Rising fuel prices = slow economic recovery

And finally Gripe #12 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Rising fuel prices = slow economic recovery

And finally from the It's time to nationalize it file: Headline: "Good hiring news fuels jump in oil prices" Am I the only simpleton that sees this as a catch-22? The rising cost of oil equals: higher heating costs, higher transportation costs, higher grocery costs. Hmmm. Pretty much everything will go up in price. And when everything goes up in price (and wages are stagnant) people have less money to spend on non-essentials. Which means less money in the economy. Which means fewer jobs. Which means less spending. Which means...well you get the picture...a greater depression.

Caterpillar metmorphoses into greedy bastards

Gripe #11 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Caterpillar metamorphoses into greedy bastards 

Headline: "Caterpillar will close factory in Canada" Starting at the second paragraph, "Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Services said the cost structure of the Electro-Motive plant was not sustainable and efforts to negotiate a new labor agreement failed. Electro-Motive had demanded pay cuts of up to 50 percent when it locked out 450 employees at the London, Ontario, plant on Jan. 1. The company said the collective bargaining agreement of the London plant was not "cost competitive in the global marketplace" and said the assembly of locomotives will be shifted to other plants in North and South America." Seventh paragraph, "The union noted Caterpillar recently announced $4.9 billion in annual profits, the highest in its 86-year history." Ummm. Can you say union busting greedy bastards? I can and just did. Hey, workers of the World, you awake yet?

Jobs creation bumps stock market

Gripe # 10 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Jobs creation bumps stock market

Business Section, Wall Street WiStJ: Headline: "Jobs data give stocks a boost" Its kind of funny isn't it. Not funny ha ha either. Wall Street just wants to make money. That is its job, right? Well, look at that. You give people jobs and the news of said jobs gives Wall Street a nice little bounce. Good. We got that covered. They just made more money off of us. Ok. Now those folks that... have those new jobs and money coming in what are they going to do with said money? If I had to wager I'd say they are more than likely to spend it. Ok. Good. The people have money to pay down their mortgages, their automobiles, buy clothing, groceries, gasoline, and utilities. Just about everything they need to continue to survive and eek out a living in these United States. Right. Check. All that money they earn will allow them to spend money to buy products which in turn makes profits for companies that can pay dividends which gives Wall Street a boner and gives stocks bump and makes them more rich. Its not very complicated when you cut through the bullshit. You want to make money? Put real money back into your company, give people jobs and maybe they can afford to buy crap and make you more money. Even Henry Ford knew this.

Health care for non-Catholic workers in the employ of Catholic organizations should be left in the hands of God

Gripe #9 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Health Care for non-Catholic workers in the employ of Catholic organizations should be left in the hands of God

From the "Your Views" Opinion Section (WiSt.J) A piece entitled, "New law threatens right to freedom of religion" by Dale Lawinger of Mineral Point. Here is his first paragraph from his excerpt: "Last Sunday Bishop Morlino had his priest read a letter to all who were at Mass about what the U.S. Department of Health recently announced: Catholic employers will be forced to offer their employees he...alth coverage that includes sterilization, abortion - inducing drugs and contraception". I'm sure there are plenty of little intricacies here that my simple mind has just ignored but, I'll give this a shot too. Yep, you're Catholic. You're a religion that likes to tell people what to do and force your will upon the world, and at the same time collect billions upon billions of dollars. I get it. You don't want someone telling you what to do. After all this is America and the government is supposed to keep its hands off my faith. Blah, Blah, Blah. That's about all I can take. I haven't read the government paperwork on this but I do have this to say. You, yourself, said the words, Mr Lawinger: "...employers will be forced to offer their employees health coverage...". "forced to offer", sure doesn't sound like you have to take them up on it. Sounds like they offer it to you and then like any good guilt ridden Catholic you decline the "sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception". How hard is to say no? Didn't they teach you that in Catholic school?

Moo

Gripe #8 from Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Moo

No dog in this fight. Raw milk. I go to a grocery store and buy pasteurized milk. I know it is pasteurized. Someone else goes to a cooperative and buys unpasteurized milk and gives it to their family. Is that not their decision? Is that not at their own personal risk? Mandatory labeling of non-pasteurized milk containers. Let them get their milk from where they will and let them assume the risk and I'll stick with my store bought pasteurized milk. Not sure why this is such a crisis.

How about jobs for all of us?

Gripe #7 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal

How about jobs for all of us?

