Regarding Connecticut state employees who received the largest compensations in 2009, as reported in the May 9, 2010 Republican American some startling facts can be determined. Beyond the conclusion that many, and judging by the budget, if not all state workers cost the taxpayers dearly for their excessive salaries and benefits, one could also suspect the veracity of such remuneration’s as reported!

Looking beyond the obvious I decided to compute hours worked for the top 50 recipients, as listed in Sunday’s article. Not being privy to the actual worker’s contracts I made some assumptions and the exact figures may be more or less. However my assumptions are valid for private industry and one should also note; in the private sector department heads and many other top salaried positions are overtime exempt and are not compensated for such performance. Giving the benefit of the doubt I also gave the greatest weight to the most costly overtime in my calculations assuming the employees had worked every Sunday and every holiday as well. My assumptions being:

ï‚· Hourly rate is based on a 35 hour work week.
ï‚· Regular overtime is computed at time and one-half for hours worked over 7 in a day or 35 per week.
ï‚· Each person worked 50 Sundays for 7 hours at double time
ï‚· Each person worked every holiday (15) for 7 hours at double time and one-half.
ï‚· Each received 2 weeks vacation
ï‚· Each took 5 sick days

Calculations using those assumptions indicates number 1 on the list, Edward A. Blanchette’s base pay is $83.11 per hour, he must have worked for 71 hours every week including every Sunday and every holiday logging 1,454 regular overtime hours and 455 premium overtime hours for 1,909 overtime hours in total to reach his compensation level!

Looking at number 2, Suzanne E. Ducate, her base pay is $107.71 per hour “earning” a total of $411,862.36 which is $215,838.22 more than her base salary of $196,024.14. Ms. Ducate must have worked 56 hours every week for 694 regular overtime hours plus 455 hours of premium overtime on every Sunday and holiday totaling 1,145 overtime hours to achieve that level of compensation!

It doesn’t look any better by number 50 at the bottom of the list, Sivaprasad V. Katrapati, who was paid a total of $181,257.55 including overtime, has a base salary of $41.06 per hour. By private sector compensation norms this person must have worked 64 hours every week racking up 1088 regular overtime hours on top of 455 hours of premium overtime by working every Sunday’s and holiday for a grand total of 1,543 overtime hours in order to reach that amount.

Does anyone else see a problem with those numbers, where’s the oversight, do those figures make sense given the bloated numbers of state employees? Let’s not forget when OUR (taxpayer) employees retire their retirement is based on total compensation which includes overtime and unused sick days, and lets not forget their gold plated benefits. The solution of the public employee union leadership is for the private sector to exact the same usury from their employers instead of “depriving state workers”! Were private companies subject to the same compensation and benefits our overpaid and under worked state employees receive there wouldn’t be any left, then how would government meet it’s payroll and who would be left to tax?

If anyone wishes to determine other compensations using the same assumptions here is a link to my spreadsheet

I call upon the voters of this state to clean house in November and elect those willing to legislate the union contracts void, reduce their numbers and compensation to sustainable levels, eliminate the vast majority of entitlements and restore the state to a sound financial footing, otherwise may God help us.

Thank you very much for helping to render our Constitution meaningless in your efforts to create a communist state and destroy our once great Nation that I put my life on the line for in Viet-nam. Passing the so-called health care reform by deeming and whatever rule bending tricks Pelosi and her cabal of lapdogs like yourself are using to FORCE FEED this bill to the American people is WRONG!.

Guess what, even in “blue” Connecticut so many people I’ve talked to who voted for Obama are now saying it was a big mistake. Why do you think this is? His lies, his open government that works in the dark of night behind closed doors, ramming through legislation that only those who don’t pay taxes support or by staffing his cabinet with communists, tax cheats, and “uniquely qualified” lobbyists he swore to excise? I could go on but you’ve heard all his contradictions and outright lies and still don’t care. “Companies will save 3000%”, Right, but it just goes to show you that Obama BELIEVES we’re idiots, and Pelosi BELIEVES we’ll like it so let’s pass it “so we can find out what’s in it”. Who’s out of touch?

The people, not the astro-turf and hired SEIU thugs who brought left wing politicians like yourself into office resoundingly oppose this bill and Obama’s agenda. It has precipitated a much awaited backlash against our country moving to the left, galvanizing a GERAT MAJORITY of patriotic Americans. You can call yourself “Right of Center” but we know who your are and what you are.

You cannot do this and get away with it!

Can health care be improved? Yes with tort reform and portability, not Obama Care which is an unmasked travesty against our country, our constitution, our freedoms and our people.

Mark my words there will be a veto proof anti socialistic congress elected this November. I’m not sorry you won’t be among them.

