bamatone.net

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/294130.html

Some talk about taxing coke: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113634715.

Surprisingly, I'm actually ok with this. As much as I love my coke, I know it's bad for me. And if I had to pay out the rear end for it (like smokers do with cigarettes), I would probably have to cut back, at least. I'm also pretty anti-tax for everything, but I can think of worse ideas than this. Curb a particularly unhealthy behavior and it could save millions of dollars in health care costs in the future.

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Some talk about Felony Franks: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125538779820481255.html.

James Andrews (not the famous surgeon in Birmingham) opened a hot dog stand in Chicago and hires only ex-felons in an effort to help rehabilitate them into society. He plays up the "felony" bit as part of his shtick. "Near the entrance hangs a mock list of Miranda rights: 'You have the right to remain hungry. Anything you order can and will be used to feed you here at Felony Franks.'" And so on.

Of course, there have been a lot of complaints, most prominently from a city alderman who seems to be engaged in a pissing match with Andrews over a proposed new sign that juts out into the road. A local pastor accuses Andrews of "pimping out" the community.

My take: While the name and marketing may be in extremely bad taste, Felony Franks does exactly what the pastor should be doing: helping to reintegrate ex-convicts into society in a lawful way. Andrews offers jobs, training, and stability to a class of citizens (felons are still citizens) who obviously have a difficult time finding these things after being released from prison.

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Some talk about Hispanic farmers and how they've been discriminated against by the Dept. of Agriculture (USDA): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113730694.

This is a very well researched and thought out story from NPR about a lawsuit Hispanic farmers brought against the federal government for discriminatory lending practices. "The government settled a similar complaint brought by African-American farmers for $1 billion. And while the claims of discrimination and other factors are almost identical, the Hispanic farmers have gotten nothing."

During the 1970s, '80s and '90s, white farmers would apply for a loan and be approved quickly. Hispanic farmers either wouldn't be approved at all, or they would be approved too late in the growing season. Since they had to use that money to survive the winter, that meant the debt grew and grew. Farms were foreclosed upon.

The USDA has even admitted to all of this. But the result has been disappointing. The main problem is the judge in their case refused to grant the Hispanic farmers the right to sue as a class, as the black farmers did. That means each Hispanic farmer has to sue on their own, and the USDA deals with them on a case by case basis.

This response — that it's not the principle of the thing but the legal ruling that matters most — outrages the Hispanic farmers. What's made them even more furious is that within months after taking office, President Obama decided that the $1 billion the government has already given to the black farmers is insufficient, and he's requesting an additional $1.25 billion for them.

It's been a bitter disappointment to the Hispanic farmers who fought the Bush Justice Department for eight years. They thought it was going be different after Obama was elected.

Sad on many levels, but just further proves that you should trust and depend on the government for nothing.

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/286833.html

The government has mismanaged the Post Office and is now set to cover up its mistakes with a bailout.

The government has mismanaged the Highway Trust Fund and is now set to cover up its mistakes with a bailout.

The government has mismanaged Amtrak, which is chronically unprofitable, and is set to cover up its mistakes with a bailout.

The government has mismanaged the Social Security Trust Fund and is ignoring its responsibility to fix the program.

The government has mismanaged the Medicare and Medicaid programs and is ignoring its responsibility to fix the programs.

I could probably think of several more examples, but with this lousy track record, do we really want this same government to make medical decisions on our behalf by nationalizing health care?

-- (source)

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/284071.html

From an interview with Harold Ramis on the WSJ's Speakeasy blog:

Q: What’s the status on the third film?

A: Oh, I should have this recorded as an answer: Gene and Lee are writing a script based on a story I wrote with them; Dan Aykroyd and Ivan Reitman are consulting. If the script is great, then everyone says they’ll do it. And that’s it — no casting, no director attached. Right now, there’s just a script being written. But it’s all good. After all, no one wants to embarrass themselves with a bad movie.

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/281608.html

And that's a bad thing for the good ol' boy bowl system and the NCAA. Dan Wetzel and Josh Peter of Yahoo! Sports report:

A congressman said he plans to investigate testimony from Alamo Bowl executive director Derrick Fox at this month’s Bowl Championship Series subcommittee hearing after learning that Fox might have exaggerated by millions of dollars the amount bowl games donate to local charities.

