Stockton Schools See Short Sale of Short Buses

Dateline Stockton: A Grand Jury has criticized the Stockton Unified School District for its purchase of "31 never-used special-education school buses", for around $2.05 Million and then "sell them a year later...with little documentation".

A million here, a million there...pretty soon it adds up to real money! Seems to me the school district should have kept at least one of the short buses to transport their board members to their meetings!

Remember When Republicans Were Trying to 'Kill Big Bird'?

the Most Interesting Bird in the World™
There I was, minding my own business, waiting for this Lipton Tea ad to finish loading so I could close it without crashing my computer again (long story!), when I noticed it was being pitched by... a Muppet. That's right. The same Muppets singing the praises of Toyotas night after night...these guys are grubbing for money everywhere! That does it! The gloves are off!

Back in 1995, in 2010 and once again during the presidential race of 2012, there were discussions about reducing or eliminating federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as a "low hanging fruit" means of starting to cut the Brobdingnagian colossus that is federal spending. Each and every time, principled liberals (stop laughing!) managed to muster one essential, substantial argument against it: 'Republicans Hate Big Bird'.

'Republicans Hate Big Bird'. 'Republicans hate Sesame Street.'
'Republicans want to kill Big Bird'. 'Republicans Hate children'.
Yada, yada, yada.

The facts, that liberal minds are apparently too pure to look upon, suggest otherwise.

Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting increased from $250 million in 1992 to $350 million in 2002. It has since increased to $450 million for fiscal year 2012. At the current rate of funding, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would take in between $5-6 billion from taxpayers over the next decade. While the figure is not huge in terms of the overall budget and spending crisis, it’s just a small piece of the entire pie that could be cut.

The taxpayers, you and I, have subsidized CPB/PBS/NPR and Big Bird to the tune of billions of dollars. That's "Billions" with a "B". We are poised to spend Billions more. The question, apart from whether a country so far in debt can afford it, is: Will cutting federal spending for public broadcasting "kill" Big Bird?

When pressed, PBS admits that federal funding is a small portion of their overall funding*. If they had to compete as a privately owned cable network, how would they fare? According to PBS themselves:

Over the course of a year, nearly 90% of all U.S. television households - and 217 million people - watch PBS. The demographic breakdown of PBS' full-day audience reflects the overall U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, education and income. (Nielsen NPower, 9/24/2012-9/22/2013

In a typical month, 104 million people watch their local PBS stations. (Nielsen NPower, 9/30/2013-10/27/2013)

PBS' primetime household audience is significantly larger than many commercial channels, including HBO (PBS' audience is 98% larger), Bravo (93%), TLC (93%), HGTV (74%), Discovery Channel (64%) and A&E (53%). In addition, PBS' primetime rating for news and public affairs programming is 119% higher than CNN’s primetime audience. (Nielsen NPower, 9/23/2013-3/30/2014)

So, their audience share is larger than quite a number of cable channels who manage to get along just fine without government subsidies...so why can't PBS?

And Big Bird??

Back in 2010, I wrote a piece called "Demagogues-R-Us", in which I referenced the illustrious Mr. Bird:

Back in 1995, when Republicans suggested a cut back in support for public television, the issue was (and is again) being couched as "Republicans hate Sesame Street", or "Republicans hate Big Bird". Never mind the fact that the Muppets, a division of the Disney empire**, have garnered huge financial rewards via licensing, toys, books, movies, clothing, DVDs, etc.*** In the demagogues' mind, moving Big Bird away from the public trough is to "hate" Big Bird.

In the wake of the Juan Williams debacle, the wisdom of public funding for such a slanted media outlet comes again to the forefront, and still the demagogues trot the Muppets out as if Republicans hate children.

Is Big Bird now part of the 1%?? Should we "Occupy Sesame Street"?

Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop, or CTW) is the owner and sole proprietor of Sesame Street as well as television properties Dragon Tales, Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, Square One TV and Big Bag.

