain't called the 'slow boat from China' for nothing, Bruce.
So.
The Pubbies notice that metalbending and agriculture are going to be hot over the next 15-30 years, understand that the workforce we have fits into the template reasonably well, and decides that it makes sense.
See?
Ooooh. That Smarts!
All you have to do is read Althouse' headline on the post.
You could also read the rest of Taranto, of course.
You could also read the rest of Taranto, of course.
Losing P-Mac
Well, "losing" isn't quite accurate. He's still around, but several hundred miles distant. He'll be in the belly of the Beast, working in D.C. as a scribe for Sen. RoJo.
That's RoJo's gain.
At the same time, Milwaukee conservatism loses a bright, amiable, and enjoyable light. Pat enjoyed his work, skewering the Luminieres (and Numen-ieres) with abandon. WEAC will undoubtedly save money, as they can dump a couple of folks off the payross who did nothing but invent spin and horsehockey to defend against Pat's reasoned, fact-laden essays.
Choice will lose an outstanding standard-bearer; the 'BOHICA!! We'll Tax and Spend!!'; bunch will rest a bit easier.
Pat was one of the few in Wisconsin who was proximately responsible for the TEA Party revolution here. He presented ideas clearly, assembled the evidence which supported those ideas, and took down the Leftist Establishment which ruled Wisconsin for years (a feat which Tommy Thompson could not accomplish.)
Those who knew Pat knew him as a doting father, a dedicated husband, and a man who is religious in the best sense of the term.
We will miss him.
That's RoJo's gain.
At the same time, Milwaukee conservatism loses a bright, amiable, and enjoyable light. Pat enjoyed his work, skewering the Luminieres (and Numen-ieres) with abandon. WEAC will undoubtedly save money, as they can dump a couple of folks off the payross who did nothing but invent spin and horsehockey to defend against Pat's reasoned, fact-laden essays.
Choice will lose an outstanding standard-bearer; the 'BOHICA!! We'll Tax and Spend!!'; bunch will rest a bit easier.
Pat was one of the few in Wisconsin who was proximately responsible for the TEA Party revolution here. He presented ideas clearly, assembled the evidence which supported those ideas, and took down the Leftist Establishment which ruled Wisconsin for years (a feat which Tommy Thompson could not accomplish.)
Those who knew Pat knew him as a doting father, a dedicated husband, and a man who is religious in the best sense of the term.
We will miss him.
That Budget Surplus? Yup. Tax/Fee Increases, Too
Most of you recall the Bad Old Days when the State of Wisconsin's gas tax simply went up every year.
Well, the Legislature played the same game (just a variation) this time with Homestead Tax relief. Starting this fiscal year, there will be no 'inflation adjustment' of the formula, meaning that the homestead credit will be diminishing in real dollars as inflation occurs. Cost to you? Around $10.5 million in '12/'13.
Buying a car? A $9.00 increase in the title fee (to $62.00). But the "Environmental Impact Fee" of $9.00 will be eliminated--good news!
We mentioned yesterday that the Joint Finance Committee's budget will INCREASE the number of State employees, which is disturbing. Perhaps the Governor's attention will be focused on "lean management" during the next three years.
Otherwise, we have the Same Old S&^%--lots and lots and lots of State employees, finding ways to keep themselves busy---on your tab.
Well, the Legislature played the same game (just a variation) this time with Homestead Tax relief. Starting this fiscal year, there will be no 'inflation adjustment' of the formula, meaning that the homestead credit will be diminishing in real dollars as inflation occurs. Cost to you? Around $10.5 million in '12/'13.
Buying a car? A $9.00 increase in the title fee (to $62.00). But the "Environmental Impact Fee" of $9.00 will be eliminated--good news!
We mentioned yesterday that the Joint Finance Committee's budget will INCREASE the number of State employees, which is disturbing. Perhaps the Governor's attention will be focused on "lean management" during the next three years.
Otherwise, we have the Same Old S&^%--lots and lots and lots of State employees, finding ways to keep themselves busy---on your tab.
Channel 12 Buys Fake News from CNN
One would think that the news management/editors at Channel 12 actually keep up with news.
One would be wrong. Channel 12 is running a highly-deceptive item on their website regarding the drug cartels' arms.
More than 70 percent of 29,284 firearms submitted to the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for tracing by the Mexican government during 2009 and 2010 originated in the United States, according to the report.Unhhh, yah. AR's originate here, are sent to the Mexican Army, and are "stolen" from that Army.
And let's not forget that Eric Holder authorized massive 'straw-buyer' purchases of weapons in the US, then allowed those weapons to cross into Mexico, and then "lost track" of them.
Channel 12 may have heard of that, since there are Congressional hearings on the issue.
Google "Gunrunner" or "Fast and Furious." Catch up with the news.
One would be wrong. Channel 12 is running a highly-deceptive item on their website regarding the drug cartels' arms.
More than 70 percent of 29,284 firearms submitted to the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for tracing by the Mexican government during 2009 and 2010 originated in the United States, according to the report.Unhhh, yah. AR's originate here, are sent to the Mexican Army, and are "stolen" from that Army.
And let's not forget that Eric Holder authorized massive 'straw-buyer' purchases of weapons in the US, then allowed those weapons to cross into Mexico, and then "lost track" of them.
