From the Star Ledger:
Rutgers report: job loss recovery will take at least 4 years
With the recession in the rearview mirror, this decade will be known as the Great Reckoning as the economy tries to recover from massive job losses, according to a Rutgers report released today.
It could take at least four years for the nation to recover more than 8.5 million private-sector jobs that were lost since 2007, according to the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. The jobless rate is at a 33-year high in New Jersey – 10.1 percent – and nationwide the previous decade saw three of the worst private-sector job loss years ever in 2009, 2008 and 2001.
“We had to digest a lot of bad news,” said James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School, in a telephone interview. “Some of the worst has passed us, and again the two question marks are: Can housing stand on its own in 2010, and what types of problems are really going to emerge with commercial real estate?”
The Federal Reserve will stop buying bad mortgages at the end of March — creating fears that mortgage rates, which have been at historic lows, could rise, he said.
A record number of commercial real estate loans made during the boom years are coming due that must be refinanced in the next decade, according to the report.
This year “is going to be the start of maybe a three- or four-year period where a number of buildings are going to face a lot of problems,” Hughes said of the commercial real estate market. “They are OK right now, but what happens when they have to be refinanced and they are underwater?”
First to oblivion!
second to seconal !
Do they have Cheetos and reality shows in oblivion?
can i still watch american idol, and go on
vacation?
mancuso!mancuso! Mancuso! Mancuso!
Glad lindsey von won the gold. Even more pleased that my girl julia won the silver
Mancuso! Mancuso!Mancuso!
serenity (3)-
No. Nothing but warm Utica Club beer, short sales and FKs.
Clot 6 very depressing.
We will be released from oblivion when we overthrow our illegal and criminal federal gubmint.
“Using the term “productivity” in the same sentence as “federal government” is a dubious exercise. No doubt, in the sense of performing a task efficiently, the Feds can be productive. Just watch how quickly and completely the IRS attempts to clean out the average taxpayer. That explains the joke about Washington’s preferred tax form of just two lines: “How much do you earn? Send it in.”
But government efficiency doesn’t mean productivity in a larger sense. That is, does government activity yield a better life for Americans? On net, the answer is no. The only problem with Snowmaggedon is that it has not affected the 85 percent of federal employees who work outside of the D.C. area.
About two million people, excluding the postal service and armed forces, work for the federal government. Most are engaged in counterproductive activity.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/snow-day-gridlock
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/business/18regulate.html
“Agreement is Near on a New Overseer of Banking Risks”
The Treasury secretary – hahahahahahahahah
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/02/17/u-s-hoping-foreign-investors-will-bail-out-housing-market/
“U.S. Hoping Foreign Investors Will Bail Out Housing Market”
hahahahahahahahahahahah
#
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
February 17, 2010 at 4:19 pm
[179] plg
“It will connect the colleges and universities in Camden with Philly and promote fewer cars and higher air quality for the region.
Not only will this provide an added source of recreation, but it will provide people the opportunity to commute by bicycle between South Jersey and Philly.”
You are a dreamer. There is zero chance of this happening. None.
Do not compare NYC and its surrounding cities to Philly and its surrounding cities. Apples and oranges.
You keep beating this mass transit drum … go rent the movie SINGLES.
(Hint PEOPLE IN AMERICA LOVE THEIR CARS. THAT IS JUST HOW IT IS.)
Cindy (10)-
“We will put out this fire by tossing gasoline on it.”
Why don’t we just coronate Jamie or Lloyd king for life and be done with it?
Then, we can watch NASCAR and gorge on Doritos with a clear conscience.
We are Devo.
My children isn’t learning, but I don’t keer.
What if we build out all this mass transit…and it turns out there’s nowhere to go?
Need a job??? Move to Mexico
“unemployment rate fell to 4.8% from 5.3% in November, reaching its lowest level since December 2008.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100122-712846.html
Hoboken RE market on fire this week. 17 closed this week. Look at the prices!!! Where’s the recession?
http://hudson.fnismls.com/publink/default.aspx?GUID=e1a67dc9-7f30-429b-8978-61ff71d8f114&Report=Yes
Clot,
How’s the Newark REO market? Do you still have the “free house when you buy a lawn mower” special?
Yeah, let’s put bike lanes in a war zone:
Unfunded Health-Care and Non-Pension Liability
New Jersey ………$68,900,000,000
California …………$62,463,000,000
New York …………$56,286,000,000
Illinois ……………..$39,946,678,000
Michigan ………….$39,878,500,000
Texas ………………$28,611,584,000
North Carolina ….$28,741,560,000
Ohio ………………..$27,025,738,000
Connecticut ………$26,018,800,000
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/pew-study-shows-trillion-dollar-state.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100218/ap_on_bi_ge/us_pension_shortfall_study
Clot – Just reading an article on the same Pew study.
frank (18)-
Dunno. But I’d buy a house for anyone who can feed you into a wood chipper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qWFhDvURLg
Here’s something you won’t see on a US cooking show.
“Cat stew lover skewered in Italy”
That dish sounds like the cat’s meow.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_cat_stew
Also from article ref’d in #19:
“The question of fairness runs both ways. Is it fair for public servants to make slaves out of everyone else so they get benefits the private sector doesn’t?
Moreover, corrupt politicians unfairly bought votes at taxpayer expense for ill-gotten gains of themselves and the unions. In other words, there was no fair bargaining process in the first place. The entire system was and still is corrupt. The most unfair thing would be to allow those gains to stand, not to take them away.
The courts might not allow what is fair (outside of bankruptcy or default and that may be where we are headed given the blatant arrogance and greed of unions).”
WSJ:
Federal Jobs Look Too Good Not to Have Big Price: Amity Shlaes
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=asJJ_TxafRns
Jobs with Uncle Sam aren’t just more numerous than they used to be. They’re better. Wages and benefits for federal civilian workers were more than double the average total compensation in the private sector: $119,982 versus $59,909. In the treacherous period between December 2007 and mid-2009, the number of federal employees earning more than $100,000 doubled, rising to 66,500 or so. Much of this was due to locked-in raises for workers who were rising through the ranks.
safe (22)-
I don’t want to live in a world where one can’t savor a well-braised cat.
Unemployment claims not too pretty.
Prior Consensus Consensus Range Actual
440K 440K 410K to 450K 473K
Mish, on the Frank/Orin Kramer school of public pension investment strategy:
All In All The Time
“Here’s the deal. US equities are up 63% from the lows. Foreign equities are up as much as 100% or more. The odds of a huge correction is enormous. It makes absolutely no sense to be in equities at all, unless one is heavily hedged.
It makes no sense to be in junk bonds either. Although high quality corporates are likely to be OK, this is not a particularly good time to be in those either, especially if one is hoping for capital gains.
Instead of using leverage, I propose the state of Wisconsin go to 60% cash and wait for better opportunities. Alternatively, if the SWIB wants some risk, they should take a crack at shorting the market here.
But that is not the way that these guys think. They cannot stand cash. And they do not like treasuries. So when the S&P plunged to 666, they rode it down all the way. At the bottom, they had no cash to deploy. That is the foolishness of all in all the time.
Moreover, use of leverage means one is more than all in all the time. Somehow that is supposed to be a free lunch that reduces risk?! After a 63% rally off the lows? With Baa corporate bond yields looking like this?”
15.Schumpeter says:
February 18, 2010 at 8:21 am
What if we build out all this mass transit…and it turns out there’s nowhere to go?
http://www.arctunnel.com/
The end is nigh….
Sushi sold at Duane Reade…
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sushi_pro_fish_pharm_7GkNCDlOuBO4loXMIerJ1I
Stu 26-
Thank God Obama’s stimulus plan helped us avoid the Great Depression 2.
S&P 450. Watch it happen.
chi (29)-
Is that wasabi…or SOYLENT GREEN!?!?!?!?!?!
Does this mean my Rx for Duane Reade sushi is void?
From #19 –
Interesting how in terms of percentages the problem is seen all over the country, not just the coasts:
“In eight states—Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and West Virginia—more than one-third of the total liability was unfunded.
Two states had less than 60 percent of the necessary assets on hand to meet their long-term pension obligations: Illinois and Kansas. Illinois was in the worst shape of any state, with a funding level of 54 percent and an unfunded liability of more than $54 billion.”
And in answer to my question yesterday:
:Once a state promises a retirement benefit, it is extremely difficult to take it away. This is true in every state in the country, albeit to varying degrees. In general, pension benefits that already have been earned have strict constitutional or contractual protections, although the right to continue to accrue benefits going forward is slightly less certain, according to Keith Brainard, research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. In some states, retiree health benefits also are protected.85 Even in states that have more flexibility to change benefits for current employees, the political difficulties are formidable. No legislature wants to antagonize government employees who, at the least, vote in elections and, at worst, can turn into powerful political foes.”
As a frequent user of NJT, I can say that I am fully behind the ARC tunnel. The Northeast Corridor is only one of two profitable Amtrak Lines in the entire country. The traffic problems on that segment into the city is deplorable. It has rendered a 12 mile trip from Montclair to Midtown into a 45 minute excursion that could easily be biked quicker. As for demand, I dare you to ride the train and get smushed into a vestibule on a daily basis. But let’s build bike lanes too.
clot: when you finally snap, can you make sure you take Flay before they gun you down?
277.chicagofinance says:
February 18, 2010 at 1:10 am
I ask the gods why he wasn’t destined to do it to Bobby Flay?
186.Veto That says:
February 17, 2010 at 3:58 pm
watching clot destroy plg makes me realize that he actually takes it easy on the rest of us.
#34 Stu
I rode NJtransit’s NE corridor for 5 years. Ever year it got worse. Trains were more crowded and the delays were longer. In 2003 the conductor told us if you thought things had gotten bad, just wait till the Secaucus terminal opens.
Flay lost his Michelin star at his Vegas joint by the way.
chi (35)-
For you? Sure.
That Michelin gave that shoemaker even one star shows what a bunch of whores they are.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/olympics/shaun_white_wins_gold_shows_off_phGb7CK9NmLUXrFdqA6QDO/1
Trying to find the video of this victory lap run for Shawn White where he does the Double McTwist 1260.
Olympics appears to have pulled it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHUMoFcZgJ0
Found this – Double McTwist 12 – Could be the same trick.
Clot/Make #41 – This is just a public service so you will have some idea what your boys are up to…
Montgomery residents protest T-Mobile’s proposed cell phone tower
Thursday, February 18, 2010 STAR-LEDGER STAFF
“Michelle Blane said she and her neighbors have formed Montgomery Residents Against Cell Towers, a 276-member nonprofit group dedicated to stopping the tower from being approved.
an affluent community
“Montgomery is a very affluent area compared to other areas and the reason people come to Montgomery and pay higher taxes is the lack of commercial entities around residential areas,” she said, noting the absence of large shopping malls and department stores in the area.”
http://www.nj.com/mobile/articles/paper1.ssf?/base/news-5/1266462908102300.xml&coll=1
Shawn White is one ugly kid. Is he related to Carrot Top?
I think Zero tolerance policies are one more step on the road to fascism.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/new.york.doodle.arrest/index.html?hpt=C1
Let’s arrest little kids for doodling on their desks instead of making them clean it up and contacting parents/guardians if it happens again.
What’s next, public floggings for wiping boogers on the bottom of the desks?
wholesale inflation is surging at a 16.8% annual rate…
“prices paid at the farm and factory gate rose a faster than expected 1.4 percent from December after a 0.4 percent gain in December, as higher gasoline prices and unusually cold temperatures helped boost energy costs.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-jobless-claims-producer-rb-1321801194.html?x=0&.v=3
“When you have PPI moving up and still no progress in the jobs situation, that doesn’t bode well for continued improvement in equity prices,”
Shore,
Your request for more oil import info
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_neti_a_ep00_IMN_mbblpd_a.htm
to answer your question, Venezuela was our #1 import source in the mid 90’s
If it was my kid, I would have made her apologize to the school at an assembly.
When my brother got caught smoking pot in high school, the police called my parents to pick him up from the police department. My mom let him stay there overnight.
I’m not for zero tolerance and perhaps that girls offense was not arrest worthy, but I think rather than giving her detention, the principal should have her stay after school for a week to clean off every desk.
