Archive for November, 2010

It’s not an “investment” its “spending”

Posted: November 18, 2010 by datechguy in economy, opinion/news
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Investment

1. In finance, the purchase of a financial product or other item of value with an expectation of favorable future returns. In general terms, investment means the use money in the hope of making more money.

2. In business, the purchase by a producer of a physical good, such as durable equipment or inventory, in the hope of improving future business.

investing:

to put (money) to use, by purchase or expenditure, in something offering potential profitable returns, as interest, income, or appreciation in value.

spending

to pay out, disburse, or expend; dispose of (money, wealth, resources, etc.): resisting the temptation to spend one’s money.

deficit spending

The amount by which a government, company, or individual’s spending exceeds its income over a particular period of time. also called deficit or called budget deficit.

I have had very little time to listen to Morning Joe lately as the Radio Show premiere is under 55 hours away and as the latest member of the 99 week club I have to be off selling ads or my mortgage will not get paid.

Today I had some time after dropping my son off at school and I had the displeasure of listening to John Kerry’s rant this morning.

In addition to boasting about the democrats win in Massachusetts (with a little help from their friends) John Kerry talked about how people have been decided by the republicans about taxes.

He repeatedly talked about government “investments” but then mentioned corporate “spending” on lobbyists to stop good things like carbon and energy taxes.

This is the height of liberal speak. So lets bluntly say aloud what needs to be said:

Government doesn’t produce anything. Every Dollar that Government has is collected in taxes or fees or fines from either the public or businesses. The only exception I can think of are leases of government (read the people’s) property.

Government doesn’t invest it SPENDS. It may spend on useful things , the Military, food inspections, the National Weather Service, but these are not investments it is spending.

Business however when it spends it does so for a return. That is a true investment. Even the use of lobbyists to effect a law is an actual investment with the expectation of a return.

I have one simple rule. If an official refers to spending as an investment, that tells me that they can’t justify it without wordplay.

Have some guts! If you think your spending is good and worthwhile and justifiable then call it what it is and defend it, but don’t’ insult my intelligence by calling it an “investment”.

“they did what they needed to do to survive”

Posted: November 18, 2010 by datechguy in economy
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Michelle Malkin talks a bit about the Wavers and what position the administration has put business:

One company official expressed concern to me that media coverage was demonizing businesses who applied for the waivers. I certainly don’t see these waiver applicants as villains. They were potential victims of top-down government mandates and they did what they needed to do to survive. As for the unions who all pushed hard to ram Obamacare down America’s throat and then rushed to the front of the line for tax and regulatory exemptions, thanks for proving what an ill-fated scheme the federal health care takeover was from the get-go.

But a lot of friends of the O have been taken care of too:

It’s all about control. If central planners can’t dictate what health benefits qualify as “good,” what plans qualify as “affordable” and how health care dollars are best spent, then nobody can. The ultimate goal, of course: precipitating a massive shift from private to government insurance.

McDonald’s, Olive Garden, Red Lobster and Jack in the Box are among the large, headline-garnering employers who received the temporary waivers. But perhaps the most politically noteworthy beneficiaries of the HHS waiver program: Big Labor.

The Service Employees Benefit Fund, which insures a total of 12,000 SEIU health care workers in upstate New York, secured its Obamacare exemption in October. The Local 25 SEIU Welfare Fund in Chicago also nabbed a waiver for 31,000 of its enrollees. SEIU, of course, was one of Obamacare’s loudest and biggest spending proponents. The waivers come on top of the massive sweetheart deal that SEIU and other unions cut with the Obama administration to exempt them from the health care mandate’s onerous “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health care plans until 2018.

This is simply foolish, if companies and unions have to escape Obamacare to survive then how much the small business and the avg guy?

It’s like a man named Walter once told me, You fish where you can catch them.

Not even one first place vote for Terry Francona?

Posted: November 18, 2010 by datechguy in baseball
Tags: , , ,

Winning the Central division without your closer and 1st baseman is a big accomplishment and Ron Gardenhire is not a bad choice for AL manager of the year.

But staying in the race with almost everyone injured I think is a bigger one. I really thought Terry Francona was going to win manager of the year.

the Bleacher report is angrier than me and gives a bit more detail:

By the end of the year, about two-thirds of the everyday starting lineup was made up of minor league journeymen, young kids, and fill ins. Names like Daniel Nava, Bill Hall, Ryan Kalish, and Darnell McDonald quickly became household names.

This, coupled with inconsistencies from the starting rotation (John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Daisuke Matsuzaka never quite put it together), and one of the worst bullpens in baseball (4.24 ERA, 12th in the AL) might lead fans to think that they had a very poor season.

But they didn’t. They went 89-73 (.549)

To put this in perspective, the Sox won one less regular season game than the AL Champion Texas Rangers, and three less games than the NL Champion San Francisco Giants.

Injuries to key players + inconsistent pitching + a poor bullpen + playing the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays eighteen or so times a year shouldn’t equal 89 wins. But it did. Terry Francona made it happen.

Well Yeah but you it’s not as if during his seven years and two world series wins he didn’t get consideration in the past, oh wait:

You might think that a manager with a resume like Francona might be a valid candidate for the AL Manager of the Year. Yet, this is not so. In his seven years with the team, Tito has never won the award, nor has he ever finished above fourth place.

In fact, he’s never even received a single, solitary first place vote.

The masses of Massachusetts choosing to inflict the democrats on the state again, that tragic, but Terry Francona never EVER getting a first place vote for manager of the year by a group of people that write about baseball for a living. That’s a TRAVESTY.

Republicans Learn Democrats do not

Posted: November 17, 2010 by datechguy in congress, politics
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An excellent example of why Republicans are better than democrats. They can Learn, to wit Mitch McConnell:

“Make no mistake,” he added, “I know the good that has come from the projects I have helped support throughout my state. I don’t apologize for them. But there is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and the out-of-control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight. And unless people like me show the American people that we’re willing to follow through on small or even symbolic things, we risk losing them on our broader efforts to cut spending and rein in government.”

So Mitch McConnell seeing the mood of the voters decided to respect their wishes. How about the democrats?

The word on the House Democratic caucus vote for minority leader is that Nancy Pelosi has won, 150 to 43.

An earlier measure to delay leadership votes until December garnered 68 votes in the caucus — not enough to carry, but perceived as an indication of uneasiness among some rank-and-filers about reelecting Pelosi. But a comfortable majority of the new minority seemed to have had no such qualms.

Ruby slippers has more:

She led the party out of the wilderness but under her leadership, she led them right back in. Heaven forbid any of these clueless Dems stop to ponder the possibility that passing massive pieces of unpopular legislation was really the problem.

Still, this is incredible news for Republicans. Leaving Pelosi, Reid and Obama in place as the face of a liberal Democrat Party is nearly as shortsighted as passing that health care law and far less damaging – to the country anyway. For Democrats, hoping the independents they lost in droves this last cycle will forget the midnight Christmas eve votes and that comical gavel, Pelosi’s continued presence in leadership is the nightmare they deserve.

Democratic intransigence, the gift that keeps on giving.

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