Newburyport Needs Reform, Not an Override

Before a standing-room only audience Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marc Kerble thundered "To keep cutting just takes away from who we are in Newburyport. If we want to be great, we have to fund our school system." Is he right? Must we submit to a higher tax burden or see our schools fall to wreck and ruin? As a community, we must provide a proper education for the 18% of households that have children in our schools, but we must also be mindful that a property tax increase will present a crippling burden to the 5.9%(US Census) of our neighbors who live below the Federal poverty level.

Any attempt to determine if Dr. Kerble's $900 thousand override is warranted should begin with our school system's greatest expense: payroll and benefits. But it's impossible to view the current teachers’ contract. It's not posted online and neither the clerk's nor the mayor's office has a copy and shockingly the superintendent's office doesn't either. Apparently the contract isn't final yet. We know from this paper that teachers received a 3% raise and retained guaranteed yearly step increases, but without the contract we can't know the new pay scale. In the 05-08 contract, a first year teacher would start at $35,694 and after four years of guaranteed step increases their pay was $45,124. Without the contract it's impossible to verify if teachers still receive 15 paid sick days for a work year of 184 days or if some can still bank up to 165 days and cash out at 50% of their final years pay-rate upon retirement. We can infer from this statement by Mayor Holaday when the city council voted department heads a 2% raise a year after awarding them a sixth week of vacation that they are "..it's easier to absorb a small increase as opposed to keep giving these extravagant benefits that are really hard to take back once you give them.." The mayor also called for teachers to pay higher deductibles for their healthcare, implying that they have a cadillac plan. I believe with fair changes, focused on reform to the not yet final contract it's possible to avoid some if not all of Dr. Kerble's projected cuts without raising taxes.

To the larger question: Does more money equal better schools? The Massachusetts Teachers Association certainly believes so, which is why they spent millions in dues money fighting the income tax rollback and only endorse politicians who agree to raise it back to 5.95%. But, the data tells a very different story. The Digest of Education Statistics found that America spent $55 thousand in 1970 on a K-12 education and $150 thousand in 2010, with negligible results to our academic standing. In math for example, America places 35th behind the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. Money can't buy love and it doesn’t buy great schools. Reforming our education system, not simply throwing more money at it is the wiser course, beginning with saying no to an override.

Brackets Barry goes to War to defend Al Qaeda?

I know, I know, the White House's preferred terminology is that the U.S. is in a state of "military kinetic action" with the Libyan regime. When the no fly zone was imposed we were assured that it was to protect civilians from genocide and that coalition forces would not engage regime forces to defend or aid the rebels. Recent media reports indicate that this is no longer the case, if it ever was. So, who exactly are these rebels that we are siding with?

It would appear that at least one, like Col. Qaddafi has American blood on his hands. John Rosenthal of Pajamasmedia covers the story of Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi whose troops U.S. forces are aiding in Libya:

Shortly after unrest broke out in eastern Libya in mid-February, reports emerged that an “Islamic Emirate” had been declared in the eastern Libyan town of Darnah and that, furthermore, the alleged head of that Emirate, Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, was a former detainee at the American prison camp in Guantánamo. The reports, which originated from Libyan government sources, were largely ignored or dismissed in the Western media.

Now, however, al-Hasadi has admitted in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore that he fought against American forces in Afghanistan. (Hat-tip: Thomas Joscelyn at the Weekly Standard.) Al-Hasadi says that he is the person responsible for the defense of Darnah — not the town’s “Emir.” In a previous interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail, he claimed to have a force of about 1,000 men and to have commanded rebel units in battles around the town of Bin Jawad.

Did his efforts against America end when he was captured in Pakistan? Actually, he was just getting started:

In his more recent remarks to Il Sole 24 Ore, al-Hasadi admits not only to fighting against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but also to recruiting Libyans to fight against American forces in Iraq. As noted in my earlier PJM report here, captured al-Qaeda personnel records show that al-Hasadi’s hometown of Darnah sent more foreign fighters to fight with al-Qaeda in Iraq than any other foreign city or town and “far and away the largest per capita number of fighters.” Al-Hasadi told Il Sole 24 Ore that he personally recruited “around 25” Libyans to fight in Iraq. “Some have come back and today are on the front at Ajdabiya,” al-Hasadi explained, “They are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists.” “The members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader,” al-Hasadi added.

The report also includes the tidbit that British intelligence believes al-Hasadi was released as part of a deal that Qaddafi struck with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group(LIGF), which is affiliated with al-Qaeda. So, if the Brits know who this guy is and what he's done, shouldn't the White House?