South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state.
Pitts, a Republican, introduced legislation this month banning “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina.
In an interview, Pitts told Hotsheet that he believes that “if the federal government continues to spend money at the rate it’s spending money, and if it continues to print money at the rate it’s printing money, our economic system is going to collapse.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6217403.shtml
Safe 45,
the draconian zero tolerance rules are just the latest method for teaching obedience to authority.
If we terrorize children into an absolute fear of authority at a young enough age then they wont be a problem as an adult.
My wife who happens to be a PhD psychologist pointed out that actions like these are an excellent way to condition children to follow authority without question as adults. Its also great for teaching them that they are incapable of solving their own problems and must depend on authorities to do so for them.
Who would have guessed that 1984 was a training manual and not a work of fiction.
Stu 49
your points are reasonable responses. But this is just as asinine as punishing a child who defends themselves the same as the aggressor.
I wonder how many civil law suits it would take to make a school think twice about zero tolerance
two comments:
saw Christie on SquawkBox this morning and was very impressed. If he can deliver on his talking points, he will have nationwide potential.
Shaun White looks like a girl but is a total bad*ss. America is still cooler than every other country, despite our problems.
Nom , tax news of the day
New rules could force Britain’s tax exiles to pay up. Government crackdown on super-rich involves new ‘statutory residency test’ to establish UK ties
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/17/tax-exiles-government-crackdown
[24] stu
That’s why I have USAJOBS agents listings fed directly to my email.
If I can’t beat ’em, might as well join ’em.
Renter -that stupid NIMBY “I must be smart because I am paying so much taxes and so are my neighbours” is the reason why I try to avoid Montgomery.
[54] pgc,
had a reply typed but the servers here killed it.
I expect this issue to gain in prominence, both internationally and here in the northeast.
safe – public floggings will be the next PPV spectator sport. Complete with half naked women draping themselves over the stocks.
[48] Hyde,
The irony is that, despite Chavez, the only place that Venezuelan crap can be refined is in the U.S.
Hovensa on St. Croix does nothing but refine Ven. crude, and it is the largest refinery in the hemisphere.
Nom,
got offered a job there once. almost took it. in hind sight, could have been fun for a few years….
More tax news of the day (and this probably won’t help NJ very much):
“Tech, Drug Companies Face More Taxes
If Obama’s Income Shifting Limits Adopted
President Obama’s budget proposal to tax “excess returns” associated with transfers of intangible assets to offshore affiliates is likely to result in larger tax bills for the high-tech and pharmaceutical sectors, as well as other industries that get their money largely from intellectual property, analysts told BNA Feb. 16.
While the administration has been vague on the details of the proposal, tax professionals said the plan is clearly intended to expand on other international tax efforts to prevent companies from shifting income to lower tax jurisdictions.
Analysts said the proposal came as a surprise to many, but fits with the administration’s previously declared goals of cracking down on the use of tax havens by multinational firms. What distinguishes this proposal, analysts said, is that it targets “excess returns” as a way to thwart tax avoidance.
The Internal Revenue Service already has transfer pricing rules in place to capture excess earnings but is “having a very hard time policing” thousands of businesses with international dealings, said Chad Koebnick, executive managing director of international tax services
at RSM McGladrey. “What [the proposal] really results in is more muscle behind the IRS’s enforcement policies, rather than an immediate tax,” Koebnick said.
Treasury Department officials have said the administration’s estimate that the provision will raise $15.5 billion over 10 years assumes returns of 30 percent or more will be considered excessive and offshore affiliates will be seen as tax havens if they have an effective tax rate of 10 percent or less.
High-Tech Firms, Health Care Seen Taking Hardest Hit
In a Feb. 16 analysis, investment firm Credit Suisse said the proposal would have the biggest impact on high-tech firms and the health care industry—primarily pharmaceutical companies—that often transfer rights to their intellectual property to offshore affiliates, then lease them back.
Credit Suisse said its data show that undistributed foreign earnings at Standard & Poor’s 500 companies total nearly $1 trillion, with 16 percent of that coming from pharmaceuticals and 6 percent being derived from the computers and peripherals sector. More broadly, the health care and information technology sectors accounted for 40 percent of the undistributed foreign earnings at S&P 500 companies in 2008, Credit Suisse said.
At the top of their list of individual companies with undistributed foreign earnings, General Electric posted $75 billion, Pfizer has $63.1 billion, Johnson & Johnson had $27.7 billion, and Merck had $22.0 billion. Cisco Systems, International Business Machines, and Procter & Gamble were also high on the list. Credit Suisse noted that undistributed foreign earnings alone does not suggest that a company or industry is likely to be highly susceptible to changes in international tax systems, but it is much more likely when those sectors also have foreign operations with low effective tax rates. In the case of health care and information technology, foreign operations reduced the companies’ effective tax rates by 10 percent or more.
Other sectors affected by the tax proposals likely would include the “consumer discretionary” and “materials” industries, Credit Suisse said. “Intangible assets arise in numerous industries. They are created through R&D and other activities. The proposal could have the unintended consequence of discouraging investments in R&D in the United States,” warned Drew Lyon, a principal in the PricewaterhouseCoopers national tax services group. “Many countries have more favorable tax incentives for undertaking R&D than the United States and allow the product of that research to be used on a global basis on more favorable terms than the U.S. does.”
Lyon said the proposal also moves the United States away from the internationally accepted standard of arm’s-length pricing, which he called “the foundation for international transfer pricing rules and forms the basis for resolving double taxation in U.S. tax treaties.”
Recouping Revenue Losses for U.S
In their previous budgets in 2010, the administration and Congress have focused on international taxation to compensate for eliminating a provision that would have restricted the check-the-box election, Koebnick said, and the new proposal represents “more of a broad-based policy” to make up the approximate revenue losses. The proposal, Koebnick said, is “really taking taxes that would already be payable if there was a dispute under the current transfer price rules.”
Analysts said the fate of the proposal remains unclear in spite of congressional efforts to find new revenues from the least politically sensitive sources. In a Feb. 10 webcast, KPMG tax attorney Thomas Zollo warned the proposal could be “the first step down a slippery slope that curtails or eliminates deferral,” an idea that has significant opposition throughout the Senate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) effectively shot down the idea for this year during a Feb. 4 hearing on the budget, telling White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag that the international tax provisions in the budget should be considered by Congress as part of an effort for comprehensive tax reform—an effort he has previously said will not begin in 2010. . . .”
/snip
[60] hyde
But St. Croix’s reputation for crime is well-deserved, and while the tourism aspect is fun, I suspect living there would get real boring, real quick.
“S&P 450. Watch it happen.”
I dont know what would make me happier. S&P 450 or buying my first home for $100K from citibank.
http://www.tax.com/taxcom/features.nsf/Articles/0DEC0EAA7E4D7A2B852576CD00714692?OpenDocument
Tax Rates for Top 400 Earners Fall as Income Soars, IRS Data
In 2007 the top 400 taxpayers had an average income of $344.8 million, up 31 percent from their average $263.3 million income in 2006, according to figures in a report that the IRS posted to its Web site without announcement that were discovered February 16. (For the report, see Tax Analysts Doc 2010-3372 .) The figures came at the peak of the last economic cycle and show that widely published reports in major newspapers asserting that the richest Americans are losing relative ground and “becoming poorer” are not supported by the official income data. The long-term data show that under current tax and economic rules, the incomes of the top earners rise when the economy expands and contract during recessions, only to rise again. Their effective income tax rate fell to 16.62 percent, down more than half a percentage point from 17.17 percent in 2006, the new data show. That rate is lower than the typical effective income tax rate paid by Americans with incomes in the low six figures, which is what each taxpayer in the top group earned in the first three hours of 2007. Taxpayers on the 95th to 99th steps on the income ladder paid an effective income tax rate of 17.52 percent, according to calculations by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit research group that favors less taxation and lower rates. Taxpayers in this category earned between $255,000 and $451,000 in 2007, compared with an average daily income of almost $945,000 for the top 400, who paid lower effective tax rates on average. Payroll taxes did not add a significant burden to the top 400, not changing the rounding of rates by even one decimal. With payroll taxes taken into account, the effective tax rate of the top 400 would be 17.2 percent in 2006 and 16.6 percent in 2007, my analysis shows — the same as not counting payroll taxes. As a point of comparison, about two-thirds of Americans pay more in Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes than in federal income taxes.
lisoosh (64):
Tell me something we don’t know. The rich can afford the loopholes, the middle can’t so pay more than the upper and the lower classes receive a net benefit.
Jamil of course will tell you it’s the fault of the illegals though.
I think there are different grades of Venezuelan oil. Some are of higher quality or easier to refine than others. I think the highest quality is the West Texas Int but a quick google search can answer that. Used to work for Hess. I think they sold the St. Croix refinery or a majority of it to Petrobras.
Lessons fromthe
Financial Crisis
BY JOHN H. COCHRANE
University of Chicago
As long as some firms are considered too big to fail, those firms will take outsized risks.
lisoosh, so if we lump together 7.6 % ss / medicare, fed, income taxes the poor folk pay higher tax rates than let’s say the Heinz-Kerrys, Buffets, Kennedys being that ss is used to mask / offset fed deficits. what a scam.
Cindy (42)-
Might as well just post an x-ray of a broken face.
Because I know that’s where all this is headed.
stu (65)-
It’s all (taxes, zero tolerance in schools, bankster bailouts, etc) designed to destroy the US middle class…and it’s not by accident.
Coming to a burg near you.
Muni Threat: Cities Weigh Chapter 9
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704398804575071591602878062.html#mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
#68 escapee – That sounds about right. And yet they manage to demonize the poor. Being rich is equal opportunity though so you should really throw in a few Rep/Lib multimillionaires into your list too. They do exist.
Also in #71 a comment on Rail or monorail.
Gotta love the Utica Club! Warm, too–just like High School.
Well my wife reads the post and has reported some sad news to me this morning.
Snooky is 100% Chilean and J Woww is Irish/German.
i dont know if i can watch the second season now.
All’s well. Nothing to see here, move along.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-18/wal-mart-fourth-quarter-sales-trail-forecast-after-price-cuts.html
Wal-Mart’s Sales Trail Its Forecast After Price Cuts (Update2)
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, reported fourth-quarter sales that trailed its projection after cutting grocery and electronics prices, and predicted a “challenging” first quarter for U.S. stores.
Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year fell 1.6 percent, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said today in a statement. Wal-Mart had projected sales to decline no more than 1 percent.
lisoosh, that was my intention. we already know the repugs and liberts overtly fight to pay as little as possible. it’s the dems / liberals that say they want higher taxes for the rich but take advantage of the loopholes. e.g., oprah counts the days each yr she stays in Cali to avoid taxes.
Ooops.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F2RH20100218
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economy’s recovery.
[68] escapee,
Pretty much on point. The effective tax rate for the top cohort is actually lower in some studies.
By contrast, I am in the second cohort, between 90 and 95%, and my effective tax rate is over twice as high as the Buffetts, Gates, Heinz-Kerry’s of the country.
Now, on a raw dollar basis, this top cohort is kicking in a massive amount of money. That can’t be ignored. If you lose me as a taxpayer, with an effective tax rate of around 24% federal, versus losing some uber-rich business owner with a 12% effective tax rate, you would rather lose me than him because, in actual dollars, 12% of 300 million is much more than 24% of 300,000.
Which begs the question: Since it really is the rich that are funding the lion’s share of our public fisc, exactly how much do you want to demonize them? Further to the point, how patriotic do you think they will feel when you sic the IRS on them?
My guess is not very much. And the exit tax is only 15% on untaxed gains.
Danzud 66
In general terms oil ranges fro heavy sour to light sweet. light sweet is the highest grade and heavy sour is the lowest. You have to refine the heavy sour grades somewhat differently then you do the light sweet grades.
The grade is in general terms based on the crudes specific gravity and its sulfur content.
Hovensa is capable of refining heavier grades and can handle Venezuelan oil just fine.
Not all of Venezuelan oil is heavy sour, but their oil in general tends towards the heavy sour side of the spread.
Also note that different grades of oil provide different fractionations.
