That line stuck out to me too, proreason. It is funny–politicians were once servants of the people, but now that has turned around. All hail, King Obama! You, over there, you are not bowing enough! Yes, I am talking about you. Bow to your king.

That fine lady paid about 6/10th of1% of her billion dollar fortune in taxes that year. Sweet huh? On a percentage basis it’s like Joe Blow paying $60 dollars a year.

Now, the Hollywood obamybots who actually still “work” in the movie industry, may pay a much higher %, since it is much harder to hide earned income than income generated by assets, but the people like Babs Streisand, who no doubt is sitting on more than $100M, is probably doing exactly what the Ketchup Queen is doing…..which is, paying virtually no taxes while sqwauking incessantly about how unfair the country is.

But it’s ok for them, you see. They are our aristocracy.

Come on people, real Americans are getting sick and tired of your Al Gored do as I say, not do as I do, BS. And I got an idea how they could help with all of these programs they talk about. How about donating some of the millions they make instead of expecting the rest of us to pay for it.

Supervisors take in inaugural events on taxpayers’ dime

By Daniel Bice

f you wished to attend but couldn’t pay to go to President Obama’s inauguration, you were pretty much out of luck.

Unless you’re a member of the County Board.

Two county supervisors, Toni Clark and Elizabeth Coggs, are billing taxpayers thousands of dollars – including a hotel stay for one of them at $644 per night – so they could spend five days in Washington, D.C., this past week, a trip that allowed the pair to attend various inaugural festivities.

“Did I go to the swearing in?” Clark said Thursday. “Yes, I did.”

Clark, however, cut off the interview, saying she was in the middle of children’s basketball practice. Coggs did not return repeated calls to her office and cell phone.

Terrence Cooley, chief of staff for Board Chairman Lee Holloway, said he signed off on the trip in early December because it appeared legitimate. Clark and Coggs said they were going to Washington to meet with U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, county lobbyists and others.

“Nobody said anything about the inaugural,” Cooley said.

He said he, of course, realized that the trip would coincide with the Obama festivities, but he said he wouldn’t speculate on whether Clark and Coggs designed the trip so they could be in D.C. when the new president was taking his oath.

“This is when they could schedule the meetings,” Cooley said.

Officials haven’t done a final tally of the cost for the two supervisors to jet to D.C., but the figure is expected to come in around $4,000, including airfare, hotel and other expenses.

The biggest expense was to find lodging near the capital during the height of inaugural activities. An estimated 2 million attended Obama’s swearing-in ceremony Tuesday. Records show Clark stayed at a Comfort Inn in Alexandria, Va., just minutes from the U.S. Capitol, arriving the afternoon of Jan. 16 and leaving Wednesday morning. The county issued a pre-paid check to the hotel for $2,227.60 for the five-day stay.

The hotel cost a little less than $160 for each of the first two days, but the daily rate then skyrocketed to $644 for the final three days of her stay. Clark had to kick in $20 from her wallet to cover the full cost of her room, according to a hotel receipt provided by Comfort Inn.

By contrast, Coggs had no lodging expenses because she stayed with relatives in the D.C. area.

In addition, the two had earlier estimated their combined airfare at a little more than $900. They also each received cash advances for $324.

Numerous aldermen, state reps and other Wisconsin government officials went to the inauguration, but No Quarter couldn’t find any others who billed taxpayers for their costs.

A Coggs staffer initially put in the request for the trip on Dec. 4. The letter said Coggs and Clark had four meetings over three days on Monday through Wednesday of this week.

But at least one of those meetings never happened.

According to the schedule, the two County Board members were to sit down with officials at Waterman & Associates, the county’s D.C. lobbying firm.

“There were travel complications that did not permit the meeting they had planned,” board spokesman Harold Mester said Thursday. He didn’t have any further explanation.

Clark and Coggs were also slated to meet with a staffer with the Casey Family Programs, a Washington-based foundation, on Monday and an official with the National Association of Manufacturers on Wednesday. Neither group returned calls. The schedule also lists a sit-down with Moore, Milwaukee’s Democratic rep in the U.S. Congress.

Moore spokesman Derrick Plummer said he would check to see if that meeting happened. He declined to say whether his boss supplied the two county pols – or anyone else – with inaugural tickets. Wisconsin’s congressional delegation distributed some 1,600 tickets to state residents.

“We have a policy of not disclosing that,” Plummer said.

Several officials confirmed that Coggs and Clark were among many Wisconsin dignitaries to attend an open house at the Les Aspin Center for Government in D.C. on Monday night. The state’s congressional delegation held its own open house earlier in the day.

