Hi there, !
Today Tue 04/09/2013 Mon 04/08/2013 Sun 04/07/2013 Sat 04/06/2013 Fri 04/05/2013 Thu 04/04/2013 Wed 04/03/2013 Archives
Rantburg
532939 articles and 1859828 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 61 articles and 134 comments as of 18:41.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
Egypt's Azhar, Mursi supporters clash near Muslim Brotherhood HQ
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
7 16:08 Shipman [2] 
6 09:18 Mike Kozlowski [3] 
21 19:50 Frank G [5] 
5 13:02 Frank G [3] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [7]
9 09:55 Bright Pebbles [5]
1 08:10 Threater Flusoper9823 [2]
0 [3]
0 [3]
3 11:58 swksvolFF [4]
0 [3]
3 12:52 gorb [4]
1 07:14 Frank G [3]
0 [4]
4 22:36 SteveS [4]
0 [8]
0 [3]
0 [3]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [4]
1 12:48 Mike Kozlowski [1]
0 [3]
1 09:27 Procopius2k [2]
13 23:50 Bright Pebbles [5]
0 [2]
6 14:10 Barbara [1]
0 [3]
9 18:31 Rjschwarz [5]
0 [6]
1 09:14 DepotGuy [4]
0 [3]
0 [4]
0 [4]
1 11:06 Pappy [4]
1 09:22 Dale [4]
0 [2]
0 [1]
3 10:34 Foxy [2]
1 07:26 Frank G [3]
3 19:28 Bright Pebbles [5]
3 22:45 SteveS [4]
0 [2]
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 [3]
0 [4]
0 [2]
0 [3]
0 [2]
1 00:42 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [3]
2 18:28 DarthVader [3]
0 [2]
10 19:51 trailing wife [4]
1 09:49 Besoeker [3]
Page 4: Opinion
0 [2]
0 [3]
6 20:35 Barbara [4]
5 14:24 swksvolFF [3]
0 [4]
2 14:16 Barbara [2]
2 17:59 SteveS [5]
0 [2]
0 [3]
2 14:20 Barbara [4]
Britain
Baroness Ashton will be paid £400,000 by the EU to do nothing
Probably cheaper for society than paying her to actual do things...
She doesn't do anything now, she just meanders around and babbles a lot...
Baroness Ashton will be entitled to £400,000 at the taxpayer's expense over three years for doing nothing after finishing her five year term as the European Union's foreign minister at the end of 2014.
From her Wiki
On the one hand, critics say she is likely to be out of her depth, never having been elected to any office. For example, on her appointment, the associate editor of The Spectator, and former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Rod Liddle, wrote: "Never elected by anyone, anywhere, totally unqualified for almost every job she has done, she has risen to her current position presumably through a combination of down-the-line Stalinist political correctness and the fact that she has the charisma of a caravan site on the Isle of Sheppey."[31] According to The Guardian, an anonymous Whitehall source remarked: "Cathy just got lucky...The appointment of her and Herman Van Rompuy [as European Council president] was a complete disgrace. They are no more than garden gnomes
Posted by: tipper || 04/06/2013 00:57 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...well tough luck for the Baroness. All the similar paying jobs [unqualified, unelected, PC rewards] have closed in Detroit. Things are getting hard all around. Maybe she can get a chair position in SEIU. That'll at least match her skill criteria and get her invites to the White House.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2013 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  "she has the charisma of a caravan site"

Thru me until I figured out he meant trailer trash.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/06/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Paying EUSSR commissars to do nothing would be an improvement.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2013 9:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Shipman

No that's not what he means. Caravan sites are for people who go on holiday in the UK with our "wonderful" whetherweather.
The Isle of Sheppey is known for it's lack of bridges and prisons.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/06/2013 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  I'll bet there are city and county jobs in California that pay more...
Posted by: Steve White || 04/06/2013 11:06 Comments || Top||

#6  ...I'd bet there are city and county jobs in California which pay more than that just in retirement.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2013 12:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Thanks BP that makes more sense.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/06/2013 16:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Chicago Proposal Would Allow Private Sponsorship of Police
[NBCBAYAREA] A philanthropist or business could sponsor a police beat and put more off-duty cops on the streets under a plan being put forth by a downtown reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
politician on the City Council.

