Ich Liebe Lieberman!

Obviously this is yesterday's news, but I wanted to link to it for my oh! so clever title.

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill.

Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid has said the Senate bill will.

"We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. "To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now."

It's funny reading the libs on this. One site I went to had enraged commenters saying they were going to hit him with a two-by-four and throttle him. One person called him a whore. I was going going to point out that the politically-correct word is "sex-worker", but didn't have the heart.

Equity Seat Rights

The more I think about this concept, the better it sounds.

For the price of a three-bedroom home with a pool in a leafy suburb, you can now buy something really and truly invaluable. Your own stadium seat.

Earlier this month, the boards of regents at the University of Kansas and the University of California-Berkeley approved plans to fund stadium expansions and renovations by selling something called "equity seat rights." Fans who are approved for financing can buy their seats and pay for them—with interest, of course—over as long as 50 years. Once the seat is paid for, it's yours, just like a house.

If this "mortgage" model catches on, it will mark a radical departure from the past, when most new stadiums were financed with a combination of taxpayer dollars, private loans and corporate sponsorships.

Cal plans to sell about 3,000 seats under the plan and hopes to raise $270 million. The school's best seats cost $175,000 to $220,000 apiece over a 50-year term, while the cheapest sell for $40,000 per seat for a 40-year term. "Without this program, I don't see any way we could secure the funds," said Cal associate athletic director David Rosselli. "We needed a different approach."

Back in the mid-nineties when I lived in Pittsburgh, people were trying to get tax levies passed to fund two new stadiums. The strategies I remember being deployed to talk the voters into passing the levies were having hometown media heroes cry on television about how awful Three Rivers was and radio DJ's prophesying economic catastrophe if we didn't vote to start paying higher retail prices. It was amusing to hear residents living in the buckle of the Rust Belt being preached to about financial collapse seemingly two decades after the fact. The resounding NO from voters didn't keep the sports industrial complex down for long, and ketchup and bank people stepped up to the plate several years later. Plus a bunch of people bought rubble from the demolished hallows of the immaculate reception. I'd say they were trying to lend credence to the famous saying about suckers, but I clearly remember spending $10 or so on an undersized screen-printed hand towel at one point in my life.

This incident reminds me of another which took place in Pittsburgh at about the same time. I recall a small crowd at the software office where I worked gathered around a sales guy who was pulling up his pant leg, accompanied by hushed "oohs" and "aaahs". As I moved closer, a 4-inch diameter, full color Steelers logo was revealed to be tattooed on the outside of his semi-shaved calf. Proud of his permanent, coaster-sized branding he announced, "Now they'd better win, dammit!" Was he a season ticket-holder? Stupid question.

Looking back on this it's fairly obvious that this guy and his cronies should be paying for sports stadiums. And this "Sports Mortgage" idea seems to be just the thing to facilitate their love and devotion. I know that I benefit from the stadiums whenever I get around to watching a game. But since I've bought several nice overpriced Steelers shirts in my time, methinks I can say honestly say that I "gave at the office", at least enough to cover my small slice of entertainment taken.

Let's beat these squirrels to a bloody pulp

I'm telling you, the hits just keep coming for ACORN. Now their corporate donors are contemplating cutting off the funds.

Corporations that have given ACORN millions of dollars over the years are now cancelling their donations in the wake of videotape revelations of employees of the infamous community organization giving advice on mortgage fraud, tax evasion, prostitution, and child sex slavery.

Bank of America is reviewing its grant program, while Citigroup is waiting for results of official investigations in the scandal. JP Morgan Chase had previously ended its relationship with ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Banks and other financial institutions have given millions of dollars and other forms of support to ACORN for decades in response to boycott threats from the organization, as well as accusations of racism and other forms of discrimination in granting personal loans and mortgages.

The ACORN campaigns followed passage of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which was designed to pressure financial institutions to loosen lending standards in order to increase home ownership among poor and minority communities. Legislation strengthening CRA during the Clinton administration greatly encouraged such ACORN activities.

I say we keep beating on them, beating on them, beating on them until their blood runs in the streets. However, watching them starve to death would also be rewarding. How you want to do your part is up to you.

Jacobson, president and founder of Maverick Strategies, said banks could risk legal action from unhappy shareholders if managers do not sever financial ties with ACORN.

So you may just want to write letters to every financial institution with which you have business dealing and say, "Don't give these ACORN freaks any more money. They are perverts and criminals. Their public image is at an all time low. Time to find a new charity to support. Or else we will take our business elsewhere." Maybe we should do this as an Organized Community?