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IS IT TRUE? PART 2 September 9, 2011

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Grasshopper Politics: Eating Up All of the Money

IS IT TRUE? PART 2 September 9, 2011

IS IT TRUE that local landlords are telling us that some September rent checks are late?…that the reason that tenants are giving landlords for being late with the rent are the dramatically higher Vectren bills that homeowners and renters alike received in August?…that tenants always pay Vectren before they pay the rent BECAUSE Vectren can turn the power off but landlords have to go through a lengthy legal process to evict someone for being late on rent?…that it is ironic that Vectren which is a state granted monopoly that has regulated revenue and profit streams has more ability to withhold services from a late-paying customer than a totally unregulated real estate investor has?…that the very government that protects the financial interest of a private utility prevents private real estate investors from managing their properties as they choose?…that this one really makes you think?

IS IT TRUE that yesterday a violent strike was launched in the Port of Longview in Washington State?…that according to police reports, some 500 longshoremen broke in at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning and held six security guards hostage for two hours while the protesters rampaged through the facility?…that the longshoremen cut brake lines on railroad cars and spilled grain from boxcars?…that the business under attack is owned by EGT, LLC, which is a joint venture of U.S., Japanese and South Korean companies?…that this consortium built the facility for $200 million and announced it would employ non-union longshoreman to save $1 million a year in operating costs?…that the National Labor Relations Board had to by their very charter file a complaint against the longshoremen?…that they have proceeded to ignore a restraining order issued by a federal judge to cease their violence and stay away from the property?

IS IT TRUE that if such an attack were carried out against an American company on foreign soil that it would be considered an act of war?…that if such an act were carried out against a municipality that the national guard would be called in to round up the perpetrators?…that if the law enforcement agencies of the United States fail to protect the investments of businesses as they would protect government facilities that we will not be getting much foreign investment in the future?…that this callous and illegal action is the equivalent of a flash mob of UAW members breaking into our Toyota plant in Princeton to intentionally do violence and damage?…that we expect that if something like that happened right here in Indiana that Governor Daniels would call out the National Guard and show the perpetrators exactly what Hoosiers think of this sort of job killing and investment killing nonsense?

IS IT TRUE that one of the highlights of President Obama’s proposal last night was to extend and enlarge the reduction in Social Security taxes withheld from the paychecks of American workers?…that the billboard sound bite to gain support for this proposal is that working people will have $175 Million put into their pockets?…that what is not in the headline is that this is $175 Million that will not be going into the Social Security lockbox to be paid out later in life?…that the one thing that both parties seem to agree on is that Social Security must be protected?…that we wonder how reducing the revenue to a program that is already said to be endangered by 67% for two years will serve to protect Social Security?…that for most working people who are under the maximum tax limit that this amounts to the federal government giving them a 5.1% raise during 2011 and 2012?…that at some point this 5.1% raise will have to be given back in the name of “Saving Social Security”?…that this extra $30 or so per week will be built into family budgets and when it is taken back, which it will be, it will work like a pay cut or having your hours cut?…that this proposal will make little difference, endangers a program that most people support, and is really nothing more than an election year gimmick that is a perfect example of “GRASSHOPPER POLITICS”?…that grasshoppers like locusts consume something until it is dead and then move on to the next victim?…that we need to keep GRASSHOPPER POLITICIANS away from programs that are supported by a wide majority of people?

16 COMMENTS

  1. Please…

    TOTALLY UNREGULATED, rental real estate market?

    Give me a break.

    -Ever heard of the eviction “process”?
    -Didn’t you see the recent apartment fire story discussing the potential FINES to the owners?
    -Heard of the rental dwelling registry?

    • -Ever heard of the eviction “process”?

      Yes takes 30-120 days to evict a renter….as I believe the story stated.

      “that tenants always pay Vectren before they pay the rent BECAUSE Vectren can turn the power off but landlords have to go through a lengthy legal process to evict someone for being late on rent?”

      -Didn’t you see the recent apartment fire story discussing the potential FINES to the owners?

