TSA Training Film

Here's a training film from the Transportation Security Agency



via Instapundit

Here's some more on TSA's Efficeincy.

What Ailes the Country?

The root economic collapse are not simple. They stem from several sources, but primarily within Congress and a few Senators and Congressmen who insisted 12-14 years ago that owning a home was a "right" and must be extended to the broadest possible base. Another root cause is...again Congress, only this time, their ability to spend money without having to make commensurate cuts elsewhere in the budget. A third root cause of our economic woes is related to and a subsidiary dividend of the first two issues: Credit, or rather the lack thereof.

A number of years ago, Congressman Barney Frank, (D-MA4) along with Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) decided that home ownership was a right that must be extended to everyone in the United States...regardless of their ability to pay the resulting mortgage. They insisted that Fanny May and Freddie Mac, the publicly owned/financed mortgage guarantee corporations must begin issuing subprime home loans. Wikipedia defines subprime loans as follows:

"Subprime lendings evolved with the realization of a demand in the marketplace for loans to high-risk borrowers with imperfect credit.[2] The first subprime was initiated in 1993. Many companies entered the market when the prime interest rate was low, and real interest became negative allowing modest subprime rates to flourish; negative interest rates are hand-outs, such that the more you borrow the more you earn.[citation needed] Others entered with the relaxation of usury laws.[2] Traditional lenders were more cautious and historically turned away potential borrowers with impaired or limited credit histories.[2] Statistically, approximately 25% of the population of the United States falls into this category.[citation needed] In 1998, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that 10% of new-car financing in the US was provided by subprime loans, and that $125 billion of $859 billion total mortgage dollars were subprime.[2]

"In the third quarter of 2007, subprime ARMs only represented 6.8% of the mortgages outstanding in the US, yet they represented 43.0% of the foreclosures started. Subprime fixed mortgages represented 6.3% of outstanding loans and 12.0% of the foreclosures started in the same period.[3]"

Thus in a nutshell, subprime loans are those that are granted to people with poor credit, who have in the past shown that they are irresponsible and defaulted on loans in the past. An additional criteria of subprime home loans was that they were often granted with little or no money as down payment and the loans often exceeded 125% of the value of the home...thus more money was given than the borrower's ability to pay back and was greater than the value of the property in question. Thus the borrower has little or no incentive to remain in the property if the ensuing housing bubble bursts...

When the credit crisis of 2007-8 began to perk up into the greater economy, it stemmed from increasing foreclosure rates of those very borrowers who should never have been granted loans in the first place. Then, as credit began to dry up, it effected all other sectors of the economy but most significantly, automotive sales and construction, as those industries are based heavily on the availability of credit lines, first in auto loans, and secondarily in construction firms being able to borrow the funds necessary to construct homes, commercial property, etc. Without easily available credit, those two industries are bound to fail in a rapid manner...and fail they did.

Enter Congress...Congress in it's infinite stupidity, led by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, jumped into the fray with the Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP) which was supposed to buy up foreclosed properties and keep various "too big to fail" banking/lending houses on Wall Street solvent. Not coincidentally, AIG, was the most seriously endangered...it also happened to be the administrator of Congressional retirement funds...

These companies were deemed to important to be allowed to fail through normal marketary forces, i.e. they followed bad business plans and were rewarded for their stupidity, while small houses who followed economically vaible plans were punished by being forced to pay higher taxes and fees to partially fund the $750,000,000,000.00 plan (which has now ballooned beyond a trillion dollars). Unfortunately, most of these funds have been dispensed by the administration in a manner other than that which was mandated by Congress. Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner has used these funds to a slush fund in order to bailout GM and Chrysler to the tune of almost $100,000,000,000.00 so far.

Following the election, a victorious Barack Obama, with his enablers, Messer's Reid and Pelosi, settled upon a plan to spend another trillion dollars as a "stimulus package" to jump start the economy. Mr. Obama, in failing to show any leadership at all, delegated the formulation of the "package" to Congress...who larded it with pork typical of an emergency spending bill. It has been shown, that spending in Democratic districts has been more than 2-1 that of GOP held seats regardless of actual need in those districts.

