Monthly Archives: March 2012

Bloomberg wastes another billion dollars

Posted on by
6

Juan Gonzalez, who has been all over Bloomberg for years, writes:

“City Hall aides repeatedly bungled supervision of a massive upgrade of the 911 system, even as the project fell years behind schedule and its costs ballooned by as much as $1 billion, an audit has found.

“When Mayor Bloomberg launched the 911 project in 2004, he promised a seamless system that would replace antiquated police, fire and EMS call-t6akng and dispatch functions with 21st century technology. It had a price tag of  $1.3 billion and was supposed to be done in three years.

“City Hall now concedes the cost has zoomed to at least $2 billion, and Controller John Liu [says] that the price tag is closer to $2.3 billion.”

Soon this will add up to REAL money.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s planned repairs to the 911 emergency call system are $1 billion over budget – NY Daily News.

Florida Law Firm Fires Workers For Wearing Orange Shirts

Posted on by
Reply

At the Elizabeth R. Wellborn law firm in Florida, fourteen employees were called into a conference room and asked if they were all wearing orange shirts as some kind of protest. They said no. And then they were all fired.

Now here’s the ironic part: Florida is an “at will” state. You can be fired for any reason as long as the reason is not specifically prohibited. If the employees had said that they were protesting working conditions at the firm, they might have been protected by federal law.

Florida Law Firm Fires Workers For Wearing Orange – ABC News.

Report: N.J. has lowest corruption risk of any state

Posted on by
1

A report released today by the Center for Public Integrity says New Jersey has the lowest risk of corruption among all 50 states, thanks to laws enacted in response to its tainted past.

Who woulda thought?

But Governor Christie says it’s all his doing: “What it means is that we’ve done a great job,” Christie said in an interview. “In the seven years I was U.S. Attorney and now the last two years as governor you haven’t heard in our two years in office any hint of scandal or criminal activity anywhere throughout the government. And if New Jersey is getting better and less corrupt that’s great news. Listen, if there’s one thing I know I can take credit for, it’s that.”

Maybe. The massive arrests in the New Jersey political corruption scandal happened after Christie resigned as US Attorney. So maybe that’s not to his credit. On the other hand, they occurred before he was elected governor, so you can’t blame him for it either.

via Report: N.J. has lowest corruption risk of any state | NJ.com.

Santorum soft on child rape

Posted on by
1

When Santorum was asked “to compare his criticism of President Obama for ‘favoring pornographers over children’ for allegedly not targeting child pornography — with [Santorum’s] lack of criticism of Penn State icon Joe Paterno in that school’s child sex abuse scandal or the Catholic church’s child sex abuse scandal” Santorum ran for the door and called the questions “insulting.”

Sure it’s a “gotcha” question. The difference is that Obama isn’t “soft” on child porn. That charge was just a campaign stunt on Santorum’s part. But Santorum really is soft on child rape. When asked about the very real crimes perpetrated by the Church and (Penn) State, Santorum wouldn’t even reply with a bland “Where crimes are committed, I condemn them, as would every person of faith.”

DuMont, Santorum spar over child porn, Penn State, Catholic church – Chicago Sun-Times.

and in Politico. The bad news: Politico says that Santorum “gave Paterno a congressional commendation.” Could be, but I can’t find it. What I do find is that Santorum sponsored Jerry Sandusky for the “Congressional Angels in Adoption” award. If I’m right, I’m sponsoring Politico for the BiteMe Award for Sloppy Journalism.

California weather man sues for age and sex discrimination, says stations only want to hire attractive women

Posted on by
Reply

Veteran weathercaster Kyle Hunter claims he was passed over for two jobs in favor of attractive, less experienced women. He’s got a bachelor’s degree in geosciences and broadcast meteorology, is certified by the American Meteorological Society and has more than 20 years of experience as a weathercaster in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Good news: It seems to me that this is a “bona fide occupational qualifications” matter, on which he should win.

Bad news: Gloria Allred is his lawyer.

California weather man sues CBS for age and sex discrimination, says stations only want to hire attractive women  – NY Daily News.

Being ‘Born-Again’ May Cause Your Brain to Shrink

Posted on by
1

“According to the study, people who said they were a “born-again” Protestant or Catholic, or conversely, those who had no religious affiliation, had more hippocampal shrinkage (or “atrophy”) compared to people who identified themselves as Protestants, but not born-again.”

Being ‘Born-Again’ Linked to More Brain Atrophy: Study.

The study is available at Public Library of Science.

Santorum Thinks Same-Sex Marriage Helped Destroy the Economy

Posted on by
Reply

This is an actual Santorum quote from the Fall of 2011:

“If you think that we can be a society that kills our own, and that disregards the family and the important role it plays, and doesn’t teach moral values and the important role of faith in the public square, and then expect people to be good, decent and moral when they behave economically, if you look at the root cause of the economic problems that we’re dealing with on Wall Street and Main Street I might add, from 2008, they were huge moral failings. And you can’t say that we’re gonna take morality out of the public square, morality out of our schools, God out of our schools, and then expect people to behave decently in a country that requires, capitalism requires some strong modicum of moral consciousness if it’s gonna be successful.”

Mr Frothy Lube can Bite Me!

via Santorum: Same-Sex Marriage Helped Destroy The Economy | rightwingwatch.org.

Preet Bharara gets half billion dollars back on CityTime boondoggle. Bloomberg says it “fell through the cracks”

Posted on by
Reply

Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News was all over the CityTime scandal for years. Finally U.S. Attorney Bharara got involved. As a result, a couple folks went to jail, a couple fled to India, and the city is getting back a half billion dollars.

What did Bloomberg say? He said the project fell through the cracks. He also said we’d get value for the $722 million we spent. Not a chance. But if our net cost is $222 million, it might pay off. Thanks to Bharara. But Bloomberg? He can Bite Me.

CityTime a bigger scandal even than Boss Tweed – NY Daily News.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly whines that Occupy Wall Street protests cost city $17M  in overtime

Posted on by
Reply

Trying to justify the police department’s over half billion dollar overtime bill, the Commish tries to blame Occupy Wall Street.

Let’s assume he’s telling the truth about the numbers. OWS cost $17 million and the total overtime tab was $585 million. That works out to less than 3% for OWS. In other words, the OWS share is probably less than the margin of error in the department’s overtime figure.

For trying to pawn off his management failure (overtime is up almost 6% this year) on OWS, Ray Kelly can Bite Me.

Occupy Wall Street protests cost city $17M  in overtime: NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly  – NY Daily News.