P.O.W.: Public Owned Water

Elimination of the Entitlement State - Part II

2011-12-24T11:17:00.004-05:00

A staunch right winger sends us this:

Top 100 Teacher Salaries for 2011: Phys. Ed Teacher Heads List with $203,154

In 2011 an amazing 14,866 public school employees made more than $100,000, up 18% from 2010’s 12,588. And then? Our brainwashed Naybob natters...

"This is the broken State of Affairs that Barrack Obama and Rahm Emmanuel brought to The White House, and want to bring to the rest of The US.

Yep, the same broken political system of payback that is threatening to bring ruin and collapse to all the cradle-to-grave Socialist entitlement nations of Europe."

We Natter Back...

From 2009: Wall Street banks Citigroup and Merrill Lynch paid 1,400 staff bonuses of $1m or more each, despite being kept afloat by US government money.

From 2011: Big bank compensation, which includes salaries, benefits and bonuses, will likely total $156 billion -- a 3.7 percent boost from 2010 -- and a record breaking number.

Goldman Sachs, which in October recorded its second loss ever as a public company. Still, Goldman employees will take home $362,862 in compensation on average, compared with the U.S. median income of $26,364.

Bankers Join Billionaires to Debunk ‘Imbecile’ Attack on Top 1%

The top 1 percent of taxpayers in the U.S. made at least $343,927 in 2009, the last year data is available, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

While average household income increased 62 percent from 1979 through 2007, the top 1 percent’s more than tripled, an October Congressional Budget Office report showed.

As a result, the U.S. had greater income inequality (The Grand Canyon) in 2007 than China or Iran, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook.

Billionaire Warren Buffett, 81, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has called for increasing taxes on the wealthy, as has Patriotic Millionaires,

a group whose supporters include Ask.com co-founder Garrett Gruener and Peter Norvig, director of research at Google Inc., according to its website.

“Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs,” Nick Hanauer, co-founder of aQuantive Inc., an online advertising company he sold to Microsoft Corp.

for about $6 billion, wrote in a Dec. 1 Bloomberg View article. “Let’s tax the rich like we once did and use that money to spur growth.”

Two out of three Americans support raising taxes on households with incomes of at least $250,000,

according to a Bloomberg-Washington Post national poll conducted in October.

The Nattering One muses: This is the capitalist way, bonus paid with our tax dollars.

Witness the new NAZI group think that feeble minded right wingers spew...

Non Christians, Homosexuals, Immigrants, Government Workers, Unions and Pensions... what do they have in common?

They are THE PROBLEM. If you eliminate them, you eliminate THE PROBLEM.

They are the NEW JEW. And nothing could be further from the truth.

This is political divisiveness and Goebbels NAZI credo at its best.

Divide and conquer the masses through propaganda. Tell a big enough lie enough times and the feeble minded will believe it.

If this behavior continues, what will it get us in the end? The rich attacking the poor and vice versa. Oh no, far, far more, baby ducks.

The rich own the lobbyists and the whores on the hill, aka the prostitutes in congress. How do you control the hill?

The rich employ their whores to start initiatives that deal with problems that aren't really problems.

Trying to solve problems that don`t exist is the specialty of the right wingers in congress.

And that is a way to serve some other agenda that is unspoken to by the fake problems.

Examples? Measures to combat voter fraud without instances of actual voter fraud.

Elimination of a proposed EPA farm dust regulation, when the EPA has no proposed farm dust regulation.

A resolution to affirm `In God we trust` as the national motto, when `In God we trust` is already the national motto.

And the latest is, blocking millionaires from receiving unemployment insurance or food stamps. (For those with ADD, refer to our previous post.)

Yeah just eliminate all the entitlements, the Non Christians, Homosexuals, Immigrants, Government Workers, Unions and Pensions, no more problems right?

Wrong. In fact, DEAD wrong. This diviseness over the last 50 years has us rapidly becoming a second class power and well on our way to being a third world country.

The eradication of the middle class, the widening of the Grand Canyon aka the Great Divide (the rich get richer, the poor get poorer) has the ultra rich upper 1% vs the rest of the serfs.

Occupy Wall Street is just the beginning, of the end. This is the end, my friend.

In South America, the Eastern bloc and most third world countries, kidnappings of the elitist rich are a common occurance.

MLB baseball player Wilson Ramos, of the Washington Nationals, had his Venezuelan ordeal and says he is thankful to be alive. In the near term, many here may be chiming the same.

Someday soon, in this country, holding the elite for ransom, will be commonplace. The rich will not venture far from their fortress compounds, without an armed entourage and escort.

Recently in Italy, letter bombs exploded in the tax collectors office. In the middle East public terrorist bombings are an every day occurance.

It would not surprise, if Corporate and government bombings (such as Oklahoma City) start to become commonplace here.

And unfortunately, in our lifetime, if they don't change their greedy, divisive and naughty ways...

You better watch out, You better not cry, Better not pout, I'm telling you why, the people's revolution is coming to town.

Their making a list, And checking it twice; Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice. The people's revolution is coming to town.

The elitist, sexist, racist, anti-humanist throats will be slit, and they will be hung, as they and their assets are bled out, like the greedy pigs they are.

They can't hide and they know who they are, so better to be on the good list, than the naughty list.

Some food for thought and a peak into a potentially bleak alternative future, in the Naybob Zone. Remember, its never too late and never, say never.

Season's Greeting, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Elimination of The Entitlement State

2011-12-24T11:16:00.001-05:00

We have certain entitlements in this country that have been around for generations and remained intact -- Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance.

These are programs that work politically in part because they apply to all of us. They are for all Americans.

When you`re 65, you get Medicare. You get Social Security. When you lose your job, if you have paid into the unemployment insurance program, you get unemployment insurance.

You are by definition entitled to these things, and these things have been a huge success in the story of America.

They are our social safety net. They have kept people out of poverty. They have kept food on the table. They`ve allowed us to retire one day instead of working our entire lives until we die.

But the thing about them is that they are entitlements. And that is as important to what they mean to us as Americans as it is to their political survival.

You get these things if you`re rich or if you`re poor. We do not discriminate by class. As Americans we get them.

The idea of ending unemployment benefits for millionaires is that you fundamentally change a program in order to eventually break it apart.

Making the unemployment insurance program a program that is not for everybody. It`s not for everybody anymore. Instead, it`s just for poor people.

When people with not very many resources are the beneficiaries of a particular program, those people don`t have many resources and that also means they don`t have much political power to protect that program once politicians try to tear it apart.

It`s also because when a program is seen as just being for poor people, that program is susceptible to losing broad public support when it inevitably gets attacked from the right as waste.

When you try to change entitlement programs so instead of benefiting everybody, they just benefit, say, poorer Americans, you set the stage to break those programs apart because the right has come up with really great politics for making the rest of the country resent programs that only serve poor people.

So, suddenly this means drug testing for unemployment insurance. That may seem like a throw-away line in a Republican proposal. That`s not a real problem, why are they working on that?

Well, it is a way to dismantle that as an entitlement. To make us think of unemployment insurance that only applies to poor people.

And that`s why the Paul Ryan kill Medicare thing really isn`t a lie.

But make no mistake. What the Republicans have proposed is actually ending Medicare. I mean, the whole idea of Medicare is that everybody gets it. It`s not something that divides America.

It doesn`t matter if you`re rich or poor. You as an American citizen are entitled to Medicare once you turn 65.

The Paul Ryan plan would end Medicare. It would make Medicare something that not all Americans get anymore, which means it`s not Medicare.

This is about changing the social safety net to make its politics more like welfare politics, and less like Social Security and Medicare politics.

Ask Americans how they feel about Social Security and Medicare. Those programs are more popular than a cold drink on a hot day. Look at that.

Now, if you make those programs just for some people, see how popular they become. Right now, House Republicans are playing chicken again. This time it`s not the debt ceiling or looming government shutdown.

This time it`s almost every adult American getting substantially less money in their paycheck as of January 1st, courtesy of a Republican tax hike on working people. Merry Christmas.

And Republicans are willing to bear the political cost of doing that for the prize of starting to rip our social safety net around the edges.

For the prize of making the American people see the social safety net not as something that we all have...

but instead seeing it as something that other people might need some day. Something that other people might use some day, but never us.

From the : Dec 20th Rachel Maddow Show

The Nattering One muses: more to come on the right wing divisiveness in our next post.

Recovery? What Recovery?

2011-11-12T12:41:00.000-05:00

The Nattering One muses... Long Term Unemployment, Foreclosures and the Ghost Inventory are up. Well, at least one thing is going down, Housing Prices.

This is for all the pollyannas who think that a recovery is under way and the economy has turned the corner...

The omission is... the economy flipped over three times, struck a tree and burst into flames.

Read em, weap and NEVER FORGET, dangling chads in Florida, shady Diebold machines in Ohio, and ALL the IDIOTS (now politically reinventing themselves) that voted for Shrub Jr and Chaney's eight year reign of terror are DIRECTLY to blame.

Now, Now, baby ducks, you do have something to look forward to, as we've nattered all along, we haven't bottomed yet and the worst is yet to come.

Long Term Unemployment Up

The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America's unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

The number of unemployed has been roughly stable this year. Yet the number receiving benefits has plunged 30 percent.

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America's 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that each $1 spent on unemployment benefits generates up to $1.90 in economic growth.

Foreclosures Up

The U.S. foreclosure rate has climbed to its highest level in seven months, suggesting that lenders are moving beyond a "robo-signing" scandal that had temporarily slowed bank takeovers, according to a private firm that tracks the activity. This could dry up the pipeline of inventory and improve the market for a time, but a major uptick in foreclosures might hurt the market later.

Home Prices Down, Ghost Inventory Up

Record low mortgage interest rates appeared to have put a floor under home values this summer. After falling steadily last winter, the CoreLogic index flattened out this summer.

But the latest drop leaves home prices 4.1 percent lower than they were in September 2010.

The outlook for home prices remains clouded by the continuing wave of foreclosures that has left the market with many more sellers than buyers.

Some banks have slowed the pace of foreclosures to avoid adding more unsold inventory to their books. As lenders slash prices of foreclosed properties, those “distressed” sales force prices of all homes lower.

"The acceleration in the rate at which the CoreLogic house price index is falling reflects the slowing in the pace of job creation and wider economic growth earlier this year," said Paul Diggle, a housing economist with Capital Economics.

Though mortgages are cheap for those who qualify, banks are only lending to those with top credit scores. Some would-be buyers are waiting for signs that prices have bottomed.

Demand has also been held back by the millions of American households that are “underwater” –- owing more on their loan than their house is worth.

“Against this backdrop, we don’t think house prices will post consistent gains for at least another two years,“ said Diggle.

There were 3.5 million homes on the market in September, or about 8.5 months’ worth of supply based on the current level of demand, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Housing analysts generally figure that supply and demand are well balanced with about a six months’ supply of homes.

But with millions of foreclosures stalled in the courts or on hold by banks, there is a large “shadow” inventory that continues to weigh on prices. Diggle figures there are about 4 million homes in that pipeline.

Credit Based Inflation or Why We're Not in Kansas Anymore?

2011-11-12T11:58:00.004-05:00

Credit inflation helped inflate home prices and in turn forced people to borrow even more money to make home purchases. This is the web of debt that caught the population in a never ending loop.

Why does the FED target 2% inflation but not 0%? Inflation makes sure that savers are punished. If people are allowed the save money to buy their homes, then the cycle will end. Thus SAVING and paying CASH must be blocked at all costs.

Never forget that the FED works for the banking industry and makes sure that bankers earn interest at the expense of the rest of the population.

The best thing Americans can do to improve their life style is to avoid taking mortgages.

This is going to prevent the financial industry from making a claim on people’s 30 year earnings for simply creating money out of thin air.

This is outright robbery of the people. This practice of usury must be declared illegal. This is no different than slavery.

But bankers are organized where as the people are not! Individuals and not a powerful lobby which faces the bankers. Thus each individual is helpless and at the mercy of usurers.

All of the prices, and salaries you see around you were based on inflated credit that happened over 50 years. It is based on a money supply that is almost entirely bank credit.

People borrowed and borrowed and spent. The amount of money borrowed reached sky high. You earned in good times! Now, everything is reversing course!

What’s going on with the world’s economy? Foreclosures are up, unemployment is skyrocketing - and this may only be the beginning.

Some think the cause is reckless government spending. Bur even financially conservative countries like Ireland are in trouble.

The true cause of the economic problem is the debt based monetary system.

Could it be that solutions to the world’s economic problems are embedded in the most beloved children’s story of all time, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”?

The yellow brick, the emerald city of Oz, even Dorothy’s silver slippers were powerful symbols of author L. Frank Baum’s belief that the people (not the big banks) should control the quantity of a nation’s money.

The bottom line: No More National Debt. All our money is created out of debt. But nations don’t have to borrow money from banks.

Sovereign nations can create their own money (debt free) just as Abraham Lincoln did. But will it not cause inflation if we let the government simply print money?

Well, banks are already creating money out of nothing and it is causing inflation as we all know it. We might as well collect the interest ourselves!

Banks, finance and insurance profits should be made by the people and for the people. Not by the elite and for the rich.

Excerpts above from Web of Debt.

The Nattering One muses... A debt free monetary system is the fix. If you want the truth, dare to watch this award winning 2 hour documentary "The Secret of Oz".

Take the time to learn how the bankers going back to Christ have put the screws to the populace. History keeps repeating itself.

As Col. Nathan Jessup nattered: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth."

The Rise Of The Planet of The Apes

2011-10-16T12:38:00.000-04:00

The Nattering One muses... The Autumn of Protest has sprung into full winter discontent...

what started last month in Spain, has gone viral and global.

It seems we are not the only ones sick and tired of the ascendancy of the house of finance and the same old song spoon fed by the elitist ultra rich.

It also seems that perhaps we are moving one step closer to what we have heralded in these pages as "necessary" many a time.

The status quo of those in charge will always do as the song says, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss "...

If you want change, real meaningful change, there is only one way to get it and perhaps we are closer than most want to think or believe.

Remember PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL and UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.

There is power in numbers, NOW is the time to "COME TOGETHER RIGHT NOW".

A day of worldwide protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States began Saturday with the hundreds of people gathering in cities from Japan and South Korea to Australia.

Organizers had hoped to see non-violent demonstrations in 951 cities in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa in addition to every state in the United States.

A website called 15october.net urged the people of the world to "rise up" and "claim their rights and demand a true democracy."

"Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest. The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few...

ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end," the website says.

Minority of violent demonstrators stretch into evening, hours after tens of thousands of people join global 'day of rage' against bankers, politicians.

Hundreds of hooded, masked protesters rampaged through Rome in some of the worst violence in the Italian capital for years Saturday...

torching cars and breaking windows during a larger peaceful protest against elites blamed for economic downturn.

Sydney: "I think people want real democracy," said Nick Carson, a spokesman for OccupyMelbourne.Org.

"They don't want corporate influence over their politicians. They want their politicians to be accountable."

The crowd cheered a speaker who shouted, "We're sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power standing over us and taking away our rights!"

Danny Lim, a 67-year-old immigrant from Malaysia, said he moved to Australia 48 years ago in search of opportunities.

Now he no longer trusts the government to look after his best interests. He thinks Australia's government has become too dependent upon the U.S. for direction.

"The big man — they don't care. They screw everyone. Eventually we'll mortgage our children away," Lim said.

Taiwan: "we are Taiwan's 99 percent", saying economic growth had only benefited companies while middle-class salaries barely covered soaring housing, education and healthcare costs.

They found support from a top businessmen, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp Chairman Morris Chang...

who told reporters in the northern city of Hsinchu that Taiwan's income gap was a serious issue. "I've been against the gap between rich and poor,"

"The wealth of the top 1 percent has increased very fast in the past 20, 30 years. 'Occupy Wall Street' is a reaction to that. We have to take the issue seriously..."

Korea: The protesters, who have adopted slogans and imagery used by those in the U.S., say the rally is designed to...

motivate "99 percent of Koreans" to complain about the actions of the wealthiest "1 percent," the paper said.

"The situation is the same in South Korea (as the U.S.), where the financial institutions have speculated to earn high profits in a short time, creating victims," the coalition said in a statement, the Herald reported.

London: Spyro, a 28-year-old who has a well-paid job and did not want to give his full name, summed up the main target of the global protests as "the financial system."

MSNBC: Protests go global

October 15th.net

The New Kid - Wish Me Luck Part II

2011-10-16T11:19:00.002-04:00

Our last post elicited this response from a Naybob of Transport...

Hey *********, I am amazed you found that commercial or that I even still remember it as vividly as I did. It still gives me the creeps.

I hope you did not take my comments on my observations at McDonalds as Racist because nothing could be further from the truth, but rather as you stated, an observation I have witnessed over the years.

I do have to tell you that I do take personal exception to some of your comments.

In particular

“This is why UNIONS are a necessary evil, TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL against the profit motive AKA GREED, and no Gordon Gecko, greed is NOT good.

Workers must unite in all industries and at all levels, to prevent management from abusing the populace under the profit motive and outsourcing to labor at the margin.

Unchecked and left to their own devices, management will ALWAYS abuse the rights of the individual in favor of the capitalist creed.”

You knew I had to comment on that. Some management will abuse the rights of the individual that has been proven, but not all.

I do more for my employees than any employer I have ever worked for. I pay well, I provide great benefits, I treat everyone equally. I provide free insurance...

I match their contributions on their 401k plan, I pay for time off, and I have a great bonus plan that have paid every employee every year at year end.

i.e profit sharing, and everyone gets it including the janitor. No union does what I do for my people.

I even lend money to my employees interest free when they need it and no one else will, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Not all management is evil and corrupt or only make decisions in favor of capitalist greed. We are a capitalist system, and unlike the government if I don’t make money we go out of business.

Making a profit is not evil. When I make money I invest it back into the business. One day if I’m lucky enough when I sell my business I will make a little money.

Having worked with the UAW and the Teamsters, I can tell you that not all unions work in the best interest of their members either.

Deals and trade offs at the expense of one or many is a common practice on their part.

Some things we can control and others we cannot. However, people do have to think for themselves, and the Government cannot be the sole answer to every problem.

I cannot think of one government agency that is run efficiently, can you? Every single one of them is inefficient.

In the private sector, inefficient businesses go out of business. In the public sector, inefficient businesses just keep on keeping on.

The last group of people I want making decisions for me are government bureaucrats and Unions are no better. If you have ever served on a labor committee like I have, you know what I’m talking about.

Somewhere in our not too distant past our generation was never taught basic economics from our parents or teachers, and ignorance spreads more ignorance to our children following in their parents footsteps.

