DISPATCHES FROM THE GHOST MOOSE

Came down with a terrible cold.  I made it through the winter without a cold this bad.  Oh well.. here is another article clearly illustrating the brazen nature of our elected mopes: http://dailyherald.com/article/20110629/news/706299961/ In short, the Illinois (the most poorly run state in the country) state representatives all earn a base salary plus get stipends for additional roles they fill.  At all levels, once a person is elected to an office, it seems the goal is to fleece the taxpayer for every cent they can, whether it be through stipend, pension, unlawful enrichment, or other means.  Once these hogs have a place at the public feed trough, their objective is to stay there for life.  and we pay for it.  what saps we are, huh?  when will enough be enough.  When will we stop allowing big raises in the last 4 years of employment to jack up pensions...when will we raise the retirememt age of these mopes pulling in 6 figure pensions....w...

The granddaughter of the president of SIU was going to be awarded a full ride scholarship to SIU...until the press got hold of the story and she turned it down.  Makes you wonder how much of this illegal behaviour goes one...probably a lot, huh? I saw a story that Coke is going to raise its prices in July...hmmm...a case of 24 cans that used to be on sale for 4 bucks is now over 6 bucks...and now the cases have 20 cans instead of the 24 cans that a case has had since forever....and now there are 1.25 liter bottles for the same price as the old 2 liter bottles...so, someone has already raised prices and by a lot.  another indicator of the miserable failure of the economic policies of our genius president.  The Daley story from yesterday's newspaper made not a wimper on the tv news.  The annointed family is free to continue to break laws at their whim and fatten themselves further at the public trough. And the beat goes on.

So the Blago verdict is in - guilty on 17 of 20 counts.  Presumably, the government presented a strong case and he is, in fact, guilty.  Makes you wonder how the previous trial ended up in a hung jury, and why Blago was guitly by association with Tony Rezko, but Obama has escaped scrutiny for his own relationship with the convicted felon.  Jesse Jackson Jr, who was going to have the seat bought for him, only had his affair exposed, but will not be prosecuted.  So the Illinois citizens, in addition to having another criminal as an elected official, will now have to pay to incarcerate him.  makes you wonder what the actual percentage of elected officials should be in jail for crimes they have committed.  probalby somewhere close to 100%.

July 1 is Friday?  wow...if Memorial Day is the start of summer, the 4th of July seems like the end of summer...soon we'll see the back to school sales, shortening days, all that. Here's a few good links to Sun times stories - that should infuriate you.  http://www.suntimes.com/news/6088254-452/former-mayor-daley-will-get-back-all-of-his-pension-contributions-within-26-months.html http://www.suntimes.com/6135962-417/federal-government-takes-over-fund-with-ties-to-daleys-son-patrick.html Let's see...Blago is on trial, and Daley gets away with this?  His son, a murderer, takes in over a mil from a company and the old man didn't know he was part of this company?  The arrogance of it all - just making the presumption that the taxpayer will be responsible for these ridiculous payouts, cars and bodyguards for the rest of his life.  Oh, and the state is spending the money designated by the tax returners for charity, to pay its bills...but no action on the $10...

Wrapping up a nice weekend. Very nice weather...I planted a few more plants in the garden. That feeling I get watching those plants grow is quite rewarding. Still aways to go before I pick tomatoes... Back to boot camp tomorrow. I skipped Friday, so tomorrow will be a grind. But nothing worthwhile is easy. Making some progress, which is motivation enough to keep getting up at 5 am four days a week. So...watching Ufc fights on tv..strange the show is on Sunday, but I will watch until the inevitable happens and I nod off in front of the tv. It will be Monday soon enough.