However, in a recent study by Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval and Christopher Malloy of the Harvard University Business School in their study, 'Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?' they discovered, much to their surprise, that massive government spending in Congressional districts (a convenient size for the purposes of their study) had the effect of eliminating jobs and a reduction in research expenditures in the private sector. In other words, they concluded that the stimulus package wouldn't stimulate the economy, it would have the direct and negative effect that it has had. Thus, unemployment has remained at 25 year highs...with a U6 rate of 17-20%. which is well above the U3 rate of 9.9%.

Once more enters Congress, which has passed in the past two years, record sized government budgets that will double the national debt within five years. Additionally, each year's projected deficit has exceeded $1,300,000,000,000.00 for last year, and 1,600,000,000,000.00 for this year, though that figure is been altered upward several times over the past few months as revenue received by the IRS has continued to slide.

There are several options available to alleviate our current economic woes. Unfortunately, this administration and Congressional leadership is deeply wedded to a flawed Keynsian economic model and won't implement any of these ideas. First off, a steep reduction in business taxes would release the private sector from an onerous burden and enable it to reinvest funds in expansion. Secondly, reducing or eliminating the Capital Gaines Tax would encourage further investment in the private sector. In the past, reducing taxes has been followed almost immediately by rapid expansion of the economy. The Reagan tax cuts of the 1980's led to the longest period of economic growth in our nation's history. Unfortunately, Congress as it is presently constituted will not implement either of these proposals, despite the fact that reducing taxes encourages economic growth, which leads to higher tax revenues.

Lastly, if Congress in a fit of sanity that's not envisioned in the near future, would not pass spending bills that increase spending without commensurate decreases' in other areas. This won't happen as our political class refuses to make the difficult decisions needed to eliminate deficit spending prefering to "kick the can down the road," and avoid having to make any hard decisions now.

Eliminating those governmental departments that are unnecessary or have become "jobs" programs, such as the Dept of Education, Health and Human Services, Commerce, as well as Energy. None of these departments are really necessary and don't actually perform well or efficiently in the sectors that they are purported to regulate. By eliminating them, nearly 25% of the overall budget would be eliminated and that unnecessary spending could be saved with an overall savings of nearly $1,000,000,000,000.00 per year. Yet, none of this will occur as Congress and this Administration want to have their cake and eat it too...

However, neither party has shown the political fortitude needed to tackle this growing list of economic problems.  Both seem to be enamoured of government expansion.  It's merely a matter of the rate of expansion that is the root issue.  In 2002-2006, the GOP expanded the scope of government to an unprecendented degree...but then, the Democratic Party took control of the reigns of government, in 2006, an began to pass budgets that exceed even those.  Once a Democrat took over the White House, the scope of government expansion sky rocketed.

Last year, compensation of government employees exceeded that of the private sector.  Addtionally, the numbers of people who no longer produce actual goods or services exceeded those in the productive private sector.  This sort of growth cannot be sustained.  In a business, if the administrative side begins to out number that of the productivity based side the business fails (i.e. GM, is an excellent example of this).  Government has now achieved that magic number.  What happens when governments reach this point?  Look at Greece, Spain and Portugal.  These three countries are bankrupt and can no longer afford the level of governmental spending that they have been following for several decades.  Greece's GDP is now exceeded by it's level of debt and is on the verge of defaulting on it's debt payments.   Our own government is predicted to reach this point in 2020...if not sooner.

The time has come for us as a nation to make those hard choices that are necessary in order to remain the ecnomic powerhouse that we have been for the past 160 years.  We have allowed our political class to spend money like drunken sailors without regard to the consequences to the future.  Social Security, which should have been able to sustain itself for another 50 years, has been through accounting tricks, systematically looted by Congress, both Democrat and Republican controlled, for more than 60 years, virtually since it's inception.  Medicare/Medicade, which were supposed to be capped at $40,000,000,000.00 spending now waste at least that much yearly.  We have allowed ourselves to be duped by politicians into believing that we can continue to spend money we don't have.