In December 2000, Sesame Workshop bought the rights to the Sesame Street Muppets for $180 million, from the then German owned Jim Henson Company. The rest of the Muppets were sold back to the Henson children for $78 million, who later sold the characters to Disney for an undisclosed price, but probably under $200 million. There's a reason why the Muppets sell for hundreds of millions of dollars: they're worth it. The Tickle me Elmo doll alone sold a million units in 1996, at around $30 a pop. (Up to $1,500 on the black market by Christmas). The Weekly Standard reports that in "...2011 Sesame Workshop took in $46.9 million in licensing income from Sesame Street."

Year in, year out, after thousands upon thousands of different products and commercial ventures, I think Big Bird is solvent enough to pay his own way. And if he wishes to light his cigars with $100 bills, he is perfectly within his rights. He just shouldn't expect the rest of America to pay for it.






* NPR Doesn't Hate You, Middle America. They Still want Your Money (video)

** At that time, I didn't know that there were Muppets and then there are Muppets!

*** some 100,000 different Sesame Street products licensed by CTW/Sesame Workshop.


Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art
Cross posted at LCR, Political Clown Parade

Nancy Peslosi Can't Find Anything to Cut in Federal Budget

Really? Sen. Tom Coburn found 100

Among them:

++ $1.5 Billion+: Annual cost of maintaining government properties that are not longer needed or used.

++ $65 Million: Funds taken from federal emergency relief provided to the state governments of New York and New Jersey in the wake of Hurricane Sandy that was diverted to pay for tourism-related television ads.

++ $390,000: NASA grant to produce a series of YouTube videos starring the “Green Ninja,” who motivates school children to take action on climate change.

++ $384,989: National Science Foundation funding for a study of the oddities of the duck penis. A key finding of the study was the organ’s unique corkscrew shape.

The US is losing its preeminence in space exploration and NASA is making green weinie You Tube videos? Sheesh!

"We Have Nothing to Fear, But Incompetence and Venality in Government"

Obama as FDR: "We have Nothing to Offer But Fear Itself!"
The recent, partial shutdown of the federal government is focusing the nation's attention on a number of things. First, is the petty, vindictive and unnecessary closing of every open air memorial, roadside scenic overlook and even parking lots and roads to private businesses doing business on or nearby federal lands.

This is unprecedented. During the government shutdown of the 1990's, Bill Clinton did not find it necessary to make draconian closures of monuments and scenic turnouts. The Obama administration is barring people from merely driving by the Marine memorial, with its statue of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima, or stopping to look at Mt. Rushmore. Behind the slender fig leaf that the government is prohibited by law from spending money on keeping these sites open, the Obama administration is spending money we don't have to actively close them.

The good news is, is that while the government is at least partially shut down, people are getting sticker shock from Obamacare (those who actually manage to get through for a quote), the traditional 40 hour work week has been reduced to 29 for far too many people, who are unable to support themselves on one job, attempts are being made to turn elderly WWII veterans away from the nation's memorials, in Obama's name, and the President has managed to break away from his golf game long enough to weigh in on the most earth shaking threat to our nation, namely, whether the Washington Redskins should change their name! (No word yet on whether or not he will intervene in having the 'panda cam' turned back on at the National Zoo...)


The second thing, perhaps, is of even greater importance than the pettiness or vindictiveness of Obama in trying to maximize pain with the shutdown, and that is the process of how our government recklessly and carelessly spends our money. The current government impasse is over the funding of one and only one program: Obamacare. The Republicans are willing to fund every program in the "budget"*, save one. This in itself constitutes compromise with the Democrats over countless agencies and programs. Obama, Reid and Pelosi, on the other hand, want an all or nothing package, and refuse to negotiate, no matter what hardships might naturally be inflicted on the health or financial well being of the American public, plus whatever novel, petty and vindictive means they can come up with to further punish anyone who stands in their way. And blame Republicans, of course. It is almost comical the lengths that Obama will go to to negotiate with dictators and tinhorn rulers of third world nations who mean the US nothing but harm, but cannot find it in himself to negotiate with fellow Americans over differences in policy.

