Detroit’s fiscal chickens come home to roost

I really hate having to write blog entries like this; I really do. For those of you, who actually read here; I was born and raised on the southwest side of Detroit. I left Detroit, with my parents, in 1989. Our house was burglarized by a family member’s friend and yes, he was involved too. As much as it greatly pains me to say this; the city and that part of the city, where I grew up, is not what it once was. I have very fond memories of growing up in Detroit; hanging with my buddy Joe, who now lives in Lima, Ohio —- going to Church over on Military Street off of Vernor Highway — just a good place to grow up. I realize some of you might find it hard to believe, that growing up in Detroit was a good thing; but, believe me it was. I would not trade my childhood for nothing at all.

The reason why I do not like writing blog entries like this, is because it just makes the City of Detroit and Michigan look bad. I always get my feathers in an uproar, when people, who do not even live around here, begin writing articles about this area, like they are some sort of expert on this area. The way I see it, if you have never lived here, worked here or worshiped here; you ought to just keep your mouth shut. I know, it sounds a bit gruff; chalk it up to a ghetto attitude, a Detroit attitude or just someone who is not to keen on outsiders running their mouths, when they ought to just keep out of the city’s business. Whatever it is, when I see the mostly woefully uninformed criticism, my defenses kick in. Yes, I know who runs and controls Detroit now; I do not like it anymore than anyone else. But to say that skin pigmentation has a thing to do with the city of Detroit’s problems is asinine at best. There seems to be a bit of that, on the right, at sites like this one here.

The Nation is in a horrible recession, some would even say a “double dip” recession. This is the thing that is causing Detroit’s fiscal problems; it is what is known as “kicking the can down the road.” America as a Nation, has done it for decades. Detroit has done it since about the 1970’s; and now they are at the point where the road that they have kicked said can down —- is at the gates of hell and they are now trying to figure out a method of escape. Sort of like what is happening in Washington DC at the moment.

So when I see this story in the Detroit Free Press, a very liberally biased paper; I have to smirk a bit. Because now, the socialists who have controlled Detroit for years are now at place of, “Where did all the money go?”

Quoting the Paper:

The emotions of labor leaders and city workers were eclipsed Monday by the harsh reality that there appears to be little that can stop a 10% wage cut and major changes to employment terms for Detroit’s unionized workforce.

During a nearly three-hour Detroit City Council meeting, Mayor Dave Bing’s administration laid out its case for $102 million in savings through cuts, including reduced pensions and higher out-of-pocket health care costs, in addition to wage cuts.

Officials painted a dire picture: Without savings from what the city now is calling employment terms, Detroit could run out of cash as early as October.

It really should not be of any surprise to anyone, but the usual gang of suspects are now lining up with the grievances; complete with class warfare and so forth:

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said Bing’s administration made no effort to bargain with Detroit’s 48 unions as the city charter requires and is balancing the city’s debts on the backs of its workers.

Watson said she wants to see as much effort put into restructuring Detroit’s debt as Bing has put into reworking city labor contracts.

“You all want to get tough with the working people, but you don’t want to get tough with the Wall Street bankers,” she said.

As much as I hate to make a funny, at someone’s expense; but, did someone relocate Wall Street to Detroit? I do not recall the notice that stock exchange was leaving New York. Funny nonsense aside, I know the point she is trying to make, a rather moronic socialist argument, that somehow or another businesses in Detroit ought to be punished for the idiotic management of a socialist city. Which is essentially that same stupid argument that President Barack Obama is making as well. It is a flawed mentality and one that usually bankrupts a city and eventually a Nation. America’s clock is ticking and eventually, we are going to end up like Detroit — broke. Some would say that we are already broke and China is our real masters.

As always the Unions are having their say as well:

Al Garrett, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 25, the city’s largest union, said city officials “have gone too damn far,” and urged the council to reject the contracts and force Bing and the financial advisory board to impose them.

“It’s the only influence you have,” Garrett said, addressing the council. “Otherwise your sitting there serves no purpose. Please don’t vote for it. … Stand up and be accountable for the seat.”