The time has come for us, as a nation to clean house and regain some measure of fiscal sanity.  In November, we must remove from office, thos incumbents who have shown that they are unable to look towards the future of our nation, and only look towards enriching themselves at the public trough.  Remember November!

Study Shows Government Spending Slows Job Growth

A new research study by Harvard's Business school professors, Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval, and Christopher Malloy shows that when government spends money in a Congressional district or state, that businesses stop growing. Imagine that, when your government spends money in your state business don't invest money in either capital improvements or in hiring new employees.

companies experienced lower sales and retrenched by cutting payroll, R&D, and other expenses. Indeed, in the years that followed a congressman's ascendancy to the chairmanship of a powerful committee, the average firm in his state cut back capital expenditures by roughly 15 percent, according to their working paper, "Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?"

"It was an enormous surprise, at least to us, to learn that the average firm in the chairman's state did not benefit at all from the unanticipated increase in spending," Coval reports.

Now, what effect did the "stimulus package" and the various bailouts have upon the economy as a whole? When the government, in a 5 month period spent a minimum of $1.5 trillion dollars to, first prop up failing corporations (banks, investment firms, and GM/Chrysler) and then in the hugely ineffective porkulus package, it literally sucked the life out of the credit industry by taking those funds that would have been used by business to grow and expand and sank it into long term government bonds. That had the effect of stifling the ability of small business and then the construction industry who need easily available credit in order to conduct day to day business operations.

Small business need credit for operating capital in order to purchase necessary materials. The construction industry does so even more...for example, a housing construction company (as well as commercial firms) need to borrow money to purchase materials to build homes...when that money is available in much smaller increments, fewer houses are built. It's the same for large construction firms as well. When you build/manufacture less, you need fewer workers...fewer workers mean fewer available jobs, that means less taxes are raised...smaller tax revenue means municipalities/counties/states have less money to operate on...

Their conclusion is simple. The government shouldn't spend money to stimulate the economy. Reducing taxes and the increase in available money for loans will...have a much more positive effect.

Our findings suggest that they should revisit their belief that federal spending can stimulate private economic development. It is important to note that our research ignores all costs associated with paying for the spending such as higher taxes or increased borrowing. From the perspective of the target state, the funds are essentially free, but clearly at the national level someone has to pay for stimulus spending. And in the absence of a positive private-sector response, it seems even more difficult to justify federal spending than otherwise.

Government Efficiency

Always thought our government was efficient?  Did you ever really wonder why the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 ran almost 3,000 pages...here's why.  The government recipe to make a brownie is 26 pages long! 

3.3.2 Brownie preparation. (NOTE: The contractor is not required to follow the exact procedure shown below provided that the brownies conform to all finished product requirements in 3.4.)

a. Whip eggs in large bowl on high speed until light and fluffy.
b. Combine sugars, cocoa, salt, and leavening; add to beaten eggs, and whip on high speed until thick.
c. Add shortening slowly while mixing on low speed.
d. Scrape bowl and whip on high speed until thick.
e. Mix flour, nuts, and flavors together and fold into batter; mix until uniform.
f. Pour batter into pan at a rate that will yield uncoated brownies which, when cut such as to meet the dimension requirements specified in 3.4f, will weigh approximately 35 grams each. (Experimentally, a panning rate of 14 to 16 grams per square inch was used.)
g. Bake at 350F until done (30 to 45 minutes).
3.3.3 Brownie cutting. The brownies shall be cut to the appropriate size when cool (see 3.4f).

How in the hell can you expect the people who write this shit...to ever do  ANTHING efficiently?

EPA Video Contest

The EPA is holding a contest to which you can send a video celebrating the greatness of regulation.

Almost every aspect of our lives is touched by federal regulations...Even before you leave the house in the morning, government regulations help set the price of the coffee you drink, the voltage of electricity in your alarm clock, and the types of programming allowed on the morning news.

..and the reward is $2,500.00...in taxpayer money...Only in America can you enter a contest and win tax money back from the government...