The President and his lackeys have all re-bleated the argument that the budget cannot be passed piecemeal, despite the fact that The President himself has signed at least one "piecemeal" budgetary measure protecting the paychecks of military personnel, and then... bragged about it! What's wrong with an up or down vote on each and every federal agency or program worthy of funding, or receiving the amount of funds it does in times of hardship and deficit?

Dim Bulb Nancy Pelosi is of the opinion, stated publicly, that there is absolutely nothing left to cut in the federal budget. "There are no more cuts to make", she bleats. Really, Nancy?? No duplicate programs, no waste, no fraud...My! The US government must have become a virtual Utopia under Barack Hussein Obama. Hardly! And is Obamacare, with its thousands of pages of law and thousands of pages of regulations, so perfect that no detail or aspect can be brought under scrutiny? Every tax in the act, like those on medical devices, and every provision, like forcing Americans abroad to buy insurance that will do them no good in the country in which they live, are now sacrosanct, because they were passed in the dead of night, by a single party and is now "the law of the land"? I don't know about you, but nearly in nearly every election, on every ballot I receive, there is a measure on it, changing, modifying or replacing some "law of the land". Was Obamacare given to us on 20,000 stone tablets at Mt. Sinai that is should be eternally unchanged?

Candidate Obama, in 2008, promised that he would go through the budget line by line to eliminate waste, fraud and unnecessary expenses. Can you name any one program, other than the military, that Obama has cut in the last five years? Any program at all??? Do you expect any sane person to believe that Obama recognized areas to cut in 2008, but not one of them was cut and yet somehow Nancy Pelosi announces in 2013 that they don't exist? Are these people lying or delusional (or both)??

If it's good enough for Senator Obama, it should be good enough for the country: Why not go through the budget line by line? Make every department justify their existence before they receive another dime in federal money. Isn't that the job of government? To determine the wise and just use of federal funds? Simply throwing all of the nation's spending eggs in one basket, allows for bills laden with pork, rewarding special interests at the expense of the American taxpayer, passing budgets laden with fraud and waste, which, as Obama likes to say, hold the taxpayer and the nation hostage, if they are not passed in their entirety. What's wrong with spending taxpayer money in a careful, prudent and responsible manner? Have these people got someplace more important they need to be, other than doing the people's business?

Here's an idea. Since the American people aren't even allowed to look at our national parks and monuments while they drive by, (God forbid they should actually pull off to the side of the road a gawk for a minute), how about we zero out any line items for presidential vacations...and golf games...and fundraisers...and concerts and galas at the White House, until America is back at work and the budget is balanced? Let's ask Barry Beach House to forgo his next trip to Martha's Vineyard, or Vegas, or Hawaii, or his next couple hundred golf outings, and attempt to lead America by example for a change?

I know. I have a dream!



*Actually, a "continuing resolution". Congress hasn't passed an actual budget since 2009. Every time Obama wags his tongue or finger at "Congress" for not "doing their job", or uses the word "budget", you might remind yourself exactly how many times he has admonished Harry Reid for not bringing up any budget passed by the House, for a vote in the Senate? (Zero) Passing a budget, of course, would illustrate just how much more Obama wants to spend, than expected revenues, and exactly where the money would be spent.

Original art work created for Proof Positive by John Cox
Cross posted at LCR

Five Hundred Dollar Hammer Meets the Two Million Dollar Job

The Agriculture Department spent $2 million on an internship program in which only one intern was hired, according to a new inspector general report.

The finding was part of a larger USDA inspector general audit that focused on the agency’s multi-million dollar effort to improve information technology security.

The 32-page audit found the agency’s information systems “are still at risk” because the improvement projects were poorly managed “even after expending $63.4 million of funding increases received” in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

The audit also focused on the office of the agency’s chief information officer and the $2 million it funded for the internship program. While the program was part of the security-enhancement program, it resulted in the hiring of only one full-time intern, the audit stated.