[…]

Gerald Thompson, president of the AFSCME Local 1220, representing city clerks and security guards, criticized the council for approving a fiscal stability agreement with the state that left the council powerless to stop draconian union cuts.

“This is what happens when absolute power corrupts,” Thompson said. “This is not fundamental fairness in democracy. It’s tyranny.”

Mr. Thompson? You want to see tyranny? Try looking in the White House; if that is not a text book example of power corrupting someone, I do not know what is. Furthermore, I find it absolutely amusing that a socialist liberal would cry “Tyranny!” when the odds are not in his favor. It is a totally partisan hack move and I believe it should be condemned by the Mayor of Detroit. But, of course, we all know that will never happen.

Finally, in this story, a bit of sanity:

Chris Brown, Bing’s chief operating officer, acknowledged that the contracts, expected to be imposed no later than next month, were crafted with no union input.

“Things are not the same,” Brown said. “We’re not going to sit here and say we collectively bargained. We didn’t. It may not be fair, but it’s necessary.”

I highlighted that one, because I am amazed that someone in Detroit sees the trees, in spite of the forest around him. I pray that Detroit is able to steer itself out of the mess created by the downturn in the economy. Because as goes the City of Detroit; so goes the rest of the state and eventually the Country. I believe we can make it out of this mess, there just has to be some adults in the room. I just wish some of those adults were in the room in council chambers in Detroit.

Why Scott Walker Won and the Democrats in Wisconsin lost

I was going to try avoid writing about this, but I am seeing some rather silly stuff being written about this win; So, I thought I would offer my thoughts as a former Democratic Party voter. Update: Greg Sargent over at The Washington Post hits the post a bit, but fails, as most progressives do; to see the full picture.

Putting it plain and simple, The Democrats in Wisconsin picked a fight that they could not win. — They were outspent, out-organized, and out-boxed; the Democrats had zero chance of winning this recall election at all. But yet, they still decided to fight for a recall election. They should have taken their cues from Michigan and left well enough alone. The Democrats in Michigan tried unsuccessfully to get Governor Snyder recalled here twice and both times they failed horribly. This is because residents of Michigan knew that the former Governor of Michigan was a incompetent moron who could not Govern worth a damn and they did not want a Democrat back in office again. Thus, the Democrats wisely dropped the issue and decided to try and win the 2012 election. Wisconsin should have followed their lead, but they did not and decided to try and force their hand and failed.

Mother Jones has some good ideas as well:

1) Campaign Money is King

Walker crushed his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, in the political money wars. The governor raised $30.5 million while Barrett pulled in $3.9 million—a nearly 8-to-1 advantage in candidate fundraising. Walker banked on in- and out-of-state donors, including heavyweight GOP contributors such as Houston homebuilder Bob Perry and Amway heir Dick Devos. Walker was able to raise so much money because of a quirk in state law that lets candidates potentially facing a recall raise unlimited funds for their defense. (The normal limit for individual donors in $10,000.) Barrett did not get to raise unlimited funds in his recall campaign—which placed him at a great disadvantage.

All that money helped Walker pound Barrett in the ad wars. An analysis by Hotline On Call found that Walker and his GOP allies outspent Barrett and his backers 3-to-1 on TV ad buys in the three months before Tuesday’s recall. The dark-money-peddling Republican Governors Association itself spent $9.4 million to keep Walker in office.

Just as the political money advantage proved crucial to labor’s win last year in repealing Ohio’s anti-union SB 5 law, campaign cash appears to have played a pivotal role in the GOP’s Wisconsin wins .

2) The Candidate

Filing nearly one million signatures to trigger a recall election, Democrats and union leaders and members had their sights trained on the governor. The recall election’s Democratic primary forced them to take their eyes off the prize. A primary fight between Barrett and former Dane County executive Kathleen Falk splintered the labor movement. The major unions endorsed Falk early on, sometimes over the opposition of their own rank-and-file. Several other unions held out until late March, when Barrett entered the race, and then endorsed the mayor. This primary drama knocked the anti-Walker effort off course for weeks, if not a month, in a race where every single day counts. It divided a unified movement into Barrett supporters and Falk supporters.

