Usa Thread

[Steve]

A while back I asked in one of my meandering diatribes about government if anyone was as distrustful as I am if I were a retired city or state government worker (even Federal) and I was on a lifelong pension. How confident are you that the money will be paid out? I thought it would be paid but it would be reduced greatly over time by the powers that be taxing it more, reducing it or doing something that would take more money out.

 

This is a list of states that are in the most trouble with their pension funds.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/112640/states-pensions-public-sector-247

 

1. Kentucky

2. Illinois

3. New Hampshire

4. New Jersey

5. Oklahoma

6. Kansas

7. Massachusetts

8. Colorado

9. Maryland

10. Pennsylvania

 

A few states surprised me by being on the list as well as a few states that weren't on the list that I thought would be.

 

Surprised to see New Hampshire on the list. Thought those New England states had their act together. Especially NH and Vermont which I always envisioned as states with yankee strictness.

 

Surprised California and New York are not on there. Also, more states from the deep south like Alabama and Mississipi or Arkansas. They have a fairly large number of poor, etc. so I thought their tax revenues would be fairly low.

[Bangkoktraveler]

You might be correct. In the article they don't tell you how they made the calculations.

[Flashermac]

 

Passengers, Flight Crew Subdue Unruly Man on SFO-Bound Plane

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (CBS 5 / KCBS) — A passenger aboard a Chicago-to-San Francisco flight was wrestled to the floor by flight attendants and fellow passengers late Sunday night after the man began yelling and banging on the cockpit door as the flight approached SFO, according to authorities.

 

28-year-old Rageh Almurisi of Vallejo was seated in the coach section of American Airlines Flight 1561 when he allegedly started to walk briskly toward the front of the plane within 30 minutes of its scheduled landing at SFO, San Francisco police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said.

 

A flight attendant said it seemed, initially, that he was going to the forward bathroom. However, once Almurisi walked past the first class section and the bathroom, the flight attendant asked him to sit back down.

 

Almurisi apparently ignored the order and started to yell unintelligibly and pound on the cockpit door.

 

Fellow passenger Andrew Wai of San Francisco told CBS5 that Almurisi seemed fidgety throughout the flight.

 

“He had been yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ running down the aisle and then either him of passengers started yelling go, go, go,†Wai said.

 

Allah Akbar means “God is Great†in Arabic.

 

Martelle said a flight attendant asked for assistance with the passenger and a number of people responded, including an off-duty American Airlines pilot.

 

...

 

 

 

Here we go again ...

[Flashermac]

 

Obama Gets Boost From Death of Bin Laden: NBC Poll

 

 

 

President Obama's standing with Americans has improved after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden, but only slightly.

 

A new NBC News poll showed that the president's job approval rating ticked up to 52 percent after the successful strike against al Qaeda's leader. [color:red]That's just three percentage points higher than the approval rating he received in April, before the raid.[/color]

 

That modest gain reflects Americans' continuing concerns over an economy in which growth has slowed and the unemployment rate remains high at 9 percent.

 

Just 31 percent believe the economy will improve in the next year, down from 40 percent in January. And the survey showed that approval of President Obama's handling of the economy has actually declined since then, to 37 percent.

 

But the president's ratings on other dimensions have improved. Some 57 percent approve his handling of foreign policy, up from 49 percent last month.

 

Moreover, President Obama gets higher marks in the survey for leadership, crisis management, decisiveness, direction of the Afghanistan war, and serving as commander in chief. The telephone poll of 800 adults, conducted May 5-7, carries a margin for error of 3.46 percentage points.

 

Presidents typically benefit from upticks in approval in the wake of triumphs in office or unexpected events that unite the nation. But those "rally effects" tend to dissipate, sometimes rapidly.

 

For now, however, Persident Obama is benefitting both from his handling of the Bin Laden raid and [color:green]the weakness of the 2012 Republican presidential field[/color]. By 45 percent to 30 percent, respondents said they would "probably vote" for the Democratic incumbent over his Republican opponent next November.

 

That fifteen percentage point margin is up from five percentage points last month.

 

 

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42934735

 

 

 

[Bangkoktraveler]

With the USA's heavy debt load it will be like turning lead into gold if Obama can pull off the trick.

[Steve]

Rather than start a new thread and risking the ire of all you anti Americanistas..hehe..I'll put it here.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110509/us_yblog_thelookout/local-pastor-made-up-elaborate-navy-seal-tale

 

Local pastor made up elaborate Navy SEAL tale

Moats told his church for five years that he was a former SEAL, and even once wore the elite program's gold Trident medal around town. He elaborated on that tale when his local paper contacted him last week as it was reporting a story about the rigors of SEAL training in the wake of the SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.

Among other things, Moats said he was subjected to waterboarding when he trained at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach in 1971 and was assigned dishwashing duty for his bad attitude. "I had almost no discipline. I was as wild as they came. That was my nemesis," he told the paper. "They weren't looking for a guy who brags to everyone he is a SEAL. They wanted somebody who was ready but had an inner confidence and didn't have a braggadocio attitude."

Several former SEALs wrote into The Patriot-News casting doubt on the reverend's account of his service.

"We deal with these guys all the time, especially the clergy. It's amazing how many of the clergy are involved in those lies to build that flock up," said retired SEAL Don Shipley. Shipley also speculated the waterboarding and kitchen details came from the action depicted in "Under Siege."

 

that part made me laugh.

[Flashermac]

 

I knew of a guy at work who got himself ordained through the mail by one of those flakey "churches" that do that. (OH has been ordained by one!) The guy built a concrete block "church" on his property and would preach to his neighbours once a month. The reason he did it was so he could claim a tax exemption on his land. Everyone knew what he was up to, but the authorities couldn't touch him.

 

 

 

 

[cavanami]

I saw something on the internet, "The Wall of Shame" or something like this.

 

It listed all the phoney SEALS.

[Flashermac]

 

There is another site for idiots who claim they recieved the Medal of Honor. There was a "stolen valor" law making it an offence to claim you recieved medals you didn't, but a federal judge struck it down as violating "free speech". WTF?

 

p.s. The "shield of shame" is army slang for Judge Advocate General's Corps - lawyers in uniform.

 

 

[Steve]

I saw something on the internet, "The Wall of Shame" or something like this.

 

It listed all the phoney SEALS.

 

I was a former SEAL. I have the pics from Mrs. Jeffers 2nd grade class show to prove it.