State Sen. Spencer Coggs, a Milwaukee Democrat, said he saw both Clark and Coggs, his cousin, at the Les Aspin event. He said he didn’t see them at Obama’s swearing-in ceremony, but he assumed they went, saying that was the main purpose for everybody’s trip.

But the senator, who paid for his own trip, defended his cousin and Clark, saying both had mentioned that they were in Washington for several meetings. He said it was justifiable that they used tax dollars for the excursion.

“If, in fact, they had legitimate county meetings, then it was a legitimate trip,” the senator said.

But if their real intent was to go to these meetings, couldn’t they have found some dates when hotels and others weren’t charging premium rates? Otherwise, why head to Washington this week?

“I don’t know,” said Coggs, the senator. …

http://www.jsonline.com/watchd.....01214.html

Same old same old.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

EPA’s system of chemical regulation broken, audit says

By Meg Kissinger

The Environmental Protection Agency is as broken as the nation’s financial markets and needs a total overhaul, a congressional audit has found.

The Government Accountability Office has released a report saying that the EPA lacks even basic information to determine whether chemicals pose substantial health risks to the public. It says actions are needed to streamline and increase the transparency of the EPA’s registry of chemicals. And it calls for measures to be taken to enhance the agency’s ability to obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry.

“The EPA lacks adequate scientific information on the toxicity of many chemicals that may be found in the environment – as well as on tens of thousands of chemicals used commercially in the United States,” the GAO report said. “EPA’s inadequate progress in assessing toxic chemicals significantly limits the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

Health and environmental advocates pounced on the findings as proof that the EPA has been shirking its responsibilities for years.

“This just shows that the EPA is not any better able to protect Americans from risky chemicals than FEMA was to save New Orleans or the SEC was to cope with the financial collapse,” said John Peter Myers, a scientist and author who has been writing about chemical risks to human health for more than three decades.

For the EPA to be compared to the collapsed financial markets dramatically underscores the need for a complete overhaul of the regulation of toxic chemicals, said Richard Wiles, executive director of Environmental Working Group, a health watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.

“The EPA joins the Hall of Shame of failed government programs,” Wiles said.

Strengthening the EPA is one of the GAO’s top three urgent priorities for the Obama administration. The GAO also called for overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system, whose inattention helped trigger the global financial crisis, and improving the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to protect the public from unsafe or ineffective drugs and other medical products.

http://www.jsonline.com/featur.....45474.html

So the GAO and a bunch of left-wing scientists confirm one of the Obama administration’s self-admitted “top priorities” by releasing a biased report and by bashing Bush.

Sounds about right.

No one will ever point out that the mess post-Kartrina was caused by inaction by Democrats and the banking crisis was caused by a combination of explicit inaction and actions taken by Democrats.

But hey, those same Democrats will make it all better now.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Harley says it will cut 1,100 jobs, after dismal fourth quarter

By Rick Barrett

Harley-Davidson Inc. will close its Capitol Drive plant in 2010, eliminating several hundred jobs, as part of a restructuring that includes the loss of 1,100 jobs over the next two years.

Six hundred and forty of the 1,100 job cuts will be at Harley facilities in Wisconsin, Jim Ziemer, president and CEO said in a Journal Sentinel interview this morning.

Two hundred and thirty of the job cuts will be in non-production positions, mostly salaried personnel, including engineering, administrative and finance departments.

Harley said it will consolidate engine and transmission production now at Capitol Drive into its Menomonee Falls plant.

One hundred and fifty of the cuts will come from the closing of Harley’s distribution center in Franklin.

About 70% of the job reductions will occur this year, with the remainder coming in 2010.

The cuts are being viewed as permanent, rather than layoffs.

“These are all very tough decisions, but sometimes we have to go through some pain” to ensure the company’s long-term viability, Ziemer said.

The Milwaukee area has been pummeled by job losses in recent weeks.

The announcement that Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) is cutting 1,100 jobs, including hundreds in Milwaukee, could hardly have come at a worse time, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said this morning.

The Milwaukee area has been pummeled by job losses in recent weeks.

“The news from Harley-Davidson would be bad at any time, but it is even worse now,” Walker said. “This is a serious blow. We need to get more money into the economy and the quickest way to do that is through bold tax cuts. Reducing the payroll tax can be done immediately and that will put more money into the hands of consumers who can then buy things like Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I hope that we can save some of the 1,100 jobs.”

Gov. Jim Doyle added:

“When great companies like Harley-Davidson have to lay off people, it really demonstrates the depth of this recession and what we are going to have to work through. I have spoken to Harley-Davidson officials and believe that their company is strong and will be ready to come back stronger than ever as our country recovers.”

