Back from the dead

I feel like I am relatively back from the dead after being sick for two weeks. One thing that is not back is the economy and I have a couple of thoughts about it, many might be seen as extreme, insensitive, or just plain unethical. So is the current economic markets and people in charge of the markets, so I will mark it up to good examples. Chris's thought, yes I will be referring to myself in the first person since I am my only reader it matters not.

• First thought, Texas is the most badass state in the union. Well now it is California has their high quality air standards and 330 days of sunshine in SoCal which is pretty awesome. Has anyone noticed the amount of debt the California is carrying and the implications of this debt to not only the economy but to real people and citizens of this nation, specifically the citizens of California. "California's budget deficit will reach $41.8 billion over the next 18 months,"(MSNBC) How does this happen, is this not the same state that got rid of their previous Governor for being fiscally irresponsible. Then the people decided the best person to lead them into the future was a world class Austrian weight lifter turned movie star. Who would of thunk, that there was a possibility that this can turn out horrible. Its not only the budget deficit that I find issue with, because of all the repercussions it will have to California. To cover the deficit the state is going to be forced to release prisoners, cut food for the remaining prisoners, halt public work projects (roads, bridges, community centers), shut down schools, cut state funds for public education making it unaffordable to receive an education at the 9 teir one facilities in the state. With the Terminator in charge I am expecting revolutionary ideas to fix the budget instead of more bond elections passing the debt down to future generations. Wait the Federal government accomplished that in one bill. The solutions the state have come up with outside of cutting public works and canceling contractors with the outrageous amounts of outsourced work. The state has decided to leave it up to the voters and lotto. Not to be rude, well I mean to be rude and take this with a grain of salt. The voters are stupid as hell in that state and shouldn't be depended on to fix this nor the Govenator. Remember this is the same state just 3 months ago saw their most important and decisive issue was making sure gays couldn't get married. Congrats California, now you have the peace of mind knowing that all the homosexuals will leave the state and marriage will be saved for ever and divorce rates will fall to zero leaving zero single parent homes and strength the values of the entire state. Now I hope that peace of mind will get you through the rolling blackouts this summer when the state cant pay the utility companies for the crazy amount of energy the state uses but doesn't produce (think ENRON). Back to the solutions. Solution one state sponsored online lotto and gambling. (KPBS) projected to generate 7.5 billion dollars a year. Everyone knows that gambling helps people save money and keeps families together and helps with overall community happiness. Solution two let the geniuses in California vote on proposition 1D and 1E. Proposition 1D
  

  "Proposition 1D would redirect existing tobacco tax money from California’s First 5 Program to fund other state health and human services programs for the next five years....If approved by voters, Proposition 1D would redirect $340 million of First 5’s unspent reserves on July 1, 2009, and divert future First 5 revenues in the amount of $268 million annually for the next five years. These
  funds would be redirected to the state general fund to run health and human services programs already provided by the state." (Mount Shasta News)

  How does a state with a 41.8 Billion dollar deficit have reserves? Proposition 1E
  

  "Proposition 1E is similar in nature to Proposition 1D. If approved, a large portion of funding from the Mental Health Services Act would be redirected to the state’s general fund to help pay for the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment program....If approved, 1E would temporarily redirect $226.7 million of these funds in 2009 and 2010, and between $226.7 million and $234 million in 2010 and 2011 to the general fund to support EPSDT. Currently, the federal government provides half of the funding for the EPSDT Program, which provides a broad range of screening and medically necessary treatment services." (Mount Shasta News)

  This just sounds brilliant, at a time when unemployment is at an all time high, veterans are returning with trauma, people are loosing their homes and life savings. This is absolutely the best time to cut funding for mental health care, this cant have any bad repercussions in any way. California say high to an increased homeless rate, then they will complain about bums and probably enact a law to send them to Stockton. Congrats Cali great weather, great environmental laws, and broke. What is going to happen when the summer hits, in cities like Oakland that has always had problems with its darker skinned citizens where a black man was shot in the subway by cops for no reason on new years. 4 officers were gunned down by some crazy. If the city is on this much of an edge in April, what is going to happen in the summer when its 101 no one has a job, so they can't afford air condition or electricity. So now you have a significant portion of your population jobless bored pissed off and doubtful that any change will effect them properly. That sounds like all the ingredients of a riot which gets attention to needs but also destroys the city costing the state and local government more money to fix, but they wont because they are now broke and need to balance the budget. So now a large scale of the broken window theory will come into effect. If people see a broken window they are more likely to break other windows around it for what ever reason. This can be applied in the same manner if people live in an environment that is decimated for whatever reason they are more likely to destroy the community more. With the lack of business's who had to close due to the destruction, lack of income since no one has a job and lack of insurance money because insurance companies are also trying to pad their books after dumb investments. The communities get worse. Don't feel bad California you not alone in this New York, Ohio, Michigan to name three feel your pain and don't give a damn. So next time someone from California criticizes the way the state is run ask them where are there Tax Refund checks that they are owed since it is there money.
  

