We’ve Moved…

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The new site can be found at http://www.whostolemycareer.com…

Please stop by!

They’re Baaack: Union Pension Corruption in Illinois

Has Organized Labor become Organized Crime?

I realized this morning that I haven’t highlighted one of my favorite topics in quite some time. I’m talking about government union corruption; particularly when it comes to pensions.

The Chicago Tribune recently completed an expose of government pension abuse that (once again) makes me sick to my stomach. It makes me ill, because it’s being done by people we elected to look out for us and while their greedily stuffing their pockets with our money, we’re dying out here.

The AP recently reported a massive decline in private sector net worth. In case you don’t know, that’s our “pension plan.” They said about a fifth of household financial assets are in stock-market holdings. And the value of those holdings fell 12 percent in the April-June period compared with the first three months of the year — o much Joe Biden’s Summer of Recovery.

You can click here to read the entire Trib story “Retirement perks cost towns millions,” but in the meantime here are a few disgusting highlights:

• The top inflated pension case on the list is former Bellwood executive Roy McCampbell, whose pay the Tribune revealed in June. He combined stipends for extra job titles along with months of sick and vacation time. By 2009, McCampbell’s compensation skyrocketed to $472,255 from an original base salary of about $116,000 in 2006.If McCampbell’s pension had just been based on his original comptroller-administrator salary, it would have been about $90,000 a year. Now it’s $252,689 a year — the highest in the system — costing taxpayers $2.4 million extra to cover a lifetime of inflated pension payments. McCampbell says he earned his pension through hard work and long hours.
• The Glencoe Park District last year gave former Executive Director Rod Aiken the Jeep he drove during his tenure. The board wrote up the gift as a bonus valued at $12,000. That boosts his pension by $2,000 a year, part of a set of bonuses and other perks that boost his retirement checks by about $25,000 a year, and cost the district an extra $350,000 in pension funds.Aiken said he just followed the rules and didn’t view his pension as excessive. The North Shore district said it was just rewarding a loyal employee — and that the move didn’t lead to any budget cuts.
• In Evanston, four administrators cashed in their careers’ worth of unused sick and vacation time in a way that helped boost their pensions, costing an extra $1.2 million in pension payments.
• The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Pensions for executives are routinely boosted with bonuses, car allowances, cash-outs of unused sick and vacation time, and other perks. Retirement checks can jump 10, 20 even 30 percent from the perks — a practice other states in the Midwest don’t allow.
• The lax rules and oversight cost taxpayers in Illinois nearly $13 million for just the top-level retirees in the last two years and perhaps as much as $145 million for all municipal fund retirees in the last decade. Now, several local officials are on course to bump their retirement checks by up to 45 percent.
• Naperville officials blame pension bills, in part, for having to slash their workforce by nearly 100 positions over two years. The City Council declared this spring that municipal pensions were “outdated, not sustainable and too rich.”At the same time, they allowed outgoing utilities director Allan Poole to cash in $92,000 of unused sick and vacation time in a way that helped boost his pension by $29,000 a year. Combined with other perks, his total pension grew 26 percent, to $141,000 a year.
• Had Poole’s pension been determined using just his base pay, a Tribune analysis found, Naperville would have saved $315,000 on its share of his pension costs.

The Fox Watching the Hen House

As bad as these stories are, the worse part is what the Trib discovered when they investigated the people were in charge of protecting the people’s money — more corruption and collusion!

“No one is responsible for investigating excesses. In fact, local elected officials are often complicit in the padding. Those in the system readily acknowledge these problems, then promptly lay blame elsewhere. Retirees say they don’t make the rules. Local government officials argue the tactics are legal and have long been used to reward workers.

With little public outcry over the municipal system, elected leaders have largely failed to seek reforms despite the cost to local governments.

Those local governments have lobbying groups that could wield considerable influence on potential reforms, but those lobbying groups are themselves in on the game. They were long ago allowed to join the public pension fund, and outgoing directors for two of the top lobbying groups — Illinois Municipal League and the Illinois Association of Park Districts — recently used the current rules to inflate their pensions 21 percent and 42 percent, respectively.”

So, as we listen to the president and his liberal cronies whine on about “what does the Tea Party want to cut?” I have a simple answer, cut government pensions and start with workers who have gamed the system to walk away with money they were never entitled to receive!

