The Outrages Continue!!!!!!!!

The San Diego Union lists the top ANNUAL PENSIONS  of San Diego City employees, at the same time library hours are being cut and pot holes widen:

“TOP PENSIONS

According to San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System data released to former City Attorney Michael Aguirre:

$299,103: Eugene Gordon, assistant city attorney, including $113,900 from special account

$247,312: Douglas McCalla, retirement system investment officer, including $74,578 from special account

$237,602: Thomas Clark, fire battalion chief, including $92,709 from special account

$235,936: Louis Scanlon, assistant police chief, including $85,445 from special account

$227,250: Anna Martinez, librarian, including $85,080 from special account”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/29/city-pensions-are-higher-drop/

The “Special Accounts” refers to the DROP program, where employees can buy special years of retirement at a HUGE discount, to fatten their pensions.

Filed Under: Think Our Military Families (Or ANYONE) Get This Sort of “Gratuity?”

“Byrd’s family will receive remainder of his salary”

“The must-pass spending bill pending in the Senate includes a little-noticed provision that would pay the family of the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd for the salary he would have commanded in the next fiscal year.

The Senate handbook says that upon the death of a senator who had been serving in office, “in the next appropriations bill, an item will be inserted for a gratuity to be paid to the widow(er) or other next- of-kin, in the amount of one-year’s compensation.” ‘

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0910/Byrds_family_will_receive_remainder_of_his_salary.html

Comment: This means that the Byrd family will receive $193,000 in salary for a man who is DEAD! (While, if I as a retired military officer die on the 30th of the month, my surviving spouse must return my last paycheck to the Treasury!

And Now….The Rest of the Story…

Someone, claiming that she had been terribly treated while in the employment of Meg Whittman, is suing Meg!

I love it. First she had been “mistreated” for NINE YEARS without quitting.

Now, she admits that she is an illegal alien – BUT she also admits that she has a Social Security Card, a California Driver’s License, and she swore under oath, in writing that she is a US Citizen!

So, what more could Meg have done?

But, I must believe that the woman was badly treated – Meg only paid her $23 an hour in 2001. That is certainly “slave wages.’

Oh, one more thing. This is all brought to the fore by Gloria Allred. (Enough said.)

The Politicians Count on Poor Memory

Remember when President Obama stood in the Caterpillar plant, next to their CEO, and said that the plant would rehire people when the “Stimulus Bill” passed?

Well, first – that didn’t happen. In fact the plant laid off more people after the bill passed.

Now, Caterpillar will build a new plant.

In CHINA!

“NEW YORK (AFP) – Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, will build a factory in China to produce mini hydraulic excavators, the company said in a statement.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/ts_alt_afp/uschinacompanyinvestmentcaterpillar_20100929130112

Chris Christie for (Governor)(President) {Select One, or Both}

We have two years to go in the national elections before we choose a replacement for our president.

Right now, my support goes to Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Just as an example, Christie is demanding that NJ teachers get their tenure by classroom performance, not seniority. Now obviously, I would prefer that there be no tenure at all, but as an interim measure I’ll accept classroom performance.

Christie also wants teachers tested in math  and reading before teaching elementary schools. Once again, a move in the right direction but I would prefer testing all teachers.

Needless to say, the teachers union is objecting.

Christie is a straight talking governor. He would get my vote.

I just wish he was our Governor – the choice between the two running in California give great hope for an eventual “None of the Above” on the ballot.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

The absolute high in Hidden Meadows (Boulder Knolls Observatory) yesterday was 106.5 degrees, but the TV says that the “official Escondido” temperature (US Weather Bureau) was 111

(Boy, that is hot! Either number!)

But more importantly, it again demonstrates that our 1,500 foot elevation in Hidden Meadows is a temperature mitigating elevation.

Of course, at these temperatures it makes little difference – except for bragging rights!

Unpaid Tax Collectors

I had an interesting phone call this morning by someone representing “California Retailers,” complaining that they were being hurt by internet retailers who can undersell California retailers because the internet does not always collect California sales tax.

