Monday, July 30, 2007

LOVE THOSE PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PENSIONS!

Firstly: Public employeees should all be paid decent wages. and if need be, be paid more in salaries while working, but to make three or four times more money in retirement pensions, than while working is obcene!

Sheriff Jim Anderson was just defeated and is retiring.

He will receive a pension of $186,000 per year with a guaranteed minimum increase on the pension total of the previous year of 3% (compounded). 2nd year = $192,000, 3rd year = $198,000, etc. If the CPI is higher than 3%, the yearly increase matches the CPI; PLUS lifetime free medical.

His wife gets 60% of his pension plus free medical care for life if he pre-deceases her, and the odds are that he will.

At age 53, he should live to age 83 by the actuaries. This amounts to (not counting the probability that he dies before his wife) a minimum pension (just with 3% yearly increases) of at least $6,400,000, which is about four times what he has earned as a deputy and finally as sheriff in his entire career of 30 years in the department.

Most rank and file deputies, police, firefighters and civilian public employess do not get this type of huge pension, but pensions from $70,000 and up per year with the same conditions are not uncommon.

No private business in this country pays workers these kinds of pensions. Most retiring workers today receive no pension at all and get no free medical care either. DO YOU?

The unfunded pension systems for all public entities in California, counties and cities will eventually break them! The State of California alone has over $100 BILLION DOLLARS in unfunded pension liability!

Our local city and county elected officials are all after the support of public employees unions and this is their pay-off. If you want to hear double-talk, ask anyone running for city council, county supervisor or state office about their position on public employee pensions. They are the "third rail" of politics!

All our politicians (who are in bed with the public employees unions) are leaving our future an expensive legacy !

Thursday, July 26, 2007

AIN'T ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION WONDERFUL?

FROM THE LA TIMES>>>>>>>>>

IN LA COUNTY ALONE:

40% of all workers, mostly illegal aliens, work for cash and pay no taxes.

95% of all murder warrants are for illegal aliens.

75% of the most wanted list are illegal aliens.

300,000 illegal immigrants are living in garages.

50% of all gang members come from south of the border.

60% of people living in HUD properties are illegal aliens.

70% of all births in California are to illegal Mexicans, paid for by taxpayers.

29% of federal prison inmates are illegal aliens.

Monday, July 16, 2007

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK?

The so-called "entertainment zone" or as I call it the "drunk zone on lower State Street in Santa Barbara costs taxpayers more to police than the bars pay in sales taxes! In other words, the people of Santa Barbara are paying for police protection of the bars and their drunk patrons that the bars create in the first place. Almost 1/3 of Santa Barbara's police budget is spent on lower State Street. The next time you dial 911 in one of our neighborhoods, don't be surprised if the cops don't show up in a timely manner, especially on a Friday or Saturday evening. There are regularly only 4 cops on duty in the entire city on the graveyard shift! Do not call the police at that time please!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Welcome!

WELCOME!
Welcome to my blog! I hope to have input from visitors and I will try to keep your interest with subject matter that is thoughtful and interesting.

Our TV show is on cable in Santa Barbara and we have been on Channel 17 for nine years. The show is interesting and we have guests and the phones are always open for comment from viewers, both pro and con. We will be back in early September and trust that those of you living in the Santa Barbara area will join us.

HOW NOT TO BE A PARENT!
Interesting story in the S.F. Chronicle today about a little 4-year old boy that drowned at Great America's water-wave pool. The child's mother blames Great America "for not doing their job".

My question: What is a 4-year old child doing in a pool that ranges in depth from 2-feet to 6-feet without his mother at his side? It is a sure bet that this little boy didn't know how to swim. When the mother started to fret about where her son was after ten minutes, she sent another child to look for him.
The fault for this child's tragic drowning lies directly at the feet of the mother.
Many in our society are too eager to blame others for our own mistakes. This is one of those cases.

CITY OF SANTA BARBARA COPS OUT!
This drowning story makes me recall the drowning of Katie Janeway in our local city owned pool a few years ago. The city has parents sign a Waiver of Responsibility" absolving the city of negligence. In Katie's case she was an epileptic girl 14-years old and she was supposed to be monitored by a specific
young woman assigned to watch her at all times. Her monitor was at the shallow end of the pool and Katie dived into the deep end of the pool and drowned. Katie's parents sued the City of Santa Barbara for gross negligence to the tune of $200 million dollars. The case is winding its way though court appeals. The question to be answered is whether a signed waiver can release the the city from gross negligence. In this case, I believe the parents are not to blame, but the city is! I believe that the City of Santa Barbara will lose this case, and they should!

NON-FREEDOM OF SPEECH ALIVE AT THE NEWS-PRESS!
The Santa Barbara News-Press keeps soliciting letters and op-ed pieces from readers, but the request has one slight caveat. The paper will not print letters or op-eds that are adverse to Wendy McCaw, the paper's owner or the paper itself. In other words: "We will print only favorable comments about the News-press in the News-Press. In the News-Press, freedom of speech is only available to the paper's comments. Readers: Shut up!

IRAQ WAR
We lost this war in the summer of 2003, when President Bush elected to send the Iraqi Army of several hundred thousand men home with their AK-47's, but with no way to earn a living. The Commander-in -Chief also allowed millions of rounds of ordinance to be unguarded and stolen. This ordinance is killing and maiming our kids by the thousands. We are no longer in a war. Our brave man and women are the targets of dozens of groups of Iraqis that we cannot even identify. Our troops are in a battle just to stay alive. The only way to even try and pacify Iraq is with our entire military of 500,000 troops. This is not going to happen. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA'S DROUGHT AND LAWNS!
There is no arguement that Southern California is in a record drought that will only get worse. Over 50% of our water is used for lawns! IT IS TIME TOTEAR OUT EXISTING LAWNS AND REPLACE THEM WITH FOILAGE THAT IS DROUGHT FRIENDLY AND TO NOT ALLOW ANY NEW LAWNS. We are either going to have green grasses or empty glasses.