That is different grades of crude oil will produce different types and different amounts of refined products
FUll specs of crude oil grades
http://www.emis.platts.com/thezone/guides/platts/oil/crudeoilspecs.html
Nom, understood.
#77 – Course they do, because they can.
Just like Ron Paul talks small government, but his district sucks federal money like a newborn pig at its mothers teat.
He justifies it by pointing out that he’d be a fool not to take the money offered for his district.
Hypocrisy is equal opportunity. Pretending otherwise, as if there is some purity to one “side” or the other is the ultimate in political hackery and just plain sheepiness.
[71] sean,
What I find somewhat amusing is that the controller in Harrisburg essentially screwed nearly every major city in america by driving up their borrowing costs.
I see the pricing sheets on new bond and note issues in NJ, and the rates are creeping back up. John, care to weigh in here?
Danzud,
last i knew, and a quick google seems to confirm this,
Hovensa is a joint operation between Hess and PDVSA (Venezuelan state oil firm)
[82] lisoosh
So? Why not call the Repubs on it, by cutting spending and earmarks?
That’ll show ’em.
Just to clarify -I’m for a flat tax on ALL income – whether it is salary or capital gains with no exemptions, write-offs or loopholes. A one page tax code and reasonably high standard deductable so that the truly poor workers can pay their bills.
Danzud,
a fun fact for you. 1 barrel of crude oil produces MORE then 1 barrel (equivalent) of refined products
#64:
The statistics underscore “two long-term trends: that income at the very top has exploded and their taxes have been cut dramatically,” said Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group that supports increasing taxes on high-income individuals.
I hope the Tea Partiers help these poor souls out…
#85- They should. Not sure what your point is here.
I am merely pointing out that the current political discourse is full of hypocrisy, lies and underhanded dealing – by BOTH parties and sides.
The person who takes a real, principled stand, both verbally and by their actions, is rare indeed.
[64] Lisoosh
“That rate is lower than the typical effective income tax rate paid by Americans with incomes in the low six figures, which is what each taxpayer in the top group earned in the first three hours of 2007.”
Now do you understand why I am so pissed?
[89] lisoosh
Like Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Az.)?
He doesn’t take a dime in earmarks yet he keeps getting elected.
Ayyyyy.
Shaun White looks like a girl but is a total bad*ss. America is still cooler than every other country, despite our problems.
89 lisoosh
I have long argued that the eventual evolution of congress is to become the UFC with tag-teaming.
[89] lisoosh
My point is that the dems lobbing hypocrisy chants are themselves hypocrites because they could stop the GOP in their tracks but don’t. They’d rather have the talking points.
We know that the Dems won’t shut the spigot, but if they did, it would force the GOP to either put up or shut up.
much of this will become moot when the rest of our work is offshored for $2/hr.
[86] lisoosh
Make that rate lower than the current effective tax rates for the cohorts you wish to attract, and you will have a massive capital inflow to the U.S., with the result that revenues would surge.
Of course, that would prove Laffer right, and no one on the left wants to do that.
I have just subscribed to your rss feed, I am hoping for many more similar posts to this.
Don’t know if anyone on the blog has been to the Court Tavern in New Brunswick but they are having a fundraising event on April 30th at the State Theatre. Looks like many good NB acts will be there Patti Smith, Smithereens, Hub City All Stars, Slaves of New Brunswick….maybe Ween and the Bouncing Souls will play as well.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100211/NEWS/2110339/Patti-Smith-Band–Smithereens-to-headline-show–ease-Court-Tavern%5C-s-financial-woes
[95] escapee
There’s two ways to avoid this without lowering our standard of living:
1) drive up the costs for the rest of the world—this has been unofficial policy of the left for some time, and is a factor in everything from human rights to environmental initiatives. I call it “inverse protectionism” and it is based on the competitive theory that if you can’t reduce your own costs, drive up the other guy’s costs.
2) protectionism. Would actually result in a lower standard of living, but not as dramatically as if we offshored everything. The left is dipping its toes into this pool by advocating measures that will introduce protectionism incrememtally.
Court Tavern in New Brunswick
They’re fitting all those acts in that place? Patti Smith and the Smithereens together could probably sell out the State Theater.
veto (75)-
We are all guido now.
plume (79)-
If I ever hit it big-time, the first thing that will happen is my plan for exiting the US gets accelerated.
Fomenting hatred of success is part of the master plan to enslave the rest of us.
The rich also fund a disproportionate amount of charity in the US as well.
I can tell you from personal experience that many rich folks these days can quite afford to continue their patterns of funding; however, they are becoming less-inclined to do so.
Hard to give when you’re the target of derision and resentment.
the rich only fund charity for the tax breaks.
Its a backdoor way to pay taxes and then get a pat on the back from society for being more generous than the selfish, overtaxed middle class.
103. Yeah. Derision. Kind of like all of those educators, cops, and firefighters.
Does melinda gates care more about the slobs on the soup kitchen line or the photo op that comes with the donation?
If Bill Gates could trick every bum on the street to buy Windows 7, he would do it.
Veto,
I made my largest donation ever to http://www.aynrand.org in December, even though I knew that the AMT was going to destroy my tax benefit more than ever.
They’re fighting for a future where no person can make a moral claim on my money or my life.
Great job A West. She was a so-so writer that lived much of her fabricated life as a lie. But hey….
Re [51]: “the draconian zero tolerance rules are just the latest method for teaching obedience to authority.”
Latest failed method, maybe. Kids today lack all manner of obedience — they are completely out of control. I invite anyone who disagrees to spend a few years teaching in the Philadelphia public school system.
Authorities will be able to control them in the dysfunctional future because of how uneducated and stupid they are, not because they’ve been taught obedience.
Who Gives and Who Doesnt
The second myth is that the people with the most money are the most generous. You’d think they’d be. After all, the rich should have the most to spare and households with incomes exceeding $1 million (about 7 percent of the population) make 50 percent of all charitable donations.
But while the rich do give more in overall dollars, according to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, people at the lower end of the income scale give almost 30 percent more of their income.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2682730&page=1
Nom[55];
Patent Office is hiring examiners again – see USAJOBS.
-Moose
Nom (79):
What was the effective tax rate of the top bracket payers when the tax was 92%?
I don’t recall the Ford’s and the Rockefeller’s leaving for greener pastures.
I’m not trying to argue, I’m just curious as to why it is different now?
Christie asks schools to prepare for 15 percent reduction in aid
School districts should expect 15 percent less cash from the state next year and consider “everything they can” to save money, New Jersey’s acting education commissioner said Wednesday
Bret Schundler, appearing with Governor Christie at a Union County middle school, said state officials will try to keep school aid steady for next year, but it may not be possible. And he defended Christie’s freezing of $475 million in state funds to local districts to help close a $2.2 billion gap in this year’s fiscal spending plan.
“We were forced to take action,” said Schundler, Christie’s nominee to head the Department of Education. “This was a tool that the governor could use and had to use or else we would have run out of money. If you run out of money, districts which do not have a surplus would have had to lay off teachers in the middle of the fiscal year.”
http://www.northjersey.com/news/021710_Christie_asks_schools_to_prepare_for_15_percent_reduction_in_aid.html
Stu, re:113, look around you. Much of the world has become pretty attractive compared to US. Far East, South America, standards of living are climbing as we stagnate.
Westy, i have no idea how you passed the cfa. there is so much material, it seems impossible. im half way done reading through the books.
Half is sinking in, the other half is not really sticking.
Ive prob come across most all the theories before in some way, shape, form – school/work, etc, but have never had to dump six thick books of info and 92 formulas into my short-term memory for immediate regurgitation.
i have a few questions for you if you wouldnt mind giving your personal advice on the subject.
Wyckoff settles police contract dispute
Wyckoff — Members of the police union would receive an average 2.71 percent annual salary increase under terms of a new seven-year pact which took more than two years to reach, township officials said Wednesday, Feb. 17.
“I think the negotiations were protracted and difficult,” said Mayor Rudolf Boonstra, “but I’m pleased that we have a settlement and a labor peace with our police officers. We’re looking to the future as far as our relationships with them go. I think it’s a fair contract and I’m happy that we settled.”
The agreement, which was mediated by the Public Employee Relations Commission and settled between both sides before an arbitration hearing was necessary, is retroactive to 2008. Once the contract is signed, union members will receive an instant 5.5 percent salary bump, reflective of the terms of the contract which include a 3 percent increase in 2008 and 2.5 percent in 2009. The township’s last contract with Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 261 expired in December 2007.
Officer Mark Tagliareni, who is president of the union, spoke positively of the long-anticipated agreement.
“We’re happy with the outcome. Everyone is pretty much relieved the process is over. It was a long, drawn-out process,” he said.
Under terms released Wednesday, officials said the contract also provides salary increases of 2.5 percent in 2010, 3 percent in 2011, 2.75 percent in 2012, 2.5 percent in 2013 and 2.75 percent in 2014.
A release issued by the township said top pay for a patrolman in 2010 would be $108,114. This pay level would only be reached after an officer goes through the 11 steps of the pay scale.
Beginning officers who are hired and must undergo training in the academy would be paid a salary of $41,384. After completing 20 weeks at that scale, an officer steps up to what is known as the “upon completion of academy” step, where the salary would be increased to $46,919. After the first full year of employment following training, the officer moves to Step One of the pay scale. From there the officer must complete nine additional steps (years) to reach the top pay rate.
Previously, the pay spectrum was nine steps; it would become 11 steps under the new pact. The pay rate at the academy step and the step upon completion of the academy are frozen for the duration of the new contract.
A pressing issue for the union was scheduling. The union sought a 12-hour workday, but did not get it. Despite this, the township adjusted the schedules of officers to reflect the actual number of hours they are scheduled for in a given year, rather than basing their salaries on the required number of annual hours, which was 2,080.
“We’re happy with the way the schedule was addressed,” Tagliareni said. “It addressed some of our concerns.”
Another major change in the new contract would be the requirement of officers to pay into their benefits. The 23 members of the union, which excludes the chief and captain, would contribute to the cost of health benefits: $480 for single coverage, $600 for parent/child or husband/wife and $720 for family coverage.
“[Paying for] health benefits is something new for us, but again, it’s basically what everyone in surrounding towns have been settling for. The amount we settled for was reasonable, and is something else that is going to save the town some money,” Tagliareni said.
The official announcement on the settlement said the township would save about $30,000 in arbitration expenses because officials were able to settle in the mediation phase.
Tagliareni said between paying into benefits, adding more steps and slowing wage increases were reasonable in light of the economy.
“I think it essentially reflects the economic times.”
Tagliareni said the contract has been ratified by both sides and he expected the contract to be signed by the parties within a few weeks.
Wyckoff — Members of the police union would receive an average 2.71 percent annual salary increase
under terms of a new seven-year pact which took more than two years to reach, township officials said Wednesday, Feb. 17.
“I think the negotiations were protracted and difficult,” said Mayor Rudolf Boonstra, “but I’m pleased that we have a settlement and a labor peace with our police officers. We’re looking to the future as far as our relationships with them go. I think it’s a fair contract and I’m happy that we settled.”
The agreement, which was mediated by the Public Employee Relations Commission and settled between both sides before an arbitration hearing was necessary, is retroactive to 2008. Once the contract is signed, union members will receive an instant 5.5 percent salary bump, reflective of the terms of the contract which include a 3 percent increase in 2008 and 2.5 percent in 2009. The township’s last contract with Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 261 expired in December 2007.
Officer Mark Tagliareni, who is president of the union, spoke positively of the long-anticipated agreement.
“We’re happy with the outcome. Everyone is pretty much relieved the process is over. It was a long, drawn-out process,” he said.
Under terms released Wednesday, officials said the contract also provides salary increases of 2.5 percent in 2010, 3 percent in 2011, 2.75 percent in 2012, 2.5 percent in 2013 and 2.75 percent in 2014.
A release issued by the township said top pay for a patrolman in 2010 would be $108,114. This pay level would only be reached after an officer goes through the 11 steps of the pay scale.
Beginning officers who are hired and must undergo training in the academy would be paid a salary of $41,384. After completing 20 weeks at that scale, an officer steps up to what is known as the “upon completion of academy” step, where the salary would be increased to $46,919. After the first full year of employment following training, the officer moves to Step One of the pay scale. From there the officer must complete nine additional steps (years) to reach the top pay rate.