Our teachers don’t understand it, and now most parents it seems. The Government certainly can’t.

If businesses or individuals spent like the government we would all be locked up behind bars. I took the initiative to learn on my own as I know you did.

Every Government regulation breeds more regulations, and when it comes to corruption I have yet do work with a union boss that was not corrupt. Most are still behind bars.

On a personal note, I don’t work 12 hours a day 6 days a week and invest everything I have in my business and employees so that I can perpetuate socialism...

so that the next guy who is not willing to take the risks and responsibility or work the hours needed to achieve success required then earns the same as I.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing that I’m not paying my fair share when I am taxed to death as it is and if the Obama administration has it’s way I am going to be paying a whole lot more.

You see I’m one of those greedy rich people that does not pay his fair share.

I did not become successful off the sweat and backs of others hard labor without rewarding them handsomely and doing the same in return. I am right there with all of them.

As you known, my business is a capital intensive business and heavily dependent on labor. I have more than quadrupled my employment workforce with high paid wages...

i.e. averaging over $50,000 a year and I do strictly with Americans, using strictly made in America equipment.

Interesting to hear and feedback you receive on today’s rant from an unnamed trucking guy.

The Nattering One muses... Our system (which is neither democratic, nor purely capitalistic)...

is run by and geared for the big corporations. Draconian in nature, they control the political and economic system.

My Naybob of Transport is a Republican, nobody is perfect. Neither are unions, greed and personal gain often trump the common good.

Moreover, this Naybob is a small businessman, one whom the system is becoming increasingly unfriendly and discouraging towards.

The system needs to be geared toward small domestic business, not big global multinationals.

If only all large corporations would treat their people the same as my friend treats his, we would have far less qualms about the abuses inherent to the system.

The New Kid - Wish Me Luck

2011-09-26T11:24:00.001-04:00

Click here to first to watch the one minute commericial: The New Kid - Late 80's McDonalds Advert, then come back and read below.

In response to yesterdays post's - Recession's Act Two & The Double Dip, a Naybob of Transport notes...

Good morning *********, or should I say Mr. Naybob

I always enjoy your nattering’s as depressing as they may be, and I agree with you most of the time.

I too feel that we are already in a second recession. If it looks, feels, smells and tastes like sh*t, there is a good chance it is, even if the Government wants to call it something else.

Anyway you cut it, it’s still sh*t, and Obama’s jobs bill is an utter joke as well. There is not one thing contained within it that would prompt me to hire someone that I wasn’t already going to hire anyway. Sure I’ll take the credits but they would be better off leaving as is.

When you use the terms Gutless and spineless, you are being way too nice in my opinion.

My personal net worth has dropped by more than 50% in the past 2.5 years, so forget about my prior plans for retirement.

I just might be that 90 year old man in the old McDonalds Commercials walking out the door in his new McDonalds Uniform walking to work on this first day on the job with his new employer, waiving to my wife with my cane saying “Wish Me Luck”.

I don’t know if you ever recall that commercial but it gave me nightmares. They were trying to recruit older folks that needed a little extra income, but to me it was a nightmare. A total failure of the system.

They tried to make it look like fun, you know get out of the house and be productive. I looked at it as work your ass off all your life and then what do you have to look forward to in your final days?

Wiping down tables at McDonalds, working with people that don’t even know how to count change unless they look at the picture buttons on the register and earn top dollars at minimum wage.

(The Nattering One muses... the next passage may seem racist, but it is just an observation of this individual.)

Stopping at McDonalds and observing who is working there is one of the many gauges I use to determine how bad the economy really is.

When the economy is bad, you will find mostly white people working there. When the economy is a little better you will see mostly white and some african american.

When it’s doing ok you will see a mix of african american and some hispanic. When the economy is humming along you will find hispanic supervisors, an almost all Hispanic work force...

with few african americans and virtually no whites unless of course you are in the middle of corn field USA. I have been observing this for years.

As you know, the majority of my employees are blue collar. I pay on the very high end of the scale but from what I see of these guys in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s are living check to check to check with no savings.

They have no skills other than driving, and they have no money. A nice flat screen TV, but no money.

Very few employers offer any sort of pension program and 401k’s have surely shown what can happen. It’s amazing how many people don’t even have a 401k.

The vast majority of our generation will be looking to Washington for handouts when they get older because they have not saved a penny, or we will be an economy of minimum wage geriatrics.

The meat wagons will be coming by daily to pick up the dead bodies as we drop like flies on the job from old age. “Wish me Luck”.

The Nattering One muses... Tonights offering for your acceptance, submitted for your approval....

Most often heard phrase at Walmart or McDonald's, often being uttered by an employee over the age of fifty...

"Welcome to Walmart, how can I help you?" ; "Would you like to Supersize that order?"

We have noted many a time in these pages about the new world disorder in which one is expected to work till they die...

This is why UNIONS are a necessary evil, TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL against the profit motive AKA GREED, and no Gordon Gecko, greed is NOT good.

Workers must unite in all industries and at all levels, to prevent management from abusing the populace under the profit motive and outsourcing to labor at the margin.

Unchecked and left to their own devices, management will ALWAYS abuse the rights of the individual in favor of the capitalist creed.

What part of FOR PROFIT, did you NOT understand?

We defer to the Grass Roots song "Live for Today":

When I think of all the worries people seem to find
And how they're in a hurry to complicate their mind
By chasing after money and dreams that can't come true
I'm glad that we are different, we've better things to do
May others plan their future, I'm busy lovin' you (1-2-3-4)
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today
And don't worry 'bout tomorrow, hey, hey, hey

This is also why PENSION plans, public and private MUST exist. Left to their own devices, individuals will NOT plan for the future.

Again, individuals as a group can muster better placement, control and return's on their nesteggs.

Individual 401K's are nothing more than a Wall Street broker scam to make more managment fees off the individual.

Remember PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL and UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. There is power in numbers, NOW is the time to "come together right now".

Recessions Act Two

2011-09-24T17:31:00.000-04:00

Recession's second act would be worse than the first

By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer

Fresh evidence of a global economic slowdown has raised fears that governments around the world may be powerless to reverse it. If the world does fall into back into recession, it could be much harder to escape than the contraction that ended in 2009.

With banks still recovering from a decade-long credit bubble, governments slashing spending to cope with unsustainable debt, and unemployment at levels not seen in decades, a new recession would be “disastrous,” according to Roger Altman, a senior Treasury official in the Clinton administration.

“We could be in for a repeat of the experience of 1937, when America fell back into recession after three years of recovery from the Great Depression,” he wrote in the Financial Times.

Altman was referring to the fact the global downturn of the 1930s technically included two U.S. recessions, from 1929 to 1933 and again from 1937 to 1938. U.S. unemployment peaked at over 20 percent in the 1930s, according to historical estimates, and did not decline significantly until factories began gearing up for World War II.

Two years after the latest U.S. recession technically ended, evidence continues to build that the weak recovery is stalling out. The U.S. economy stopped producing new jobs in August after a string of mostly meager monthly job gains that failed to bring the unemployment rate below 9 percent.

On Thursday, fresh data showed the Eurozone's service sector contracting for the first time in two years; a separate index of the manufacturing sector, which has provided much of the region’s growth, slowed for the second month in a row.

A global stock sell-off that dragged market indices to their lowest level of the year spread to the U.S., where the Dow Jones industrial average was down nearly 400 points.

Until recently, there were hopes that emerging economies in places like China and Brazil could prop up global growth until a stronger recovery took hold elsewhere. But China’s two biggest export markets -- Europe and the United States -- are struggling, and that has cut into demand for Chinese goods. A report out Thursday showed that China’s factories slowed for the third month in a row.

"There is a global slowdown,” Jeavon Lolay, head of global research at Lloyds Banking Group, told Reuters. “There is no doubt the risks of a global recession have grown."

That’s also the opinion of Federal Reserve policymakers, who said Wednesday they saw "significant downside risks" to the U.S. economy after deciding to launch an unusual program of reshuffling $400 billion in Treasury holdings to try to push interest rates lower.

But with interest rates already at record lows, few expect the program to do much to increase the demand for loans. Businesses face weak demand for their products and services and consumers are continuing to work to pay down their debts. Though mortgage rates remain at record lows, millions of homeowners are unable to refinance their higher rate loans because they owe more than their home is worth.

Some analysts argue that the Fed’s latest move (dubbed Operation Twist because it “twists” the relationship between short- and long-term rates), will hurt economic growth because it will squeeze bank profits and lower the income consumers earn on their savings. Public and private pension funds, already under strain, will be even more badly underfunded because they’ll have to set aside more money to generate the same amount of cash to pay retiree benefits.

“In a couple of weeks (Operation Twist) will be a subject for economic history, and the main discussion will be that the Fed is grasping at straws,” former Fed governor William Poole told CNBC. “I think that they have thrown lead into the life preserver, and they are sinking.”

‘Slow motion train crash’

European central bankers appear increasingly unable to contain a widening banking crisis, sparked by the threat of bond defaults in Greece and Italy, Europe’s third-largest economy.

The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that Europe and the United States could slip back into recession next year without bold action

"We are seeing a slow-motion train crash in the euro area, where credit contraction risks leading to a new recession by Christmas unless governments face up to the task swiftly and forcefully," Martin Enlund, market strategist at the Swedish bank Handelsbanken told Reuters.

Policymakers in China, the world’s third largest economy behind the U.S. and EU, face their own set of tough choices. Rapid growth rate has fueled inflation that is running at a double-digit rate, according to analysts -- much higher than official targets. To contain inflation, Beijing has raised interest rates five times and lifted banks' reserve requirements nine times since October. If it clamps down too hard, though, a deeper economic slowdown could reverse China's efforts to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

China is also coping with a banking hangover of its own, after years of massive government lending for expansion of state-owned enterprises an infrastructure upgrades.

"There is a two-tier system within China and I think the lending that's taking place and the percentage of nonperforming loans is now at a level that is disturbing," David McAlvany, chief executive at McAlvany Financial Group told CNBC. "Ultimately, (China's banks) will have to see some comeuppance."

Recessions Act Two

The Double Dip

2011-09-24T17:26:00.002-04:00

The Nattering One muses... long ago in these pages we predicted the double dip.

We keep hearing all these stories about recovery from the pollyannas we know. We quip, what recovery?

The markets are jury rigged and contrived, witnessed by the stock market level and real estate prices being completely false.

As stated before, the equation is simple...

Bail out all you like... until real durable economic jobs are created domestically, there shall be no recovery.

We differ with Mr. Altman in only one aspect, inflation is anything but negligible and tame.

Much like the guvmints unemployment number at 9%, the inflation number at 3% is missing something... the truthful number one in front of it.

19% and 13% would be accurate numbers for unemployment and inflation respectively.

In Greece it's reported that something like 50% of ALL jobs are Government or Government related. Outside of tourism and olive oil they produce NOTHING.

Greece have been in technical default fo something like 100 of the last 150 years. They have no industry that exists anymore that they can even tax to make it look as if they are even trying.

We have institutionalized and fed a dysfunctional and corrupt, gluttonous, slothful, over-paid and under-performing Government for decades. WE ARE GREECE.

We have stated many times that globalization and outsourcing to labor at the margin are nothing more than euphemisms for global corporate rape and pillage.

This is what happens when the special interest lobbyists run everything, and our government is no longer for the people and by the people, but for the corporations and by the rich upper 2%....

you outsource everything and turn to globalization, you wind up with a soft non durable service based economy...

dependent on the largess of others to patronize you with loans and tourism.

We can't come to a budget deal because the layers of corruption overlap on so many levels, and we have no national will to self-correct.

Everything is broken, and the leadership we've elected whether they be Republican, Democrat, Tea Party, Libertarian or Independent...

are just spine-less jellyfish and pawns of groups that don't want to compromise on anything that they have control over.

It's a total catastrophe, a failure of epic proportion. We have failed at every level, Main Street, Wall Street, The Financial System, everybody and every institution is corrupt and lazy.

As Jonathan E.(James Caan) said in the original Rollerball: "It's like people had a choice a long time ago between having all them nice things or freedom. Of course, they chose comfort."

Bartholomew (John Houseman): "The game was created to demonstrate the futility of individual effort."

"Corporate society takes care of everything. And all it asks of anyone, all it's ever asked of anyone ever, is not to interfere with management decisions."

There are no heroes. We're just spineless sputem of our forefathers and we've squandered the whole deal.

Ladies and gentlemen, will you stand please for the playing of our Corporate Hymn.

America and Europe are on the verge of disastrous recession

Roger Altman

September 21, 2011

Interest rates on US, German and UK government bonds have fallen to all-time lows. Yields on 10-year US Treasury securities, for example, are below two per cent.

That is the lowest recorded since the Federal Reserve began publishing market data in 1953.

In addition, yields on the inflation-protected 10-year Treasuries are zero. These are nearly incomprehensible levels whose implications are profoundly negative. Namely that Tuesday’s International Monetary Fund report is quite correct to warn that America and Europe are on the verge of renewed recession.

It is only the anticipation of negligible demand for capital and negligible inflation ‑ both hallmarks of recession ‑ that could drive rates this low. For the American and western European economies to decline again, when unemployment levels are already so high, would be disastrous.

It would shock consumers, businesses and financial markets. Fearful, they would retrench further, causing the economic decline to accelerate. Weak labour markets would get even worse, as would the already swollen government deficits and debt.

Overall, we could be in for a repeat of the experience of 1937, when America fell back into recession after three years of recovery from the Great Depression.

How do we know that another recession is approaching? For starters, there is no other credible explanation for the relentless fall in interest rates.

Yes, monetary policy is on maximum ease and that controls short-term rates. Safe haven psychology also is at work. However, these cannot explain such low yields on longer-term government and corporate bonds.

Further, bond markets usually signal recession through an inverted yield curve, when long-term rates are lower than short-term ones. Technically, this is impossible now, as short-term rates are zero. But, the recent movement in long-term rates is the equivalent.

Moreover, recent US and European economic data conveys serious weakness. US household net worth has begun to fall again, and jobless claims have been rising for several weeks.

Retail sales are flat and consumer confidence is hovering around modern lows. Onshore corporate liquidity has reached a record $13,000bn, which signals that businesses are uncertain over the outlook.

Across the Atlantic, the trend is also poor. Neither Germany nor France grew in the second quarter. Household consumption in the eurozone actually fell during that period.

Moreover, the European Commission is forecasting only 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent growth across the region for the third and fourth quarter respectively. The worsening of the sovereign debt crisis surely means that actual results will be worse.

It is the debilitating sovereign debt crisis in Europe that is pushing both regions back towards the brink. It is causing credit conditions to tighten again for sovereign credits, weaker borrowers and small and mid-sized business. It also is suppressing consumer and business confidence and the export outlook.

The never-ending nature of this crisis was avoidable. At every opportunity Europe’s leaders have delayed, taken the tiniest steps possible and generally averted their eyes to the elephants in the room.

Yes, everyone knows that the country-by-country politics are difficult, starting with Germany. But the risk of another Lehman-like market collapse and subsequent economic contraction is huge.

Faced with this, European leaders must confront the politics. Instead, their grudging incrementalism is deepening the risks. Implicitly, this was the message behind Treasury Secretary Geithner’s presence in Poland last week.

A single currency representing 17 separate nations inevitably requires a unified balance sheet behind it and, following that, a form of fiscal union. The time for denying the latter is over.

The European financial stability facility must be enlarged exponentially so that it can stand behind nations such as Italy or Spain. In addition, the mandate of the European Central Bank must be expanded.

Just like the Federal Reserve, it should be responsible for maintaining a sound banking system and stable capital markets. This requires a permanent capacity to finance banks directly, just as a group of central banks did last week.

It also requires the flexibility to buy and sell sovereign debt securities in secondary markets. These reforms must be accompanied by tighter, eurozone-wide bank regulation and supervision.

It also requires IMF-like conditionality to accompany direct EFSF loans to member nations. Finally, the ECB should ease monetary policy now as there is no visible inflation risk.

America also must stop its own partisan bickering and undertake one last round of fiscal stimulus. The $447bn job-creation plan by President Obama, or another quick-acting plan of similar magnitude, should be enacted immediately. The Fed should also initiate further moves to promote credit availability and lending.

Another recession would be profoundly damaging to labour markets and public confidence. It would take years to fully overcome.

We must try to avoid such an outcome at all costs. That requires the type of far-sighted leadership that we haven’t seen much of lately.

The writer is founder and chairman of Evercore Partners and former US deputy treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton.

Roger Altmans Financial Times Op-Ed (Registration Required)

The Big Default

2011-07-25T10:07:00.003-04:00

Shhh... pay no heed to the man behind the curtain...

Unless an agreement is reached by Aug 2nd, the US Treasury will run out of money to pay its bills.

Most likely, only defense contractors and social security payments would be delayed.

However, in the event an actual default occurs, then a downgrade on US debt ratings will occur.

Those required to hold AAA rated securities must then liquidate non AAA assets.

The cascade created by this public/pension liquidation on CDO and CDS would be like Lehman Brothers 10X...

"The irony of the situation at the moment ... is that the biggest threat to the world financial system comes from a few right-wing nutters in the American Congress rather than the euro zone,"

British government minister Vince Cable said on Sunday.

The Nattering One muses... We warned in the past about this. Greece just got its second bailout package. Will Japan and China bail US out?

Read details here.

Part VIII: The War on Vox Populi

2011-05-09T10:01:00.002-04:00

The Nattering One muses... The chart above witnesses how jobs are being outsourced while our economy is expatriated.

Meanwhile the teabaggers are crafting the final solution for the new jews... homosexuals, immigrants, pensions, unions and public workers...

Quietly, those stealth whores on the hill have set it up so that their rich friends pay no tax while the working stiff gets screwed royally.

This is a classic parliamental misdirect in our governments "War on the Vox Populi" and "War on the Middle Class".

We refer to our tried and true axioms: Adam Smith's Urban Myth AKA: "There are NO free markets" and Globalism: "a euphemism for unfettered corporate rape and pillage"...

and add a new one from our "Ducky" friend: Rather than a revolution against "no taxation without representation"...

we need a new revolution against "representation for the ultra rich without taxation" and "taxation without representation" for everyone else.

...while Main Street Americans are having their services gutted and public investment is being slashed, some of the country’s most profitable corporations are getting away with paying little to nothing in taxes.

The amount of money that taxpayers are losing from the tax dodging by these major corporations is enormous.

For example, if five of the nation’s biggest banks paid their taxes at the full rate, we could re-hire every single one of the 132,000 teachers laid off during the recession — twice.

