Small business bears the brunt of regulatory costs

"The research finds (2005) that the cost of federal regulations totals $1.1 trillion; the cost per employee for firms with fewer than 20 employees is $7,647. . . Governement regulations cost more per household than health care.

Environmental and tax compliance regulations appear to be the main cost drivers in determining the severity of the disproportionate impact on small firms. Compliance with environmental regulations costs 364 percent more in small firms than in large
firms. The cost of tax compliance is 67 percent higher in small firms than the cost in large firms."

The 2005 findings were consistent with those of 1995 and 2001. So how will our government help small business in this time of economy strain? By adding more environmental regulations and higher taxes.

Read the full report for SBA here.

Serbs say he's forgotten his roots

Rod Blagojevich, whose first name is Milorad, son of Radissa, is a second-generation Serb-American. Blagojevich was the second person of Serb descent elected governor in the United States (after U.S. Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, who served as governor in the 1990s).

At Politika:

Miodrag writes: "Blagojevich asked American Serbs to help him financially but he's never done anything for Serbia. To the contrary, he voted for sharp measures against Serbia. ... He came to Belgrade in 1999 with Jesse Jackson to release four American soldiers captured in Kosovo [during the NATO bombing campaign against Serbia]. He did it only to promote himself. That person has never done anything for Serbs." Milos writes: "I'm glad that justice finally caught up with Rod Blagojevich. When he was a member of the Congress, he appealed to Serb Americans to give him donations because he was allegedly fighting for Serb issues. However, when he received thousands of dollars from naive Serbs, he never did anything positive at all for the Serb people. Rod Blagojevich always took care of himself and his pocket." Janko writes: "If somebody is not clear enough on what is a true American myth, the so-called American dream, he should look into the biography of Rod Blagojevich. He was always fighting for himself alone and went from zero to somebody. Serbs did not vote for him. He was elected governor of Illinois with the votes of African-Americans—that is Obama's voters." Slobo writes: "Well, one more piece of evidence that the Americans hate us. They don't let us steal."

Some people drop their middle name, some their first name. It's an American custom, and it's OK unless you're Joe the Plumber.

I didn't smell anything

The Jacksons vs. Obama

Remember last summer when Jesse Jackson didn't have his mike off and said he hoped for an Obama castration? Literally. I'm much too refined to quote him. You can just go to Google. So Blagojevich after the election finds out that he will get nothing for appointing Obama's favorite, Valerie Jarret, but can get a pay off from Daddy Jackson who has all that blackmail money from CEOs with the wrong number of minorities on their staff. The Obamarama Crowd then decided to pay Jackson back by turning on his son, the infamous #5. Now both dad and son have hired lawyers, Obama's still claiming to be tri-squeeky clean (heard nothing, saw nothing, said nothing), and the press is all shaking its collective talking head suggesting, "Oh well, we all know Blago was crazy." That way when he sings, as we know he will do to reduce his sentence (I've watched Law and Order for about 15 years), his reputation and credibility will be totally destroyed. Never you mind that Obama was on his team when he was running for Governor of Illinois--and didn't notice he was a few bricks short of a load. Jesse just needed that pay back. You just don't cross an Obama. After all, Grandma was a bank vice president and he's got all those Ivy League creds.

How do they find these sob stories?

My parents weren't wealthy, but they also didn't borrow money to send their children to college (I think one of us four were in college continually between 1953 and 1963). There were very few loans or scholarships in those days, and colleges weren't dependent on them as they are now. The more money is available for loans, the higher the costs go, is my theory. See the Measuring up 2008 report if you want to see how college costs have leap frogged over all other segments of the economy.


