Gas Prices

CNBC is reporting that oil has dipped below $40.00. If oil has dipped below $40.00, than this show how messed up our economy. This economy is enough to make me gloomy even though I have job

New Business Model for the LA Times

In the Huffington Post, I found this link about the LA Times.   The LA Times is one of my favorite newspapers and I usually try to read it everyday online if I have the chance.  For me, I could care less if the print edition of the paper disappears.

 

According to Alexa  the LA Times is rated the 380^th most popular web site.   People like me enjoy the content of the website and enjoy the reading the content of the paper.   The problem is that the newspaper does not receive revenue for me looking at the website.   The company receives me for advertisements.

 

When the paper sells a printed version of newspaper,  they receive revenue from selling the paper.  In addition, they make significantly more money off the advertising on the hard copy newspaper than the online edition

 

If the newspaper decides to go online only, they will drastically have to alter their business model.  The article in the Huffington Post suggests a new model.  The model is describe as the following

 

“Now factor into the post-paper newsroom budget the elimination of many tasks – print production, design, editing. Step back from that knife, Mr. Zell. Rather than eliminating those positions, they must be converted to enabling local networks of partners – freelancers, bloggers, citizens – to expand the journalistic reach of the paper into the community.

 

And now add in the rumor that the LA Times might get rid of its national – that is, Washington – and international coverage and hand it – or its readers – over to the Washington Post. I’ve been arguing for some time that the national papers – especially the Post but also the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and perhaps USA Today – could become the Washington bureau to the nation’s papers, saving them all money, giving them all the flexibility to redirect staff (reporters and editors) to local coverage, and giving their readers the best coverage. It’s reverse syndication.

 

The LA Times could play this same role with other papers if it provided the very best coverage of Hollywood and entertainment to them, in return for links and new audience and traffic. News becomes a network of links made by those who do what they do best and link to the rest.

 

Clearly, by getting rid of print production and distribution, the LA Times not only gets rid of huge costs – which usually amount to at least half a newspaper’s budget – it also loses both circulation revenue and advertising revenue, which is much higher than digital revenue. As Westphal pointed out in our email exchange, some digital advertising is tied in bundles to print advertising and so the risk is that getting rid of print would hurt digital. But I suspect the opposite would happen: Some of that print advertising will now be forced online. Indeed, I’ve long argued that newspapers should force both readers and advertisers to online – to the future – and turning off the presses would do that.

 

There’s no question that the scale of the business would be smaller, much smaller. But with only edit and advertising sales costs (I’d market only during the transition) it could be a profitable business – a profitable digital journalistic business. That is the promised land. Welcome to the future”

 

That is a potential model for the newspaper.  Personally, it is one feasible model but the paper can remain business for indefinite period of time if it embraces a creative business model that is adapted to the

 

The only problem that I see is that will anger the older readership.  A lot of the people that I encounter in real life do not use the Internet extensively and will only read the newspaper if it is in hard copy format.   In reality, it is time for those people to get on a computer and learn to use the internet efficiently.

Christmas Top Ten From David Letterman

Thanks to a blog on the Riverside Press-Enterprise for this top ten list from Letterman

10. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me absolutely nothing because of the bad economy.

 

9. Amy, the red-nosed Winehouse, will need a new liver soon…

 

8. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, but Al Gore tells me we’re all screwed…

 

7. Biden might do all right if his hair plugs stay in tight.

 

6. Dr. Tannenbaum, Dr. Tannenbaum, is Cialis right for me?

 

5. Deck the halls with illegal payoffs, Bla-Bla-Bla-Bla-Bla Blagojevich.

 

4. Ahmadinejad, Ahmadinejad, Ahmadinejad, you set our heart aglow like a spent fuel rod.

 

3. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, 1929.

 

2. I have an irregular heart beat, pah-rum-puh-puh-puh-pum.

 

Joy to the world, George Bush is done

Auto Bailout — Part II

It seems that the Auto Bailout war is the Civil War Part Deux.   The biggest people fighting the auto bailout is Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby which are the senators from Alabama

 

Both senators are conservatives and so they want to challenge the unions.   However, the real argument is not union vs management but in reality, a turf war.   They want the South to be the only place where auto manufacturing in the country is performed.

