THE CLOSING OF ST. JAMES IN LAKEWOOD

After attending this Parish for nearly 11 years and been a Parishioner for most of that time, this past weekend the Community of St. James said Farewell.

Saturday consisted of the Bishop saying the mass, although he was greeted by protesters:

Then on Sunday it was time for the Community to say goodbye one final time. It was nice to see that the Church was filled to overflow capacity.

As the Mass ended Fr. John had everyone process out row by row shaking the hands or hugging Deacon Jim Stewart and Danny Bryan.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Fr. John, Deacon Jim and Deacon Danny.

Fr. John Weigand

                                                               Deacon Jim Stewart

It was a beautiful day to say goodbye, but, it was bitter sweet. I am not sure which parish my wife and I will join going forward, but, it may take some time before I am comfortable again.

A little Friday Afternoon Fun Courtesy of the Scarlet and Gray

This County is in Such Good Hands

To answer you Jimmie, the reason nothing positive is happening in town is because of your leadership or in this case the lack of it.

Congressman Paul Ryan on the Real Cost of Healthcare Reform

Its not a pretty picture,  which shows that we will all be paying the premiums, but also the taxes to cover the costs.



Based on everything I have read, there will be a lot more people paying a higher cost in taxes then they figured. The key theme is, I have yet to hear if there is some buffer as to when the taxes begin. Mostly you hear its the single person making $200,000 a year or a married couple making 250,000 paying an additional 6% or more in taxes. It also includes taxing on investments. So essentially, unless I have missed that certain nugget of information, then you begin to pay for this at dollar one. Not at a later dollar amount after the pre-tax benefits come out like the (401K).

One other bitch I have about this is, for the last several years I have set money aside for a Health Savings Account all monies taken out pre-tax. Now, under the new law, that money becomes taxable income, even if I don't use and just leave it in the bank.

So unless there are some changes, more people are going to have to pay in, then anyone is letting on. Perhaps when the law is viewed in a greater clarity some of these issues will be resolved, but, so far from the early readings and analysis, I don't think that will happen.

We may be spending the next four years tweaking this bill to get it good in the short term, but it will need some major work to achieve anything close to what Obama and the Democrats are saying it will do for Americans.

From Politico

Best breakdown of some of the issues of the Healthcare Bill

This is the best breakdown of some of the myths attibuted by Obama and the Democrats with the facts right next to it. Wish I seen this sooner.

 

Go read Jane Hamsher's piece that accompanies this chart.

Obama Trying to Sell Healthcare to America

Based on watching this, Obama would have made a very good trial attorney, specifically a Plaintiff's lawyer.

He can say nothing while talking a lot.

Don't be fooled, he doesn't know everything that is in the bill and he wants the Slaughter rule to be used.

He wants to say in 2012 or at some point down the line, I didn't get a lot done or solve many problems, but I got Healthcare passed.

Ladies and Gentlmen, meet Obama's Legacy.

All done in the first 500 days of his Presidency.

Kucinich To VOTE FOR HEALTHCARE BILL

Doesn't like the bill, but will vote for it.

More later

UPDATE

Cleveland Plain Dealer report asked is there was a Quid Pro Quo - Kucinich fenced the question away. Leaves me to believe that he did get something in return.

UPDATE II

Still going to work towards Single Payer system.


"Bill is still flawed"
"Looking at the Bill as it is not as he wants it"

UPDATE III - PRESS CONFERENCE OVER

Some more quotes from Rep Kucinich:

A defining moment as to moving off of square one to get healthcare;

Its about creating jobs, keeping people in their homes - need to move off debate to get on with other items.

Was asked again if there was a regulatory deal like the Louisiana Purchase or a Nebraska deal for the 10th District or Ohio, he said no, this change in vote is "taking a more historic movement of moving the contry forward"


When asked about the way the Healthcare bill is being moved through congress he said "Doesn't like much about this process"

Final message from Kucinich - Doesn't want the Obama Presidency ruined because of Healthcare legislation.

Downsizing the Federal Government

Saw this article by Chris Edwards listing six reasons to downsize the government and in light of the Obama's attempt to increase the size of the government and quite possibly the debt via the debacle known as the healthcare plan, I thought it quite timely.

1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. The bulk of federal spending goes toward subsidies and benefit payments, which generally do not enhance economic productivity. With lower productivity, average American incomes will fall.

 

2. As federal spending rises, it creates pressure to raise taxes now and in the future. Higher taxes reduce incentives for productive activities such as working, saving, investing, and starting businesses. Higher taxes also increase incentives to engage in unproductive activities such as tax avoidance.

3. Much federal spending is wasteful and many federal programs are mismanaged. Cost overruns, fraud and abuse, and other bureaucratic failures are endemic in many agencies. It’s true that failures also occur in the private sector, but they are weeded out by competition, bankruptcy, and other market forces. We need to similarly weed out government failures.