A new report by Public Campaign examines how these major corporations have influenced Congress to craft a tax code that lets them get away with making so much money and paying so little taxes in return.

In its report, “The Artful Dodgers,” Public Campaign juxtaposes the limited tax liability of dozen major corporations with the companies’ campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures, which amount to more than a billion dollars over the last decade:

EXXON MOBIL: The oil giant that was the world’s most profitable corporation in 2008 has spent $5.7 million in campaign contributions over the last ten years and $138 million in lobbying expenditures. Its federal corporate income tax liabilities for 2009? Absolutely nothing. Not only did it pay nothing, but it also received a tax rebate the same year of $156 million.

CHEVRON: Chevron spent $4.4 million in campaign contributions and $91 million in lobbying expenditures over the last decade. It received a tax refund of $19 million in 2009 while making $10 billion in profits and $324 million in government contracts in 2008.

CONOCOPHILLIPS: The Texas-based gasoline giant spent $2.5 million in campaign contributions and $63 million in lobbying expenditures over the last decade. It received “$451 million through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction,” a special tax break, between 2007 and 2009, despite $16 billion in profits over the same period of time.

VALERO ENERGY: Valero spent $4.1 million in campaign contributions and $4.8 million in lobbying expenditures from 2001 to 2010. It received a $157 million tax rebate in 2009 despite $68 billion in sales during the same year. It received “$134 million through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction” over the last three years.

BANK OF AMERICA: Bank of America employees contributed $11 million to federal political campaigns from 2001 to 2010 and spent $24 million lobbying over the same period of time. It made $4.4 billion in profits in 2010 while receiving a tax refund of $1.9 billion.

CITIGROUP: Citigroup employees contributed $15 million to federal political campaigns from 2001 to 2010 and spent $62 million lobbying over the same period of time. It made $4 billion in profits in 2010 while paying absolutely nothing in federal corporate income taxes. It also received a $1.9 billion tax refund.

GOLDMAN SACHS: The mega-bank Goldman Sachs, which is often called “Government Sachs” in insider circles because of its clout over Washington, spent $22 million in campaign contributions and $21 million in lobbying over the last decade. It paid an ultra-low tax rate of 1.1 percent in 2008, while also receiving $800 billion in government loans to help weather the financial crisis.

BOEING: The aviation and defense contractor giant gave $10 million in contributions and $115 million in lobbying expenditures over the last decade. It paid a grand total of nothing in federal corporate income taxes in 2010 and received a $124 million tax refund.

FEDEX: FedEx spent $8.7 million in campaign contributions and $71 million in lobbying expenditures from 2001 to 2010. It paid a .0005 percent effective tax rate recently, actually spending 42 times as much on lobbying Congress as it did paying taxes. To do this it utilizes 21 tax havens.

CARNIVAL: The cruise line paid $1.7 million in campaign contributions and $1.6 million in lobbying over the past ten years. Despite the relatively low amount of money it spent influencing Washington, it has gotten away with a super-low tax rate. Over the past five years, its federal corporate income tax rate has been an effective 1.1 percent.

VERIZON: Verizon spent $12 million in campaign contributions and $131 million in lobbying expenditures over the past decade. It paid absolutely nothing in federal corporate income taxes over the past two years and $488 million in government contracts in 2008; in 2010, it made $12 billion in profits.

GENERAL ELECTRIC: General Electric spent $13 million in campaign contributions and $205 million in lobbying expenditures over the last decade while netting a tax refund of $4.1 billion over the past five years. It made $26 billion in profits over the same time period.

See original text here.

Part VII: Rand Paul and Ayn Rand: Nothing in Common

2011-04-30T00:06:00.002-04:00

The Naybob of Realty, Not Reality, has done it again...

To Parts V & VI she replied... with a notice for the new Atlas Shrugged movie and a Rand Paul petition for "the Right to Work that Obama fears" with the comment:

"As I said before… I think you’re living around too many fossils who hang on to the experiences of yesteryear...

and days long gone by that don’t exist anymore… the killer of visionaries and entrepreneurs."

The Nattering One muses... If Rupert Murdoch is your visionary and Rand Paul is the saviour of your entrepreneurs...

by destroying the only thing standing between you and slavery...

that being unions and the existence of the right to negotiate for fair wages and decent working conditions.

then you are at best, hopeless, clueless and quite misinformed. But then again, you did vote for Shrub Jr. twice and that says it all.

FYI, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has many of its precepts lifted from the 1922 novel The Driver, written by Garet Garrett which concerns an idealized industrialist...

named Henry Galt, who is a transcontinental railway owner trying to improve the world and fighting against government and socialism. Sound familiar?

Both novels suggest pro-capitalist ways in which the country might get out of the depression. But in plot, character, tone, and theme they are very different.

The real purpose of Ayn Rand's book is to expouse the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.

The Conservative Teabaggers stain Ayn Rand's opus with their misinterpretation or "Fox News world perception" of John Galt's message that...

civilization cannot exist where men are slave to society and government.

This message is stained by perverting the idea put forth in the book, that the destruction of the profit motive leads to the collapse of society,

into a crusade of the FOR PROFIT corporation and Government by The Rich and for The Rich, trumping the individual and government by the people and for the people.

Again, for the conservative, Republican or teabagger, the following truth holds: unions, pensions, public workers, homosexuals and immigrants are the problem...

if you eliminate them, you eliminate the problem, this is the final solution to rid us of the NEW JEW.

Again, your misguided NAZI like efforts are due to your being easily misled, clueless, quite obviously misinformed and sadly...

this short (thumb and index finger held one inch apart) of being in a vegatative state or medically induced coma.

Verily your ideology is a shining testament to the phrases, "if you tell a big enough lie, enough times, people will believe it" and "there's a sucker born every minute".

Remember Naybob's of reality, do not drink the kool aid, remain one of the innoculati, and when the time comes, be merciful and aim for the head.

Part VI: Night of The Living Brain Dead

2011-04-23T00:06:00.002-04:00

Our Naybob of Realty has done it again... This week she sends a piece of tripe purported to be authored by Dr. Walter Williams titled..

Obama cannot be defeated in 2012. This tripe is attributed to Townhall.com...

however we cannot find any link between Townhall, Dr. Walter Williams and this piece of tripe that found our Inbox...

Never the less, The Nattering One muses...

Thanks for the inspiration from your unchecked Obama story... it spawned Part V: The Two Party System, I even mentioned you.

From your latest piece of tripe... something actually worthy... "The American people are notoriously ignorant" No statement could be truer.

This is how Bush got elected twice, by braindead flatliner idiots, in two rigged elections.... These are the same people who also believe...

in invisible men that live in the sky and a hereafter...

and that terrorists are on every corner...

and that religions other than their own are praying to the wrong god...

and that heathens and infidels should be put through the inquisition and crusades to be coverted or brainwashed..

and that immigrants, unions, public pensions and homosexuals are the problem...

who support globalization and outsourcing to labor at the margin...

who support avoidance of environmental requirements... so they can pollute and destroy at will, for profit...

who support greedy, two faced, corporations, bankers, finance and Wall Street rapists who were and still are allowed to run wild...

who now whine constantly about a President who happens to be black, and the world of shit we are in... because of their greed, hubris and poor choices...

who insist on cutting income taxes for the corporations and ultra rich, while raising consumption taxes on the ultra poor.. through Fed banker led inflation..

who insist on destroying unions, without which we would already be working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day...

without benefits or vacations, for below minimum wage, next to 14 year olds and prison laborers... Oh wait a minute, that's Walmart, I forgot....

Yes, the American people are generally ignorant, at least the 51% that voted for Bush are...

and those Republicans, conservatives or Tea baggers, Libertarians or Nazis or whatever they call themselves today...

are getting everything they so richly deserve, In SPADES... oh yes, now we are all at the mercy of the two party machine that is...

GOVERNMENT BY THE CORPORATIONS AND FOR THE RICH...

From those of us who have a brain, and a brain wave, and can still think rationally... WE THANK YOU. No really, we do....

Do the rest of us a favor, start praying to your imaginary friends in the sky... for a merciful and quick death, your own that is.

with no right to organize, no right to bargain, it sounds like slavery is making a comeback...

I do hope those rich aristocrats will be more tolerant than our founding fathers were.. or at least our Communist Chinese overlords.

Oh that's right, you can shit in one hand and pray with the other... see what you get first. In fact, see what you get period.

So much for your higher power and prophets... its not "for prophet", its "for PROFIT", what part did you not understand???

Help us Zeus, Apollo, Mohammad, Jesus, Buddha, Shiva, Satan or what was his/her/it's name anyway? I prefer those who pray to totem and May poles myself....

at any rate, in closing we offer Claire Wolfe... "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."

Oh no Claire, we beg to differ, time to start loading up and taking aim, before its too late for the rest of us...

that are still in possession of our minds and guns that is. And remember...

the brain dead Zombies in this horror story, can only be killed one at a time, by a clean shot to the head.

Take that you pack of whining braindead pod people, standup and kick yourself in the ass, you know who you are.

Part V: The Two Party System

2011-04-16T00:05:00.001-04:00

A Naybob of Realty, not Reality send an email regarding...

Obama signing an executive order to loan 2 Billion of our taxpayers dollars to a Brazilian Oil Exploration Company to drill for oil off the coast of Brazil.

The oil that comes from this operation is for the sole purpose and use of China and not the USA.

Later UN-fact checked email is exposed as the product of Rupert Murdoch's disinformation machine.

In the initial email this misguided Naybob states...

"This is a perfect example why many refrain from watching news on ABC, NBC, CBS, or MSNBC. Thank God for Fox News and Glenn Beck!"

The Nattering One muses... This is why you will never know the truth.

Pravda and Goebbels were more fair and balanced than Fox news.

Why do you think FOX trademarked the phrase, fair and balanced?

Besides, the Republican illuminati, which by the way, are the same people running the Democratic party,

i.e. THE RICH UPPER 2% which include Rupert Murdoch... George Soros, etc. do not want you or the public to know the truth.

These people have only one interest at heart, their money, keeping it and expanding their power base by taking whatever they can from you and I, legally or illegally.

REPUBLICANS - FAT GREEDY ELEPHANTS

Republicans want you to believe that smaller government, laissez faire economics, fiscal conservatism and trickle down economics with less taxation is better.

The theory goes that reduced income tax rates increase GDP growth and thereby generate the same or more revenue for the government from the smaller tax on the extra growth.

This belief is reflected, in part, by the party's long-term advocacy of tax cuts.

Many Republicans consider the income tax system to be inherently inefficient and oppose graduated tax rates, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth.

Republicans tend to favor faith-based initiatives. They believe private spending is usually more efficient than government spending.

Republicans also believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor than government is; as a result, Republicans support giving government grants to faith-based and other private charitable organizations to supplant welfare spending.

Republicans also oppose the estate tax which is viewed as another penalty on the wealthy.

Republicans are opposed to increases in the minimum wage, believing that such increases hurt many businesses by forcing them to cut jobs and services, export jobs overseas, and raise the prices of goods to compensate for the decrease in profit.

Most Republicans support school choice through charter schools and school vouchers for private schools; many have denounced the performance of the public school system and the teachers' unions.

They are generally against affirmative action for women and some minorities often describing it as a quota system.

Some Republicans are skeptical of anthropogenic global warming and question scientific studies on the impact of human activity on climate change.

Instead, they assert that global warming is part of a natural cyclical phenomenon, or is caused by a number of other alternative factors.

DEMOCRATS - AN ASS BY ANY OTHER NAME

The Democratic party has historically favored states' rights and strict adherence to the Constitution; and at its inception, opposed a national bank and wealthy, moneyed interests.

In the past, the party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities and has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes.

Democrats favor a higher minimum wage, and more regular increases.

Democrats have opposed tax cuts and incentives to oil companies, favoring a policy of developing domestic renewable energy.

Democrats generally support a more progressive tax structure to provide more services and reduce economic inequality.

Democrats generally support more government spending on social services while spending less on the military.

Democrats believe that the government should protect the environment, the most important environmental concern of the Democratic Party is global warming.

Most Democrats have the long-term aim of having low-cost, publicly funded college education with low tuition fees, which should be available to every eligible American student.

The liberal and cosmopolitan wing of the party, including the intelligentsia and college-educated professionals overall, tend to favor globalization, while the organized labor wing of the party opposes it.

The Democratic Party supports equal opportunity for all Americans regardless of sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, or national origin. The Party supports affirmative action programs to further this goal.

Some members of both parties favor civil unions for same-sex couples, others favor full and equal legalized marriage, and others are opposed to same-sex marriage on religious or ideological grounds.

Most members of the Democratic Party believe that all women should have access to birth control, and support public funding of contraception for poor women.

Democrats want you to believe that the benefits or redistribution of wealth through increased social services, in monetary and non-monetary terms, are a more productive labor force and cultured population...

and believe that the benefits of this are greater than any benefits that could be derived from lower taxes, especially on top earners, or cuts to social services.

The Nattering One muses... Aside from some obvious differences in dogma...

when it comes to maintaining special interests in banking, finance, globalization, health care insurance, pharmaceutical and big oil, over the last 30 years the Democrats have voted on the same side as the Republicans.

Whats mine is mine and what's yours is mine, and if you don't like it, fuck you. This is the Republican mantra.

Whats mine is mine and what's yours is ours, and if you don't like it, fuck you. This is the Democratic mantra.

These policies are being furthered by a system bound in senseless term limits and seeming political gridlock.

The two party system is certainly better, for the corporations, insurance, banking, finance and the ultra rich, and that's the way they like it.

This is government by the rich and for the rich, not by the people or for the people.

Those that control it will do anything to keep the masses at bay, up to and including using economic, religious, racial, ethnic...

gender, sexual persuasion and political dogma to create race and class wars amongst those below them in monetary stature.

Through political divisiveness they conquer by creating fanaticism and tyranny, both of which are the spawn of ignorance, which they strive to preserve at all costs.

Reductions in educational spending as a result in tax cutting were just the start of the dumbing down of America.

And any political body that supports this platform will be supported by the blue blooded elites and their ideological MBA educated lackeys.

The two party system keeps those in control, in control, and affords the illusion or delusion of democracy or choice to the ignorant masses whom are enslaved by it.

Those who are hailed as saviour's, such as Donald Trump, George Soros, Rupert Murdoch et al. are really your jailer's.

Think about it for a minute, those with the money and power, want to keep it that way.

Why not turn the mindless masses against one another through devisiveness? It's really quite easy to do you know.

Just tell one side that the other side said, their god isn't the real god, then stand back and see what happens...

while you sell weapons to both sides and profit, and they kill each other off. Now thats what I call easy money.

Naybob's rule #1: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.
Naybob's rule #2: Never forget rule #1.

Part IV - The 401K Shortfall or Work Till You Die

2011-04-03T12:29:00.002-04:00

The median household headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account...

has less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to maintain its standard of living in retirement…

according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve and analyzed by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College for The Wall Street Journal.

The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn't a pretty sight. Welcome to WalMart World, where “work till you die” is our motto.

In this WalMart World (outsourced, prison and child labor, minimum wage, no benefits, no vacation, no pension) that we live in…

the private sector has already weaseled out, now, the public sector follows, leaving the faithful employee standing alone...

holding a sack of what filled up the other hand, and where the wishes of “golden years” were not.

The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.

This story is about what happens to most people who rely on 401k's. In general, people facing problems today got too little advice, or bad advice.

They didn't realize that a 6% annual contribution, with a 3% company match, might not be enough.

However, 401K’s have been a gold mine for money-management firms.

In 30 years, the 401(k) went from a small program to a multi-trillion-dollar industry supporting thousands of financial planners and money managers.

The Nattering One muses... The sad thing is, the people trying to take away pensions from today’s workers...

are the very people that have benefited from pensions in the first place, retired pensioners that have gone into public service.

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore… or constructive pension reform to put a halt to system abuses is one thing.

Destructive, hack and slash, wholesale abandonment, as in, we got ours, and screw you and yours, is not a solution.

I hope that there are still some smart people in the right places who realize the truth is out there. Maybe your reading this right now…

Click here for the full WALL STREET JOURNAL article.

More to come in Part V

Part III - Why 401K's are NOT the Solution

2011-03-26T16:24:00.003-04:00

So, the state of Utah has been putting insufficient money into its pension plan? and now there isn’t enough money there to meet upcoming liabilities.

And the solution here is for the state, in future, to contribute “roughly half” of what it’s been spending up until now in pension contributions.

Needless to say, this makes no sense on either front.

The liability to existing workers doesn’t go away if a different plan is adopted for new workers, so the problems at the pension plan aren’t being addressed.

On top of that, it’s hard to see how contributing much less to new workers’ retirement is going to help them at all, either.

From a pensions perspective, there’s no winner at all: the only entity better off is the state, from a cashflow perspective.

401(k) plans are a bad deal for taxpayers.

Dollar for dollar, a traditional pension plan yields more pension benefits than do 401(k) plans because 401(k) management and investment fees are three times higher.

The only clear winners when pensions switch over to the 401(k) plans are brokers and bankers…

The unintended effect of widespread 401(k) plans is more volatility. In contrast to traditional pensions and Social Security, 401(k) plans fuel bubbles and make recessions worse.

When the economy is booming, 401(k) plan asset values soar, making people spend more and work less. Not what you want in an expansion.

Worse, when the economy plummets and takes 401(k) assets with it, people do the opposite; they cling to the labor market and rein in spending – again, two things you don’t want in a recession.

For rich professionals who jump from job to job every few years, 401(k) plans do make a certain amount of sense.

For public servants spending a lifetime in the police force or in elementary schools, by contrast, they emphatically don’t.

Click herefor the full text.

Part II - The Overblown Crisis and The Contract

2011-03-20T13:35:00.003-04:00

The redistribution of wealth…

Last year, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) decided to forgoe the $3 billion annual state contribution to the pension plan while pushing $1 billion in tax cuts for the state's wealthiest citizens.

Meanwhile, Christie's budget for fiscal 2012 includes $200 million in corporate tax cuts, with plans to increase those cuts to $690 million a year by 2016, along with $180 million in 2012 tax cuts for homeowners.

It's a fairly straightforward proposition: Christie is taking money from public workers and giving much of it to corporations, cloaking the transfer of wealth in the language of fiscal responsibility.

A gross distortion…

As it stands, pension contributions appear to have a relatively small impact on state budgets. "They have time to make adjustments," said Keith Brainard, research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. "The idea of imminent insolvency is a gross distortion."