Two million dollars for a single job? Sounds like a bargain by government standards! Remember that solar farm in Nevada? Uncle Sugar gave $50 Million in tax credits to a Canadian company that would employ...two people! Your tax dollars at work!

The really funny thing is that candidate Barack Obama told us he was going to go over the budget line by line to eliminate this very kind of waste. How odd that he didn't catch it himself? /snark


Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

Michelle and Barry's Excellent Adventures

Photoshop® alert! This apparently isn't one!


First Lady Michelle Obama

At first, (sorry Michelle!) I thought this was a Photoshop® of Barack trying to make him look (more) effeminate. Then, I saw in the caption it was Michelle. Remember, our Fearless Leader rode a girl's bike, too...




Then, we find out the price tag for the Obamas vacationing with the "millionaires and billionaires":

The Obamas' summer break in Martha's Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.

But according to new reports, this is the least of their extravagances. White House sources today claimed that the First Lady has spent $10 million of U.S. taxpayers' money on vacations alone in the past year.

Guess we need to re-write JFK:

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what your country can do for me!"

-Barack Obama

The First Lady is believed to have taken 42 days of holiday in the past year, including a $375,000 break in Spain and a four-day ski trip to Vail, Colorado, where she spent $2,000 a night on a suite at the Sebastian hotel.

And the first family's nine-day stay in Martha's Vineyard is also proving costly, with rental of the Blue Heron Farm property alone costing an estimated $50,000 a week.

... 'Michelle also enjoys drinking expensive booze during her trips

But, the pressure of being First Lady! It's got to be hell on her not worrying about mortgage payments or where her next gourmet meal is coming from! I hear in the White House, once she even had to draw her own bath!*

While the President and his wife do pay for some of their personal expenses from their own pocket, the website whitehousedossier.com says that the amount paid by the couple is 'dwarfed by the overall cost to the public'.

The magazine also reported that Mrs Obama, whose fashion choices are widely followed, had been going on 'wild shopping sprees', much to the distress of her husband, who, its sources reveal, is 'absolutely furious' at his wife's 'out-of-control spending'.

Now if he could only bring himself to become furious at Congress for their out-of-control spending!




*Probably not true. Staff would have been fired over such a thing!

H/T Rob Port

Cross posted at LCR. More at Memeorandum

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Keeping the US Free of Basketball Hoops and Lemonade Stands

If you are taking medication for high blood pressure, please do not watch the following video:



In tough economic times, and limited government services, is this really the best use of taxpayer funds, law enforcement and government resources?

And just think of the tremendous carbon footprint of all that heavy equipment! /sarc

H/T Donnie Baseball

Electric Car Maker Folds, City Loses $500,000

Aren't you glad that government is investing in "Green" technology, rather than promoting that nasty old oil that private industry is willing to drill for, pump, refine, pay taxes on, and increase the supply of gasoline to lower its cost? Yeah. Me, too!

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.

The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company. All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.

The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant. When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.

Funny! I drove through Salinas a couple times today, never knowing they were snookered into investing with a Green Weenie. I was out in the fields with all those nasty gas powered tractors and harvesters and pumps and all the good things petroleum products provide to make American farms prosperous and productive. I even put 388 miles on my own POV just getting there and back.

If only we had a president who encouraged oil production in this country as much as he does in Brazil, or Columbia or China...

The start-up company promised city leaders that it would create 70 new jobs and pay $700,000 in taxes a year to Salinas.

Hope! Change!!

Including the California money, the company... burned through over $700,000 of taxpayer money.

Anyone want to bet that some of that $700,000 was spent on carbon spewing private jets and limos to impress the marks, er, investors, that this was a good deal?

Yeah. Me, neither!


H/T Newsbusters

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

How Many Limos Does the Government Need?