4. Federal programs often benefit special interest groups while harming the broader interests of the general public. How is that possible in a democracy? The answer is that logrolling or horse-trading in Congress allows programs to be enacted even though they are only favored by minorities of legislators and voters. One solution is to impose a legal or constitutional cap on the overall federal budget to force politicians to make spending trade-offs.

5. Many federal programs cause active damage to society, in addition to the damage caused by the higher taxes needed to fund them. Programs usually distort markets and they sometimes cause social and environmental damage. Some examples are housing subsidies that helped to cause the financial crises, welfare programs that have created dependency, and farm subsidies that have harmed the environment.

6. The expansion of the federal government in recent decades runs counter to the American tradition of federalism. Federal functions should be “few and defined” in James Madison’s words, with most government activities left to the states. The explosion in federal aid to the states since the 1960s has strangled diversity and innovation in state governments because aid has been accompanied by a mass of one-size-fits-all regulations.

 

One thing that I have always thought that once you begin to take out more money from the citizenry, then there is always less for them to make purchases and thereby creating an economy or in the current climate no economy.

But, it seems to me that at every level of government they just can't seem to understand that.

h/t Prof Reynolds

Saturday Afternoon

If anybody is looking for me, I will be here:

Flying around on this:

Finally, a dream come true!

Interesting to Look at the Nuts & Bolts of voting

Unofficial Results by Precinct. With the reconfigured precincts this year's election was a bit of a guess as to how everything would fall.

Once again the Dems have this City figured out and now the Mayor has all of his people in place to govern. So lets see what happens.

01 NICKIE J. ANTONIO 5,616 20.30 05 DANIEL E. SHIELDS 3,789 13.70
02 RYAN PATRICK DEMRO 5,229 18.90 06 = MONIQUE SMITH 5,451 19.71
03 BRIAN POWERS 5,591 20.21 07 = OVER VOTES 24
04 JARED K. SHAPIRO 1,984 7.17 08 = UNDER VOTES 12,306

----------------------- 01 02 03 04 05 06
LAKEWOOD -01-A 159 137 178 43 81 175
LAKEWOOD -01-B 159 171 181 50 109 182
LAKEWOOD -01-C 112 95 109 26 76 104
LAKEWOOD -01-D 117 130 136 42 89 130
LAKEWOOD -01-E 160 150 143 44 94 167
LAKEWOOD -01-F 65 78 64 31 76 83
LAKEWOOD -01-G 77 114 78 43 63 101
LAKEWOOD -01-H 189 176 252 54 82 179
LAKEWOOD -01-I 161 137 151 42 98 155
LAKEWOOD -01-J 203 203 226 65 109 234
LAKEWOOD -02-A 196 173 218 49 139 188
LAKEWOOD -02-B 133 118 125 37 111 132
LAKEWOOD -02-C 154 176 146 55 145 180
LAKEWOOD -02-D 119 82 106 41 98 122
LAKEWOOD -02-E 157 163 168 51 145 168
LAKEWOOD -02-F 123 151 162 44 115 118
LAKEWOOD -02-G 136 145 103 55 102 117
LAKEWOOD -02-H 118 136 103 56 130 136
LAKEWOOD -02-I 137 151 123 43 106 146
LAKEWOOD -02-J 147 157 132 44 150 171
LAKEWOOD -03-A 239 208 342 51 106 191
LAKEWOOD -03-B 203 174 175 81 119 168
LAKEWOOD -03-C 120 129 116 94 78 107
LAKEWOOD -03-D 144 171 145 56 96 141
LAKEWOOD -03-E 128 121 131 75 88 140
LAKEWOOD -03-F 204 170 193 64 114 178
LAKEWOOD -03-G 122 122 120 52 84 87
LAKEWOOD -03-H 147 121 125 45 84 122
LAKEWOOD -03-I 102 134 113 62 78 96
LAKEWOOD -03-J 102 82 94 44 67 89
LAKEWOOD -04-A 182 165 176 60 91 153
LAKEWOOD -04-B 119 82 106 47 64 111
LAKEWOOD -04-C 85 45 78 18 53 76
LAKEWOOD -04-D 133 99 137 45 80 115
LAKEWOOD -04-E 49 43 47 26 38 54
LAKEWOOD -04-F 116 114 101 54 98 119
LAKEWOOD -04-G 83 63 68 26 48 83
LAKEWOOD -04-H 142 94 111 44 74 108
LAKEWOOD -04-I 138 117 123 44 70 130
LAKEWOOD -04-J 155 83 119 50 88 117
LAKEWOOD -04-K 81 49 67 31 53 78