 

Jeff Session opposition to Bush’s approval of the Auto Bailout is the following

 

“”The president’s decision to allocate financial bailout funds to private automobile manufacturers represents a further entanglement of the federal government in the free market.  I am disappointed that the president has apparently yielded to the temptation of substituting the whims of politicians for the wisdom of the free market.”

 

So Jeff Sessions wants the “invisible hand” of the free market to solve the problem and of course, GM and Chrysler would go under.   What Jeff Sessions want is to Big Three go under and all of the automobile manufacturing would be done in the South instead of the Rust Belt..

 

In reality, the problems in Michigan would affect Alabama.   According to the Birmingham News, the unemployment rate in Alabama would rise by 4 percent if the Big Three collapse.

Keivan Deravi, a professor at Auburn University, challenges the accusation made by the Economic Policy Institute.   In the article, the Economic Policy Institute is actually a left-wing policy organization some of their research could have been biased in natured.    

 

The impact of Big Three collapse for the Deep South would result in a short-term layoffs.  In the long term, the forces of “creative destruction” will work and the results will be a transfer of the center of auto manufacturing from the Rust Belt to the Deep South.  The two senators from Alabama engage in “tunnel-vision” thinking.    They are not interest in the impact of the Big Three collapse on the national economy.  They could careless what happens to the national economy.

 

They know that their state will benefit from a Big Three collapse.  However, the human consequences would be devastating.  Michigan will turn from one proud manufacturing state into a state that resembles a third-world country.  Massive unemployment and underemployment of skilled employees would dominate the state.  Michigan would be an industrial wasteland where nothing but sorrow and gloom originate from/

 

The question that Shelby and Sessions should answer:  Is it ethical to allow such human tragedy for the purposes of mere selfishness?

The GOP Is Dumb

Capitol Notes reports that the State GOP has decided to significant cut.  Capitol Notes states

“Legislative Republicans have crunched the numbers on their proposal for erasing some, but probably not all, of the shortfall facing the state over the next 18 months — a $22 billion proposal that suggests more than $2 in cuts for every $1 in new revenues”

The result of the GOP plan is massive cuts for bread and butter public services like education, police, the prison system, and social services.    I doubt the GOP has any structural reforms for the prison system because the GOP does not want to see (i) the rollback of Three Strikes, (ii) reduction of parole time required for non-violent offenders, and (iii) possession of controlled substance reduced to misdemeanor.

Here is the GOP plan for the slashing

“Legislative Republicans have crunched the numbers on their proposal for erasing some, but probably not all, of the shortfall facing the state over the next 18 months — a $22 billion proposal that suggests more than $2 in cuts for every $1 in new revenues”

Again, let’s cut the education budget without cutting the Department of Corrections budget.  And of course, no methods of revenue increases like an increase in sales tax and roll-back of car tax.

To me, the GOP’s plan is dead on the arrival.  As a fiscal conservative, I consider the GOP plans reckless

Not All McCain Supporters Are Not the Morons at the Rally

[The idiots at the McCain/Palin rally prevent McCain and Obama has a good conservative/liberal discussion on the issues.   It is the dumb base that forces McCain to talk about William Ayers and Rev.  Wright.  Rather, we should get a debate on whether on a revised free market economics vs full-out Keyensian economics.

I found this video via Mommy Life about smart people who support McCain

We need more people like this to have a honest debate on the issues.   What we do not want see is the morons at the rally like this

{youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E]

 

Compare those people to the morons at the rally.  The morons at the rally make a mockery of conservatives and the conservatives should shut these guys down so the smart liberals and conservatives can have a real debate on the issue.  And our nation does need a debate on the issues and a not of sideshow of freaks that prevent both sides to have a real discussion on the issues

Shut Your Trap

Here is another Republican Congressman that decided to open his mouth (http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Flinkto%2Fticker.html).

“Liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

Why would you make a stupid remark like that? What motivates such ignorance? This man has directly insulted me. I like real americans that work hard and I am friends with several conservative Christians.