  When Camarillo, Calif., resident Christine Hughes logs in to check on the status of her ($1000) refund, all she sees is this disheartening message:
  “Your refund cannot be issued at this time. Due to the state’s persistent cash flow problems, the State Controller has directed (this agency) to stop sending refund requests to the State Controller’s office for processing.”(Redtape.MSNBC.com)



• Gov. Patterson couldn't sell water to fish. How does a Governor come into office with the momentum of following one of the most embarrassing scandals in state history, which really wasn't that bad when put in context against someone like the former SEC chair MADOFF and proceed to crash his approval ratings to under 25%. It took Bush years to get that low of an approval rating and he had to really try, remember we elected him Twice. While Patterson is busy lambasting SNL for making a seemingly inappropriate reference to his disability New York is having their own financial crisis not related to wall street. The Melting pot of the world, the Big Apple, another state run by idiots. New York's projected deficit is a paltry $16 Billion. This is the same state that had enough money to build a billion dollar New York Yankees stadium with primarily public money, a 800 million dollar plus New York Mets Stadium also with primarily public money. Wants to use money to build a billion dollar stadium for the NY Jets of New Jersey in Manhattan, and also say they need a new stadium for the NJ Nets projected move to Brooklyn. Priorities, where were they, why would the city, state use public money for baseball stadiums. Its not like the Yankees or mets are going to move. Right the Yankees are going to leave the biggest media market and move to Jersey or Virginia. Its not like the Yankees are broke their payroll is almost a quarter of a billion dollars every year. That can't be attributed to Gov. Patterson just everyone else with decision making abilities in the state. Gov. Patterson was just sworn in less than 1 year ago, and his first revelation to the people of new york. Is that Patterson has had a thing for strippers in the past, so once again Spitzer doesn't seem so immoral. On March 24th 2009 the New york times reported The state budget division reported on Tuesday that expected revenues for the coming fiscal year have dropped yet again, increasing the projected budget deficit by another $2.2 billion, bringing the gap to somewhere north of $16 billion. Who are creating these budgets, if revenues have dropped 2 billion, the government was still creating budgets with 14 billion dollar deficits. That sounds like someone is not doing their jobs, to know you have a deficit. Budget not accounting the deficit, then become flustered when the deficit grows less than 20 percent. This isn't something that happened overnight much like most Americans the State of New york was living out of their means. You might have every store in the world and second rate celebrities and history. I have more money to spend than the state of New York. That's not logical. Put in this difficult situation Patterson was looked upon to come up with solutions. Though New Yorkers are notoriously i believed mislabeled as assholes, i don't think they were expecting miracles just common sense. Remind my 1 reader somehow the state of New York doesn't only have the second largest budget in the country only to California who has twice as many citizens and a budget that is about 40% more at $132 billion dollars New York is confused what to do when your tax base looses their jobs. The New Budget of New York Increases spending and increases taxes while not so much increasing services. Part of the budget deficit was alleviated by the one time federal bailout of approximately 6 billion dollars.
  

  schools would get about $1.1 billion added to their aid, now at about $21 billion... $170 million in spending for legislators' pet projects back home, often announced in re-election years like 2010 will be, was untouched....The agreement will increase the current top rate of 6.85 percent. Residents making more than $300,000 but less than $500,000 would face an income tax rate of 7.85 percent. Those making more than $500,000 would see a rate of 8.97 percent....the television and film industry, ..., will get $350 million in tax credits to help trim the cost of production in the state and give breaks to investors." (TheSyracuse)
  
  In addition, a report released by Senate Democrats this week said the budget had $8.3 billion worth of taxes, fees, fines and other measures, including actions like expanding the bottle bill to include nickel deposits on bottles of water...The Legislature is raising tuition for students at publicly funded universities and is using much of that money to balance the budget. The budget also slows the growth of spending on education and Medicaid. (New York Times)
  

With an increase already in MTA fares the organization responsible for public transportation in New York city and often criticized as being another mismanaged but necessary agency and possible cuts in service and more increase fares due to lack of funding from this budget. Its just not the new Yorkers with high incomes that will feel the tax increase.