Despite major standoffs between conservative governments and labor unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Florida, these states' pension plans are all on strong footing, even given disastrous economic conditions.

Wisconsin and Ohio were each cited in a 2010 study by the Pew Center for the States as "a national leader in managing ... long-term liabilities for both pensions and retiree health care."

Florida was cited by the same report as a "top performer" for its pension fund.

After the massive 2008-2009 House of Finance Bailout…

In early 2010, Goldman Sachs announced two blockbuster numbers: profits of $13.4 billion for the prior year and compensation of $16.2 billion -- the equivalent of about $500,000 for each employee at the Wall Street titan.

When news of Goldmanesque bonuses first sparked public outrage, both Wall Street and the White House combated the criticism with a persistent argument:

Yes, it might be deeply frustrating to see taxpayer dollars used to further enrich already wealthy bankers, but these bonus deals were were contractual obligations and America is a nation of laws.

Not so sacrosanct anymore…

Now, with state leaders planning pay cuts for teachers, firefighters and other public workers, contracts aren't described as so sacrosanct anymore.

In Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Florida and New Jersey, Republicans swept into power last year by voters outraged about ongoing economic distress are now targeting benefits for pensioners...

hiking taxes for employees who will one day receive a pension and, in Wisconsin, even trying to eliminate the right for public employees to collectively bargain for a pension.

Pensions, needless to say, are, like some Wall Street bonuses, contractual obligations. They're deferred compensation that formed the basis for years or, in some cases, decades of work already performed.

Bonus This…

The average annual pension for government workers is roughly $19,500 a year, according to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the nation's largest labor unions.

That would mean $500,000 could provide about 25 years worth of payouts to a retired public servant.

The $9 million bonus Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein received for 2009 could have provided two decades of pension pay for 23 such public workers.

"These people would never invest all of their own money in Treasury bonds alone, yet they expect pensions to plan as if they did," says EPI's Morrissey.

"They're resorting to accounting gimmicks to make the hole look a lot bigger than it really is. The reality is that contributions can be adjusted very gradually because there isn't any immediate cash-flow problem."

The Contract…

The employer has to figure a way to have the little guys who make their companies run profitably, not live in poverty during their golden years.

The compact or contract between employer and faithful employee has been broken.

Gone are the days when the employer (private or public sector) would match or contribute to the faithful employee’s pension plan.

Gone are the days where if the employee dedicated their career and life towards the advancement of the corporation or city, they would receive a just reward for their diligence and perseverance in the form of a pension.

Thanks for 30 years....

tough break on your little 401k when the market crashed, but the burden is all on the employee and none on the employer.

401k's as a stand alone are another way to fatten corporate/finance America's pockets at the expense of the little guy.

Click here to read the full text.

Part One - The Shameful Attack and Truth

2011-03-12T10:50:00.003-05:00

The Nattering One Muses...Rather than place blame, directly were it belongs, with the politicians responsible for the House of Finances ascendancy over the last thirty years...

and the rich blue blood fatcats that got them elected in order to rape and pillage globally along with their globalization (new world disorder) plans...

along with the greed and hubris of Wall Street, real estate, bankers and financial criminals who brought us the house of cards or shit we now live in...

Public servants are convenient scapegoats.

It's far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public work -- sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees -- to call them "faceless bureaucrats" and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets.

Public employees earn far more than private-sector workers?

That's untrue when you take account of level of education. Matched by education, public sector workers actually earn less than their private-sector counterparts.

Only 23 percent of private-sector employees have college degrees; 48 percent of government workers do.

Over the last fifteen years the pay of public sector workers has dropped relative to private-sector employees with the same level of education.

Public sector workers now earn 11 percent less than comparable workers in the private sector, and local workers 12 percent less.

Even if you include health and retirement benefits, government employees still earn less than their private-sector counterparts with similar educations.

Public-sector pensions are crippling the nation? Public-employee pensions obligations are out of control?

Some reforms do need to be made. Loopholes that allow public sector workers to "spike" their final salaries in order to get higher annuities must be closed. And no retired public employee should be allowed to "double dip," collecting more than one public pension.

But these are the rare exceptions of ABUSERS. Most public employees don't ABUSE and do not have generous pensions.

After a career with annual pay averaging less than $45,000, the typical newly-retired public employee receives a pension of $19,000 a year. Few would call that overly generous.

And most of that $19,000 isn't even on taxpayers' shoulders. While they're working, most public employees contribute a portion of their salaries into their pension plans.

Taxpayers are directly responsible for only about 14 percent of public retirement benefits.

Bargaining rights for public employees have caused state deficits to explode?

Some states that deny their employees bargaining rights -- Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona, for example, are running giant deficits of over 30 percent of spending.

Many that give employees bargaining rights -- Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Montana -- have small deficits of less than 10 percent.

Public employees often know more about whether public programs are working, or how to make them work better, than political appointees who hold their offices for only a few years.

This version of class warfare is to pit private-sector workers against public servants.

The ruling class would rather set average working people against one another -- comparing one group's modest incomes and benefits with another group's modest incomes and benefits -- than have Americans see that the top 1 percent is now raking in a bigger share of national income than at any time since 1928, and paying at a lower tax rate.

Shameful indeed.

More to come in this FOUR PART series.

Click this link to read the full text of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s op-ed.

The Nattering One Muses... Lazarus has arisen, rise and tell others...

We need to school some liberal left wing Democrats and conservative right wing Republicans.

We won't mention anyone else calling themselves tea baggers, because calling a Ex-Democrat - a Libertarian, or a Ex-Republican - a Tea Party member, is like calling a Ex Nazi - a Socialistic Swastika Lover.

Warm and fuzzy, isn't it? Tell that to the six million Jews that were gassed and turned into ashes.

Your political camouflage is a thin cheap veneer, and deep down, you know what you are, and you can't handle the truth.

The truth being, you can't change your spots or stripes and hide from the Nattering One or anyone with an ounce of common sense.

We of the COMMON SENSE party call BULLSHIT and SHAME on all of you... and like the hunters we are, we will expose you through your words and actions.

Why Privatization IS a BAD Idea

2010-10-16T17:49:00.002-04:00

The Cape Council have been entertaining privatization notions of late.

Excerpts from a recent Newsweek Report follow...

There is no substitute for water...Most of us would probably agree that water is too precious for anybody to own.

But the rights to divert water—from a river or lake or underground aquifer—are indeed sellable commodities; so too are the plants and pipes that process that water and deliver it to our taps.

Markets don’t care about the environment, And they don’t care about human rights. They care about profit.

Privately owned water utilities will charge what the market can bear, and spend as little as they can get away with on maintenance and environmental protection.

Private operators often reduce the workforce, neglect water conservation, and shift the cost of environmental violations onto the city.

In the late 1990s the World Bank infamously required scores of impoverished countries—most notably Bolivia—to privatize their water supplies as a condition of desperately needed economic assistance.

The hope was that markets would eliminate corruption and big multinationals would invest the resources needed to bring more water to more people.

By 2000, Bolivian citizens had taken to the streets in a string of violent protests.

Bechtel—the multinational corporation that had leased their pipes and plants—had more than doubled water rates, leaving tens of thousands of Bolivians who couldn’t pay without any water whatsoever.

The company said price hikes were needed to repair and expand the dilapidated infrastructure. Critics insisted they served only to maintain unrealistic profit margins.

Either way, the rioters sent the companies packing; by 2001, the public utility had resumed control.

Private water companies usually have very little incentive to encourage conservation; after all, when water use falls, revenue declines.

In 2005 a second Bolivian riot erupted when another private water company raised rates beyond what average people could afford.

Even as many U.S. cities look toward ceding their water infrastructure to private interests, others are waging expensive legal battles to get out of such contracts.

In 2009 Camden, N.J., sued United Water (an American subsidiary of the French giant Suez) for $29 million in unapproved payments, high unaccounted-for water losses, poor maintenance, and service disruptions.

In Milwaukee a state audit found that the same company violated its contract by shutting down sewage pumps to save money; the move resulted in billions of gallons of raw sewage spilling into Lake Michigan.

And in Gary, Ind., which canceled its contract with United Water after 12 years, critics say privatization more than doubled annual operating costs.

It ends up being a roundabout way to tax people, Only it’s worse than a tax because they don’t spend the money maintaining the system.

The Nattering One muses... Privatizing overpaid city hall executive management is one thing...

However, privatizing the Cape's most valuable resource, its water production, distribution and reclamation, is quite another.

Losing control over the taxpayers most valuable resource, has been, is and always shall be, a fatal mistake.

Gentlemen, you would do well to take heed, as this regrettable mistake, oft made by the misinformed, is quite avoidable.

The Race to Buy Up the Worlds Water.

Sans Souci Bay: Too Good To Be True?

2010-06-14T10:37:00.004-04:00

Much has been made of the recent council decision to vote the Sans Souci Bay project down.

Our council elected to decline, despite a very enticing offer from the developer...

which could have paid for all city infrastructure costs (est. $6 million) to support the project.

On the surface, the offer seemed almost too good to be true, and that's because it was.

Skeletons in the closet or flys in the ointment:

1. If a PDP is approved (including the RD zoning) and if "substantial construction" is NOT "commenced" within two years of project approval the PDP would become null and void.

However, any rezoning; vacation(s) of plat; or variances approved during the PDP shall remain in full force and effect.

In other words, if after receiving the PDP, the property were flipped or resold, the new owner would then be...

completely free, without question, to exercise any and all of the unfettered provisions of the RD zoning district.

2. Over 60% of the Sans Souci Bay site already lies within the CHHA (Coastal High Hazard Area).

It is known that the National Hurricane Center is currently reviewing the CHHA and the boundary delineating the CHHA will be elevated a minimum of one foot...

and possibly as much as two feet... the affect will be to move the boundary inland to include most it not all of the Sans Souci site.

The Nattering One muses... A hypothetical... I bought this swamp land and I know that all of the parcel will soon be in the CHHA.

But, if I get the city to grant me variances under the PDP, I can flip it to an unsuspecting investor at a much higher price.

Granted the new owner will be able to exercise all of the variances within the PDP, but the impending CHHA re designation would severely cut into the market value.

So if I make the city an offer they CAN'T REFUSE, as in we will break ground within 60 days and pay for ALL CITY EXPENSES and INFRASTRUCTURE...

we can expedite this little land scam at a nice profit, and never actually break ground.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Hat tip and Holla out to our man at City Hall, Paco... Orale ese vato!

FDIC, Lee County, Kalifornia, It's All Greek To Me

2010-02-21T10:42:00.006-05:00

FDIC just liquidated all their Lee county FLA commercial properties, in "take it or leave it" blocks of 50...

a block including hotels and restaurants in Cape Coral was bought by a California investment LLC.

There's another group of investors, thinking they scooped a bargain, that will get pancaked on the next down leg...

FDIC SW FLA regional have notified their local contractors that their final day of employment is May 26th...

In other words, they will liquidate all their remaining residential properties in the next 90 days.

The fire sale is occuring because FDIC have exhausted their $65 billion reserve and are now quietly borrowing Treasury money to stay afloat.

Meanwhile, Lee county courts are backed up with 23,000 foreclosures that have YET to hit the GHOST inventory.

Now we just need one more downdraft to create a major bank failure and thats all she wrote for the FDIC safety net.

Last week’s chilly reception to the Treasury’s 10 & 30 year auctions... served as a catalyst for the recent rise in rates.

The Fed surprised the market Thursday by raising the discount rate to 0.75% from 0.5%, the first RAISE in over three years!

If Greece's 5 billion Euro 10 year note test offering is not well accepted, this would raise fears of Greek insolvency...

then European leaders could be forced into some form of direct bailout. The threat of one default setting off a wave of defaults...

as scared markets would demand higher rates, would push many of the weak Southern European economies into imminent default.

Just waiting for the chaos to hit the street (Wall) again.... stay tuned as California makes matters worse by defaulting on its debt in May...

The California legislature have not shown the will to take the pain of accepting austerity spending cuts...

The shockwaves of the 7th largest economic entity going BK will make Greece's debt crisis and the plunging Euro look like nothing...

The Nattering One muses... Can you say, global panic and a second credit market freeze? I can...

Don't Build It and They Won't Come

2010-02-16T13:58:00.005-05:00

A Nattering exclusive, regarding the biosolids project featured on NBC last week.

Tip o the hat to our inside sources, especially PACO at City Hall.

1. Who sez they don’t run this town? The city needs a full set of the building, electrical, mechanical, etc. specifications as drawn up by MWH.

These are specifications, which would have resulted from the $4 Million est. in engineering fees already paid to MWH for the CC11 project.

Until they are officially eliminated by the city from the bid process, MWH refuses to hand over a set of the plans to the city on a project, which the city has paid $20 million to date. Funny how that works.

2. Anti Trust. In addition, until MWH are eliminated from the bid process, Andritz (equipment manufacturer) and Haskell (contractor) cannot bid on the project as neither wish to damage their business relationship with MWH by directly competing.

3. The Book of Mark Up. On the last open bid, MWH have placed a bid of $26 million, of which their subs bid $14 million to complete a new structure and install the new equipment.

This means that $12 million of profit margin has been tacked on by the manager “at risk”. At the peak of the construction boom, Bonita Springs built a facility half the size, for under $5 million.

The city can easily manage the project and build this building for under $14 million, probably closer to $10 million.

4. The Book of Mark Up II. The city has already spent $20 million on engineering fees and new equipment for the new revenue generating process, which requires a new building.

The new equipment would have cost under $10 million had it been purchased directly from Andritz. However, the manager “at risk” tacked on $4 to $6 million in profit margin and $4 million in engineering fees.

5. To be or NOT to be. If the city opts NOT to build a new building, then the $16 million in equipment would be sold, for pennies on the dollar, resulting in a net $19 million loss.

Oh, by the way, as for the equipment sitting and rusting, there was a factory acceptance test late last year, for ANOTHER 28 pallets of equipment YET to be shipped to the city.

6. Die Hard. The existing building and equipment have NOT had a major expenditure in over 17 years. The law of averages is overdue to bite the city with a major failure on this existing system.

7. Die Hard II. It will cost $5 to $7 million to repair and bring the existing biosolids system up to snuff.

This update will NOT add new process and the associated revenue streams that the new equipment and construction of a new building would provide.

8. New revenue streams: These would come from acceptance from other municipalities, and processing of liquid sludge and cake sludge into solid pellets. The solid pellets could be sold at a profit, as fertilizer or soil amendment.

Cape Coral could become a regional sludge waste center, this would be looked upon favorably by the county, state and federal government. This could open up possibilities for future grants or low interest loans.

9. Cost vs Revenue: Current annual cost to chemically treat and transport the dried sludge is $1 million. The new process would eliminate these annual costs and generate an additional $1.5 million positive annual revenue stream.

10. Breakeven: on the $20 million plus $10 million for the building is $30Million/2.5Million = 12 years.

11. Rates UP. The city has already built in a $30 million price tag for the new building and equipment into the 92% utilities rate increase.

In other words, taking a $19 million loss on the $20 million in equipment and fees will NOT be the only loss.

The $2.5 million revenue stream that in the future, would have offset the 92% rate increases, will be lost.

12. Rates UP II. In the next few years, requirements will become more stringent, and fewer municipalities will be willing to accept our dried sludge.

Thus, the current $1million per year cost to treat and transport our sludge will increase in years to come. Thus, causing more rate increases.

City Council Action Items

1. Stop wasting time, the city MUST find a way to complete this project and implement the new revenue generating process.
2. MWH needs to be officially eliminated from the bid process, this will allow Andritz and Haskell to submit a bid.
3. The city needs to take ownership of the bid process and the construction project.
4. If necessary, the city needs to borrow against future water revenue streams to obtain the necessary funds for the building.
5. If still employed by the city, the parties responsible for signing off on a $20 million equipment purchase without approval for the structure to operate it in, need to be terminated for their complete lack of competence and common sense.

The Nattering One muses... Talk about putting the cart before the horse, or buying oats for a nag you don’t own yet.

This is the mayor and city councils job, find a way to come up with the $10 million and get it done. Common sense tells you, don't be penny wise and pound foolish.

Otherwise, just write off the $20 million already spent, kiss $2.5 million is annual cash flow goodbye and get ready for more rate increases.

A View To The Cape

2009-12-19T10:08:00.004-05:00

Stumbled across these postings on Craigslist...

To Our Elected Officials...

We got to put pressure on our elected officials. We helped build this town and instead of our “elected officials” helping us attract business with incentives and other ideas to create more jobs...

they only came up with ways to increase our cost of living our tag fees by 100% they over charge us with water taxes and fees ($35,000 for city water for my house because it is a corner lot?)…..

We are the fools that stayed behind hoping things would change but the only thing we stayed behind for is to see our home go on the rocket docket and lost forever then being sold to some northerner for less than half of what is worth...

I can list twenty other examples of how you have failed us but one good thing you did well was push the people that lived here out, it’s only a matter of time before you screw your new rats that took our homes also. Thanks.

And someones reply to the above!!! RE: To Our Elected Officials (Cape Coma)

Cape Coral has been an absolute mess for 30 years. That is why it is the land of newly weds and nearly deads and NO trees.

Your city council consists of people that are way too old to have clue about what it takes to run a city and the young ones (Rosato and Grill) are thieves.

You chose to live there...Deal with it!! 10 minutes worth of research online would have told you that.

As someone who lives at the other end of the county all I can say is stop whining or move.

The Nattering One muses... Ouch! I thought these were supposed to be job postings, not open mike night at the city council.

Is this a barometer of peoples agitation levels. And how. The current administration is getting its feet wet. The learning curve involves being bombarded by insiders.

Most of whom are crackpots and/or backstabbers ready to throw momma from the train, just to avenge some perceived grievance.

In regards to the situation at hand, its easy to throw rocks from the outside, now nestled inside, you become painfully aware of certain realities.

Said realities heretofore unbeknown st, suddenly make mountains out of what seemed mere molehills.

Most of the insiders are not only clueless, but vision less as well, only being able to plan into the future as far as their next budget.

Which they manage to spend every single dime of, and more. Being rewarded for saving money is not in the "conditioned to spend" public servant's vernacular.

This makes sifting through the pile of humanity amidst the mountain peaks a herculean task.

So far, some progress has been made. During the holiday hiatus, the Mayor and Co. need to start separating the wheat from the chaff, AKA...

Identifying clueful insiders with a vision and a sense able plan, then assembling the core of a task force to be headed by a new city manager.

Cm on guys, quit being gun shy and put the wheels of change into motion. Now, that's what I'm talking about.