I went to a private Christian college, Manchester in Indiana, and then transferred to the University of Illinois; the costs at the two were comparable. I worked in high school and had enough saved ($1,000) for one year, but my parents covered the next two years. I got a small scholarship from my church, which embarrassed my father and he donated it back. I worked during summer break and about 10-15 hours a week while I was in school, usually either in the library or at a drug store near campus. I got married before I graduated and that was the end of the "gravy train," so I then had to borrow money from my father and pay it back, and I cobbled together some graduate stipends. I had to beg the powers at U. of I., as I recall, to be considered a state resident, because I'd married an out-of-state student, and like our names, the residency seemed to change with the spouse. I also got turned down for a better paid graduate assistantship because I was married, and had "a spouse who could support me." Ah those were the days!


Still, it doesn't sound as silly as one of the examples in today's WSJ, about a real estate agent working one of the most fabulous vacation spots in the country, San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, who is struggling with her son's University of Chicago tuition as sales drop off. To add to the economic down turn stress, her husband has lymphoma. Someone in that family needs a spinal implant--either the mother or son. In a blink of an eye, I knew what my dad would have done. I'd be called home, the facts of life would be explained, and an offer presented--I'd either transfer to a state school, or I'd get a job.

Jane Sawyer, a real-estate agent in San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, is struggling to keep her son, Michael Guard, enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he's now a sophomore. "I'm trying really hard so he doesn't graduate with a mountain of debt," she says.

As house sales fell this year, Ms. Sawyer says, her income tumbled to a third of what she'd made in previous years, while her expenses rose. Her husband, Michael's stepfather, recently had a stem-cell transplant for lymphoma. All of that has left Michael, 19, scrambling for money to stay at Chicago for the quarter that begins after Christmas. He already has some grants and student loans, covering about $20,000 of Chicago's $50,000-a-year bill. But he's been relying on his mother and savings from summer jobs to cover the remainder.

Michael, who studies philosophy and Spanish, is now considering asking his step-grandfather for a loan. He says he may skip the winter quarter and transfer to a cheaper school next year. "I hate the idea of having to borrow money," he says."

And to top it off, he's studying philosophy--what's the return on a degree like that? For this his mother lies awake at night trying to figure out how to pay his bills? Oh, yes, it is a very different time.

The PUMA's roar

There’s a big discussion on Rod and Patti Blagojevich and ties to Rezko who helped create the Obamaphenoma (she use to make really huge deals in real estate) over at PUMA P.A.C. (they call it Blagobamagate) where I saw this great old song by the Supremes. Sing it Blago!

Stress, work and health--of your baby

It's been a lot of years since I was pregnant--over 40, in fact. I do remember it being a time of some stress, although not from being employed. It wasn't all that easy to get or keep a job back in the 60s if you were pregnant. Some of the protectionist employment laws (there were special lounges and required work breaks for females--thinking I guess that men and women were different, something the feminists have tried to disprove) probably saved a lot of women. I do remember running the cash register at the Green Street Pharmacy and that my legs got really tired from hours of standing. However, emotional stress is probably just as damaging. I came across the following in "Take control of your aging," by Dr. William Marlarkey of Ohio State (Wooster Book Company, 1999). He did a lecture series at our church a few years back, but I didn't go--maybe didn't want to know? But this week I checked his book out of the church library.

"A study of pregnancy in attorneys noted that working a great number of hours during the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with a greater risk of miscarriage compared with lawyers who worked fewer hours. This study of 584 attorneys compared those who worked more than 45 hours per week with those women who worked less than 35 hours per week. The more hours a woman worked, the more likely she was to report feeling stressed. Those women who were partners or associates in a law firm were more likely to report stress, as were those involved in criminal law and litigation. Facts inducing stress were political intrigue, backbiting, lack of opportunity for promotion, advancement not determined by the quality of work, and lack of respect from superiors. Working more than 45 hours a week was associated with a three-fold increase in the miscarriage rate when controlling for other factors as age, smoking, and alcohol intake. Women who drank seven or more alcoholic drinks a week in the first trimester were five times more likely to have a miscarriage." p. 128-129

I don't like the bibliography in this book. Like many books that are written for a lay audience but contain technical material, there is a bibliography at the end, but no references to it in the text. So I had to go to Google to find the source of this article--in fact, as near as I can tell, his staff missed this one for the chapter on Stress, Emotions and Health. Here it is with the abstract, just so you know Dr. Malarkey isn't full of malarkey.