Previously, the pay spectrum was nine steps; it would become 11 steps under the new pact. The pay rate at the academy step and the step upon completion of the academy are frozen for the duration of the new contract.
A pressing issue for the union was scheduling. The union sought a 12-hour workday, but did not get it. Despite this, the township adjusted the schedules of officers to reflect the actual number of hours they are scheduled for in a given year, rather than basing their salaries on the required number of annual hours, which was 2,080.
“We’re happy with the way the schedule was addressed,” Tagliareni said. “It addressed some of our concerns.”
Another major change in the new contract would be the requirement of officers to pay into their benefits. The 23 members of the union, which excludes the chief and captain, would contribute to the cost of health benefits: $480 for single coverage, $600 for parent/child or husband/wife and $720 for family coverage.
“[Paying for] health benefits is something new for us, but again, it’s basically what everyone in surrounding towns have been settling for. The amount we settled for was reasonable, and is something else that is going to save the town some money,” Tagliareni said.
The official announcement on the settlement said the township would save about $30,000 in arbitration expenses because officials were able to settle in the mediation phase.
Tagliareni said between paying into benefits, adding more steps and slowing wage increases were reasonable in light of the economy.
“I think it essentially reflects the economic times.”
Tagliareni said the contract has been ratified by both sides and he expected the contract to be signed by the parties within a few weeks.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/84609052_Wyckoff_settles_police_contract_dispute.html
ease of travel and internet also make it easier to leave.
Wyckoff, rough town.
[113] stu
You’d have to research it, but remember you cannot compare the current tax structure to the older ones. It’s apples and oranges.
In 1986, when the tax code was last restated, there were radical changes made in order to “broaden the base.” Thus, a lot more income was subject to tax than before, but in exchange, rates were lowered.
We look back at the 92% top marginal rates, but given the prevalence (and legality) of tax shelters, deferred compensation, fringe benefits, and other avoidance devices, that 92% rate probably resulted in very little (if any) revenue, as there was no incentive to take revenue at that level as it virtually all would have gone to Uncle Sam.
“Wyckoff, rough town.”
in NJ or Wyckoff Ave off Myrtle Ave out in Ridgewood, Queens?
neither is rough.
you want rough.. take the Metrô Rio after one too many drinks.
SAS
[103] schump
The administration wanted to further tighten the charitable tax breaks, which would have absolutely crushed donations from the wealthy. Also, the IRS is ramping up challenges to foundations, CRUTS, CRATS, and donor-advised funds. That may have accounted for some of the downdraft in charitable giving.
The nonprofit industry fought the administration proposal tooth and nail. But there is not only scrutiny of the donors, but lately there is scrutiny of the donees. So the nonprofit industry is going to find itself almost as unpopular with the government as HNW taxpayers.
Paging mr and mrs sucker.
Paging mr and mrs sucker.
Please report to the real estate office. We have sellers who need you to absorb their loss and fund their retirement.
Bought at peak in 2007 for $355k.
they are asking $355k.
Taxes are 9,500.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/14-Marilyn-Dr_East-Windsor_NJ_08512_1107459929
“Bought at peak in 2007 for $355k.”
does it have granite counter tops?
nothing like the smell of radon and the zap of radiation from my granite counter tops in the morning.
well worth the 50K price increase.
SAS
I really dont mind when sellers ask high prices. I realize many of them have to cover their loas.
but i just wish they would be honest about it and put the real story on the listing instead of using deceptive advertising… ie:
Instead of saying “Stunning Ranch Home!” it should say, “Looking for Sucker to Dump off Albatross”
Instead of saying “Brand New Restaurant Style Kitchen”, it should say, “Desperately Need an Idiot to Pay Off our Equity Loan”
Veto,
why dont you drop by and make an offer for about 280 or so?
“does it have granite counter tops?”
Im sorry to dissapoint you SAS, Truth is – NO the home does not have granite, but it does have gangs in the schools and the bumpiest, most pot-hole ridden roads in the state.
I do hope you will consider submitting an offer before prices drop further.
Mr Veto That
Brutally Honest Realtors, LLC
121 sas
““Wyckoff, rough town.”
in NJ or Wyckoff Ave off Myrtle Ave out in Ridgewood, Queens?
neither is rough.”
I’d light myself on fire before I moved back to Myrtle Ave in Queens. And Wyckoff wasn’t the best area either. Not the worst but certainly not the best.
SAS
come on man, radioactive water used to be all the rage
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/PopularScience/6-1939/med_radium_water.jpg
Now you can get it for free, just leave a jug of water on the counter for a week or so.
Plane crash in Austin Texas now appears to be intentional.
Pilot set his house on fire, then stole the plane.
Building houses IRS offices, among other things.
I have to talk to the IRS later today. I imagine they will be a bit unsettled.
“why dont you drop by and make an offer for about 280 or so?”
hyde, Actually not a bad idea. i do think its a good deal for someone at $250k, especially considering that it sold for $170k in 1997.
But when i see that they’ve bought so recently it assures me that they have to cover a mortgage and a lowball would do nothing but make them upset.
Also, we are not considering that town. Its prob not as bad as i joke about but it has lots of problems.
State Requires Deep Budget Cuts
February 18, 2010
Dear Staff:
Governor Chris Christie’s executive order requiring school districts to use surplus and reserve funds to supplant state aid for the remainder of the current school year will have a significant impact on Montclair, as well as in most districts across the state. The Governor’s plan will erode $1.96 million from Montclair’s 2009-2010 school budget.
More significantly, fund balances are used each year to offset taxes in the next fiscal year. Simply stated, we embark on the 2010-2011 budget process with $1.96 million in arrears. This budget season will be a most difficult one, given the state of our economy, the Governor’s executive order, the possibility of a reduction in 2010-2011state aid, and the Board of Education’s initial response to public pressure to curtail spending. The reality is that a number of positions, programs and services will suffer in the process.
Effective immediately, I am suspending all personnel hires, supply purchases, travel expenditures, and conference attendance not deemed to be of an emergency nature for the 2009-2010 school year..
Drastic measures are essential to maintain some sense of fiscal stability in these troubled times. Central Office staff will continue to keep you apprised of the District’s budget developments over the next few weeks.
Sincerely,
Frank Alvarez
http://www.montclair.k12.nj.us/Article.aspx?Id=546
looks like msm finally got the memo
Study: States must fill $1 trillion pension gap
Some may be forced to reduce benefits or raise taxes to address shortfall
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35448576/ns/us_news-life/
The Montclair Police are going to Arbitration. Recently Wycoff got 3%, but last year Paramus got 5%. It does seem that the arbitrators are getting a little less worse then they used to be.
Knicks got Tmac. I think I’ll go to the next game. NOT.
My tickets will once again be worth above PAR when the king comes to town.
Hey look,
I found plg’s tag line:
“A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought of his neighbor….
Men will not work for money, but for prestige, the approval of their fellows – not judgment, but public polls”
132 Gator
Where’s the part about raising property taxes to cover the cut? Is that going to be the surprise?
Veto[123];
Rather prophetic that Goggle maps calls the neighborhood “Millstone”.
Lost 137 – Oh, that’s coming, no doubt. I am also wondering what conference attendance is deemed to be of “emergency nature”. I am thinking likely a return trip to China so we can expand our Mandarin Chinese program as planned into Grade 3 next year.
Veto,
It is somewhat confusing as to why a home debtor believes that another party should eat their loss due to a poor purchase choice…
but hey isnt the new philosophy privatize gains, socialize losses?
Stu 134 – Wycoff did not get to arbitration. They settled at mediation.
Rather prophetic that Goggle maps calls the neighborhood “Millstone”.
Yeah from a wishful thinking prophet at that. Im surprised the agent didnt use that error to mislead the buyer base and generating some more interest.
139 Gator
How is it decided what languages are offered in the schools there? Is it by population or what they think the kids will need in the future? Here, its a combination of both.
Nom[130];
I’d be interested to learn what his beef was with the revenuers. No angels.
[136] hyde
No, here is plg’s take on work:
“We don’t agree with the capitalist assumption that starvation or greed are the only reasons people work.
People enjoy their work if it is meaningful and enhances their lives. They work out of a sense of responsibility
to their community and society. Although a long-term goal of socialism is to eliminate all but the most
enjoyable kinds of labor, we recognize that unappealing jobs will long remain. These tasks would be spread
among as many people as possible rather than distributed on the basis of class, race, ethnicity, or gender, as
they are under capitalism. And this undesirable work should be among the best, not the least, rewarded work
within the economy. For now, the burden should be placed on the employer to make work desirable by raising
wages, offering benefits and improving the work environment. In short, we believe that a combination of
social, economic, and moral incentives will motivate people to work.”
“it has lots of problems.”
Actually i should specify what i mean because East Windsor is a nice town in some areas but i have never seen so much affordable housing littered throughout.
There are really nice neighborhoods and farms bordering project like condo developments that sell for less than $80K for a 2 bedroom. Thats not exactly the best barrier to entry fr the school district.
Its no wonder there are gangs in the schools and the parking lots look like a scene from “The Fast and Furious”
[144] moose
must wait and see, along with the rest.
And I must take issue with the assertion that the folks at the IRS are somehow subhuman. I deal with them frequently, and most are quite pleasant and helpful. There are those whose job it is to get $$$ out of you, but they are generally professional about it. They’ll be the first to tell you that they don’t care for paying taxes either, but its the law of the land and they have to enforce it.
If we should be going after anyone with pitchforks, torches, or airplanes, its the Congresscritters.
I asked the former mayor of Glen Ridge and recent candidate for NJ governor if he felt that locals such as Montclair would raise property taxes by double digits to cover the shortfalls of aid from the state. Here is his reply:
“Each town will deal with it in its own way, but I don’t think you’ll see too many double-digit increases for at least 2 reasons:
1. The caps – while there is some wiggle room, especially in some towns – that only goes so far, especially with the levy cap.
2. The economy is still in the tank, and the taxpayer frustration is palpable.
I do think that you will see higher property tax increases statewide, but in the single digits. In most towns, there will be more bs bonding (bonding for police vehicles, etc) and, of course, in the usual places there will be more of the usual gimmicks. In addition, things will be deferred, or cut back, or both.
Of course, none of this addresses the major underlying causes. The new Governor has been saying some of the right things, but so did the last new governor, and we all know how far the went.”
Of course, keep in mind that he also wanted to reestablish Pluto as a planet.
“It is somewhat confusing as to why a home debtor believes that another party should eat their loss due to a poor purchase choice…”
The silver lining is at least they are using capitalistic means to find the sucker. all hope is not lost.
Recently, I was mildly amused to learn that, had I been injured on my last ski trip, one of my h.s. idols would have been my doctor:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/18/eric.heiden/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Someone just told me that a teabagger was flying that plane in Austin.
Oh Jamil, please tell me it’s just the MSM making it up.
[148] stu
Pluto was robbed. It is a planet!!!
[151] stu
Well, safe bet it isn’t a liberal democrat. The last liberal dem that could fly a plane crashed it in Vineyard Sound.
Here is the guy’s letter
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack1.html
135
Which king? Gustaf? I didn’t know he was a hoops fan.
The Cavs just bought a few rings for 30 days without Big Z. Is he Albanian?
No Lebron for you.
Damnit Gator,
You were right. Wycoff settled in mediation.
So why is Christie against reforming the bonding arbitration policies that continually screw each town?
Lost 143 – I believe that is decided by our BOE. Most of our elementary schools offer Spanish only to the children once/week. We have two schools that differ.
Edgemont, our public K-5 Montessori, offers both French and Spanish in their schools. However, students do not get a choice in which language they are assigned. They switch every year and I believe next fall’s Kindergarten classes will get French.
Nishuane offers Spanish, French and Mandarin. They are the pilot school for introducing Mandarin instruction to the district. I believe in Nishuane you have a choice in your child’s language instruction. Nishuane is only a K-2 school. Mandarin will follow the second graders into their 3-5 school Hillside in the fall. Nishuane is our largest elementary school (540 students in K-2 only) and I think putting Mandarin there was another gimmick to try and make the school more popular with parents. People in our town have a love-hate relationship with that school (personally I hate it) and because it is so big, it tends to be the dumping ground for the kids who don’t get a spot in the school requested by the parents.