This one of the clearest example of moronic stereotyping that I have seen in this election. This guy should be not be reelected because this remark shows that he has poor judgment.

Another Dumb Criminal

During a quick break at work this morning, I read a story about a dumb criminal who decided steal several bags of frozen shrimp in his pants? W
As the shoplifter went down the shopping lane, he got a spotted by off-duty cop! Nice one. And according to the AP, this what happened next

“The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office reports that an off-duty detective was shopping at a Sweetbay supermarket Sunday when he noticed what appeared to be a man with groceries stuffed in his pants.

The detective approached 32-year-old Joseph Young and ordered him to stop. Authorities say Young then removed several bags of shrimp from his pants and promised to put them back.

When Young fled for the store’s exit, the detective tackled and restrained him until patrol deputies arrived.”

The criminal was hauled off to county and charged with resisting arrest and shoplifting.

What a moron. Too bad this episode did not make an episode of COPS.
Source 0 (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-shrimp-pants-102008,0,6165172.story)

Looking for a Job? Then the Department of Treasury

According to Govexec, the Department of Treasury is hiring up to 1000 people for the Office of Financial Stablity.  The types of the people that are needed will be people with financial skills, auditors, and financial managers.   But before you get a chance to get out of the unemployment line or get of the bad job, you will have the red tape.  In the article, OPM (Office of Personnel Management) stated

“

Getting skilled personnel in a hurry won’t be easy. The Office of Personnel Management recently announced that it hoped to shorten the hiring process for all federal workers to 80 days. The bailout legislation allows the Treasury secretary to waive some hiring rules to accelerate the effort. But bringing people up to speed is a separate issue. By some estimates, it takes five years to become a qualified bank examiner. Oversight of the bailout cannot wait that long, so the Office of Financial Stability will need to hire people from the private sector ready to take on huge responsibilities from day one.

With the shuttering of major financial institutions and the downsizing on Wall Street, many highly qualified people are looking for jobs, or soon will be. Some of those people may now work in London or Dubai, however. “As a taxpayer,” a former senior Treasury official said, “I want to get the best people on the planet. But what if the best asset managers in the world are foreign nationals? That would be white-hot politically.”

One of the problems about the job is that Federal jobs is the pay limits.  Here is an excerpt that describes the pay limits

“Federal pay constraints pose another obstacle. The maximum salary for an FDIC bank examiner was $160,910, according to a 2007 analysis by the Government Accountability Office. The highest pay for an SEC lawyer was $126,987. The pay cap for those in the senior executive service is $191,300. None of these salaries can compete with the remuneration available to the best and brightest on Wall Street.”

So keep on checking USAJOBS (www.usajobs.com) to see when those jobs are opening up

Anger

My anger aganist the Conservative right is growing by the second. This post on Truthdig is fueling my activism (http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.truthdig.com%2Freport%2Fitem%2F20080925_they_say_the_bailout_is_necessary_but_is_it_constitutional%2F. I am person who believes in fiscal conservatism but I also believe in the concept of social justice and now this make me angry.

Along with the information that I learned about prop six turns me into full-time political activist for one month, I support the Junior Senator from Illinois and must support him as much as I can. I no longer hide in my bunker in Mission Viejo because it is time to get the message out. This fuels my anger and now my passion for change is deep.

I am a DOD auditor so there is limits on what I can do but last time I heard there is free speech and this protected by the Bill of Rights. My goal is protect the American people from graft and abuse from Defense Contractors.

This is no longer but politics but rather protect the freedoms that I cherish and social views that I cherish. Now it gers personal.

As a country, we need to rise up and face the Congress and demand change. But before we demand change, the American people must do extensive research on the issue before demanding change. When a uber-informed public contacts Congresss and we know the issues inside and out, we can demand change and they will listen. But changes requires a significant amount of effort on YOUR part. D.C listens to the citizens that do their homework and know the issue inside and out.

Our Congressman listen to the lobbyist because they know the issue inside and out because they are paid. But if we take the time to learn the issues instead of watching American Idol, then we can demand change