Washington, D.C. Parks & People acquire $2.7M Wildland Fire Grant

Wow! I’m still not sure where to start with this one yet. Suffice it to say that have done some basic research on the Washington, D.C. Parks & People board of directors members and the have some interesting ties to the Social Justice, Green Jobs, and Global Warming crowds. Then there was a pattern I thought was interesting of one board member making political donations under several different business names and address to the tune of $1,500 each. I could not find direct ties to ACORN but several seemed to have associated affiliations.

The ACORN Fire Department Gets $1 Million

I’m not at all happy about this. I see some of the points of the group having outreach into a community that may otherwise be “standoffish” with authority type figures. However that being said this is a group that clearly has many problems with managing their people and I suspect managing their money as well. There was a cover-up of Dale Rathke’s embezzlement of nearly $1 million dollars by his brother Wade Rathke. These are the founders of ACORN. They chose to hide the matter from their own board of directors. Then there are all the ACORN members who have been convicted of voter fraud. This past election had more cases of voter fraud in Las Vegas. Now we see “bad judgment” by “a few workers” and are expected to believe that this group is still ok to get ANY government money. I personally filed a Freedom of Information Act request with DHS yesterday seeking those records pertaining to their most recent grant award. I want to know exactly what this group is doing with my tax dollars. It is a matter of trust for me and as far as I am concerned this group has broken their trust with the public.

How To Get My Free Money!

After watching Representative John Boehner dump the over 1,000 page bill on the floor in a bit of a protest I decided to see if I couldn’t dig up this piece of legislation and take a look at it myself. I jokingly told a friend a couple days ago that I was on Barry’s Free Money Train. I told him that I would unfortunately have to lose my job first to get the free money. Well after digging through this law I have finally seen the light. It isn’t about free money. It is about getting governmental agencies to get money and then selling them a service. I don’t need to lose my job I just need to create another one.

So what can one do? Heck this law covers about every aspect of American life. Every three, four, and five letter organization is getting a share of the stimulus money. $100 million will be given to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for Lead Hazard Reduction. I know what you are thinking, “$100 million for lead hazard reduction? How bad can that really be?” We’ve all heard about toys being imported from foreign countries recently with lead paint but what about the homes of Americans. That’s where the money is.

In a 1998-2000 study by HUD they determined that the homes with lead based paint was reduced from 1990 by almost half. This left 38 million homes in jeopardy. Then it was determined that only 1.2 million units were low-income with children below the age of 6. This would be the most at-risk for lead poisoning.
So what you have to do is come up with a business that serves government units who receive this money. In the case of Lead Hazard Reduction: Education or Abatement. The $100 million grant for this project is only good for three years. So lets do the math to try and better understand what we are looking at.

Let’s say there are still 38 million homes that in the last ten years have received no abatement. That effectively amounts to $2.63 per home spent on this program. I don’t think that $2.63 will do much. That might cover the cost of a test kit. So instead let’s focus on just the 1.2 million homes that are considered at-risk. That amounts to $83.33 per home spent on the program. Again not bad but what can you do with $83.33? There is education but what good is education without remediation? So people know the hazard but the at-risk population is defined as income below $30,000 per year in income and children in the home below the age of six. It is doubtful that we can remediate them or even move them out of the harmful situation given the funds available.

That was the worst case scenario. Let’s assume that in the past ten years since the last study that things have improved. For the sake of assumption we will estimate that we have a fifty percent improvement. So that doubles the money availble from our last calculations. Now we have $5.26 for all or $166.67 for the 600,000 at-risk homes. Again this does little to remove the hazards of lead-based paint.

So where does all this math leave us? Simple we will devise an education program about the hazards of lead that costs a couple million and serves a small well defined regional market. Sell local politicians on the fact that they have constituents at-risk. Convince them to apply to HUD for part of the $100 million for the program. Hire a minimum of staff to design and develop the program. Sell the local politician your program. Confine the program to TV, radio, and print media delivery within your well defined regional area using the most effective and inexpensive methods possible. Collect a few million over three years then dissolve the company and move on to bigger and better things.

