Have a Ball This Weekend...

Well, off for the weekend!

Here's a pic of the Times Square Ball (now there all the time, year round)...

BREAKING: RNC ELECTS STEELE AS CHAIR

The Republican National Committee today, after a long day of balloting, elected Former Maryland Lieutenant Governor and Senate Candidate Michael Steele as Chairman.

Now THIS is Change You Can Believe In! Let's hope it marks the return of True Conservatism to the GOP.

Bloomberg's Doomsday Budget UPDATE WITH DETAILS

3:30 PM UPDATE:
Here are some additional nuggets from today's presentation...

Job cuts will begin July 1 (which coincides with the start of FY 2010)

Wall St. Losses Could Top $47 Billion in 2008.

The City project 300,000 job losses by 2010.

ORIGINAL POST:
We all know that the budget situation here in NYC is in deep doo doo. Today at high Noon, Mayor Mike Bloomberg will announce his FY 2010 budget for the City. It's loving being referred to as a 'Doomsday Budget'. Wonderful

NY1 has the gory details.

Highlights?
23,000 job cuts (a large number of teachers)
Raising our sales tax from 8.375% to 8.75%

I'm sure there are service reductions and additional tax increases as well... Just what needs to be done when the economy stinks, raise taxes

BRILLIANT!

Friday Morning Profiles in Crapiness

Good Friday morning all!

So, this is part of the loveliness that comes from waiting for the bus in the morning... Busy intersection, lots of crap...

Brought to you by the ever-meticulous NYC Department of Transportation and their compadres at the MTA (Going Your Way?).

Morning Foreign Language

Ahhh, the joys of discovering new languages. Caught this today on the Walgreen's sign in Middle Village...

It's amazing the languages you see as you ride to work... You just never know who is moving into the area...

Stimulus-Insanity Continuuuuuuuuues...

Via Drudge. Great to see the Economic Stimulus bill takes other items of 'stimulus' into account. What the hell is going on America?

Democrats may have eliminated provisions on birth control and sod for the National Mall in the "job stimulus" -- but buried on page 147 of the bill is stimulation for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases!The House Democrats' bill includes $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

In the past, the CDC has used STD education funding for programs that many Members of Congress find objectionable and arguably unrelated to a mission of economic stimulus [such as funding events called 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' put on by an organization that received $698,000 in government funds.] "Whether this funding has merit is not the question; the point is it has no business in an economic plan supposedly focused on job creation," says a stimulated Hill source.

A Slushy, Mushy, NY Morning

So, we had a little bit of snow here in NYC this morning, causing mass chaos far and wide. We had about 4 inches before it turned to sleet/rain...

Here are some of the lovely winter scenes...

Here, we have a pic of the slushy mess underfoot when crossing the streets... Why?

Well, because the NYC Department of Sanitation did not get out there and plow the streets. Here is a major intersection in Ridgewood/Middle Village, Queens. Yummy streets...

Here is a terrific example of neighborhood goodwill. The excellent shoveling job performed. (In all honesty, this site is owned by the MTA and they do nothing...)

Here is a plow. Notice it is in the 'up' position. That doesn't do much good when the street are snow covered... Oh well, I guess they know something I don't know...

US Airways Passengers - We Want More $$

Not that being grateful for having a pilot who was able to miraculously land a plane perfectly in the middle of the Hudson River with no engines, the passengers of the US Airway Airbus A320 have each been offered $5,000 from the airline.

However, according to USA Today, some of the passengers feel that $5,000 is just not enough.

So here we go once again. People who should be very lucky to be alive feel they are entitled to additional compensation. Ironically, according to the article, airlines are only technically liable for $3,300 per passenger for incidents where luggage and personal belongings are lost.

It's sad that people are now motivated by the $$ and not happy enough that they still have their lives to lead.

BREAKING NEWS: Iranian Nuke in 2009!

Coming soon to a rogue Middle Eastern cesspool near you... Iranian Nukes!

Yes, according to the UK's Sky News, Iran will have enough enriched Uranium to develop a nuclear weapon by later this year...

What does this mean?

Well, for our allies in Israel, it means they have to make a clear choice here. Do they listen to the Obama foreign policy team and 'open dialogue' with the regime in Tehran, or will they aggressively lead an attack to harm the Iranian nuclear infrastructure?

Time will tell. Although if I were the Israelis I would seriously consider the aggressive approach. It worked in Iraq in 1981 and in Syria in 2007.

Change You Can Believe In...Unless You're Unborn

Matt Drudge has a flash story this morning. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Fransicko) was questioned about the millions of dollars in the economic 'stimulus' bill for contraception... What? How does that 'stimulate' the economy?

Apparently the Democratic Party believes that babies are burdensome to the economy. So does Communist China. I guess this affirms when President Obama said that he would hope that his daughters would not get pregnant while single so they would not have to deal with the burden of a baby... Culture of death...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury.

The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK. STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus? PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that? PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.