3) No New Ground

Democrats and labor unions touted their massive get-out-the-vote operation, which was supposed to tip the scales in their favor. Turn-out was way up in the elections, at 2.4 million, but the left failed to win over the types of people who elected Walker in 2010. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelnotes, Walker’s Tuesday win is a mirror image of his 2010 victory—just with more voters. He won men and lost women; won independents and lost moderates; and won suburban and rural voters but not urban voters.

More notably, Walker won 38 percent of votes from union households—an increase of 1 percent from 2010. Remember, union members or their spouses didn’t know in 2012 that Walker planned to target them after the election with his anti-union “budget repair” bill curbing collective bargaining rights. Yet 16 months after Walker launched his attack on unions, just as many people in union households voted for him. The unions failed to rally their own ranks.

My thoughts on the Unions — One of the main reasons why the unions failed; not because of a lack of members or money. The unions failed because for the following:

They over played their hand, by storming the capital building and occupying it. This made them look like total buffoons in the eyes of the people, not mention the heavy handed tactics that were on par with communist gulags.
The second reason is a rather simple one; not all union members are on board with the progressive movement, just because someone has a union card, does not necessarily make him a Democrat. Some union members are free thinkers and some of them resent being culled in together with the socialist crowd.
The last reason is this; some union members are just not happy with the Democratic Party and with Obama. I believe Obama fatigue played a big part in the loss in Wisconsin. I believe it will also play out in November as well.

Needless to say, Scott Walker won big and the Unions and Democrats lost big. The results of this will be far-reaching and the Democrats in Wisconsin would be wise to lay low and try to hang on in 2012. But if they do not, they should learn the lessons of the massive over-reach that took place in Wisconsin and with the Democratic Party as a whole. However, knowing Democrats like I do; they will not learn a thing from this.

Excellent Michigan Blog

I like to help other bloggers out.

There was a time; about 7 years ago, when I was a new blogger and no one knew who the heck I was, and could have otherwise cared less. but, nonetheless, I kept plugging away.

Along the way, I befriended bloggers and some of them helped me out, by adding me to their blogrolls and because of that, my site grew in readership.

So, I am returning the favor.

I was contacted by a Jeremy from MichiganStandard.com. I was looking around at his site and it seems to be something that I would be interested in reading. I encourage you to do the same. I give Jeremy credit, he is brave soul, anyone who dares to blog about Detroit and Michigan’s ills — while being white — is a brave person. 😯 I tend to avoid it, as you end up being accused of being racist. So, I tend to shy away from it.

Anyhow, thanks to whomever it was that contacted Jeremy about my site. I really do not see my site as being anything that great. Compared to some of these other sites, which are written by political insiders; I consider myself to be quite low on the totem pole.

So, there you are, a blog promo posting. Go check out MichiganStandard.com. The home of Jeremy, the bravest white man on the planet! 😉 😛 😀 😆

IBD: Job Recession 49 months, Worst Since World War 2

Continuing with my line of thought that I started yesterday; it seems that things are just plain bad.

Just how bad is it?

This bad:

The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in February vs. expectations for 206,000, continuing a recent trend of decent hiring activity. The unemployment rate held at 8.3%.

But America remains mired in the longest jobs recession since the Great Depression. It’s been 49 months since the U.S. hit peak employment in January 2008. And with nonfarm payrolls still 5.33 million below their old high, the jobs slump will continue for several more years.

The previous jobs recession record — 47 months — came during and after the comparatively mild 2001 recession, which saw unemployment climb to only 6.3%. The average job recovery time since 1980 is 29 months, not including the current slump.

The labor market won’t truly return to health until some 10 million positions are created to rehire all those who lost their jobs and to absorb new workers.

The longest jobs recession in decades coincides, not coincidentally, with the longest stretch of anemic economic performance on record.