Nom[153];
…and a terrible loss of an aircraft it was. The whole thing makes me think papa Joe K. made a deal with devil.
OMG, that thing goes on for six pages.
It sounds a lot like Clot.
I wonder what he thinks about it?
I guess he will respond when he gets back from his trip to tx.
Wait a minute???…
and [147];
If I can figure out when/where the next GTG is I’d love to offer my thoughts how “they didn’t deserve this” and “there’s a reason it happened here” are not mutually exclusive.
Mr Hyde,
Exactly, that quote was from Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead. The left’s real interest isn’t at all about economics, it’s about enforcing the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice at the point of a gun. Much more about dragging down than pulling up.
People who really care about the poor would see that most of their misery is self-inflicted by the acceptance and adoption of self-destructive behaviors and cultural “folkways”. But rather than accept that bad culture leads to bad results, people get the envy machine going, to blame someone else.
Of course, I’m even more hard-hearted than my wife on “compassion for the poor”. I was merely lower middle class in my youth, and did something about it. My wife’s family barely had any food, or books, or clothes until her teens, and she went on to get two postgraduate degrees, immigrate, build a career. Just about anyone born in the US was born with more opportunities than she had, but so when she sees people ignoring free libraries while preaching about their moral claim to tax our earnings, she says “drop dead”. People who sneer at “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” should start sneering at all the people too lazy to even get up early in the morning and put on their workboots.
100.schabadoo says:
“They’re fitting all those acts in that place? Patti Smith and the Smithereens together could probably sell out the State Theater.”
Just a guess about Ween and Bouncing Souls….but the others from what I have heard have committed.
Should be a good show…..saw Glen Burtnick (he was in Slaves of NB and Hub City All Stars I believe)and friends on Saturday do the entire “Who’s Next” album at The State Theatre…..they were great!
Schumpeter says:
February 18, 2010 at 11:48 am
plume (79)- If I ever hit it big-time, the first thing that will happen is my plan for exiting the US gets accelerated.
Fomenting hatred of success is part of the master plan to enslave the rest of us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1P0eEDbm3s
Veto,
you can pm me about the CFA.
zazndzrezw.zhz.wzezszt@gzmazizl.czomz
btw, there isn’t a z in my email address.
[154] veto
Wow, what a screed. Sounds like something I’d read here.
BTW, where’s clot? Haven’t heard from him since this started.
Nom, honestly, im reading that letter and its basically the same thing as reading this blog every day, only its all one post. lol.
if it hasn’t been posted ..
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack1.html
online screed of wacko who burnt his house and crashed a plane in Austin. target: IRS
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
February 18, 2010 at 11:22 am
[64] Lisoosh
“That rate is lower than the typical effective income tax rate paid by Americans with incomes in the low six figures, which is what each taxpayer in the top group earned in the first three hours of 2007.”
“Now do you understand why I am so pissed? ”
Yes, but why not rail against the truly wealthy and the system that keeps them there rather than b!tch about the truly poor?
157 Gator
For some reason it didn’t click that you were talking about elementary schools. Here, the majority, if not all elementary schools do not offer foreign language. The middle schools have cut back to once or twice a week. High schools are the only ones that offer foreign language. They used to offer French, Spanish and Italian. French was cut from the largest high school. However, they do have institute classes were Latin is the only option. The voc. school only offers one year of Spanish. And the specialized high school only offers Russian. I’m not sure about the other schools here in SI. However, I know that many schools in other parts of the city offer Chinese (not sure what dialects). The funny thing is they all offer ELL (English Language Learner) classes every day, some several periods a day. English has become the foreign language.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
February 18, 2010 at 11:24 am
[89] lisoosh
Like Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Az.)?
“He doesn’t take a dime in earmarks yet he keeps getting elected.”
Good for him, sounds like a keeper. Better than that Repub. dude in Florida who keeps voting against bills then posturing in the local papers and taking awards for all the money he is “bringing” in. Even the local rag has started calling him on his two faced BS.
“online screed of wacko who burnt his house and crashed a plane in Austin”
Yikes, if you read the screed you learn that he is not crazy at all, just pushed way past breaking point and did something really stupid.
#94 -Nom – I WISH one party would force the other to put up or shut up. They won’t, because the system suits them nicely. Block one side, make them look bad, win an election, wash rinse repeat.
To h@ll with the country.
West
/philosopher Hyde ON
I significantly improved my personal outlook on life when I came to the conclusion that i am personally responsible for the majority of my misery. Whether i realize it or not i have most likely inflicted it upon myself.
As such the solution to said misery is also in ones own hands.
/philosopher Hyde Off
Schumpeter says:
February 18, 2010 at 11:50 am
“The rich also fund a disproportionate amount of charity in the US as well.”
Lower incomes actually give a bigger proportion of their money than the rich. Rich give more nominally because they have more.
Poorer people give more to religions and basic needs charities – food banks etc. Richer people are more likely to give to the arts, universities and health.
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/02/19/Poor-Give-More-to-Charity/
The screed was excellent until he mentioned the lack of any recession in Hoboken.
Lisoosh
Yes, but why not rail against the truly wealthy and the system that keeps them there rather than b!tch about the truly poor?
While i have issue with corporatism, i have no issues with the wealthy per se. Ae you suggesting that the truly wealthy wouldn’t most likely stay that way of their own volition? I am not sure i understand your comment.
The way i see it, we should apply the same rules to everyone and let the bell curve settle itself out. I.E. a flat tax. everyone pays 15% of ALL income above X dollars (say 30,000 or so).
I read somewhere that us Hebes give more money to the NAACP than the brothas. I always found this fact fascinating, but not that surprising.
Lisoosh,
Poorer people give more to religions and basic needs charities – food banks etc. Richer people are more likely to give to the arts, universities and health.
not to start a Jihad here, but this raises an interesting issue.It can be debated that giving to religious organizations is a generally poor way to give. Granted i have some personal issues with religion in general.
Is donating 5% of your income to the catholic church the wisest decision when your family income is 30K?
/Flame suit on
Hyde,
I knew it was some company that started with a P. and I knew that Venezuelan crude generally was not the same quality as WTI. Doesn’t matter, in a couple of years, that crude will be going to China and not here.
Think we’ll see many copy cats?
Fortunately for me, I don’t see the impetus for people to drive their sh1tty old American cars into my print plant office window. Better park Gator’s truck in front of it, just in case.
Mr Hyde says:
February 18, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Lisoosh
” Ae you suggesting that the truly wealthy wouldn’t most likely stay that way of their own volition? I am not sure i understand your comment.
The way i see it, we should apply the same rules to everyone and let the bell curve settle itself out. I.E. a flat tax. everyone pays 15% of ALL income above X dollars (say 30,000 or so).”
I agree with the flat tax, I said so upthread.
Was picking on Nom and his complaint about the ultra wealthy while he hews to a very partisan line. All in good fun of course.
Mr Hyde says:
February 18, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Lisoosh,
“not to start a Jihad here, but this raises an interesting issue.It can be debated that giving to religious organizations is a generally poor way to give. Granted i have some personal issues with religion in general.
Is donating 5% of your income to the catholic church the wisest decision when your family income is 30K?”
True. Not sure how it breaks down. What percentage is tithing for instance. How much money goes to missionaries? Jews give to Federations which distribute money – some goes to community relations, some to eldercare, some to schools etc. Don’t know if that counts as religious or basic needs. Same with some religious charities which also support food banks.
Lost 169 – 2 of our 6 elementary schools have extensive ESL programs. Because there are only 2 schools that offer these services in the district, ESL students get priority for available seats.
We have to rank our school preferences for Lil Gator next month, as Montclair uses a magnet system to integrate the schools instead of sending each child to their neighborhood school. We have to factor in 3 different possible start times (earliest school starts at 8:20, latest starts at 9:20), availability of busing (we do not qualify for busing to 2 of the 6 schools) and available seats for incoming students (siblings automatically get into the same school unless the parents request otherwise). One of our schools, the most requested, only has 25 available seats and ESL students get priority there. The 9:20 school would require us to pay for both before care and enrichment, which we are hoping to avoid both to make Lil Gator’s day more manageable and to try and save on expenses since we have not gotten any raises in the last 2 years. Busing is actually preferable to us if Lil gator goes to a school that starts at 8:50, as it will also help us to avoid before care.
The 8:20 start school with so few seats is actually our first choice. But if we rank it first, there’s only a small chance we will get it, and it makes it less likely that we would get our next choice, as a family who ranks the other school 1 would get priority for it over us.
And up through last year, the district used straight up race as a criteria for school assignments. This year they are switching to residential zones to try and comply with the 2007 SC decision regarding school desegregation plans. We do not know what zone we will be placed in, and this would impact our rankings, as we’d be more likely to get our top choice school if we were zoned with the south end of town (those families are more likely to select Nishuane as their first choice school).
It’s enough to give me a headache.
hmmm… seems the manifesto of the guy who flew the plane into the building is pro-obamacare, rails against the catholic church and ends it w/a missive against capitalism… not sure how that squares with the “tea partiers”
let’s face it, the guy was just a nut and seems to be all over the map politically… it only serves to make a bad action worse by making political hay of it
The end is at hand….
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/plane_hits_building_in_austin_tx_RtOlnluhjKozyjw2m2D3IL#
” the Governors executive order”
If this were not so pathetic coming from an educator, it would be funny.
Mr. Superintendent, it is not a plural, it is a possessive:
Governors = multiple people holding the title of Governor
Governor’s = something belonging to the Governor.
[168] lisoosh
When was I bitching about the truly poor???
As for your flat tax concept, there is a great deal of support in academic circles for it. Fact is, however, it would be a very hard sell to reform the entire tax code in that way.
Would be glad to lend you my copy of “Showdown at Gucci Gulch” sometime. It is all about the politics of getting TRA 86 done, and was required reading in the NYU Graduate Tax Program’s Tax Policy course (one of the very few courses I aced there).
Gator,
To add to your headache, I called the school administrator and she is not answering. I will try again tomorrow morning when things are less hectic around here.
Chifi,
I heard the guy torched his house then crashed into the local IRS office. Is that what is in the articles you have seen?
mmmmmmm…cocaine sausage….
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/drug_smuggler_swallows_condoms_of_HaZEIktgIB0UOG4aNTCEbM
oops, did not read up far enough.
Gator,
Very impressive district you have there.
[168] lisoosh
I don’t rail against those who, provided it was honestly derived, succeed and profit thereby. And I don’t have a problem, per se, with their level of taxation. I wish simply that my level of taxation bore some semblance to the fairness and justice we hear so often from the left, whose notions of fairness and justice can be distilled to the simple precept that it’s fair and just to take from those who have simply because they do have.
And because my “wealth” is in the form of wages, I can be forcibly exacted in a way that the uber-wealthy can avoid, and that the “poor” never have to worry about. And despite their adherence to Rawls, most liberal tax policy wonks fail to see how or why this bulge in the tax curve is somehow manifestly unfair (and even if they acknowledge it, as some do, they note that there’s nothing that can be done lest they deprive the fisc—-this is furthering the notion that “fairness” and “justice” are code words for government-sanctioned redistribution (or, as I’d put it, theft)).
#132 Our local school board in the Atlanta area just approved $16 million in budget cuts for the current year and has been told to expect a shortfall of $60-100 million for FY2011. They started by cutting the district’s central office by 3.1%. Some background: the district is county-wide with 114 schools and a little over 106,000 students. The FY2010 budget was $907 million. The superintendent makes $224,500.
BTW, in case anyone was wondering, I cannot fly a plane.
Shore 192 – You might not think so, if you actually toured some of the schools.
AWest, 161
Amen, brother!
I work my fu*cking ass off to make my living. I sacrificed many, many things – too numerous to get into here.
My family barely middle class.. dad worked, mom nuts — and too depressed/lazy/self absorbed to give shit….
Found out you didn’t just “go” to college, you had to apply, interview etc. (neither mom nor dad went to college) Found out in like Jan or Feb.