Today our ethically challenged Senator Chris Dodd introduced a new 1000 plus page bill of “sweeping changes” to the way money markets and banks are regulated. Scrapping the current oversight by the Fed, FDIC and SEC placing regulatory control under a new bureaucracy run by political appointees. Forget for a moment that Chris Dodd was the architect of legislation and regulations that lead to the economic collapse and the mortgage meltdown. Aside from the fact that nothing has changed to correct those disasters his proposed bureaucracy will now control all the money and controlling all the money controls everything else.

Obama’s presidency is all about control as he watches himself walk by the mirror. His agenda is to rule over every aspect of our lives and he knows that money is the ultimate control, so it’s no wonder that he stands behind Chris Dodd and stumps for his reelection.

Cap and trade, health care overhaul, socialist czars with sweeping powers over free enterprise, thought and speech, and now complete government takeover of the entire financial industry! Is Obama overreaching and should he be stopped? You bet!

The White House makes up completely bogus “jobs created or saved” numbers, allows men and women to die in Afghanistan while he pussyfoots around, stating he’s “uncomfortable with the concept of victory” (yes he said that!). Our commander in chief apparently thinks the Fort Hood killings were less worthy than a self-important speech to Native Americans. Perhaps he learned from the Gates incident that without a teleprompter bearing the reflection he so loves his true feelings are evidenced and people find out who he is and what he really believes. But the Teflon President has a worshiping press that comes to his aid along with a Congress that ignores the Constitution and passes healthcare legislation that is actually little about health care and a lot of government control over everything else.

On the heels of passing “health care reform” that Obama and the left want despite every reliable poll showing most people don’t, his worshipping accolade Chris Dodd writes a monstrous bill handing him more power! One has to ask himself what the blazes are they trying to do, I say they’re trying to divide and conquer. There are so many hot button issues that Obama’s pursuing he’s overloading the resistance. Whether you believe in free markets and small government, or that health care is your own responsibility and decisions are between you and your doctor. Or if you believe Cap and Trade will kill more businesses and increase the cost of most everything else or that handing complete control over the money markets to a single government bureaucracy is lunacy, there’s an issue for you. Obama may be attempting to divide his opposition into so many different areas he’ll be able to make an end run around several camps instead of hitting a united font against the greatest threat our liberties have ever faced. Understand your enemy’s strategy and you’ve a good chance of winning, each separate issue is but a single part of the whole. By standing together and putting aside our individual concerns we can stop the madness.

Obama, eternally in campaign mode is wrapping his arms around the unworthy Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, while buffoon Biden stumps for little known Connecticut Congressmen, all up for election in 2010. Dodd’s disastrous poll numbers show the Connecticut Socialist, friend of Fidel Castro and Latin American Leftists is in political peril with coat tails long enough to bring other Connecticut Democrats down with him. Hence the sudden attention to a state that’s been solidly and deeply blue, virtually ignored by presidents and presidential hopefuls.

Chris Dodd used his committee chairmanship over the banking industry to shake down the financial sector for gobs of campaign money. Scoring sweetheart deals along the way he unabashedly sold his position and created legislation favorable to the financial sector that led to the mortgage crisis, Chris Dodd bear market and the monstrous and growing multi trillion dollar deficit which will burden taxpayers for generations. Apparently Obama is good with that as long he can count on Dodd’s yea vote for any and every piece of Socialistic legislation.

President Obama, in showcasing Dodd, is all but admitting that his policies are in trouble and attempts at passing legislation palatable to the sum total of his filibuster proof congress has thus far failed and unlikely for the foreseeable future. He desperately needs to hang on to his majority Congress beyond 2010 in order to force feed us his socialist agenda, however he’s looking at a very possible future as a lame duck.

Someone acted stupidly but it wasn’t Sergeant James M. Crowley Henry Gates police report

The hatred filled diatribe by Professor/racist Henry Louis Gates Jr. may well be the opening salvo in such confrontation that has not been seen since the 1960’s!

The knee jerk remark by President Obama, who admittedly without knowledge of the arrest, immediately chose to comment as would a “community organizer” of the likes of Reverend Wright, Al Sharpton et al and a race baiter and cop hater, rather than the President of the United States! From a man who pledged to “heal the racial divide” he surely fanned the flames of confrontation, rather than getting the facts beforehand.

His words belie his true beliefs and no wonder as he listened for 20 years to America hating Reverend Wright with close ties to the likes of Louis Farrakhan the national representative of the Nation of Islam and a critic of American society and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayres!

President Obama is power hungry and angry at America, he is deepening the divisions within this country instead of using the power of his office to make good on his worthless promises. When he is caught exposing his true feelings he chooses not to apologize but weasel out by claiming “I could’ve calibrated those words differently”, WTF! He is incapable of keeping his true beliefs hidden and can’t stop putting his foot in his mouth because he BELIEVES America is BAD, all whites are racist and the police are racist and STUPID!