Alderman Brendan Reilly originally pitched the idea last October but is pushing it again following weekend incidents of teen mob activity on the Magnificent Mile, an upscale area of the city.

Under his plan, off-duty officers would work minimum six-hour shifts and make $30 an hour. The money would be paid by businesses, civic groups and churches at a time when city finances are stretched thin. The officers would be in full uniform and under the command of police supervisors.

"This is a way to make use of well-trained coppers who are moonlighting doing other things, bringing them back on the street to do what they do best, which is great police work," Reilly said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "This is a way to make........

taxpayers pay twice for the same gov't services.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2013 4:49 Comments || Top||

#2  The money would be paid by businesses, civic groups and churches
A protection racket?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/06/2013 4:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey, you don't want in.... we can't guarantee nothin! Com'on Mike, we got woik to do.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2013 4:53 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't think the mob has the financial obligations or retirement plan the city has. With lower overhead and much swifter justice, the rule of competition would imply a new 'sheriff' may be soon in town. I doubt seriously the ACLU will be filing suits on behalf of various grievance groups against that type of sheriff.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Another way of thinking of this is "private law", or the Pinkertonization of sections of the Chicago PD. As the actual government budget for the police is devoured by the pension monster, Chicago in general will see fewer and fewer cops on the beat overall - this is a way for the respectable and moneyed sections of Chicago to avoid the general disorder without having to fight it out in the political and bureaucratic arenas, where they're at an organizational disadvantage.

Trust me, the left will be screaming about this in six months when they finish doing the math and realize that they gave up political leverage in doing this. I'm surprised that this minarchist scheme was aired in Chicago, I guess somebody was looking at Detroit and thinking "we don't want that to be us".
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/06/2013 9:08 Comments || Top||

#6  ...I've seen this movie - doesn't it end with some robotic police officer fighting some bad guys?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/06/2013 9:18 Comments || Top||


Obama budget to take aim at wealthy IRAs
[THEHILL]
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obama budget to take aim at IRAs


...and of course HE will be determining the definition of "wealthy"
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 04/06/2013 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  We may all soon become Gov't bond holders, but who could have seen it coming? Gold and Silver next.

Additional here.

With the Treasury needing this year to see another $1 trillion in debt to finance the anticipated federal budget deficit, and the Federal Reserve about to discontinue its 2009 program of buying Treasury bonds for the Fed’s asset portfolio, the Obama administration is scrambling to find ways to sell government debt without having to raise interest rates.

I heard a term used on teevee last night that was even more troubling, it was "multi-generational Social Security recipients".
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2013 4:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Cyprus, parts two through ten.

This attempt is nothing more than the Coastal Aristocrats and their public sector clerisy footsoldiers trying to solve the debt problem without having their own material finances and/or anxiety levels affected.

AKA, stealing from the productive private sector to fix a problem they created.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/06/2013 4:59 Comments || Top||

#4  it was "multi-generational Social Security recipients".

It's early in the morning Besoeker, and I'm clearly not thinking very well yet. What on earth is that intended to mean?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2013 5:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Well TW, if your poor old dad were still alive at 93 and you are 62 or older... I suppose both you could potentially be deemed "multi-generational Social Security recipients".

The good news is, we're living longer. The bad news is, the government's Social Security "Insurance" Ponzi scheme [which you've paid into to for 40-50 years or longer] has been plundered and bankrupted.

By the way, no mention at all was made in the broadcast I viewed of "multi-generational" welfare recipients, which appear to be a very large part of the current problem. Of course the broadcast journalist was a vivacious young brunette, obviously schooled not to look scornfully upon, or make deriding comments about societal parasites. Old people who should already be dirt napping are fair game however.

Evil thieving bastards the lot !
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2013 7:54 Comments || Top||

#6  "Coastal Aristocrats".... I am steeling that one. Thanks, no mo uro.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2013 7:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Not mine, Besoeker.

VDH coined it.