Stuffed In A Mailbox

2009-12-06T11:47:00.003-05:00

Found a copy of CCC's ON THE MOVE, stuffed in a mailbox... The Nattering One has some random musings on items that stick out, like sore thumbs..

1. Cape TV Contract renewed without FAC meetings.

Not good, wouldn't be prudent at this juncture, ALL the Financial Advisory Committee meetings, discourse and findings need to be public.

2. Public Works reorganized for efficiencies.

Word on the street has it that so far, the "reorg" has had the opposite effect; i.e. costing the city more money, while reducing service levels.

3. The New ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, from JD Edwards using Oracle databases.

Rumor has it, in short, a disaster. Very complicated to deploy, modify, maintain and use. To be filed under, if it works, don't F with it.

4. 2nd Phase of Public Safety Broadband Wireless Network; the 4.9Ghz band for fire & schools.

This radio network will stand alone, but would have piggy backed nicely on the WW12 communication towers proposal.

That being a $12 million proposition for four 100 ft plus communications towers; and a network control center; that MWH tried to bamboozle the city with.

Rumor from Paco at Capevine sez: some intrepid and enterprising city insiders can achieve the same end results as WW12 for under $500K. No surprise here.

Someone needs to club the soon to be ex-manager at risk over the head with this one.

5. Paco from Grapevine also reports that certain council members have been making the rounds at the water treatment & water reclamation plants.

If you want the real inside dope on all the system improvements; additions; and manager at risk mistakes being paid for with taxpayer money...

have some private meetings with those who are intimate with the process and daily operation.

Suggestion: Grant immunity, then listen closely.

The Nattering One muses... Water, Sewer & Irrigation which is within Utilities and Public Works...

is the ONLY department in this CITY that pays for itself and generates SURPLUS cash for the city. Go ahead check the CAFR.

Water, Sewer & Irrigation provide on average $12 to $14 million NET to the city coffers every year.

Proving that WATER and the systems that process, reclaim and deliver water, ARE this city's MOST VALUABLE RESOURCES.

Rule Number One: Never mess with, sell, lease or privatize the operation or management of your civic CASH COW.

Rule Number Two: Refer to rule number one.

Question to ponder: Where did all the surplus water money from past years go? Answer: Ask the parties who had fiduciary responsibility at the time.

Nice Ex-Swampland in FLA

2009-12-06T11:31:00.004-05:00

Some notable retail BK filings since 2007: Circuit City; CompUSA; Gottschalks; Shabby Chic; Ritz Camera...

Sportsmans Warehouse; Chrysler; Filenes; General Motors; Eddie Bauer; numerous Dunkin Donuts LLC's; restaurants too numerous to list...

Golfers Warehouse; Old Time Pottery; Samsonite; Linen's n Things; Mervyns; Sharper Image; Woolworths; Bombay.

Our query from the previous posting: Where does one find such an individual? AKA Turnaround specialist who is NOT a hack, slash, burn and run type.

The Nattering One muses... Naturally the retailers of essentials...

WalMart & Costco will thrive as many flock to their scales of economy and command of the supply chain.

To find a pearl in the rough, one must look to the retailers of "non essential" goods that have so far managed to survive this depression.

One such retailer that comes to mind would be Cost Plus, hardly the poster child for essential goods, and certainly a "discretionary cash" retailer.

How have they survived this pullback? One might review their financials and ask their CEO since 2005, Barry Feld.

Hey Barry, SOS from Cape Coral, I got some really nice ex swamp land in Florida, if your interested?

An Enema or An Anathema?

2009-12-06T10:22:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the absence my little droogies and fellow Naybobs... during the interim, seems the City Manager had a revelation and decided to git along.

A public council vote of no confidence and termination would not have helped his future in public service.

Seems the new mayor and council are sending out a clear message...

That being, those who are suspect of obfuscation, omission or any commission of disinformation to the council, are going to be, shall we say, summarily dismissed.

Rumor has it that certain financial services, parks & rec and public works directors, might already have their e-tickets punched.

The acting CM & economic development director, ne assistant CM has some be-heady tasks ahead of him. (No pun intended)

That is if he wants to keep the CM post permanently.

The Nattering One muses...

If the acting CM can't "Schwing" this sinking ship around, then... this town needs an outsider coming from a corporate or private sector background.

A CEO turnaround specialist, NOT a hack, who burns, slashes and runs.

The slash and burn mentality of angry stock holders allowed ex GM CEO Rick Wagoner to destroy the number one automobile manufacturer in the world.

Wagoner, the anathema, should be the poster boy for what the Cape doesn't need. In short, what this town needs is an enema, not an anathema.

Emphasis should be on some in house cleansing to promote the CREATION of NEW business and GROWTH of revenue sources...

NOT on the further slashing of rank and file benefits, pounding out union concessions...

or the wholesale reshuffling and DECONSTRUCTION of the organization... which is all that has happened in the last year or so...

much to the detriment of employee morale, public service levels, and the local economy.

Not a tight fisted machine gun hand, but a kinder, gentler, helping, healing hand, is much needed.

Where does one find such an individual? More to come...

Resigned to Getting Along

2009-11-09T10:52:00.005-05:00

Regarding Mayor Sullivan's request for Cape Coral City Manager Terry Stewart's resignation...

In April 08 we nattered on CEO lip service... as GM’s Rick Wagoner blamed multi billion dollar losses on the locusts…

"I'm deeply disappointed with our Q1 results. The precipitous decline in housing market conditions and unprecedented changes in consumer behavior.."

Wagoner's excuses were just as lame as the rest of Wall Streets "best and brightest" whose hubris and greed have brought us to this point.

One could also blame Bush for not working hard enough at his job and hiring badly.

In July 08 we put GM on Death Watch and noted Wagoner's track record…

Since CEO Rick Wagoner took over GM in 2000, the shares have fallen 87% and are at a 54 year low; GM has cut its U.S. salaried workforce to 32,000 from 44,000.

GM has not posted a profit in the last 3 years while losing $51 billion;market share is at a low not seen since 1925; GM has not suspended a divident since 1922.

In August 08, with regard to American auto industry management we asked… Where were their heads?

Over the last several years, Wagoner, Mulally, Nardelli et al. have yet to retool and build a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles for North America.

Now they collectively panhandle for a low interest handout to "remain competitive".

Nature should be allowed to take its course and these dinosaurs who have their collective heads buried in the sand, should go the way of the dodo... extinct.

In November 08 we lamented on crybaby capitalism, taking accountability; unjustified bailouts; and overpaid CEO’s...

Overpaid and overrated executive management the likes of Rick Wagoner at GM and Richard Syron at Freddie Mac.

Rich Wagoner has run the world's largest automaker into the ground for the past 8 years, presiding over $73 billion in losses beginning in 2005.

He has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he and his team are clueless blue blood imbeciles.

Isn't it about time this pack of mismanaging idiots were shown the gallows, er, I mean the door?

And regarding potential bailouts of automotive and financial sectors we asked: Does this fantasy world of yours have amusement rides too?

As it turns out, many E ticket rides were to be had by all, indeed.

In November 08 Wagoner painted a grim picture, if GM were not to receive a bailout, we called for a clean sweep.

GM CEO Wagoner commented on a GM BK: "the economy would suffer a catastrophic collapse"

We natter, the only catastrophe is that Wagoner is still employed, no bailout without a complete exec mgmt sweep, including directors...

and voting control of the board... I wouldn't hire this pack of executive ass clowns to wash my car, let alone build me one.

In October 08 we nattered about Ricky boy’s Golden Parachute…

Instead of planning and building a smarter mouse trap; brainchild CEO Rick Wagoner,

wants to trim $15 billion to stay afloat, and so he can collect a bigger bonus.

We have a request for Ricky boy, set an example for all the derelict whores on the hill, bankers & CEO's; man up and do the honorable thing,

take out an insurance policy naming the employees as beneficiary; then commit Hari-kari or jump out a 30th story window.

Now thats the kind of golden parachute we need...

In March 09, Seator Chuck Grassley must have been reading us and echoed our sentiments with regard to AIG…

Senator Chuck Grassley said that AIG executives should follow the Japanese method and...

“come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I’m sorry. And then either do one of two things, resign or go commit suicide.”

The Nattering One muses... profilgate spending, overpaid CEO's, bailouts, golden parachutes, greed and hubris... sound familiar?

Today's breed of executive or CEO, they collect their heady paycheck repleat with bonus and stock options, at the expense of the rank & file and stockholders.

And much like our elected officials, they then move on to bleed out the next victim.

These are not men of honor, for in Japan, when asked to resign, you do the honorable thing, resign.

Men of honor, take ownership for what transpired under their watch, and if necessary, they man up and move on.

This isn't a question of "just cause" on the City's or council or Mayor's part.

If you want cause, look at the track record, look at the spending, the price, and who benefitted...

Then wonder if The Cape will be able to make its future debt obligations and will the Cape's resident tax payers be able to come up with the necessary money?

Food for thought... Regardless of circumstance or cause, would you stay at a party where you were being 86'ed?

There's an old saying: If you can't get along, git along.

Tolling The Doctrine of Fradulent Concealment

2009-11-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

We are going to toll the doctrine of fradulent concealment and sprinkle it with a hint of conflict of interest...

Looks like MWH are in big trouble over in Los Osos, CA. and could well be headed for the same reception in Cape Coral, FLA. very soon indeed.

Fraudulent Concealment defined:

"Deliberate hiding, non-disclosure, or suppression of a material fact or circumstance (which one is legally or morally bound to reveal) with intent to deceive or defraud in a contractual arrangement. See also suppression of evidence."

From Sewer Watch... and Calhoun's Cannons and from Los Oso's Lisa Schicker.

In June 28, 2004 Response to CCC, MWH and the 2004 LOCSD deliberately hid over $5 million (at least!) in amenity and O&M costs in their cost estimates -- which they were legally AND morally bound to reveal -- with the intent to deceive the California Coastal Commission into approving the Tri-W project, and it worked!

In Exhibit 3-C, where low-balled numbers for the mid-town Tri-W sewer plant benefited that "project," the dog park is estimated at "$60,000," however, just a few months later, in their "value engineering" report, MWH, and the Los Osos CSD, estimated that exact same dog park at "$690,000," more than a factor (factor!) of 11 from their previous estimate.

Better yet, how about this one which should be filed under Conflict of Interest by a public official...

"Considering the fact that Bruce Gibson was elected with the help of Montgomery, Watson, Harza's money, via his Parks Commissioner, and now the engineering firm stands to make tens of millions of dollars off of his decisions, via his Parks Commissioner's former employee, Paavo Ogren...

Gibson, at the very least, needs to immediately recuse himself from ALL SLO County discussions involving the Los Osos wastewater project, or, more appropriately, immediately resign."

The Nattering One muses... Does any of this sound vaguely familiar? Something that the manager at risk and city officials should be readily aware of and if they aren't... oh well...

here we go in tolling the doctrine...

"it would be manifest injustice for this Court to conclude, as a matter of law, that ‘reasonable diligence’ includes an obligation to sift through a proxy statement, on the one hand...

and a year’s worth of press clippings and other filings, on the other, in order to establish a pattern concealed by those whose duty is to guard the interests of the investor.”

Where a fiduciary relationship exists between the parties, “it is unnecessary to prove diligence in discovering the fraud.”

Where there is a fiduciary relationship and a corresponding fiduciary duty, a fiduciary can be liable for fraudulent misrepresentation by silence...

even in the absence of fraudulent statements or intentional concealment.

Mayor Sullivan Part IV

2009-11-05T14:01:00.001-05:00

John Sullivan on Financial Services Director Mark Mason: Mr. Mason put on quite a show Monday night.

He sounded like a “slick carney hustler” while he cut through the adjusted budget components smooth as silk. This was most defiantly a command performance.

He really “suckered” the new council and I think that performance would have been worth paying admission to see.

It was a real show. I could almost hear the crowd in the background and could barely hear, “Come One Come All”in the distance.

John Sullivan on City Manager Terry Stewart & Financial Services Director Mark Mason: My congratulations go out to Mr. Stewart and Mr. Mason...

since they apparently have managed to render the Cape Coral Comprehensive Annual Financial Report completely useless.

There must be some kind of accounting award for this or maybe we can start The CPA Hall of Fame (Shame). We could install Mr. Mason as the first member.

John Sullivan on Public Works Director Chuck Pavlos & MWH Project Manager Larry Laws: There is a rumor floating around which may have some serious implications...

and that is that Mr. Pavlos and Mr. Larry Laws the MWH Project Manager in Cape Coral were friends or associates before Mr. Pavlos came to Cape Coral.

The City of Cape Coral has 36 or 38 ongoing projects with MWH.

And when you look at the facts we are paying 2 to 5 times more than residents in nearby communities for essentially the same utility services.

Why did we have three audits and wind up with essentially the same outcome including possible bid-rigging?

Why did the city not ask for the Attorney Generals' opinion concerning violations of state statutes?

Why is there an F.B.I. and Department Of Justice Investigation going on?

As it turns out, the rumor is true; they (Pavlos & Laws) did serve in the Navy together.

The Nattering One muses... Alrighty then, we certainly know where Mayor Sullivan stands on the trinity, as he doesn't mince words and we respect that.

Na Na Na Na hey hey, good bye or 1st down & 2 to Go?... Yesterday, newly elected Councilman Chulakes-Leetz said...

"If Mr. Stewart is the honorable man I believe he is, it will be his due diligence to provide and offer his resignation."

Today, Mr. Stewart confirmed he is a finalist for a job near Myrtle Beach, SC; and Paco from Capevine confirms; Terry told his staff that he may be a short timer.

Rumor Central: There is another twist being floated about on the Pavlos-Laws Navy link...

While stationed at Penascola in the Navy... they both served together under the same CO... Steve Daignault, former Cape Coral Public Works Director & City Manager.

The other variant on this rumor is they worked together in Hawaii... Aloha! Paco from Capevine has another twist...

If any of this can be substantiated, with regard to fiduciary responsibilities...

Happy Guy Fawkes Day... More to come.

Mayor Sullivan Part III

2009-11-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

Mayor Elect Sullivan on privatization:

this is telling us that we need to take control of the utilities away from the city and bring in a non- profit entity to run them.

In fact, I would rather see someone like Al Capone running the utilities rather than the city of Cape Coral.

We have been paying too much for utility line installations. Someone at the city level must take control of these projects as they have become unaffordable the way they are being delivered.

Either that or the utilities must be privatized. We cannot afford to let the city run the utilities any longer.

If our administration can’t deliver the same services at the same price as other communities in Florida by taking these projects in-house and/or by getting rid of manager at risk...

then the utilities need to be privatized in order to curb the financial destruction brought on by these projects as they exist today.

If the city refuses to take these projects in-house, then there is only one other alternative and that is to privatize the utilities.

We are paying a premium for the construction because we use the manager at risk methodology.

I suspect we are paying a premium of around 37% to make it more convenient for some of our utilities' employees.

There is one other alternative; that would be to sell the utilities and pay down the debt and privatize it. It would be regulated and we would have experts running it.

We don't appear to be able to run this ourselves without the prospect of huge rate increases each year.

We need to get the utilities out of the hands of the city because it is too expensive and will only make it unaffordable to stay in Cape Coral.

Two words pop into my mind, gross incompetence. This administration is not capable of running the sewer and water utilities.

The Nattering One muses... we concur with the Mayor elect...

the current administration is not capable of running the city, much less the sewer and water utilities.

Don't blame the worker bees... Its not the utilities employees or the supervisors and managers where the rubber meets the road that are the problem.

CCC does not need any outsourcing or privatization. Utilities need the mayor elect to clear the deck, so they can get their jobs done without any interference.

Privatization to "for profit" would be a disaster of epic proportion. For profit, means FOR PROFIT, as in we hire the cheapest labor...

and defer maintenance on new equipment, till the system is run into the ground. Thus dropping service levels to the bare minimum, while raising rates to the maximum.

Better check the records, utilities employees never asked for a manager at risk. It was someone else who convinced the council on that one.

Keep it in the house... Baton Rouge, which was ranked No. 6 in the top 40 cities to weather this depression by the Brookings Institute...

"grew jobs every month until August 2009 and in August it only lost nine-tenths of a percent, compared to 5.1% nationally,"

said Lauren C. Scott, professor emeritus of economics at LSU.

Scott said $5.1 billion of construction projects have been announced or are under construction in the Baton Rouge metro...

including a new plant for French chemical company SNF and the expansion of an ExxonMobil chemical plant.

Most of the projects are infrastructure buildout being done by local government.

Again, Mayor Sullivan, no privatization, no outsourcing of utility management or jobs, get the UEP on track by taking the project in house...

and expanding services down the main buisness corridors. Thereby, letting local business defer the costs to cut a path to the residents.

More to come.

Mayor Sullivan Part II

2009-11-05T12:55:00.000-05:00

On paying a billing rate of $238.51 per hour to at risk contractors such as MWH:

Can’t you think of a better way to spend that kind of money? Just give it a little thought and I’m sure you can come up with a better solution...

such as paying 10 city employees at the rate of 23.81 per hour rather than paying an exorbitant rate to keep someone else working.

On building a durable local economy: The mayor says we need to put people to work.

Well we can start by giving city business to local firms. There are big bucks in utility projects.

The mayor should think about what that kind of money would do for our local economy and our local job market.

Instead he would rather give our money to someone else to help our utility department sit on its collective behinds and have someone else from out of town do their jobs.

We hire many out of town and out of state companies to do our work. We don’t even have our utility bills printed in Cape Coral.

As far as job creation is concerned most of the workers are foreign workers laying the lines. You might have an American supervising 6 or 8 foreign workers.

These people send the money out of the country to support their families elsewhere.

In fact we don’t even know if these workers are legal nor do we know if the American running the heavy equipment are even residents of Cape Coral.

There was talk of creating 500 jobs with the N–1 thru N–8 project.

Projects like these were never meant to be an efficient way to put our residents to work and get the biggest bang for the buck.

The Nattering One muses... Again we concur with the Mayor elect...

we would much rather have 10 city employees working for one hour, than one manager at risk employee.

When CCC cannot perform the task at hand, we should use local subs with expertise, with CCC personnel managing the tasks.

However, we do take exception because the utility department doesn't sit on its collective behinds.

Utilities doesn't want anyone in town (private) or out of town (manager at risk) doing their jobs.

Send the at risk manager packing and lets get this done from inside the house.

We will hire local's at prevailing wages, creating durable economic jobs which will create service sector jobs, and keep the money in the Cape.

Bring it on Mayor Sullivan, CCC utilities are ready and waiting, when you are. More to come in Part III.

