Today’s great letter to the editor in the Daily Times:
http://www.thedailytimes.com/Your_Voice/story/Buffett-offers-end-to-increasing-debt-id-020227

On “Meet the Press” on Sept. 7, 2008, our president said, “We as a nation have placed ‘unfair injustice’ on the nations of Islam which is why my wife disrespects the American flag. She and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past.”

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/barackobama/a/obama_anthem.htm

As our president prepares to ask our spineless Congress for another $1.2 trillion debt increase, look at these numbers. From 1789-2008, a total of 43 presidents increased our debt by $6.3 trillion. From 2008-2011, one oxymoron added $6.5 trillion.

The great thing about freedom of speech is that you can write a letter to the editor, include a false quote about the POTUS, and have someone post a comment to your letter and call you out for being both stupid and malicious. What an oxymormon!

From the Knoxville News Sentinel: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/feb/01/judge-deals-setback-to-maryville-developer-mike/

A federal judge has ordered a default judgment against Ross and other defendants, in connection with a lawsuit that accused the Maryville developer of racketeering activity.

The order was handed down on Monday, and focused less on the merits of the case than on a failure by Ross’s embattled legal team to hand over documents requested by the plaintiff, Robert Stooksbury.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

LINK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46198559#46198559

A major new bureaucracy added to County government – The Commission approved a resolution to ask the state legislature to pass a private act that will result in the addition of another bureaucracy to the County government, called the Smoky Mountain Tourism Authority. It is worrisome that no one seemed able to explain why this Authority is needed. The idea of expanding County government in these tough times is bad enough.

The Commission made things worse by approving a poorly written piece of legislation. Here are a few examples of the problems.

Read the full report at: http://www.jimfolts.com/

With the Super Bowl just around the corner I thought it may be interesting to look at the NFL’s obviously successful business model. At it’s most basic level the NFL is a democratic socialist enterprise where they are obliged to pool most of the owners significant income (which we could think of as a very high tax rate) then the co-mingled wealth is redistributed equally amongst the owners. Further the owners have agreed to limit spending on operational cost, team salaries (even if capital expenditures vary from team to team) And the owners have a fully integrated relationship with the primary employees union further blurring the line between labor and management. Defacto, very successful, highly profitable corporate socialism alive and well in the good ole US of A.

Most of my capitalism uber alles friends would say “what motivates the individual whose efforts are greater than the next man if they are both paid equally?” To that I might say, are we not our brother’s keeper? A rising tide raises all ships. If one man succeeds while a hundred or a thousand fail… does that really serve the greater good ?

Just sayin’ Do ya wanna play some FOOTBALL ? !!

As reported by Metropulse…

State Sen. Stacey “ Don’t say g a y “ Campfield was asked to leave a Knoxville restaurant earlier this week. Martha Boggs, owner of Bistro at the Bijou, recognized Campfield then promptly asked him to leave. Says Boggs “I didn’t want his hate in my restaurant. I told him he wasn’t welcome here” When asked about it Boggs said “ I feel like he’s gone from being stupid to being dangerous".

With the local power brokers backing Scott Hughes we’re almost certain to have our own state senator who is fully capable of competing with Campfield’s ‘stupid is as stupid does’ place in the sun.

Unless… everyone were to vote in the Repub Primary. After all, the winner will likely run unopposed in the general so if you want to return Overbey to Nashville over Hughes you best grab your camos and wrap around shades and vote in the primary. Otherwise we’re all going to get exactly what they’re servin’.

P.S. Speaking of stupid is as stupid does how am I to link to the Metropulse article when this site blacklists the word g a y and that word is part of the link ? As in G a y S t r e e t. Geez Louise, what up with that moderators. Explain yourself.

DT link: http://www.thedailytimes.com/Business_News/story/2-in-state-banks-fail-id-020093

Did you know these are the first FDIC failures in Tennessee since 2002? Gives me the feeling the Feds are doing these takeovers methodically.

How many banks are partly or mainly operating on TARP money? That’s what GreenBank was essentially doing before the buyout.

It’s made me long suspect that’s what has been behind the lack of lending. It’s not that people don’t want or need the loans, it’s that many banks are sitting on the infusion they got four years ago to regain solvency. The infusion that was sold as “saving Wall Street in order to save Main Street”, never really trickled down. Imagine that.

Regardless, a subsidiary of one of our nation’s largest banks, just assumed another small one. The kind of government imposed growth that will put it in the position of being, once again, “too big to fail”.

Link: http://www.blountindustry.com/about_us/our_staff.aspx

The chairman of the Blount County Industrial Board ( currently the Blount County Economic Development Board – BCEDB ) has stepped down, to accept the directorship of the University of Tennessee’s non-partisan Republican Howard Baker Center. A retiree will be taking his place as Chairman of the Blount County board.

The Vice Chairman of the BCEDB also stepped down and was replaced with a residential construction contractor.

The CEcD, CCE, IOM, & CEO of the BCEDB will remain the same. More News regarding this story, will be released later today & tomorrow in the surrounding counties’ newspapers.

As of press tyme tonight, the present Chairman of the Blount County Commission has not yet decided whether the local newspaper will cover this story at all. Stay tuned elsewhere for more developments.

I need some help with a personal decision which has global implications.  I’ve been shopping cars.  I would like to burn less fuel.  After vetting the current selection the Toyota Prius is the champ.  Well engineered and a good long track record for reliability.   Ford Fusion is also a user favorite with very good reviews.  It uses a little more fuel than the Prius but the car is also more substantial, quieter and simply more comfortable to drive.  But the Fusion’s track record is less clear, more unknowns about engineering and reliability.   Here’s the kicker though and the reason for the post.  Ford being an American car company is a bonus for me.  However I found out the Fusion is currently assembled in Mexico.   Maybe some US content but hecho en Mexico.   On the other hand the Toyota is obviously a Japanese company and while I have nothing against Japan, they do build great cars, it simply isn’t an American product.  Or is it? The Prius is now assembled in Mississippi.  Sooooo….   From a strict American point of view do you support the only American car company that did not take bailout money BUT builds their cars in Mexico ??  Or do you support the American assembly workers in Mississippi but allow the profits to flow into foreign hands?   This global economy is sometimes hard to get your head around.   What say you ?   Does it really matter ?