DarkStar Spouts Off

The Cost of Health Care

This is the result of the taxes expected they now have to pay.

Insurer Prudential Financial Inc. said Monday that it will take a $100 million charge in the first quarter in relation to the recent health care overhaul legislation.

The life insurance and annuities provider said in a regulatory filing that it will take the charge against earnings in the first quarter.

Prudential joins a growing list of companies that have said they will take accounting charges because of the health care bills. AT&T said last week it would take a $1 billion charge in the first quarter. AK Steel Corp., 3M Co., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy have also said they would take smaller charges.

AT&T is taking a $1 billion charge; $1 billion.

Is Political Correctness Just A "Liberal Thing"?, II

OK, here's another one:

Three days after calling health-care reform a debacle for Republicans, David Frum was forced out of his job at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday.

The ouster also came one day after a harsh Wall Street Journal editorial ripped the former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, saying he "now makes his living as the media's go-to basher of fellow Republicans" and accusing him of "peddling bad revisionist history."

The following really is "interesting".

Bruce Bartlett, another conservative scholar who has been at odds with the right, wrote that Frum told him AEI staffers "had been ordered not to speak to the media" about health care "because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do. . . . The donor community is only interested in financing organizations that parrot the party line."

And the beat goes on.

I'm Underwater, I Want Relief

Two years ago I brought property. I still owe a fair amount of money on it but if I were to sell it, today, I would not get all that I owe on the property. I'm underwater and I want President Obama to create a law to force the lien holder to reduce my payments.

The property is a Maxda CX-9, and it's a nice vehicle, but like I said, I'm underwater and want relief.

Where Is The Incentive To Work

Will someone answer a question for me? If this goes through, what happens to the incentive to work?

The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it is tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday.

Banks and other lenders would have to reduce the payments to no more than 31 percent of a borrower's income, which would typically be the amount of unemployment insurance, for three to six months. In some cases, administration officials said, a lender could allow a borrower to skip payments altogether.

The new push, which the White House is scheduled to announce Friday, takes direct aim at the major cause of the current wave of foreclosures: the spike in unemployment. While the initial mortgage crisis that erupted three years ago resulted from millions of risky home loans that went bad, more-recent defaults reflect the country's economic downturn and the inability of jobless borrowers to keep paying.

The trouble, today, in many homes with teenagers and young adults is the parent or parents don't push the idea of their children working. As such, many just don't grow up and learn to support themselves.

So, I ask, again, if you have no reason to fear not being able to make your house payment, what incentive do you have to work?

The Dominoes Are Starting To Fall

The dominoes are starting to fall.

The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security.

This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that while the Congressional projection would probably be borne out, the change would have no effect on benefits in 2010 and retirees would keep receiving their checks as usual.

The problem, he said, is that payments have risen more than expected during the downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned. At the same time, the program’s revenue has fallen sharply, because there are fewer paychecks to tax.

Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances.

“When the level of the trust fund gets to zero, you have to cut benefits,” Alan Greenspan, architect of the plan to rescue the Social Security program the last time it got into trouble, in the early 1980s, said on Wednesday.

So, are you invested in precious metals, lead, and personal weapons?

Surprised?

Are you surprised?

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- More than half of U.S. borrowers who received loan modifications on delinquent mortgages defaulted again after nine months, according to a federal report.

The re-default rate of loans modified in the first quarter of 2009 was 51.5 percent by the end of the year, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a joint report today. The figure, which measures payments at least 30 days late, climbed to 57.9 percent for changes made in the prior 12 months.

I'm not. If you couldn't afford the loan before, what makes anyone think you can afford it after "modification"?

Is Political Correctness Just A "Liberal Thing"?

Read this and you find out the answer is no.

I was associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal. I was Business Week’s first outside columnist, a position I held for 15 years. I was columnist for a decade for Scripps Howard News Service, carried in 300 newspapers. I was a columnist for the Washington Times and for newspapers in France and Italy and for a magazine in Germany. I was a contributor to the New York Times and a regular feature in the Los Angeles Times. Today I cannot publish in, or appear on, the American “mainstream media.”