Self-Reported Stress and Reproductive Health of Female Lawyers.
Original Article
Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 39(6):556-568, June 1997.
Schenker, Marc B. MD; Eaton, Muzza PhD; Green, Rochelle MS; Samuels, Steven PhD

Abstract:
We studied the prevalence and relationship of stress and working conditions with adverse reproductive outcomes in a cohort of female US law-school alumnae. A total of 584 female lawyers (74% response), aged 25 to 63, responded to a mailed questionnaire. Job hours per week was a strong predictor of job stress. In a logistic regression analysis, women working >45 hours/week were five times as likely to report high stress as those working <35 hours/week. Marriage and length of time on the job showed a small inverse association with stress. Women who worked more than 45 hours/week during their first trimester of pregnancy were more likely to report high stress at work during pregnancy. After being adjusted for confounding factors, weekly job hours during the first trimester of pregnancy showed a strong independent association with spontaneous abortion risk (odds ratio [OR], 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4 to 6.6). Seven or more alcohol drinks/week was also independently associated with spontaneous abortion risk (OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.5 to 18.1). Self-reported stress during pregnancy was positively but not statistically significantly associated with spontaneous abortion (OR, 1.4; 95% CI 0.8 to 2.3).

I mention this report because we think that being unemployed or having hours reduced is stressful, but based on what the workplace does to your emotions and body, perhaps it might be a blessing in disguise--especially if you are pregnant. But even if you're not pregnant, many things that happen in the workplace are not good for you. This layoff, cut back, job change just might save your life, or at least give you more years to enjoy your retirement when you've packed away the briefcase, locked the meeting room door, and sumitted your last report.

Cindy Hefner leaves Playboy

The photo I saw in the paper showed her in a business suit. Yes, although the women who work for her don't wear clothes, she does. Interesting that when you're head of a flesh for sale media giant that exploits both women and men, you get to appear in public fully clothed. Maybe it's the salary; maybe it's the brains; or maybe she's smarter than old dad (photos of him usually show him in pajamas or a robe)? Disagree if you wish, but it's been proven over and over that pornography and the exploitation of women are links of the chains that run through trafficking in humans, i.e., slavery, much of it for sex, an industry much larger in the 21st century than it was in the 17th and 18th. Ms. Hefner said she would like to engage in public service after she retires in January--maybe some non-profit work or serving on a corporate board. I have some ideas how she might expiate some of her sins:

• http://www.theirc.org/what/irc_antitrafficking_initiative.html


• http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/


• http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/


• http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/index.htm


• http://www.stopthetraffik.org/language.aspx


• http://www.freetheslaves.net/Page.aspx?pid=183&srcid=-2


• Red-Light Rescue

First Axelrod, now Emanuel, misremembered

It's getting so crowded under the bus with Wright, Grandma, Rezko, etc. The blog at ABC, also dancing around what is fast becoming obvious to everyone who is not on Obama's payroll

According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and Blagojevich's campaign co-chair, David Wilhelm, were the top strategists of Blagojevich's 2002 gubernatorial victory.

Emanuel told the New Yorker earlier this year that he and Obama "participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor. We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two."

Wilhelm said that Emanuel had overstated Obama's role. "There was an advisory council that was inclusive of Rahm and Barack but not limited to them," Wilhelm said, and he disputed the notion that Obama was "an architect or one of the principal strategists."

(An Obama Transition Team aide emails to note that Emanuel later changed his recollection of this story to Rich Miller's "CAPITOL FAX," saying, "David [Wilhelm] and I have worked together on campaigns for decades. Like always, he's right and I'm wrong.")

And have you seen the NYT chart of influence? Almost funny with the blank spaces.

