Month: May 2011

California lifeguards make $100K/year?

(Via RCP) Well, the full-time ones at Newport Beach do; more than half of the 14 in 2010 (13 now) made more than 100K in salary, and all but one of ’em made made more than 100K in salary-plus-benefits.  Before you ask: those are the permanent people on salary; the city also hires over 200 part-timers, who don’t get that kind of compensation.  Why, because of our old friend in bold:

The Lifeguard Management Association represents the 13 full-time, salaried employees in collective bargaining with the city whereas the Association of Newport Beach Ocean Lifeguards represents the part-time, seasonal lifeguards.

As Orange Punch notes, the problem here is not precisely that full-time Californian municipal lifeguards are making 100K/year: it’s that full-time Californian municipal lifeguard salaries are comparable with those of other Californian municipal employees.  Which includes, apparently, their pension plans (90% of salary after 30 years on the job).  Remember when private sector workers had that kind of pension plan? – No, neither do I: I’m not sure that they ever did.

Continue reading California lifeguards make $100K/year?

Two new NY-26 ads.

Both of which are hitting Jack Davis, who is doing his level best to throw the special election there to the Democrats. Davis, for those who do not remember, has been running as a Democrat in this district for years, and is now cynically trying to use the Tea Party name to hurt the GOP this year: he’s also a somewhat insane fellow who wants to turn urban blacks and Latinos into migrant crop workers.

No. Really. Apparently, he thought that this would be a selling point for New York Republicans, God help us all. And God spare us from Democrats who can’t tell the Republicans living inside their heads from the Republicans in the actual, real world: even when they’re trying to pander to us it comes off as very, very creepy.

Anyway: NRCC ad above the fold; American Crossroads one below it. And Jane Corwin is the actual Republican/Conservative candidate in this election; she would certainly love to hear from you.

Continue reading Two new NY-26 ads.

So, movie night tomorrow.

Originally, it was going to be Thor… but apparently Fast Five didn’t suck (but I haven’t seen any of the other ones) and Rio doesn’t look that bad (haven’t seen any reviews for it).  Priest is in a couple of days, and I guess that Green Lantern isn’t for another month.  Maybe I can still find Rango, although that’s looking like a DVD special.

Thoughts?

#rsrh Quick update on Prosser/Kloppenburg recount.

That’s the Wisconsin Supreme Court race that was supposed to be a stunning repudiation of Governor Scott Walker’s (R) reforms, right up to the moment that David Prosser won.

Anyway, they’re down to recounting one county – which Prosser won, handily – and the number hasn’t remotely changed enough to justify Kloppenburg continuing on with the recount.  Then again, it’s not Kloppenburg’s money – just the Wisconsin taxpayers’ – so expect her to keep letting the Democratic party erode away her respectability, dignity, and good name for the benefit of Big Labor.

I’d feel bad, except it’s not like anybody threatened her or anything.  Labor unions reserve that sort of thing for teenagers trapped in their houses.

“ROGUE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION EMPLOYEES!”

…Hey, don’t blame me (or Ed Driscoll); I’m just quoting the San Francisco Chronicle. And, let me tell you: the scam that the Chronicle is… chronicling… is stellar, for its kind.

This is how it works: say you’re a company that wants to do business with the city of San Francisco.  But there’s a small problem; San Francisco is full of not only liberals, but very, very earnest liberals who want to be engaged in the political process.  This leads to a certain mindset* that thinks that it is just dandy to make government conform to the wishes of its populace in things like procurement and acceptable vendors – whether or not the wishes of the populace have any bearing on modern economic realities.  To give just one example: San Francisco insists that corporations doing business with it disclose if they were ever involved with slavery… which would be an impressive moral stance to take if it weren’t for the minor detail that they never seem to require that sort of thing from, say, the Democratic party.

But I digress.

Continue reading “ROGUE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION EMPLOYEES!”

28.4% of mortgages underwater.

Note that this article doesn’t quite get the original report right, sort-of kind-of thank goodness; it confuses mortgage holders with homeowners when reporting the percentage of underwater mortgages (mortgages where the holders owe more on a piece of real estate than the real estate is actually worth).  In other words, 28.4% of homeowners with mortgages have underwater ones, not 28.4% of all homes.

This should be only mildly comforting, given that being told that over 28% of mortgage holders might be better off just abandoning their loans* is not exactly good news.  It is, in fact, fairly frightening and disastrous news.  It means that a key feature of many Americans’ retirement strategies – the accumulation of real estate equity for later use – has been effectively gut-shot, and is now messily expiring in a ditch.  It means that our economic recovery is going to continue to be hobbled by a housing market that has not yet hit bottom.  It means that growing consumer confidence will still be constrained by what is a generally rotten and widespread structural problem.

But it’s not the absolute Armageddon promised by the Bloomberg headline.

[pause]

Yay?

Moe Lane (crosspost) Continue reading 28.4% of mortgages underwater.

‘…but more importantly for the common good.’

The above is from Governor Pat Quinn (Democrat, although it’s fairly obvious from the quote) of Illinois; and it tells you everything that you need to know about Quinn’s mindset – not to mention the mindset of the Democratic party in general, too.

Here’s the background: the Sears Corporation has its headquarters in Illinois, and has been bribed offered incentives to stay in Illinois, despite the fact that Illinois itself is a rotten place to do business.  However, the bribes incentives run out in 2012, so the corporation is making sounds about moving somewhere else unless some new bribes incentives are offered.  You may safely guess from the previous sentences that I am not particularly interested in making Sears out to be the plucky little underdog in this conflict; it is in fact in an excellent position to get its bribes incentives, because Quinn doesn’t want to be the Governor Who Lost Sears To Texas.  And everybody knows it. Continue reading ‘…but more importantly for the common good.’