Cities continue to shutdown basic services as the country spends billions abroad on two wars. Just a couple weeks after Oakland announced a plan to no longer respond to calls for such crimes as grand theft auto and burglary, East St. Louis is laying off roughly one-third of its police force as well as part of its fire department.
East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks announced that the city will layoff 19 of its 62 police officers and 11 firefighters.
One officer is quoted as saying that he will be the only officer on duty during the night shift.
There appears to be a complete disconnect from reality in Washington as Congress continues to gush billions of dollars while cities are suspending or curtailing basic services.
Source: STLToday
Swarthmore mom–
I was thinking that might be one of the reasons too.
Elaine M.,
I would suspect that during the Growth of a Nation (a book that a class was based on in college that was almost as hard as another elective I took such as linguistics (yuck)) during the Bill years that the Governors were basically the GOP kind and gave great discounts to business and estates. Oh yes, W, was indeed governor at the time. Then when the economy was going to hell (Buddha’s offer still stands) in a hand basket the blue states had no money because the tax base was already lowered and business was drying up. Hence no new revenues to shore up the financial basis….
People can say all they want to about Bill, but when he left office, and it may have just been an accounting trick, there was a balanced budget for Bush to have control over. But who am I to say….
The blue states offer their citizens a higher level of services.
Byron–
http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/state_debt/index.html
that link is to an interesting statistic about the amount of debt the different states owe. If I am not mistaken it seems the blue states are the ones that owe the most money. Any coincidence? I don’t know but food for thought.
**********
What do you suppose the “food for thought” is? The coincidence? Why do you think blue states seem to owe the most money? There could be myriad reasons.
vlf2112,
There are some benefits to having had Johnson as President and then the next thief in line W to properly represent the Lone Star State…..
“http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/state_debt/index.html
that link is to an interesting statistic about the amount of debt the different states owe. If I am not mistaken it seems the blue states are the ones that owe the most money. Any coincidence? I don’t know but food for thought.”
Byron:
What do those same states pay OUT to the government compared to what they get back? I can tell you this – Living in CT, I know we pay the government far more than what we get back …
Yes, Swarthmore mom, I understand. You will be challenged and challenged a lot after about the 5 week of school. If your daughter is doing it right, she will become so enthused but yet mystified how and why life works the way it does. It is…what would you say and mind…..starts with f and ends with “ing.” She’ll never be the same.
Now, what a lot of folks forget and they take the elitist attitude is they are better than anyone else. Well, I did have a Prof in one of my first computer science classes that said something like this: “I don’t care how much education you get, you are just as smart as the person you are speaking with and if you can’t communicate with them, then, your education is lost.”….
Just watched the Colbert video
I didn’t see an ATTACK, I saw facetiousness.
The tell tale was the last few seconds.
Buy the book it’s the number one best seller it’s filled with horror’s.
I might get a name change now that my daughter is moving on.
Play nice Swarthmore mom, or is it just Mom….You know who they are, remember as the dude in Hill Street Blues said, It rough out there go get em’…. or something like that…
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/colbert-attacks-laura-ingraham-for-hideous-hackneyed-racial-stereotypes-in-her-obama-book-video.php
Arianna Huffington:
We are awash in crises right now — crises that require smart and creative policy fixes. So why is somebody who so rarely deals in policy fixes so popular? It’s because Palin’s message operates on a level deeper than policy statements about the economy or financial reform or health care or the war in Afghanistan…
It’s not Palin’s positions people respond to — it’s her use of symbols. Mama grizzlies rearing up to protect their young? That’s straight out of Jung’s “collective unconscious” — the term Jung used to describe the part of the unconscious mind that, unlike the personal unconscious, is shared by all human beings, made up of archetypes, or, in Jung’s words, “universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” Unlike personal experiences, these archetypes are inherited, not acquired. They are “inborn forms… of perception and apprehension,” the “deposits of the constantly repeated experiences of humanity.”
This is the realm Palin is working in — I’m sure unintentionally — and it’s why she has connected so deeply with a large segment of the public. In fact, her evocation of mama grizzlies has a particularly resonant history in the collective unconscious. According to the Jungian Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, “The bear has long fascinated mankind, partly because of its habit of hibernation, which may have served as a model of death and rebirth in human societies.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/sarah-palin-mama-grizzlie_b_666642.html
Speaking of Palin here’s the latest video getting ready to go viral.
Yea those T-Party people are racist so people who wanted to vote no must have been intimidated to stay home. Maybe the DOJ should open an investigation.
I also find it amusing the subject of Anchor Babies is making the rounds, you know with all the questions about the “O” and his birth certificate.
The article I read said that only one out of five voters in St. Louis turned out. The tea party rallied and got their voters out.
Thats about the same ratio across the country on illegal immigration.
Everyone wants to make it against the Mexicans/Lationo’s, but it’s about the non Mexicans that cross that I’m worried about.
Proposition C Precincts Reporting 3007 of 3354
Yes 614,480 72.7%
No 230,356 27.3%
Total Votes 844,836
Wow! What a rout!
What’s happened to your guy Rubio in Florida bdaman?
He’s Blonde 🙂 what can I say
Seriously had not been following what has happened to him. We get the Rick Scott v. McCollum crap locally. The thief vs the crook.
Swarthmore mom–
You mean you don’t think Sharron Angle has a chance at being selected the Republican candidate for President in 2012?
😉