U.S. gross domestic profit hasn’t risen 4% or more in any quarter since the first quarter of 2006. That’s by far the longest such stretch on record going back to 1950. The only other sizable sub-par stretch was a three-year span from late 2000 to mid-2003 during the prior recession and sluggish recovery.

I would advise you to go read the rest of that report, as it is quite a depressing read. Ace over at Ace of Spades HQ likes to call it DOOM. I simply look at it as grim reality. This reality was created by the Democrats, who sought to game the system during a time of prosperity. This should be a textbook example of why wealth redistribution simply does not work. Instead, the Democrats will use this as an excuse to try to push their green energy polices and why we all should have healthcare, at the taxpayer’s expense. All the while painting Republicans as racist, money grubbing, thugs who wish to keep the poor, black and disabled down.

Arguing it, in my opinion, is an exercise in futility anymore, because most Republicans are too stupid to know how to make the argument properly. Instead, Republicans come off sound cold, aloof, uncaring, and cold-hearted —- or simply, like Mitt Romney.

This all affects me in many ways. I would get into all of that, but because I do not want to be accused of being a whiner, I will not bother. Therefore, I will simply say this, this all was happening in Michigan, long before it began happening in the entire Country. Thanks to Jennifer Granholm’s inability to govern a state, we suffered long before the rest of the Country did. This is why I like to say, welcome to my world. Because this mess we are in now, has been my world, since about 2000. Admittedly, it got bad around here in about 2003 and after that, it was downhill around here. I have out of work since 2005; and part of that is my fault and part of it is not. My physical health is not in the best of shape either, my back and knees are hosed from years of trying to be superman, when I was working. It all catches up, as I have learned; there is not day that goes by when my back and knees are not in pain. The pain is just a part of life, of getting old, I suppose. I do not have any sort of healthcare insurance, so I live with the pain.

However, I simply refuse to see myself as a charity case. I refuse to take a handout from the Government. Social Security is out for me; hell, I have a friend in Ohio that I have known since childhood — we used to live across the street from one another in Southwest Detroit — and he has a legitimate heart condition and he has a lawyer fighting to get his social security. You want to talk about someone unfairly losing his or her career. My friend Joe, who I have known for an eternity, was a well-paid and very well skilled automotive mechanic. Let me state emphatically that the auto industry is much worse off without his skills. Anyhow, Joe was working in this area not far from where I live, at an automotive dealership. Joe ended up having to move to Ohio to be closer to his family. In the process of moving, he just happened to have a check up and that is when he discovered he had a heart condition. This might help you to understand why it is that I simply do not like dwelling on my own misfortune at all. This is simply because there are those out there, who have it much worse than I do.

The point I am making is this; if my friend Joe is having to lawyer to even get social security disability and he has a legitimate condition, what makes you think I could even remotely get it? I just cannot see myself trotting in and saying, “Hi, I have ADHD and I think I am entitled to social security.” I tried that once, after being pestered by my Mom about it and I tried that and it failed. I will not try that again. I felt like a fool. My point is, I do want to work, doing something that I can do, that will not end up screwing my knees and back up even worse than they already are now.

I have made three major mistakes in my life and I will always regret them. The first was thinking that I could go to Commercial Truck Driving School, on the State of Michigan’s dime no less and then think that I could just waltz into a local driving job. I know now that the commercial vehicle insurance industry just does not allow that to happen. The second mistake was getting a job that was related to the retail industry; retail stores suck and those who work in them are usually complete and useless assholes. Believe me when I tell you this; I know from experience. With the exception of my first job ever, every job I have ever tried work in, which was related to retail was a total disaster. I just do not have the personality for retail sales at all. The main reason for this is that, frankly, people can be just plain nasty. I could tell you horror stories of working in the retail business.

My third mistake was allowing my family to talk me into getting a job where they worked, that was major mistake. I believe the biggest reason I am where I am today is the result that mistake. I love my family, all of them; but I have tried working with them more than once and it was a disaster. Even when my job was not working around them, it ended up with me getting into with them, over something. Lesson learned there, never again.

