Stand Up and Cheer for Kmart

Kmart is offering a new program for the unemployed.

Starting in Michigan, one of the hardest hit states for unemployment, K mart will issue people who are registered as unemployed in the state a “Smart Assist Savings” card, valid for six months, entitling them to 20 per cent reductions on Kmart’s private label goods.”

A company doing whats right, without a government subsidy or mandate.

Thank you Kmart and Sears.

We applaud you.

Vegas: The Next Detroit?

Right here in this blog we predicted the end of Las Vegas almost 2 years ago.  Vegas now has the worst housing market in the nation, topping the list with most vacant homes.

Casinos are empty, restaurants are shuttering and the streets are barren. It is beginning to sound a little like another troubled US city, Detroit. While they haven’t turned the lights off yet and things are no where near as ugly its getting pretty dark.

On a positive note if you do want to visit  the city, how does $17 bucks a night sound? It is a great deal if you want to take a nice quiet vacation and get away from it all. From what I can see, you will have the place to yourself.

Taking a Flight Soon? Check for Duct Tape

Airlines are cutting so many corners they are now importing foreign workers to repair planes.

WFAA TV in Dallas/Fort Worth is reporting it found that hundreds of aircraft mechanics have been brought into the United States to work at aircraft repair facilities.

Insiders say the companies that are importing the mechanics are so eager to save money, they’re overstating their qualifications. The result may be a threat to safety, abetted by lax enforcement of immigration law.

At daybreak any morning at San Antonio Aerospace, hundreds of workers amble through the gates for the day shift. They repair big jets like Airbuses, Boeing 757s and MD-11s.

Jada Williams used to work for one of the contracting companies, Aircraft Workers Worldwide (AWW), based in Daphne, Alabama. AWW supplied workers for two facilities, Mobile Aerospace Engineering (MAE) in Mobile, Alabama and San Antonio Aerospace, which are both controlled by ST Aerospace. San Antonio Aerospace is a division of ST Aerospace, the largest aircraft repair company in world.

“They’ve employed over 200 since I left,” said Williams, who said she was unfairly fired by the contractor last fall. “And I know we had over a hundred when I was in there, just in Mobile.”

“We had two,” she said. “One of them was a female. She was about 16. It was a brother and a sister. One guy was a grocery bagger, one was a security guard in Puerto Rico. Their ages were between 18 and 22.”

I simply refuse to get on a plane that has duct tape on it’s wings and the vomit bags say Wal Mart.…

Flat Tire, Out of Gas, Radiator Leaking

Hows them auto sales rebounding with all those “green shoots’?

Avast Ye Swabs, Let’s Go Buckaneering !

Luxury yachts offer pirate hunting cruises!! Yes, your read that right. Anaova is reporting :

Luxury ocean liners in Russia are offering pirate hunting cruises aboard armed private yachts off the Somali coast.

Wealthy punters pay £3,500 per day to patrol the most dangerous waters in the world hoping to be attacked by raiders.

When attacked, they retaliate with grenade launchers, machine guns and rocket launchers, reports Austrian business paper Wirtschaftsblatt.

Passengers, who can pay an extra £5 a day for an AK-47 machine gun and £7 for 100 rounds of ammo, are also protected by a squad of ex special forces troops.

The yachts travel from Djibouti in Somalia to Mombasa in Kenya.

The ships deliberately cruise close to the coast at a speed of just five nautical miles in an attempt to attract the interest of pirates.

“They are worse than the pirates,” said Russian yachtsman Vladimir Mironov. “At least the pirates have the decency to take hostages, these people are just paying to commit murder,” he continued.

All of a sudden Gasparilla in Tampabay even looks more ridiculous…….

It’s OK Detroit, Journalisms Gone 3rd World Too!

Think that manufacturing, technical, medical, financial and customer service jobs are the only ones going to cheap overseas labor? Think again.

Now it’s journalism. I noticed this story in Reuters, Fannie, Freddie asked to Relax Condo Loan Rules.

At the bottom of the story you find:

(Reporting by Chakradhar Adusumilli in Bangalore; editing by Simon Jessop)

This guy in Bangalore is writing a story about news in the United States, most assuredly for a fraction of what an American journalist would get paid.

I then find an article in the USA Today:

“……..few have sent newsroom functions overseas, limiting off-shoring mostly to ad production and other non-editorial functions, said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell Inc.