For the last six years I have been banned from the “mainstream media.” My last column in the New York Times appeared in January, 2004, coauthored with Democratic U.S. Senator Charles Schumer representing New York. We addressed the offshoring of U.S. jobs. Our op-ed article produced a conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and live coverage by C-Span. A debate was launched. No such thing could happen today.

For years I was a mainstay at the Washington Times, producing credibility for the Moony newspaper as a Business Week columnist, former Wall Street Journal editor, and former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. But when I began criticizing Bush’s wars of aggression, the order came down to Mary Lou Forbes to cancel my column.

[ Emphasis mine ]

Lets Keep It Real

I'm going to keep it real.

If America's voters like what happened with the health care bill, they will vote to continue to keep those who voted for the bill, in congress. If America's voters don't like what happened with the health care bill, they will vote to remove those who voted for the bill.

All of the caterwauling and moaning and groaning is just whining. The next election will be the proof.

Forgive Me, Oh Grilling gods...

But I've decided to get a gas grill.

Last year, around this date, my cousin died from prostate cancer. His family had a strong history of prostate cancer so i guess he was high risk, but one of the things he did on a regular basis was to eat charcoal grilled chicken.

I can't get that off my mind along with the research that shows a link between charcoal cook food and prostate cancer.

So, I apologize for YEARS of mocking against the gas grillers. :-)

Presented Without Comment

Presented without comment:

If this is true, black leaders need to do more than carp at the president. We need to address the problem ourselves. A good first step is to hold congressional leaders accountable by putting into legislation the tenets of the "Covenant with Black America," a document (turned best-selling book) formed by Smiley and others during the Bush presidency. The "covenant" proposed a "black agenda" and pledged to hold the winner of the 2008 presidential campaign accountable to its principles. So why now do those same black leaders find it unconscionable for black people to question a black president or hold him accountable?

Baltimore Delegation To Baltimore Citizens: You're Too Stupid To Trust To Vote

Quickly, last week there was a vote in the Maryland state assembly to let PG County and Baltimore voters vote to place people on the school board. The PG County representatives were split but voted in favor. However the Baltimore city representatives voted against the measure, hands down.

As it currently stands, Baltimore voters have no say concerning the school board. The mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland appoints people to the school board. The problem with this arrangement is the school board is not accountable to anyone. They can do what ever they want to do and they do so.

The Baltimore representatives have said to the citizens of Baltimore, you are too stupid to trust to vote.

Impeach ALL of Congress!

I just heard about the "Slaughter Rule." If what I heard is accurate,  the House Democrats are proposing a rule to allow an up or down vote on the health care bill, without actually voting on the bill!

Essentially, they will approve the procedural rules for the bill which states if you approve of the rule, since the old bill passed, the updated bill to reconcile the senate version of the bill is also approved.

I'll hunt this one down because if this is true, EVERY congressman who votes for this rule, IF they are re-elected, MUST be impeached for NOT upholding the Constitution of the United States!

[ UPDATE ]

This was titled "I Just Heard About "The Slaughter Rule" and I changed the title because I'm way beyond pissed.

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."

This has been "commonly used"?

OK, IMPEACH THEM ALL, DAMNIT!!!!!

"But, it's the DEMOCRATS..."

Cut that stuff. Below the fold is a list of 150 Republicans who voted in the past for the tactic. This list was provided to me and I haven't verified. So if there are entries that are wrong, let me know, I'll apologize and remove it.

Da Po Lease Gone Wyld

Has anyone noted the recent "surge" in stories of police officers being caught doing things against the law?

I have to cook dinner and then clean up the kitchen, but hopefully I'll get the time to post links to some  stories in the news recently.

