Monday, December 22, 2008
Going Green, Disney Style
What do garbage and public relations have in common? Take a trip to future world and find out.
Twenty-five years ago, Americans visited Epcot to learn about the future. Today the future looks grim, at least in terms of the economy, the environment, and security (guards search all visitors' bags on entry, and a computer scans our fingerprints), but Disney's corporate sponsors still have an opportunity to share their optimism. Nestlé will feed billions by growing genetically modified food in arid regions, we learn in The Land; GM is manufacturing cars that burn ethanol (though the Hummer 3, on display outside Test Track, gets only 14 miles per gallon of conventional fuel); and Waste Management, of course, is generating renewable energy.
Read the story
Sunday, December 21, 2008
What of Afghanistan?
Corruption Destroys Afghanistan
Just when you've finally gotten your mind around the enormous $700 billion financial bailout - even if none of us are really sure where all that money's going - there comes an even greater, breathtaking price tag.
The amount is $904 billion - that's how much we've spent on American military operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan, since the 9/11 attacks; 50 percent more than what was spent in Vietnam, reports the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment. Their study does not include the inestimable toll in human life.
Read more
Friday, December 19, 2008
Whitehouse Bailout for Automakers Announced
Bloomberg News is reporting the terms of a Whitehouse bailout for the automakers. Looks like $13.4 million immediately, with the promise of more in 90 days. There are stipulations on the deal and they look good:
—Firms must provide warrants for non-voting stock.
—Firms must provide warrants for non-voting stock.
—Firms must accept limits on executive compensation and eliminate perks such as corporate jets.
—Debt owed to the government would be senior to other debts, to the extent permitted by law.
—Firms must allow the government to examine their books and records.
—Firms must report and the government has the power to block any large transactions (> $100 M).
—Firms must comply with applicable Federal fuel efficiency and emissions requirements.
—Firms must not issue new dividends while they owe government debt.
Targets: The terms and conditions established by Treasury will include additional targets that were the subject of Congressional negotiations but did not come to a vote, including:
—Reduce debts by 2/3 via a debt for equity exchange.
—Make one-half of VEBA payments in the form of stock.
—Eliminate the jobs bank.
—Work rules that are competitive with transplant auto manufacturers by 12/31/09.
—Wages that are competitive with those of transplant auto manufacturers by 12/31/09.
Politico has more information. Probably the best part is that Cerberus Capital won't be able to sell off Chrysler without Congress reviewing the terms. Chrysler has a bone-stupid product line, but a change in management would cure that.
Choir presents Messiah on Sunday
Blessed Sacrament
Catholic Church Choir
presents
Messiah
Sunday, December 21, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
154 North Main St.
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
540-434-4341
Catholic Church Choir
presents
Messiah
Sunday, December 21, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
154 North Main St.
Harrisonburg, VA 22802
540-434-4341
Free Will Offering
If you know of a Holiday Event you would like to share,
Please do!
If you know of a Holiday Event you would like to share,
Please do!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
2009 GA - Budget
Kaine Offers Major Shifts In Proposal To Cut Budget
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine launched a budget-balancing proposal Wednesday that would transform the commonwealth's old-guard fiscal policies into ones that reflect the political conversion from red state to blue.
Many of the prescriptions to address a $2.9 billion budget shortfall that he unveiled would have been inconceivable 10 years ago. He proposed doubling the tax on tobacco in a state that once based its economy on cigarettes. He wants to offer early release to some prisoners doing time for nonviolent offenses in a state that trails only Texas in executions. And he has suggested taking steps to end Virginia's long history of housing the severely mentally ill in institutions.
Read the story
GOP: CUTS NOT ENOUGH
Gov. Tim Kaine yesterday unveiled his proposals to cut nearly $3 billion out of the state budget, but Republicans say they won't support many of them, though they believe the state needs to prepare for a greater financial shortfall.
Kaine, who already made a round of budget cuts in October as the economy worsened, is proposing to cover the rest of the shortfall by raising the cigarette tax, cutting $400 million each out of education and health care, eliminating more than 2,000 state jobs, letting non-violent prisoners out of overcrowded jails earlier, and eliminating pay raises for state employees.
