If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people
under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. - Thomas Jefferson


Friday, November 26, 2010

Getting to know one another

In a city slashing firemen, policemen, librarians, and more, Rockford, Illinois has a school district superintendent spending the city budget the smart way: $18,000 on a weekend conference for 14 school board members and staffers in a city less than 2 hours away from the district.

Must have been one hell of a conference, right? Probably learned about how to deliver excellent education in times of tightening budgets. Some sort of revolutionary way to run a school district that saves money while producing the best and the brightest, I'd imagine.

In the words of the School Board President, David 'Its all about the kids' Kelley:
"I attended a day-long seminar on what's referred to as the Meyer-Briggs type indicator," he says. "And the purpose of that was to help board members better understand each other."

Wait a minute. It took $18,000 for a conference this guy sums up as a chapter in both my Organizational Behavior and Intro to Psych college class books? Shit. I would have donated my old books if I had known they needed them.

Of the $18,000, $8,000 went to rooms. Seem reasonable for Chicago until you do a Hotwire search to discover that there is a wonderful Days Inn in Des Plaines that routinely goes for $32 per night. Now, I don't ask that the Board stays in the same accommodations I do when I visit Chicago on business a few times a year, but I think that $300 per night per person seems a bit steep for supposed public servants.

Of the $18,000, $2,000 went to ONE meal. I'm not sure when the federal per diem rates jumped above the $35 per day I'm used to, but I'm pretty sure it has not yet reached $142 PER MEAL per person.
(By one account(pdf - page 2), LaVonne 'One More - For The Kids' Sheffield (Superintendent) had to be practically carried away from the dinner table having consumed too much alcohol to depart without assistance.
Perhaps getting 14 people shitty drunk in a swank downtown Chicago hotel restaurant is what ran up the bill so high...)


Of the $18,000, $1,000 has been requested to be paid back for unapproved expenses such as spouses' dinners, in-room movies, and other charges in an e-mail sent out as soon as WREX sued under the Freedom of Information Act. No FOIA, and we would have enjoyed another grand flushed down the tubes for pay-per-view pleasures.

One last fun tidbit is the fact that when asked by the reporter that did all the leg work on this, none of the board members, including David and LaVonne were able to tell him exactly how much this weekend cost the taxpayers. They didn't really know and apparently didn't really care.

As urged by the reporter at the end of his story, I also feel it would be reasonable to call LaVonne at (815) 966-3101 and let her know what you think about this wonderful use of taxpayer dollars.

School board members getting to better understand each other at $1,285 a head...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: You Paid For It: D205's Chicago getaway(WREX)
Friend, recommend, and tweet this reporter for doing his job: Bob Schaper

Do read Dr. Patrick Hardy's account of the $2,000 dinner and the weekend overall. He was incensed that most of the 14 skipped the conference to go shopping and he refused to take part in the lavish dinners. Sounds like the day long class Mr. Kelley attended was probably the only one he attended all weekend. Suddenly his vague summary of the weekend seems about right...
The story from WREX: UPDATE: District 205 releases letter from Dr. Patrick Hardy
Dr. Hardy's letter published by WREX: Patrick Hardy's Letter to Dr. Sheffield

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Inspection emergency

When the Hampshire, IL Fire Department goes out to inspect buildings for fire code, they go in style.

For one, it takes a team of 4 people to inspect a building. Not a big building, only 4 suites... Most of the inspectors stand around while the one in charge actually takes a look around and hollers out things for the others to write down.

While you might expect them to pile into the fire marshal's sedan for a scheduled appointment to inspect a building, they don't. Instead, they fire up Big Red and leave it idle out front for hours while inspecting. Apparently, their inspection equipment (clip boards) did not fit in the trunk.

Good for the environment AND the city budget.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Idling, for your breathing pleasure

P.S. - I'd like to mention the time, about a month ago when they had this baby stopped at a major intersection, lights flashing. As drivers slow down approaching the intersection, fearing the worst, a young fireman approaches each vehicle with an upside down helmet asking for donations. Not exactly fodder for my blog, but a HFD related story I just had to share...

Monday, November 15, 2010

Commonwealth corruption

A few weeks ago, I published a post about the Commonwealth Games in India. The focus of my post on the hiring of large langur monkeys to control the crowds of smaller monkeys that are pretty much a menace throughout Delhi. After all, the only thing we love more than stories about monkeys are the dang little monkeys themselves... Adorable!

At the introduction of that post, I linked to a slide show of horrors showing the athlete's quarters at the Commonwealth games. Overall, I was trying to make the point that India had not prepared for the games at all, in spite of the tax money that had gone into it.

Well... They found some of the money and arrests are being made. No big surprise, the money was being siphoned by corrupt officials who were handing contracts to friends, not construction companies...

