Similarities in Osama, Whitey Bolger, Carlos the Jackal, et al; Gov. Christie's Ensures Their Futures; Considering Where To Retire: Consider S.Carolina; Romney's Flippers and Floppers

President Obama was in NYC yesterday for another one of his many fundraisers. There was an embarrassing moment when he saw The Naked Cowboy (for those not from NYC and surrounding area, he's a guy whose been playing guitar in his white BVD's in the middle of Times Square for several years now) and he said, "Please tell me. He's not a Democratic Congressman."--paraphrasing Fallon.

• One of the criticisms of the government and military in the last 10 years was the amount of time it took to finally get bin-Laden. Just this past week, the #2 on the FBI's Most Wanted List--Whitey Bolger--was finally caught------after 16 years. It took the entire globe's police forces about 20 years to finally catch Carlos the Jackal. It took the same global law enforcement agencies over 15 years to finally capture top Serbian War Criminal, Ratko Mladic, last May. And what is similar in all cases? One, it took a long time, because it's not as easy as many people think even in this age of technology. And these people don't try to hard to hide--they usually live among us.
• Speaking of Osama, some of the data mined after he was killed shows he was thinking of a name change for al-Qaeda. Why? Because he felt al-Qaeda was just murdering too many Muslims. In other words, right before he died, he was working on public relations and marketing problems.
• While we're on thugs and murderers, I heard an interesting interview with someone from World Threats (www.worldthreats.com/)  These are a group of former intelligence analysts who study geopolitical threats around the world. He said two things I found of interest. One, according to him, the Taliban is demoralized. And two, the Taliban actually  believe our U.S. Marines are "crazy."  That's damn good news.
• You may have heard that a Democrat legislature in N.J. voted this week to have N.J. public employees pay more for their benefits, and it also overhauled their pension plans. Almost 9,000 public employees protested the plan on Friday. They're not happy campers. And it's difficult to understand considering the changes made will now ensure over 800,000 current and retired public employees will have a pension plan for years to come. If N.J. followed the union's proposal, there would not have been any guarantee that any money would be left for pensions in the future.
• Are you a boomer wondering where to retire? Well, you might want to consider South Carolina.  The state is ranked dead last in terms of how much taxes residents pay. Total taxes (state and local) per capita in S.C. is $2,923.00. Other states not ripping off their residents include Alabama, Tennessee, and S. Dakota. Alaska tops the list at $14,147.00 followed by New York {$7,103.00}, Wyoming {approx. $7,000}, Conn. and N.J. For you Floridians out there, Florida came in at 26 at about $4 grand in total taxes annually.
• Since we're on states, "Between 2001 and last June, Texas--a right-to-work state that taxes neither personal income nor capital gains---added more jobs than the other 49 states combined. And since the recovery began two Junes ago, Texas has created 37% of America's net new jobs..." (Washington Post). Oh, yeh, the governor of Texas happens to be Rick Perry.
• On the other hand, during the Obama administration, "low-income households have seen a net decline in jobs for 23 out of the past 24 months, according to the survey (Consumer Reports Survey).
• Two headlines this week caught my attention that give some evidence the Obama Administration is in trouble. "Snubbed By Biz Titans On Apple Fund-Raising Visit" was one. As reported earlier this week, many of his former business buddies and fundraisers skipped this event. The other included Slo Joe Biden's budget talks, "GOP Walks Out On Joe's Budget Talks."
• If you recall, one of the many reasons that fake, phony and back-stabbing fraud, J.F. Kerry lost the election to Bush was his flip-flopping on many key issues (including photos of him windsurfing and bike riding in those goofy looking outfits). I think Romney might run into the same problem. He flipped and then flopped on abortion.  He flipped and flopped on gay marriage. He flipped and floppped on supporting the NRA. He's done a lot of flipping and flopping.
• Dumb Ass Quote of the Week--"Things are gradually getting better."--said little Timmy Geithner, current Sect. of Treasury and well-known tax evader. But that was not the half of it. He also said that the release of millions of barrels of oil from our oil reserve was not a political move. (you can stop laughing now).