Dave

Did Obama Censor “Who Stole My Career?”

"Don't go messing with my Auntie!"

I woke up this morning to a string of messages and emails about the post I did last night titled “Must See TV: WBZ Interview with Obama’s Illegal Alien Aunt!”

Apparently, the video of Obama’s illegal alien aunt spewing anti-American hatred has been taken down for something called “a rights violation.”

My loyal readers were fearing that I may have been whisked off in a black helicopter to a secret retraining center due to my ongoing defense of the private sector.

But no, I’m just fine! I think the rights that were violated were not those of Barack Obama or his Auntie, but actually WBZ TV in Boston.

The videos are still available, but given how hot they are, WBZ is blocking their viewing on Youtube.

You can still see both interviews by following the links below:

Aunt Zeituni: “The system took advantage of me”

Aunt Zeituni: “The country is owned by the almighty God”

I hope you’ll watch these powerful videos and share them with everyone you know!

Dave

Must See TV: WBZ Interview with Obama’s Illegal Alien Aunt!

Obama's Aunt Zeituni holding a family portrait of her and her newphew...

This is a mind boggling story that is dominating the airways here in Boston. It is also a story that you may not be hearing in other parts of the country. WBZ, the traditionally very liberal local Boston television, is running a multipart interview with Obama’s illegal deadbeat Aunt Zeituni.

Until Obama became president and pulled a few strings, Zeituni was an illegal alien living off the government. In fact, she has been doing so for 15 years.

Although Obama’s aunt has never worked a day in the United States, she receives free housing, free healthcare, and even $700 a month in spending money, all courtesy of you and me.

By the way, her multi-million nephew Barack seems to be perfectly happy allowing us to pick up her tab and keeping his money for himself. I guess that’s what he meant by “share the wealth,” he meant share our wealth, not his.

I urge you to watch this interview and listen to the contempt this woman has for the only country on earth that would pay for her entire cost of living; in particular she said:

“I didn’t take advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me.”

“If I come as an immigrant, you have the obligation to make me a citizen.”

The WBZ Interview

UPDATE: The original video in this post was hosted at Youtube. For unknown reasons, Google has taken down that video. Fortunately, you can still view it at the WBZ TV web site by clicking here.

Anti-American Rage: An Obama Family Tradition?

A few days ago, I did a story about the upcoming book The Roots of Obama’s Rage. In it, the author cited Obama’s father’s anticolonial hatred as the root of Obama’s rage.

As we listen to Aunt Zeituni, it’s easy to believe that anti-America contempt could be an Obama family tradition.

Dave

How Obama Thinks

As dark clouds begin to form over the Obama White House, the next wave of an unsuccessful presidency begins to appear on the horizon — the “Tell All Book.”

I think the first is “Car Czar” Steven Rattner’s bookl, “Overhaul,” which bumped up its release date nearly a month to keep pace with media reports and leaks. Rattner’s book is the first from a former Obama staffer, and publishers promise revealing details on “political warfare” amid “one of the severest crises of President Obama’s first year in office.”

WSJ: It’s the Spending, Stupid

"I will stop wasteful spending in Washington DC as soon as I finish with all my wasteful spending."

There is a great piece in Today’s Wall Street Journal that really connects the dots between the current economic mess and the November Election.

As the title indicates, while people may be angry about taxes and regulations, the issue that is driving them up the freaking wall is the way Washington DC continues to squander “the people’s money,” while the people are cutting and slashing their personal finances at home.

I think Dan Henninger may be exactly right.

Dave

WONDER LAND SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

It’s the Spending, Stupid

A chronic voter ‘concern’ has now exploded into a broad public movement.

By DANIEL HENNINGER

WONDER LANDSEPTEMBER 16, 2010

It’s the Spending, Stupid

A chronic voter ‘concern’ has now exploded into a broad public movement.

By DANIEL HENNINGER

At a backyard town-hall meeting in Fairfax, Va., Monday, President Obama explained why Christine O’Donnell was going to beat Mike Castle in the GOP’s Delaware Senate primary:

“They saw the Recovery Act,” he said. “They saw TARP. They saw the auto bailout. And they look at these and think, ‘God, all these huge numbers adding up.’ So they’re right to be concerned about that.”

Thank You Barack Obama

Now America understands Liberalism!