      As it should be if they are in violation of city codes, the nagging question would be was the building inspected by the city, when, by whom, and what were the findings of the inspection.

      -Heard of the rental dwelling registry?

      Yes….totally voluntary and will be useless until it’s made mandatory for all landlords to participate in the program.

      In comparison to utilities….landlords are virtually unregulated except by city/state code enforcement, which is something that all home owners also face. Utilities are regulated at every level of government from the feds right on down to the local level, not to mention the EPA.

      I really don’t see your point?

  2. That’s a good point about grasshopper politics…

    But don’t you need a single jump back (grasshop) when new policies fail?

    I’m thinking about Weinzapfel taking the rangers out of the parks? A real leader, might do a grasshopper jump BACK. AND STAY THERE!

    Davis and Winnecke, on the issue behave like a half-squashed grasshopper… They want to move, they talk about moving, but all they can muster is to scoot, lamely, to one direction?

    In a world where almost everything has been tried. It’s not grasshopper politics, that is bad in itself is it? Isn’t it specifically the lame grasshopper, the corrupted grasshopper or the ignorant grasshopper that do the real damage?

    This topic reminds me of smoking bans, main street driving directions, and a certain county garage employee.

  3. I think what the editor is saying is that Vectren is both rgulated AND protected. Real estate business owners are regulated but NOT protected.
    You know,like that.

    • I understand there is a difference, and I think the comment was simply intended to make us think.

      I just wanted clarification on the thinking part. One is specifically a government granted monopoly the other is what I would call a typically regulated business.

      By typically regulated, I’d argue that protection still very much exists, via the leverage that is crony capitalism.

  4. “In a world where almost everything has been tried. It’s not grasshopper politics, that is bad in itself is it? Isn’t it specifically the lame grasshopper, the corrupted grasshopper or the ignorant grasshopper that do the real damage?”

    Really, you believe everything has already been tried? it’s thinking like this that has kept Evansville under the thumb of people like King John for way too many years, people with a lack of direction, no vision, no forward thinking, self-serving politicians that care little for the people they are suppose to serve, and when problems arise it’s well we know this won’t work it’s already been tried….BS!

    Times change, situations change, people change, take your park rangers for example when Johnny removed them did we have the meth problems we have today? did the crime reports for the parks reflect that the rangers were no longer needed? has crime increased in the parks since then? can EPD adequately cover the parks without the rest of the public in their sector or beat suffering?

    You can think what you want but many things in our world do change, and sometimes there is a need to revisit a past failed program to see if there is a need in the here and now, it’s the people who don’t have the vision to admit their failures and revisit their past that are doomed to repeat the mistakes that got them there in the first place. Kinda’ like a multi-step program you must first admit that there is a problem before attempting a cure.

    JMHO

    • In the generic sense, yes.

      Federal/state/local… Tax cuts, tax increases. Governments consuming business/industry, or privatizing. Governments increasing regulations, decreasing regulations. Governments expanding/spending, or cutting back (granted this option is virtually never tried).

      All have consequences.

      Federal healthcare (Obamacare) being a distinct, new layer.

      • Agreed……but that IS how the government operates, at every level it wants to be everything to everybody, ever expanding its reach into everything from my back pocket to building cars (GM), then we throw in the globalists who believe we are just one big community (the planet as a whole) and one big economy. It’s a grand socialist scheme (one world/one government) that has been playing out for generations, it breeds bigger and bigger government intrusion into our lives and a bigger chunk of our income every year to fund the expansion.

        Take our little problem downtown, there is no way the city of Evansville should be in the hotel business, it’s not in the charter for the city and is way beyond the scope of what governments are suppose to do, but yet we will never get a hotel built downtown unless the taxpayers of the city subsidize the endeavor. Mr Dunn and ONB would have been involved from the beginning if there was a snowballs chance that there was a profit to be made…there isn’t, but we do need a downtown hotel, Johnny has put us in a position where we are going to be forced to fund a portion of the hotel like it or not.