I have written it before, but days like this are what makes the lousy winter weather almost tolerable.  A beautiful summer day.  We played golf at 6:09 this morning.  Nice to get out and play and not have to wait to shoot each shot.  Got home, and actually got some work done.  One of the benefits of the fitness boot camp is a better energy level.  I didn't realize what a lazy slob I had become.  Just 6 weeks ago, I could find a reason not to do pretty much anything. Now I have the energy to keep moving (albeit at my own pace...).  So, I think this was week 5 of boot camp.  I missed yesterday - had to save my back for golf today (there goes that justifying doing nothing)...but, in a few months, I should see some real progress, and I committed to myself to stick with it.  and so I shall.  I may get one more season of basketball out of this carcass too. the real news continues to show a march to the bottom.  nothing is changing....

Well, from this point until Dec. 21, the days get shorter, huh?  What a half-empty way to look at things.  But, that is how it is.  For the next month or so, you could tee off at 4:00 pm and probably finish a round of golf.  I will have to try that soon. I saw someone on the news talking about the Illinois budget, saying they had to come up with $1 billion in cuts to make it fly....wait...what about the $100 billion pension deficit we are facing???  shouldn't we be looking for at least $100 billion in cuts?  and, of course, we should all breathe a sigh of relief that they came up with funding to continue all the road projects...because pretty much everyone is in favor of more roads ripped up, slower travel, more $30 per hour schlubs holding a sign that says "SLOW" so they can earn their pensions, right?... and, on the Federal level, things continue their downward death spiral (redundancy intended).  Unemployment is at a high level - how high,  n...

a big storm last night had power off from 9 pm until 4:30 this morning.  what a mess.... The story in todays news was from the county treasurer saying the county was a $100 billion in the hole for pensions....$32 thou for each suburban househousehold, and $63 thou for each Chicago household.  you have to wonder who has accountability for watching the bottom line.  When the county was $500 million, should action have been taken?  when it hit a billion, or 25 or 50 billion?  we kept allowing teachers to retire at age 52, pulling in 100 grand a year...we gave raises in their last 4 years of employment to pad their pensions...we approved pensions for part time county board members....big surprise we are in this predicament.  the public trough is only so big, and there are no shortage of hogs waddling up to feed at it.  I can't wait until the inevitable happens and the state declares bankruptsy so these payouts cease.  we can't afford it - to the tune...

Beautiful weekend....of course, we cancelled our golf planned for Saturday morning due to the forecasted rain (that never happened), and the day turned out to be perfect for golf...oh well... We went to Ravinia on Friday night to see the Go-Gos and B52s...2 bands whose heyday was almost 30 years ago.  They were both very good.  I worked probalby 1000 concerts at the Rosemont Horizon, and those shows generally had a fair amount of fights, overdoses, and examples of the worst humanity has to offer...this show was very low key...as it should be. Here's an interesting article showing another idiotic move by Gov. Fudd Quinn.  He is giving Motorola a tax break but Motorola still has the leeway to cut 500 more workers and still get their tax break....it will be intereting to maintain a list of those companies who strongarm Illinois for a tax break to stay in state.  And who do you think will make up the tax dollars Illinois is giving them?  Temporary increase in inc...

Sitting here for a few minutes before leaving for fitness boot camp.  When that alarm goes off, I usually get a dozen or so excuses running through my mind to not go.  so far, I have avoided the temptation to not go.....it does feel good when the workout is over.  not during, mind you - but when it is over.  so, I will head out in a few minutes to get a running start on the day.  After 4 weeks of fitness boot camp, it is painfully apparent that I have miles to go to even be in lousy shape...so I will continue.  A few more 4 week sessions should keep the ship moving in the right direction..and my weight loss to date has been akin to tossing a deck chair off the Titanic....so therein lies the challenge.. off I go..

We can't be halfway through June, can we?  How is it that Jan and Feb are intolerably long, and the nice months fly by?  Ain't right, is it? so, the price of oil continues to slide....but the gas price in Chicago remains the highest in the nation.  Maybe in 3 or 4 months, the price slide will show up at the pump...keep dreaming. I got a kick out of the genius traffic planner in Chicago that was talking about a pedestrian only crossing time.  Cars on all 4 streets at an intersection will be halted while walkers can take over the intersection...hmmm...if drivers know they are going to be stopped for an even longer light, don't you think they'll put the pedal to the metal when the light turns yellow to avoid a longer wait at a light, and the inevitable slow walkers cutting into the green light time?  That will end well, no doubt.  Illinois is now holding up road construction funds due to some pols wanting to add expensive riders to the bill.  Where i...

