Rhode Island Announces 12 “Official Shutdown Days” in Attempt to Save Money, Close Budget Gap

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

States are suffering budgets problems these days, including New Mexico which is now in the process of cutting expenses. Locally, our school district is cutting, too.

Well, the state of Rhode Island has gone one step further.  Press relese from the Office of the Governor:

Governor Carcieri Announces Plan to Achieve $67.8 Million in FY 2010 Budget Savings

Governor Announces 12 Shutdown Days, Operating Efficiencies, Reduction in Local Aid

Governor Donald L. Carcieri today announced his plan to achieve the $67.8 million in unspecified savings in the FY 2010 budget passed by the General Assembly. The plan calls for 12 shutdown days of state government, operational savings, and withholding the 4th quarter of the vehicle excise tax from cities and towns.

“Over the past several years, framed by two recessions, the state has faced difficult budgets, resulting in nearly one billion in lost revenue over the past two years,” said Governor Donald L. Carcieri. “We have managed through this crisis with reductions in state spending, improved operating efficiencies, and without raising broad-based taxes. We have achieved equally significant savings through changes to our healthcare plan, major pension reform, a massive reduction in state employment levels, changes to social service programs, and some cuts to local aid.”

“Even with these efforts, we are faced with more daunting challenges,” continued Carcieri. “The state’s FY 2010 Budget requires my Administration to find $68.7 million in unspecified savings. With most efficiencies already attained, and staffing reductions already made, there are few options left to cut costs.”

“My Administration has developed a plan to reach the $68 million total, through a combination of shutdown days, operating efficiencies and cuts, and a reduction in local aid by withholding the 4th quarter vehicle tax payment.”

Shutdown Days

The Administration has identified 12 days in which state government will be shut down. The following days are designated as official shutdown days:

Friday, 9/4/09 Friday, 10/9/09 Friday, 10/30/09 Friday, 11/27/09 Thursday, 12/24/09 Friday, 1/15/10 Monday, 2/15/10 Friday, 3/12/10 Friday, 4/2/10 Friday, 4/23/10 Friday, 5/28/10 Friday, 6/11/10

The anticipated general revenue savings achieved from each shutdown day is approximately $1.4 million, $17.3 million in total savings for all twelve. In addition, the Higher Education system will achieve $4.3 million in general revenue savings in a manner consistent with the delivery of student services over the school year. A state employee who stays home on all 12 shutdown days, will take home about 4.6 percent less.

This brings the total savings to $21.6 million. These savings assume the cooperation and participation of all branches of government. “We are very well aware of the impact shutdown days will have on state employees and state services. For Rhode Islanders there will be inconveniences; for state employees there is sacrifice. I am asking everyone’s patience, understanding, and awareness that these steps are unavoidable if the State is to live within its means,” continued Carcieri.

The State has met with union officials for the past several weeks in hopes of reaching a consensual agreement to achieve the savings through pay reduction days, similar to the one day pay reduction implemented last fiscal year, rather than shutdown days. Pay reduction days would achieve greater saving days and afford the Administration more flexibility, while providing employees with an additional personal day to be taken at a later date.

While the Administration will continue to negotiate with labor and remains hopeful that an agreement can be reached, each day that passes puts at risk the ability for the state to achieve the necessary savings. “I look forward to working with the various unions to address this situation in another way, but we simply cannot wait any longer to act,” said Carcieri.

Operational Savings

The Department of Administration (DOA) has identified approximately $17.1 million in savings from several areas, including $5.2 million from reducing consultant contracts by 10 percent, and limiting or eliminating seminars, conference and training for state employees.

DOA has identified an additional $8.9 million from a heightened level of scrutiny on all non essential expenditures, including out of state travel, fees and subscriptions, printing, advertising and other departmental expenses. In addition, DOA expects the state to gain $3 million in health insurance savings.

Authority to Withhold Appropriations

“Even with the shutdown days, and the operating efficiencies, we are still far short of the $68 million we need,” continued Carcieri. “I intend to submit legislation for immediate consideration when the General Assembly returns in September that will grant me the authority to withhold appropriations. In these extraordinary times, I need the flexibility to withhold appropriations to properly manage the execution of the budget.”

Previous Governors have had the statutory authority to withhold appropriations. This power was stripped by the General Assembly in 1996.

Of the state general funds – approximately $3.1 billion – one billion of these state funds goes to our cities and towns. This is on top of local property tax and other taxes collected by municipalities – nearly $2 billion. The Governor intends seek authority to withhold the 4th quarter motor vehicle tax payment to cities and towns. This amounts to approximately $32.5 million.

