IS THERE NO LIMIT TO STIMULUS

We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.
The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don't have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. The purchase of some models could be absolutely free.. From Virginia News Source

ONE-TIME BONUS FOR CITY EMPLOYEES

We’re not supposed to call it a bonus. Councilman Brown wants us to call this an “employee performance one-time supplement.” Vice-mayor Milteer mentioned that providing this will help morale and activity in the family go up. Mayor Johnson applauded staff for turning off lights, not idling cars, turning the air conditioning up and turning the heat down. She mentioned that the family has to take care of one another. Obviously all Council members will vote to approve the bonus since employees have done such an outstanding job. They’ve saved us money. They’ve been more efficient. They’ve done their job better. Johnson tried to tie the work of firefighters and saving streets to some sort of efficiency. I tie this to the incredible work ethic of our firefighters.

A couple of thoughts here. First of all – where are the citizens in this “family?” We’re just not feeling it. And why is it okay to take money from one family member and decide that another family member needs it more? And why hasn’t Council talked about giving the money BACK to the citizens from whom it was taken? Perhaps helping the budget crunch in our Constitutional offices would be a good use of the money.

We DO need to recognize employees, but a bonus is not necessarily the only way. How about making sure there is a cost-of-living raise in salaries for our employees? This would let them know that even in tough times we value the job they do enough to make a commitment in the budget – and not just when a surplus is available.

Bulk Refuse Coming Back - But Just for a Short While

Suffolk’s Council took time to address the bulk refuse issue at its work session today. Several members indicated that they are glad it is back in place. Councilman Parr let us know that if Council knew there would have been a surplus, then the bulk refuse service would never have been taken away.

Gardy patted all on the back for following the new city law. Barlow mentioned that the refuse program just wasn’t understood. Brown wanted to make sure we all know that the dates for the reestablishment of the service is December 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010. Milteer reminded all that there are still a number of folks who don’t have city trashcans. (I believe this was to have been addressed for Milteer by city staff many months ago when he previously brought this issue up.)

I don’t buy that bulk refuse would have been left in if staff knew there was a surplus. City Council CHOSE TO STOP THIS SERVICE when they chose to fund things that are not essential to the management of the city (e.g., Peanut Fest and other nonprofit organizations).

As I remind people all the time, I think that things like Peanut Fest are valuable contributions to our city, but I don't think it's necessarily our citizen dollars that should pay for this. This is a city service that was REMOVED while available dollars were used for other things.

FYI: Mr. Neilson indicated that if you have bulk refuse put out before December 1st, it will be picked up.

What say you?

ARE WE BEING SPUN

To All: A commenter gave us the correct address.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227

Take a look at this article and then ask yourself just what the well guarded City Credit Rating really means...? This article verifies the fact that the three main bond-rating agencies have a conflict of interest that puts profit before accuracy. So aren't City pronouncements about our "swell" bond ratings possible fiction?

Does this show that the trips by Staff and the Council to New York are nothing less than show to keep up the idea that all is well? And whatever happenned to telephones?

AND WE ONLY WANT A LITTLE BITTY BRIDGE BY COMPARISON

A homeowner I know at the far end of Corolla on the OuterBanks says they don't want the 569 million bridge. Or paying the $12.toll each way. More evidence, he said, is that there are endless homes up for sale. Some can't finish paying for one, or sell one, and it is bad for business according to those who own one to rent out. The price tag boggeles the mind. The officials will consider that but in Virginia we can't replace one. Does this mean the rich get richer?

MORE OF OUR DOLLARS BEING GIVEN AWAY

Found this in the news but what is it all about?

"A business development that appeared stalled for months might be moving forward.
The Economic Development Authority voted this week to give an incentive grant to Sparta Inc.
Despite the public vote, the resolution did not identify the size of the grant, which is funded with local tax dollars. City staff and the council appointed EDA board members declined to discuss details. Jack Eure, a lawyer and EDA board member, said the vote followed a closed meeting in which some "tough questions" were asked, but the matter is "pretty sensitive."

Open and Transparent

FURTHER PROOF OF BRILLIANCE

So who dreamed this up, and will Council go along? The city is “carefully considering blowing two million of our “surplus” tax dollars on city employee bonuses and to reinstate bulk trash pickup with another half million. Funny how public pressure can reverse a call for charging fees for trash pickup…can the same pressure stop the seven from “giving” our dollars away instead of returning it to the rightful owners or reducing debt? And just how will spending over $400,000 help fight gangs...maybe give the gangs a few bucks to behave? If you have better ideas for this surplus you best show up next Wednesday and speak your piece. Get this; one million would go only to “classified service city employees,” whatever they are, and Council Appointees who officials believe caused the surplus by cutting costs. Senior citizens will get no SOCIAL SECURITY inflation adjustments this year; they could use a few dollars from the city. Most every family in Suffolk has had to find ways to cut costs; where is their reward?

