Laura's Corner - All Comments

re: An Honest Mechanic?

Michaelf — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:40:46 GMT

They have been our mechanic for several years now. Very good and very honest.

re: To stay out of jail...

W.A.M. — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:02:10 GMT

This assault on the poor man was done by - surprise, surprise, - young black males. If you really want to make the streets safer build a huge facility a lock up all the young black males. You will see a decrease in robberies, rapes, assaults, murder and all crime related activities. Young black urban males are the root of all crime related problems in Milwaukee, West Allis and big cities across America. This can't be a racist statement if the facts were not true.

Lefty Liberals are gonna have a field day with this one...........

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:04:21 GMT

Here's a novel idea from our neighbors to the North...

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/43833642.html

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:47:11 GMT

I forgot to add that I haven't done any research into whether contacting our reps in Madison will do any good or not. I can tell you this however... Don't waste your time spending any of your time communicating with Senator Sullivan (unless it's an indirect communication at the ballot box when you're voting for his opponent in the next election). Assemblyman Tony Staskunas is a LOT more level headed than Sullivan and would likely be much more receptive to our comments. It would be interesting if Tony could introduce some sort of provision in the State Legislature to link the pay raise of all Superintendents to the rate of inflation or something like that. The Dems control Madison, so my idea is probably just a pipe dream. Once again, you people who continued to vote for the Dems in Madison and didn't vote for Rose Fernandez are part of the problem by preserving the status quo in my humble opinion.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:34:32 GMT

I know that at least 3 people have contacted the Board members (or are planning to) regarding this issue. Come on, you deadbeat blog reading lurkers out there! DO SOMETHING! CALL! We have to expose what's going on and remind the Board members that their decisions directly affect our lives by reducing the amount of money that we have to spend on OUR families. Tell your friends about this blog and urge them to call the Board members. I told a guy at work about this because I know his parents live in West Allis. The biggest 'thing' we can do is vote. Obviously not many people did that this time around since all incumbents maintained their seats on the Board. Anybody else care to admit that they're planning to exercise their 1st Amendment rights to the Board members and Kurt Wachholz? There's power in numbers. The more, the merrier. The next Board meeting is tomorrow (Monday) night. We should make it a party by showing up and then going out afterwards to discuss plans for the revolt!

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

groovyone — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:14:39 GMT

What can we do? If calling doesn't help, what other action can we take? Do we start going to the state reps for our area? Something has to be done and soon before more costly changes happen. Seriously, aside from calling the school board, which doesn't seem to matter, what can we do to get change about. I would love to help do something about our system!

New thing coming around is the grading system changing for the middle school, sounds like we may be going to the 1,2,3,4 grading system which means nothing to me. I have been eager for my kids to get to middle school so I can really see how well or how bad they are doing. Makes me wonder about the other comment made about standards being lowered, teachers being told to give different grades. With this system we don't really know truly how our kids are doing! That meeting is now May 14th!

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

Daughter of mortified West Allis resident — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 20:09:41 GMT

I want to comment on calling school board members. I recently talked with school board member Joan Luedke. She acknowledged (subtly but still) that our superintendent was an issue. I questioned that if she knew it was a problem, then eliminate the problem. She again acknowledged my concerns, then turns around and votes for the raise. What a bunch of lip-service. I do call board members. The last time I did (in February), I got one response. Thanks for the help!!! I will call again because I think it is the right thing to do. I agree we have to let them know how we feel, even if it doesn't change their minds or make them think differently. But at least for our own good. I just don't think they get it.

The whole re-structuring surveys should've given them an indication to a problem. A lot of parents I spoke to didn't fill out the survey because their opinion was "what difference does it make, the board will do what it wants anyway". The same thing was said about the start time survey. Why doesn't the board see the problem when about 1/3 of parents return surveys? Instread of thinking the parents don't care they should think that maybe their is an issue. They are just ignorant to the feelings of the citizens of this community.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

jadedeye — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:40:12 GMT

Redsmom,

I did not say that it was a "total failure". I said it was a failure. If it was a total failure, then the idea and implementation would be both attacked, which I did not do. I agree with the idea of the school and what it is attempting to achieve. What I say is a failure is the implementation.

The staffing was not nailed down until the last moment. You can't formulate a good study plan for the students with just a few days to do it. IIRC, the principal was a last minute choice so she got stuck trying to bring this altogether. From being at the open houses and playing fly on the wall, my impression is that most of the teachers were thrown into what they are doing without much preparation or experience at what they are teaching.

I am not soft on people when it comes to me spending money on them for services that are poorly delivered. The implementation of Lincoln was poorly delivered. Now, I will say this, there are a few teachers there that really know and have their chops down. Then, there are the rest. This was done on Wachholz' watch, which makes him responsible for his underlings and their performance. So, I hold him responsible.