Mad rush to try and get forms in, done — had a guidance counselor who cared and older sisters (in nursing schools) to help a bit.
Got in, did well — went to med school — so it goes. Some days I look back and wonder how the fu*ck I made it, at all.
sl
Nom, reality is govt fears flight of capital risk meaning we’ll be stuck with status quo for a very long time. Our only hope is that government controls its costs therefore I’m not very hopeful.
lisoosh, 182
“Granted i have some personal issues with religion in general.”
Amen, sister!
I am slowly inching my way towards a totally agnostic outlook.
No matter. All Jews, Christians, Buddhist, Hindi, Protestants, Baptists, Jainists, etc are about to be outnumbered in the next couple of centuries…
sl
Outofstater 194 – Our Superintendent earns $216k/year in a district that is comprised of 7 elementary schools, 3 middle schools and a single high school. The district is for a single town pop 39,000. There are under 7,000 students in the Montclair Public Schools. Annual budget in 2008 was $110M.
183 Gator
That’s a huge difference in start time. Do you know why that is? Is there some kind of morning tutorial program at the school with the later start time? This is going to be a tough choice and I’m sure you won’t be the only family struggling with it. I don’t know how they got away with using race as a component in deciding who goes where, other then if desegregation was the issue. However, wouldn’t the family have to want to send their child there as a first choice? I mean they can’t just pick some random child and tell the family that the child is going to this school because there are too many ____ children in this school and we need to break it up a bit? Or can they?
Andrew Wood:
http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/M/motherlovebonelyrics/motherlovebonecrownofthornslyrics.htm
plume (165)-
I nominate that guy for a medal of honor.
174: Gotta donate so Admissionw will overlook Graydon’s little setbacks at boarding school.
Richer people are more likely to give to the arts, universities and health.
Gator,
You might find it amusing to put together a PowerPoint for the next Board of Ed meeting. The topic? Possessives, plurals, and plural possessives.
[198] escapee
They fear it, and the response is to try to keep it, or at least get a pound on the way out. That was what the HEART Act exit tax was all about. And other measures.
We are rapidly escalating toward a situation where the feds expand their defintion of “nexus” and try to impose tax on foreign nationals. Treaties notwithstanding, I don’t expect those foreign governments to roll over; they will protect their own wealthy nationals, much like some in Switzerland want to do.
Our response will be to blackball such countries and their institutions, as we have threatened to do. But are we really going to blackball half the earth?
#200 Gator – And multiply that salary by how many districts in NJ? About 600? What in the world is the solution??
[203] Schump
Clot! You survived the crash???
gator (183)-
You should make it a priority to get out of that town before school starts.
Lost 201 – The staggered start times are because most kids are bussed to school in the magnet system. They all share the same district buses.
The magnet system was designed to integrate the district. When straight forced busing was attempted in the 70s, the wealthier residents simply pulled their kids out of the public schools rather than send them to schools across town.
While school choice is factored in, you are not guaranteed the school of your choice. I know many kids who have gotten assigned to the school that was ranked 6th by their parents.
At the end of the day, the district’s main goal is to achieve racial balance in the schools which trying to accomodate parental choice. In practice, most of the minority families in the south end of town pick their neighborhood school, which is the largest in the district, as their top choice. Non-minority kids who are not lucky enough to get lotteried into other schools in town often end up at that school by default because it is the only one with space available.
That school tends to be the last choice of working parents because of it’s late start time. The district would probably eliminate half of the objections to that school if they moved it to the 8:20 start instead, but there probably aren’t enough buses available at that time because the middle schools start between 7 and 8.
[204] relo
There is a study on giving by alumni that I read recently; it suggested that, on average, folks give repeatedly and generously to their alma maters when their oldest kids enter high school, and stop right after the last one goes to college.
I have already discussed it with the missus, and Villanova will get our checks, not my alma mater, because of the strong alumni base and the enhanced prospects for financial aid (I can hear lisoosh now, wondering how I can qualify for financial aid if I am making generous donations. Sorry lisoosh, that’s a trade secret).
plume (208)-
I’m like OBL. I just egg others on when it comes to making oneself a smoldering cinder in the name of proving a point.
I’m working on finding somebody to give Stu & Gator a hand by flying into Montclair’s municipal bldg.
Seems like they’ve got everybody there hooked on chai lattes and pounded millet cakes. This is worse than putting Ambi@n in the water.
Shore,
The texas pilot’s note:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/18/stack.letter.pdf?hpt=T1
Lost,
I’ve been arguing this point as reverse racist since the first day I heard of it. We do have forced integration. In the bastion of progressiveness known as Montclair, blacks are able to select which school they would like to attend, the rest of us are essentially in a lottery. My solution has always been to put everyone in a lottery, but I suppose our magnets only attract people from the south side of town. The rest of us white folk are inert.
Clot 209 – I’m trying, but Stu is still trying to get tomorrow’s price today. I am registering Lil Gator in Montclair as our backup plan, but I am not all that optimisitic that we will find something to purchase by fall. And the rental market in GR is tiny….not sure what kind of options we will find there.
Stu is advocating I roll the dice and try and get Lil Gator into the school with few openings…which means he is more likely to get assigned to the school that I hate. Stu’s already been forwarned that if that’s how this plays out, it will be his responsibility to strong arm the district into reassigning him, or he will have to fork over whatever amount of money is necessary to move.
re: tax fairness. I pulled a 100 hr week last week at work. at least 30 of those hrs went to the gov’t. what percent of that ends up going toward somebody’s ability to retire at 50 with lifetime pension, COL raises and benefits, who knows, but that is the real scam that eats me up. Taxes are unfair because increasingly the productive pay for unproductivity.
Gator,
the district’s main goal is to achieve racial balance in the schools which trying to accomodate parental choice.
Why is this BS still going on? there is no forced racial segregation.
In the northeast people dont discriminate based on race, but based on wealth.
attempting to force a prescribe racial mixture is doomed to failure, a waste of resources and right up there with affirmative action in my opinion.
I guess some pigs are more equal then others
Stu 215
you could get a Nobel prize for that. The existence of monopoles has been shown to be hypothetically possible but never observed or proven to actually exist.
Skep,
I work 1099, so i see every penny the government take. Most W2 workers have no real idea how much they are actually paying to the government.
Hyde,
When I mention this point to anyone willing to listen, they all pretty much say my view is racist. It’s tough to argue when the masses are asses.
Hyde – In Montclair the town is very diverse, but not well integrated. There are almost no African Americans in the wealthier parts of town. Returning to neighborhood schools would result in some schools being over 90% white and others almost 100% black. There’s an interesting video on the local PTA website called “Our Schools, Our Town” which details the origins of the magnet system. http://montclairpta.org/
I’ve toured several of the schools and even with forced integration I still see inequities. A lot of the technology and extras found in the north end schools (smartboards, extra classroom computers, newer computers, fancy science labs, kilns for the art rooms, etc) are nowhere to be found in Nishuane. The reason for that is that they were purchased with funds raised by the school’s PTA. The are more families who are not affluent in Nishuane, and as such are unable to donate money for these items. Also, since Nishuane is the district “dumping ground” for people who don’t get their choice, the PTA is less engaged in this school than in others.
There was a noticeable difference.
[212] schump,
What I will enjoy is trying to watch the left spin this event. Their natural inclination is to label him a right wing wacko, and by implication label everyone not in love with Chairman O as a potential nutjob killer, but I think that tactic backfires to a degree.
Better to marginalize Joe “Blown” Stack as an isolated case of nuttery.
Bumper stickers all over West Windsor proudly proclaim, “Firing Public School Teachers? I wont stand for it.”
Discuss amongst yourselves.
still looking, (197)
I started college in a similar environment. Even though my SATs were 99th percentile, my grades were weak, because I wasn’t applying myself. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in a family that didn’t have a clue or a connection or savings. I didn’t understand the process for applying to schools, and lacked some key documentation for applying for scholarships, etc, due to family having no clue of how higher education worked. HS guidance department suggested I try boot camp, pretty much imposible and useless.
I ended up enrolling 1 week late to the local community college, and they made me take a placement exam because they didn’t bother to ask if I had SAT scores.
Then they said that I made the highest verbal score they’d ever seen. Given my near death experience of graduating from high school, no job, no college, thanks to bad grades, I decided to work harder to get good grades, exited 4.0 out of community college, and transferred into the regional state university, decided that finance was a more useful subject than the economics I’d been studying on my own. I finally had a career counselor, my finance professor in whose class I was the top student. On my first and only counseling session, he told me to get out of the finance profession, because I would be “crucified in the business world” for being “an intellectual”.
Anyway, I graduated Summa Cum Laude out of undergraduate school, was fortunate to find an employer in global investing who was sympathetic to my freedom loving ideas (Cuban immigrant). A few years later I finished the CFA program on my own dime. I worked my way through NYU’s MBA program, also self-financed, where I finished second in my class, and was applying what I learned to my investing strategies. And my education has continued to give me a competitive edge over peers who didn’t really try to make the most of what was in the curriculum. I’ve certainly never made investment banker money, but nearly 20 years into my investment career, I have a track record of delivering value to investors and the firms I work for, and am finally getting further ahead of the high NJ cost of living.
Anyway, I learned at the age of 17 that my lack of effort (in high school) would lead to negative consequences to my life. After that, I worked a lot harder.
Stu,
Their point of view makes perfect sense if you believe that little boys only play war because we give them GI Joes’s to play with instead of dolls and tea parties.
By the way, that experiment was done in the 70’s. The little boys play war with Barbie while Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes have tea.
Nom[195];
I’ll be sure to note that skill on my resume when applying for admission to the Nompound.
“Bumper stickers all over West Windsor proudly proclaim, “Firing Public School Teachers? I wont stand for it.”
Get one that reads, “Bumper stickers all over West Windsor proudly proclaim, “Public School Teachers? I won’t pay for it.”
Where’s freedy?
I got a letter from citi saying that my credit card will now have a $75 annual fee, unless i can charge over $4,000 per year.
I called them up to cancel the card. Waited about 45 minutes on hold before an operator answered the call.
Me: I’d like to cancel the card.
Citi: Ok, no problem. Is that all?
Me: Yes thats all.
Citi: Good bye.
Me: Good bye.
Gator,
There probably are social issues that need to be addressed, but trying to get equal proportions of various skin colors in a given building is not the way to do it.
The core issue there is economic disparity.
In what situation does a wealthier school district not have better resources unless you instituted a truly socialist system and redistributed all resources so that no one has more then anyone else?
Stu and Gator
Sounds like you guys (and the little ones) are in a sh!t position. Gator I tend to agree with you, that shooting for the school with the least number of seats is going to put you in the worst position.
In SI, the same thing existed at the high school level. However, it only involved 2 schools so kids went from one end of the island to the other to de-segregate the schools. I cannot speak for families where there were more students of color because I wasn’t working in a school in that area at that time. However, I was working in the school with the majority of white students. Their parents made it clear they were not happy “those kids were allowed to go to our school”.
To my knowledge, elementary and middle schools here are still neighborhood schools. However, the neighborhood high school is a thing of the past. Admission is based on application. There are no guarantees that even if a student lives in what used to be the school zone that they will be admitted to the closest school.
Stu,
Why don’t you just abandon those commies in your town? The bus from Scotch Plains arrives in the port authority in an hour, the train and PATH to downtown in an hour fifteen. Businessweek’s best affordable suburb in NJ in 2009, kids can walk to elementary school from the house I’ll be selling.
There must be some other towns and directions you can go – do you have a stake tying you down there?
Hyde 230 – Only problem is there is no wealthier district here. The schools I mention are all in the same school district.
grim,
233 in mod
Mr Hyde says:
In the northeast people dont discriminate based on race, but based on wealth.
Ket is this a joke?
[228] stu
Might I suggest adding “Greedy” to the front of “Public School Teachers: I won’t pay for it.”
Stu, Gator. We are in New Brunswick. We did s cross border transfer for our son so he could get into the “exclusive” blue ribbon k-8 on the other side of town. Montclair’s worst school is still probably better than the one he is a attending and you know what? Its a pretty decent school. Not worth worrying about in these early grades.
