Christie's Curse

I'm Trying to Improve My Blog?

As you probably know farm animals are usually given ear tags for identification purposes, With that in mind I am debating whether or not to tag my little friends shown on my banner. I am showing you the tag names (first names only) I have chosen. If you have other suggestions write to me and I will consider changing some of them.
Additionally, I have added new intro music which is my short remix of "Animals - Piggies" by Pink Floyd. I thought it to be apropos for the banner and subject matter (politicians). 

"Performance Bonuses"?

I don’t know if you will consider me to be lacking self-control, call me a liar or call me a fool but I’m back!

I can’t continue my rants at the newspaper and the television. Certainly my wife won’t listen to me so I've decided that my only recourse is to resume writing this feckless blog.

The article below is really what sent me back over the edge. It describes the fees paid to hedge funds by New Jersey pension funds. The first article shows that the contract with the hedge funds provides not only for fees but also for “performance bonuses”. Twenty percent of investment returns exceeding six percent will be paid to the hedge fund as a “performance bonus”.

Upon reading this I immediately looked up the overall average returns on the Dow, the NASDAQ and S&P for the past year. They were 7.52%, 13.4% and 11.39% respectively!

What this means is that a monkey with a dart and the Wall Street Journal would definitely earn a "performance bonus" and it would only cost the pension fund an extra banana or two not the hundreds of millions of dollars which the hedge funds received.

What competent financial manager would agree to some arbitrary number to set as a goal to obtain a “performance bonus”? Shouldn't the goal have been set to exceed the overall yearly market averages?

And why was there not a disincentive in the contract if returns fell significantly below average market returns?

These are all obviously rhetorical questions because I think I know the answers and I am quite sure you do too!

A Chris Christie Christmas

Goodbye and Good Luck

I would like to thank all of you who have read my tirades and rants over the years. After viewing the results of this week's elections I have finally seen the error of my ways.

   Here's a sample of what I've seen and what leads me to my decision.

   Joe D. is reelected in a landslide after ignoring the Democratic candidate for governor and openly supporting Christie.  He is also being accused of spending campaign funds for personal use with documented evidence and he collects his pension while still working (no pension reform for him!)

   Scott Walker is reelected after successfully destroying bargaining rights for public workers which represent a large segment of the middle class in WI.

   John Grimes from Staten Island is reelected after threatening to throw a reporter over a balcony in the Capitol because he didn’t like the question he was asked.

List goes on!

   I am giving up playing Don Quixote. I am going into rehab and try to cure myself of my ongoing delusion that my writing could possibly help to stimulate meaningful opposition to the bashing and derision of teachers and public workers (basically then the middle class).

   I will be writing no more posts in the foreseeable future. If anyone would like to replace me just write to me at: wsautter@optonline.net.

I will give you complete instructions on how to use and modify this blog site for your postings if you care to do so.

   Again, thanks for reading over the years.

Finally, for all you teachers and public workers - "Best of Luck" - I think you are going to need it.

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." 

         H.L. Mencken

See the ultimate plan in the cartoon above.

US editor (1880 - 1956) 

Great Moments in History

I guess the GWB scandal has been squashed? 
The Sandy / Christie campaign ad money problem is gone? 
The Hunterdon County Sheriff's Office investigation is no longer proceeding? 
The Hoboken Mayor's charges have been dismissed?
Otherwise why would the turtle feel free to come out of his shell and resume his brutish, ill mannered tactics?

Christie For President ??

                               
Christie as president! That's would be some sweet stuff! I'll leave the translation of the Russian in the video to you.

P.S. - Here's a guy that wants to blame Obama for not cleaning up the mess left by Bush but refuses to accept the blame for his not cleaning up the Sandy mess?

When the Deck is Stacked Don't Expect to Get a Good Hand

Learnin' Stuff Ain't Cheap!

It appears that in order to obtain a college education a student or his parents must become indentured servants of banks and/or the government!

BTY - Many of those indebted leave college without a degree! And if you've noticed the advertising by "for profit" schools is constant on both radio and TV (DeVry, Berkeley, Star, Phoenix, etc.). There must be a ton of money in the "education business".

A Race to the Bottom for NJ Retirees

I noticed both of these articles in the same Ledger addition last week. I wonder how many of the households led by persons 65 and older are in the State Pension Plan? Will "The Governor's" attacks on the pension fund reduce that $45,092 to even lower levels in coming years? 

How about the second article, the map of real estate values. How could all the rich be fleeing the state (as "The Gov." suggests) and still have property values in the state remain at the magnitudes shown? Does anyone really think that a millionaires tax would drive people from these lavish abodes?

I don't think "The Gov." actually believes that it would either. He just wants to make sure that his rich buds and donors don't have to contribute any more support to those that help them to maintain their opulent life style in New Jersey.

God forbid one of them might have to down grade from the Rolls Phantom Coupe ($476K) to the lowly old Phantom Sedan ($410K) next year!

Please Don't Tell Me That You're Surprised - (repost with addendum)

I just happened to read this in a column by Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report and have decided to add it to my most recent post because of its relevance.

"Al Sharpton, the MSNBC host and presidential pit bull, reciprocated the University of Phoenix’s sponsorship of his TV special Advancing the Dream with a puff piece on the for-profit giant’s online offerings, featuring the NFL’s Larry Fitzgerald, a Phoenix student and booster. Phoenix University excels all others in funneling Black people’s educational dollars directly to Wall Street via the Apollo Group, a $5.36 billion corporation with ties to the super-predatory Carlyle Group."