EXCERPTS FROM TWO OBAMA BOOKS

Everyone of voting age should get and read these two books written by Obama.
From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mothers race.
From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about her that made me wary, a little too sure of herself, maybe and white.
From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.'
From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself: the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, Dubois, Mandela.
And FINALLY, and most scary!
From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.'

PEANUT FEST TO BE RENAMED ???

Suffolk officials want a new motto, perhaps because Obama is changing everything. Even the crop production in Suffolk is changing. Rex Cotton, a fit name for his job, reports that peanuts are down to 1400 acres. That's peanuts for a city with 50,000 acres of good farmland that once supplied Mr. Obici with a fine crop of money. Corn is a piddling 9600 acres. Cotton for Haynes underwear is down to 11,000 while soybeans bounded to 23,000 acres providing much nutrition for the deer herd. I guess the good news is that zero acres of tobacco were planted and that could mean kids are wising up to the destructive nature of the plant. Rex will agree that there is no official count of acreage devoted to marijuana but it pops up here and there.

KEEN INTEREST IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

After a public hearing at city hall on the issuance of up to $27 million in bonds drew no speakers at Wednesday’s city council meeting, the council voted unanimously to approve the move and incur the debt. Nowadays $27,000,000 is too small a number to cause concern. Obviously we now trust our Council to do the right thing.

BARCLAY PRODS AIRPORT PROGRESS

City Council members appear to be waking up to the fact that creating an airport authority to govern the Suffolk Executive Airport could get its growth off dead stop. Suffolk Executive Airport currently is merely an ancillary utility of the city. If an authority were established the airport would be chartered as an independent authority by the Virginia General Assembly. An authority would have more autonomy in the airport’s operations than the commission currently has. Thanks to Councilman Robert Barclay IV, who has experience in such matters, for initiating the discussion. Supporting Barclay was dependable Curtiss Milteer who said there has been no major progress in the last 65 years. At the airport commission’s last meeting a unanimous vote supported the creation of an airport authority. That should do it.

TIME FOR YOUR ACTION NO COMMENTS NEEDED

Jean Cunningham, the Democrat Chairwomen of the Virginia State Board of Elections, appointed by the Democratic Governor, is claiming that she has the legal basis to raise massive barriers to prevent military personnel currently in combat from voting in the November election, she has testified in Federal Court that she is only required to send military personnel an absentee ballot “the day before an election.” She is doing all she can to disenfranchise military personnel currently in combat from voting. In the last election thousands of votes were never counted and her actions helped Obama win the election in the State of Virginia. A similar action is taking place in New Jersey. If you know of any active or retired military personnel residing in Virginia and New Jersey, or civilian residents in Virginia or New Jersey, please pass this on and ask them to do all they can to oppose these actions. Time is not on the side of military personnel in combat who hope to vote in the November elections; these premeditated and mean spirited actions by Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey should be brought to the attention of all Americans; military personnel in combat defending our right to free and fair elections should not be prevented from voting-------it’s outrageous! Respectfully, Joe Gecan

POTENTIAL GOOD NEWS ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Our Public School system wants citizen volunteers to assist in the Key Communicator Network, that provides the superintendent feedback about the schools and their administration. Suffolk Public Schools Public Information Officer Bethanne Bradshaw suggested that volunteers agree to receive monthly email messages from Dr. Liverman and to contact him with any questions, news, or opinions from themselves, peers or associates. We are assuming this is a new method of enjoining parents, and others, in an attempt to improve our schools with direct conversation between “volunteers and Dr. Liverman. He insists he wants the feedback.
For more information about the Key Communicators Network, call Bradshaw at 925-6752 or email her at betbradshaw@spsk12.net

SOME SAID GEORGE BUSH WAS LESS THAN INTELLIGENT

George W. Bush did not use a TelePrompTer. In eight years he did not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC. He did not reduce your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and give the unions a majority stake in GM. He did not make a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics. He did not give the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches. George never bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia. He did not, during his visit to Austria, make reference to the non-existent "Austrian” language. George did not fill his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who can’t keep current in their income taxes. George was not so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo). George did not burn 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day. He did not fail to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest where more people were killed or made homeless than in New Orleans. Obama ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so. George did not double a national debt in one year that had taken more than two centuries to accumulate. So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive?

From an anonymous reader

EXCERPT FROM BEN STEIN

Why is President Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed? Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths: The American people voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They believed he was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists and took him on faith. They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright. They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student. They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator. The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar. Now, the American people are waking up to the truth. Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future. The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans. The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away. Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms. There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost.

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu.