Although the 11-win Patriots missed the playoffs, there is some positive local sports news. Manny Ramirez is losing millions every day as the free agent market doesn’t exactly work out as he had planned.
Here is ESPN’s Buster Olney yesterday saying that the market for Manny just isn’t there and that he’ll probably end up with the Dodgers,
Today, ESPN is reporting that the Dodgers may have moved on from the disgraced, aging, one-dimensional malcontent,
So long Manny? Dodgers call Dunn, source says
Apparently, the Dodgers aren’t going to sit around all winter, waiting for Manny Ramirez to beg to come back. They now have Adam Dunn on their shopping list.
The Dodgers contacted Dunn’s agent, Greg Genske, over the holidays, according to an executive of a team interested in Dunn. And that creates an intriguing option for both parties.
Sweet, sweet Schadenfreude.
The more “you know” Caroline Kennedy, the more ridiculous it is that she thinks she deserves a senate seat.
Nothing says Merry Christmas like robbing the taxpayers blind via pension abuses. Two absolutely outrageous stories this week that demonstrate the power of the Hack-Progressive Alliance.
The first is Sen. Jim Marzilli, the disgraced, indicted perv. This self-described “socialist” allegedly crudely demeaned and molested women who just happened not to be his wife. In a just world, this creep would be worried about simply holding on to his pension. This being Massachusetts, Marzilli is asking for HIS PENSION TO BE DOUBLED. If you think that takes balls, wait until you hear his reasoning,
Globe: Ex-senator wants double pension; Marzilli resigned amid criminal case
J. James Marzilli Jr., the former state senator from Arlington who resigned in disgrace after being charged with harassing or attempting to grope women in downtown Lowell, wants the state to nearly double his pension.
In a request submitted to the state Board of Retirement, Marzilli, a 50-year-old liberal Democrat with 23 years of local and state service, cites a state law that allows elected officials under age 55 with more than 20 years of creditable service to boost their pension if they fail to win reelection.
He failed to win re-election because he had been arrested for assaulting multiple women. A self-described socialist representing Arlington is about the closest thing one can think of to lifetime job security. Despite this, this creep allegedly assaulted multiple women like a filthy pervert. AND HE IS ASKING FOR HIS PENSION TO BE DOUBLED BECAUSE HE WASN’T RE-ELECTED. Why wouldn’t every hack in the legislature run right out and start a massive crime spree in order to get their juicy pensions further juiced?
The second whopper of the week occours over at Massport. I know, you’re shocked, shocked!
Mining vacation gold at Massport
Benefit is used to increase salaries, pensions of workers
In an arrangement that is extremely rare throughout the rest of state and local government, officials at the Port Authority of Massachusetts can take advantage of a little-known benefit to add as much as 6 percent to their paychecks by “selling back” up to three weeks of unused vacation time.
About 300 Massport employees cash in some vacation time each year, including both management and union workers, costing the agency about $750,000 annually. And it is a benefit popular among those contemplating retirement, because by boosting their income, they also increase their pensions.
In the case of its highest-paid administrator, executive director Thomas Kinton Jr., the perk was worth $15,875 this year. As a longtime employee, he gets five weeks of vacation. This year, he took two and sold back the rest. That payment came on top of Kinton’s $295,000 annual salary.
Anyone reading this who works in the DPS (dreaded private sector) who enjoys this perk? I’ve been toiling away in the DPS for 20 years and have never come across such a policy. When it comes to vacataion time, in the real world, it’s use it or lose it. If you’re lucky, maybe you can roll some days over if they are unused. Go ahead, go to your DPS boss and ask for cash instead. See what they say.
A spokeswoman for Massport, defended the benefit with this gem,
We operate as a business and we compete for the best talent with those in the private industry. And to compete with the private industry in attracting and retaining talented employees, we strive to provide a competitive benefit package. If someone chooses not to take vacation time they have rightfully earned, we believe they should be compensated for it.