Got to PJM and read his latest. Truly awesome even for him.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/06/2013 8:45 Comments || Top||

#8  "multi-generational Social Security recipients"

Given the exploding number of Social Security Disability recipients (almost tripled in the past 10 years or less) I am quite sure we have families of 4 generations ALL on some kind of Social Security.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/06/2013 9:12 Comments || Top||

#9  If the government forces 401(k)s & IRAs to be 'invested' in government-debt-backed annuities, then stock prices for all - including union pensions etc. - will collapse as $1 trillion worth of investment demand for stock from IRAs is diverted.
The government borrowing WILL be paid, whether explicitly (unlikely) or hidden somewhere, and the payment WILL come from those who have the money, either income or savings. Savings is just an illusion, an attempt to take society's current surplus productivity and put it aside as a claim against society's future productivity. If there's no surplus productivity at one end or the other of the exchange, the exchange cannot take place.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/06/2013 9:20 Comments || Top||

#10  I've always thought that a reasonable way to pump more money into SS would be to make ALL people pay into it.

All those Federal, State and Local employees should have there SS contributions calculated retroactively and then that amount removed from whatever pension system they're in. Going forward they continue to pony up like the rest of us.

Should even help with the unfunded pension liability of the states and cities as the amount would be deducted from their liability...at least after the bill was paid to SSA ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 04/06/2013 9:28 Comments || Top||

#11  The government borrowing WILL be paid, whether explicitly (unlikely) or hidden somewhere, and the payment WILL come from those who have the money, either income or savings.

Behold the Cyprus Effect. Roosevelt and Stalin must be smiling.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/06/2013 9:35 Comments || Top||

#12  Thank you for explaining, Besoeker. Daddy died a few days after his 90th birthday in 2009, when I was 48, but I'd give even odds Mama actually does make it to 120 -- her mother's older brother died at 107. And Mr. Wife's mother wasn't yet 18 when he was born, which is a more normal interval for the baby boom generation, so in time he'll be one part of that multi-generation Social Security recipient thingy, too. Fortunately, Mama worked until she was in her 70s as an occupational therapist before it occurred to anyone to check the records for her actual age and made her retire, and I'm eighteen months short of paid employment to be able to receive SS on my own account, so there will be a savings to the system there to offset my side of the family at least.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/06/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Allowing this government to pilfer them to death.
Posted by: newc || 04/06/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#14  Scaring people into raiding retirement accounts (abd thus being taxes) while making them dependant on Uncle Sam when they do retire.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 04/06/2013 16:37 Comments || Top||

#15  Exodus 20:
1 "And God spoke these words."
2 "I am the Lord your God."
15 "Thou shalt not covet."
17 "Thou shalt not steal."

Romans 6:23
"The wages of sin is death."

"The wages of sin is death."
Posted by: Bigfoot Sforza6821 || 04/06/2013 16:53 Comments || Top||

#16  The current limits on 401k's is something less than $20-30k per year depending on details. Thirty years of that is $600-900k, with interest is no more than $3-5m. Any 401k with more than that is very strange. It is unlikely that the drafters of the laws that created these things expected these accounts to get much bigger than this.

A new law or rule that caps the tax benefits of roth's/ira's/401k's at a few million dollars is completely within the spirit of the original intent of the law.

And if you are reading this and have been more fortunate than most, then congratulations. Plan to re-enter the income tax system, with only a few of your millions sheltered from capital gains or income tax.

Because nobody, and by that I mean nobody other than you, cares.
Posted by: rammer || 04/06/2013 18:23 Comments || Top||

#17  One cannot avoid the troubling issue of slippery slope, since once a principle is bartered to accommodate so apparent good purpose, our own legislative history has shown us the the slope never points any direction but downwade to greater and greater use and regulation. Once 2 million is the cap, why not 1, and then one half, not to mention the erosive effects of the looming inflation? 2 million Obama dollars in 2018 might not be as much as you hope.

"Free healthcare for life if you make a career of it son", then Tricare, then tricare deductables, then the medicare linkage at 65, and now, the SS Medicare deduction like every other citizen. Government promises corrode over time, and never, never, to your benefit. SO on principle, I see this as another wrong in the making.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 04/06/2013 18:52 Comments || Top||

#18  Damn, I promise I thought I spell checked it.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 04/06/2013 18:53 Comments || Top||

#19  touching retirement funds they encouraged you to retain, at ANY level, is a warning siren. Means justifying SSI is not. This is the first shot in confiscation/taxation of 401K holdings. Kick back - twice as hard
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2013 19:14 Comments || Top||

#20  Frank and NoMor,

You both make good arguments, with which I agree. But never forget that the Congress created these programs and the Congress can change them. I think it was Mark Twain who opined that, "No man's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session."