“We cannot continue to funnel money to the cities and towns without their participation in the state’s budget conversation,” said Carcieri.

“While this plan will achieve the $68 million in the FY 2010 budget, we are not out of the woods yet. Since May, we have seen revenues continue to deteriorate. By the first of September, we will close the books on FY 09, and at first blush, revenues are expected to be off by an estimated $65 million dollars in May and June. The significant savings we have realized by this plan are being outpaced by decreasing state revenues, revenues that rely on everyday economic activity,” continued Carcieri.

Online: http://www.governor.ri.gov

Release date: 08-24-2009

Many, MANY moons ago, the State of New Jersey shut down for a day or two, but not for 12 days.

Many, many, MANY moons ago my family would spend a couple of weeks on the yet undiscovered Block Island in a house of a friend who was restoring it room by room.  She called it “Turnabout Cottage” …Let’s hope we can see some “turning about” of all the mounting problems from our financial turmoil.

I don’t see it happening anytime soon, so who knows how many states will start shutting down. And let’s hope essential services to those who need them won’t be at the top of the list for further cutting. Here in New Mexico, witih a large population of poor,  healthcare for those on Medicaid has already taken a hit…

Spirit Renewal: Fledgling Orioles, Green Chile, Solar Ovens…and a Double Rainbow!

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I’ve had a couple of heavy-duty research things hanging around which I just don’t have the time/urge to complete.  There’s another post on non-GMO seeds that’s percolating.

But, it’s been a spell of having to accomplish other things and frankly, another period of  “give me a break!” Rather than being dragged down by the garbage going on lately, I get this irresistible urge to enjoy my time on the planet for awhile. Forgive me, but the urge becomes imperative!

Over the last week or so, there have been some wonderful things while the world goes crazy.

Sunday (8/23) was a banner day.  I went to the co-op as usual and bought my local veggies and enjoyed their “festival.” First, I ordered my green chile, which I will pick up next Sunday!  It’s organic and will be roasted before my very eyes.  Then, I’ll have to process it, which means peeling and freezing to provide a year’s supply.

The previous week I had attended a talk by the President of the Sun Oven company at the co-op (with delicious food samples–a rice dish and fresh-baked bread) and on Sunday there was a solar oven cook-off (more sampling, this time chocolate cake).  I purchased my oven but we’ve had no real sun for the first time all summer! This oven (see www.sunoven.com) has been installed in places such as Afghanistan, along with a bigger model that can cook for whole villages.  The company is basically operating on a non-profit basis, as ovens sold in the U.S. subsidize ovens in poorer countries.

In the meantime we’ve had visits from fledgling orioles and their parents which have filled the gap…

Hanging out at the jelly feeder...

One of the two fledglings got “into” the jelly, literally sitting in the bowl!  Obviously, a novice jelly-eater, not quite sure of how to approach this lovely treat:

Getting into it...

Along with the long-awaited rain, came a true wonder….We often get rainbows in the summer, but this evening (Monday, 8/24) there was a FULL, DOUBLE RAINBOW spanning the sky for a long while!  I couldn’t get it all in one frame, of course, but here’s a sampling…

Of course, these pics can’t do justice to the spectacular show in the sky last night!

All these things are experiences that renew the spirit…

Nobody Listening in Washington? Then Send a Message to Gliese 581d…It May Work Out Better in the (Very) Long Run

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Once again, Radio Australia has come through with a fascinating story.  In celebration of Australia’s 2009 National Science Week (August 15-23, 2009) and The International Year of Astronomy,  Cosmos magazine has put together this project:

Welcome to HELLO FROM EARTH.

This site is collecting messages that will be transmitted to Gliese 581d, a planet outside our Solar System which may support life. Comments are moderated: inappropriate messages will be rejected, and messages must be in English (so we can evaluate them).

Register here to send your message before the deadline: 5pm Monday 24 August 2009 Sydney time (07:00 GMT Monday 24 August 2009)

Gliese 581d, our nearest neighbor outside our Solar System which may support life,  is about 20.3 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra, so anybody/anything out there might be interested in relating to us here on Earth.  However, many of us won’t be around to find out if they respond, since the message won’t be received until December 2029!

Artist rendition courtesy European Southern Observatory............. Gliese 581d is the outlying planet in the Gliese 581 system, and orbits its parent star every 66.8 days. It may be covered by a large and deep ocean and is the first serious 'waterworld' candidate discovered beyond our Solar System.

NASA will be sending the messages that are posted to the site right after the end of Science Week so why not check out the site, which is crammed full of interesting info, and send a message!