Remember, tomorrow, November 5th is Guy Fawkes day.

Mayor Sullivan Part I

2009-11-04T12:32:00.003-05:00

John Sullivan on KBR, MWH & Halliburton: One of our council members attempts to create the illusion that MWH was initially hired.

It is common knowledge that KBR was hired but was not capable of making the bond so MWH and a number of KBR employees came on board to run our utilities projects, in Cape Coral including the project manager (Larry Laws).

We have a city council and staff which refuses to have third party consultants do an analysis of a $100 million utility project when we all know the price is over-blown.

We have something called Construction Manager at Risk. What is construction manager at risk? I define it as Highway Robbery.

This is a do it yourself method to install water and sewer lines and upgrade plants.

If you are willing to pay the price, then anyone can run a project using this methodology.

We use manager at risk even for building fire houses and the cost is twice that of a fire house in Charlotte County.

The incentive for the manager is to charge the highest possible price?

John Sullivan on City Engineering & Project Management: We have an engineering department that is supposed to be running projects of this nature.

They should be doing the design and building the system. They should be putting the jobs up for bid and selecting the subcontractors and inspecting the work.

We are paying people on the engineering staff that will not take the bull by the horns and get the job done in the most cost-effective manner.

If the engineers on staff do not have the qualifications or skills to run these projects then, why are they working for the city?

The city staff refuses to look for alternative ways to deliver the utilities.

It has been stated that our engineers have in excess of 100 years of experience yet we continue down the same path that we were on 25 years ago.

We have supervisors and engineers making in excess of $100,000 a year and yet they refuse to take the responsibility of running the projects themselves.

We have a highly paid staff and city manager. They created this mess it should up to them to fix it.

If they can't clean up their own mess then it's about time we get someone who can.

Why do we not get skilled people who can run these projects and cut the profit margin to the bare bone...

rather than making the people at MWH and KBR wealthy on the backs of the taxpayers?

The Nattering One muses... We concur. We don't need any outsiders or outsourcing, we can do it in house.

Now what is Mayor Elect Sullivan going to do about it? The MWH contract ends this January.

Are you going to bring in another MWH? or CDM? in the form of CH2MHill? Really, this is just trading the devil you know, for the devil you don't.

We Natter loudly and clearly... CCC need to hire the necessary road crew labor and an additional project manager experienced in infrastructure buildout...

to run these jobs inhouse; save the taxpayer 66% on their money; and provide much needed local jobs where the money stays in the Cape.

Mayor Sullivan, just talk to the guys in the trenches or where the rubber meets the road.

The Minutemen Part II

2009-11-04T10:37:00.002-05:00

More from the Minutemen web site...

Larry Barton on the last administrations answer to the Kessler audit:

The Price Waterhouse Coopers -one of the Big-four- audit of the City-MWH contract did NOT establish this “legitimacy or validity,” but only that they...

“did not find anything materially wrong,” and that “[t]he city and MWH performed as their contracts required and that the labor billing rates were competitive.”

The MWH bought-and-paid-for audit (opinion) by PWC is not and should not be the ultimate qualifying authority.

Remember that Arthur Anderson, once the #1 accounting firm that sacrificed its integrity, went down with Enron, their well-paying client.

William P. Deile:

On City Manager Terry Stewart: It appears as if Mr. Stewart is an adherent of the Josef Goebbles theory of journalism...

if you keep repeating your story long enough people will begin to believe it.

On City Project Management: Mr. Stewart argues that the reason the city outsources project management is because management of the utility project is “terribly difficult”...

yet further on he extols the competency of those on city staff who “have a combined 100 years of engineering and management experience with projects of various sizes and complexities.

On UEP costs: The city staff’s steadfast refusal to consider anything but a central gravity fed system is one reason.

A second reason is the refusal to do value engineering and the stacking of management fee upon management fee to insulate the city from responsibility.

A third reason, cited in multiple audits lies in the details of the contractual arrangements and yet another may be found the methodology used to apportion costs.

The Nattering One muses... Again, revisit the Kessler audit. Much that was obfuscated, omitted and gerrymandered will be revealed.

This city should not be outsourcing anything. No more at risk managers, we take ownership and pull the necessary O&E (omissions & errors) & liability insurance.

We hire the necessary talent to manage and perform the tasks. Its as simple as that.

No one is this town has wanted to step up and take ownership and assume the responsibility.

The low lying fruit was left to be scooped up by the manager at risk and their profiteering cronies. How could we value engineer anything?

The "meddling" personnel where the rubber meets the road were kept out of the loop by the manager at risk and their designated lackeys?

We can value engineer the bio solids building and the UEP project, and create additional durable economic jobs for Cape residents.

This can all be done in house at a minimal cost to the taxpayer, as it should have been from the start.

We now have the chance Mayor Sullivan, don't drop the ball and succumb to arrogance and greed.

The Minutemen Part I

2009-11-04T10:25:00.003-05:00

Mayor Elect Sullivan is a founder and member of The Minutemen.

Some noteworthy observations from the Minutemen web site:

The current administration: No Response to Public Input, Promotes Special Interests, Unaffordable Assessments, Taxation Without Representation.

Our mayor and our city council keep taking until we have nothing left. We have no voice here in Cape Coral (Florida), just as the colonists had no voice.

The people here go before the council and speak. The mayor and council just ignore the people as if we don’t exist.

The administration’s arsenal consists of unaffordable assessments and taxes. Like the English, the administration has a contingent of foreign troops.

The English had Hessian Soldiers. Today our mayor and council have special interest groups.

The administration has builders, large land owners construction companies like MWH and speculators.

The city manager and all his flunkies must get out of town and never look back.

What real choices do the public have when they are abandoned or even exploited by their representatives?

The first thing on our agenda must be to stop the utility expansion projects.

The projects are being used to extort money from the residents and therefore the water and waste water utilities must be taken out of the hands of a city that cannot be trusted.

We need to start a water and waste-water authority or it must be converted to a non-profit entity or a Co-op.

The Nattering One muses... Strong words indeed, and perhaps a rush to judgement...

We agree, taxation without representation has been the MO of government for many years...

Anyone who thinks this is a democracy, or government is by the people and for the people, is naive and mistaken.

Our Republic is based upon goverment by the rich and for the corporations.

The first thing on the agenda should be what Jason did for the Argonauts...

cut the many heads of the hydra off and slay it. Then revisit the Kessler audit to root out the rest of the suspects...

As we have stated before in these pages...

the UEP can be completed by in house city staff at one third of the manager at risk cost estimates.

At the plant level, the in house staff are competent, knowledgable and capable of managing the Capes utilities.

With the hydra's many heads out of the way, this will become readily apparent to Mayor Sullivan and the Minutemen.

Cape Coral Election Results

2009-11-04T10:02:00.003-05:00

Apparently the man on the street was an accurate reflection of voter sentiment.

Sullivan was elected in a landslide, as predicted. Interestingly enough, only 18% of all registered voters cast a vote.

The final tally rounded: 11.5K to 6.5K or 64% to 36%. That's right 18K voters decided for an estimated population of 125K.

With the election of Mayor Sullivan and District 4:Chulakes-Leetz, add District 2: Brandt and District 3:Deile for a tally of 4 council votes.

Opposing them will be 3 votes: District 1:McClain, District 6:McGrail, District 7:Donnell

Leaving the wild card or swing vote: District 5:Grill

Now that the man on the street's will has been imposed... we have a piece of advice for the victors... walk softly, carry a big stick and...

do not become victims of the same malady that struck down those who went before you, arrogance.

GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

2009-11-02T17:52:00.003-05:00

Regarding tomorrow's City of Cape Coral elections... whether your Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, Independent, etc...

Get out and vote! If you don't, you get the government you deserve.

Predictions? If the man on the street is any indication... when asked how they were planning on voting...

two comments, one from a stranger, one from a neighbor...

The neighbor: "Well, I will tell you this, I'm not voting for the guys already in there..."

The stranger: "Voting for the incumbents would be like placing a loaded gun to your head, and pulling the trigger."

Alrighty then, sounds like these two are voting for change, any change, but at what cost, if any?

TBD (to be determined) Tuesday night. More to come.

Small Business = Durable Economy

2009-10-22T07:59:00.000-04:00

The last two "jobless" recoveries... it took 11 months for job growth to turn positive in the wake of...

the 1990/91 recession and an interminable 19 months for payrolls to become positive on net after the 2001 recession.

Small business expansion is being hampered by constrained access to financing. Grants, loans and bailouts are going almost exclusively to the big guys.

The financial houses being bailed out are hoarding the money, rather than lending and spurring growth.

Firms of less than 500 employees account for some 50.2% of total payroll employment.

Pressure on small businesses needs to ease for a more durable economic recovery.

We keep banging this drum... no durable economic recovery until 6 million outsourced jobs are repatriated.

It took 25 years of financial deregulation, globalization and outsourcing to labor at the margin to decimate and emasculate our durable economic base.

This emasculation was bipartisan, and led by an army of lobbyists that our whores on the hill still pander to, witness the latest round of banking bailouts.

We no longer manufacture anything, so we have a non durable service based economy which is comprised of tourism, hospitality, food service and 1/6 health care.

Thats right, 1/6 of our economy is based on health care of which 35% goes to middlemen or health care management firms.

In other words, the sicker the population, and less health care insurance regulation, the greater the profit.

Our non durable economy is dependent on the generosity of foreigners willing to lend us money for our profligate spending habits.

Now is the time for small business and government to swell their employment ranks with durable infrastructure build out projects.

Keep the money local for small business (utilize small local companies) and employees (hire local people at prevailing wage).

In order to save taxpayer money, State, County and City governments need to abandon "at risk" managers and take projects on internally.

Hire managers proven competent in infrastructure buildouts and value engineering. Then staff up with local people and do the work in house.

This will keep local people employed at a decent wage for some time to come.

This is not the time to outsource to outsiders, large companies or foreigners.

Worse yet privatizing vital resources or assets to "for profit" entities would be the Coup de Grace.

Doing so would further cripple the remnants of our durable economic base and make any recovery improbable.

MWH? Bid Rigging? City BK? WTF?

2009-10-14T11:10:00.005-04:00

Looks like MWH is at it in Los Osos, CA as well, interesting reading, an excerpt follows...

In 1999, MWH won the engineering contract when the Los Osos sewer was still in the hands of the Los Osos Community Services District and not the county.

By 2006, the district terminated its contract with MWH because of alleged contract violations, over-billing, and conflicts of interest.

Around the same time MWH sued the district for about $1.1 million in unpaid services after the CSD reversed course and canceled the project.

That lawsuit is still pending while the district is in bankruptcy. According to Los Osos residents, MWH helped put the district in bankruptcy.

It wasn’t the first time MWH had problems. In the city of Cape Coral, FL, the contractor was hired to expand the coastal community’s water and sewer system.

The cost of that project quickly rose to just under $1 billion, according to the News-Press.

A 2006 audit found a number of “red flags” in the MWH contract with Cape Coral, including inflating the project cost and bid rigging.

The audit findings were forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice.

A representative from the DOJ declined to comment on any investigation and the FBI did not return a call before press time.

A livid group of Los Osos residents have recently shifted their focus away from the design of the new sewer system and more toward Public Works Director Paavo Ogren.

They have accused Ogren of having connections to MWH. Ogren was the Los Osos CSD’s interim general manager shortly before MWH was hired in 1999.

Ogren: “I was the contract interim general manager prior to Bruce Buel, but the proposal process for project management services was independent from the work I was doing. … I didn’t have involvement in the hiring of Montgomery Watson back then.”

There is, however, also an MWH connection to the evaluation committee.

The current project engineer, Carollo Engineers, used MWH as a subcontracted consultant for the project in 2006.

The Nattering One muses... this wreaks of the same stench that plagued the Cape in the aborted Kessler Audit.

Sources indicate that FBI & DOJ have both investigated bid rigging allegations. Neither agency will confirm nor deny, whether the investigations are ongoing.

With the city in dire economic straights, could a lawsuit from MWH put the Cape into BK territory?

One can only wonder what other connections exist between MWH and high ranking Cape officials? More to come.

Show Me The Note

2009-10-01T07:58:00.001-04:00

The Nattering One muses... the relevance of this topic to the Cape and Lee County, which is ground zero for foreclosures is not lost...

50 to 60 Million loans held by MERS could be effected by multiple court rulings in favor of homeowners.

For all those who have or might be losing their home to a foreclosure. As we learned long ago in the REO and reconveyance departments...

the Deed and Note must stay together. Otherwise, these is nothing to foreclose on.

Op-Ed: 60 Million Mortgages May Have Fatal Flaws
Commentary by George W. Mantor

RISMEDIA, September 29, 2009—The latest chapter in the mortgage meltdown is being written in court, as one by one, judges are putting a halt to foreclosures.

The latest was a recent Kansas Supreme Court case. In Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, the court held that a nominee company called MERS had no standing to bring a foreclosure action.

Nor was Kansas the first. In August 2008, Federal Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada ruled MERS had no standing.

”Indeed, the evidence is to the contrary, the Note has been sold, and the named nominee no longer has any interest in the Note.”

In September of 2008, A California Judge ruling against MERS concluded, “There is no evidence before the court as to who is the present owner of the Note. The holder of the Note must join in the motion.”

On March 19, 2009, the Supreme Court of Arkansas determined that MERS was not the true beneficiary because the Note had been sold. Alabama and Florida have made similar rulings.

In each case, the reason stems from a fundamental misstep in the handling of Notes and Trust Deeds that runs contrary to established court policies which require that the real parties identify themselves to the court.

Each of these cases involved MERS and, in each case, the courts’ rationales were almost identical.

First, a little background. Over the last 40 years, mortgage lending has evolved from a bank holding the mortgage to the mortgage being bundled and sold as part of an investment pool, usually in the form of a bond.

As a registered security, the Note is a negotiable instrument, like money or a cashier’s check, and under securities law that Note must be given to the investor.

In this case, mortgage backed securities, (MBS) were bundled together in a pool and shipped to…well, we don’t really know.

One of the impediments to an MBS is the need to file assignments for the beneficiaries in each county each time the mortgage is resold. And apparently, no one holds them for very long because most have been passed around several times.

In order to avoid the logistical nightmare of trying to maintain a public chain of title, the biggest lenders joined MERS, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.

MERS was created with the sole intent of evading the recording fees due to the county in which the security is located.

In so doing, in my opinion, they also destroyed the age-old practice of making a public record of information concerning real property in general, and legal interest specifically.

The chain of title is a vital record produced to resolve many a dispute. Now, that’s gone.

I believe, erased simply so they themselves, MERS, could siphon off the recording fees for themselves. They sold their business model to lenders as a better way to track mortgages that were being sold and resold all over the world.

But, as there often is with a BIG IDEA, there were also unintended consequences. Only now are they coming to light. Until MERS was challenged in a foreclosure proceeding, no one had taken a look at the law.

The law, according to a Nevada Judge, is that for purposes of foreclosure, both the Note and the Deed of Trust must be assigned. When the Note is split from the Deed of Trust, the Note becomes unsecured.

A person holding only a Note lacks the power to foreclose because it lacks the security. MERS lost track of the Notes. In some cases, according to my research, they deliberately destroyed them.

Every thing was fine until the economy contracted. MERS began foreclosing on delinquent home loans and then one day; someone said “show me the Note.”

In reviewing the judge’s rulings in the above matters, several key points have been determined:

• MERS is not the beneficiary of the Notes and has no skin in the game. It did not lend any money, collect any payments or do anything more than track the sale of the securities.

• Judicial procedure requires that parties identify themselves and prove their standing.

• Splitting the Note and Trust Deed leaves no party with standing to foreclose. The true holder of the Note, the security, paid the lender so the lender is covered. The true holder of the Note was insured by AIG so they are covered. AIG and the banks were bailed out by taxpayers.

So, unless the American tax payer can produce a “blue-ink” original Note, no one has standing to foreclose.

• Allowing a foreclosure to proceed without the original Note places the homeowner in double jeopardy. If the original Note were to surface, the holder of the Note would be entitled to payment, but from whom? The borrower is still on the hook.

MERS currently holds 50 to 60 million loans so this is no small matter. And, just because they have lost repeatedly doesn’t mean they will give up. They will keep right on foreclosing in hopes that the homeowner won’t fight back and, in most cases, they won’t be stopped.

Budget Advisory Committee & Union Negotiations

2009-09-04T14:39:00.002-04:00

After attempting to club Cape residents into submission on the UEP MWH Halliburton scam by raising the utilities rate (95% phased in over five years); the council decided to raise the millage rate. But why is all this new revenue needed?

The City is currently in negotiation with all three unions for a new contract and despite all the new souces of revenue, they are using this budget review from the “advisory” committee to club the unions into legacy concessions.

The City negotiated its contract in “good” times; and now as is the modus operandi of “management by crisis” wants to take back what it gave. Didn’t these crazy spenders realize, you have to put something away for a rainy day?

We stumbled across an internal document being used in the process: The FAC (Financial Advisory Committee) FY2010 Budget Review Presentation to the City Council.

Some of the “reviews” relevant contents in normal font, our Natterings in Italics…

Further reduction in taxable property values

Controlled growth should have been the mantra, instead of spend, spend, spend…. Now the wanton spenders have raised utility and millage rates to hide their tracks.

Approval of items that were previously scheduled for elimination:

DCD Code Enforcement Team $380K
Yet on Page 16: DCD should evaluate activities requiring permits and inspections (currently seems excessive). So yets just approve the enforcement team that was going to be eliminated???

Parks & Recreation funding from General Fund $1.385M

Public Works
Dredging of canals $637K
Road Maintenance $750K
Street Lighting $1 Million
Total $ 2.387M

Total add back to general fund $4.153M

Total add back to general fund $4.153M
Page 17 if our recommendations are utilized, the City should realize an overall General Fund budget adjustment of $3,372,284

In other words, if you follow our recommendations, we just advised you to SPEND $3.3 Million more. Simply brilliant.

The committee recommends the following:

Salary Freeze
COLA Freeze
Salary reduction across the board
Unpaid Furloughs
Reduction of Work Force
Continued Control of Overtime
Comp Time

Reduction in benefit costs through an employee contribution of $50 per month
(1786 employees x $50 x 12 months = $1,071,600)

Standardization of the leave policy across all employee groups
Reduction of hours that can be accumulated, less vacation.

Implementing an employee funded short term disability program
Not a benefit, but a program that costs the employee and furthers the cities goal of reduction of participation in the leave policy and associated costs.

Elimination of the leave buyback program
A counterproductive elimination of accumulation over 400 hours, which will make bad employees out of good ones.