Just back from a weekend trip to New Buffalo, MI.  Very nice....the same signs of the bad economy are there too - lots of real estate for sale, lots of big, expensive boats for sale....tough times.  But we had a nice time.  Gas there was $3.81/gal, as compared to $4.15 here...go figure.  Oh wait - I covered that the other day... But...in the spirit of this blog, another stark reminder of just how time marches on.  The wife and I went on the trip alone - no kids.  I asked my son if he wanted to go with (knowing full well what the answer would be), and his answer was that football and basketball camp were starting, and he couldn't miss those days.....so, on Monday, we were driving from New Buffalo to St. Joe, and passed a go cart track that he liked to stop at...was kind of sad to drive by it without stopping.  My wife and I just talked about that being the place we used to be forced to stop at, lest we be barraged with a lot of complaining -...

Busy weekend...went by too fast The forecasted drop in gas prices has not yet happened in the Chicago area...big surprise, huh? We have the densest concentration of autos anywhere, so why not continue to screw the drivers here? Some things never change... What has changed is the doing away with class rank in some high school districts. Heaven forbid a little snowflake is reminded of the four years of screwing off and smoking dope by a GPA measure indicative of the lack of effort. So let's penalize the kids that did work hard, thereby denying them the recognition that would come with a high class rank. Wouldn't want to hurt anyones feelings, would we?

at long last Friday.  more rain - where is it all coming from? The latest companies to look at moving out of Illinois (the most poorly run state in the country) are the Board of Trade and The Mercantile Exchange.  The corporate tax rate is making all companies look at moving to a more business friendly state.  Plus, the privilege of paying a 10% tax rate to live in a dump like Illinois is a bit much....but who will pay for the $100 billion in pensions owed?  that temporary income tax rate hike to 6%???  sure - it is only temporary until it is hiked to 10%...just watch.  the US economy continues its march into the crapper.  it is sad to see an incompetent like Obama continue to make empty promises, and to show how truly incapable he is.  Relying on hope is probably not going to get our economy moving in the right direction. the emporer is wearing no clothes, folks. on the bright side, game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals is on tonight, and game...

a 30 degree drop from yesterday.  and a huge rainstorm going on now.  the unemployment figures were released today, and the "unexpectedly went up"...you'd have to be a total moron to have not expected unemployment to get worse.  Inflation is beginning to run rampant, gasoline prices have not gone down (even though the barrel price is down significantly from its high) and the financial situation of pretty much the whole world is in shambles.  The saying "when America sneezes the world catches a cold, when America gets a cold, the world gets pneumonia" is pretty much b.s. these days.  I guess using that logic, America has infected the rest of the world with its financial problems.  too bad our president has no clue of how to fix things....I imagine there is no fixing what is wrong.  and so we embark on such brilliant strategies such as bailing out Greece (we have all seen how quickly Greece stepped up to help us, right?), giving aid to China (the c...

Supposed to be 97 today...I love the heat.  as much as I hate the cold weather.  so, bring it on. down to 2 pumpkin plants.  a rabbit has retuned to make its annual nest in the middle of my back yard to have its babies, and must find pumpkin plants quite tasty.  so, that experiment is over - no giant pumpkins will be grown in my garden this year.  I read a couple of really dumb stories yesterday.  The first was a quote from the CEO of GM who wants the federal tax on a gallon of gas to go from 18 cents to a dollar - to "nudge" consumers toward buying fuel efficient cars.  Now, here is a douchebag whose company was saved only by giving them billions of, as yet, uncollected tax dollars (from people who buy cars) and he has some say in how we will continue to get gouged.  an asswipe whose predecessor took a corporate jet to senate hearings on why the auto industry should get a bailout...and he is recommending we get taxed even more so we can buy th...