I gently suggested that perhaps California Retailers might want to get THEIR state’s sales taxes reduced, rather than making internet retailers collect for the State of California!

Having been a California Retailer, and acted as (Unpaid) Tax Collector for the State of California. I have sympathy for retailers. They have trouble just staying in business.

Competition is good! The way to compete is to reduce the delta between the two, but the way to do that is to REDUCE the higher cost, not raise the lower cost.

We all realize that the California Legislature is unlikely to ever reduce any taxes, anywhere, anytime. I also realize that there is growing pressure to get all internet retailers to act as unpaid tax collectors for the states – and that, since ALL politicians want more taxes than fewer taxes, that will be the end game.

But we should resist as long as possible.

With “Friends” Like Iraq, We Don’t Need Enemies!

The NY Times is reporting another atrocity in Iraq – the theft of 8,080 computers given to the students of Iraq by the taxpayers of America that were delivered to Iraq in February, and not one student has typed a word.

It seems they disappeared.

Well, not exactly. First the computers were held up by Iraqi “customs.” The paperwork was not right. Then they disappeared. Then an American General was reported in the Iraqi press about the obvious corruption, and he was silenced for fear of making the Iraqi “government” look bad in an election period and the case was taken over by the US State Department to dampen the subject.

Then, the Iraqi government suddenly “found” half the computers – they had been illegally sold to an Iraqi businessman. They were recovered and the US Military has them in custody. Six low-level Iraqi employees have been charged, but it is difficult to believe they could have pulled it off.

No one knows where the other half of the computers have gone. Apparently, there is a group that ranks nations by level of government corruption, and by theur standards Iraq is more corrupt than Mexico.

That is a hard standard to attain.

A New Democrat Voter Fraud Led By a Union Thug? (I am shocked, shocked…)

Houston, Texas is the new Chicago!

Late last month there was a “mysterious” fire that destroyed the voting machines in Harris County where Houston is the largest city.

That in itself would not be too suspicious, but prior to that a group of volunteers had documented thousands upon thousands of bogus voter registrations by a group (Houston Votes)  under an employee of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Now anyone familiar with the history of the Acorn/SEIU cooperative effort for “voter registration” would not be surprised to learn what the volunteer effort to examine the voter rolls found – rampant fraud. More people registered at homes than the home could accommodate standing up! One woman registered six times. People registered in vacant lots.

The sort of thing that one expects in Chicago.

It is all in the hands of the Harris county DA, but as a person raised in Texas I fully understand how corrupt Texas politics can be – all I have to say to the politically sophisticated is: “Landslide Lyndon.”

Now, what does this local corruption have to do with national politics?

The former Mayor of Houston is the Democrat running against the current Republican Governor, and it is a tight race.

The very disclosure may complicate the race – or perhaps a vigilant voter watch as a result of the disclosure will turn the Governor election.

It is one to watch

(Actually, the SEIU is the ONE TO WATCH!)

You might ask: Where is the US Attorney general? Yes, you could ask that, but then you already know the answer.

The Principals Have Their Own Union? Who Knew?

The San Diego Unified School District is strictly under union control and everyone understands that, but some of the results of that control are astounding.

I didn’t know it, but apparently there is a Principals union as well as a Teachers union, and the Principals union had negotiated with the union-controlled School Board to hire all of the available Principals within the District before hiring any Principals from out of the district, regardless of the qualifications of the competing Principals.

“It’s also the first major dispute between San Diego Unified and its newly unionized principals.

Principals say the union rules were supposed to ensure that all principals got a job before the district turned to outside hires, promoted teachers or allowed top managers to be bumped down.”

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/schooled/article_39b7b744-c698-11df-b85a-001cc4c03286.html

The article goes on to note that Principals have argued the other side of the coin when it comes to hiring teachers – contending that such rules as they now demand for themselves results in not being able to put the right person into the right job!

(But then consistency of philosophy is not a union strong point.)

It gets worse. The union dominated School Board negotiated with the principals union for a work rule that is not helpful to taxpayers, parents or students – then the union-dominated School board breached their own rule – for which “error” they must pay the Principals union with – TAXPAYERS MONEY?

The mind boggles!