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Prison guards can retire at the age of 55 and earn 85% of their final year's salary for the rest of their lives. They also continue to receive medical benefits. As a California prison guard, you can make six figures in overtime and bonuses alone. While Harvard-educated lawyers and consultants often have to work long hours with little recompense besides Chinese take-out, prison guards receive time-and-a-half whenever they work more than 40 hours a week. One sergeant with a base salary of $81,683 collected $114,334 in overtime and $8,648 in bonuses last year, and he's not even the highest paid.

Sarah Palin may be having some trouble with the voting demographic from her own home state of Alaska. According to results released Wednesday, the Dittman Research Corporation’s AlaskaPoll showed the former Governor and potential 2012 Presidential candidate rated at 61% unfavorably by a survey taken between March 3 and March 17th of approximately 400 Alaskans.

Yes, this is a vanity but it's also data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - go to URL. Here's a graph of US Currency volume in January 2008 to date. In appears that the January 2008 Total volume was around $755 Billion with the current volume around $930 Billion, a variance of $175 Billion. Therefore, it appears that we not only owe $14+ Trillion (US Federal Deficit), but we've managed to deflate/dilute our currency by around 23% since January 2008. Can someone verify this assumption? I'd be interested in posters take on this issue. It seems to...

(CNSNews.com) - The jobs created and saved by the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed on Feb. 17, 2009 cost at a minimum an average of $228,055 each, according to data released yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Snip.......

I'm looking for input relating to County level spending, specifically in CA if possible. For example: How does one assess the fiscal performance of a county/city or is that even possible? Do City and County employees participate in the SS program, in addition to receiving a pension from the City or County? What about School teachers? In my county, the road department is always whining about not having sufficient funding to fix county roads - is there a way (for a citizen) to assess performance at the county department level?

No wonder socialism seems like a reasonable alternative to capitalism to those who buy into it. Why work so hard when we can just “share the wealth” instead? Indeed, if there really were a source of “permanent plenty,” we would be fools not to take advantage of it. However, I have to ask: At what point does reality intrude and get us to admit that “permanent plenty” is a fairy tale akin to Aladdin’s magic lamp and the goose that laid the golden egg? It is unfortunate that we may not hear the truth in our lifetimes. The stimulus package;...

The Tax Foundation announced this week that California has the second worst business tax climate of the 50 states, with only New York more hostile to employers. Congratulations, but it gets worse. If a pair of ballot measures pass next week, the Golden State could soon take the tax lead and make even Albany look like Hong Kong. Proposition 24 would raise $1.3 billion of new taxes on businesses, while Proposition 25 would allow the state legislature to pass budgets and tax increases with a simple majority vote, instead of the current mandated two-thirds supermajority. Snip

To the students and faculty of our high school: I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people. I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers, and against our country. First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow, or...

With the end of combat in Operation Enduring Freedom presidentially certified, all eyes rivet toward Afghanistan. This is the fight President Obama, when campaigning for office, called our "war of necessity." This is the theater of conflict where Obama, when debating Sen. McCain barely two years ago, promised us victory ending with the killing or capture of Osama bin Laden. Ironically, Afghanistan may also be the only war in American history with a presidential expiration date.

QUEENSBURY, N.Y. -- Bill and Beverly Osborn still can't bring themselves to erase the phone message from their son Ben. He had called from Afghanistan in June to assure them that he was safe. Four days later, he was killed in a Taliban ambush. The Osborns long ago accepted the risks faced by their son, an Army specialist. But what they can't accept now are the military rules of engagement, which they contend made it possible for the Taliban to kill him. Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/09/05/1675551/criticisms-of-military-rise-with.html#ixzz0ys7V1q7g

Dear Conservative Americans, The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You've lost me and you've lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I'd like to give you some advice and an invitation. First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Has anyone here completed the transfer as noted above, e.g. transferred their 401K or 403b funds to an annuity with an insurance company, avoiding tax? If yes, I would think that doing that now would be bad timing, given the low rate environment, correct? Any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated. I'm starting to look into options - thinking - fixed-rate for life - joint lives annuity.

Excerpted AP article

If there was one moment that foreshadowed California's long, sad descent from multibillion-dollar surpluses to deficits as far as the eye can see, it was that day in 1999 when the Senate approved legislation to increase pensions for state workers and opened the door for even bigger retirement checks for local employees. The discussion on the floor of the Senate took less than one minute, and it was tragically myopic, focusing not on how the bill would affect employees generally or on what it would cost the taxpayers but on the goodies the measure would grant to the Legislature's own...

Today the US Treasury Department announced an update to allow refinancing of mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to a first lein position of 125% of the home’s appraisal value. This is a level that was previously set at 105% loan to value.

I was not impressed by Sen. Barack Obama after the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident – a wholesome presidential package. It is so instinctive for most people to want to see blacks succeed. It is as if all humanity is carrying a collective guilt for what the ancestors of blacks endured. However, despite my initial interest in him, I was soon put off, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor...

Bill Would Grant President Unprecedented Cyber-security Powers By Roy Mark 2009-04-02 The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 introduced in the Senate would allow the president to shut down private Internet networks. The legislation also calls for the government to have the authority to demand security data from private networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access. The headlines were all about creating a national cyber-security czar reporting directly to the president, but the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 introduced April 1 in the U.S. Senate would also give the president unprecedented authority over private-sector Internet...

In a move that will likely get California's consumers in a huff, impending legislation may soon restrict the paint color options for Golden State residents looking for their next new vehicle. The specific colors that are currently on the chopping block are all dark hues, with the worst offender seemingly the most innocuous color you could think of: Black. What could California possibly have against these colors, you ask? Snip....

Corporate Credit Unions taken over by regulator - YIKES. I cannot get through to the URL right now, just announced on TV

Snip.... In June of 2007, Podesta's Center for American Progress released a report titled "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," detailing the conservative viewpoint's dominance on the airwaves and proposing steps for leveling the playing field. "Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system," the report reads, "particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimination of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules including the requirement of local participation in management." The report...