Channel 12 may have heard of that, since there are Congressional hearings on the issue.
Google "Gunrunner" or "Fast and Furious." Catch up with the news.
60 Votes to End Corn-a-Holing You
Today's the day. Both of these will need 60 votes to avoid cloture.
Senate Republicans are moving to repeal all subsidies, mandates and tariffs on ethanol, the corn-based fuel additive.
Senate Republicans are moving to repeal all subsidies, mandates and tariffs on ethanol, the corn-based fuel additive.
A vote is expected Tuesday afternoon on Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) amendment repealing the ethanol subsidy.
In addition, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) announced that he will introduce an amendment to repeal the renewable fuels standard that requires ethanol to be blended with gasoline.
If we had to have only one of the two, DeMint's is the better one; ending the mandate will eventually strangle the subsidies.
Senator Johnson knows what he must do.
Monday, June 13, 2011
REAL "Green Energy"
Once the Obozo-ites are removed, root and branch, from Gummint, we may see this over here.
Imagine a safe, clean nuclear reactor that used a fuel that was hugely abundant, produced only minute quantities of radioactive waste and was almost impossible to adapt to make weapons. It sounds too good to be true, but this isn’t science fiction. This is what lies in store if we harness the power of a silvery metal found in river sands, soil and granite rock the world over: thorium.
One ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of uranium, or 3.5 million tons of coal, and the thorium deposits that have already been identified would meet the entire world’s energy needs for at least 10,000 years. Unlike uranium, it’s easy and cheap to refine, and it’s far less toxic. Happily, it produces energy without producing any carbon dioxide: so an economy that ran on thorium power would have virtually no carbon footprint.
Better still, a thorium reactor would be incapable of having a meltdown, and would generate only 0.6 per cent of the radioactive waste of a conventional nuclear plant.
They're working on this in England (!) It's near fail-safe:
...left to its own devices, nothing would happen spontaneously in a thorium reactor at all. Thorium atoms only start to undergo fissile nuclear reactions and thus to release their energy when they’re bombarded with neutrons, and these would have to be supplied by an external source – ultimately, an accelerator.
Since it has all those advantages and will NOT bankrupt the US, you can rest assured that the Obozo Regime has no interest whatsoever.
HT: RenMan
Imagine a safe, clean nuclear reactor that used a fuel that was hugely abundant, produced only minute quantities of radioactive waste and was almost impossible to adapt to make weapons. It sounds too good to be true, but this isn’t science fiction. This is what lies in store if we harness the power of a silvery metal found in river sands, soil and granite rock the world over: thorium.
One ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of uranium, or 3.5 million tons of coal, and the thorium deposits that have already been identified would meet the entire world’s energy needs for at least 10,000 years. Unlike uranium, it’s easy and cheap to refine, and it’s far less toxic. Happily, it produces energy without producing any carbon dioxide: so an economy that ran on thorium power would have virtually no carbon footprint.
Better still, a thorium reactor would be incapable of having a meltdown, and would generate only 0.6 per cent of the radioactive waste of a conventional nuclear plant.
They're working on this in England (!) It's near fail-safe:
...left to its own devices, nothing would happen spontaneously in a thorium reactor at all. Thorium atoms only start to undergo fissile nuclear reactions and thus to release their energy when they’re bombarded with neutrons, and these would have to be supplied by an external source – ultimately, an accelerator.
Since it has all those advantages and will NOT bankrupt the US, you can rest assured that the Obozo Regime has no interest whatsoever.
HT: RenMan
"The Religion of Peace...."
Noted by Fr Z:
Security was considerably increased in the Vatican yesterday after direct threats against the Holy Father were made in a recently-released video by a member of an extreme Islamist group. The Pope and the Italian Prime Minister were called “easy targets” in the video.
Maybe they already forgot Vienna and Lepanto.
They could learn the lessons again.
Security was considerably increased in the Vatican yesterday after direct threats against the Holy Father were made in a recently-released video by a member of an extreme Islamist group. The Pope and the Italian Prime Minister were called “easy targets” in the video.
Maybe they already forgot Vienna and Lepanto.
They could learn the lessons again.
Where's Folkie and Pals on This?
You all remember Folkbum. He's all a-twitter over some imagined Walker Gulag thing.
Meantime, the Obozo/Holder Regime does this:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.
...Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing.
Some domestic surveillance is better than other domestic surveillance---and the Walker Boyzzz aren't dumpster-diving.
By the way, AOSHQ calls this "writs of assistance" with good reason. They were in the mix which inspired the Revolution....
HT: Just one Minute
Meantime, the Obozo/Holder Regime does this:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.
...Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing.
Some domestic surveillance is better than other domestic surveillance---and the Walker Boyzzz aren't dumpster-diving.
By the way, AOSHQ calls this "writs of assistance" with good reason. They were in the mix which inspired the Revolution....
HT: Just one Minute
More State Employees? No Problem!!
What we need around here is more State employees, right?
Well, you got 'em!
Last of Doyle was 35,761.
Joint Finance: 35,774.
Nice work, boys!
Well, you got 'em!
Last of Doyle was 35,761.
Joint Finance: 35,774.
Nice work, boys!
Heard About the Debt-Limit Negotiations? I Didn't Think So
There's a good reason that you haven't heard about the national-debt limit negotiations.