Republicans think the budget hole will worsen and that Kaine should have proposed deeper cuts now rather than waiting for the next revenue forecast in February.
"I wish the governor had gone ahead and taken that leadership," Majority Leader Morgan Griffith said.
Read the story
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine launched a budget-balancing proposal Wednesday that would transform the commonwealth's old-guard fiscal policies into ones that reflect the political conversion from red state to blue.
Many of the prescriptions to address a $2.9 billion budget shortfall that he unveiled would have been inconceivable 10 years ago. He proposed doubling the tax on tobacco in a state that once based its economy on cigarettes. He wants to offer early release to some prisoners doing time for nonviolent offenses in a state that trails only Texas in executions. And he has suggested taking steps to end Virginia's long history of housing the severely mentally ill in institutions.
Read the story
GOP: CUTS NOT ENOUGH
Gov. Tim Kaine yesterday unveiled his proposals to cut nearly $3 billion out of the state budget, but Republicans say they won't support many of them, though they believe the state needs to prepare for a greater financial shortfall.
Kaine, who already made a round of budget cuts in October as the economy worsened, is proposing to cover the rest of the shortfall by raising the cigarette tax, cutting $400 million each out of education and health care, eliminating more than 2,000 state jobs, letting non-violent prisoners out of overcrowded jails earlier, and eliminating pay raises for state employees.
Republicans think the budget hole will worsen and that Kaine should have proposed deeper cuts now rather than waiting for the next revenue forecast in February.
"I wish the governor had gone ahead and taken that leadership," Majority Leader Morgan Griffith said.
Read the story
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Welfare Rolls See First Climb in Years
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post
For the first time since welfare was redefined a dozen years ago, weaning millions of poor Americans from monthly government checks, the deteriorating economy is causing a surge in welfare rolls in a growing number of states.
The swelling caseloads pose the first hard test of the premise behind transforming the old system of welfare, once considered an open-ended right, into a finite program built to provide short-term cash assistance and steer people quickly into jobs.
Though still a fraction of the size they were at their height in the mid-1990s, welfare rolls recently have begun to climb again in at least a dozen states, according to interviews with state officials. In other states, applications are rising, foreshadowing more people on welfare soon. The trend has spread across the District, Maryland and Virginia.
More striking is who is coming onto welfare and why. Here in Florida, as elsewhere, the new face of welfare includes people who have tumbled from the middle class -- and higher -- after losing jobs, savings and self-reliance. And some are returning to welfare years after they thought they had found permanent work and independence.
Many people coming onto welfare "shouldn't be receiving assistance if there [were] jobs out there," said Kevin McGuire, the Maryland Department of Human Resources' executive director of family investment. "The problem is, what we are seeing here is something that looks more like 1936 than 1996."
Read the full article
Washington Post
For the first time since welfare was redefined a dozen years ago, weaning millions of poor Americans from monthly government checks, the deteriorating economy is causing a surge in welfare rolls in a growing number of states.
The swelling caseloads pose the first hard test of the premise behind transforming the old system of welfare, once considered an open-ended right, into a finite program built to provide short-term cash assistance and steer people quickly into jobs.
Though still a fraction of the size they were at their height in the mid-1990s, welfare rolls recently have begun to climb again in at least a dozen states, according to interviews with state officials. In other states, applications are rising, foreshadowing more people on welfare soon. The trend has spread across the District, Maryland and Virginia.
More striking is who is coming onto welfare and why. Here in Florida, as elsewhere, the new face of welfare includes people who have tumbled from the middle class -- and higher -- after losing jobs, savings and self-reliance. And some are returning to welfare years after they thought they had found permanent work and independence.
Many people coming onto welfare "shouldn't be receiving assistance if there [were] jobs out there," said Kevin McGuire, the Maryland Department of Human Resources' executive director of family investment. "The problem is, what we are seeing here is something that looks more like 1936 than 1996."
Read the full article
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