There’s an interesting, short video featuring editors of Cosmos magazine to watch and more details on Gliese 581d and other “exoplanets.”

The countdown clock will be running until the time for messages is over, so go on over and express yourself before time runs out on August 24!  There are messages from around the world (including mine) which are fun to read!

Heck, if your Congressperson isn’t responding to your concerns, maybe some kind soul on Gliese 581d may get back to you…someday!

More info at the site:

Home | HelloFromEarth.net | Gliese 581d | National Science Week 2009.

Yabba Dabba Doo! Barack Obama Takes America Back to the Stone Age

~~By Grail Guardian

I read a rather innocuous piece on Michelle Malkin’s site about Billie Jean King and how Obama dissed her when presenting her with the Medal of Freedom. The pResident understated how many tennis titles King held by a rather significant amount. Seems innocent enough, right? Malkin herself makes no real judgment about King, she merely presents the brief story from Politico and a bit of snark aimed at Obama. Here’s the piece:

Rowdy town hall protesters, take note: Please do not correct the president’s faulty math. It’s rude. And un-American.

Instead, follow the cue of tennis player Billie Jean King and embrace Obama math as “adorable.”

This is the polite and patriotic thing to do.

Via Politico:

Before presenting tennis legend Billie Jean King with the Medal of Freedom Wednesday, President Obama ticked off some of her accomplishments: 12 Grand Slam titles, 101 doubles titles, 67 singles titles.

“Pretty good, Billie Jean,” he quipped.

But he didn’t get any of it right, according to King herself.

“They didn’t get any of my facts right,” King lightheartedly noted afterward. “Did you see all the – how many titles I won? I was cracking up.”

“Not even in the ballpark,” she continued.

King found it amusing, and said her accomplishments on the court aren’t the most important.

“I thought it was adorable,” she said.</blockquote>

Watch the video at the link as she shrugs at the inaccuracies: “Who cares?

Now I’m not a regular reader of Malkin’s site; I had been directed there by a link to another story and noticed the blurb about King. I found the article rather odd in its lack of any real purpose other than to report a rather minor incident, so I decided to read what others had to say. The discussion in the comments startled me. It started with the general assumption that King must be an Obot since she let Obama off so easily, but quickly deteriorated into people slamming King for defending Obama because she called the incident “adorable”. The next thing I know, people are not only projecting how King would have acted had President Bush made the same mistakes, but attacking her work for Women’s Rights and Title IX . Of course there were the inevitable gay slams. (For the younger crowd King was the subject of a “Palimony” suit by a female lover which was used by social conservatives to discredit her work and tennis accomplishments by implying that the bi-sexual King could never have done any of this had she been strictly heterosexual.) The commenters even attacked a regular poster who tried to point out that King was just being diplomatic and polite to the “POTUS”.

Sample asshattery:

lgm said:
Because of her work promoting women’s sports — title 9, women’s leagues, etc. And, I hope, cleaning the clock of Bobby Riggs.

On August 13th, 2009 at 4:14 pm, emjem24 said:

As a huge tennis fan myself, I really don’t get the importance of this award. It’s meaningless. Anybody can now receive it for whatever accomplishment under the sun. Even foreign citizens.Title 9 has so skewed the balance of women’s sports that both men’s and women’s sports aren’t equally funded. In essence, title 9 has had unforeseen consequences as a result of feminist meddling in sports.

Billy Jean King may have done a lot for women’s tennis such as equating prize money but the male tennis players have a point. Why not have the women play 5 set matches like the men? The men often play longer than the women. This is an example of feminist meddling where there shouldn’t have been. It’s about time on the court, not who makes more.

Billy Jean King really just needs to get over herself.

Now I should tell you that I am a Billie Jean King fan. Not for her tennis skills or personal life choices, but for her efforts as a spokesman for equal pay for professional women athletes and equal opportunity for all female athletes, right down to the grade school level. When I was a kid I remember King taking on Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes”, and the significant social paradigm shift that occurred after she whooped his butt. It was thrilling to watch all the cocky boys in town have to scramble for excuses as to why she’d won after being forced to suffer their constant taunts that Riggs could beat her blindfolded, with one hand tied behind his back. Critics now cite that Riggs was 55 years old and not that good a tennis player, but at the time almost every male I knew boasted that these things didn’t matter because no woman could beat any man that wasn’t in a wheelchair! So you young ‘uns out there that aren’t old enough to remember can’t truly appreciate the collective sigh of relief heard from females across the nation as King proved that a woman could indeed beat a man at a physical activity, and do it with style and class. There was much more riding on this highly publicized match than meets the eye when simply reading historical reports about it. It was about the ability of women and girls to walk with their heads held high and the chance (however slim it may have been) to prove that you could be “as good as” or (gasp) even “better than” a male. To a young girl with something to prove, this event was pivotal in the fight for Women’s Rights; as significant as Susan B. Anthony and Co.’s efforts to win women the right to vote. I don’t think it is overstatement to say it was a social breakthrough of the type you only see once or twice in a lifetime. Billie Jean King represented to a generation of young and aspiring females what Martin Luther King, Jr. represented to a generation of blacks: hope and opportunity. No one was asking for a handout, just the chance to prove ourselves. And prove ourselves we did. We championed Women’s Rights like no other generation before or since. We shouldered the burden to bring about a facsimile of equality that has allowed the current Generation Jones female population to presume that their rights were God-given and (wrongly) irrevocable.