The American public...has not been allowed to watch these negotiations.
The negotiations include Biden, Senators Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.), Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) and Daniel Inouye (D.-Hawaii), and House members Eric Cantor (R.-Va.), Jim Clyburn (D.-S.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D.-Md.). It is widely expected that if these members do cut a deal, they will release the details close to the Aug. 2 deadline.
Meaning that the public's "input", if any, will be useless--and most likely ignored.
We're back to standard operating procedure, whereby you are expected to STFU and pay.
The American public...has not been allowed to watch these negotiations.
The negotiations include Biden, Senators Jon Kyl (R.-Ariz.), Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) and Daniel Inouye (D.-Hawaii), and House members Eric Cantor (R.-Va.), Jim Clyburn (D.-S.C.) and Chris Van Hollen (D.-Md.). It is widely expected that if these members do cut a deal, they will release the details close to the Aug. 2 deadline.
Meaning that the public's "input", if any, will be useless--and most likely ignored.
We're back to standard operating procedure, whereby you are expected to STFU and pay.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Whaddya Know? A Pubbie With Values Attracts Hispanics!
Perry was not speaking at a political event.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, accused the Obama administration on Sunday of transforming abortion into a U.S. export and breaking faith with the nation's founding principles by supporting taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research.
...his remarks at an anti-abortion rally amounted to a political introduction to a mostly Hispanic crowd of about 5,000 at a downtown arena.
...Several people in the crowd said they were mostly unaware of Perry but were willing to consider his candidacy, especially given his outspoken opposition to abortion.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, accused the Obama administration on Sunday of transforming abortion into a U.S. export and breaking faith with the nation's founding principles by supporting taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research.
...his remarks at an anti-abortion rally amounted to a political introduction to a mostly Hispanic crowd of about 5,000 at a downtown arena.
...Several people in the crowd said they were mostly unaware of Perry but were willing to consider his candidacy, especially given his outspoken opposition to abortion.
"I look for any leader who has strong moral fiber," said Ricardo Brambila, 37, a paper company sales manager from Orange. A Democrat, Brambila said he's uncomfortable with Obama's direction on abortion and stem cells.
I have a friend now living in the Midwest who was part of the Buckley Gang out East. YAF, YR, the whole 9 yards. He swears that a Pubbie with strong pro-life convictions will bring the Hispanics into the (R) column, at least on the Presidential ticket.
McCain managed to drop that ball, just as did Dole. Bush did not fumble that ball at all.
How Bad IS "Gunrunner"?
"Gunrunner" was a BATF op which supplied lotsa AK and AR type weapons to Mexican drug cartels with the idea that BATF would track 'em and nail the bad guys.
Except that BATF lost track of the guns, never bothered to discuss it with Mexico's Government, and the guns were used to kill at least one Border Patrol officer.
Nary a word has come from within President Barack Obama’s West Wing in response to a recent barrage of strongly worded attacks by Congressman Darrell Issa – Chair of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Of late, Issa has given indications of a significant cover-up initiated by figures within the Obama administration, namely the Department of Justice – a cover-up that may in fact ultimately lead to President Obama himself. It is telling to note that no formal official response to Issa’s most recent accusations have been issued by the Obama White House. According to D.C. insiders, such silence is often an indicator an issue is being viewed as “the most serious kind of political threat – the kind that ultimately cripples administrations, and as is so often the case, it is not the alleged crime, but the cover-up.”
No wonder HRC's heading for a safe spot from which she can launch a primary campaign.
Except that BATF lost track of the guns, never bothered to discuss it with Mexico's Government, and the guns were used to kill at least one Border Patrol officer.
Nary a word has come from within President Barack Obama’s West Wing in response to a recent barrage of strongly worded attacks by Congressman Darrell Issa – Chair of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Of late, Issa has given indications of a significant cover-up initiated by figures within the Obama administration, namely the Department of Justice – a cover-up that may in fact ultimately lead to President Obama himself. It is telling to note that no formal official response to Issa’s most recent accusations have been issued by the Obama White House. According to D.C. insiders, such silence is often an indicator an issue is being viewed as “the most serious kind of political threat – the kind that ultimately cripples administrations, and as is so often the case, it is not the alleged crime, but the cover-up.”
No wonder HRC's heading for a safe spot from which she can launch a primary campaign.
Widdle Barry Was Dissed!
This really shouldn't come as a surprise. The only thing that's interesting is that the incident was revealed.
HT: Gateway
Shortly after the photo-op meeting and “working lunch” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the one that saw President Obama openly chastised by the Prime Minister for Obama’s earlier public comments regarding wanting to see Israel return to its 1967 borders, the president verbally “went off” on Richard Daley in the private study area that adjoins the Oval Office. President Obama’s verbal attack was clearly heard by numerous staff up and down the West Wing hallways.
The essence of the president’s rage and embarrassment can best be summed up with him yelling out very loudly, “What the f-ck was that!?” That phrase was apparently repeated a number of times in the span of about five minutes, a time period in which Obama’s voice became “louder and louder” and culminating in Obama exclaiming, “Never again! Do you understand me? Never again!” Any response by Bill Daley back to the president, if given, was not overheard.
Not only was Obozo dressed down and indirectly told to stuff his "peace" idea in his a##; Binyi then made a speech before Congress--without a teleprompter--which was orders of magnitude better than any of Obozo's speeches.HT: Gateway
Are You A Federal Criminal? Are You SURE?