Massport, the home of the infamous nationwide job search that typically ends in the selection of a niece or nephew of a state rep. Please Massport, don’t pee on our leg and tell the taxpayers it’s raining. Obviously, anyone with fifteen minutes of DPS experience knows this benefit, and the excuse for it, is complete and utter BS.
Fred Foulkes, a Boston University professor and director of the university’s Human Resources Policy Institute says,
“It’s an abuse – it’s not right and the public deserves better. You would be hard-pressed to find any examples like it anywhere in the workplace. It’s easy to keep track of lower-level folks, but at higher levels, there often isn’t adequate record-keeping. Nobody asks a top manager for a doctor’s note when he’s out sick, for example. There’s a high level of trust. You assume a lot. And that’s risky.”
Michael Widmer, head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said,
“This is an extremely unusual and lucrative arrangement, not found in either the public or private sectors,” Widmer said. Patrick administration officials declined to comment.
The problems in Massachusetts are not all Big Dig related. There is a generational culture of corruption in this state that has been festering for decades. It is in the agencies like Massport and the Pike and up and down Beacon Hill. Reform in Massachusetts has to start with the pension system. Yes, holding down taxes and tolls is important. But nothing will begin to correct the systemic abuses that are bankrupting this state like serious, draconian pension reform.
Here’s one recommendation. Every state worker who starts their job after Jan. 1, 2009 gets a nice 401K plan from Fidelity, like the rest of us. No more lifetime healthcare, no more pay for “unused” vacations, no more pensions, period!
Here’s to an awful 2009 for the Hack-Progressive Alliance. Cheers!
Now that the Yankees have signed Mark Teixeira, it looks pretty unlikely that they will make a move for Manny Ramirez. Manny was reportedly expecting a three year, $75 million offer any day now from the Evil Empire,
A source told New York Daily News that Ramirez is telling friends an offer is imminent.
Still more bad news for the disgraced, aging, one-dimensional malcontent,
Angels general manager Tony Reagins told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that the club will not pursue Ramirez. “Manny will not be an Angel,” Reagins said. “
A shrinking market means less leverage and hopefully, less money for Manny, which is all he is about after all. That takes some of the sting out of the Yankees Teixeira signing.
Yesterday’s Toyota Headline: Toyota Expects Its First Loss in 70 Years
Today’s Toyota Headline: Toyota to Change Leader Amid Sales Slump
Rick Waggoner was promoted to CEO at GM in 2000. Seven years later, he led “The largest annual loss in the history of the auto industry.” And that was last year! He is still CEO today.
Hat Tip: Sondra K
A really good article in the Washington Times today about how President Bush and Vice President Cheney have quietly reached out to wounded veterans and their families.
Bush, Cheney comforted troops privately
Met with thousands of war injured, kin out of spotlight
For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.
Their mission: to comfort the families of soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to lift the spirits of those wounded in the service of their country.
But the size and scope of Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s private endeavors to meet with wounded soliders and families of the fallen far exceed anything that has been witnessed publicly, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials familiar with the effort.
“People say, ‘Why would you do that?'” the president said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Times on Friday. “And the answer is: This is my duty. The president is commander in chief, but the president is often comforter in chief, as well. It is my duty to be – to try to comfort as best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish.”
Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching – balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin – that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.
Included in the story was this photo of Cheney, working on his fly fishing technique with wounded troops.
GIVING SUPPORT: Vice President Dick Cheney, an avid fly-fisherman, practices his cast with wounded troops from Walter Reed Army Medical Center during one of the half-dozen barbecues he’s hosted at his Naval Observatory home. (White House photo)
I was fortunate enough to get to visit Walter Reed in the spring of 2007 and one of the wounded veterans I met with was Captain Eivind Forseth. I met Capt. Forseth in the occupational therapy area and he expalined the role flyfishing plays in the rehabilitation process,
UPDATE: The WSJ is out with another excellent story along these lines, read the whole thing.