So after reading these off the wall comments, I started to think about what is actually going on here. Practically anyone would agree that Barack Obama and his advisors

Purported Obama advisors (could that be Jon Favreau on left??)

have done more to set back the cause of racial equality than the worst Neo-Nazi or KKKer I could ever have dreamed of (you can read an excellent rant on this topic by raGing here at Deadenders), but I would be remiss if I didn’t get to the juicy point buried in the midst of all this:

Barack Obama has handed the extreme right fringe of this country the ability to revert back to the Stone Age socially, and to feel 100% comfortable while doing it. Where they lead, others with weak minds and morals will happily follow.

Back to the Stone Age

There you go, Obots! I said it! Teh Won has enabled not only the über-liberals to call anyone that disagrees with them racists, but he has empowered the right cliffers, rednecks, Christian extremists, and other dregs of society to spread their filth at will. He promised us change, and boy did he deliver! Now everyone has the right to “go postal” on anyone. To wit:

It’s okay to attack taxpayers:

Just when you thought they could stoop no lower…

It’s ok to attack cops:

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics [team stats] superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote – and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.

(For those not convinced, you can read the police report on the Gates incident here.)

It’s ok to attack the homeless:

A report due out this weekend from the National Coalition for the Homeless documents a rise in violence over the last decade, with at least 880 unprovoked attacks against the homeless at the hands of nonhomeless people, including 244 fatalities. An advance copy was provided to The New York Times.

Sometimes, researchers say, one homeless person attacks another in turf battles or other disputes. But more often, they say, the assailants are outsiders: men or in most cases teenage boys who punch, kick, shoot or set afire people living on the streets, frequently killing them, simply for the sport of it, their victims all but invisible to society.

“A lot of what we see are thrill offenders,” said Brian Levin, a criminologist who runs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

It’s ok to attack women:

George Sodini went to a sprawling L.A. Fitness Club on Tuesday night, turned out the lights on the “Latin impact” dance-aerobics class for women, and opened fire with three guns, spraying dozens of bullets before committing suicide.

“He just had a lot of hatred in him and (was) hell-bent on committing this act, and no one was going to stop him,” Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Wednesday.

His 4,610-word Web diary appeared to be a nine-month chronology of his plans to end his misery with a shocking act of carnage at his gym. He couldn’t understand why women ignored him, despite his best efforts to look nice. He wrote that he hadn’t had a girlfriend since 1984, hadn’t slept with a woman in 19 years.

It’s ok to attack blacks (if they’re conservatives):

Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started.
“It just seems there’s no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.

(Or if the attacker is a Black White Supremacist):

Black Man Pleads Guilty to Posing as Obama-Hating White Supremacist on Facebook

An African-American man from Mississippi admits posing as a white supremacist to send a death threat across state lines by Facebook.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 20-year-old Dyron L. Hart of Poplarville pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making a threat in November 2008.

Hart admitted creating a name and using a white supremacists’ photo to pose as a white man who planned to kill blacks because Barack Obama had been elected president.

Of course all of this may leave you wondering, “just who isn’t it ok to attack?” The answer is rather painfully obvious: Barack Obama and Congress

An HCAN affiliate called Progressive Future is partnered with Fund for the Public Interest. Fund for the Public Interest is hiring people nationwide to do “canvassing” for Obama’s health reform agenda.

<snip>

But here I think is the smoking gun. This page on the Progressive Future site describes the action they are taking to fight for health reform. It says:

[T]his summer is the key time to ramp up the public pressure for reform.  Every member of Congress needs to hear from us, that we won’t wait any longer for real health care reform.

Progressive Future is stepping up to the challenge:

We’ll be sending out hundreds of canvassers in nine cities across the country to talk directly with more than 50,000 citizens about the need to solve our health care crisis, building our rapid-response network, and engaging supporters immediately.