Instead of saving your time and working, you are forced to take time off. Increasing overtime costs in most cases.

The idea of a 400 bank, in case of accident it fills the gap (10 weeks) till long term disability takes over.

Hire an external consultant to report to Council to identify actionable means of reducing benefit costs for FY09 to achieve an overall reduction in benefit costs from 38% to 30% overall personnel costs leading to an expected $10.1 Million savings. Cost of consultant to be borne by realized savings.

In other words, deforestation by a for profit logger, the more the hatchet man cuts, the more he earns. You eventually wind up with no trees and no forest.

Actual benefit cost as a percentage of salary for FY10 is projected to be 47.4% across all funds, which is excessive and represents an area for significant expense reduction.

This is excessive only because, contrary to public opinion, government wages are well below private sector for the same job. However, the government benefits are usually more comprehensive and cost more. Higher benefit costs divided over lower salaries will always yield a higher benefit cost as percentage of salary.

Benefits as a percentage of salaries

Police 35.6%
Fire 33%
General 22.4%
ICMA 12%

Again we see how police and fire much like the Bush administration, have milked the fear of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. What makes these groups who volunteered at a very generous rate of pay; to collect so much more than the rest of the public?

We never could figure out why anyone in their right mind would allow pensions to be based on total earnings (best five of the last ten years), rather than a straight 40 hours multiplied by the hourly rate.

This total earnings clause causes overtime abuse in the extreme. In particular during the latter part of ones career, when their wage level is higher.

In effect this is a double whammy, paying out more hours at a higher rate; and ballooning a pension (in the case of fire & police; some are collecting a higher pension than they did while working.)

This along with bloated budgets and overly generous pension benefits (100% of wage for police and fire; as opposed to 80% for rank and file) are driving many cities to bankruptcy.

Consider public/private partnerships
Expand use of volunteers
Consider outsourcing eligible services as opportunities arise

All euphemisms for sell, lease, outsource or privatize assets to FOR PROFIT orgs such as CH2MHill or MWH.

These carpetbaggers will spend the minimum to avoid maintenance and higher service levels, resulting in substandard service and the assets getting run right into the ground.

UEP Downed Again

2009-09-02T08:35:00.002-04:00

In a 4-3 vote, the Cape Coral City Council voted to delay voting on the utility expansion project indefinitely.

A step in the right direction. Again, the recipe for future economic success is:

The city should be allowed to move forward with UEP ONLY IF:

1. NO MORE OUTSOURCING: MWH is removed and no outsource or at risk contractors are involved. The Cape does not need to spend taxpayer money to benefit Halliburton.

2. CREATE JOBS & AN ECONOMY: The project must involve city project managment & labor; we need jobs to create a durable economic base for the Cape.

This is when the City should be spending to hire and create a permanent base, rather than cutting back.

3. NO PRIVATIZATION: no infrastructure assets are sold/leased to service ANY debt.

NEVER sell or lease the rights to your most valuable asset of all, your water.

Beware of demagogue's wearing sheeps clothing...

Word has it that for a sack of gold, old "Sleepy" Sullivan would sell the city's future out from under it to CH2MHill at the drop of a hat. Say it ain't so Sully!

4. TRIM THE FAT: Deficit ridden fire & police payrolls need to be trimmed...

along with fire & police bargaining units cutting back on outrageous 100% & overtime aided pension benefits. This is what truly bankrupt's municipalities.

Fire & Police could actually benefit from major concessions being proposed by the rank and file bargaining unit. (More to come on this in our next post.)

These four steps are the Cape's ONLY way out of this economic depression. This Mayor and future council's would be well advised to heed the above advice.

Who or What Stands Behind The Mask?

2009-08-20T19:04:00.014-04:00

This may be a bit off topic, but may satisfy enquiring minds that need to know...

I was asked recently by a Naybob of Realty, in so many words "what do you stand for?" My retort follows...

I stand against the following: Big Brother.

the moral majority "Strength through Unity. Unity through Faith."

the Orwellian "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength."

a society that is ruled by government, rather than the government being run as a voice of the people (vox populi).

government surveillance, torture, fear mongering, media manipulation, not to mention corporate corruption and religious hypocrisy.

Remember the 1605 Gunpowder Plot? A group of Catholic conspirators led by Guy Fawkes plotted to blow up the Houses of Parliament while King James I of England and VI of Scotland and most of the aristocracy were in it.

The plot intended to kill the king, his family and most of the Protestant aristocracy by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on 5 November 1605, in order to spark a revolution in England.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes was ranked 30th in the 2002 list of the 100 Greatest Britons, sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public...

he is referred to as the only man ever to enter parliament with honest intentions.

and to this day, Guy Fawkes night is celebrated in the UK every November 5th. Proving that the spirit still lives on.

The Nattering One believes that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Those who make the effort to fight the good fight may suffer or die for their efforts, but not in vain, as their ideas live on.

Behind this mask there is more than flesh... Behind this mask there is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof.

Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

LCEC: Robbing the Cape Blind

2009-08-10T11:03:00.002-04:00

LCEC’s non demand rate is much like a residential bill in that...

it has only an energy charge for the electricity consumed during a billing period plus a customer charge to cover the meter reading and billing costs.

On the other hand... demand is measured to determine the amount of the utility’s equipment that is dedicated to serving a specific customer’s peak needs.

When a facility demands twenty or more kW of power at its time of peak use, it becomes a demand rate customer as opposed to a non demand customer.

As opposed to the energy charge being based on the ACTUAL amount of electricity consumed over the entire billing period…

the demand charge is related to the maximum demand for electricity that a customer COULD place on the utility’s system during the customer’s peak use.

This theoretical “demand” is calculated by the total electrical load of the equipment turned on at a facility during the highest fifteen minutes of use in a billing period.

A charge is assigned by LCEC to recover the investment in the under-used utility equipment.

At LCEC, the demand charges range from $6.99 to $12.07 per kW, depending on which of the demand rates is applicable.

The mechanism for insuring recovery of investment is demand ratchet and ratchet charges.

Ratchet charges require that billing demand (as compared to the actual demand) for any month will...

not be less than 70% of the peak demand set by the customer during the previous twelve months.

So, it only takes fifteen minutes to set a demand peak, and using a large amount of energy for fifteen minutes on any one day can affect your billing for the rest of the year.

As is normal, during new systems startup in June 2008, to test electrical capacity handling...

the Everest Water Reclamation plant separately loaded both sides of its “circuits” for several days.

To accommodate the Everest plant redesign, LCEC had provided a newer second service with two meters, in addition to the existing service with meter.

Bare in mind that the plant improvements were designed to (and actually did) DECREASE electrical demand through greater efficiency.

Thus, LCEC did NOT actually have to provide any additional capacity for the new plant design.

However, LCEC assessed the City of Cape Coral with a ratcheting charge for the atypical performance testing.

The Everest plant used 1500kw on each side during the test, but their average usage is only 700kw.

This generated a 70% of 1500kwh (1050 kwh) charge on each side for each month during a twelve month period.

Actual use was only 700kwh, resulting in a (1050 – 700 = 350kwh) 50% over charge on both meters for one year.

Worse yet, LCEC charged CCC, $6.99 per KW for demand on the new meters and $12.07 per KW on the older meters...

resulting in further excess cumulative demand charges for Q409 of $80,000.

If the service provided to the Everest plant was treated as a single bill by LCEC, the actual demand charge would have been $39,000 for the same period.

In other words, CCC is paying 100% more in demand charges for electricity that it NEVER has nor will consume.

This situation has resulted in an additional $10K per month being billed to CCC since June 2008.

Multiply $10K by 14 months you get $140K paid to LCEC by CCC for electricity NEVER USED.

The original intent of the demand charge was to compensate the utility for their investment in the size of service required for the maximum power use.

LCEC is a FOR PROFIT power distribution coop which still charges the city non demand charges for infrastructure...

that was put in to place thirty years ago and has long since been paid for many times over.

2008 Water, Sewer & Reclamation revenue totaled $55 million, while costs were $42 million...

that’s $13 million in profit being spent by the city fathers on bloated fire, police and other cost centers.

LCEC’s ratchet charge scam has resulted in the 2009 water reclamation operations budget running into the red.

To date, LCEC refuses to rectify the situation, hiding behind their co-op and “non producer” distribution only mandate.

Further, why is each CCC facility not extended a consolidated municipal rate for bulk or volume electricity usage citywide?

The City of Cape Coral is no longer a trailer located at the CC Pkwy & Del Prado intersection.

Isn’t it time that the CCC fathers seek legal redress for LCEC’s long time price goughing and also negotiate a blanket non demand rate for city wide operations.

After all, who is LCEC’s largest customer? Not the 52,000 individual Cape Coral customers...

but the City itself, who blindly misappropriates those very taxpayers monies to line the pockets of LCEC and it’s constituents.

Order It & They Will Build It

2009-07-31T14:22:00.002-04:00

MWH sold the city Bio-solids processing equipment for $14 million...

But wait, that’s not all you get, as this fiasco gets even better….

Would Martha Stewart order and pay for furniture to be delivered to a house that was not yet built?

The equipment was ordered, paid for with city money, then shipped to the Southwest reclamation plant.

But, a funny thing happened on the way to the new Biosolids Building…. it wasn’t built or funded yet.

So there the $14 million worth of equipment sits, out in the open, loaded on pallets...

wrapped in plastic, waiting for a building to be constructed, that funding was never approved for.

That might be the end of our story, except for the fact that MWH wanted $40 million...

to build a 45 ft tall building with six ft CBS walls, with the remainder finished in metal.

Some people in the city finance dept and a certain young business manager thought that $40 million might be a bit on the high side.

So MWH struck out certain items and came back at $32 million, sounds good eh?

To Bin or not to Bin… MWH eliminated several items, the most important is called as a bin activator.

Bin Laden or Activator? Biosolids come in three forms, final pellets, liquid or cake sludge, preprocessing each is a viable source for revenue.

A bin activator facilitates trucks loaded with cake sludge from other county’s plants to dump their loads at the plant. We take their sludge and turn in into money.

Don’t let them eat cake… Alas, no bin, no revenue from Cake sludge, and that’s a 33% revenue loss on the operation.

But that’s not all folks… this MWH offer gets even better…

In early 2007, Bonita Springs finished a new bio solids building (all CBS construction...

which was almost the same height with half the square footage and half the equipment (1 train, 1 dryer).

Interesting enough, the equipment came from the same manufacturer chosen for the Cape. Can you guess how much BS paid for half the equipment?

$2 million, not half of $14 million. How about the building cost, and mechanical installation of the equipment?

Can you say another $4 million? Add another $1 million for incidentals and you get a grand total of $7 million out the door.

If you DOUBLED this price to $14 million for twice the building and equipment, you get what the Cape paid for the equipment alone.

No building with MWH, that’s an EXTRA $30 million without our buddy Bin.

Out the door, $14 million vs $47 million, sounds like MWH’s standard 3X markup strikes the good citizens of the Cape again.

Who approved ordering equipment for delivery to a building that was unapproved? Where was the cost oversight on this project?

The Cape could manage this project and do the build out internally for around $13 million...

then pay engineers $2 million for the mechanical install of the bio solids equipment.

Oh, and one other thing, the BS building did not have a bin activator either.

Incidentally, the equipment vendor is now threatening to void the three-year warranty.

MWH is trying to use the warranty ploy as a way to coerce the city into approving their plans.

The city could still do for $15 million what MWH is essentially attempting to extort out of them for $42 million.

Coercion and extortion, sounds like the Soprano’s do run this town.

MWH Bleached, Barred & Blasted

2009-07-29T12:56:00.001-04:00

Regarding current MWH activity in Cape Coral...

The Nattering One has cultivated some unique sources over the years.

This time we have come across some inside information that needs to be shared with the public.

Please bare in mind that in all three of these cases, city employee's at both plant's...

have been adamant in their complaints about MWH's lack of engineering and refusal to rectify the situation that MWH directly caused.

Peroxide Blonde Design?: Both Everest & SW water reclamation plants have a malfunctioning sodium hypochorite (bleach) system & untenable bleach building's.

The skids where the VFD's (variable frequency drives) & pumps sit are a maintenance & operational nightmare.

VFD's were placed directly on the pumps, on the ground, open to the elements (rain) and separated by only 6-8" inches.

Because of the spacing and due to the pump/drive combo positioning the skids are almost impossible to maintenance or repair.

The VFD's & pumps are not even water resistant, so last year, 8 of 10 pump drives failed with the first seasonal rains.

Next to monitoring for dissolved oxygen, sodium hypochlorite levels are extremely critical to the process of reclaming waste water for safe public use.

These buildings and pump skids are a $750K disaster that MWH still refuses to take ownership of and insists that the city must pay to rectify.

Bar Screens: MWH replaced perfectly functioning 2 year old bar screen systems at both Everest & SW.

The new bar screens cannot perform allowing large clumps of debris to enter each plants process...

causing both plants massive deragging and maintenance problems downstream.

True Grit Blast? The grit system at SW Reclamation can only capture 45% instead of 95% of the grit as guaranteed.

The vendor was the only vendor which would guarantee 95%, the same vendor whose "teacup" systems failed miserably in the Cape a few years ago.

The system failed the initial test, so the vendor hired an “outside” firm and claimed passage of a dubious 2nd test.

City employees witnessed the 2nd test failure, nevertheless, MWH stood behind the vendor’s vailed legal threats.

Excessive grit entering the system would not only cause excessive downstream maintenance and process issues...

but it would also cause premature catastrophic failure of the new biosolids centrifuge systems at SW reclamation.

More to come on the Southwest Biosolids fiasco in our next post.

The Road to Nowhere

2009-07-28T11:15:00.002-04:00

According to the United States Public Interest Research Group, as of year end 2008...

15 roads in the U.S. had been privatized, and another 79 roads in 25 states were being considered for some form of privatization.

States and municipalities eager to find ways to finance transportation, and facing large budget deficits, are increasingly considering public-private partnerships to fill the void.

MWH & The Council

2009-07-23T14:42:00.002-04:00

Misinformation: MWH performs quality work that the City could not manage to perform.

Reality: MWH has spent all of the citys contingency money to fix their engineering mistakes.

This has left the city without critical funds to finish the reclamation plants with much needed improvements.

Reality: The City Council will revisit the UEP in their next session with several financing alternatives...

and one alternative which removes MWH as the contractor while issuing the contract for a rebid.

Removing MWH is a good start but... don’t let these politicians sell your future’s out again.

Keep the pressure on and make them take their time, reevaluate the assessments and rather than go with an outside contractor, do the job in house this time.

Create a future for the Cape or destroy it through gross mismanagement & taxation, the choice is yours.

Outsourcing to a Contractor At Risk

2009-07-23T14:38:00.002-04:00

Misinformation: MWH doesn’t need all the trouble here in the Cape, they have plenty of work elsewhere.

Reality: The Cape Coral project is MWH’s largest, worldwide, with the exception of Australia.

This job is so big that MWH hired a telemarketing firm to call North residents in an attempt to sway their opinions with a disinformation campaign.

Misinformation: The City needs to use a contractor to perform all the work because of liability issues.

Reality: The City can take out Errors & Omissions & Liability policies at a fraction of the cost of hiring ANY at risk contractor such as MWH.

Since 2000 this would have saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars paid to MWH, which now have to be paid back to keep the city solvent.

The City could have hired competent staff to manage and oversee city employees on the projects. This would have created thousands of infrastructure jobs.

Infrastructure jobs are the key component to a durable economic base.

A durable economic base would have been much more resililent than the service economy based on vapor loans.

Instead, the Cape decided to avoid taking ownership and pay extra to OUTSOURCE.

Now the chickens have come home to roost and the future economic costs will be enormous.

UEP Now & Only One Service?

2009-07-23T14:36:00.001-04:00

Misinformation: Doing just water in the NW instead of water/sewer/irrigation is cheaper.

Reality: Three separate pipes, three separate trenches, three separate paving jobs, three separate upheavels to achieve what you could have done in one fell swoop.

Yes, the pipes are still in separate trenches, but it’s easier to get the crew to dig, lay and bury all three at once. A single upheavel, reduced costs and your done.

Misinformation: We should move ahead with the UEP now, because later it will be more expensive.

Reality: If the City elimates MWH, the rebid would come in at 35% less.

Better yet, if the city does the right thing by taking this job on internally, taxpayers will save 66%.

That means water/sewer/irrigation for $6K upfront, not $18K.

Not to mention the incalculable benefit of creating a durable economic base in the Cape, which will reap multiple benefits for years to come.

Desalinization & Reclamed Water

2009-07-23T14:34:00.001-04:00

Misinformation: De-salinization is the way to go, why are we bothering rebuilding the RO & reclamation plants?

Reality: At one time the SW RO plant was the largest in the world.

Pulling from our aquafiers rather than the Gulf allows us to pass water through the membranes at lower pressure.

Less salt means lower pressure, which means the pumps use less energy and reduces the cost per gallon by seven fold.

Misinformation: The Cape doesn’t need reuse water for irrigation.

Reality: 40 to 60 percent of all water usage is for lawn irrigation.

Without the reuse water from Cape water reclamation plants, the residents would already have caused massive salt water intrusion into the aquafiers and wells.

What Would Martha Stewart Do?

2009-07-20T13:32:00.002-04:00

Would you send Martha Stewart to do your shopping? Probably not, unless price was no object….

As Martha would go to the most expensive market she could find (Whole Foods or Bristol Farms) and pick only the highest priced name brands off the shelf.

What would normally be a $100 basket, suddenly becomes a $300 basket.

This is how is works when there is plenty of money floating around and nobody is watching the till.

You want to spend $750K to install a security system for the Kismet North RO? $450K for card readers? $300K for networking and cameras?

Do you really think terrorists would even bother coming to Cape Coral? Much less the water plant?

Couldn’t you have your in house people do this for around $250K on equipment? Yes you could.

A $30 Million Bio Solids Building for the Southwest Water Reclamation Plant?

The city bought $17 Million in equipment and have it sitting on palettes under tarps with no building. Simply brilliant, but don’t blame the city.

Blame the at risk contractor MWH for spending the cities money like this. This is what happens when money flows freely, and nobody is watching the till.

The city could manage this project and build the structure for under $10 Million, but they are afraid to. Why?

The city fathers are afraid of taking ownership because of the risk involved with a new process...

and the three year warranties on equipment which MWH will not honor if they don’t build the structure.

This is what insurance is for. The insurance premium would be far less than the $20 million in tax payer dollars saved.