Here are Reason.tv's entries:






How much money has been wasted on this act of stupidity?  How often does stupid shit like this happen in our government?  Moreover, this is why our government is going bankrupt!  And the Democrats want MORE government...and the inherent waste that's invovled.  Not me, no thanks.  Fire the adminsitrators who approved this, fire the idiots who came up with the idea and eliminate the bureaucratic department who's fault this is...that's the way to save money.

H/T Instapundit

UPDATE:  The Heritage Foundation has one as well...

Another Federal Program Fails

Head Start, the program that is supposed to "improve the lives of low-income children by providing quality comprehensive child development services that are family focused, including education, health, nutrition and mental health." To accomplish this, parents are supposed to get more involved in their children's lives. The reality is that the programs are used as free day care center's by they very low income families (though with single parents it's difficult to call them families) the program is meant to help.

In sum, this report finds that providing access to Head Start has benefits for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the cognitive, health, and parenting domains, and for 3-year-olds in the social-emotional domain. However, the benefits of access to Head Start at age four are largely absent by 1st grade for the program population as a whole. For 3-year-olds, there are few sustained benefits, although access to the program may lead to improved parent-child relationships through 1st grade…

For this we spend 7 billion dollars a year. That money would be better off unspent, or if you have to have the spending, using it to pay off the the public debt. Of course, that sort of responsibility will never enter the present Congress' thought process.

The Future Of American Health Care

I just read a great article by Mark Steyn on what we can expect here now that the government has seized control of our health care system. The government has effectively taken control of a portion of the economy that equals ALL of the GDP of the United Kingdom AND France, or twice what India produces now. But, all is not lost...

In Canada, once the wait times for MRIs and hip surgery start creeping up over two years, the government distracts the citizenry with a Royal Commission appointed to study possible “reforms” which reports back a couple of years later usually with recommendations to “strengthen” the government’s “commitment” to every Canadian’s “right” to health care by renaming the Department of Health the Department of Health Services and abolishing the Agency of Health Administration and replacing it with a new Agency of Administrative Health Operations which would report to a reformed Council of Health Policy Administrative Coordination to be supervised by a streamlined Public Health Operations & Administration Assessment Bureau. This package of “reforms” would cost a mere 12.3 gazillion dollars and usually keeps the lid on the pot until the wait times for MRIs start creeping up over three years.

The other alternative is what the British did earlier this year: They created an exciting new “Patient’s Bill of Rights,” promising every Briton the “right” to hospital treatment within 18 weeks. Believe it or not, that distant deadline shimmering woozily in the languid desert haze can be oddly reassuring if you’ve ever visited a Scottish emergency room on a holiday weekend. And, if the four-and-a-half months go by and you still haven’t been treated, you get your (tax) money back? Ah, no. But there is a free helpline you can call which will give you continuously updated estimates on which month your operation has been rescheduled for. I mention these not as a preview of the horrors to come, but because I’ve come to the bleak conclusion that U.S.-style “health” “reform” is going to be far worse.

It can only get better right? After all, we'll now have a far more efficient and more cost effective health care system...RIIIIIGGGGHHHTTTT! I'll be happy to sell you some beach front property in Arizona, just wait until the next "big" quake in SoCal...

Chavez Orders: Only Take 3 Min Showers!

According to Newsmax.com, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator, excuse me, "President For Life" has ordered that Venezuelans may only take 3 minute showers. The government in the new workers paradise is having serious trouble providing potable water and electricity for the country. Low rain fall caused by the El Nino, as well as very low water levels in lakes behind hydroelectric dams have contributed to the problem. Additionally, his not investing in infrastructure maintenance has led to a significant reduction in electrical production.

Chavez announced energy-saving measures and said he would create a ministry to deal with the electricity shortages, which have affected the image of his socialist revolution before legislative elections due in 2010. Calling for water conservation, he said low rainfall caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon meant water levels were critically low in the El Guri reservoir, one of the world's largest dams.

So instead of actually investing in the country's infrastructure, he's going to create a bureaucracy to "solve" the problem.