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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (78328)	3/15/2010 11:38:25 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

Barron's on Public Sector Unions' '$2 Trillion Hole' By: Mark Hemingway Commentary Staff Writer 03/15/10 1:47 PM EDT Barron's cover story this week is on how the financial shortfall for public sector unions pension plans is going to reshape America's fiscal landscape: <<< LIKE A CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE, populist rage burns over bloated executive compensation and unrepentant avarice on Wall Street. Deserving as these targets may or may not be, most Americans have ignored at their own peril a far bigger pocket of privilege -- the lush pensions that the 23 million active and retired state and local public employees, from cops and garbage collectors to city managers and teachers, have wangled from taxpayers. Some 80% of these public employees are beneficiaries of defined-benefit plans under which monthly pension payments are guaranteed, no matter how stocks and other volatile assets backing the retirement plans perform. In contrast, most of the taxpayers footing the bill for these public-employee benefits (participants' contributions to these plans are typically modest) have been pushed by their employers into far less munificent defined-contribution plans and suffered the additional indignity of seeing their 401(k) accounts shrivel in the recent bear market in stocks. And defined-contribution plans, unlike public pensions, have no protection against inflation. It's just too bad: Maybe some seniors will have to switch from filet mignon to dog food. >>> Read the whole thing. And Barron's is exactly right that the public sector unions issue is being ignored in favor of other populist targets such as Wall Street which better fit a liberal narrative. Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com

To: Sully- who wrote (78328)	3/17/2010 3:01:00 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

ACORN ceases operations in Maryland By: Mark Hemingway Commentary Staff Writer 03/16/10 5:30 PM EDT The ACORN office in Baltimore is no more. This is the very same ACORN chapter that was caught on tape last fall advising undercover conservative activists how to run an underage prostitution ring: <<< A former leader of Maryland's ACORN chapter said Monday the group will no longer operate in the state, doomed by an embarrassing national scandal six months ago from which the organization never recovered. Sonja Merchant-Jones, former co-chairwoman of the state chapter of ACORN and a board member since 1999, said there are no plans in Maryland to rebrand under a different name, a move undertaken Monday by several ACORN affiliates across the country. Maryland ACORN ceased operations late last year, Merchant-Jones said, and all the offices in the state have closed. The group has not held a board meeting in Maryland since November, she added. >>> Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com