Update: And now an Illinois a news source is not only pulling the story, but denying the meeting took place. "KHQA TV wishes to offer clarification regarding a story that appeared last month. . ." Funny they didn't correct it until today. And Jesse Jr. says he absolutely had no input. Personally, I think Blagojevich will really sing in order to get the charges reduced. You can't trust a guy with hair like that.

Laughing at Palin, but not Gore

This California wit twice mentions Sarah Palin in Alaska--three times if you count a reference to her husband--in writing about a coming snow storm for California. Nothing about global warming hype and Al Gore worship, however.

Shallow research

If it's possible for journalists to drown in a mud puddle, Cam Simpson and Jonathan Weisman of today's WSJ certainly fell in and died from lack of effort in this one, "Obama ties in the spotlight." Two sources are cited for the most part in this "investigation" written mostly in the passive tense: an Obama biographer, David Mendell, and an Obama mythmaker, David Axelrod. And so we get investigative depth such as

embarrassing the 2 aren't close no suggestion of inappropriate behavior public spotlight on the episodes highlights ties name will be linked little mud on his suit no relationship say aides unclear how much Obama worked on Blagojevich campaign not involved with Emanuel say transition officials gone separate ways (Axelrod and Blogojevich) says Mendell "I was mistaken when I said Obama spoke directly to Gov. Blogojevich about the Senate vacancy," said Axelrod.

Some articles are best left unwritten. The WSJ has the most liberal news coverage of any American newspaper, but this has to be an all time best obamapology.

Rod Blagojevich, Obama, Bush, Frank, Pelosi, et al

And these are the public servants who want to tell us how to run the economy? And the world? For four years they've been investigating Illinois' governor, while he told the Illinois tax payers to tighten their belts, make grandma hostage at the nursing home with unpaid Medicaid bills, and close the local parks, even the ones that were self supporting. And Obama, the man with change and hope in his belly, heard and saw no evil, and spoke only beautiful rhetorical phrases. Meanwhile Blagojevich (is that hair real?) is negotiating a cushy job for himself and his wife with the Obama/Pelosi crowd. Will children's services remove the kids from an unfit home? This place sounds more corrupt than a few renegade Mormans. Who knew what when? Does it really matter? So, do you suppose this is what Biden tried to warn us about? Or was it some other disaster we're suppose to ignore and trust that our leaders know best?

This post has a record number of question marks, at least for me. This Blagojevich story has left me only with questions. My condolences to the citizens of Illinois. I think it's time to clean up Chicago.

Censorship or common sense?

As a librarian I think I've seen or read just about everything that's out there (that's stupid) about digital porn, filters, libraries and access. It's always about freedom and never about protecting children or library patrons who have to sit next to the perverts. "Well, what if they are doing a school report about AIDS in Africa, and you've got a filter on the computer?" Yeah, sure. I know people who will not take their children to public libraries unattended--and that's just fine, indeed recommended, by some library directors. God forbid some slimeball should be prevented masterbating at the terminal or stacks while he views naked girls and women. Now it's Wikipedia. What? Librarians on their board/staff? Here's the story in E-Commerce News.

A decades-old record album cover showing a young girl posing nude may be illegal in the UK, but the controversial image has not been banned in the U.S., where Wikipedia is hosted. The user-created online encyclopedia has therefore determined it would be censorship to remove the image from its pages. Several British ISPs have restricted access to the page, however, in response to a complaint.

The Times of India

Here's another interesting video I saw at Rainy Day--how the Times of India, the world's largest English language newspaper, supported a campaign to find new, fresh leadership. It's fascinating--this is a reality show I could watch if we did this in the U.S. Considering the events of last week in Mumbai, it may be even more important to watch this video now.

New Christmas song about Joseph

With mixed sacred and secular images, this video presents a recording for this Christmas made by The Killers, Elton John and Neil Tennant. Proceeds will benefit Product Red, an AIDS benefit.



HT Rainy Day, for anything you need to know about Ireland.