THIS is whyindianspaytaxes.

read more: Two Delhi Commonwealth Games officials arrested(bbc)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Bribes for peace

Turning a blind eye to the fact that there wouldn't even be an Israel without our financial and military support, our illustrious leaders have decided that its time to give them more of our tax dollars.

What other way could we get them to seriously consider resuming peace negotiations for their own good?

There are no details. Us simps don't deserve an explanation.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: US offers Israel incentive plan to save peace talks(bbc)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Another criminal tweet

At least this one didn't end in jail time. In fact, the fine helps to pay for the police and court time involved...

A man has been fined £3,000 for this tweet:
Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week... otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!

The statute he violated is 'sending a menacing electronic communication'

Even the officer 'investigating' the 'case' said this was ridiculous.

Show me pictures of people fleeing the RH Airport in a snowstorm, tears freezing to their faces as they huddle in fear of the imminent explosion. Then I'll get behind a fine for this guy...

Until then, the Brits have GOT to stop trying to arrest and try everyone that has access to a keyboard because they don't like what was posted on the Internet.

THIS is whyBRITSpaytaxes.

Read more: Man in Twitter bomb threat against airport loses appeal(bbc)

Cleaning the Crazy right out of the Internet:
http://whyipaytaxes.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-arrests-over-bad-comments.html
http://whyipaytaxes.blogspot.com/2010/10/rude-enough-for-imprisonment.html
http://whyipaytaxes.blogspot.com/2008/10/virtual-crime-real-bars-in-window.html

More arrests over bad comments

Wow... The Brits are going a bit overboard with arresting and trying people who have the audacity to speak their mind on the Internet.

About a week ago, I posted about a jail sentence for a guy who posts horrendous comments on Facebook tribute pages for the recently deceased. Yeah. World class douchebag... But don't go changing the privacy settings of your Facebook tribute pages just yet, 'cause they got him. The Internet is once again a safe place to surf.

The new story is about a guy who tweeted that a writer he disagreed with should be stoned to death.
Unreasonable comment? Yes.
Horrendous comment? Yes.
Ignorant pig? You betcha.

If I were the writer in question, I would make not following his tweets a very high priority on today's to do list.

Did he throw the first stone? No.
Did he actually try to arrange the stoning? No.
Should he be arrested and thrown in jail for typing what he wanted into a service designed to allow anyone to post whatever they want? NO!

That he was a government official ought to lead to him losing his job. That would be reasonable. A forced public apology has been done, the woman in question has not been stoned.
Did he really need to be handcuffed and arrested? Did he really need to be bailed out of prison, or to hire a defense lawyer to stand trial? Because of a 140 characters or less?

... ... Beats having a freedom of speech!

THIS is whyBRITSpaytaxes.

read more: Tory councillor arrested over Twitter stoning post(bbc)

The offending tweet was quite obviously a terrible attempt at being funny on a subject where this guy has no reason getting involved:
Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan't tell Amnesty if you don't. It would be a blessing, really.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Groggle, Drinkle, just get me another beer

Cameron 'Cheap Beer is my Favorite Beer' Collie has a rather wonderful idea for a web site. Simply plug in your location and his service will locate the closest and cheapest beer.

Not a bad service. He thought he'd call it Groggle, as a play on the common Australian term for alcoholic beverage, grog. (No fellow Americans, the Australian word for beer is not Foster's)

"Good lord!" exclaimed Google. "What if confused drunken Australians intending to undertake an Internet search accidentally go to Groggle.com instead of Google.com??!??! Heavens No!"

So they thought they'd put the Australian government's trademark offices to work on this situation by fighting Cameron's attempts to trademark the term Groggle.

After 6 months of battling in court, they finally reached an agreement out of court. While no one is talking details, Cameron tweets that he will be enjoying a bottle of 'Australia's Most Expensive Beer' after the agreement.

Of course, Groggle lost. The new site will be called Drinkle.com. Also a fun name that ought to catch on quite nicely.

THIS is whyAUSSIESpaytaxes.

read more: Google scotches Australian 'Groggle' search(bbc)
drink more: Drinkle.com

Sad clown

Everyone's favorite clown, Uncle Sam, has recently become a sad clown indeed. During a recent break in his specially designed unicycle and a thousand balloons were stolen from him.

Seriously. Is there some sort of a thriving black market where the demand for unicycles is high? What thief has the ability to launder 1,000 balloon animal balloons for profit?

Oh well... I'm sure the Swansea Police Department was bored that day and just looking for a crime to solve.

THIS is whyBRITSpaytaxes.

read more: Clown's unicycle and balloons stolen in Swansea(bbc)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Keeping the 911 operators busy

click the image to read what has been cut off by blogger