[ UPDATE ]

Katrina Shooting By Police

On Sept. 4, 2005, with floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina still standing in much of the city, Lt. Michael J. Lohman of the New Orleans Police Department arrived at the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans. A group of police officers had rushed there just ahead of him in response to a radio call for assistance.

At the bridge, Lieutenant Lohman found that six civilians had been shot by police officers, two fatally. None of them had weapons.

Almost immediately, federal authorities said Wednesday in a blistering series of accusations, he and the other officers began to plot a cover-up, planting a gun near the site to make the shootings appear justified.

That action led to Lieutenant Lohman’s appearance in a federal courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, where he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to obstruct justice.

H/T: P6

Second Officer Pleads Guilty

Federal agents snuck 38-year-old Jeffrey Lehrmann into federal court Thursday morning on his way to pleading guilty to participating in a cover-up in the Danziger Bridge shooting that left two unarmed civilians dead and four wounded.

Lehrmann pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony - concealing knowlege of criminal activity - in a plea bargain that makes him the second former ranking officer to plead in the case and cooperate with authorities.

The former homicide detective, now a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Arizona, admitted in court that he knew about - and actively participated in - conspiracy to cover up a "bad shoot" on the eastern New Orleans bridge on Sept. 4, 2005.

"He accepts responsibility, and the consequences, for his actions," said Davidson Ehle, Lehrmann's attorney. "Lehrmann extends his sincere apology to the Danziger Bridge victims."

Police Quotas

When Officer Adil Polanco dreamed of becoming a cop, it was out of a desire to help people not, he says, to harass them.

"I'm not going to keep arresting innocent people, I'm not going to keep searching people for no reason, I'm not going to keep writing people for no reason, I'm tired of this," said Adil Polanco, an NYPD Officer.

Officer Polanco says One Police Plaza's obsession with keeping crime stats down has gotten out of control. He claims Precinct Commanders relentlessly pressure cops on the street to make more arrests, and give out more summonses, all to show headquarters they have a tight grip on their neighborhoods.

"Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them?" said Officer Polanco.

Eyewitness News asked, "Why do it?"

"They have to meet a quota. One arrest and twenty summonses," said Officer Polanco.

H/T: Black Informant

Police Helping A Drug Dealer?

Accusations that a Baltimore police lieutenant intervened on behalf of a criminal drug defendant in an attempt to sway the case has led to an internal affairs investigation.

Lt. Joann Voelker, a veteran supervisor, was moved from an elite special operations unit that handled technological surveillance to a patrol post in the Southern District late last year, after prosecutors leveled allegations that she tried to broker a deal for a man facing drug-dealing charges.

“She was transferred by the chief of patrol after the State’s Attorney’s Office lodged a complaint for trying to influence a trial,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Ummm...

Ummm....

I don't know what to say. Sophia Loren is in her 70s and kinda hot looking here....

Can People Stop Whining About Being Searched In Airports, Now?

Or rather, can some white people stop whining about being searched at airports when "everyone knows" the profile for a terrorist is a young "Arabic" male?

For nearly a year, a middle-aged woman from suburban Philadelphia used her computer to fashion a new, frightening identity, federal court documents say.

The stream of Internet messages in which she sought assistance to wage violent jihad in Asia and Europe literally transformed her, the documents allege, from 46-year-old Colleen LaRose to "Jihad Jane."

By March 2009, federal prosecutors say she was communicating with at least three unidentified co-conspirators, including one who directed LaRose to "go to Sweden… and kill" a Swedish citizen, identified by two federal law enforcement officials as cartoonist Lars Vilks.

Whatchusaynow?

Closing Schools

The KC school closings have to be done from all of the reading I've done about it. It's the future of all cities and, as demonstrated in Baltimore earlier this week, it is already happening in Catholic school. Now is also the perfect time to address the structural problems of urban public schools that the schools CAN address.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5itXI7J7kJ7Eka6sEx9IofeKycRqgD9ECGDNG0

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City School Superintendent John Covington says the decision to close almost half the district's schools was difficult and painful but "unquestionably the right thing to do."