Pertaining to WiStJ "Obama: Create more jobs for veterans" article. Things don't always appear crystal clear to me but most of the time I can see enough through some of the murkiness. I understand why Obama is on the veterans kick. Kiss up to them. Win their approval. Appear more nationalistic and patriotic and win the "hearts and minds" of soldiers/veterans to your side. Prove to them that ...you care about them, win them over, and then use them as a pawn in the future. I get it. I do. But, wouldn't it be nice if all Americans that wanted and needed a job had one and not just veterans returning from conflicts that never should have happened in the first place. I'm sure some of you won't agree with what I'm saying but, I'll say it none-the-less. We are not, at this time, drafting soldiers for the armed forces. The soldiers entered into a contract with the government of their own free will and were then sent to distant lands where they saw and did unspeakable things. But, in my mind, that doesn't entitle them to any more of a leg up to a job than any other American. Jobs for all Americans! Not just the ones that did the hard work for the rich and powerful.

Just Nuke It!

Gripe #6 from Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Just Nuke it!

Here's a new one that some of you may or may not have heard about. This comes from the "Briefly" section of the paper. I guess this is their idea of a follow up on something that should be a much bigger deal. But, people that have money and pollute don't want this sort of stuff in the papers for weeks on end. Here's the blurb in its entirety, " Nuclear Plant: Illinois Emergency Management Agen...cy officials say lab tests show no measurable increase in radiation after steam was released to cool a northern Illinois nuclear reactor. Officials said Friday the sampling was conducted this week after a reactor lost power and shut down Monday at Byron Nuclear Power Plant." That's it. Don't be alarmed folks. Nothing to see here. "No measurable increase in radiation"? Where? Right outside the plant? Steam is hot. It rises into the air. It gets caught up in air currents. I don't know the wind patterns for the day but I'm sure that steam went somewhere. Chicago, perhaps. Do they have sensors spread across the countryside that are taking in the normal amount of radiation in the atmosphere everyday? And then I suppose they monitored that days leaked radiation numbers and compared it with a normal days radiation numbers and found " no measurable increase", right? Let's be very vague and get this out of the news cycle as fast as we can, ok. Right!

Komen Debacle

Gripe #4 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal:

Komen Debacle

The whole Komen debacle. What can I say about this? Well. It always seemed to me that they were doing a good thing and it appears that after a lot of flip flopping they are going to continue to do a good thing. What do I really take away from it. Two things mostly. First: If you're in the "business" of helping people in any way medically it would be a good idea to not bring politics into it.... Second: It, in my mind, tarnishes the Komen name and I can only imagine that in the long run it will probably hurt their fund-raising abilities from possibly both sides of the issues(and yes, I said in the long run. I'm quite aware that there was an approximate one million dallar spike in donations after this weeks announcement).

Wild West-consin

Gripe #3 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal

Wild West-consin

Bill Kramer (Wild Bill to his friends), Speaker Pro Tem of the State assembly, has set everyone's mind at ease by admitting that he carries a Glock hand gun on the floor of the assembly. From the WiStJ: "He said he needs it because of the toxic atmosphere at the state Capitol, adding he's not the only lawmaker packing in the chamber." Hey, Wild Bill, you and your gang are the fellas that made our Capitol toxic. Get a clue.

Neumann!

Gripe #2 from the Saturday 02/04/2012 Wisconsin State Journal

Tea Partier Neumann takes stimulus funds and tax credits while opposing the programs

Mark Neumann, Senate candidate with ties to the Tea Party and the "Club For Growth" has taken approximately $500k in stimulus fund grants for his companies although he says he is opposed to the stimulus program. He also received $250k in tax credits. A total of $750,000 dollars to a guy that says he doesn't believe that money should be given out. Are any of you appalled at this? Does anyone care about the hypocrisy?

$4million bribe to Spectrum Brands apparently the best they can get

This is a little writing or perhaps I should say ranting I did this last Saturday (02/04/2012).

I've got today's Wisconsin State Journal in hand. Time for a whole bunch of gripes.  

Gripe #1

$4 million bribe to Spectrum Brands apparently the best they can get

About a week to two weeks ago we learned that Spectrum Brands has decided to move their headquarters from Madison to Middleton and that they would get $4 million from the State to do so. Today Chris Rickert tells us that Spectrum wanted $15 to $20 million (for a company barely out of bankruptcy and with losses the last two years) to stay in Wisconsin. To me these are the words you should take from the Rickert column, "Modern corporate site searches strike me as something of a cross between mafia -like extortion - give us money or you get hurt (economically) - and a CIA covert operation complete with code names - "Project Infared," in Spectrum's case." And you fine citizens of this State and Country think that this is ok? You don't think that is slimy and dirty?