Maybe you think you're not a Fed criminal.
You could be---but you just don't know it.
Today, [the average American] is far more vulnerable than ever before to being caught up in a criminal investigation and prosecution -- and to actually being convicted and punished as a criminal -- for having done something he did not even suspect was illegal.
Criminal law has changed in the last 50 years. Once criminal law was about criminal acts that everyone knew were inherently unlawful (like murder, rape and robbery).
. . .
Today, the criminal law has grown as broad as the regulatory state in its sheer size and scope. In 1998, an American Bar Association task force estimated that there were more than 3,000 federal criminal offenses scattered throughout the 50 titles of the United States Code. Just six years later, a leading expert on the overcriminalization problem, Professor John S. Baker, Jr., published a study estimating that the number exceeded 4,000. As the ABA task force reported, the body of federal criminal law is “[s]o large… that there is no conveniently accessible, complete list of federal crimes.” --Ed Meese, quoted at RenMan
Maybe selling bunnies and un-pasteurized milk is also criminal.
Or spitting on the sidewalk.
You could be---but you just don't know it.
Today, [the average American] is far more vulnerable than ever before to being caught up in a criminal investigation and prosecution -- and to actually being convicted and punished as a criminal -- for having done something he did not even suspect was illegal.
Criminal law has changed in the last 50 years. Once criminal law was about criminal acts that everyone knew were inherently unlawful (like murder, rape and robbery).
. . .
Today, the criminal law has grown as broad as the regulatory state in its sheer size and scope. In 1998, an American Bar Association task force estimated that there were more than 3,000 federal criminal offenses scattered throughout the 50 titles of the United States Code. Just six years later, a leading expert on the overcriminalization problem, Professor John S. Baker, Jr., published a study estimating that the number exceeded 4,000. As the ABA task force reported, the body of federal criminal law is “[s]o large… that there is no conveniently accessible, complete list of federal crimes.” --Ed Meese, quoted at RenMan
Maybe selling bunnies and un-pasteurized milk is also criminal.
Or spitting on the sidewalk.
So Tell Me About "Efficient Markets" Again...
A couple of Radio Guys around here bring up "efficient markets" so often that one tends to believe that the phrase's two words are inseparable and (thus) the description is True, Good, and Holy.
Yah, well, it's fun to ram a stick through the spokes now and then. For to believe in "efficient markets" is to subscribe to the Progressive Fallacy whole and entire.
“A half-century ago, there was a lively discussion among economists about the dynamics of price expectations. For example, Alain C. Enthoven, then of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Kenneth J. Arrow of Stanford wrote in 1956 that expectations that extrapolate past price increases can produce economic instability. But that thinking was largely cast aside in the 1960s, when my profession embraced the theory that efficient markets formed by people holding rational expectations could explain virtually all economic activity.
As a result, economists in recent decades have not developed expectations theory much further. That needs to be corrected in coming years. In the meantime, this failing helps explain why the current crisis was generally unpredicted, and why its future course is so poorly understood.” --Shiller, quoted by BigPicture
It would be incorrect to glue Shiller's remarks strictly to the housing market (although that's HIS name on the index). It applies to all the markets and for that matter, to all economic situations.
Here's a somewhat more curmudgeonly take on "efficient markets":
The Efficient Market Hypothesis — at least as practiced by Wall Street economists — is the rough equivalent of a million monkeys with a million typewriters creating Hamlet. That somehow out of a crowd of emotional, irrational, ill-informed and greedy humans, some form of truth will emerge.
Magic!
Aside from the obvious (that Progressives believe in magic, which makes them very close relatives of the million-monkey/typists), do you note the fallacy?
Yup. It's the old "We get better and smarter every year" fallacy. Well. If we're so much "better and smarter" how do you account for crime--which should be non-existent under Progressive theory? Or Recessions? Hunger? Or that festering plague: LAWYERS?
Ah, never mind.
Yah, well, it's fun to ram a stick through the spokes now and then. For to believe in "efficient markets" is to subscribe to the Progressive Fallacy whole and entire.
“A half-century ago, there was a lively discussion among economists about the dynamics of price expectations. For example, Alain C. Enthoven, then of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Kenneth J. Arrow of Stanford wrote in 1956 that expectations that extrapolate past price increases can produce economic instability. But that thinking was largely cast aside in the 1960s, when my profession embraced the theory that efficient markets formed by people holding rational expectations could explain virtually all economic activity.
As a result, economists in recent decades have not developed expectations theory much further. That needs to be corrected in coming years. In the meantime, this failing helps explain why the current crisis was generally unpredicted, and why its future course is so poorly understood.” --Shiller, quoted by BigPicture
It would be incorrect to glue Shiller's remarks strictly to the housing market (although that's HIS name on the index). It applies to all the markets and for that matter, to all economic situations.
Here's a somewhat more curmudgeonly take on "efficient markets":
The Efficient Market Hypothesis — at least as practiced by Wall Street economists — is the rough equivalent of a million monkeys with a million typewriters creating Hamlet. That somehow out of a crowd of emotional, irrational, ill-informed and greedy humans, some form of truth will emerge.
Magic!