The budget also calls for an increase in excise tax, sin tax, bottle tax for drinking bottled beverages that can be recycled raised Sec. 332 insurance assessments (taxes) on health, life and property/casualty insurers. ($455 million) doubles the auto insurance surcharge fee from $5 to $10. ($48.4 million tax increase $240 million increase in the Covered Lives Assessment ($120 million for 2008-09 and $120 million for 2009-10 as part of the DRP; the Covered Lives Assessment increases from $920 million to $1.160 billion.) Approximately $700 million in taxes on health insurance an estimated $230 million increase in the health insurers’ portion of the State Insurance Department Section 332 assessment. The overall increase was approximately $400 million through the DRP and enacted budget. an estimated $126 million increase in the HCRA hospital patient services assessment – essentially a sales tax on health care services performed in hospitals – from 8.95 percent to 9.63 percent on private payers. $107 million increase through extending the premium tax on commercial insurers to for-profit HMOs.$5 million increase through extending the Covered Lives Assessment to health insurers licensed outside of New York...modifies definition of vendor for Internet sales tax purposes to include certain affiliates.(more Internet taxes for people who decide to sell products online or buy online)(NYbuisnesscouncil)

I get that it takes money to run a state but is this truly the time to raise taxes on all of these things. Why is it necessary to raise taxes on people with health insurance or people who decide to use health facilities that were funded with public money. As if insurance isn't expensive enough for the minority of Americans that have it, the Americans in New York will have to pay the state extra to ensure they can receive medical care if sick. That sounds retarded, that is just going to encourage people who for whatever reason avoid going to health care professionals avoid it even more until they get sicker. The people who avoid health care are more than not going to be people without insurance or people who have crappy insurance and will end up costing the state more in medical cost when a simple cold turns into pneumonia and cost will go up in treatment exponentially costing the state more money than they will make. And what service will the State of New York provide the drivers who pay the state surcharge fees for their auto insurance. Is the State of New york going to provide protection for consumers from the greedy auto insurance companies. I doubt, in fact the state will probably continue to support all of the insurance practices that line the pockets of these corporations. Now New York thinks because you happen to live in the state and buy the item from the online vendor. The state deserves extra revenue for all of the regulation and consumer protection they provide. These taxes hurt everyone on top of the city of New York need to line their coffers buy increasing the amount of traffic violation tickets issued and price of traffic violation tickets. These taxes hurt everyone in a already difficult economy and implements many takes that previous years citizens didn't have to account for. How about using that TV industry bailout and keep state and city employees hired instead of laying them off for the temporary budget relief. The process of this budget approval was not only drawn out but perceived by many to be done in an un honest sneaky fashion that limited citizen input. You would hate the representatives to represent the wishes of those they where elected to represent. That would just be crazy. The Citizens of New York like the budget and the way Gov. Patterson handled the sitting of Hillary Clinton's departed senate seat so much they responded in Gov. Patterson's approval rating.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,528 New York State registered voters found 60 percent disapprove of the job Paterson is doing, the worst ever rating for a New York governor.(UKReuters)

That number is only 5% less than Impeached Gov. Rod Blogavich had last October. Congrats Patterson, you have somehow in less than a year made every decision to push your self out of the up coming election. Congrats New York on your sports teams and keeping the movie industry visiting the east coast. I hope those two things help pay the bills, because that bailout wont last forever.