What evidence is there that U.S. forces are aiding him at all? Here's some more from Rosenthal:

Reporting from the outskirts of Ajdabiya on Wednesday, Antoine Estève of the French news channel i-Télé noted that just “minutes” after rebel positions had been hit by artillery fire from Libyan government forces, the Libyan government positions were then bombarded by coalition aircraft. (Estève’s report can be viewed here.) In a March 19 dispatch from Benghazi for the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, correspondent Lorenzo Cremonesi cites rebel leaders as saying that they were given the opportunity to provide NATO with a map indicating enemy targets that they wanted bombed.

From the Wall St Journal:

The allies also seemed intent on helping the opposition win back the eastern town of Ajdabiya, the site of back-and-forth fighting between the government and rebels in recent weeks.

and

"In Ajdabiya to Misrata, our targeting priorities are mechanized forces, artillery…[and] mobile surface-to-air missile sites," Rear Adm. Gerard Hueber, chief of staff for the U.S. task force in the Mediterranean Sea, told reporters by teleconference from the USS Mount Whitney.

I'll finish with this quote from the NY Times:

Admiral Hueber also said that the coalition was communicating with rebel forces. But later, when he was pressed on whether the United States was telling rebels not to go down certain roads because there would be airstrikes there, he said he had misspoken. American military officials have said there are no “official communications” with the rebels, which remains a delicate issue. Contact with the rebels would reflect a direct American military intervention in the civil war of another country.

The Obama administration, as usual is not playing it straight with the American people. We deserve to know who we're supporting and towards what end. President Obama can start by explaining why we are giving succor to someone like al-Hasadi, who rightly should be targeted by our forces as an enemy, not treated as an ally.

Barry Brackets: Complainer in Chief

With all the momentous real news stories happening around the globe this month I'm surprised the editors' of this newspaper can't find bigger fish to fry than Rep. Michele Bachmann "Huh? Where was that shot fired?" (3/16). Being New England born and raised I find her ignorance of American history and Massachusett's place in it eye roll worthy. But is it truly newsworthy? I can't recall reading anything in this paper when then candidate Obama added ten states to our union: "I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it.". Politicians with all the wind they expel are guaranteed to have a gaffe or two to their discredit, just look at Vice President Biden. I would like to share a quote from the NY Times no less that I find far more troubling, which has received scant media attention: "Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, “No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.”.

Our president complains about the burden of being the leader of the free world and longs to lead a dictatorship and that's not news? I find his choice of China quite telling. He wouldn't have to worry about Fox News or talk radio because the state controls the media. If he ruled in Beijing instead of Washington D.C. he could have used the military to crush those pesky tea partiers just like the pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. Also, his party wouldn't have taken a "shellacking" last fall, losing control of the House because China is a one party state. Now, our president has gone to the finest schools and possesses an unrivaled temperament so I'm sure he, unlike Hu Jintao would practice the most enlightened despotism the planet has ever known.

Actually what's telling is that our president is wilting before our eyes and railing against the scrutiny of a press that has treated him with kid gloves. Any other president that possessed Obama's sorry record would be savaged daily by the media. We are on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan, unemployment counting the discouraged and those only able to find part-time work is 16%, every trip to the gas station and the grocery store gets more expensive, the country's budget is bleeding red ink threatening fiscal ruin and our president is working on his NCAA brackets. The media seems intent on propping Obama in the hopes that his historic election won't be perceived as a failure by the public. I wouldn't be surprised if the same instinct caused the press of his day to give our first president the same benefit of the doubt. However, it should be clear to everyone by now that Barack Obama is no George Washington. The press plays a vital role informing the electorate and I hope they will do so (paraphrasing Dr. King) without regard to the color of a president's skin or their party affiliation, but by the success or failure of their policies, actions or increasingly inaction.

GM Paying $400 Million in Bonuses While Owing Taxpayers Billions

When I came across this story on WHDH's website I hoped it was another case of the media getting hoaxed like the Sarah Palin disses Christina Aguilera nonsense. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case. The lowlights:

Less than two years after entering bankruptcy, General Motors will extend millions of dollars in bonuses to most of its 48,000 hourly workers as a reward for the company's rapid turnaround after it was rescued by the government.

The payments, disclosed Monday in company documents, are similar to bonuses announced last week for white-collar employees. The bonuses to 76,000 American workers will probably total more than $400 million -- an amount that suggests executives have increasing confidence in the automaker's comeback.

Most of GM's hourly workers will get a record payment of more than $4,000 -- more than double the previous record in 1999, at the height of the boom in sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Nearly all 28,000 white-collar workers such as engineers and managers will get 4 to 16 percent of their base pay. A few -- less than 1 percent -- will get 50 percent or more.