        My point is that the government should not even be in the arena business much less the hotel business, but there’s that ever expanding be every thing to everyone mentality that has emanated from the feds all the way down to our local government….while the streets, sewers, water lines, and every aspect of our infrastructural crumbles around us we have a nice bright shiny arena built in the wrong place on borrowed money, with no forward thinking of what to do with the facility it is suppose to replace (except tear it down and spend more on ball fields) or any input from the public on building the arena in first place.

        Is there no end to the madness?

        • You’re preaching to the choir now!

          Yea, if community outrage can’t stop a city from blowing 100K per FDP home…

          if a common guy like Mr. Johnston get’s [bleeped]…

          if a common guy like Mr. Troost get’s [bleeped]…

          that progressive hammer & sickle will never stop impaling?

  5. don’t worry about the renters I think Oct 15 is the last day anyone who recieves any kind of public aid can have their utilities turned off til March

  6. blanger, Why would You want to stay in a Hotel in old downtown?
    Why would Anyone want to stay in a hotel in old downtown
    Evansville?

    • Crash,

      Of course your right, I wouldn’t, but you know people are basically lazy, for the arena, and The Centre to even have a chance of making a profit (well the arena anyway) as a venue other than for games and concerts lets say like a convention, a hotel is a must, and I must admit I do see the need for a hotel in close proximity in that scenario.

      On that note….a short story :)…for years I use to go to a convention in Dayton Ohio every year, the convention is very large and goes on for several days, there were no hotels/motels in close proximity to the arena where it was held and we always stayed on the other side of town which was a 30 min drive to get to the convention. Wasn’t a big deal, the city even provided dedicated bus transportation to the convention from various shopping malls around the city so the patrons didn’t have to hassle with finding parking around the arena…it actually was very well thought out by the city of Dayton because they recognized the millions of dollars this event brought to their city.

      My point is that because of the logistics of where the arena was and the size and scope of the event everyone patrons & vendors alike had to make hotel/motel reservations months in advance, the travel time to and from the event was just part of the experience of attending, and the money spent was spread across the entire city because of the sprawl of the city. People don’t need a hotel right next door to any event as long as the city has plans on how to properly handle the influx of people, move them efficiently to and from the event for cheap or free, and provide a facility that is adequate for the given event.

      JMHO

      • Turn Roberts Stadium into a real convention pavilion and if managed right could out perform the John in the convention business. Owensboro is going to one up us again with their new center. Evansville has no vision except re-election and lining the pockets…….

      • I’ve gathered one thing, that is, that there is No Bottom Line, and that come hell or high water,the Community’s resources are going to prop up the old downtown area until there is No more money to Beg , Borrow or Steal.
        Spin and spend, will continue ad nausium, until everyone that can get out of Evansville has left.

        • I agree, all of my adult life I’ve watched mayor after mayor carry out plan after plan to revitalize downtown, none have been successful and I really believe that no plan will ever see success. City planners always look at urban sprawl as a plague on their designs what they fail to understand is human nature in the fact that every person at some point in their life wants their own home preferable where their neighbors can be seen but not heard, if they have the financial means and given a choice people will always move from congested areas to urban settings with a piece of land they can call their own, away from restrictive city codes and peering eyes of neighbors.

          Our city right now is flying in the face of logical city planning with city/county consolidation, on one hand they want people to move back downtown, shop and entertain there….on the other hand they want to annex more property into the city to increase the size (and sprawl) of the city and increase the tax base which will encourage people to move yet again further out to avoid what they moved to the county for in the first place…..it’s a oxymoron for the city to talk about inner city revitalization and turn around and annex more of the county into the city.

          Downtown is akin to a black hole sucking up everything in close proximity to be it tax dollars or city resources downtown sucks it all up and returns nothing but a desire for more.

          JMHO

      • There has to be a hotel attached to a convention center simply because the exhibitors do not want to load their displays into and out of a car trunk and drive to and from the convention center, especially for an event that lasts two or three days. The convention organizers depend on exhibitor numbers and fees to make the convention a success. Get a clue!

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