Aside from the obvious (that Progressives believe in magic, which makes them very close relatives of the million-monkey/typists), do you note the fallacy?
Yup. It's the old "We get better and smarter every year" fallacy. Well. If we're so much "better and smarter" how do you account for crime--which should be non-existent under Progressive theory? Or Recessions? Hunger? Or that festering plague: LAWYERS?
Ah, never mind.
Steve Martin Remains Funny!
Martin resists acting his age (in contrast to Eastwood), but he remains funny, and a polymath.
Here, he wrote and performed a song for atheists. And it's funny.
I'm sure Folkbum will be wailing this out some Friday night. Or not.
HT: PowerLine
Here, he wrote and performed a song for atheists. And it's funny.
I'm sure Folkbum will be wailing this out some Friday night. Or not.
HT: PowerLine
How's the IPCC Weather-Forecast? Crappy
This chart shows the International Pficknuts' Climate Change-ola (and grant-seeking moneyvacuum) (IPCC) high, best, and low temp-change predictions.It also shows the realities.
For a while, there, IPCC was doing OK.
For the last 10 years, not so much.
HT: AOSHQ
About This "Education" Thing; Bucyrus, MATC, MPS, and the Kids
Last week a very short item appeared condensing Tim Sullivan's speech to a graf or two. It wasn't really an adequate synopsis.
In this article we get more of the picture.
A delegation of senior Texas government authorities met Sullivan...[and] they asked Sullivan exactly what sort of workers he needed. Sullivan said 80 with specific skill. The state gave Sullivan a guarantee that the workers would be waiting when the doors opened at the expansion site in Kilgore. State officials customized a recruitment, training and certification program. One year later, when the expansion site in Kilgore opened its doors, the 80 welders were waiting.
There's a bit more to it than just that; Texas also handed over a turnkey plant (cost, if any, was not mentioned in the article). And we all know that Texas' taxes are.........less. MUCH less.
So we pay a lot more in taxes, and a lot more for "education" than does Texas. Yes, that's ironic:
At issue is a chronic mismatch of skills - a topic that metro Milwaukee leaders have debated loudly for years without making meaningful progress, Sullivan said. Even with employment estimated above 10% in the city, industrial employers such as Bucyrus are unable to fill jobs.
That's not the first time I've heard the complaint about fundamental skills (math, reading)--and when employers are seeking people who understand plane/solid geometry, algebra, and trig, the numbers of 'good' candidates evanesces to almost zero. Sullivan should consider himself lucky in some regards.
What to do?
...Sullivan wants Gov. Scott Walker to change how the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal job training funds - and in the process, link the funds to reforms of local education programs. The proposals would change how workforce investment boards - regional training entities - apply for funds. They would need to justify each allocation with commitments to reform the curricula of each region's kindergarten-through-12th public schools as well as each region's technical colleges.
Well, that should be easy! /sarcasm.
Let's cut to the chase. Grade- and high-school education just plain sucks in this area. (There are a few exceptions, of course.) We have social promotions. We have "feel-good" crap instead of discipline in the classrooms---largely because of the utterly balls-less lawyer-bound school administrations who WILL NOT allow teachers to do what is necessary. We have black English, hispanic-English, and 'burbs English (also a noticeable variant from standard). None of them are worth spit in any form of commerce, at any level, except in drug-deals, perhaps.
I'll bet you that 90% of the darlings in 3rd grade were NOT made to memorize the multiplication tables, and the same percentage cannot parse a sentence in 8th grade. We KNOW that a noticeable percentage of "college" kids cannot locate States (nor entire countries) on a map, and most of them can't distinguish a Governor's responsibilities from those of an alderman.
On the other side of the table.....
Sullivan notes that Bucyrus has been adding jobs for several years and intends to continue for the next 2-3 years, anyway. But what does Sullivan/Bucyrus--and for that matter, P&H, Kohler, Rex, Rockwell, JCI, et al (the "industrial community") offer these folks when welding is no longer the Big Deal? Can someone with 7-10 years' experience in welding at Bucyrus flip over to Johnson Controls when mining shovel orders drop dead as they surely will? If not JCI, to Roundy's? JICase? A bio-fuels company? Packaging?
In other words, it's nice that you offer $18.00/hour plus bennies and annual increases, yadayada. What's that welder gonna do when orders drop off and he's dropped into unemployment at age 40? 50? Hmmmmmm? Become a bio-fuels chemist?
It would be very nice if the Big Biz folks would figure out the answers to those questions while MPS and MATC re-organize their modus operandi. It'll probably take just as long.
In this article we get more of the picture.
A delegation of senior Texas government authorities met Sullivan...[and] they asked Sullivan exactly what sort of workers he needed. Sullivan said 80 with specific skill. The state gave Sullivan a guarantee that the workers would be waiting when the doors opened at the expansion site in Kilgore. State officials customized a recruitment, training and certification program. One year later, when the expansion site in Kilgore opened its doors, the 80 welders were waiting.
There's a bit more to it than just that; Texas also handed over a turnkey plant (cost, if any, was not mentioned in the article). And we all know that Texas' taxes are.........less. MUCH less.
So we pay a lot more in taxes, and a lot more for "education" than does Texas. Yes, that's ironic:
At issue is a chronic mismatch of skills - a topic that metro Milwaukee leaders have debated loudly for years without making meaningful progress, Sullivan said. Even with employment estimated above 10% in the city, industrial employers such as Bucyrus are unable to fill jobs.
