Thursday, September 29, 2011 by Dick.

Oh, swell.

The cost of health insurance this year rose more steeply than in previous years, outstripping wages and adding uncertainty about the pace of growing costs.

Early estimates of the COLA are around 1.2% for next year which obviously takes in the 30% increase in food costs this year on top of 110% increases from the prior two years when there was no COLA at all.

Posted in Politics & News, Dick's Dumps | 1 Comment »

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 by Dick.

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Monday, September 26, 2011 by Dick.

Other than ShumpleCare, Gov. Peter Shumlin (D-VT) has been acting pretty much like a good Repuglican.

His $4.8 billion 2011 budget proposal slashed human services spending. Even the Vermont House Repuglican leader was pleased that the governor was “mostly sticking to not raising taxes and he is looking at ways to cut structural costs.”

In the wake of Irene, Gov. Shumlin eschewed the big government solutions, supporting and cheerleading community volunteers where they could help and building infrastructure where the government should. He even hired former top Repuglican aide Neale Lunderville as Irene-Czar.

And then he reminded us that he is a Big-D Demorat after all.

See, Demorats don’t believe in law. Oh, they believe in making law. But the law doesn’t apply to them unless it’s a “good” law.

Vermont state troopers made a routine traffic stop on I-89 about a week ago. In the stop they discovered that two migrant farm workers from Mexico were in the country illegally.

That’s an important distinction. The two migrant farm workers from Mexico had entered the country illegally.

Let me make that clear. The two migrant farm workers from Mexico had broken the law entering and staying in this country.

A decade or so ago, the U.S. Border Patrol, stretched thin, seconded Vermont police to that agency. In addition to enforcing all the law, Vermont police have the explicit duty to enforce customs and immigration laws. The driver of the car they stopped, a U.S. citizen, received a speeding ticket.

The staties turned the farm workers over to the Homeland Security. The Vermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project has branded the incident “racial profiling.” They ginned up a protest that included a human chain to block the Border Patrol vehicles from transferring the illegals to another facility for processing. Police arrested three protesters. I’m thinking they should have checked for green cards.

Reporter Stewart Ledbetter of WPTZ-TV interviewed Gov. Shumlin about the brouhaha. The governor said Vermont should “look the other way” when dealing with the illegal “guest workers” on Vermont farms. “We have always had a policy in Vermont where we kind of look the other way as much as we can.”

Gov. Shumlin said “look the other way” is Vermont policy on “undocumented” farm workers because the state dairy farms cannot survive without them.

Any end. Any means.

Apparently, I couldn’t buy any milk today unless it came from illegally squeezed teats.

“Every officer, whether judicial, executive, or military, in authority under this State, before entering upon the execution of office, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation …” [Vermont Constitution]

Then Governor-elect Peter Shumlin’s big moment came when the Paul Rieber, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, administered the oath of office:
Paul Rieber: “I do solemnly swear … according to law.”
Peter Shumlin: “I do solemnly swear … according to law.”
R: “I solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution
S: “I solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution”
R: “Of the state of Vermont”
S: “Of the state of Vermont”
R: “And the Constitution of the United States”
S: “And the Constitution of the United States”
R: “So help me God”
S: “So help me God.”
R: “Congratulations, Governor.”

I need milk today, so I guess it is in my best interest that the Governor is a law-breaking Demorat.

Governor Peter Shumlin (D-VT) today announced his new “bias free” policing policy for Vermont State Police.

Vermont will commit no resources to prevent illegal immigration.

The new policy orders Vermont state troopers not try to identify people whose only suspected violation is that they are present in the United States without proper documentation; troopers clearly should investigate any suspected criminal activity.

crim·i·nal /ˈkrimənl/ Of or relating to a crime, a person who has committed a crime.

crime /krīm/ An action that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law.

I’m thinking the crime here is that the governor of a state has made as policy that the state will investigate any suspected criminal activity as long as they don’t investigate that criminal activity.

Posted in Politics & News, PC, Random Access | 1 Comment »

Thursday, September 22, 2011 by Dick.

I generally watch the local news on WPTZ when I’m in North Puffin; I like the coverage, the weather reportage, the broadcast team, and the editorial stance.

I don’t like the way they play network programming promos as news, as in “Our next news story is what’s on the t00b tonight.” I don’t care if they think they have to because “other stations do it.”

A teevee show ain’t news.

Posted in Media, Dick's Dumps | 2 Comments »

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by Dick.

Posted in Wordless | 2 Comments »

Monday, September 19, 2011 by Dick.

The Chrysler/Fiat marketing masterminds have followed native-son rapper Eminem’s Chrysler 200 commercial “imported from Detroit” (I called it the best ad on the Super Bowl) with a new one.

Walter Chrysler founded his Chrysler Corporation out of the ashes of Maxwell-Chalmers to build cars in Detroit City in 1925. Since then, Chrysler has bought and shut down a number of car lines including AMC, American, Barreiros, Graham Brothers, Commer, DeSoto, Eagle, Canadian Fargo, Hillman, Hudson, Humber, Imperial, Karrier, Maxwell, Nash, Plymouth, Rambler, Renault, Simca, Singer, Sunbeam, and the Valiant in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

After the DaimlerChrysler fiasco, the company sold 80.1% of Chrysler Group to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. In the 2009 Obamanatationalization, Daimler agreed to give its remaining 19.9% stake to Cerberus Capital Management and to pay another $600 million into the automaker’s pension fund. The Obamanation then financed the sale of old Chrysler’s assets to New Chrysler with $6.6 billion paid to Cerebus. Chrysler repaid its $7.6 billion loans to the United States and Canadian governments in May, 2011.

I have to wonder how it is that Chrysler’s stockholder (Cerebus) got the gold while General Motor’s stockholders (Rufus and me) got the shaft, all in the same year. I guess screwing over the German Daimler AG (and us) was enough for the Obamanation.

Anyway, Eminem grew up in Detroit as did the car company. Ad agency Wieden+Kennedy celebrated that. (Portland, Oregon-based Wieden+Kennedy, known for its Nike ads, replaced the BBDO as Chrysler’s agency of record in 2009.)

This week, the beautiful Jennifer Lopez sings and drives her way to endorse the new

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wait for it
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Fiat 500C.
JLo sold herself for a flee flop.

Rufus said, “The Chrysler/Fiat thing — especially the 500 — is one of the most hateful things about the Obamanation’s Detroit.

“If the Progressives like Italy so much, they should go Berlusconi. They can stay forever if they love it that much.

“But dayumn that JLo is a comely thing!”

Sure.

So where’s the story? The Fiat is maybe the worst car sold in America since the Yugo but the bean counters and the Obamanation think the response in the ad is real.

Of course, the mob left the car behind when they carried off JLo. The bean counters and the Obamanation didn’t notice that.

Maybe JLo should have held out for an iPhone.

Posted in Marketing, Government Motors, Cars, Business, Politics & News, Random Access | 6 Comments »