Is this the hope and change you voted for?

We know who and what he is, as long as he has a willing Congress our rights and freedoms and what gains have been made in accepting other races and cultures are all on the line. Congress MUST be wrested from Democratic control in 2010.

“I worry, my mom worries”

Part of a post I made on another blog stated “Those who dismiss us and call us names should read a little history, stop drinking the Kool Aid and join the fight to take our country back.”

A liberal poster wrote that I was calling names by “implying” that every one who does not agree with me is drinking Kool Aid. Said my Grandparents welcomed the new deal and I obviously didn’t understand history. Kind comparing apples and oranges but I felt inspired to answer and thought it was too good not to appear here as well.

1.The liberal left has made a science of “implying” that all people who disagree with their politics are, gun toting, right wing extremists, clinging to a God they deny exists, are nuts at best and dangerous at worst ad nauseum. We’re just following your lead.

2. My grandparents emigrated to this country with a trunk of clothes and what money they had saved. They learned the language and raised their children in a country of unparalleled freedom. New dealers they weren’t and were they alive today they would have stood with us in Hartford. Two were farmers who by their own sweat and hard work kept their farm and raised their children during the great depression. My other two were city folk who swept buildings, scrubbed floors and did anything else they could do to keep their home and feed and clothe their children during those same times, and succeeded. They never took a penny from the government and never expected to, they never stood in a bread line and would starve first. They would perish at the thought and shame of asking anyone for a handout because they were poor and struggling to keep their hard earned homes. They were proud and I am blessed.

My wife’s grandparents lived in similar fashion, farmers and city folk. They, as did many many others also refused to look to the government to carry them through the depression and would die of hunger rather than stand in a bread line. They and thousands of others stood on their own two feet and by the sweat of their own labor kept their homes, fed their families and survived the worst economic crisis in all of history, and so can we.

3. At age 62 I’ve lived a bit of history, growing up on a farm with only a wood stove for heat and no indoor plumbing, but it was ours. I milked cows by hand and worked the soil from the time I could first hold a hoe. I was taught by teachers who preached the 3 R’s, not government dependence, who taught because they had a passion to teach and not for the perks. I learned in schools where we said yes ma’am and no ma’am and recited to Pledge of Allegiance every morning while saluting our country’s flag. We could also pray to God and celebrate Christmas and Easter. You passed or failed by your own performance and weren’t moved along because those who wouldn’t or couldn’t make the grade would feel bad, everyone didn’t get a star or play on the team, teaching us work all the harder. Students, myself included, stood in the corner, sat in the cloak room or felt the sting of a pointer, yardstick or 18 inch ruler when we were cutting up or being sassy, and are better people for it.

I apprenticed as a tool and die maker at a Connecticut manufacturer that disappeared along with thousands of jobs many years ago, was drafted into the Army and proudly served my country in Vietnam. Upon returning home I could have collected unemployment but because I had a trade they harassed me until I took a much lower paying job while a long haired ex classmate, in line ahead of me, wearing peace signs and the odor of pot collected his check every week without question. I worked at my trade, bought a house and provided for my family while so many were already drinking the Kool Aid of the left demanding more from the government, scorning the U.S. soldiers, smoking dope and living off the government’s largess. At work I was forced to pay union dues to the UAW or I couldn’t have a job because Connecticut is not a right to work state. The UAW used my dues to support candidates that I did not, and they wanted me to goof off because I was working too fast. I eventually rose to the position of mechanical engineer at that international company which once had several plants in Connecticut but now there are none, gone along with many hundreds of good paying jobs. To those losses I credit the UAW and our greedy politicians feathering their beds at the workers and taxpayer’s expense. Now my wife and I run a small business that our politicians are out to destroy by ruining the economy, destroying the free market and printing trillions of dollars to feed the pig. At the same time our customer base is reeling from the economy left wing legislators created, they’re planning on taking greater fees and higher taxes from our meager profit to give to someone else. Something is terribly wrong and I will not go willingly

4. Am I being critical? You bet I am. Is my criticism unfounded? Hardly!

I find it interesting that those supporting the TEA parties are posting comments and writing blogs thoughtfully and with calm assuredness, while those supporting Obama and runaway government and socialism are name calling and Bush bashing in those same threads. Why, because they have no intelligent argument!

I know many people who wanted to come yesterday but work kept them away. I have no doubt that everyone there knows at least one other person and most likely several more. At the very least that would have doubled or tripled the turnout, and that was only a beginning. I personally vow to convince at least one person who would NOT have went to Hartford to go next time.