The Freshmen of 2008

When I saw that I had a message from Mabel Freeman, I almost deleted it. Could have been anything--like a guy shoveling snow in the buff from a Floridian, or a Nigerian princess offering me a loan or ink cartridges. However, I'm glad I looked--at her message, not the guy. It was about the OSU class that entered in September 2007 (not sure why that is called the class of 2008 instead of 2007). It really is impressive. I thought they were fudging a bit on the stats for "students of color" since that includes Asians, and I think there needs to be a better term for students whose ancestors didn't come from Europe like SWANE, although eventually, I suppose if colonial emigres to Britain study in the U.S., even that one won't work. I thought this was impressive: "75% enrolled having earned college credit from AP performance, post-secondary enrollment, or international baccalaureate participation." It looks like the College of Engineering snagged most of this talented group, with business coming in second. I don't know what "exploration" means, but probably "still thinking," or "present." When I was at Ohio State, there was a lot of concern and effort about retention of minority students, because they were heavily recruited, but so many failed or transferred. Therefore, I was thrilled to see this: "African American and Hispanic retention reached a new high of 91%." Also foreign student enrollment is way up again, after falling off after 9/11 when security measures got stricter.

Good job, Ohio State University!

Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book

Sometimes I can't help myself. Not only am I addicted to reference books, I swoon over serendipity in the stacks. Yesterday I pulled off Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book, 680+ pages of unclassified documents about CIA, Homeland Security, counterintelligence, Patriot Act, detainee treatment, how to share information about terrorists, and information sharing, etc. Another thing that overwhelms me--how much Obama has to learn, if this is just the unclassified, imagine what else he's trying to take in. No wonder he's tracking to the middle, with all the Clintonistas standing around him like that TV ad for cell phone support.

Don't laugh. Have you ever read the National Security Act of 1947? You know, you go through life thinking you read, write and speak American standard English. . . and then you read a government document.

"Notwithstanding any provision of law identified in section 904, the President may stay the imposition of an economic, cultural, diplomatic, or other sanction or related action by the United States Government concerning a foreign country, organization, or person when the President determines and reports to Congress in accordance with section 903 that to proceed without delay would seriously risk the compromise of an ongoing criminal investigation directly related to the related to the activities giving rise to the sanction. Any such stay shall be effective for a period of time specified by the President, which period may not exceed 120 days, unless such period is extended in accordance with section 902."

Tipping has changed!

This morning I took a Christmas card and a $20 bill into Panera's, addressed to "The morning staff," and included a little note of thanks. It seems like a big chunk when you give it at once, but not amortized. I'm there about 4 days a week, 42 weeks of the year, so that's what, about a 12 cent tip per visit on a $1.69 cup of coffee with several refills, a seat by the fireplace, regulars and friends to chat with and 3 papers to read? Two of the staff members came over to my table later to personally thank me. That was nice--and it gave me a chance to share about "the olden days."

When I worked at Zickuhr's Drug Store in high school and a few weeks between college sessions between Manchester and University of Illinois, a cup of coffee was $.10 and the advice and kidding was free and never ending, as was the Monday Morning Quarter Backing all week long about the local sports teams. But it wasn't unusual to get a quarter tip. Dave Dillehay, the town clerk, was particularly generous. If I got on the honor roll, which was posted in the town paper each 6 weeks, I got a $5 gift certificate. And when I got married, he gave me a silverplate tea service, which now resides at my daughter's home. Yes, those were the days of tipping!

Both Dave Dillehay and Ralph Zickuhr have parks named for them, from a grateful community--they were good leaders and well liked.