What pained Sullivan most, the CEO said, was that the Milwaukee Area Technical College also said it would customize a welder training program for Bucyrus. But MATC never gave a guarantee as Texas did, Sullivan said. Nor did MATC deliver. Some didn't finish training. Others were certified but failed a drug test.
Oh, that's not all, folks!Although taxpayer-funded MATC probably is the institution best suited to address the skills mismatch, the tech school cannot bear all the blame for its inability to deliver customized workforce training, Sullivan said.
Many Milwaukee-trained welders simply are not mentally prepared by metro Milwaukee's grade schools and high schools, Sullivan said.
About 50,000 working-age residents in the city of Milwaukee cannot read beyond the third grade, Sullivan told M-7. In Wisconsin, meanwhile, some 710,000 working-age people did not finish high school.
According to federal data cited by the M-7, 32% of manufacturers nationally report unfilled jobs because they cannot find qualified workers.That's not the first time I've heard the complaint about fundamental skills (math, reading)--and when employers are seeking people who understand plane/solid geometry, algebra, and trig, the numbers of 'good' candidates evanesces to almost zero. Sullivan should consider himself lucky in some regards.
What to do?
...Sullivan wants Gov. Scott Walker to change how the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal job training funds - and in the process, link the funds to reforms of local education programs. The proposals would change how workforce investment boards - regional training entities - apply for funds. They would need to justify each allocation with commitments to reform the curricula of each region's kindergarten-through-12th public schools as well as each region's technical colleges.
Well, that should be easy! /sarcasm.
Let's cut to the chase. Grade- and high-school education just plain sucks in this area. (There are a few exceptions, of course.) We have social promotions. We have "feel-good" crap instead of discipline in the classrooms---largely because of the utterly balls-less lawyer-bound school administrations who WILL NOT allow teachers to do what is necessary. We have black English, hispanic-English, and 'burbs English (also a noticeable variant from standard). None of them are worth spit in any form of commerce, at any level, except in drug-deals, perhaps.
I'll bet you that 90% of the darlings in 3rd grade were NOT made to memorize the multiplication tables, and the same percentage cannot parse a sentence in 8th grade. We KNOW that a noticeable percentage of "college" kids cannot locate States (nor entire countries) on a map, and most of them can't distinguish a Governor's responsibilities from those of an alderman.
On the other side of the table.....
Sullivan notes that Bucyrus has been adding jobs for several years and intends to continue for the next 2-3 years, anyway. But what does Sullivan/Bucyrus--and for that matter, P&H, Kohler, Rex, Rockwell, JCI, et al (the "industrial community") offer these folks when welding is no longer the Big Deal? Can someone with 7-10 years' experience in welding at Bucyrus flip over to Johnson Controls when mining shovel orders drop dead as they surely will? If not JCI, to Roundy's? JICase? A bio-fuels company? Packaging?
In other words, it's nice that you offer $18.00/hour plus bennies and annual increases, yadayada. What's that welder gonna do when orders drop off and he's dropped into unemployment at age 40? 50? Hmmmmmm? Become a bio-fuels chemist?
It would be very nice if the Big Biz folks would figure out the answers to those questions while MPS and MATC re-organize their modus operandi. It'll probably take just as long.
"Rule of Law" in Madison? Maybe
Good catch here.
Since February, Jeremy Ryan, 22, has been arrested nine times and has been issued 15 citations totaling $3,604.50 for protesting and disrupting events at the Capitol.
[Ozanne] said that he wasn't familiar with most of Ryan's citations but that in one of them at least his office is seeking more information.
Since February, Jeremy Ryan, 22, has been arrested nine times and has been issued 15 citations totaling $3,604.50 for protesting and disrupting events at the Capitol.
So far, he hasn't had to pay a cent.
According to the state Department of Administration, 41 people have been arrested a total of 59 times since massive protests over Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill began Feb. 13. The most common charge for those arrested was disorderly conduct - a charge that can be civil or criminal.
Besides Ryan, one protester has been arrested four times and another has been arrested three times.
"No one's had to pay anything," Ryan said of the citations he knows of so far. "I don't even know why they end up writing them in the first place, to be honest with you."
So. When it became clear to the Dane County DA that this story was going to press, he did what the Dane County DA always does.[Ozanne] said that he wasn't familiar with most of Ryan's citations but that in one of them at least his office is seeking more information.
"The fact that he hasn't been asked to pay yet wouldn't necessarily mean anything" in an ongoing case, Ozanne said.
Ozanne said that he believed most of the citations issued by officers such as the Capitol Police and State Patrol at the Capitol would come to his office. The cases take time to move through the system, he said.
It took a few press inquiries to get Ozanne off his dead butt to prosecute the woman who threatened every single (R) in the entire Capitol, too.Saturday, June 11, 2011
Yup. Food Prices to Rise--Fast, and High
We've mentioned this thousands of times. Doesn't seem to bother Congress at all.
...former President George W. Bush had signed legislation which required 40 percent of the U.S. corn harvest to be slated for ethanol production, and for massive subsidies to make corn economically viable.
No comment.
...Coming off the third-highest corn harvest in U.S. history in 2010, the carryover (unsold corn still in the elevators) is a bare two weeks’ worth of grain at current and projected usage rates.