So, to protect a tax exemption for capital gains on retirement accounts in the millions of dollars, someone has to make a political argument that makes sense to the MAJORITY of dumbass voters in this country.

And I ain't seen it yet. Get busy or Obama will eat your lunch.
Posted by: rammer || 04/06/2013 19:30 Comments || Top||

#21  Obama is too cowardly to do it. It would take Donk control. Look for a pandemic among elderly to erase SSI debts, along with legis pushes to swap $ in 401K for bonds. ( a slower, if not as certain death)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2013 19:50 Comments || Top||


Bloomberg Tees Off, Hints Cuomo Partly To Blame For Albany Circus
[NEWYORK.CBSLOCAL] It was the ultimate putdown of state politicians caught in the corruption spotlight. Mayor Michael Nanny Bloomberg said they're not qualified to get real jobs.

The circus has returned to Albany.

The man known in some parts as "El Bloombito" took out his rapier to cut state politicians down to size with a jab only a self-made billionaire could fire off, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported Friday.

"The average politician who has to make policy on things that influence our lives, our kids' lives, our future, would they ever get a job in the private sector making policy on big things? No, not a chance," Bloomberg said.

After a week of almost non-stop corruption revelations, including charges that Bronx Assemblyman Eric Stevenson took bribes to write a bill to help his friends, Bloomberg also included Gov. Andrew Sonny Cuomo in his revulsion of all things Albany, implying that one of the things that aids corruption is the practice of the governor sending politicians something called a "message of necessity" so a bill can pass quickly, without anyone having a the chance to study it.

"Why can't you give it time? Well, the answer is they don't want anybody to see it. That's the only explanation," Bloomberg said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/06/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  File under broken clock, twice a day.

Loathesome as Bloomberg might be, he is dead on with his comments about the clerisy being largely unqualified and unfit to prosper in the private sector. It's why they are members of the clerisy.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/06/2013 5:02 Comments || Top||

#2  BTW, love the pie-throwing pic. Please use that more in the future.
Posted by: no mo uro || 04/06/2013 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Two limousine socialists with authoritarian streaks having a cat fight. Pass the popcorn.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/06/2013 9:09 Comments || Top||

#4  The Nanny is angling for a larger nursery.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/06/2013 11:28 Comments || Top||

#5  both think they are uniquely qualified to be President. Be afraid. Very afraid
Posted by: Frank G || 04/06/2013 13:02 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
33[untagged]
7Arab Spring
3Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
2Jamaat-e-Islami
2Commies
2al-Qaeda in North Africa
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Pirates
1Salafists
1Taliban
1al-Shabaab
1Govt of Iran
1TTP

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-04-06
  Egypt's Azhar, Mursi supporters clash near Muslim Brotherhood HQ
Fri 2013-04-05
  Syrian regime troops appeal for immediate aid in Al-Raqqa
Thu 2013-04-04
  Syrian jets 'attack' Lebanese town
Wed 2013-04-03
  N. Korea approves nuclear strike on US
Tue 2013-04-02
  Dutch Hold 4, Search for Alleged Sarin Nerve Agent
Mon 2013-04-01
  Al Nusra Front chieftain killed in Syria
Sun 2013-03-31
  North Korea Declares 'State of War' with Seoul
Sat 2013-03-30
  Hundreds rally against Egypt's prosecutor general
Fri 2013-03-29
  52 Taliban killed in one day in Afghanistan
Thu 2013-03-28
  Sectarian clashes in central Nigeria kill 23: Military
Wed 2013-03-27
  Bangla: 12 vehicles torched, Train compartment set ablaze, police station bombed
Tue 2013-03-26
  Egypt: ‘Morality Police’ Thrashed for Whipping Woman
Mon 2013-03-25
  Riad al-Asaad, Syrian rebel commander, loses leg in bomb attack
Sun 2013-03-24
  Syria Rebels Seize Key Military Base in Daraa
Sat 2013-03-23
  Miqati Announces Resignation


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.129.247.196
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (14)    WoT Background (23)    Non-WoT (10)    Opinion (10)    (0)