Bankruptcy will be better than bailout both for Big 3 and American consumer

These points come from Don Weil, however, I've mentioned particularly the need for change in the auto industry going back to the 1970s. Ohio's economy is closely tied to the auto industry, as is my son's job, so I do have mixed emotions on the bailout, however, for the country and the global economy, a bailout is much worse than a bankruptcy. Overpaid unions, overpaid CEOs. Head-in-the-sand industry. Over regulated already with Congress trying to run the business and push cars no one wants. And who was it that allowed the loophole on gasoline efficiency so that light trucks became the rage? Congress, of course. Lame duck Bush will do nothing, although he'll get the blame either way; Obama will wait so he can be savior, and it will definitely be called a success no matter what the results. Even if we stay in a recession or fall into a depression that lasts over a decade like we did with FDR who grew it to massive proportions, Obama will be lauded and praised at least until Americans wake up a few generations from now. My generation won't live long enough to have history sort it out, and our "free press" will certain be no help, if it even survives

• If the companies go into bankruptcy and come out stronger, the industry will employ about the same amount of people. If not, foreign auto makers will produce more cars in the U.S. and pick up many of these workers.
• A prepackaged bankruptcy could actually leave the major auto makers in better shape than they were prior to the financial crisis. Since the mid-1990s, the Big Three made most of their money on gas guzzling SUVs and trucks. That simply won’t cut it anymore. Bankruptcy will force the auto makers to quicken their shift to smaller cars.
• bankruptcy would give the Big Three an opportunity to rework their labor contracts, cutting compensation, and to jettison incompetent executives.
• Plenty of companies have emerged stronger from bankruptcy. Nearly all the major airlines have gone through that process and came out stronger than when they entered.
• The Big Three have had so many opportunities to change their practices since the first oil crisis of the early 1970s, yet they have been reluctant to budge. GM still has eight brands of cars, even though critics have pointed out for years that’s probably about seven too many.
• this current "bailout" bears no resemblance to the rescue of Chrysler in 1980. In 1980, Congress passed, and President Carter signed, a law giving a U.S. government guarantee of a private $1.5 billion loan to Chrysler. Not one dollar of taxpayer funds was ever used in the deal. Chrysler also had a clear plan to make a comeback and the loan was relatively small.

Dan Weil - Dec 8 at Newsmax
.
For explanation of how UAW labor costs compare with other workers, see Heritage.

The CIA's art collection

Nothing about the government should surprise me, but I didn't know the CIA has its own art collection. Today I picked up the CSI's Studies in Intelligence Journal, vol.52, no.2, 2008, to read

"By the end of 2008, 52 percent of CIA’s workforce will have entered on duty since 11 September 2001. CIA’s history and museum programs provide institutional cohesion to communicate CIA’s corporate culture and identity during this demographic revolution. Recent additions to the Agency’s historical holdings include intelligence-themed paintings and sculpture that record for posterity the experiences of intelligence officers in peace and war."

It was a non-circ item (from OSUL), but it is available on the web, or at least parts of it. Here's a sample of the art. The painting depicts Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native who joined the State Department in the 1930s, with many assignments abroad until an accident cost her a leg and she resigned. At the outbreak of WWII, she "joined the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). . . Her fluency in French landed her a clandestine assignment in Lyons, where she went to work developing the area’s resistance operations. Over the next 15 months, every British agent arriving in France passed through her flat for instructions, counterfeit money, and contacts. In addition, she orchestrated supply drops and helped endangered agents escape to England. Betrayed in November 1942, she had to use her own escape route out of France, just steps ahead of her now infamous pursuer, Klaus Barbie, “the butcher of Lyons.”

Hall then joined the Special Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services in March 1944 and asked to return to occupied France. OSS promptly granted her request and reinfiltrated her aboard a British PT boat. Disguised as a farmwoman, she carried cheese to local villages to count German troops and identify drop zones for the Allied invasion to come." After the war she received the Distinguished Service Cross—the only one given to a civilian woman during that war. "Hall later worked for the CIA, serving in many jobs as one of CIA’s first female operations officers."

Throw in some romance (Branjelina?) and this would be a great movie. She married her husband, Paul, in 1950 who was also an OSS officer. Her story was told in The Wolves at the Door : The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy by Judith L. Pearson, The Lyons Press, 2005. That left leg looks pretty real to me in the painting. Maybe the artist didn't know?