fly at night

History returns with a little help from the editor…

True statements all the way around…

The FY 010-011 budget proposal is for $3.83 T in spending resulting in a deficit of $1.56 T.

A little historical perspective. (HT Hotair)

Let’s take a quick look of the markets after the first year of President Obama at the controls.

The Dow started at $8,281.22 and ended the 12-months at $10,725.43 (+29.5%)
NASDAQ started at $1,529.33 and ended at $2,320.40 (+51.7%).
S&P started at $850.12 and ended at $1,150.23 (+35.3%)

Let us not forget the all important Crude Oil. Obama opened at $36.51 and ended the 12-months at $79.02. (+116%).

US Bank is the 6th largest commercial bank which means that it is not a local bank. US Bank has 768 branches in grocery stores, university and workplace campuses.

Our local branch works with personal depositors and local businesses to meet their financial concerns. Although not a “local bank” our local branch makes you feel as if you are working with a “local” banking institution. (Yes, a personal bias toward this excellent bank). I have never had a negative outcome with the Susanville branch of US Bank.

Golden One Credit Union is a large and well financed credit union with about $7 billion in assets (according to their website). Golden One claims to be the 6th largest credit union in America. They have about 83 locations. Again, not a local institution but one that assimilates into the community to provide professional financial services.

Tri Counties Bank has 57 branches in 23 California counties. The headquarters for this bank is in Chico, CA. This is another good bank for our community.

Plumas Bank “operates thirteen branches located in the counties of Plumas, Lassen, Sierra, Placer, Nevada, Modoc and Shasta.” (More personal bias) This bank works well with it local customers. Our local branch certainly operates like a local bank and like the other institutions mentioned is actively involved in our local community.

The only “truly” local financial institution is the Lassen County Federal Credit Union. This is a well managed and very customer friendly institution.

“Local Bank” is in the eye of the consumer. To be a good bank each institution must have the services and products available for the customer base. Interaction with the bank must be friendly. Add whatever function that is important to you. Since each of these banks/credit unions support many local community activities I would consider them a local bank partner in this community.

Around 1 am this morning this site was hacked by a group of folks with nothing better to do. I lost a handful of posts but nothing major.

I will be more cautious next time as I anticipate returning to a regular posting schedule by next summer.

I can’t believe that 09 is over tonight. I guess time goes by fast when you are having fun. The only thing left would be predictions for 010.

The California economy will continue on its downhill slide. Under Gov Arnold we will see state employees take another 5 per cent hit which will take more cash out of our economy and not fix the budget.

The California Legislature will wait for Gov. Brown to take office before they implement their very late budget that includes a new VAT. They will also hit the medical profession to pay a “Medicaid” reduction tax that requires a tax on the gross amount billed, not the adjusted payment amount, to be taxed like a sales tax. This will be found legal because the then Attorney General Brown wrote such an opinion.

Local economies and governments will see a steady decline in revenues. Counties will be hardest hit.

Unemployment will remain high.

Our dollar will remain unstable and the UK will see the Pound take a pounding.

The Dems will not lose control of Congress. Gerrymandered districts don’t you know?

Tiger Woods will not win a major. His caddy will have his hands full trying to retain order while Tiger plays. The media will continue to say they didn’t put him on a pedestal.

President Obama will move to amnesty after healthcare.

There will be more trouble in home ownership land. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a new pot of gold to spend which will lead us to a stock market “correction” just in time for the election.

The global warming and cooling communities will merge and make a major statement about manmade climate change.

There will be at least one new member of the Susanville City Council.

December 31, 010 will come as a welcome end to another year. If you have an “O” 9 you have to have an “O” 10.

The dumb idea of the day award goes to the LC Times managing editor for her November 3, 2009 editorial. The clever one writes that telling the people the truth is a “scare tactic”. This means that when things are tough don’t tell the public all of the facts or you will scare them.

Are there people who don’t want the City Council to be so transparent? You bet! The managing editor is one.

The managing editor would have preferred that the public not be told all of the facts about natural gas. But on November 10 she wrote another one of her memorable columns. She states

He said people have told him that the city shouldn’t be telling everyone everything and that is should keep some things silent.

As noted above, she says that the truth is scare tactics. The implication is not to tell the public everything. Therefore she doesn’t want the council to be so transparent. Mrs. France, the statement was made to you just for you because you only want the people to know your truth.

So, today we find that mean Board of Supervisors discussing the same “scare tactics” at a board meeting. Maybe it is not that bad of an idea…you know, letting the people know what is actually going on. Afterall, we can’t wait for the managing editor to figure out which side of the issue she is on this week.

As you can see, this is about something else because there are no obvious core values involved in the managing editor decisions.

Look, it is too easy to have fun with the managing editor. The problem here isn’t scare tactics or not understanding the facts. The problem is that I am not her bud, her buds are gone from City Hall, and I don’t bow down to her. Read Mr. Forbes Letter To The Editor and you could easily apply those statements here. There is little doubt that the managing editor is morphing into the “Krazy Witch Hunt” lady.

Coming soon we will learn how the managing editor uses and abuses numbers.

I haven’t written much about the LC Times and the editorial pages lately. Frankly, there is little reason to dignify the clueless, baseless, and factless ramblings. However, the hypocrisy has flowed over the dam. I hope that the Publisher, Mr. Taborski, will find the post as informative of what is being done in his name.

I hate long posts but there has been so much Newspeak, doublespeak, and tweaking of reality that I can’t do it in a paragraph or two.

Just a quick note to Mr. Taborki. I don’t have a problem with you personally. Your job is to make your organization profitable. But there must be some reasonable level of dignity, lack of bias, and withholding of personal agendas in your paper. I would suggest that your paper is losing credibility in the opinion making arena.

What happened to that Administration that was going to be so open and transparent?

From Byron York (via Instapundit)

Some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were taken aback Wednesday by Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to reveal conflicts of interest involving Justice Department lawyers who, before joining the Obama administration, worked on behalf of Guatanamo detainees.

One reason it has taken so long to deal with the Guantanamo cases is the number of legal challenges lodged by lawyers for the detainees, some of whom are now working on detainee matters in the Obama Justice Department.

Times have changed haven’t they? That closed GWB administration has been replaced by…ah…the closed BHO administration?

The saying goes something like this: You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own set of facts.

The print media believes that they can have their own opinion and they will fiddle with the facts to meet that opinion. How many times have you seen a reference to the facts supporting an editorial? Orwell would consider this as gravitating to Newspeak.

Some “so-called” blogs take the fiddling with facts to the point of out-right ignorance.

Locally we have these two mediums morphing into one another. It is hard to tell if the agenda and writing method of one medium hasn’t crept into the editorial pages.

Without doubt some issues are complex and actually require some research. Gotcha research is not real research. Long and confusing writings simple don’t create a truth or a fact that doesn’t exist in real life.

So spin away. Real security is in knowing the truth and that it really can’t be changed to meet an agenda.

Update:

I found this at RedState this morning…very appropriate for this topic…