[232] A. West
Stu,
Better yet, buy my house in more prestigious Westfield, and little gator can walk one block to elementary school. Also on RVL line (and closer than SP).
Get one that reads, “Public School Teachers? I won’t pay for it.”
Stu, Or:
“I voted for your tax increase.”
Lost 235,
You will have discrimination between different ethnic and social groups no matter what. But from my personal experience, having lived in the southeast, discrimination in the Northeast is predominantly based on wealth or the appearance there of as opposed to skin color.
Gator,
perhaps i misunderstood the info you put up, feel free to correct me. But the disparity seems to be divided along the usual income and parent involvement lines. if that is the case then i do not believe that there is any silver bullet.
Assuming my assumption on the resource divisions are accurate, then you will always end up with that disparity. Racists policies enacted in the name of equality are no less offensive.
I went back and read Joe Blown Stack’s screed.
It really does sound like clot at the end.
“discrimination in the Northeast is predominantly based on wealth or the appearance there of as opposed to skin color.”
ket, It’s really hard to differentiate since minorities and low earners are basically the same group.
Nom, Its actualy hard to argue with his page 6.
240 Hyde
I agree that wealth plays a part in discrimination. However, I think that plays a stronger role within the the same ethnic group. I think that when it comes to different ethnic groups, wealth is a step in the discrimination ladder. But that ladder eventually leads to a racial issue.
Barbara – I am generally not worried about where the Lil Guy will go. There are a bunch of things I do not like about Nishuane. The big issue I have with it is the size. It’s got twice as many Kindergarten classes as the other schools in the district. It’s way too big for little kids…and in fact it was originally built as a middle school. Many of the kindergarten classes are actually in the basement. Or as our tour guide said “Ground Floor. It says not to call it a basement.” Stu also noticed that the classrooms were pretty sloppy and he was concerned about the level of mistakes in the work that was displayed in the classrooms when we were there. Outside of that, our real objection is the state time. A 9:20 start means Lil Gator will be in 2 hours of before care before his school day even starts. Aside from not wanting to pay for that, we think that’s just a little too much for a little 5 year old.
The only other school I wasn’t crazy about was our Montessori magnet. I found the teachers to be unimpressive and boring when I toured it.
I would be fine with any other school in the district. Convenience, rather than “theme” is likely going to guide our rankings. I have been told by the district that I am less likely to get my second choice school than someone who ranks it first, so the realist in me is most likely going to forego the small chance of getting our top school to minimize the chance of getting Nishuane.
Fed Hikes Discount rate, says it’s not tightening (yeah OK). Very, very. rare for the Fed to do this in between their meetings.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-hikes-discount-rate-says-not-tightening-2010-02-18?dist=afterbell
3b, this is just to give banks higher interest on their investments at the fed, while still keeping people from saving money.
#248 Me thinks it is more than that. Preparing the markets for tightening FF’s? I think today’s PPI# might have spooked them. Otherwise they could have waited until their March meeting. As I said, it is rare for the Fed to do anything in between their meetings. There is a message here.
Ticketmaster agrees to refunds for 14 Bruce Springsteen concerts
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/ticketmaster_agrees_to_refunds.html
3b, this fed move is not new news. There have been some good pieces in the journal over the last couple of weeks that analyze the heck out of it.
240: Has anyone else heard the radio spots from the Teacher’s Union? They’re “outing” the chronic mishandling of pension funding. Should be interesting.
Cleveland tops list of most miserable U.S. cities
Slew of Midwestern places crack the top 20, but then so does New York
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35449611/ns/business-us_business/
“I think today’s PPI# might have spooked them.”
Conspiracy theorists like us know that the fed wants inflation but the trick is to ignite it while making it seem like they are fighting it.
Hyde, while racial discrimination still exists. I am inclined to agree that socio-economic discrimination is the most dominant form of discrimination in this area. Given the extreme level of diversity in the NYC area people are more or less used to living among a buzillion different cultures. What people will not except living in their neighborhoods, going to their schools, are poor people, uneducated blue collar, and people who don’t maintain a comparable standard of living(i.e condition of home and number of residents).
I’m not sure if I approve of this or not but part of me totally understands why parents would want to send their kids to school in an area where the other students come from parents with a similar socio-economic background, nobody want to bring in the poor underprivileged because by and large the problems follow. I think that parenting is key and among the poor, it is not a real priority. In my mind things cannot be equal, the best that can be done is provide opportunities for poor children IF they are willing to take them. The current strategy of subsidizing poor district so they can underperform if madness.
@58 – lisoosh,
“safe – public floggings will be the next PPV spectator sport.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Gator,
I have learned that in the k-2 grades, they will display work with mistakes as they tend to display the entire class and in those grades, spelling phonically is acceptable while learnng to spell correctly. I get this info from my sis in law who is a principal in a good district in NJ. My kid makes mistakes left and right in his journal at school, but the words are generally phonically correct so they don’t consider it a problem at this grade level.
That two hours before school starts is rough for a 5 yr old. I’m glad I can SAH for now and our mornings are not rushed. He is tired when he gets home, which is why this Obama 8 hour school days stuff makes me crazy.
Gator
let me be clear. I don’t have an issue with the basic idea of aid. But it should be based strictly on socioeconomic status.
Discrimination is discrimination any way you cut it. Making a decision based on race or ethnicity is discrimination pure and simple
Jcer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qR0Uke2XNI&feature=youtube_gdata
Funny thing about Montclair and the racial/economic divide….there is a large population of wealthy blacks right over there in West Orange.They could afford to live in affluent Montclair. They choose to live together in West Orange. We all live in our own little ghettos.
@99, Comrade:
“There’s two ways to avoid this without lowering our standard of living:
1) drive up the costs for the rest of the world—this has been unofficial policy of the left for some time, and is a factor in everything from human rights to environmental initiatives. I call it “inverse protectionism” and it is based on the competitive theory that if you can’t reduce your own costs, drive up the other guy’s costs.
2) protectionism. Would actually result in a lower standard of living, but not as dramatically as if we offshored everything. The left is dipping its toes into this pool by advocating measures that will introduce protectionism incrememtally.”
#2 should make for some interesting bedfellows as Pat Buchanan and his camp have been beating the drum for this for decades.
“Veto,
I made my largest donation ever to http://www.aynrand.org in December, even though I knew that the AMT was going to destroy my tax benefit more than ever.
They’re fighting for a future where no person can make a moral claim on my money or my life.”
Is that your claim for charitable giving? Whoa, way to step up there and help the needy (yourself).
You might want to up the ante and send some love the way of the Cato Institute. Give until it hurts.
Inflation can be salvation for debt ONCE a government is no longer running a deficit. Until then, it is a millstone.
Veto That says:
February 18, 2010 at 2:21 pm
“online screed of wacko who burnt his house and crashed a plane in Austin”
Yikes, if you read the screed you learn that he is not crazy at all, just pushed way past breaking point and did something really stupid.
you say “really stupid” and I say “crazy.” Punching a cop would be stupid. Cursing out a clerk at Walgreens – stupid.
FLYING A PLANE INTO A BUILDING???? crazy
We’ll have to agree to disagree.
I was expecting the IRS building to crumble to the ground. I guess the Zionist minions forgot the Ryder truck full of thermite.
This wasnt the false flag I was expecting. The game is still on.
Dont mess with Texas
@200, Gator –
“Outofstater 194 – Our Superintendent earns $216k/year in a district that is comprised of 7 elementary schools, 3 middle schools and a single high school. The district is for a single town pop 39,000. There are under 7,000 students in the Montclair Public Schools. Annual budget in 2008 was $110M.”
Holy Christ. Your town is a tax black hole. I hope for your sake you can escape.
#199 – still – that quote was from Hyde. But yeah, I’m pretty much an agnostic who doesn’t eat pork. Though I’ve had some really interesting conversations with some rabbis and the odd priest.
Heres the suicide letter from the pilot.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack6.html
This guy was not crazy. He knew exactly what he was doing. Every man has a breaking point and he reached his.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
February 18, 2010 at 3:46 pm
[204] relo
“There is a study on giving by alumni that I read recently; it suggested that, on average, folks give repeatedly and generously to their alma maters when their oldest kids enter high school, and stop right after the last one goes to college.”
Yes. Naming rights is also popular among the extremely wealthy.
“(I can hear lisoosh now, wondering how I can qualify for financial aid if I am making generous donations. Sorry lisoosh, that’s a trade secret).”
Nope. Thought never crossed my mind. If you didn’t compartmentalize people according to preconceived notions of what you think they think based on the label you assign them you might realize this.
clot: beaten by Detroit….hang your head….
America’s Top 5 Most Miserable Cities
1. Cleveland, Ohio
2. Stockton, Calif.
3. Memphis, Tenn.
4. Detroit, Mich.
5. Flint, Mich.
Under the Christie’s logic, when something doesn’t work to his liking, you cut its funding. Which is fairly idiotic because the reason those things aren’t working to his liking is that they are UNDERFUNDED.
Take NJ transit for example. It doesn’t work well and its overcrowded. OK, so you cut the funding? Doesn’t that mean they need MORE funding.
Take the DEP. According to Chrisite it takes too long to get permits. Therefore, he suggests cutting the funding. Did it ever occur to him that the reason it takes so long for permits is because they are understaffed and underfunded?
Same goes for schools.
It is a bizarre logic that works well for wealthy taxpayers, but screws everyone else.
I vehemently disagree. Just because he is intelligent and writes reasonably well does not mean that he isn’t seriously impaired. I read that thing out of curiosity. He is cracked. If that is not apparent, then maybe you need to recognize what is written is a perception, and think logically what is reality.
As an example, there is a clear line between clot and this guy, although in a quick pass, you may not see it.
Al “The Thermostat” Gore says:
February 18, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Heres the suicide letter from the pilot.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack6.html
This guy was not crazy. He knew exactly what he was doing. Every man has a breaking point and he reached his.
You are trying too hard. Go to another topic.
plg says:
February 18, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Under the Christie’s logic, when something doesn’t work to his liking, you cut its funding. Which is fairly idiotic because the reason those things aren’t working to his liking is that they are UNDERFUNDED.
PLG, you really need to define wealthy taxpayers
“wealthy taxpayers”
For many folks, it means everyone else.
Of course, there is the Obama Rule, anyone family earning more than $200,000/yr.
Don’t lie shore guy,
its 250,000.
In NJ, the relevant tax is a millionare’s tax, which refers to income over 1,000,000. I think according to most definitions 1,000,000 per year makes you wealthy.
It is 16 times the median family income in NJ.
My own personal definition is closer to Obama’s. Which is income over 250K. That is four times the median income.
250,000 is wealthy in certain states, in NNJ its a great living, but not wealthy.
Barbara,
I agree with you on the 250K. It certainly means something very different in Idaho. In NJ, it is not easy livin on 250K. I agree with that, but we making hard choices.
Christie is repealing a millionares tax in NJ. To me, even in NJ if you make over 1,000,000 you are wealthy. This tax is on income OVER 1,000,000, so everything up to 1,000,000 is taxed at a lower rate. So this person getting taxed is still accruing wealth at an incredible rate.
Therefore, if the choice is between a millionare paying a 10% surcharge on income over 1,000,000 and thousands of middle class people struggling to get by on 40K having to pay 30% more to get to work on NJ transit….well you know where I stand.
Mother’s Little Helper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGYSHy1jQs
FDIC Opens A Massive New Office Near Chicago Just To Handle The Coming Tidal Wave Of Midwest Bank Closings They Are Expecting
“In fact, one new study has been released that estimates that 5 million houses and condominiums on which mortgages are now delinquent will go through foreclosure and be put on the market within the next few years.
Another devastating housing crisis would absolutely destroy the vast majority of small to mid-size banks in the United States. In such a scenario, the FDIC would definitely be able to make use of the new facilities that they are opening up around the United States.
There are even rumors that the big bankers do not intend for most small and mid-size bankers to survive the coming crisis. There are whispers that the big bankers see all of this economic turmoil as a great opportunity to “consolidate” the banking industry.”