I don't know. How many have they got? According to General Services Administration data, the number of limousines in the federal fleet increased by 73 percent, up from 238 in 2008 to 412 in 2010 In tough economic times, it's good to know that the federal government is making do with only 73% more limos than they had in 2008! And what makes it worse, is the GSA is either not competent enough or honest enough to admit how many. The GSA "cannot say that its report accurately reflects the number of limousines" because "the categories in the Fleet Report are overly broad, and the term 'limousine' is not defined." What a relief! I thought these people were responsible for taking care of public property! Turns out, they can't even identify it! Is it a limo? All depends on what you definition of "is" is. And who is it who needs all these extra limos? Hillary's State Department scored the most new limos.

The State Department's 259 limos surpassed every other agency's limo stash in 2010, and the department has gained 194 limos since fiscal year 2008. Of the new 194, 98 were defined as "law enforcement".

And you can see how visiting dignitaries might need to be chauffeured around. But 259? And, law enforcement? 98 limos for "law enforcement"? Boy, that sure sounds like the best use of government funds!

The VA, which once owned 21 limos under George W. Bush in 2008, now sports only one. Similarly, the Government Printing Office went from six to none between 2009 and 2010.

I can see the VA doing with fewer than 21 limos. I can certainly see the Government Printing Office not needing any limos at all. But while these two departments were slimming down, too much of the rest of the government was bulking up. Unless the GAO wants to be seen as the Keystone Kops of property management, they should be able to accurately identify anything in the government's inventory. In a time of crushing government debt and lip service to lighter, more energy efficient cars for all of us, the government should be taking the lead in fiscal responsibility and setting an example for the rest of us to follow. And, maybe see if bacon can be harvested from all those flying pigs? Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.

$2.4 Billion Free for the Asking. Oh, and Maybe you Could Build a Train, Too?

"Governors and members of Congress have been clamoring for the opportunity to participate."
-Ray Lahood

Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Wednesday that 24 states, including Connecticut, are in competition for a share of the $2.4 billion that his agency plans to disburse. Amtrak and the District of Columbia are also looking for a share.

Gosh. $2.4 Billion (with a "B") in goodies being given away and our Transportation Secretary marvels at how popular the program is!

My guess is, is that if they were giving away government money to build leprechaun fences around unicorn ranches, 24 states and the District of Columbia would be in line for that, too.

Can 2012 get here any sooner? I'll have more on the high speed rail boondoggle soon.

Stimulus: Feds Blow $823,000 on African Genitalia Washing

His, not hers!

Your tax dollars at work! For those of you who didn't think the government spent enough money teaching Chinese hookers how to drink responsibly, (Obama Pays Chinese Hookers) here's where your "stimulus" money is going. (This may be the only time the government uses the word "stimulus" appropriately!) Via Judicial Watch:

On the heels of a scathing report exposing incessant waste in President Obama’s scandal-plagued economic stimulus, a news agency reveals that nearly $1 million in recovery funds have gone to a genitalia-washing program for uncircumcised African men.

If this seems like an inconceivable prank, just take a look at the public university study that received $823,200 in stimulus cash to encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling. Specifically, the taxpayer dollars will be used to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex. You can’t make this stuff up.

The money from the monstrous $787 billion program Obama promised would jumpstart the economy and put Americans back to work was distributed by the National Institutes of Health. The goal is to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa by convincing uncircumcised men to develop an effective after-sex, genitalia-washing regime. The aim, according to the publicly-funded study, is to evaluate the “feasibility and acceptability of a post-coital male genital hygiene procedure” among Africans unwilling to be circumcised.

Doing the jobs Americans won't do, I guess!

Must Watch Video

Brought to you by Lady C...

Protest in Bell, California - I Hope I Played a Small Part in This...

by the Left Coast Rebel

.......because I surely support what these residents of Bell, California are doing with every fiber of my being. I wonder if my little Daily Caller canary in the coal mine-post put (even a little more) pressure on these miscreants in the city government that are/were fleecing the residents of Bell, California:



Glenn Reynolds catches the money-line from the Reason video, "They are robbing the city blind...We have a very predatory government."

