IS IT TRUE February 6, 2013
IS IT TRUE that George Yerolemou, and native of Cyprus who has been an entrepreneur in Evansville in both lodging and restaurants for as long as most of us can remember had his day before the Evansville Redevelopment Commission yesterday?…the topic of the meeting was to formally present his plans to convert the old Riverhouse/Jackson House into a Comfort Inn?…George’s attitude and words were a breath of fresh air to those people of Evansville that are worn out with the City of Evansville being asked to subsidize every business or house that is remotely close to downtown Evansville?…Mr. Yerolemou’s statement which can be paraphrased as “we did not come here today to ask for a handout, we just want you to okay our plans so we can get on with the business of building this Comfort Innâ€?…George got his approval from the 5 member ERC by a 3 – 1 vote with Ed Hafer casting the lone NO vote on the basis that the landscaping plan is not clear enough?…of all of the cockamamie moronic reasons to vote NO on a clear improvement to the dilapidated, code violating, roach infested, death trap that is at that location now this one takes the cake?…Mr. Hafer seriously voted NO to a blight removing, business launching private investment in downtown Evansville because he could not bless the bushes?…this NO VOTE by Mr. Hafer is a perfect example of why Evansville has been on a 50 year downward spiral and no one will invest in the downtown without a healthy portion of corporate welfare?…some things make one shake their head in disbelief and Mr. Hafer did so yesterday?…that if the consolidation plan that came from a committee that Mr. Hafer was a member of had been as thorough and visionary as George’s plans for a Comfort Inn then who knows, maybe it would have gotten more votes?
IS IT TRUE that the United States Postal Service has finally bitten the bullet and announced that Saturday mail delivery will end in August of 2013?…this comes on the heels of a legacy of losing money?…this move will save the USPO a total of $2 Billion per year against an operating loss for FY 2012 of $15.3 Billion?…at that rate the USPO could eliminate service altogether and still lose $1.3 Billion per year?…in the details of the USPO operating loss is the inconvenient disclosure that the retiree health benefits are costing the Post Office $11.1 Billion per year?…as with the cities of Stockton and San Bernardino, CA that have filed for bankruptcy it is retirement promises made by long gone politician to grease the palms of public employee unions that has financially destroyed their cities?…the same looks to be true for the Post Office?…stopping Saturday delivery is a step in the right direction but it is not a necessary and certainly not a sufficient condition to solve the money hemorrhage of yet another government agency?…until today’s politicians are willing to offend some of their constituents and cut health and retirement benefits for public employees in spite of union grievances the foundational institutions of our cities, states, and country will continue to race toward a final day of reckoning when their checks bounce and no creditor will loan them a red cent?
IS IT TRUE we were a bit surprised yesterday to learn that March 1st is another day of financial reckoning for our federal government?…this one came about in the so called “fiscal cliff avoidance†bill that sputtered through the House and Senate back during the first week of January?…that while the fiscal cliff may have been kicked down the road a while it seems as though when it comes to the spending cuts known as sequester are concerned they must have been kicked down a different road than the other parts of the bill?…the monthly dance with the grim reaper is getting old and people on both sides of the political fence who are not on the government payroll finally seem to be getting it that “Washington is broken beyond beliefâ€?…President Obama was on the news yesterday demanding a federal budget?…we are with him on this demand but we also think he needs to be reminded that there has not been one single federal budget passed on his watch?…to expect the United States Congress to do in the next 3 weeks a thing that they have not done in 4 years is quite irrational?…we will predict right now that there will be no federal budget by March 1st and that the jackals in Washington will be crying and grandstanding over who is to blame?…the reality of the situation is we have become a nation of takers?…we the people of the United States are ultimately to blame for the mistakes and crimes of our government and the sooner we all start to think beyond our own pocket the sooner the dysfunctional circus we pay to govern us may become functional again?…that will take nearly a complete purging of the old and replacing them with people who are not political of nature?
Good IIT today.
On the last point… Our very own Congressman Bucshon was one of those that voted to kick the can down the road. I would argue that if America wants to truly fix Washington, we will have to find the will to completely disband it.
Federalism is a failed experiment. I’m in favor of States holding a second Continental Congress comprised of delegates from every State Legislature and decommissioning the Federal charter and decide what to do with Federal assets. Let’s get government back to sizes we can actually try to manage, rather than electing people who think they are above any Law.
This is going to happen eventually anyway. We might as well do it on our own time rather than when the country’s in chaos. If the States then want to create regional agreements on trade and defense, that would be preferable to what we have now – a nation that’s too large and diverse where republicanism is slipping into mob rule democracy and political divisions are such that one side will continue to make a victim of the other side until a Civil War results.
One thing is for certain, we can’t keep printing US dollars and expect the world will keep accepting them forever.
Email and the Republicans in their quest to privatize everything killed the postal service, not unions.
The postal service killed itself by failing to adapt its financial model to the modern world. Email, the fine service of FedEx, and employee union contracts all have contributed to the demise. The tragic thing is with foresight and a willingness to change as opposed to hanging on to the past like a dog guards a bone could have avoided this.
Joe has got it correct on this one. Are there any other efficiencies to implement? I do not like it but can the Post office declare bankruptcy to get their house in order?
If not, raise the rates to stop the negative cash flow/bleeding.
USPS has been getting bailed out for years. They cannot compete without monopolies on letter carrying and without the Federal printing press behind them. Their rates are artificially low for what they would have to be to cover their liabilities, but that’s ok because they will keep letting the taxpayers – even those who do not use the service – bail them out.
As for unions…unions make flexibility in the face of climatic changes in an industry difficult or impossible. Unions will always want more. Any talk of necessary cutbacks in the face of new developments like email is met with a challenge. If left up to unions, we’d have a USPS monopoly with no competition, and their rates would be whatever astronomical figures their whims could imagine and they would STILL eventually go broke and drag the whole economy down with them since the prices of so much of what we buy is dependent upon shipping costs.
GET RID OF HAFER. He is, pure and simple, an ego driven obstructionist.
Ed Hafer as Chief of the Landscape Patrol and Enforcement: is that a self-appointed position, or did the Mayor give him that position?
Ed Hafer, as Chief of Landscape Patrol and Enforcement: is this a self-appointed position, or did the Mayor create this one?
Hafer was an idiot in high school and is still one today.
Is Ed Hafer office located in the Vectren building? Doesn’t he help Vectren with Economic issues? If this is true, this means Hafer “The Great” office space is paid by the rate payers.
The CCO needs to look into this special arrangement he has with Vectren because this may put him in a conflict of interest situation with the ERC.
according to his website they are on SE 3rd st, with a satellite office in Owensboro
My brother works for Vectren and knows Hafer and says he is full of himself. In fact he tells me that most employees avoid him if all possible because he is od hell of a know it all.
A “Know-it-all”, “full of himself”? Sounds like Mayoral Stock to me!
Mr. Hafer may just need new glasses. I saw a couple of trees and a bush in the artist rendering of the proposed Comfort Inn.
Unlike most public an private pension plans congress made the usps prepay it’s pension an health obligations. I do not know if this is a good thing or not. I do know other plans do not have that burden. For an honest evaluation of how well their run this has to be taken in to account.
Bingo. The Republicans mandated that to bankrupt the postal service and hand all mail delivery to private, slave wage firms.
have I been missinformaned or is this correct, when someone from another country comes here and starts a business they are granted tax free statis for 7 years? If so, who did that ?
No, that’s not correct.
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