Just like in Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average, and in the US, where we always progress, never take a step back. You know the drill.
...This year could be a bad year; much of the corn in the eastern cornbelt is late getting into the ground, and from west Texas into Nebraska we’ve got the worst drought in 40 years. Parts of western Kansas have gotten no more than a quarter-inch of rain since the beginning of the year. This means the corn stocks could slip still lower.
Well, here's an idea:
Have Congress eat CFL lightbulbs for lunch and wash it down with corn spirits. Repeat as necessary, but for at least 30 days.
That may change their damnfool minds.
...former President George W. Bush had signed legislation which required 40 percent of the U.S. corn harvest to be slated for ethanol production, and for massive subsidies to make corn economically viable.
No comment.
...Coming off the third-highest corn harvest in U.S. history in 2010, the carryover (unsold corn still in the elevators) is a bare two weeks’ worth of grain at current and projected usage rates.
This is precariously low, the lowest in modern history. The only time the carryover was lower was in the 1930s — during the height of the Dust Bowl.
The problem here is the mandate, which assumes that corn — which is used in pretty much everything from plastics to baby powder to animal feed — will continue to see record yields.Just like in Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average, and in the US, where we always progress, never take a step back. You know the drill.
...This year could be a bad year; much of the corn in the eastern cornbelt is late getting into the ground, and from west Texas into Nebraska we’ve got the worst drought in 40 years. Parts of western Kansas have gotten no more than a quarter-inch of rain since the beginning of the year. This means the corn stocks could slip still lower.
Well, here's an idea:
Have Congress eat CFL lightbulbs for lunch and wash it down with corn spirits. Repeat as necessary, but for at least 30 days.
That may change their damnfool minds.
Friday, June 10, 2011
On Your Wedding Day.....
RenMan found a hilarious item, which you can read here.
It occurs to me that the groom was a genuine idiot.
It occurs to me that the groom was a genuine idiot.
Debt Ceiling Strategy
Here's what the Pubbies have in mind.
...all the action is in the U.S. House of Representatives, where The Hill newspaper recently reported that a majority of the House Republican Conference sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) “laying out conditions to be met before a higher debt ceiling is agreed to.”
...all the action is in the U.S. House of Representatives, where The Hill newspaper recently reported that a majority of the House Republican Conference sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) “laying out conditions to be met before a higher debt ceiling is agreed to.”
The letter “called for discretionary and mandatory spending cuts to halve the budget deficit next year, spending caps to hold Washington’s spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product, and passage of a balanced-budget amendment.”
The devil is in the details. "Caps to hold....." begins when? And what does that do to the national debt?
FDA's Power Grows Exponentially
We were among those who warned about this legislation.
Produce regs are next.
The FDA is in the midst of writing the critical regulations that will implement the Food Safety Modernization Act Congress passed last year with applause all around from the Obama administration, Democrats and Republicans despite ferocious opposition from small-farm advocates. The sweeping new law gives the agency extraordinary powers to detain foods on farms. It also denies farmers recourse to federal courts.
On July 3, the agency will issue its new rule to detain any food it believes is unsafe, or, more critically, "mislabeled." In Allgyer's case, the entire FDA case rests on a technical violation of a ban on interstate commerce in raw milk and alleged mislabeling.
Before the new law, the FDA could only impound food when it had credible evidence the food was contaminated or posed a public health hazard. The detention powers are part of what Taylor described as a new agency focus on preventing food poisoning outbreaks rather than responding to them after the fact. Taylor described the new law as giving the agency "farm to table" control over food safety.
Taylor outlined an aggressive approach, saying he would seek a "high rate of compliance" with new food safety rules, touted the agency's "whole new inspection and compliance tool kit," including access to farm records, mandatory recall authority, and enforcement actions that can be accomplished administratively, "without having to go to court." He said the agency can now also revoke a farm's mandatory registration (also a new requirement under the law), meaning the FDA can put any farm it finds in violation of any food safety rule out of business.
The regs, as you might guess, will crucify the small farms.Produce regs are next.
Hot Summer: Alinsky, AFSCME, and Sandy Pasch
Sometimes connections are just co-incidence. Sometimes they're not.
The founders of a radical group that teaches tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation were among the main speakers at a union convention at which one leader called for opposing "right-wing threats to dismantle the Middle Class."
So maybe they're trading their drums for bats and bricks?
Yes, there's a Wisconsin connection.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin, an arm of Booth's Midwest Academy, is part of the Moving Wisconsin Forward movement, one of the main organizers of the major Wisconsin protests this past February
The founders of a radical group that teaches tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation were among the main speakers at a union convention at which one leader called for opposing "right-wing threats to dismantle the Middle Class."
Heather Booth, director of a Saul Alinsky-style community organizing group, the Midwest Academy, was among the main speakers at the "2011 State Battles Summit," held this week at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The four-day summit, which ended yesterday, was organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, with participation from the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest unionSo maybe they're trading their drums for bats and bricks?
Yes, there's a Wisconsin connection.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin, an arm of Booth's Midwest Academy, is part of the Moving Wisconsin Forward movement, one of the main organizers of the major Wisconsin protests this past February
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Lest We Forget: Senator "Mr. Clean" Feingold's Antics
You never know. Sometimes politicians recycle themselves, believing that they are "needed" by the rabble. RussRuss Feingold, now leading parades in EntitledTown, seems to think that he's Entitled to another Senate run.