Notable exceptions are Thomson Reuters, which has been using journalists in Bangalore, India, to handle some basic news such as corporate earnings reports, and a website called pasadenanow.com, which has five regular contributors overseas who write about Pasadena, Calif., using webcasts of council meetings and information provided by citizen volunteers.”

Rust College in Holly Springs Mississippi has one of the finest journalism schools in the nation. I hope they plan ahead and offer Penny Saver Writing 101 along with garage sale sign painting 201.

They are going to have a lot of unemployable graduates. Unless of course you are attending free from a third world country…. when you get home you will have plenty of work.

Bank Failure Friday Record??

This Friday 5 banks failed. We here at GotoGuy think that must be a new record for Bank Failure Friday’s. Keep up the good work Mrs. Blair!

Looks like after a few quiet weeks, Georgia is back in trouble:

Metro Pacific Bank, Irvine, CA

Horizon Bank, Pine City, MN

Neighborhood Community Bank, Newnan, GA

Community Bank of West Georgia, Villa Rica, GA

Mirae Bank, Los Angeles, CA

Dining Out Never Got So Cheap

Tired of going out and dropping $50.00 on a simple meal for two? How about we turn the cost of that $50.00 meal into  $4.00 plus tax and tip?

We have got your answer, Restaurant.com. We have talked about Restaurant.com in several of our money saving posts before, but never in detail, and a bargain like this just deserves some individual attention.

How it Works:

Go to the website, Restaurant.com. Register for the site to get email update notices on specials. Put in your zip code and look for your favorite restaurant. Buy the certificates for your favorites on the site, print them and you are off to a much cheaper night out. A $25.00 certificate costs $10.00 !

But Wait, How do I get it a $50.00 meal for $4.00?

The site often offers incredible discounts on the certificates, sometimes as high as 90% off.

Right now with the special code DISH you can get 80% off $25.00 certificates. So lets do the math. A restaurant has a $25.00 for $10.00. You buy 2 certificates for $10.00 put in the code and viola, at checkout your total bill is $4.00! $50.00 worth of dining for just $4 bucks!

You do still owe local taxes and a gratuity on the actual check total, but still, this deal can’t be beat. Make sure you read the fine print, some restaurants have certain restrictions, but for the most part, the certificates spend like cash. Check SlickDeals.net often for these discount code bargains.

Wait to Save Big Bucks on You Vacation?

Put in the local zip code before you leave on the trip, find some hot looking restaurants, print the certificates and off you go. You could cut your dining bill for your vacation by at least 50%, maybe more if you can juggle some breakfast and lunch deals.

Bon Appecheap!

2012 - End of the World?

New movie coming out this November with some powerhouse directors. The Mayans predicted the end of the World in 2012. With all the time that has passed since that prediction and today’s current events, do you think it’s possible?

More Liars in Our Midst

Austrian Filter has chronicled a time line of lies from our old pals Henry Paulson and Ben Bernake. It really is quite amazing.

And to think Obama kept one of this clowns in his job and replaced the other one (Paulson) with his old right hand man from Goldman. Gotta love that “Change”.

February 28, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 12,268

March 13th, 2007 – Henry Paulson: “the fallout in subprime mortgages is “going to be painful to some lenders, but it is largely contained.”

March 28th, 2007 – Ben Bernanke: “At this juncture . . . the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the subprime markets seems likely to be contained,”

March 30, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 12,354

April 20th, 2007 – Paulson: “I don’t see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it’s going to be largely contained.” , “All the signs I look at” show “the housing market is at or near the bottom,”

April 30, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 13,063

May 17th, 2007 – Bernanke: “While rising delinquencies and foreclosures will continue to weigh heavily on the housing market this year, it will not cripple the U.S.”

May 31, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 13,627

June 20th, 2007 – Bernanke: (the subprime fallout) “will not affect the economy overall.”

July 12th, 2007 – Paulson: “This is far and away the strongest global economy I’ve seen in my business lifetime.”

August 1st, 2007 – Paulson: “I see the underlying economy as being very healthy,”

October 15th, 2007 – Bernanke: “It is not the responsibility of the Federal Reserve - nor would it be appropriate - to protect lenders and investors from the consequences of their financial decisions.”

December 31, 2007 - Dow Jones @ 13,265

(more…)

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