In the end will the stimulus bill actually create jobs? I think it will create one or two jobs. Are the jobs that will be created substantive and lasting? I will wager to say no, they won’t be unless there is another influx of cash. The troubling part for me is where does all this money come from? So is it all going to be worth it? Will we better off? My guess is that we won’t be any better off than if we did nothing. The people that this was designed to serve won’t be any better off but they at least know the hazards that surround them. Maybe I should go into Biogas development from fuels produced on public lands instead. I’ll get right on that after I get my money for a digital TV converter…

Time To Run

Well I ended up taking some time off from my running schedule.  I think I’ve ran less than three miles in the past couple of months.  This past weekend I was “promoted” from Lt./Engineer to a regular Lt. position on the fire department.  This means I’ll be spending nearly no time behind the wheel of the fire truck and most of my time working with the regular fire fighters.  I guess it is time to put the shoes back on and start running.  Gotta keep up with these 20 something kids.  Hopefully by spring I’ll be ready for a 10K run too.

I’m Not Apologizing

I will not apologize for my beliefs.  I think Barry Obama is wrong for this country.  Very wrong.  His policies are mistakes just waiting to happen.  I will oppose each and every crazy thing he and the Democrat Congress/Senate push forward.  This includes taxes and social issues.

Let’s take taxes for example.  Barry and uncle Joe have told us how they plan to take money from, essentially, those they think have too much of it and can live without some of it.  Then they will give it to those who they think are better deserving of it.  Those that they think are better deserving include me and my family.  I don’t care, I don’t agree with the principle of it.  Everyone should pay the same percentage, period!  This whole philosophy is fundamentally 100% wrong.  I call it socialistic in nature.  How dare I besmirch the good name and reputation of Barry and uncle Joe by calling them exactly what they are, Socialist!  If you don’t like the fact that big corporations are paying their executives multi-million dollar paychecks and bonuses while screwing the little guy at the bottom then don’t do business with them!  Don’t buy their products!  “But I need those things to survive.”  And I say BS, no you don’t.  You are just too lazy to work through getting what you want or learning to live without it.

Now let’s talk about social issues.  I’m not talking about Gay Marriage or even Abortion rights.  I’m talking about NCAA Football.  Old Barry’s already got his eyes set on making things fair for college football.  This stupid bastard is running around trying to fix college football tournaments.  I guess that would be more of a challenging task for him than solving the issues of Gay Marriage and Abortion.  He will likely catch less hell for trying to deal with that than deal with all of the other “real” social issues.  Or is this just his way of sidestepping the current Gay Marriage issue?

It doesn’t really matter what the issue is the simple fact is that government has no place in these issues or at least very limited input.  Take the economy, stop trying to fix these companies with government money.  I realize that doing nothing could cause a monumental crash in our economic and societal structure but frankly it needs it.  Stocks are overvalued, exectuives make too much, and products are too expensive.  Everyone is running around from executives, to unions, to the workers wanting more and more.  This is the problem everything costs too much because everyone thinks they deserve more.  Until the economy collapases we will continue to pay $5+ a gallon for gas and $2 for a loaf of bread.  The great depression taught a lot of people the value of things and frankly I don’t think enough people in this society have paid enough attention to those who have lived through those times and their stories.  People need to learn some self reliance and self disicpline when it comes to how they live their lives.

Canceling Your Well Informed Democrat Vote

I’m standing in line waiting to cast my vote against the idiot Barry O’bama. Hopefully this election turns out right if not it will be an expensive four years.

Colombo, Ramon J.

Colombo, Ramon J.

Well it’s time to see if the Teflon really works. This is Ray my former boss from the CSEPP (Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program) in Vermillion County, IN. The CSEPP program was finishing up and ending this year. Ray had been with the program in Vermillion Co. since its inception in 1989. From the probable cause statement it appears that Ray influenced a contractor over a three year period to inflate job cost and then spend the additional costs to buy things. Of course these things were bought for Vermillion Co. however it appears that they didn’t quite make it into the county inventories.

So what did Ray get? He got a 60″ Kubota garden tractor, stainless steel GE stove/cooktop/refrigerator, a Sony 52″ big screen TV, Blue-Ray DVD player, and two 26″ flat panel TVs. Sounds like this golden parachute retirement program might even include an orange jumpsuit for Ray when all is said and done.

Terre Haute Tribune Star news article

Busy Summer

Waterman’s Farm Market

Originally uploaded by n9nds

It has been an extraordinarily busy summer this year. Very little time for leisure riding. Very little time for photography too. I just started a week of vacation yesterday and got to go out with the family to a pumpkin farm. Took some photos and slowly got some new pictures back up on Flickr.

Run With The Foxes

Run With The Foxes

Originally uploaded by n9nds

After 20 years I got back into running. I needed to get off my lazy butt, lose some weight, and get a little more fit for playing fireman.

A Final Look

RCA Dome

Originally uploaded by n9nds

One last look at the Dome during FDIC.