So as he sends his paid ACORN-style minions out across the country to combat peaceful protesters, it seems the self-styled post-racial, progressive President is anything but. In fact, Barack Obama has given credibility to Rush Limbaugh and jumpstarted the previously deceased careers of the likes of Newt Gingrich and Ann Coulter. Wow. That’s some Liberal Agenda, isn’t it? You Obots out there must be proud!

Just as the democratic (I refuse to capitalize it anymore) party uses abortion and gay marriage as wedge issues to keep women as members/voters of a party that doesn’t respect or help them, Axelrod and Co. have figured out how to use the biggest right wing tools to keep the real racists/sexists/homophobes agitated, and they have given them Carte Blanche to do it to the rest of us. After all, what good is a bi-racial, hipster pResident and left cliff Congress without some good old fashioned right wing crazies to make them look cool in contrast?

In Germany, “Dueling Breasts” Join the Ad Campaign in the Run-up to the September Election

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

There’s beem some stuff around the internet implying/stating that to criticize Hillary Clinton’s recent words and demeanor in Africa is an obvious case of “sexism.”

Well, I guess this makes me a sexist as I criticize this woman pol in Germany.  From the BBC World Service:

Merkel’s party in low-cut controversy.

Vera Lengsfeld of the Christian Democrats, who is campaigning in the east of Berlin, has billboard-sized pictures of herself in a low-cut dress next to a picture of Chancellor Angela Merkel in an even more revealing number.

The poster’s strap line reads “We have more to offer”.

The image has been dividing opinion in Germany.

more

So, what does the picture look like?  It was on the BBC site, but I copied it from Spiegel Online, which has a full article on the campaign now going on in Germany leading up to the September election and a picture gallery of all the advertising.  (See:  ‘Merkel Is Planning a Campaign with Nationalistic Undertones’ which asks if these first ads are “any good”…)

Here’s the one in question:

Vera Lengsfeld, a member of Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has already raised eyebrows with a campaign poster displaying the chancellor's ample cleavage alongside her own, together with the slogan: "We have more to offer." She did not ask the chancellor for approval before using her picture.

I’ll answer that question posed about whether this ad, in a particular, is any good.

I think it stinks!  First of all, Vera Lengsfeld didn’t ask Angela Merkel if it was OK to use Merkel’s picture.

The bigger question is: What the hell is Lengsfeld trying to prove? Does the “humorous” reference to cleavage make it OK to bring her body into the campaign?

What kind of judgment does this woman have?  You’d think a woman politician would want to leave gender aside and stick to the issues for the sake of her own credibility.  And why play into the hands of a global culture which zeroes in on a woman’s appearance first instead of her intellect and other qualities? A global culture which pretty much demeans women non-stop.  Even here in the U.S. of A. in the person of Barack Obama and his finger and his speech writer Jon Favreau who likes to grope Hillary Clinton’s chest even if it is only cardboard.  You know, the same country where the media went bonkers over a ‘”hint of cleavage” that Clinton “displayed” at one point?

Is Lengsfeld trying to emulate the sex queens of Italian politics?

Poor Angela Merkel was probably photographed at a function with no intent of being plastered all over a billboard.  Maybe her dress was a bit too much for any public appearance, but who knows when it was taken? Maybe it was before she was elected Chancellor.  No matter…Merkel has never used cheesecake in her political campaigns as far as I can tell.

Until now.  But not because she wanted to.  Lengsfeld has completely cheapened this political season in Germany.   Merkel has been dealing with an economic mess and has had the guts to not get on the Obama bandwagon. She’s tough and smart.   But now she’s used in a “dueling breast” ad at the hands of another woman from her own party, no less.

And I have to laugh that it’s a “Conservative Christian Democrat” who’s dishing out this stuff!  Sort of conjures up images of those family values Republicans, one of whom recently dashed off from the governor’s office to South America for trysts with his mistress…

Men may compare their “packages” in their leisure time chat, but I’ve yet to see an add displaying a male pol’s crotch on a regular basis.  Of course, there is one exception, though not in exact parallel:  Our beloved leader showed off his crotch to a gaggle of women reporters on his campaign plane.  but he did NOT run an ad comparing his crotch to John McCain’s.  Even he didn’t go THAT far…

Women undercutting other women is nothing new, but this little escapade sure takes it to a lower level than usual.

So, am I a sexist for criticizing Lengsfeld?  If you are even considering such a thing, you should have your head examined!

The point is that women who are assholes in public are fair game for criticism, just like male assholes.  It’s not always sexism that’s in play…