Therefore, here I sit, writing, hoping that this will all turn around for the Country and me. Something tells me, I am going to be waiting for a very long time.

Why do people that live in the city that I live in, do stupid stuff like this?

Go read, just go damn read.

She could live anywhere, ANYWHERE! But noooooo… She has to live in THIS CITY! 🙄

Then Again:

Yo Baby! Wanna take a chance on a flat busted fat boy? um, like me? 😉 Short hair or not; for that kind of money, I would tap that… just close my eyes and pretend. 😆 😛 (I am so bad!)

But seriously folks, this stupid woman is the exception to the rule around here and not the norm.

What a way to put our darned city on the map! 🙄 First it was that idiot dispatcher, and now this! Ugh. 🙄

…I wonder where she lives? Hmmmmmmmmmmm. 😯

Romney wins Michigan

You all know who I voted for.

Nevertheless, I think Romney fought a good fight, and I tend to believe, like many, that Paul and Romney have some sort of alliance going on.

AllahPundit has a got on excellent round up.

Last night’s wins are minimal;super Tuesday is the real big kingmaker.

Either way, it should be interesting to cover.

Detroit’s Autorama is in town

Now here is something that makes me get a bit nostalgic:

Now that Detroit has had a month to bask in the future of what the automotive industry has to offer, the Motor City will now take a look at its past.

The 60th annual Autorama begins noon Friday and runs through Sunday at Cobo Center, One Washington Blvd. in Detroit.

Around 100,000 people are expected at the annual car event, which will feature about 1,000 exhibits with celebrities, attractions, beer and — of course — more than 700 hot rods, classic cars and customized vehicles.

via 2012 Autorama Detroit: Motor City revs up for ‘America’s greatest hot rod show’ | MLive.com

When I was a little kid, my Father and I would always head to Cobo Hall in Detroit every year to go to this show. It was like a year religious pilgrimage for us. Some years, like back in the 80’s, my cousins, my Mom, and her sister and hubby would trek down to the show. Back in the 80’s stars from shows like “The Duke of Hazzard” would be there. People like Tom Wopat, James Best — who played Roscoe P. Coltrane — were there. What I remember the most, was the walking; we would walk that entire show, all rooms, upstairs and downstairs of that hall and look at everything. We used to go to the auto-show as well; it was fun time. I remember getting my picture taken in the car from the T.V. Series “Knight Rider,” You know K.I.T.T.? I got it taken in the car from the first season and I believe the second season. It was a Polaroid, and it cost my Dad five bucks.

My Dad, because he worked at General Motors, used to get free tickets to all of those shows. I miss those old days; they were the “magic years” for me as a kid. Sadly, we stopped going to those shows, mainly because it was such a pain in the rear to get down there and the walking was not easy on my Dad or me, as we both got older. In addition, in addition, we started hearing about incidents happening at those show, shootings, robberies, and so forth, so we just quit going. I went to an Auto Show once, by myself, back in the days when I was actually working. I actually found a good parking spot on the roof of Cobo, I went inside, and the place was heavily crowded. I went and looked at a few cars, fought my way through the crowd; and finally got disgusted and left. After that, I never went back. In addition, people were rude, and one person even hurled a racist remark at me, for simply being in his way. Naturally, he was black and I was white; so in that City, this was considered normal. This was, for what it might be worth, in the 1990’s. Things changed in 10 years, I suppose.

The bottom line is this; if you do not mind crowds, rude people and want to see some nice classic cars, this is the show to see. The cars, of course, come from an era when Detroit was on top of its automotive game. Like good, moral women —-they just do not build them like that anymore.

Never trust a Baptist

Looks like this Church learned the lesson I learned here a few years ago:

A West Bloomfield man was arraigned Thursday on charges that he embezzled more than $600,000 from a Pontiac church over the last six years, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.

Reuben Bynum, 61, was released on bond. He had been the financial officer for Trinity Baptist Church until August, when the money was discovered missing, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A complaint from a deacon led to a review of church accounts, the Sheriff’s Office said. It showed that Bynum forged a signature on church checks and misused a church ATM card.

via West Bloomfield man faces charges of embezzling $600,000 from church | Detroit Free Press | freep.com.