• Michigan what can you say about this state outside of, nothing. There is absolutely nothing to say about this state except. How is that car industry treating you. I fist must admit Michigan probably has one of the best CEO's in the country right now in the Ford CEO Alan Mulally . It has to be applauded the way that he played GM and Chrysler and effectively pushed both companies into bankruptcy and sharp government oversight and scrutiny. When the 3 CEOs from the BIG 3 flew into Washington to ask for bailout money, all 3 companies implied that without this money they could no longer remain solvent and would be forced to go out of business. Soon after congress told them to go away and come back with a real plan instead of hopes and dreams. GM came with a plan, Chrysler came with a couple sheets of paper with notes on it and Ford came in with a plan. Once the discussion about what should the government due about the failing car industry Ford realized they probably don't need bailout money at least now but GM needed it and Chrysler as well. The two companies who took the bailout money argued their was no need to go through bankruptcy because consumers wouldn't buy a car from a bankrupt company. They failed to mention that consumers were not buying their cars now. By GM and Chrysler taking the money to hold them over, they perceptually were seen as bankrupt by their customer base since they needed 30 billion plus to stay afloat. Now the few buyers who are purchasing cars, American cars will buy a Ford since they look the strongest out of their competitors and they look like they will be around in 5 years. Who know if the will be or not, but Ford is playing Chess while Chrysler/fiat and GM or trying to figure the colors in checkers. How is it possible Chrysler is in such a bad situation. The amount of technology and money Dialmer invested in them should have set them up for decades. Essentially Chrysler built the frame, while Mercedes made the engine. It was just to lopsided of an agreement Chrysler was selling with the 300, cross fire the two door coupe, and the sebring which has always had a following. Dialmer got alot of things out of the deal like, private jet flights everytime they met with chrysler excets. Or nothing making it evident why dialmer ended the partnership. The whole situation in michagin specifacally Detroit looks like an endless hole full of idiots trying to represent being normal. While the car companies a fully culpable for the situation they are in Unions didnt help the matter. I found almost no fault until they started talking, and just saying stupid things. Not so much stupid just statemeents that seemed not to be based out logic or common sense. It is ridicolous that the big 3 agreed with the union contract just a year earlier about everything from hours to pensions, and now say they cant pay due to the structure of the company especially the legacy cost due to union contracts. At this point the companies look like the bad guys because they made a deal and didnt keep it, but then the Unions couldnt resist they just had to say shit. At a time when employment in America is above 8% and most americans who were saving for retirements by using variable acounts have lost half their value. The uneducated factory workers tried to state their story. Most consisting of multiple generations of working for the same factory in the same town for the last 45 years. The problem begin when Americans started finding out the sweet deal that the Autoworkers struck. On top of the Workers working in a significantly safer environment then just 1 generation ago due to automations. They only need to work for 15 years to be eligable for union retirement. Unlike most americans who are projected to be retireing in their late 60's auto workers could retire at 33 if they started at 18 and be eligble for a pension and full health care. The only other Americans who recieve free health care are military personall and their families. Last time I checked the Union workers are not trained to defend the country but they can tight bolts on the ext Escalade like no ones buisness. Now their argument to the American people is. Though we have been selfish and miopic in our vision by not diversifying our industries in the state and not wanting to build factories in other regions we need you to bail out these companies so we can retire in 15 years with pensions and full health care. That is the dumbest argument if you are trying to persuade an audience who primarly lacks health care due to job or money, are expecting to work for 40+ years before the possibility of retirement and has no chance of ever having a guarenteed pension. Have you never heard of audience analysis, people are out of work and your defending your right to early retirement. Just stupid as hell, any leverage that the union had is gone, and its sad because not all unions are bad. With leadership like this no wonder the entire industry is in disarray. Nobody wants to help michagin, what have they done for me lately is the question often heard. At least New York and California have the possibility of tourism to help their economies. Michagin has failing industries and one of the most violent and poor cities in the U.S.. Without the car industry the state cant survive, with the car industry the state will probably have trouble to survive. No worries, the Wolverines will have full funding for next year and $1 million dollar plus college coaches will keep the spirits up of the whole state. Rodriguez, Izzo, your state is depending on you to not only win but earn all of the money by exploiting people. With the salaries of Izzo and Rodriguez they can probably buy the hummer brand by the end of the year, no one else sure is. For some reason the demand for vehicles that get 15 mpg is down. Good thing Detroit has developed technologies to move the industry forword faster than their competitors, or they can ask the oil industry to bail them out. I thought when you sold your soul you supposed to get some type of benifit, exxon sure benifited last year with oil prices and with a company value $345 billion isnt time for them to give back. Im sure the midwest thinks so.


• Ohio - Congratulations on have the most highely funded athletic department in the nation, to bad you only believe in auto related industries, drug makers and voting machines. Just cant do anything right.