The Carlyle Group is one of the hedge funds in which NJ pensions are invested and to which Robert Gardy (the Christie appointed  manager of NJ pension funds)  has long standing ties.

******************

Additionally, Mr. Ford reports -

"The Obama administration may abhor the chaos in which players like the University of Phoenix and Ashford University have become the top producers of baccalaureate degrees among Blacks. But the administration – and the Democratic Party, as an institution – also worships at the alter of privatization. Rather than eliminate the felonious educational enterprises root and branch – and spend the money on a nationalized system of free education – Obama will continue to provide tens of billions to nourish the poisoned tree."

Every year we spend $32 billion on these for-profit institutions. Why not use that money for tuition-free colleges for students who need higher education--and bypass Wall Street?"

*****************

Ain't that sweet? It appears that every politician and government official - left, right and center - is intent on stealing taxpayer and retiree monies in whatever ways possible.

A "Gotta See" Movie

 I happened to be watching television the other night and I noticed a familiar face as I scanned the channels. (I am a constant channel surfer. I just can't seem to control myself). The face was that of Father Leahy of Saint Benedict's Prep. I knew him from the days when I was coaching at Nutley and we wrestled against Saint Benedict's. He was most often there to root his team on (although  they really didn't  need his encourage since I rarely, if ever remember beating them). 
He and several others were featured in a film about Saint Benedict's, about its history, its mission and its operation. The film was called "The Rule" and was played on PBS. 

You can see more about it at http://www.bongiornoproductions.com/THE_RULE/THE_RULE.html
The things that fascinated me were the dedication, compassion and results of the efforts by the monks (and lay people) at the school.
After seeing the kinds of things that had to be done in order ensure the success of the young men at Saint Benedict's I began to think about public education in New Jersey and the attempts by the State to improve it. 
There is no public school in the land (and few if any private ones) that has the wherewithal to do the kinds of things that are done there at Benedict's. It was made obvious in the film that without the procedures and programs that are used at Benedict's, the odds of saving children are slim at best. By the way, the religious aspect of the program was not even discussed and I got the strong impression that religion was far from the main factor in achieving their success.
As I watched the film (for an hour and a half) I began to think - Every legislator, State Department of Education honcho and even "The Governor" should be required to view this film. I am sure it would make them fully aware that their name calling and degradation tactics against public education has little to do with creating any successful school. Simply calling a school "failing" because it cannot provide the environment and use the techniques that have made Benedict's a premier school is certainly not the answer.
To point fingers at "poor teachers", to shower them with busy work and forms, to renege on their pension benefits, to call them greedy and uncaring and to continually demean them to the status of field hands is definitely not the answer. The educational hierarchy must begin to appreciate  the enormity of the task and encourage teachers to do the best they possibly can under the circumstances which exist and stop casting blame and dictating dozens of cockamamie schemes from on high which are most certainly doomed to failure.   
It appears that the only proven answer (or the only one of which I am aware) to failing schools is to do as is being done at Benedict's. The results speak for themselves. But how realistic is this in the public school environment with hundreds of thousands of children?
Unfortunately, in order to achieve the Saint Benedict's results in a public school setting we would need thousands of teachers that would be willing to take the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; live at the school; being willing to take in children from a harsh environment and show them love and affection (and doing the latter in today's public schools will most certainly put you in prison - the days of hugging children of any age no matter your intent, are long since gone). What are the chances? 
For me, the film didn't as much describe what should be done in public education but moreover emphasized the difficulty of the task and the unlikelihood that the current attempts to "reform education" via teacher bashing, testing, scheming and name calling will ever succeed.

Look at the film trailer, see if you can find a replay on a PBS or maybe at “On Demand” and then write back and tell me what you think?

Ike Knew His Stuff

More war!

 More shoveling of money to the MIC !

Stealing the wealth of the nation and robbing our citizens of sorely needed benefits and services.

Monkeys and Dartboards

 What the graphs below show is that a monkey with a dartboard could have done better than our fund managers over the past few years.
BTW - the monkey would not work for peanuts but I'm sure bananas would do and certainly not $400M worth! 

Christie - In a Class or Her Own

The man was United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey and he didn't know that the law was unconstitutional when he signed it. 

Really?

That is almost as hard to believe as his GWB "But I didn't know" ploy.

Was it incompetency or deceit? I'm voting for willful deceit. 

How about you?

Nose Jobs !

What If a Teacher Told a Child to - "Shut Up!"?

What a Wonderful Wiz He is !

AND lest we forget:

(1)    $400M in Fed Ed aid that was lost (then he stuck it all on Schlinder)

(2)    $12M spend on unnecessary election (so he wouldn't be on the ballot with Booker)

(3)    doled out $10M as a parting gift to a Sandy aid relief distribution company (Hammerman & Gainer which was fired for poor performance)

(4)    Spent $7M for legal costs to his bud Mastro (the GWB problem and it’s still not over)

(5)    Lost $350M repayment to the Federal government when he reneged on the Arc Tunnel Project (lost the 3,000 construction jobs the tunnel was projected to generate for the next decade and also cost N.Y. and N.J. 44,000 jobs and $4 billion in additional income through economic growth, according to a 2008 study by New Jersey Transit)

(6)    Lost $7.7M for refusing to participate in the health care exchange program (and could have insured 95,000 additional uninsured New Jerseyans and would have cost the State nothing)

Conservative - Not With Our Money He Ain't !

This article speaks for itself. There is nothing more that I can add!
Oh! Wait a minute!
Let me add this - The man is definitely a scumbag!!

Math 6,500,000

A great calculation but not too great for the taxpayers of N.J.