Im batting well this year. There will be 9 national banks when this ends.
lack of funding isn’t the issue regarding the ineffectiveness of gov’t. it is lack of accountability. they need to learn to do more with less, just like everyone else.
lisoosh, 267
sorry, thought it was you… so much for trying to skim the posts while juggling three other projects…
Sadly, I like baby back ribs, stuffed pork chops, pork stir fry…
I would have *loved* to have heard those conversations!! [share??]
For entertainment purposes, I’ll share a work story… a patient (not my patient…) comes in declaring that s/he has peed this ‘worm’ into the toilet… and brings it with him/her in a tupperware container.
I look at it. It’s an earthworm. I tell my colleague..”saw the thing…it’s an earthworm. Completer with [fancy name for an earthworm part/identifier]”
Gets sent to the lab. Then to Mayo clinic. then report sent back to hospital.
So what does 10 days elapsed, a probable $500 pathology report, postage for said worm get you?
Diagnosis: earthworm.
I just shook my head. Oh, forgot…yes, patient does have a psych history…
..*shakes head* yes I do this for a living….*shakes head over and over*
sl
I shook
completer = complete
(obviously, I can’t type either…)
Time for scotch.
sl
skep-tic,
You may be right about accountability to some extent. I am adamantly against tenure for teachers.
I would love to see teachers give up tenure in exchange for higher pay. Termination absolutely has to be on the table in a job.
AWest. 225
Man oh man is *that* a familiar story.
Our society is just fuc.ked up beyond measure.
I think of Carl Icahn’s speech about how businesses are all doomed due to mediocre folks running them in many cases.
I have to hunt down the transcript for it… I think I may have posted it some time ago.
sl
Maybe Christy realizes that the millionaire tax not only drives existing businesspeople out of NJ, it discourages new companies from being set up here. The sort of companies that would grow and employ more people to do useful things over the next 20 years. Of course according to the lefty-p-guys on this board, wealthy businesspeople are unneccesary, because what we all really need are more government programs and employees in NJ, like solar power illuminated bike paths in impoverished areas, staffed by unionized knob polishers.
Skep:
“lack of funding isn’t the issue regarding the ineffectiveness of gov’t. it is lack of accountability.”
Finally something we agree upon. In theory I support nationalized health care. Unfortunately, I feel the excessive profits currently made by the insurance industry and drugmakers would dwarf the amount that would be wasted by the bureaucracy that would develop around Obamacare.
Veto & Kettle1,
which period was more inflationary during the RE bubble.. 80s RE bubble or the 2005 RE bubble?
might help clear some tings.
SAS
Stu,
It seems we all agree on accountability.
Instead of giving up on healthcare, why not think of ways to increase accountability within a nationalized healthcare system?
Why not think of ways to increase accountability within NJ transit?
For example, Why not tie pay increases to increased accountability? My example is if teachers give up tenure, they get a raise. If they don’t, they get a pay cut.
wow.. anyone get a load of sylvester stallone’s face?
eek gads! talk about falling out of the ugly tree. damn.
SAS
the teabagger terrorist
223.Comrade Nom Deplume says:
February 18, 2010 at 4:05 pm
[212] schump,
What I will enjoy is trying to watch the left spin this event. Their natural inclination is to label him a right wing wacko, and by implication label everyone not in love with Chairman O as a potential nutjob killer, but I think that tactic backfires to a degree.
Take a gander at this
According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools’ administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins’s child was disciplined for “improper behavior in his home” and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.
Sas
pc is already shutdown. Will post the inflation data tomorrow morning
November’s consequence:
A paralyzed government
Pat Buchanan sees election yielding
even more intractable division in D.C.
——————————————————————————–
Posted: February 18, 2010
5:01 pm Eastern
By Patrick J. Buchanan
——————————————————————————–
“I used to think it would take a great financial crisis to get both parties to the table, but we just had one,” said G. William Hoagland, a former adviser to the Senate Republican leadership on fiscal policy.
“These days, I wonder if this country is even governable.”
Quoted in the New York Times’ lead story, “Party Gridlock Feeds New Fear of a Debt Crisis,” Hoagland nailed it.
America faces a crisis of democracy.
At its heart is a fiscal crisis. After the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion, we are running a 2010 deficit of $1.6 trillion. Trillion-dollar deficits are projected through the Obama years, be they four or eight.
Wow! Buchanan’s book “The Death of the West” for just 99 cents — while supplies last
Long before 2016, however, holders of U.S. public debt will stop buying Treasury bills or start demanding higher interest rates to cover the growing risk of a default.
This week, a smoke detector went off. China, in December, had unloaded $45 billion of its $790 billion in T-bills. Is Beijing bailing out?
To assure the world we are not Greece writ large, the United States must soon adopt a visible plan for slashing the deficit.
There are three ways to do it. One is through growth that increases the tax revenue flowing into the Treasury and reduces the outflow for safety-net programs like unemployment insurance.
But growth only comes slowly and can take us only so far.
Needed is a combination of big budget cuts and tax hikes. But the only place one can get budget cuts of the magnitude required is from the big entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And the only place to get revenue of that magnitude is by raising taxes on the American middle class.
And here is where Barack Obama hits the wall.
Republicans are not going to give him a single vote for a tax increase. Not only would this violate a commitment most made to the people who elected them, it would be politically suicidal. For behind the GOP today, and its best hope of recapturing Congress in 2010, are the tea-party irregulars.
And tea partiers now play the role of Red Army commissars who sat at machine guns behind their own troops to shoot down any soldier who retreated or ran. Republicans who sign on to tax hikes cannot go home again.
Consider: Arlen Specter voted for the Obama stimulus and faced an immediate primary challenge from Pat Toomey, who took a 20-point lead, forcing Specter to quit the party to survive. Popular Gov. Charlie Crist embraced Obama on a Florida visit and got an immediate primary challenge from Marco Rubio, who now looks to be the next senator from Florida.
The tea-party folks are not into the Gerald Ford politics of compromise and consensus. They have seen what it produces: the inexorable growth of government.
Ex-Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican and co-chair of Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, has challenged the patriotism of conservatives who plant their feet in concrete.
“There isn’t a single sitting member of Congress – not one – that doesn’t know exactly where we’re headed. … And to use the politics of fear and hate and division on each other – we’re at a point right now where it doesn’t make a damn whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, if you’ve forgotten you’re an American.”
Simpson is right in his assertion that anti-tax Republicans went along with George W. Bush’s spending spree – for two wars, prescription drug benefits under Medicare and No Child Left Behind.
Where he is mistaken is in suggesting “fear and hate” are behind the opposition to tax hikes. History, principle and honest politics explain much of that hostility.
(Column continues below)
Ronald Reagan, who consented to tax hikes in the 1982 TEFRA bill, told this writer he was swindled. Promised three dollars in spending cuts for each dollar in tax increases, he got the reverse.
George H.W. Bush won election by pledging: “Read my lips! No new taxes!” He broke his pledge, leaving many of the faithful with egg all over their faces. That may have cost him the presidency.
Principled conservatives are resisting tax hikes because they believe government has grown too huge for the good of the country. And if that means putting the beast on a starvation diet – no new tax revenue to batten on – so be it. Cold turkey time.
Anticipating gains in November, Republicans will not give Obama any new taxes before then. After November, their ranks swollen by tea-party support, they will be even more intractable.
Where does that leave Obama – and us?
Later this year or early next, to avoid a debt crisis, Obama will ask Congress to raise taxes and pare back entitlement programs.
Republicans will fight the taxes to the last ditch. Democrats, having lost dozens of colleagues in the November massacre, will rebel against the cuts in social spending.
And a paralyzed government will drift closer toward the maelstrom.
Sas
from memory it’s been almost linear since the 80s
gsmls just put addresses on th eoutput of a public search. What next…price reductions. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah right.
these winter olymics bore me.
I never cheer for the Americans, I was cheer for the sap from the no name country.
These American athletes have the largest training budgets and the NBC just works on trying to create a celebrity.
also, USA had largest # of athletes attending the games. so, its a #s game.
The McTwist.
Thats nothing but an ice cream cone from the Fat Burger joint.
SAS
3b (249)-
The only consistent message I get from the Fed is that they have no idea what the fcuk they are doing.
…although I am enjoying Hoenig’s pronouncements since somebody started slipping him truth serum.
relo (252)-
I can’t wait until they start in on Orin Kramer by singling him out. Maybe he’ll get lynched.
chi (272)-
Thank you.
I think.
shore (275)-
wealthy = anyone with a job
i remember back in winter of 84… we were out in Sarajevo cause someone wanted to have a look see at Juan Samaranch.
This was alot of fun, cause we hit the jackpot when we opened that limousine door.
ya gotta love the IOC.
In any case, the East Germen women at that time were tough as nails.
SAS
sl (283)-
You should’ve offered that nutjob $100 to eat the earthworm.
Then tossed his ass out the door.
Schump, 305
Entirely too frustrating when not a single soul believes me when I announce “earthworm.”
Besides the simple logic:
1) what fu.cking earthworm would want to crawl up that person’s fetid nasty bits?
2) how would it *live* in said bladder? on leftover beer?? WTF?
3) maybe it crawled out of the poor houseplant that probably resides on the tank of said psycho’s toilet.
What makes my ass twitch is the *waste* Of course, said patient is un/under-insured and we, the stupid hobbled taxpayers, paid for that worm to travel, first class, to theMayo Clinic.
I would have settled for simply being allowed to walk in the room and tell said patient to their face, “You are a bald-faced, lying ignoramus. Oh- and Fu.ck You.”
sl
302.Schumpeter says:
February 18, 2010 at 9:25 pm
chi (272)- Thank you.
I think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D89eOYo0kpw&feature=related
LOST – WHERE THE FCUK ARE YOU?
I hate this song with a passion, along with the clowns singing, BUT….check these shitzes…..???!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2umJr_dGpw
chicagofinance says:
February 18, 2010 at 6:44 pm
I read that thing out of curiosity. He is cracked. If that is not apparent, then maybe you need to recognize what is written is a perception, and think logically what is reality.
As an example, there is a clear line between clot and this guy, although in a quick pass, you may not see it.
case in point: MIL has a place somewhat near clot that is a 2nd home. rents it out. couple years back, MIL pondered selling it. Told her to call Clot and talk about it.
MIL said he was very nice, they spoke for 20 mins, he broke everything down for her, pros and cons.
She said she recommended him to two friends based on a 20-min phoner (and my rec).
I have never met Clot/Schump.
plg says:
February 18, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Don’t lie shore guy,
its 250,000.
that is not “wealthy” for someone living in/around a city like NY, Boston, Phil, SF, LA, etc.
if you make it 10 years in a row, yes, you are in good shape. but if you have one year where you hit bonuses and make 250k … you are not ‘wealthy.’
308 ChiFi
I saw it. How can you hate that song? At least Alan still play?
309.Yikes says:
February 18, 2010 at 10:18 pm
She said she recommended him to two friends based on a 20-min phoner (and my rec). I have never met Clot/Schump.
Yikes: The first thing you notice with clot is the tinted bifocals and the dyed chest hair spilling out over his butterfly collar, buttoned-down paisley shirt that needs two more fastened. Then there is that unusual smell….I couldn’t place it, but I realized that it was smoking wood the he keeps in the back waist of his pants. When he produced them for me, I noted that he had sharpened the ends. When I inquired as to the reason, he mumbled something about impailing fascist bureaucrats…..I knew at that point to keep my distance….
Awesome show this week from John Stossel about the government school monopoly, and the unions/bureaucrats who fight against freedom in education.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/John-Stossel–84692012.html
311.lostinny aka The Tan-Trum says:
February 18, 2010 at 10:21 pm
308 ChiFi
How can you hate that song?
Because I prefer women…..
So only gay men like Somebody? Dude…
Yikes[309];
I’ve soured a bit on Clot since his third threat on my life. He may be the best, nicest, most honest REALTOR® on the planet, or at least in the state (my own experience notwithstanding), but the industry itself is fetid and corrupt. The Beast must be starved — recent events have largely furthered that worthy goal. Let the FTC bust the MLS monopoly, then nothing more can be done with it than light a match.
Anon, It’s not a monopoly, it’s a service with a strong network effect. If you don’t like it, do FSBO.
Would you mind if I posted advertisements on your front lawn?
Four years for a recovery could be a nasty dose of reality.
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