Celebrating Independence Day

We had a marvelous dinner of traditional burgers on the grill.  Then, at dinner, Wendy recited the Declaration of Independence including each of the signers.  We spent time discussing the meaning of various… er… declarations.  As it happened, the fox that lives in our backyard came out to eat some berries out of the yard.  We decided to name him Button, after Button Gwinnett.  His nickname is Butt.  Not sure that’s a good thing.

Once Again, Job Numbers Aren’t Adding Up

Even in the same story!

Mr Obama said the projects would provide more than 5,000 new jobs.

Hmmm…

According to the company’s website, 1,500 new jobs will be created during the plant’s construction with 100 positions for staff to maintain it.

[...]

Plants will be built in Colorado and Indiana, creating 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs, the Associated Press reports.

Ok, so I guess Obama is right.  This will allegedly “create” more than 5,000 jobs.  5,100, to be precise.  Of course, only about 1,600 of those will be permanent - assuming that the private sector will adopt what the government stimulus is creating.  Otherwise, it’ll take yet more taxpayer money or those jobs will go away. 

Meanwhile, let’s evaluate the cost… for 5,100 jobs - only 1,600 of which are more than temporary, it will cost $392,157 per job.  Wow. 

Finally, I’m glad the story mentioned this:

Around 125,000 jobs were lost in the last month, the government reported.

As we saw with the Bucyrus fiasco, the green initiatives do come at a cost of other sectors of the economy.  It’s hard for me to get excited about spending nearly $400k per job when we lost 125,000 jobs in the last month.  Perhaps a more viable structural solution is in order.

Creed of Slaves

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

- William Pitt

Patriotism

For my hero, by his hero.

Hat tip, Ol’ Broad.

County Appeals Ruling

These stories are so frustrating.

Washington County has appealed a court ruling that could crimp its efforts to save money by outsourcing services with private contractors.

   The court case involves a 2007 union complaint filed against the county’s Samaritan Health Center after that nursing facility hired a subcontractor to handle laundry and housekeeping services for the center and its adjacent Fields of Washington County assisted living facility.

   Those services had been done by unionized county employees previously.

   Earlier this year, Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy sided with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC), which reversed an initial decision by its own hearing examiner that the county had acted properly.

[...]

The decision to contract with BSG was motivated by a desire to reduce costs in an area it concluded was out of line with the relevant labor market, said Ed Somers, Samaritan administrator.

   It was determined the Samaritan was paying $4 per hour per patient day higher than the median cost for such services in the private sector.

   “Our wages were just so out of line with the private sector,” Somers said.

[...]

BSG offers housekeeping, custodial and laundry services to nursing homes, community based residential facilities, residential care apartment complexes and other adult retirement facilities in Wisconsin.

   With BSG providing those services, the Samaritan estimated it would save $234,165. The contract with BSG was for seven years.

   That resulted in 17 layoffs Aug. 1, 2007, Somers said. “They were all offered jobs (at the Samaritan).”

[...]

Somers said BSG’s has done a good job fulfilling its housekeeping and laundry services. “The building is very, very clean,” he said. “The residents are pleased and so is the staff.”

So, let’s break this down… the county was overpaying for some custodial services that were being done by union county employees.  They contracted with a private company to do the job which saves the county taxpayers $234,165.  The building is clean to everyone’s satisfaction and all of the former county employees were offered a job to keep doing what they were doing albeit at the market price for their services.  Win, win, win.  Clean building.  Taxpayers save money.  Everybody stays employed.

But, of course, that’s not the point.  The point of government still appears to be about providing jobs to union workers instead of providing services to the taxpayers at a reasonable cost.  The County Board did the right thing here, but this story illustrates why so many of them just don’t bother.

Dole Inspires/Inspired

Sometimes it’s too easy to forget those who have given so much for the betterment of our great nation. 

One of the most famous veterans of the “Greatest Generation” has joined the ranks of recently injured members of the military at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Former Sen. Bob Dole was so badly wounded 65 years ago that he almost didn’t make it off the battlefield. Now, he is recovering from surgery alongside troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I’m just sort of one of the group. We show up at 10 o’clock and do our stuff,” Dole said as he pedaled a stationary bike during a morning physical therapy session.

Dole, who turns 87 this month, is at Walter Reed for rehabilitation connected to knee replacement surgery. A bout with pneumonia lengthened his post-op recuperation, so he’s been with the young troops since they arrived from the battlefield.

[...]

Army Sgt. Lee Langley, 26, said knowing how much Dole has accomplished after being seriously wounded on the battlefield gives him, and troops with more severe injuries than his, hope.

“It just means that I have all the opportunities in the world,” Langley said. “A lot of people are paralyzed, a lot of people don’t have legs or arms, but they can still have a good life afterwards.”

Happy Independence Day

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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