First Wall St, now Detroit, the TARP bailouts to bonuses saga continues. Showing that the rules only apply to the little people that can't make six figure campaign contributions. How is the American taxpayers involuntary investment in GM and Chrysler going anyhow?

"Since the taxpayers helped these companies out of bankruptcy, the taxpayers should be repaid before bonuses go out," said Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. "It sends a message that those in charge take shareholders, in this case the taxpayers, for a sucker."

The government has been repaid $23 billion but needs $26.4 billion more to recoup its whole investment. The government still owns 500 million shares of GM common stock, which would have to sell for roughly $53 per share to get all the money back.

GM closed at $36 today, our payback is a long time away, if ever. The UAW is getting a sweet bonus and we're getting the shaft. Our Congressional delegation was justifiably outraged and mugged for the cameras when Wall St. announced their bonuses but they seem eerily silent now.

UMass Student Arrested After Making Death Threat

With the mega-colossal snowstorm and the protests in Egypt dominating the news, this story has fallen under the radar.

From the Daily Collegian:

A University of Massachusetts student is awaiting extradition to Southeast Florida for allegedly making threatening emails to a Florida state representative.

Manuel Pintado, 47, of Northampton was being held at the Hampshire County House of Corrections in Northampton after police there took him into custody at the request of Martin County, Florida law enforcement.

Pintado was arrested last night for allegedly sending Rep. William D. Snyder, a Republican representing Florida’s House district 82, a message attacking him for his involvement in a bill which would allow police to ask anyone for proof of citizenship, according to a release from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the Feb. 1 statement, the text of the email read “To the Honorable William D. Snyder; You better just stop that ridiculous law if you value you rand your familie’s lives ashole.”

I wonder which websites, blogs this self-described "political activist" read? I'm sure the media will route out the source that inspired Mr. Pintado's eliminationist rhetoric. Because we know after Tucson that someone other than the actual perpetrator of the crime is to blame. The authorities in Florida should bring Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in as media consultant, because MSNBC is going to be all over this story right?

Same Old Obama

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas gets it. Why doesn't the media? With his Super shout out for Obama's efforts to keep the country "stimulated", will understands that our president's policies represent more of the same. Because his earlier argument that spending is stimulus didn't sell with the public, we have "investments" to "win the future"(lifted from Newt). This is simply more big spending by Big Government that benefits Big Business(and his fundraising) at the expense of America's working and middle classes.

Appointing Jeff Immelt of GE as jobs czar has been hailed by the media as proof of the president's centrist bona fides. But Immelt personifies "crony" in the crony capitalism that is Obamanomics. "In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner." Those aren't the words of a believer in the free market or a champion of small business. Immelt supports cap and trade while pocketing a $400 million taxpayer subsidized loan to sell windmills. This administration is going all in on windmills and electric cars, but our 389 windfarms are producing electricity at less than 20% of their capacity. They aren't the path to prosperity, in fact Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that Cape Wind will result in over $4 billion in extra costs for consumers. Meanwhile, American drivers are paying over $3 for gas with analysts seeing it soon reaching $5 a gallon. To help promote our adoption of green technologies, Energy Secretary Chu wants us to be paying $7 or more.

The skyrocketing costs of education are threatening to put a degree out of reach for all but the wealthiest Americans. One hundred colleges now charge at least $50,000 a year, only five did so as recently as 2008. It may surprise students and their parents to learn that university administrative costs have increased 61%, essentially swallowing the massive increases in financial aid. All those extra bureacrats have been good to the president though, the University of CA was his number one contributor and Harvard was number three. Instead of pushing to reform the system, the president proposes to continue throwing more money at it, gauranteeing that costs will continue to increase along with his campaign warchest. The same dynamic applies to K-12 spending. The Mercatus Center found that we spend an average of $91,700 per pupil between grades 1-9, yet our students score lower than countries that spend much less. Again, the president just wants to throw good money after bad without making necessary reforms for fear of upsetting the teachers' unions and their PAC's that will contribute millions to his campaign.

We also have the 700+ waivers for Obamacare, 40% of them going to unions that contributed $25 million to the president. Are you seeing a pattern yet?

President Obama isn't, and will never be the pragmatic centrist of the media's fantasies. If this ploy to repackage the same failed policies that have done nothing but run up record deficits, $1.5 trillion this year, doesn't convince the American public to see the light, he'll try again, because he's never wrong. The next time there'll be $1 billion of Wall St., Environmentalist and Organized Labor dough to spend communicating to the bitter clingers of Middle America in borrowed Republican language that he's courageously standing(T-Paw), without apologizing(Mitt) for freezing his 24% increase in discretionary spending in place, cutting a pitiful $775 million when 40 cents of every dollar spent is borrowed(almost $5 billion a day) and rocketing our national debt to $20 trillion and beyond. All for our benefit of course.