The first time I attempted to argue the national virtues of a small and unobtrusive government was 1992. It began with me providing an academic explanation for Ross Perot’s popularity and ended in an all out fight with a long time friend.

My friend was pretty much a closed minded democrat, she was a Massachusetts Catholic and came from a family that had blindly voted democrat across the board ever since JFK was assassinated.

The Global Recovery is Leaving Obama’s “Summer of Recovery” in the Dust

"Yeah, I call it the Summer of Recovery, that's the ticket"

Vice President Joe Biden’s June declaration that this would be the “Summer of Recovery” has fallen flat on it’s face and now we have Obama’s new economic advisor Austan Goolsbee stutter in near Clintonian word parsing to restate what Jolt’n Joe really meant!

“The vice president was talking about the summer of recovery in reference to the Recovery Act, that you would see the creation of a series of infrastructure and other projects ramping up over the summer”

Austan Goolsbee 9/12/2010

The Double Dip Summer

Now that the results are in and yet another Obama economic forecast turns into a bad joke on America, the only trick left in the playbook is to go the bench, bring in yet-another advisor and attempt to rewrite history. That’s encouraging!

Not only did we not get the Summer of Recovery that Biden promised, we actually caught the first wave of a feared double dip recession. A few weeks ago, the White House announced that Q2 economic growth had come in at a paltry 1.6%. Most economists will tell you that anything less than 2.5% will not generate job growth, which is exactly what’s happened.

A cursory look at the details behind the 1.6% growth rate reveals just how weak this alleged growth was:

• Final sales of computers added 0.03 percentage point to the second-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.10 percentage point to the first-quarter change.
• Motor vehicle output subtracted 0.08 percentage point from the second-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.74 percentage point to the first-quarter change.
• Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment increased 9.1 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 1.8 percent in the first.

So there you have Obama’s Summer of Recovery; computer and car sales go into the tank and the only thing that grew was GOVERNMENT SPENDING, which went up by a whooping 9.1%!

The Global Recovery We Missed

As long as I can remember, the US Economy has been the catalyst to lead the world out of recession, but no longer. As Obama jacked up private sector taxes and government spending, Europe and Canada did just the opposite. They went on “austerity programs” and cut government spending while reducing taxes and regulations on business.

The results have been phenomenal. For the last two months, world production levels (135.1 in May and 135.3 in June) have been above the previous peak of 134.4 reached in March 2008, suggesting that there has been a complete recovery in world output from the global recession in 2008 and 2009 (Source: University of Michigan Professor Mark Perry).

The World Economy Has Completely Recovered

The Party of “No New Ideas;” Really?

As poll after poll show that the dems are facing a wholesale slaughter in November, our so-called Commander and Chief and returned to his mean and drooling campaign persona, calling out John Boenher by name last week in Ohio and declaring that “they have no new ideas.”

First of all, this is a BOLD FACED LIE and a disgrace to the office of the president of the United States to stoop this low. For months the GOP has published a comprehensive set of new ideas that anyone can read for themselves at their Roadmap for America’s Future web site.

Second, the new ideas that the republicans are recommending are exactly the same ones that were used in Europe and Canada to effect a full economic recovery in the Summer of 2010.

And that’s the reason why America’s Sumer of Recovery has been left in the dust by the rest of the industrialized world.

Dave

Helping the Poor: What Would Jesus Do?

Matthew 25:40, “As you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did to me.”

As many of you know, one of the reasons I fight for the private sector is because I believe it is the only way to help the poorest amongst us.

Simply put, the wealthier a free nation becomes, the wealthier your poor become. Conversely, as your national wealth shrinks (like it is in 2010 America), the poor get poorer.

Recently I have gotten into arguments with liberals who claim that their approach, Obama’s approach, is better aligned with my faith — Christianity.

Needless to say, I argue the opposite using the What Would Jesus Do? rhetorical approach.

Regarding the NYC Mosque and 9/11

We cannot let them win!

I realize that the Ground Zero Mosque controversy has little to do with your career, other that the fact the president appears to be spending more time defending it’s right to exist than he does creating private sector jobs in America.

Anyway, my friend Bob just send me this open letter from Newt Gingrich and in honor of the victims of 9/11, I thought I’d pass it along. It provides the best case for moving the mosque I’ve read yet.

Dave

Newt Gingrich Statement on Proposed Mosque/Islamic Community Center near Ground Zero

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.