Even though the company has received state assistance over the years, Doyle said he was not looking for any paybacks from the company now that it is laying off workers.

“Harley is doing everything it can,” he said. “They’re just trying to live in a difficult, difficult economy.” …

http://www.jsonline.com/business/38211079.html

Can you guess Scott Walker’s party affiliation?

We need to get more money into the economy and the quickest way to do that is through bold tax cuts. Reducing the payroll tax can be done immediately and that will put more money into the hands of consumers who can then buy things like Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

That’s right – Republican.

How about the hands-off “#$@! happens” do-nothing quote:

Gov. Jim Doyle added:

“When great companies like Harley-Davidson have to lay off people, it really demonstrates the depth of this recession and what we are going to have to work through. I have spoken to Harley-Davidson officials and believe that their company is strong and will be ready to come back stronger than ever as our country recovers.”"Harley is doing everything it can,” he said.

That’s right, far left Democrat.…

We Energies drops spending for renewable energy plans

By Thomas Content

We Energies says it’s committed to expanding renewable energy but has pulled off the table, for now, a request to spend up to $69 million on renewable energy project planning.

Citing a weakened economy and the prospect of new regulations to expand use of renewable energy, the Milwaukee-based utility withdrew a request it filed in November with the state Public Service Commission.

“In the months since the filing, economic conditions in the United States and Wisconsin have changed dramatically, and the potential for additional state legislation and for federal renewable legislation is coming into focus,” the utility said in a letter to the PSC.

The company said it needed to “re-evaluate its approach” to adding renewable generation. The company plans to make a new proposal “once the timing and direction of state and federal legislation becomes clearer.”

Economic disruptions have changed market conditions such as the tight market for wind turbines for companies looking to build wind-power projects, said Charlie Higley, executive director of the Wisconsin Citizens’ Utility Board.

Higley said his group had opposed We Energies’ move as unnecessary and one that, if approved, would have saddled the utility’s 1.1 million electricity customers with higher costs unnecessarily.

Many pieces of legislation at the state and federal level could change mandates for utilities that are now required to generate 10% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2015. The state task force recommended boosting that to 25% of the state’s electricity by 2025, and there is a push in Congress for a national renewable energy mandate.

President Barack Obama stressed the need to expand solar and wind power during his inaugural address Tuesday. The administration supports a national mandate for 10% of the country’s electricity to come from renewable power by 2012 and 25% by 2025.

A report this week by energy analysts at Morgan Stanley predicted a national renewable mandate will be passed by Congress between April and October.

“Now that the sessions of Congress and the Legislature have kicked off, we’re much more likely to see some additional factors that we need to consider,” said Barry McNulty, a We Energies spokesman.

We Energies remains committed to renewable energy, McNulty said, including its proposal to build the Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County, at a cost of up to $530 million, and previous commitments to expand solar and biogas generation.

The renewables request had also included an offer by We Energies to contribute $3 million toward a study that could pave the way for construction of wind turbines in Lake Michigan. The utility’s $3 million offer still stands, McNulty said. …

http://www.jsonline.com/business/38144374.html

Just a taste of things to come as businesses halt spending in their tracks (no economic impact there) as they wait to see what Obama is going to force upon them.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “South Milwaukee Now” site:

Sunbrite closes amid environmental concerns

Company’s 52 years in city yielded many loyal customers

By Israil Debruin

It’s not the work Sally Yesbeck will miss, because sometimes the stress of owning a business follows her home.

Instead, when Sunbrite Cleaners ends its 52-year run Saturday, Jan. 31, Yesbeck will miss the customers.

“It’s just really hard leaving everybody,” Yesbeck said. “These aren’t just our customers coming in, these are our friends.”

Yesbeck said her customer directory has 6,000 entries. The Milwaukee Avenue dry cleaner serves about 300 people each week, some of whom have been faithful for all of the company’s 52 years.

Sunbrite’s problem isn’t corporate competition or tough economic times. It’s tetrachloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent called “perc” for short.

Some scientists say long-term exposure to perc may cause damage to the liver and kidneys, and possibly cancer. Because of its potential danger, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources tests dry cleaners for signs of perc spills. In a preliminary check, which tested for the presence of perc on the surface of the floor, Sunbrite tested positive. The next step is a more thorough test, which would determine if the spill has any depth, followed by potential cleanup requirements.

Yesbeck swears she has never had a perc spill, but the two owners before her may have.

Either way, Sunbrite’s landlord, Henry Ciesinski, said he is ready to get out of the dry cleaning business.

“It’s just all the hoops and everything you’ve got to jump through,” Ciesinski said about the chemical restrictions.