It is a lesson that I learned here back in 2006, which I wrote about here a few weeks ago, when writing about something else — and that is, if a Baptist knows that they can stab you in the back, they will most likely do it. Although, to be fair to my Baptist brethren, most so-called Christians would do it too.

Remember that LA Shooting involving 3 ICE agents???

I thought I had blogged on this, but I guess I didn’t.

A few days or so ago, there was a shooting out in LA involving three ICE agents.

To her much deserved credit, Detroit Blogger Debbie Schlussel has some inside information on that, about how the media is spinning the incident; and some information that not everyone knows about. I highly suggest that you go read it. I have to hand it to the woman, She does have the sources; I’ve defended her in the past, against people who want to try to shut her down. Yeah, she has said some things that I didn’t like; But, heck, I have said stuff others did not like—- like recently for example!

Santorum’s Michigan lead down to 4%

Interesting:

The Republican race for President in Michigan has tightened considerably over the last week, with what was a 15 point lead for Rick Santorum down to 4. He leads with 37% to 33% for Mitt Romney, 15% for Ron Paul, and 10% for Newt Gingrich.

The tightening over the last week is much more a function of Romney gaining than Santorum falling. Santorum’s favorability spread of 67/23 has seen no change since our last poll, and his share of the vote has dropped only 2 points from 39% to 37%. Romney meanwhile has seen his net favorability improve 10 points from +10 (49/39) to +20 (55/35) and his vote share go from 24% to 33%.

What we’re seeing in Michigan is a very different story from Florida where Romney surged by effectively destroying his opponent’s image- here Romney’s gains have more to do with building himself up.

Groups Santorum has double digit leads with include Protestants (up 47-30), union members (up 43-23), Evangelicals (up 51-24), Tea Partiers (up 55-20), ‘very conservative’ voters (up 54-23), and men (up 40-28).

Romney is leading the field with women (38-34), seniors (42-34), moderates (35-24), ‘somewhat conservative’ voters (40-34), and Catholics (43-31).

Newt Gingrich’s continued presence in the race is helping Romney a lot. If he dropped 45% of his supporters would go to Santorum, compared to only 29% for Romney and it would push Santorum’s lead over Romney up to 42-33. 47% of primary voters think Gingrich should drop out while only 40% believe he should continue on, but he’s certainly not showing any indication he’ll leave.

Santorum’s advantage over Romney seems to be a reflection of voters being more comfortable with where he is ideologically. 48% of voters think Santorum has more similar beliefs to them, compared to only 32% who pick Romney on that question. 63% of primary voters think Santorum’s views are ‘about right’ compared to only 42% who say that for Romney. 37% believe that Romney is ‘too liberal.

via Michigan GOP race tightens – Public Policy Polling.

It could be the fact that people from Michigan are beginning to realize that Santorum is a Religious extremist. Which is fine, if you are a lowly blogger like myself. But when you are running for President of the United States; that can be a problem. Mitt Romney is more a moderate; but his Religion sucks. My issue with both of these guys is this; their religion, because you have one guy who is a part of what the Bible calls, “The Great Whore of Babylon” and then you have a guy who’s a part of the biggest false Christian cult since the Roman Catholic Church. But as an protestant Christian, as a Fundamentalist Baptist, of this stripe here; both of these religions are a problem, and a big one at that! The question both of these candidates need to answer is this; of where do these two gentleman’s allegiances lie? Are they with the Roman Catholic Church or in Romney’s case, are they with the Mormon Church?

Is Romney’s plan for America one to uphold the Constitution and restore America’s greatness…. or is it to fulfill the Mormon agenda? Which can be read here and here.

Is Santorum’s plan to fulfill the Roman Catholic’s plan for America? Which can be read about here.

For all of Ron Paul’s issues; at least he is a protestant Christian; and I believe I could actually trust him in the White House. I might just for him in the primary here.