Maybe we should know who his friends are, eh?
...What if Secret Donor Money -- funneled through a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit with no obligation to reveal its donors -- was used to influence not just your run-of-the mill election, but a sitting United States Senator as he ran a Senate confirmation hearing of a federal judge? An official constitutional duty of the United States Senate?
You mean the jackwad/attorney couldn't even write his own damn questions? I thought he was the Smartest Guy in the Room!
You prolly already guessed who the "secret" donor was, right?
....Sitting in for Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Feingold grilled the nominee. He questioned Smith using questions supplied from a secret strategy memo put together by lobbyists for three left-wing special interest groups all receiving funds from the George Soros-run Open Society Institute. The OSI, in turn is a 501(c)(3) -- which means it both takes money from outside donors and does not reveal who those donors are. The Soros-funded groups who researched and wrote the secret memo on Smith were: The Alliance for Justice, the Community Rights Counsel, and the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
Feingold, "Mr. Clean Jeans", wasn't alone in reading Soros-supplied questions.
...The leaked secret memo was also found to have been used in questions to Judge Smith from Senators Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee Chairman; then-Committee member Senator Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from Washington state.
Obviously, Feingold wasn't the smartest person in THAT room.
And it's not likely that he's the smartest person in Entitled Town, either.
He certainly isn't the cleanest.
HT: Douchecanoe Diaries
Maybe we should know who his friends are, eh?
...What if Secret Donor Money -- funneled through a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit with no obligation to reveal its donors -- was used to influence not just your run-of-the mill election, but a sitting United States Senator as he ran a Senate confirmation hearing of a federal judge? An official constitutional duty of the United States Senate?
What if that United States Senator secretly influenced by that Secret Donor Money were named Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin?...
That would be "Campaign Finance Reform" Feingold? Mr. Clean-Jeans, himself?
You mean the jackwad/attorney couldn't even write his own damn questions? I thought he was the Smartest Guy in the Room!
You prolly already guessed who the "secret" donor was, right?
....Sitting in for Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Feingold grilled the nominee. He questioned Smith using questions supplied from a secret strategy memo put together by lobbyists for three left-wing special interest groups all receiving funds from the George Soros-run Open Society Institute. The OSI, in turn is a 501(c)(3) -- which means it both takes money from outside donors and does not reveal who those donors are. The Soros-funded groups who researched and wrote the secret memo on Smith were: The Alliance for Justice, the Community Rights Counsel, and the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
Feingold, "Mr. Clean Jeans", wasn't alone in reading Soros-supplied questions.
...The leaked secret memo was also found to have been used in questions to Judge Smith from Senators Patrick Leahy, the Judiciary Committee Chairman; then-Committee member Senator Maria Cantwell, the Democrat from Washington state.
Senator Ted Kennedy had three of his five questions supplied by the group; and then-Senator Joe Biden -- the man now making accusations about secret donor money coming from foreigners -- used four questions supplied by Secret Donor Money.
And if you get the idea that none of these bozos was smart enough to ask their own questions, that's only HALF of it. They also needed a floor-director to signal their moves for them:
Alliance for Justice lobbyist Nan Aron was in the hearing room that day. She informed one person -- personally -- that her task was to walk back and forth in the back of the room to send a signal to Feingold and other Democratic Senators and their staff of just how interested the Soros-funded group was in the Smith nomination. All of which meant that not only were Feingold's questions supplied by Soros, but he was apparently taking signals from a Soros-funded lobbyist through her physical movements in the hearing roomObviously, Feingold wasn't the smartest person in THAT room.
And it's not likely that he's the smartest person in Entitled Town, either.
He certainly isn't the cleanest.
HT: Douchecanoe Diaries
An Honest Politician, Kapenga by Name
Bice exposes an honest man.
When state Rep. Chris Kapenga was asked by a constituent why cops and firefighters would be exempted from the collective-bargaining changes, the freshman Republican lawmaker left no doubts what he thinks.
When state Rep. Chris Kapenga was asked by a constituent why cops and firefighters would be exempted from the collective-bargaining changes, the freshman Republican lawmaker left no doubts what he thinks.
Kapenga pointed a finger directly at the police and firefighter unions.
“We have pushed for police and fire to be included with all other public employees,” said the Delafield Republican. “Bottom line is the unions have bought out several people and we can not get it put through. It has been very frustrating.”
'S OK, Rep. Kapenga. You know who elected you and why. Keep up the good work and we'll do our part in a couple of years or less.
Dream-World HS Principal's Manifesto
Actually, it's not entirely "dream-world," because CHOICE schools have most of this in force.
Stolen from a priest who quoted it from a correspondent who found it written by Prager.To the students and faculty of our high school:
I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.
First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships.
The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity — your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.
If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values — e pluribus unum, “from many, one.” And this school will be guided by America’s values.
This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism — an unhealthy preoccupation with the self — while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.
Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America’s citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here — it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English — but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.
Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school’s property — whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can’t speak without using the f-word, you can’t speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as “Nxxxxx,” even when used by one black student to address another black, or “bxxxx,” even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way — the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago — by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.
Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky — to be alive and to be an American.
Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.
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