More wastebook fun

Before we begin, I have a little story from FoxNews via the NYTimes about some of our favorite wastrels, the Occupy Wall Street movement.


Single dad trying to take back home from Occupy Wall Street protesters


They’re occupying his home.
Occupy Wall Street protesters announced with great fanfare last month that they moved a homeless family into a “foreclosed” Brooklyn, N.Y., home — even though they knew the house belonged to a struggling single father desperately trying to renegotiate his mortgage, The Post has learned.
“They’re trying to take a house and say the bank is robbing the people because the mortgage is too high — so contact the owner!” fumed Wise Ahadzi, 28, who owns the home at 702 Vermont St. in East New York.
Occupiers “reclaimed” the row house on Dec. 6 and ceremoniously put out the welcome mat for a homeless family.But Bank of America, which has been in and out of foreclosure proceedings against Ahadzi since 2009, confirmed to The Post that he is still the rightful owner.Meanwhile, the family that OWS claimed to be putting into the vacant house has not yet permanently moved in.
 And it turns out the family is not a random victim of the foreclosure crisis, but cast for the part, thanks to their connection to the OWS movement.OWS last week said it has spent $9,500 breaking into the house and setting it up for the homeless Carrasquillo family. A photo of the smiling family covers a window, under the slogan, “A place to call home.”The head of the family, Alfredo Carrasquillo, 28, is an organizer for VOCAL- NY, a group that works with OWS. His Facebook page shows him in a “99 Percent” T-shirt at an OWS protest in November.
The Post visited the Vermont Street home last week — six weeks after OWS announced that the Carrasquillos were moving in — and the family was nowhere to be found.In fact, the only people occupying the house were occupiers themselves.
“They only stay here sometimes,” a protester named Charlie said of the Carrasquillos. “There’s not enough room for the kids.”
The occupier refused to say how many others were inside, but at least two more protesters could be seen at the house, along with mattresses on the floor, during The Post visit.“We’re almost done with the basement,” he said of the renovations.The real property owner is livid because he could be raising his two little girls, Imani, 3, and Kwazha, 10, in the two-story home instead of in a meager, two-bedroom rental in Brownsville while he tries to sort out his mortgage nightmare.
Police notified him in early December that the vigilante vagrants moved into his East New York digs, he said. He immediately ran over to the house to see for himself.


Wow, major credibility blow! As if these A-holes had any credibility to begin with.  It's a shame that they took a good idea and filtered it through all their leftist propaganda to create the same thing they always create- a pile of lying, disingenuous shit wrapped in a pretty foil wrapper to make it look like candy.  And the only ones dumb enough to believe this crap are those who never pull the wrapper off.





#52- the NSF passed out $126,242 to "several researchers" to study the websites of political candidates.  One of the goals therein was "to see whether candidates live up to their campaign promises."
Martin savings- here's a big clue, Mr. Researcher.  If you're getting money for this, they're not keeping their campaign promises.

#50- Our good friends at USAID are sending $1.35 million to Barbados to set up an "entrepeneur initiative".  Just so I don't seem holier-than-thou, I must mention that the whole thing is being partnered by Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.  The reasoning behind sending money to Barbados to help them be a more efficient, high tech, user friendly tourist trap?  From a USAID rep:  "(It will) address the challenge of creating new business opportunities in Barbados and its neighboring countries, especially for Carribean young people."
Martin savings:  Number of unemployed in the USA as of November 2011- 13.1 million.  Number of people in Barbados, total: 273,331.  Do the math.  Frankly after what happened in Columbus yesterday, they might get more bang for the buck if they gave IU's share to the athletic Dept.

#49- Let's just let this one speak for itself.

Numerous reports indicate the Department of Energy‘s Weatherization Assistance program is

riddled with waste and abuse. After issuing a Management Alert about such problems in 2009,

the U.S. Department of Energy Inspector General (DOE IG) found the weatherization program
suffered from poor workmanship, inflated material costs, and inadequate inspections in 2010.

The investigation focused on Illinois‘ weatherization

program, which received $242 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The report found substandard home assessments,weatherization workmanship, and contractor billing, which ―put the entire program at risk.

In another example, New Jersey was forced to end a $4 million federally-funded weatherization

job training program after a lack of job demand left trainees without prospects

-only seven of the 184 aspiring workers that received training found work in the field.

The program received $230 million in FY 2011 through regular appropriations. The program

also received an additional $8.1 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

(ARRA) {AKA the stimulus bill}, nearly eight times the normal amount of annual funding for weatherization purposes
across all federal programs.

 The DOE IG has described ARRA funding for green energy as so at odds with the realities on the ground that it was akin to attaching a lawn mower to a fire hydrant.

Illionois corrupt?  Programs in New Jersey incompetant?  Say it ain't so!  The federal government paying inflated prices?  Green initiatives being "pie in the sky"?  Cahmahn!  All right, maybe.  Here's a bit from the report on the Community and Economic Development Ass'n of Cook County Illinois:

The IG report paints a grim picture of CEDA's efforts. Of the 15 homes IG inspectors visited, 12 failed final inspection because of substandard workmanship. In 10 of the homes, contractors had billed for labor or materials they did not provide. CEDA, meanwhile, did a poor job on inspections, earning a 62 percent final inspection error rate on homes that state officials had reinspected, according to the report.

IG inspectors also found that CEDA approved materials with inflated costs from contractors, with prices for smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and thermostats marked up as much as 200 percent above retail. Compact fluorescent bulbs were almost triple the price; one lamp listed in CEDA's catalogue was $3.50, compared to an average retail price of $1.33.

Here's some more bon mots about the efficacy of "throwing money at a problem":

Inspector General Gregory Friedman, testifying before a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, outlined a range of problems, from a flood of $35 billion in stimulus money that overwhelmed the department's $27 billion annual budget to weatherization programs of such shoddy quality that more than half of those audited failed inspection because of substandard workmanship.
Even as the Energy Department hired new workers to manage the sudden inflow of funds, Friedman said, the state and local governments responsible for spending the money were laying off workers and were "simply put, overwhelmed".

And just so IU doesn't get all the Indiana bashing this time, here's #46.  Once again, our porker is the NSF (Which I wonder if it stands for "National Science Foundation" or "Never Sufficient Funds"), who gave Notre Dame $764,825 to study the "wireless and social networking habits of college freshmen."  250 students will each be given a specially rigged Sprint Smart phones (not surprising, as Sprint CEO David Hesse, a leading organizer of the study, is a Notre Dame alumn) that will track their location (to see how far apart they have to be before they text instead of talk?), digital communications, and purchases.  Plus, two years of free service from Sprint!

Martin savings, part one:  Get this: "More than 98.8 percent of college students own a cell phone, according to a 2010 study from Ball State University. The study also found that 97 percent of students use text messaging as their main form of communication."  Could they have not saved $ buy just funding Ball State to do additional study on their established frame work?  (But then Sprint wouldn't have gotten such a sweetheart prospecting deal, Chris!)

Martin Savings, part 2:  The most expensive Sprint plan I found was $99/mo.  Over 2 years for 250 students comes out to $594,000.    That MIGHT mean that the tracking gizmo is $683 PER PHONE-  which is abot 2 1/4 times the highest price I found for a smartphone.  I say just have them turn in the phone after the 2 years, dissect the memory, and save $170,000.