The property owner said Sunbrite could stay if it switched to greener methods of dry cleaning, or cut the service from its menu. Yesbeck said she is getting too old to reinvent herself or move to a new building.

“If I were younger and the economy were better, I’d consider a move,” Yesbeck said.

She’s 63 now, 14 years older than when she bought Sunbrite with the hope of selling it and retiring by age 62.

“I really wasn’t planning on this, but these things happen,” Yesbeck said.

Yesbeck will sell off Sunbrite’s equipment and hopes to break as close to even as possible. Then she will get a part-time job to cover the rest of the cost.

“This was supposed to be my retirement, and I’m not getting anything out of it,” Yesbeck said. “I’ll probably be paying this off for years.” …

http://www.southmilwaukeenow.c.....?id=839786

Ah yes, the Government forces her out of business. Will she see a dime of consideration from any entity, local, state or Federal?

Of course not, she’ll probably be fined somehow.

Now I’ll grant that the Mormons were on the leading edge of this fight, and the “official” Mormon position has been that marriage is defined as between a man and a woman legally and lawfully wed, but Mr. Hanks, can you please show me the cancelled check from the Mormon church that made this happen?

Also, I suspect more than a dozen Catholics and a few blacks and hispanics voted for proposition 8 because they are not nearly enough Mormons in California to vote down Prop 8 without an awful lot of non Mormons that agree that Prop 8 is bad law.

“There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here’s what happens now.”

Two points.

First, obviously in California at least, there are a lot more people who think it’s un-American to legalize gay marriage. Second, unlike being black, hispanic, asian, female, etc., etc. homosexuality involves a chosen an activity, and Mr. Hanks, we have all kinds off laws discriminitory laws against activity – that’s why I can’t punch you in the nose, even though I was born with latent “punch Tom Hanks in the nose” tendencies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51kAw4OTlA0

believes his words have been taken out of context

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. must be rolling over in his grave as to the hate, race baiting, racist, stupid, vapid and just plain ignorant ‘nuances’, ‘interpretations’ and misuse of his exact words: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Yes, Kimberly got it right – all of it. I too would have taken any children out of school – and told my daughter she had my permission to skip and/or walk out of the one class where the professor implied that they would be watching the Imaculation.

IRAQ: When new commander in chief mentions sacrifice, military families know what he means.

By Tony Perry

President Barack Obama, in his inaugural address in Washington, talked of the need for sacrifice from all Americans.

For the early morning crowd at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, sacrifice has been a way of life for several years. Even as Obama spoke, hundreds of family members were waiting for 250 Marines and sailors to return from Iraq, many from their second, third or fourth deployment.

Take the family of Navy corpsman Edward Dikitanan, who was finishing his fourth deployment. His wife, mother-in-law, and four children, ages 1 to 11, were holding a large banner and waving small American flags.

“The older the children get, the harder it gets,” said Dikitanan’s wife, Lanie.

When the first embraces were over, 8-year-old Nalani had a request; “Daddy, can we go to the zoo now?”

It’s like that for military families: their lives are often on hold while loved ones are away for six months to a year.

Randy and Tracy Vanderwende of Rancho Cucamonga have kept their Christmas tree up and the presents unopened as they waited for their daughter Cpl. Kylie Vanderwende, 22, to return from her second deployment.

“We’re going to take her home, let her sleep for a couple of days, and then we’ll have our Christmas,” said Tracy Vanderwende.

Karie Bergmann, 22, and her husband, Sgt. Jason Bergmann, 28, have been married for 16 months. He’s been gone for 12 of those months.

As the Marines got off their charter flight, Karie Bergmann held a sign so her husband could not miss her. “You Survived 4 Deployments. I Survived My 1st Deployment,” it read.

Cpl. Andrew Anderson, 20, got to hold his eight-week-old daughter Kezia for the first time.

Tuesday’s returning group was from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. More air squadrons and infantry battalions are due home soon, even as other groups leave to replace them.

“We’re just going to take it one hour at a time,’ said Crystal Hall, 19, as she hugged her husband, Cpl. Aaron Hall, 20.

Before they left Iraq, the Marines were given what is called a warrior transition briefing about how to adjust to a world without roadside bombs and snipers. “They need to remember what it’s like not to be constantly on guard,” said Lt. Col. Joe Borja.

At 30, 60 and 90 days the Marines will be checked to see whether they’ve made another kind of sacrifice: post traumatic stress disorder.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....ton-p.html

Personally, I think the notion of equivocating their sacrifice with what Obama is suggesting makes most Military families want to projectile vomit.

I also dispute Borja’s advice, given the large number of soliders who have returned alive from Iraq only to be killed on the street within weeks of returning home, apparently not realizing how dangerous America remains.