MWH’s behavior sounds more like blackmail and bullying through FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt).

This is what happens when the people in control can’t grow a pair. They shake at the mention of liability and would rather point fingers and delegate for blame’s sake.

Nobody in this town wants to take ownership and MWH likes it that way.

The city fathers are afraid of a redux of the CDM (Can’t Design Much; Cost’s Double the Money) fiasco in the late nineties.

That was then, this is now. Nobody likes finger pointing, and everybody likes to delegate. Too bad, because when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Hire the best project managers on the city payroll that money can buy. Manage the job and build the infrastructure by creating durable economic jobs.

Build a durable local economy by hiring local Lee County and Cape Coral citizens as city employees at prevailing labor rates.

The 2008 budget deficit was $17 million; 2009 will be on the order of $26 million (when the anticipated revenues dematerialize);

2010 will be even worse coming in at around $35 million (after bond downgrades and another wave of foreclosures).

The solution: The city fathers cannot outsource all the work and risk, while in effect taxing the citizenry to death.

Go to the $250 Million Lee County surplus for a temporary loan, take ownership and complete the following tasks.

The city should be allowed to move forward with the UEP ONLY IF:

1. MWH is removed and the assessment amounts are downscaled by 66% with in-house labor.

2. The project must be performed in-house with a majority of city mgmt & local labor; creating a durable economic base.

3. NO infrastructure assets are sold/leased to service ANY debt.

4. In the future, reduce deficit ridden fire & police payrolls.

The city father’s need to grow a pair, take ownership, and take back the process and risk from MWH.

Is this asking too much from the city manager (Terry Stewart, not Martha), head of finance and utilities director?

Is it asking too much from the part time pay city council with full time side jobs that have a conflict of interest? (developer, attorney, real estate agent).

From the track record so far, it seems like Martha Stewart has a bigger pair than all the city fathers combined.

Let's see what happens at the vote tonight.

Cape Coral City Council Meeting

2009-07-13T13:58:00.000-04:00

Tonights meeting is a work shop. Wonder if anyone will ask MWH about their triple estimated assessment costs?

Better yet, will anyone ask MWH about their triple excessive +$30 million price tag on the Southwest Water Reclamation Bio Solids Building?

That's right, it could be yours for only $10 million, but will anyone ask?

Assessments Based On MWH

2009-07-06T09:39:00.003-04:00

The public has been in an uproar with the City Council voting to proceed with the utilities expansion...

bringing water, sewer & irrigation at an upfront cost of $17K (financed $34K) to SW Areas 6,7; and water to North 1 through 8 at $6K (financed $10K).

The Nattering One muses... these heady cost estimates are based upon calculations used by the incumbent contractor MWH...

during the last surge in commodities & service prices during 2003.

Rebar, concrete, services & labor all cost far less today than during those halycon boomtown days.

In fact, the city could cut costs by 66%. How?

Fire the carpetbagger locusts at MWH, manage the project, hire permanent employees from Cape Coral & Lee County at prevailing wages to work the project.

Re-estimated costs based on this scenario prove that MWH is attempting to gough the public AGAIN while employing out of area labor at half the going rate.

Taking fiscal responsibility & ownership by bringing this project in house would help to build a durable economic base and save the taxpayers countless millions.

Will the City step up? Will Mark Mason, Terry Stewart & Chuck Pavlos man up? Will the Citzens of the Cape wise up?

The Perils Of Privatization

2009-06-15T08:13:00.002-04:00

From a Ducky Naybob, excerpts from The Perils Of Privatization... found in The American Prospect.

International finance institutions, funded by the United States and other developed nations,

provide loans to developing nations on the condition that they privatize services and charge steep user fees.

Indeed, the very institutions that are charged with alleviating poverty, like the World Bank,

are implementing policies that force people who make $1 or $2 a day to choose among food, housing, or water.

Drinking At The Public Fountain

2009-06-15T08:08:00.002-04:00

From a Ducky Naybob... excerpt from Global Policy Forum:

In the battle for a sustainable water future, a far-reaching revolt is needed to reclaim citizenship and redefine how we interact with our environment...

otherwise, these twenty-first century water wars could be merely a last stand against an inevitable corporatized future.

The spiraling collapse of the financial system may only intensify the quest for private investments in what is now the public sector.

Billions in private assets are now parked in "infrastructure funds" waiting for the crisis to mature and the right public assets to buy on the cheap.

The Water Barons

2009-06-15T07:19:00.002-04:00

An excerpt brought to our attention by a Naybob whose temperance is that of a waterfowl or of a "Ducky" nature...

The Water Barons...Based on past experience in other countries, though, privatizing water carries risks.

The water giants not only will raise rates to cover costs, critics say, but will use monopolies over water systems and rights to manipulate the system.

Critics fear that these companies will not be held accountable, so jobs will be lost, quality will wane and the poor will lose service.

"Why does somebody need to make money on your water?" said Dick Hierstein, city manager of Pekin, Ill., which decided to buy back its water system from American Water Works.

"Does somebody need to make money off the air you breathe? It is as simple as that."

Bond Reserve Convenants

2009-06-11T09:31:00.000-04:00

More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…

The reserve covenants (on the $310 Million in water bonds) are in violation, triggering bond rating downgrades, thus raising the yield & payments.

The city will be hard pressed to find any financing to roll over the debt, especially after California defaults in July.

Stay Thirsty My Friends

2009-06-11T09:28:00.000-04:00

More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…

"This is essential for economic development. New business won't come if we don't go through with this. " Pure misinformation.

"Yes this is a city wide concern - half of the city has either already paid or is paying now."

Pure misdirection. If all the lilliputians are BLINDLY jumping off a cliff, do you follow without question?

"This is not a contractor issue from what I can see. This is an administration/council issue problem." Disinformation, from genesis, it is both.

"If you follow the money so well please explain how you know it should have been a $100MM project? Just curious."

Vs inhouse city labor or city mgmt with local contractors, historically, MWH (or Money Wasted Hourly)...

and their subs markups are in most cases 4-5X; but always a MINIMUM of 3X. So, $100 Million is a generous est.

And NO, unlike Watergates DT, I will not meet you in a dimly lit parking structure to discuss particulars.

Stay thirsty & curious my friends, it may serve you well.

Moving Forward With UEP?

2009-06-11T09:27:00.000-04:00

More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…

The city should be allowed to move forward ONLY IF:

1. MWH is removed and a FULL audit of their past malfeasances is conducted.

2. The project must involve a majority of city mgmt & local labor; creating a durable economic base.

3. NO infrastructure assets are sold/leased to service ANY debt.

4. In the future, surplus water revenues should be reserved for water projects, instead of being pis*ed away on deficit ridden fire & police payrolls.

Water & Sewer IS the cities only cash cow and ASSET. Wake up, read the budget, do the math.

The City Overpaid?

2009-06-11T09:24:00.002-04:00

More of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…

You have limited options with population 150K; only 51K actually pay a water bill in the Cape; in an area that you could fit BOTH Boston AND San Francisco.

6200 in SW at $25K = $155 Million; 55000 in North at $7K = $385 Million. Lets see now, thats $540 Million we can borrow against and take from Peter to pay Paul.

Paul being the $310 Million in bond money already spent on water infrastructure, that comprises 80% of existing city indebtedness.

Bottom line: MWH did a Bernie and MADEOFF with $310 Million for what should have been $100 Million worth of work.

Already done: raise rates & expand the base.

Orders: get rid of MWH & corrupt guvmint lackeys; keep the work inhouse; create local jobs; use local contractors; under NO circumstance sell infrastructure assets.

Take Control Of Your Destiny

2009-06-11T09:22:00.001-04:00

Some of our highlights from a News-Press forum on the subject of Water utilities in Cape Coral…

Yes (the council) were sold by staff, but the staff are hardly inept as previously mentioned.

The first order of business should be to get rid of MWH...

cast out these seven year locusts so they can move on to drain their next victim bloodless.

But you (the public) should pay no heed to the man behind the curtain and keep your eyes on the prize.

A plan has been afoot to place the city into an unsupportable debt service level...

thus forcing either bankruptcy or the sale of the most precious and valuable asset the PUBLIC has.

That being, the long term rights to YOUR PUBLIC WATER treatment, collection, distribution & reclamation systems.

PAY CLOSER ATTENTION, you are being polarized for the benefit of the few and the rich.

Stop being victims and take control of your destiny. Remember, its all about the money, so follow the money.

Protecting Cape Coral's Water: A Crisis In The Making

2009-06-08T10:56:00.004-04:00

Background

Cape Coral is a national leader in providing high quality drinking water and monitoring water quality.

Since 2006, the Cape Coral Public Works Utilities Division has invested over $170 million in its treatment, reclamation and distribution systems to ensure this quality is maintained.

In addition the Utilities Division has invested another $140 million in the new Kismet North RO plant which is 85% complete.

The Cape Coral Water Works treats water with a multiple-step process to protect public health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed Cape Coral’s drinking water as among the highest quality in the nation.

The Cape Coral Water Works collection & distribution systems, treatment & reclamation plants are owned by the City of Cape Coral and provides drinking water to residents and businesses in Cape Coral and neighboring communities.

Problem

There is an effort underway to privatize the Cape Coral Works, an effort which is moving quickly and quietly.

The idea was first broached publicly by several councilmen in late 2008, after discussions with several business executives.

Water privatization is being undertaken in response to $35 million in budget shortfalls in Cape Coral.

The idea is to arrange a very-long-term lease of all the water operations, with the city retaining ownership; a 99-year lease has been suggested.

A one-time payment of $500 to $600 million for the lease would be set aside in an endowment to generate about $30 million annually to help fund city operations.

It is assumed that water rates will go up after privatization; the rate is currently at market rate. $30 million annually in lease revenue would substitute for additional property taxes, fees, or state or federal revenue.

If the City was to move forward, the city Council would authorize an RFP to find an “Advisor Team” to oversee and guide the bidding and contracting process.

Multiple firms would submit proposals by a deadline. The Advisor would then move as quickly as possible to prepare an RFP for the actual privatization.

In other cities where this process has occurred, advisors are paid with a combination of fee for service and “success” fees upon completion of a final contract which is an incentive for advisors to push for privatization.

Impact Analysis

This proposal does not bode well for the Cape Coral area. There are a number of serious issues at stake—costs, water quality, economic development and accountability.

There are several major companies in the world with the capacity to bid for the Cape Coral contract; three of which are Suez Environment, Veolia Environnement and RWE.

The first two are French multinational corporations with global operations related to water and waste management.

The third is a German firm which in April 2009 announced its intent to sell its water operations, including American Water which operates in the U.S.

Suez Environment owns United Water, which obtained a contract to manage the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) in 1998.

MMSD became the largest publicly owned wastewater system under private operating contract in the US. In 2008, at the expiration of the contract, United Water was replaced by Veolia on a 10-year contract.

Among other things, United Water was issued 20 notices of contract non-compliance during its tenure running MMSD.

Both United Water and Veolia have had serious problems in other cities across the United States. Veolia has managed water systems in New Orleans and Indianapolis as well as smaller communities in Massachusetts and Texas.

The drinking water in Indianapolis is rated second worst in the nation and received a failing grade from Men’s Health magazine. Residents took Veolia to court claiming the company overcharged 250,000 customers.

This privatization proposal emerged in the midst of enthusiastic discussions about the extraordinary importance of maintaining lake & river water as a resource for generations to come.

Handing control over a completely renovated water system to a multinational corporation whose only obligation is to stockholder profits would remove this valuable resource from public control.

Accountability and transparency are especially important priorities for governmental operations at all levels. Water is a fundamental necessity for families and businesses.

Unlike petroleum or electricity, there are absolutely no alternatives to water as an essential element for life and commerce.

Decisions about the operations and management of this basic resource should be made deliberately and with substantial public oversight.

The Cape Coral area—the entire state of Florida—has a huge stake in water as a pivot point for economic recovery and growth. We cannot let this slip through our fingers into the hands of companies with no stake in local growth.

Steps to take

There are four main goals:

1. Bring this issue into the public view—this should not be a secret process decided quickly behind closed doors. It is crucial to develop a coalition that can spread the word.

2. Slow down the process. There are some local leaders who want the Advisor hired in late summer, then brought in to move as fast as possible toward final privatization.

3. Develop and distribute information to community members and leaders about the water privatization issue, the corporations involved and alternate ways to address the budget shortfall at the city level.

4. Maintain public control and oversight of Cape Coral’s water works.

Merced's Water Bottled By Safeway

2009-06-05T09:29:00.003-04:00

Most bottled waters are nothing more than tap water run through an additional RO process...

then marked up 500 to 4000% to the uninformed consumer... To cut budget deficits, perhaps Cape Coral could bottle its own water and sell it at a profit?

Excerpts from Merced Sun Star

The Safeway Inc.'s water bottling plant in Merced -- one of the top five commercial/industrial water users in the city...

which bottles Safeway's in-house purified and spring water brand Refreshe -- uses roughly 50,000 gallons a day, five days a week, for its bottling operation.

The plant, which provides most "Refreshe" water to Safeway stores in the state, filters city water, puts it in bottles and sells it as purified water.

In Safeway's case they pay more than $1,000 a month for more than a million gallons of water.

The retail cost for that much purified bottled water at Safeway is just under $3 million.

The city pumps about 21 million gallons of water a day, and Safeway uses 50,000, that works out to be 0.238 percent of the total gallons pumped.

But the plant doesn't only use water. It also produces waste.

The plant's purification process discharges roughly 52,000 pounds of salts a year into the city's wastewater system, according to their permit.

While bottled water sells itself as better than tap water, it contributes to pollution and has been found in some cases to be less healthy than tap water.

Many of the bottles end up in landfills and in some cases contain industrial chemicals and bacteria above state and industry standards.

According to the Sierra Club, nine out of 10 plastic water bottles end up as garbage or litter.

Neglected Realities

2009-06-04T11:14:00.003-04:00

Very often, people in power are prepared to let themselves become prisoners of ideology.

With privatization, a persuasive case is made for ending public ownership or operation.

This, however, is usually a case in which little critical spirit is exercised with respect to intellectual assumptions.

It is also a case which too often lacks realistic analysis of how privatization would actually work under specific circumstances.

The idea behind privatization is that profit seeking companies make new investments, rehabilitating the system to attract more customers.

What usually happens is quite easily foreseeable.

The companies go after short term profits, which the current business consensus - making quarterly shareholder return management's priority - enjoins them to do.

Long term investment can tie up a company's profits for a generation. That is why governmental funding has always been essential to infrastructure projects.

A neglected reality is that if an enterprise cannot function efficiently when profits are not demanded from it...

introducing the profit requirement makes reform harder, not easier.

The profit motive may incite management to work harder, but it doesn't make management smarter or more effective.

Another neglected reality is that more often than not, non-financial management determines the success of an enterprise.

There can be excellent management in public enterprises. There can be disastrous management in private ones.

An oft made mistake in municipal management is choosing management teams heavy in financial specialists rather than composed of the people really needed:

Managers experienced in specific municipal enterprises, that are able to grasp and remedy the cities fundamental deficiencies.

Some Privatization Issues

2009-06-04T10:36:00.005-04:00

Private or "investor-owned" water utilities account for about 15% of total water sales and revenues.

Many investor-owned utilities operate multiple water systems. The decision to privatize is complex and can involve significant trade-offs.

The interest in privatization is linked to the mounting pressures on water utilities in terms of replacing the aging infrastructure, complying with stringent regulations, and meeting needs associated with growth.

Recently, the city of Milwaukee, WI put the brakes on a public water privatization program.

With increasing pressure on the city budget, the city council had raised the idea of leasing the Water Works for 75 to 99 years...

in exchange for a one-time payment of $550 million to $600 million.

That cash could be invested to create an endowment that would generate $30 million a year...

which the council figured would stave off annual debates on slashing services or raising taxes. Sounds good?

Some issues that were raised in Milwaukee's case, and would be raised in Cape Coral's case:

Would you want to give the rights and control over your most valuable resource to foreign interests?

All the major water companies that would be bidding for the contract were foreign companies.

Could the city afford to lose Federal, State & County shared revenues?

With the one time right's payment generating money the chances were good that the state legislature would reduce the city's funding from the state shared revenue.

The end result would be that the city would be no better off financially, and would have lost control of its water.

Could the city budget be balanced with the $35 million per year return on the $500 million?

The city assumed that if they invested the rights fee at a conservative 7% interest that they could make $35 million a year.

In the current market there are no "long" portfolios earning 7% and if the market were to turn south again...

there is a possibility that the portfolio could generate negative returns and eroding the city's asset.

To promote profit, won't the private company make a large investment in the city's water infrastructure?

One of the biggest reason municipalities have for selling of their infrastructure assets is deferred maintenance and the high cost of repair or upgrades.

Both city's have recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade their capacity and keep their water systems state of the art.

Could the privateers sell off the city's water supply to those willing to pay a higher price?

There is huge profit to be made in selling water from a water rich region to a water poor region. And remember, privatization IS about being FOR PROFIT.

While regional water compacts CAN prevent pumping water to customers beyond the watershed, it doesn't prevent the bottling and sale of that same water.

Would a private company care about water conservation?

Fresh water isn't a commodity, its a resource and basic human right that should be protected.

Today people are thinking about and acting to protect their water sources.

From a FOR PROFIT standpoint: The more you use, the more you waste, the more money they make.

Public Sentiment or Demagoguery?

2009-06-04T10:13:00.003-04:00

There is a movement in Cape Coral, Fl. to privatize the public water system.

Does this movement reflect true public sentiment? Or is it based in Demagoguery?

This blog site is dedicated to informing the citizens of Cape Coral about how privatization would NOT be in their best interests.

From Cape Coral Watchdogs written by self professed mayoral candidate John Sullivan:

If our administration can’t deliver the same services at the same price as other communities in Florida by taking these projects in-house and/or by getting rid
of manager at risk (MWH Montgomery Watson Harza)...

then the utilities need to be privatized in order to curb the financial destruction brought on by these projects as they exist today.

If the city refuses to take these (water system expansion) projects in-house, then there is only one other alternative and that is to privatize the utilities.

The cost of the utilities is breaking the backs of the residents financially and this is going to affect the economy in Cape Coral for many years to come.

From Cape Coral Minutemen written by John Sullivan.

There is one other alternative, that would be to sell the utilities and pay down the debt and privatize it. It would be regulated and we would have experts running it.

We don't appear to be able to run this ourselves without the prospect of huge rate increases each year.

We need to get the utilities out of the hands of the city because it is too expensive and will only make it unaffordable to stay in Cape Coral.