The Kansas City school board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to close 29 of the district's 61 schools in an effort to stave off bankruptcy. The schools will close at the end of the school year.

During a news conference Thursday, Covington thanked the board for its vote. He said the district was spreading itself too thin by educating less than 18,000 students in 61 schools.

Despite the close vote, Covington says he's confident the board and district administration could work together to complete the massive restructuring, which includes laying off 700 employees, including
about 285 teachers.

More later.

[ UPDATE ]

If schools are barely filled, you can't continue to keep the school open without shifting school children around. If the children get shifted around, then it seems some people are going to have to be shifted around and/or fired. The administration HAS to be reduced.

It's a good opportunity to remove non-functioning teachers, but I bet the oldest teachers will be the ones who are let go, because the oldest teachers are the most expensive.

Black Leaders Gone Wild, II

The title comes from a comment by Duane, the Black Informant. Thanks D.

Tavis Smiley was on The Tom Joyner Morning Show this morning and he, Tavis, delivered one HELLUVA smack down to people who preached accountability on a Black agenda a few years ago but are now saying President Obama doesn't need to address a Black agenda.

Again, I'm going to say, on accountability, Smiley is STRONG.

Later, I'll put up the link. [ UPDATE ] Here's the link.

Afterwards, Al Sharpton responded and I'll post that link as well. "If Mr. Smiley had said that at first..."

Non-Random Randomness

• Dan Rather hit a double double: said Obama was articulate AND mentioned watermelon by saying now, Obama can't sell watermelons off the back of a truck. Isn't it interesting how when people get older, they lose the ability to censor themselves? Or maybe they just don't give a damn.
• "The right" shows how desperate they are by pointing out the liberal Democrat who resigned under a cloud of sexual misconduct says it was because of his stance against Obama-care.

"The right"?

Defending a homosexual sex abuser? Oh oh...

In a Sunday radio appearance, he accused House Democratic leaders of
conspiring to force him out of Congress to lower the vote count needed
to pass a health care bill he opposed. On Beck’s program, he said no
one forced him to leave. “I wasn’t forced out. I forced myself out. I
failed. I didn’t live up to my own codes. I own this.”

• Liz Chaney is spouting off saying the justice department shouldn't hire people who previously defended terrorist suspects and has named 7 such people as the A.Q. 7.

Ummmm... Isn't a chance at DEFENSE a major part of our court system? Isn't her stance, along with her cohorts, against the ideals of the Constitution?

• I hate to mention Glenn Beck, but when that putz said people should leave a church that mentions "social justice" because it's equivalent to Nazis, he really went into the bowels of absurd asininity. If he's anti-abortion, that comes under "social justice." If he's against explicit sexual material on television, that's "social justice." SHOULDN'T the church take a stand against those things?

• The Catholic Church is closing a number of schools in the Baltimore area. They blame declining enrollment for the problem. They are right about declining enrollment. That's a combination of the bad economy, and I think, an outcome of the priest child abuse scandal.There may be fear that the children in the school may be abused. But I think the bigger aspect of it is, the money that could be going to the schools in the area, is going towards paying off the sexual abuse victims.

If I Didn't Know Better....

If I didn't know better, I'd say the Massa (HAH!!!!) scandal not only was a scandal for him, but a set up of Obama conserva-kook critics.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/03/09/massa-on-fox-tickle-fights-bullcrap-and-apology-to-rahm/

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck summed up his hour long interview with former New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa this way: “America, I’ve got to shoot straight with you. I think I’ve wasted your time.”

Loose Ends, Under Rated

Straight up, Loose Ends was under rated.

Four of their jams that should make you shake that.....

Slow Down

Stay A Little While, Child

Nights Of Pleasure

Don't Be A Fool

Rangel Got Got

Charlie Rangel is stepping down as chairman of the Way and Means
because he was doing dirt, IMO.Good.