Those who dismiss us and call us names should read a little history, stop drinking the Kool Aid and join the fight to take our country back. If you want your children, grand children and great grand children to prosper by their own hand and be able to live in the degree of freedom our grandparents enjoyed, you better get on board. I say your grandparents because if you ask them you’ll see just how much our rights and freedoms have been abridged over the last 70 years.

April 15, 2009 will go down in history as the day the “silent majority”, fed up with big government, spoke out with one firm voice. “We’re mad as hell and we won’t take it any more!” Carrying our signs my wife and I gathered with 5,000 other patriots on the North Steps of the State Capitol in Hartford, one of several hundred such gatherings nationwide.

The biased media outlets are trying very hard to discredit the fact that TEA parties held all across the country were indeed a “Grass Roots” uprising, by calling them a “Fox News” or “Republican effort.” Well that doesn’t change the fact that all big government, career politicians, regardless of party affiliation, who ignore the people they represent, who are lying, greedy, self serving and buying votes with our tax dollars, should start packing!

Even though the TEA Parties were all but ignored by the media, hoping they would fizzle, many more attended then generally reported, understating the size of the crowds to appease the liberal lefties won’t stem the rising tide. Despite the fact it was ill reported and held on a Wednesday when taxpayers are working or running a businesses in order to support themselves and their families it was a phenomenal turnout and only the beginning. I personally know several people who wanted to come but work or family matters kept them away. I believe that everyone attending the nationwide protest knows at least one and most know several who wanted to be there, at the very least the crowds could have doubled or tripled. I personally vow to convince at least one person who would not have come to go to the next one. Think of the turnout if the MSM played it straight and actually reported it before hand, well guess what we don’t need them, we know what we want and we will seek it out.

We were at the Hartford TEA party, no one asked us to come, and we do not belong to any political party. I talked to many and we had Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, unaffiliated and several minor parties represented, some even admitting to voting for Obama! There were Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, young and old, a cross section of our population and the official size of the crowd in Hartford alone was 5,000 strong!

Speak out now before it’s too late. God bless America.

Frequenting several blogs, I am aghast that some posts are advancing the thought that writing to our legislators is a useless endeavor saying they are abandoning that course and others should as well. The notion being that their (our) letters haven’t changed the support those legislators are giving to the Obama appointees or his agenda. How wrong to think that way!

They most likely live in a state, like mine, whose legislators share Obama’s leftist and socialist agenda while having a blind loyalty to their party thus turning a blind eye to their constituents. Those legislators are seeking the favor of the “entitled” while passing guilt on to those who have achieved a comfortable success, all to ensure their re-election!

While I share their frustration, writing my senators and representatives with full awareness they will ” thank you (me) but …….” or not respond at all, we must continue else we have sent them a message that we are giving up and waiting for the next election.

Folks, their might not be a next election if we don’t keep writing, in fact we must flood their offices with letters of dissent. If you think our democracy can’t fall so fast, think again! It only took six years from when Hitler took office with the same degree of populist fervor as Obama, to “death camps” operating at full speed, six years! Do you think it would take so long to eliminate term limits on the presidency?

Write, write, write, it will slow the tide, perhaps even a few will open their eyes. Whatever the outcome we can not, must not send them a message by silence. That message being our will is sapped and we are retreating to lick our wounds, while they can forge ahead with rash abandon.

Our country, our democracy and our way of life hang in the balance.

Connecticut’s veto proof, legislative Democrats are proposing a massive tax increase, raising all current taxes and instituting new ones, including additional taxes on the few businesses remaining in the state! They are looking for $3.3 billion in new and additional taxes and $2.2 billion in NEW spending!

What the hell are they thinking! If the economy is really in such a mess how will this help? Haven’t they seen enough companies abandon the State due to exorbitant taxes and the anti-business climate the nanny staters have created. It seems the legislature wants to destroy what little manufacturing and prosperity creating businesses remain in favor of more Government employees fast food workers, Wal-Mart greeters and the plethora of minimum wage jobs that have replaced the thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs already lost.

There is an insidious aspect to that direction in that it will create more dependency on the government which will in turn help ensure the re-election of those creating the dependence. They know that spending other people’s money, your money, to give someone else an “entitlement” would “buy” the vote of those on the receiving end. Why else travel that cockamamie path!

Guess what, we are stupid if we stand by and do nothing, it’s time to demand our legislature propose and pass a responsible budget, including:

• Relieve businesses from onerous regulation
• Cut the size of government
• Lower taxes or at worst no new taxes
• Reduce State spending
• Demand union concession from State employees, otherwise use their legislative powers to VOID ALL STATE WORKER CONTRACTS – YES, THEY CAN DO THAT!