Fox, while representing all 34 bowl games during his appearance on Capitol Hill on May 1, claimed in his argument against a playoff that “almost all the postseason bowl games are put on by charitable groups” and “local charities receive tens of millions of dollars every year.”

In fact, 10 bowl games are privately owned and one is run by a branch of a local government. The remaining 23 games enjoy tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, but combined to give just $3.2 million to local charities on $186.3 million in revenue according to their most recent federal tax records and interviews with individual bowl executives.

“That doesn’t seem like something that’s really geared toward giving to charity, does it?” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) after being presented with Yahoo! Sports’ findings.

“It’s perjury if it’s knowingly said,” Barton said of the sworn testimony, which he called “misleading.” “It’s also contempt of Congress. You’ve got to give [him] some sort of due process, but ultimately the remedy is to hold [him] in contempt of Congress on the House floor or send it to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution of perjury under oath.”

The fact that the bowl games and BCS are tax exempt and "non-profit" is ridiculous in the first place. Here's the smoking gun: "Bowl games actually received more in direct government spending (almost $5.5 million) than what they gave directly to charity, according to the tax records." If the bowls took in $186.3 million in revenue, why is the government giving them any money?

Together, Fox and Swofford repeatedly cited two main reasons bowl games must be saved at all costs.

1. Donations to local charities.

2. Economic impact on host cities.

If that's the best argument you can come up with... that's pretty pathetic. Here's what it all boils down to:

The NCAA has no role in the BCS and does not recognize a champion in football’s top division, the only collegiate sport without a playoff. By bolstering the value of bowls through charitable giving and local economic impact, a playoff that potentially forces the closing of a few minor bowls seems like a potential negative.

Some playoffs plans, including one produced by the NCAA, concluded they could produce so much revenue that even a lesser percentage share would result in more actual dollars for the six major conferences. However, it likely would require ceding power to the NCAA’s central office, which presumably would run a playoff.

Believe me, I'm as anti-NCAA as the next Bama fan. But any sane college football fan knows that almost any new playoff system would be better than the current system of bowls and BCS.

Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/276787.html

Shit's gettin' sour in the state of Alabama.

The Irondale City Council passed an ordinance promising to jail or fine Jefferson County officials if they impose a fee on those who are not sewer customers to help save the debt-ridden county from bankruptcy.

In other (also sour) news...

The Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition trust fund is in trouble.

The Birmingham News reported today that the trust fund backing Alabama's prepaid college tuition program has lost more than 45 percent of its value in a year and a half -- including 20 percent lost to the recent stock market collapse -- and program managers are scrambling to find ways to keep paying students' tuition.

The money paid into the fund by the parents and grandparents of thousands of current and future students is uninsured, authorities said Monday.

The Alabama Prepaid Affordable College Tuition trust fund currently has assets totaling $484 million, said Gregory Fitch, chairman of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. In September 2007 the fund had assets totaling $899 million, according to program documents. In September 2008 the fund totaled $606 million.

My dad starting paying into PACT when my sister and I were kids. It was a very good investment, and I definitely got more money out of it than we put in. All I can do is shake my head and thank God it's not affecting me.

It makes me angry, though. It should make you angry, too. How did we get into this mess? I've written about it some before, but it's all just drops in the bucket. I read something over at Fortune Magazine today that gives a really good snapshot of the beginning of this financial collapse. (Thanks, Jason.) I'm not going to get into it, but it's really scary to think just a handful of people could bring down a Fortune 500 company that never had a losing quarter in its 85 year history. And from that point on, it was just dominos. The best quote is the very last paragraph:

So should these men share in any blame for what happened to the capital markets in the wake of Bear Stearns' collapse? Former Bear CEO Alan Schwartz has told friends that he sees their role this way, "These things happen and they're big, and when they happen everybody tries to look at what happened in the previous six months to find someone or something to blame it on. But, in truth, it was a team effort. We all fucked up. Government. Rating agencies. Wall Street. Commercial banks. Regulators. Investors. Everybody."

And even if we actually figure out how all of this happened... What to do about it now?