Supposed to be a scorcher today - high 90s.  I asked for it... here's a link to an interesting story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-06-us-owes-62-trillion-in-debt_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip the story says the US is underfunded on its financial obligations to the tune of $534,000 per household....Wow.  I liken this to those morbidly obese people you see on the Biggest Loser - they weigh 500 lbs, and one would think they would do something about their weight problem when they hit 300, or certainly 350, or perhaps 400 lbs....but no.  How did we get in debt to the tune of over a half mil per household?  Giving billions to the banks to pass out as bonuses.....given billions to countries that hate us.....giving billins in aid to CHINA  (that is so sad but true).  And that is just the federal component.  Remember, the amout of pension debt alone for each household of saps in Illinois (the most poorly run state in the country) is $28 gran...

we went from the chilly spring to blazing hot.  finally.  I hate the winter so much that the hot weather doesn't bother me.  but the mosquitoes - there's another story. Very curious news reporting these days.  The North avenue beach closing on Monday was not reported for what it was - roving bands of urban thugs beating and robbing people.  There were roving bands in the loop last night doing the same, and apparently from the comments submitted to times and trib stories, there were many other incidences of this type of crime the news did not even report.  What is going on?  If there were gangs coming in from Glencoe robbing West Side citizens, would that not be reported as hate crimes?  Now, taking this opinion generally would cause me to be labeled as a racist.  But, should we not explore why these gangs of urban thugs feel empowered to gather, travel to the loop where they can break laws at their whim?  As nice as the loop is, it real...

busy weekend.  got a lot of work done outside yesterday.  finally feels like June - hot and humid. The stories about the dire nature of the economy are more and more common now.  The strategy of printing money and increasing debt has proven to be a failure, and the stories talk about the risk of a double dip recession...sure....like we ever got out of the recession that started in 2007.  History will show this has been, or is, or is going to be a depression.  It's one of those things that have to be written from a different standpoint.  Boehner is meeting with Obama...to golf.  I am sure they will get things figured out just fine.  As I have written before, there is no fixing the problems we have.  Maybe kick them down the road past the next election, but we will never pay off our deficit, nor will the state pay off its pension debt.  so, it will be interesting to see what tactics are used to fool we middle class taxpayers so the fat ca...

I mistakenly labeled yesterday as Thursday....I must be losing track of days. June seems to be a lot better weather then May.  It's about time. With the advent of pre-presidential campaigning, we are starting to see the criticism of Obama become more prevalent.  The economy is beginning a free fall.  All the money printed and handed out to the fat cats is gone, and nothing has improved.  Gangs of urban toughs rioted in every major city on Memorial Day with nary a comment from our leader - he was golfing.  What a colossal failure he is turning out to be.  Each opportunity to make a critical decision is a new opportunity for him to wet the bed.  but, is there really anyone or anything that can be done to get us on the right track?  I doubt it.  The next president will be handed a mess worse than the one our community organizer was handed.  and given the fact that Obama had no experience doing anything (other than organizing communities,...

June Already????  What happened to May?  gone like the puddles it left. here's a link to an article talking about how we are charging into a great depression.  http://www.prisonplanet.com/strategist-world-on-the-verge-of-great-great-depression-and-the-fed-knows-it.html I have written in months past about my own opinion, and that is there is no cure for what ails this economy.  Globally, things have never been worse from a financial standpoint.   We have borrowed so much money, the concept of currency is now abstract, almost ludicruous.  Numbers so large the human mind cannot comprehend them.  and yet we continue to print worthless money, rather than fix the issues that are damaging the economy.  While it is clear that Bush left a bushel basket of problems for Obama, the latter's "hope and change" bs is not going to fix anything.  this experiment has been a colossal failure on all levels, and I really wonder if we will make it to 201...