I will say that the presented comparison of FLW v. Lincoln is flawed. Of course Lincoln will be quieter - the student body is way smaller than FLW. Also, FLW does a grade platooning system where I don't see that at Lincoln. The platooning was implemented to provide more control over the far larger student body that they have and try to avoid the issues that Groovyone mentioned with the mixing of grades plus the allocation of fixed resources that can't really accomodate the size of their student body properly.

From my standpoint, it is the kids that have been shortchanged this year as the school got its act together. You can't have a school planning as the year goes along. It has to be "fire and forget" on the Tuesday after Labor Day and smooth sailing from there. I am sure that next year will be better for the students but at what expense? I hope not my left rear pocket because I have not seen them be sound, efficient, stewards of my tax monies and I don't see them improving any time soon.

As an aside, the Milwaukee school tax has not gone up. The proposal to do so is on the table for discussion in lieu of possible state funding cuts. Hey MPS, want to start saving money?? I have a good starting point for you - you are the ONLY school district that I have seen that has to ADVERTISE!!! I live in West Allis, not Milwaukee so stop wasting your money on me by sending postcards about schools that my son could attend in Milwaukee which will not happen at all. If you stop advertising, then you will have more money for you to waste somewhere else and still complain that you do not have enough.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

W.A.M. — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:50:34 GMT

GREAT post Stubborn!!!!! All that info is gold. I guess I went too far on my rant with cancer and such. How about if he got run over by a school bus? LOL!!

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:54:28 GMT

W.A.M,

How dare you wish cancer upon Kurt Wachholz? Treatment of that disease would cost us taxpayers a ton of money thanks to the "Cadillac-style" health care plan everybody in the District has. I don't know about you, but I'm running out of money and I really would rather not pay for stuff like this if at all possible. It would be nice if the teachers and staff would start paying for A LOT more of their health care costs like the rest of us working stiffs have had to do over the past decade or so.

GROOVYONE,

I agree with you in that the entire District was probably blind-sided by the Acker arrest. But, I'm leaving open the possibility that the District was negligent in some respect on this case if some new data comes out in the future to show that was the case. I saw the headline in the paper today as well and I can see what's going to happen... MPS will tax the hell out of their residents, and the residents will move to West Allis. West Allis will raise taxes to pay for things like the 11.7% raise, but not to the extent of the MPS tax hikes. AT THE VERY LEAST, EVERYBODY SHOULD CALL THE BOARD MEMBERS TO URGE THEM TO FREEZE WACHHOLZ' PAY FOR THE 2ND YEAR OF HIS CONTRACT. It's my understanding that they have yet to determine what the raise is for the 2nd year, but the salary cannot be less than the 1st year. A 0% raise would be allowed according to the guidelines. Maybe if he gets a 0% raise, he'll begin to feel how the rest of us feel who also will get no raise this year. But then again, I may be dreaming.

West Allis is also taxing their residents to the point where the District will morph itself into something like the Detroit Public School system. Does anybody really want that (all you workers within the WAWM system are not allowed to answer this question).

Here's the voting record for the Board members on Restructuring the schools and on Kurt Wachholz' 11.7% raise if you're at all interested.

Frymark: Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=NO

Stalewski: Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=absent

Kitchen: Restructuring=NO, Wachholz Raise=YES

Suleiman: Restructuring=wasn't on the Board yet, Wachholz Raise=YES

Luedke: Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=YES

Garrison Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=YES

Sujecki: Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=YES

Ziemendorf: Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=absent

Kerhin: Restructuring=YES, Wachholz Raise=YES

Give Annette Frymark credit on her NO vote on giving Wachholz the 11.7% raise, but I wonder if this was really just a 'token' meaningless NO vote since she likely knew that everybody else would vote YES before she voted NO. I guess I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on that vote for now. Remember that all of the Board members voted for that 17.5% pay & benefit raise for all WAWM teachers and staff back in December. Am I the only one who knows that Board member Ziemendorf has a daughter who is a teacher in the WAWM District? Can you say, 'conflict of interest'? I'm sure that family gatherings would be a bit tense if Ziemendorf voted NO on that 17.5% pay & benefit raise for her daughter, but I question whether Ziemendorf can really be objective about anything that comes up for a vote. Am I being too harsh?

The direct phone number for Kurt Wachholz is not listed in the WAWM directory. It is (414) 604-3006 in case you want to call him or leave him voicemail congratulating him for all he's done for our District. We pay for all of his salary and benefits, so I don't think I'm doing anything wrong by posting this 'work' number for him. I'm certain that he'd welcome your call based on his many prior statements about how important it is for everybody to 'work together' and communicate with each other.