• Indiana - I forget they are state tobad they also depended on industries automotive related. They thought the desire for Recreational Vehicles would last forever. They must have the same leadership as hummer. The state also decided that it was neccesary to build a brand new 720 million dollar stadium for their sports team the Indiapolos Colts. The state of Indiana just relized how expensive it is to maintain a stadium throughout the year approximatley $26 million dollars a year. The previous administrations origonally thought it would cost only $10 million to operate the stadium which shows the obvious observation that when proposing this shit to the citizens they just made up that number of 10 million. It cannot be possible that the researched ran the numbers and came up with an account error of $16 million dollar if they were caculating in the real world. Who came up with the $10 million maybe they left out things like electricity, water, air conditioning , when accounting it. There is only one obvious solution to avoid a state forced closer of this dumbass stadium. Tax the citizens, not just the ones who go to the games but all of them. Because this is of course their fault
  

  "The bailout bill would double the wholesale tax on beer, wine and spirits, raise local hotel and motel taxes from 9 to 10 percent, boost the food and beverage tax a quarter of a percent and increase the tax on stadium and Conseco Fieldhouse tickets from 6 to 10 percent" (IndyNewsChannel6)

  Looks like that is one more reason not to visit the great steat of indiana. The price of your stay in the city just went up 10 percent and if you want to drink bring some extra quarters. We all need to sacrifice, the colts need a place to play. We will work on this economy thing later. Way to Go Indiana, just ask new york about focusing on your sports teams stadiums and everything it does for the city.


• Finally for the night, it is the most wonderful time of the year. Playoff time so take your Celtics gear and put it back on, this run can't last forever. Im just asking for one more year than they can go back to being the Celtics of the 90's for the next 5 years until we(like i live in boston, I dont) can pull of a series of inprobable trades.


• Baseball started and no one really cares. My Friend EP made a great observation, everyone acts like they care about baseball the first two weeks of the season. Then they forget to watch it for 6 months and tune back in for the playoff race and act like they care. Everyone knows they miss steroids, just think of it as super caffine. Its just a little something to help the game stay interesting. There are not enough fans who care enough to watch a series of 2-1 games. Everyone digs the longball. Why is it that is the only stat outside of world series that truely matters and baseball. Next time you see someone who calls themselves a fan ask them who has the most triples in MLB history and who is the current active leader. Go Astros if you win ill move to the front of the bandwagon, if you preform as expected ill still where the hats. Baseball hats are comfortable and they just look ridicoulous with NFL logos on them. Just a short list of the top players in the past 15 years. Roger Clemans (Steroids, likes 15 y.o. girls) Barry Bonds (Steroids, the government hates him they have spent 14 million prosocuting him) AROD (Was the heir apparant and people liked his hair. Advertisers hated him as a spokesperson. Steroids, left his wife and two kids for madonna, seen with strippers whores in various locals not called the gold club. Known as the biggest choker in the game, is loaded so could give a damn what we think) Curt Shilling (2 world series, loudmouth. Might have faked an injury to cement his legacy) Greg Maddux (Nothing bad to say he is maddux), Eric Gangne (Saves record holder, steroids) Manny Ramirez (Probably to lazy to take steroids, best hitter not linked to steroids in his generation. Awful fielder vilified by ESPN) Ken Griffey (10 gold gloves tons of homeruns, 3 seasons off due to injury) Sammy Sosa & Mark McGwire (Ultimatley saved baseball and surely the revenue of all the owners ran out of the game due to performance enhancers). My point being the best player of the genration will probably go down as manny ramirez which would have been harrold as crazy talk years ago, and the best pitcher is greg maddux, a pitcher never known for his velocity but as a pitcher. Overall my point is baseball sucks, for years all the listed players were used to advertise the game. Then when found they used performance enhancers they were laughed out of the game and vilified for the same thing that got them monstarous contracts. The argument cant be used that steroids make it an unleval playing field when teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Mariners have the highest payrolls all over 90 million who play teams like the Royals, Devil Rays (They will always be the devil rays. Rays sounds like they are a piece of sunshine)Pirates, & Marlins who all have payrolls under 40 million. Where is the level playing field, this game highlights the hyprocricy of sports. When it comes down to it you can care less about the long term health of Barry Bonds due to steroids, you just want to see your team win and a couple of homeruns. If people cared about athletes post playing wealfare there is no possible way they would support a collision sport like Football.


• I have wasted 2 and a half hours typing these thoughts for no one to read but I feel like it is time well spent. Remember in tough times like these, the only peoples opinion that matters is your boss and recruiters.