Seattle is a more expensive area

Seattle is a more expensive area, but not one of the worst. If $100 is worth $100 on average, what does it buy in Seattle? Less: $93.37. In San Francisco-Oakland? $83.13. In Rapid City, South Dakota? More: $106.95

See the interactive map at:

Tax Foundation

Obama's Iran nuclear deal in plain English

We are hearing this and that about President Obama’s historic agreement with Iran then ends sanctions and allows Iran to return to polite society.

But don’t take my word for it. Read it yourself at Vox. I quote the intro below, but read the whole thing; it’s not very long.

VOX

International negotiators assembled in Austria have announced the final terms of the Iranian nuclear deal. The purpose of the deal is to limit Iran's nuclear program to something that is small, safe, and peaceful — and to impose lots of invasive inspections to make sure Iran is keeping to its end of the deal. In exchange, Iran gets relief from some of the economic sanctions that have crippled its economy. Both sides, the thinking goes, also get to avert a war. 

You can really see how that plays out, how the deal works, and what it means when you look into its details. But those details can get awfully technical. So what follows are the most important provisions of the deal, along with a simple translation of each into plain English and a brief description of why it matters: ...

Moving low-income people did not improve their lives. Repeat it???

Obama has a new initiative to move racial-minority people to the suburbs to improve their living conditions, incomes and school results. But this was tried by Pres. Clinton, called MTO, “Move to Opportunity," and it didn’t work. People did not go off welfare; indeed, use of food stamps went up. School results did not improve. And crime followed them to the suburbs! We know because the results I am citing were carefully collected by the Dept of HUD over fifteen years in a 187-page 2011 report.

Why is Obama repeating an experiment that failed? It will not benefit the low-income people. That has been proven. So why is He doing the same thing again? The Hill

 More at Investors Business Daily

Social Engineering: President Obama's new suburban integration plan won't just harm the middle class by reducing safety and property values. It won't even provide the economic benefits it promises to relocated minorities.

We know this because HUD already tried a similar experiment under President Clinton of resettling urban poor in the suburbs. It failed, as a HUD study reveals.
From 1994 to 2008, HUD moved thousands of mostly African-American families from government projects to higher-quality homes in safer and less racially segregated neighborhoods. The 15-year experiment, dubbed "Moving to Opportunity Initiative," or MTO, was based on the well-intentioned notion that relocating inner-city minorities to better neighborhoods would boost their employment and education prospects.

But adults for the most part did not get better jobs or get off welfare. In fact, more went on food stamps. And their children did not do better in their new schools.
The 287-page study sponsored by HUD found that adults who relocated outside the inner city using Section 8 housing vouchers did not avail themselves of better job opportunities in their new neighborhoods, and saw a "sizable negative impact on annual earnings."

"Moving to lower-poverty neighborhoods does not appear to improve education outcomes, employment or earnings," the study concluded.Even then-senior HUD official Raphael Bostic, a black Obama appointee, admitted in a foreword to the 2011 study that families enrolled in the program had "no better educational, employment and income outcomes."

Worse, crime simply followed them to their safer neighborhoods. "Males ... were arrested more often than those in the control group, primarily for property crimes," the study found.

Buying votes in Texas

Voting fraud. Real vote fraud in Texas.

In Rio Grande Valley campaign workers are paid to harvest votes. This is not get-out-the-vote. This is pay to vote for my candidate - the Democrat.

NPR:

A new FBI anti-corruption task force is trying to clean up the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. According to the Justice Department, in 2013, more public officials were convicted for corruption in South Texas than in any other region of the country. One of the practices the task force is looking at is vote-stealing. 

They're called politiqueras — a word unique to the border that means campaign worker. It's a time-honored tradition down in the land of grapefruit orchards and Border Patrol checkpoints. If a local candidate needs dependable votes, he or she goes to a politiquera. 

In recent years, losing candidates in local elections began to challenge vote harvesting by politiqueras in the Rio Grande Valley, and they shared their investigations with authorities. After the 2012 election cycle, the Justice Department and the Texas attorney general's office filed charges.

"Yes, there is a concern in which the politiqueras are being paid to then go and essentially round up voters and have them vote a certain way," says James Sturgis, assistant U.S. attorney in McAllen.

In the town of Donna, five politiqueras pleaded guilty to election fraud. Voters were bribed with cigarettes, beer or dime bags of cocaine. In neighboring Cameron County, nine politiqueras were charged with manipulating mail-in ballots.

Via Hot Air

The pic. Texas A&M University beauties. Source forgotten.

Independence Day

Today, July 4, we celebrate the birth of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 2, 1776, but was not announced until July 4, 1776. So that is the day we celebrate.

The Declaration says that King George III of Great Britain was violating the rights of his subjects in American; to the point that their differences were irreconcilable. So it was necessary to break the bond of the 13 colonies to Great Britain and to form a new nation.

American leaders in the Continental Congress who signed risked everything - their lives, their land and homes, their possessions, their families and their own lives.

Images: the Betsy Ross 13-star flag is from PDClipArt.org. Below is Memorial Day at National Cemetary of the Pacific aka Punchbowl in Honolulu from American Battle Memorials.

James Jamerson originated much of the bass guitar style we are all familiar with. He did it without credit in the studio band called the Funk Brothers for Motown records for 15 years in the 1960s to 70s. Before Jamerson the bass did “1-2-3-4”. He took a new approach and carried it to incredible heights.

Instapundit featured him recently.

He died in his early 50s and got little recognition. But “Dr Licks” Allan Slutsky put together a film in 2002 on his life and music: Standing in the Shadows of Motown. Ed Driscoll tells about Jamerson at Blog Critics with interview of the book author and film producer “Dr Licks” Allan Slutsky. The movie at Amazon.

The book came out in 1989 - Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson, at Amazon.

Review: While at one time he was simply known as "The Motown Bassist" to thousands of aspiring bass players around the world, including more famous and world class bass players than you can imagine, James Jamerson is now a legend of immense proportions. If you don't know who Jamerson is by now then you simply must get this book. 

If you do know who James Jamerson is, then this book is a no brainer. Quite possibly the most influential musician of the past 50 years. If it weren't for him, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and countless of others in the rock and r&b genres wouldn't sound the way they do. 

The biography is compelling and I read it straight through over a several hour period when I first received this book. The lessons are difficult, and definately not for the beginner. 

For a beginner who wants to learn classic R&B style bass playing I'd reccomend the Duck Dunn book (What Duck Done) ... When you get through that book you can go on to Funkmasters and learn some classic James Brown grooves.

Finally, when you've graduated from those books you can take a crack at the Jamerson book, though I think it should be on your shelf from day 1 to give you inspiration, and so you can listen to the tracks with the bass prominently mixed. Just to get it into your ears, so to speak. You might also hear a Motown tune you think you can pick up and will want to reference this book. 

James Jamerson, legend, towering genius of Bass, has challenged countless bass players exposed to his playing. This book will challenge you, it will push you, and it will humble you. ...

Interlude

My blog software stopped working with my blog host, so it is awkward to post. Took a break. (Still not fixed.)