T-Paw's Sound Advice: Don't Raise the Debt Limit

With President Hu Jintao of China in the U.S. for a state visit former Governor of Minnesota Tim Pawlenty took to the pages of the Wall St. Journal and the Washington Post to argue against raising the debt limit. Hopefully, our largest creditor was able to find the time amid all the pomp of lavish dinners, joint press conferences etc. that entail a state visit to read them. I believe he may have been pleasantly surprised to learn there is a voice in America calling to get our fiscal house in order and to do so responsibly.

From T-Paw's Washington Post Op-ed:

But the Obama administration is offering a false choice between more debt and default. The chaos that unfolded when Greece risked default last summer can and should be avoided here without raising the debt limit this spring. There is a better option available.

Contrary to what many people are saying, when the national debt approaches the limit set by Congress, as it could by March, it will not mean that the federal government suddenly won't be able to pay its bills. In fact, the government has enough projected cash flow and other resources to pay its outside debt obligations on time and in full for much longer - at least several more months - than the administration has been letting on.

Default on such debt need not occur if Congress passes and the president signs a law directing the Treasury to sequence our spending and prioritize the payment of interest and principal on the debt, as well as other critical budget items such as the military

After exposing the Obama administration's rhetoric of "catasrophic" consequences if we don't raise the debt limit above $14.3 trillion, $3.4 trillion of which occured on Obama's watch as false, he then provides a realistic plan to work within our current debt limit. How can we know it's realistic? Because in his eight years as governor, he did just that:

When I was elected governor in 2002, Minnesota faced a historic budget deficit. Recognizing that taxes were too high already, we used priority budgeting to cut spending. From 1960 to 2002, state spending in Minnesota had increased by an average of 21 percent every two years. During my two terms in office, we lowered the growth of spending to about 1.5 percent per year.

It wasn't easy. We had government shutdowns, special legislative sessions, numerous lawsuits and one of the longest transit strikes in American history. It was a battle, but we changed the state's spending pattern dramatically.

This is the choice America faces: more record spending and debt or finally taking the painful steps to get our economic house in order. According to a poll by CBS News the American public supports Pawlenty's position:

Most Americans believe the massive federal budget deficit is a very serious problem that will create hardships for future generations, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll.

Sixty-four percent say they are very concerned the deficit will create hardship in the future, and another 26 percent are somewhat concerned. Just eight percent say they are not concerned.

Fifty-six percent say the deficit needs immediate action, while 38 percent say efforts to address the deficit can wait until the economy has improved. Republicans and independents were more likely to push to deal with the deficit now, while Democrats were more likely to say it can wait.

Americans strongly prefer cutting spending to raising taxes to reduce the federal deficit. While 77 percent prefer to cut spending, just nine percent call for raising taxes. Another nine percent want to do both. …The most popular ideas for reducing the deficit are to reduce Social Security benefits for the wealthy, reduce the money allocated to projects in their own community, reduce farm subsidies and reduce defense spending. More than 50 percent supported reductions in each of those programs. …Forty-seven percent say it will be necessary to cut programs that benefit people like them to reduce the deficit.

Sadly, the Wall St. Journal reports that President Obama still isn't listening to the American people:

President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.

Mr. Obama will argue that the U.S., even while trying to reduce its budget deficit, must make targeted investments to foster job growth and boost U.S. competitiveness in the world economy. The new spending could include initiatives aimed at building the renewable-energy sector—which received billions of dollars in stimulus funding—and rebuilding roads to improve transportation, people familiar with the matter said. Money to restructure the No Child Left Behind law's testing mandates and institute more competitive grants also could be included.

He's still following the marching orders of his union allies that donated millions to his campaign. From the Hill:

Working Americans are waiting on President Obama to lay out a bold plan for investing in jobs and infrastructure, a top labor leader will warn Wednesday.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is set to lay down a marker for the Obama administration ahead of next week's State of the Union address by urging the president to lean on expansive spending initiatives to fuel the economic recovery.

The AFL-CIO leader's been a consistent voice for more spending, a request that had been frustrated over the past two years by Republican opposition in Congress. Now that the GOP controls the House, getting approval for more spending will become even more difficult.

Republicans shouldn't cave to the demands of a president and party that continue to protect their cronie's interests at American taxpayers expense. I give the final word to likely presidential candidate Pawlenty:

Last year's midterm elections demonstrated that the public is eager to cut the deficit. But every program has an interest group that will fight hard to defend it. We can succeed only if lawmakers are given no other choice. That's why it is so important that we use the debt limit debate to force hard choices now.