Ironic: Federal Government Screws Goat Herders

If you happen to notice that your neighborhood Border Collie looking a little more refreshed then normal with a Bluetooth stuck in his ear while walking the neighborhood you can thank the Obama administration.

The Obama administration is setting new workplace regulations to assist foreign workers who fill goat herding positions in the U.S. , including employee-paid cell phones and comfy beds.

Well I guess technically these new rules would only apply to Australian Sheep Dogs working in the US.

Talk about big brother besides cell phones and beds it also details what constitutes adequate lighting to how food must be prepared.

The new lighting standards say that in areas where it is not feasible to provide electrical service such as tents or mobile trailers, lanterns must be provided. “Kerosene wick lights meet the definition of lantern,” the regulations say.

How did these poor goat and sheep herders with centuries worth of practice and knowledge ever manage to bring a herd in without the assistance of the all-knowing and all-seeing federal government must be some sort miracle. Federal government. Is there anything it can't do?

I don't want to even know how many of these new rules this group of herders are violating.

For One County There Is No 'Race To The Top'

Because Cobb County Georgia is already at the top.
I live in the best county in America. No, really. The latest example of this is the refusal of school board to participate in a program to fleece taxpayers out of even more money in a federal program called "Race To The Top". Georgia did 'win' $400 million dollars in this, what do you call it, competition.
The basic concept behind it is your school system has to be such an abject failure that the only solution of course is to pour more money at the problem. Cobb County decided not to participate and the reasoning given when the subject came up way back when is sound.

"No. With federal dollars, you know there are long, strong strings attached and at what cost," Sweeney said. "You give up what makes this community so special; local control. ... We have the capacity and the intelligence to do what it takes to improve student achievement while reducing federal government interference. Besides, local control isn't the only expense. Federal programs are usually proven to be very inefficient. The costs for Race To The Top funds from a dollar, resource, administrative and time perspective are likely to outweigh the proposed program cost benefits."

Of course it doesn't hurt that the school system doesn't suck and therefore probably wouldn't have gotten any of the money anyway as evidenced by the largest city school system in the county.

In fact, Marietta City Schools was never eligible for the federal funds, intended to support new approaches to improve schools, because they do not meet the criteria of "low performing" set by federal education officials. To be eligible for RTTT money, a school system must have an overall graduation rate below 60 percent, and Marietta High School has a graduation rate of 83.7 percent.

It is just more proof of how poor performance gets rewarded all in the name of making it 'fair' or 'equal'. I have heard it said many times, and the view is correct, you will get more of the behavior you reward and less of the behavior you punish. At this time in America anybody who succeeds is to be punished and unless the trend is reversed then you are going to get exactly what you have rewarded.

The other reasons this is the best county in America? Our law enforcement is allowed to check the immigration status of anybody they detain for another law violation. Glock was just approved for a building permit to expand their handgun manufacturing facility and another business which sells guns was approved for an indoor shooting range. And the number one reason it is the best, our budget is not in the red. Yet.

No, most of that millions of taxpayer dollars will go to school districts, to line the pockets of the administrators, like Clayton and Dekalb county which are such total and complete failures that they constantly stay on the black list with the school accreditation committees. For more on Clayton county schools check here.

Obama Authorizes Aid to 4 of 17 Counties in GA

Governor Sonny Perdue just announced that the Obama administration has approved federal aid to only 4 of the 17 counties that were declared disaster areas in the wake of the flooding that struck the metro Atlanta area this week. While the waters are starting to recede, they are forecasting more rain in the coming days which could once again cause more flooding.

The counties approved, are by most accounts the ones hardest hit, Cobb, Douglas, Paulding, and Cherokee but you have to wonder why he didn't authorize it for all the affected areas. For the record all of those counties would be considered red counties so that sort of diffuses that argument, unless he thinks doing this will buy him votes. If he does, he don't know us real well.

Gov. Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that President Barack Obama has issued a federal disaster declaration to provide aid to residents of four Georgia counties in the wake of destructive flooding.

Individual assistance for recovery efforts will be given to residents of Cobb, Paulding, Douglas and Cherokee counties.

Perdue declared a state of emergency in 17 counties Monday. The part of his request covering other counties and for government buildings and public costs from the storm is still pending.

Quick note on the picture. That is the Great American Scream Machine roller coaster at Six Flags over Georgia. The parking lot for the commuter bus I take to work in the mornings is just to the right of that about a 1/4 mile, which is why I have been working from home this week.