And although this is sure not a Tea Party gathering in Bell, California - I can tell you that the spirit of the Tea Party and that of freedom is there.

And thinking of this - God help us when the typical-Democrat constituencies wake up to the Obamanation and the abominations that he has forced upon our nation.

Will there be civic unrest? Or is the question - when?

Hat-tip Instapundit.

Cross posted to Left Coast Rebel.

Democrat Pollster Gets $6 Million to Save Three Jobs

Wow! Talk about getting bang (ed) for your buck!

Nearly $6 million in stimulus money was paid to two firms run by Mark Penn (photo above), Hillary Clinton’s pollster in 2008.

Federal records show that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus helped preserve three jobs at Burson-Marsteller, the global public-relations and communications firm headed by Penn.

Burson-Marsteller won the contract to work on a public-relations campaign to advertise the national switch from analog to digital television. Nearly $2.8 million of the contract was issued to Penn’s polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, according to federal records.

Yeah. Let's put these people in charge of health care. We know they'd administrate it in a fair and reasonable manner...for everyone with a "D" after his name!

H/T Jammie Wearing Fool
Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama Fiddles While the West Burns

Not like he's playing politics or anything, but almost $3 million in "stimulus" money that was supposed to be for fighting wildfires is being spent restoring public parks and watersheds in Washington D.C., which, last time we looked, had no national forests.

Our U.S. Forest Service has directed that $2.8 million in "Wildland Fire Management" monies, approved under the Porkulus law, go to folks that will create "green jobs" in the nation's capitol.

The spending caught the attention of a group of Western legislators, who noted that D.C. had no national forests, while forests throughout the West continue to burn. A wildfire in California destroyed some 250 square miles of the Angeles National Forest, resulting in the deaths of two firefighters.

Hat tip The PiratesCove
Cross posted at Say Anything

Obama Pays Chinese Hookers

...to learn not to drink!

In the truth is stranger than fiction department:

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

What the ???? When Obama said he was going to go through the budget line by line and eliminate waste, did you think that teaching Chinese hookers how to drink responsibly would make the cut??? Sheesh!

Obama's Ag Dept Builds Garden: Will History Repeat Itself?

In another sign that the Department of Agriculture is embracing sustainable food, the agency today will unveil expanded plans for a People's Garden that will include the entire six-acre grounds of the Whitten Building, the department's neoclassic marble headquarters on the Mall.

The plans, to be announced at the agency's Earth Day celebrations, include a 1,300-square-foot organic vegetable garden -- slightly larger than the one at the White House -- as well as ornamental flower gardens and bioswales, or mini-wetlands designed to reduce pollution and surface water runoff. The building grounds now are landscaped with grass, flower borders and trees planted to honor a person or mark an event.

-The Proof is in the Planting

They want to call this "The People's Garden". Comrade, er, Secretary Tom Vilsack thinks a token vegetable garden on public grounds will "communicate the agency's mission of sustainability and in particular the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables".

If you recall, Comrade, er, President Obama sponsored a community garden once before...

As a state senator, Barack Obama gave $100,000 in state money to a campaign volunteer who failed to deliver on a plan to create a botanic garden in one of Chicago's most blighted neighborhoods.

Obama -- who was running for Congress when he announced the project in 2000 -- said the green space in Englewood would build ''a sense of neighborhood pride."

Instead, what was supposed to be a six-block stretch of trees and paths is now a field of unfulfilled dreams, strewn with weeds, garbage and broken pavement.

Let's hope the "people" get more for their tax dollars this time than just a broken down, $100,000 plywood gazebo! (It would be nice if the imagery the Obama administration picked for itself was not as suggestive of the creepier forms of socialism, too!)



Hat tip Say Anything

Update: On the bright side, with this administration, they’ll never have a shortage of fertilizer! Heh.