This Is The Government You Want To Run Your Health Care...

The August 2005 passage of the African American HIV/AIDS Response Fund law, which Howard co-sponsored, laid the groundwork...

The Chicago not-for-profit organization -- founded by state Rep. Connie Howard (D-Chicago) -- went on to get $1.2 million in taxpayer money from that program...

Among the expenses in question are $5,607 for tickets and a skybox for the September 2007 Chicago Football Classic...

records show Kelly, Estes and another Let's Talk, Let's Test employee have made a total of $3,273 in campaign contributions to Howard since 2004. In addition, the foundation paid Howard $5,500 to rent office space in her campaign office in 2004.

"When people write a check to me, that is a personal check from them," Howard says. "That's their business. It has nothing to do with the organization."

But wait, you also get:

Besides getting $1.2 million in state health department money for HIV and AIDS prevention, the Let's Talk, Let's Test Foundation has also gotten $500,000 from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to buy and rehabilitate a nine-unit apartment building on the South Side.

Let's Talk, Let's Test paid $379,000 in July 2007 to buy the building at 7948 S. Evans.

The foundation had planned to use the remaining money from the commerce department for renovations so it could then rent out the building and use the income for future HIV-testing and AIDS-awareness activities.

But the rehab project cost more than planned, and the foundation ran out of money to finish it, according to Lloyd Kelly, the foundation's executive director.

So, more than two years after the foundation bought the building, it remains vacant. In July, city building inspectors declared it "vacant and open," which could lead to demolition proceedings.

But Kelly says the foundation is still hoping to find a way to finish the project.

"The concept is a good one. It would be a travesty" if it fails, he says.

The headline on that last story is "$500,000 for building rehab, and nothing to show for it".

I'll bet there isn't "nothing" to show for it. Who sold it? Who got commissions? Who got $121,000 to not renovate it?

Remember, it's NEVER "wasted". Some cui, somewhere, bonos.

Loose Vulnerable Nuclear Material!

According to the Associated Press, the United Nations Security Council today endorsed a global effort to "lock down all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years".

Which means that there is so much "vulnerable nuclear material" running around loose that it will take FOUR YEARS to lock it down!

For serious- is it just laying in parking lots and open sheds somewhere? I can see leaving a lawnmower not locked up, but a couple of pounds of plutonium?

What an utter, complete, horribly unfunny joke it all is. The only reason we haven't had a "third world war" is that we've Danegelded ourselves and concurrently engaged in juuuust enough resolute, crazy, or unexpected behaviour that our potential challengers are bought or scared away from trying.

The United Nations hasn't done anything to decrease the prospect of war since 1950.

The New York Times Illustrates the Mistress Joke...

Even though its subjects aren't people like us, the NYT published a picture perfectly illustrating my favourite joke. Click these blue letters for the joke, follow the link therein for the picture.

Traditionnnn!

Yesterday's bon mot, by Tam of course, following the arrival of a plate of chicken wings-

"So, how many chickens did you kill for your momentary pleasure?"

"Looks like eight or ten. And I didn't kill them, just made them double amputees."

Which was followed by a discussion of barnyard fowl cyborg technology...

I love spending time with a brilliant (in every sense) friend.

Racial slurs!

Where's my million dollars?

Is It 1966 Again?

Military leaders: U.S. effort just beginning after EIGHT YEARS.

80 locals, 13 "advisers", and four dead Marines: "angry at the absence of air support, angry that there was no artillery fire, angry that Williams' interpreter had been killed, angry at the realization that the operation had obviously been betrayed..."

And for some people, the line between current events and history isn't a border, but a pathway with familiar landmarks.

Government Charges Surcharge For Using Its Own Money!!!

So, I went to the U. S. Post Office the other day to pick up passport application forms. The clerk explained the procedure and I asked what the fees were She added them up...

"$115. $1.50 more if you pay with cash."

"Say that again please?"

$115. $1.50 more if you pay with cash."

"So if I use a credit card, which costs the Post Office about $3.50, the price is LESS than if I use the paper that the U. S. Government says is legal tender?"

"Yes."

I remember back when the U. S. adopted the Beretta 9mm pistol. The initial contract was for so many pistols and magazines for so many dollars. I did some math and figured out that I, the idiot taxpayer, was paying like $37.00 per gun MORE than I would pay walking into my local gun store.

With nothing deducted for the advertising value of being the "Government Model", either.

Seriously, I would LOVE to be a price negotiator for a government agency.

"Alright, we'll buy all your next three years' production. But not at wholesale, only if you let us pay 10% over retail. And we INSIST on a surcharge for cash payment in advance."

The Vozhd- Sorry, President's- Speech To The Children...

Yes, it's Stalin and Mussolini and Hitler and Franco, not Washington. But he's still the President. I'd say the same thing to the lefties who would be having fits about President Bush doing it.

But two things are of interest. First, I expect that the Duce, oops, President, and his brilliant team of advisers will make sure that this speech is one to which no parent could object. They will draft it, like all his brilliant and caring orations, to be inclusive of every parent and child.

So look for the assumptions. Look at the word choices. See if there is division and otherising.


Second, actually DO what the Bolsheviks in the education industry say they do. You know, that "We don't teach facts, we teach critical thinking" stuff. Since the teaching guide contains no hint that the Leader- sorry, it keeps creeping in, President's words should be subjected or are even the proper subject of any analysis other that comprehension, acceptance, and obedience, do it yourself. Talk with the children in your care and ask the questions the NEA "only ones" think don't need to be asked.

Don't boycott, engage.