Frymark, Annette

12017 W. Burdick Avenue

West Allis, WI 53227

(414) 416-5247

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8320

Garrison, Carol M.

1225 South 63 Street

West Allis, WI 53214

(414) 257-4136

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8323

Kerhin, Patricia J.

8711 West Arthur Place

West Allis, WI 53227

(414) 545-0711

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8325

Kitchen, Robert F.

3321 South 119 Street

West Allis, WI 53227

(414) 545-4053

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8326

Luedke, Joanie

12224 W. Cleveland Ave.

West Allis, WI 53227

(414) 321-8258

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8303

Stalewski, Susan

1237 S. 54 Street

West Milwaukee, WI 53214

(414) 671-1259

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8312

Sujecki, Sue

12247 W. Verona Court

West Allis, WI 53227

(414) 327-5485

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8324

Suleiman, Barbara

9734 W. Dakota Street

West Allis, WI 53227

(414) 546-1091

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8329

Ziemendorf, Darlene

836 South 91 Street

West Allis, WI 53214

(414) 453-5408

Voice Mail (414) 604-3000 ext-8328

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

groovyone — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:20:26 GMT

W.A.M--That was harsh! As for the sexual predator, did you know what Dan Acker was doing? No one did! He seemed like a normal man, no one suspected a thing and that is not Mr. Wachholz's fault.

Redsmom---my son goes to Lincoln too, he is one of the fifth graders. What was the point in the restructuring of the schools? It is just costing us more money. The old system worked and isn't Middle school suppose to be getting them ready for high school? How is this doing that? Nothing has changed in the way 6th graders are treated, they still walk in single file, they still don't have bells, they still don't switch classeson their own (they do it as a class), if that is the case than the district should have saved us a ton of money and left well enough alone! Plus, I am not to thrilled having my soon to be sixth grader hanging around with the 8th graders, there are big differences in the age groups and most 8th graders will be setting a bad example for this impressionable minds! My son is doing no better having Lincoln be a middle school vs an elementary school. My 8th grader at FLW is doing worse this year. I measure success of my kids by the amount of A's, B's, C's , D's or F's they bring home (the grading system is awhole other can of worms!) Not all the classes are small, my son's class has 27 kids in it.

The main point of this article, though is not the restructing it is regarding the ridiculous amount of money we are paying Mr. Wachholz to cut programs and beg the state for funding so that he can be rich!

My question is: What is all of this going to do? Will the school board take his pay back? Probably not, which means we all have to leave with this. By the way did any one see the headlines in today's Journal,? Milwaukee is raising property taxes like 17% to help fund MPS. Do they pay their superintedents large sums of money??????

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

W.A.M. — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:29:05 GMT

Kurt Wachholz is a GOD DAMN DISGRACE!!!!!! I hope you read this you do nothing loser. My tax money pays for your so called well deserved raise. You don't do jack sh*t to get the pay you do. All the while you let a sexual predator work right under your stuck up little nose. I hope I run into you. I tell this right to your face. I pray you get cancer. The world won't miss you!!!!!

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

redsmom — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:09:01 GMT

I agree with everyone's comments regarding Mr. Wachholz.

I have two daughters in the district. One does attend the "new" Lincoln Intermediate. Jadedeye, why do you think that the restructuring of that school was a failure? I know a teacher who goes to all of the intermediate schools each week and asked him about Lincoln and how it compares to West Milwaukee and FLW. He said that Lincoln is quieter, smaller, and because it has one 4th grade and one 5th grade class, and no 8th graders this year that it doesn't seem like an intermediate school. Anyway, my measure of success or failure will be when my oldest daughter goes to high school (hopefully Hale) to see how she compares with the kids that came from FLW.

I was totally against the transition because my daughters would be affected, because we live in the boundary of Lincoln. My daughter's friends all decided to go to Lincoln, or I would have had her go to FLW. From my experience in deailing with the teachers and staff at Lincoln, I believe that my daughter is getting a similar educational experience. The school is small, but so are the classes. In one of my daughter's classes there are only 15 students. There is less competition for the athletic teams, but the 7th grade girls bb team beat both of the Wauwatosa Longfellow teams and the West Milwaukee team once. There is also less competition academically, but I talk to the teachers to make sure that my daughter is getting pushed to excel. I know my daughter's teachers, have had numerous discussions with them and have spoken to the principal many times.

I am by no means justifying Mr. Wacholz's and the school board's lack of communication with many issues. Just wondering what other parents or people in the districts measure of success is.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

mathmaniac — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:21:43 GMT

West Allis residents are being played by a manipulative man who heads the West Allis/West Milwaukee school district. The deceitful information that comes out of the administration building is a crime that the school board members should be observing. Here are two good examples of deceit. The ratio of students to teachers looks as though we are a prime district with few students per teacher. However, that is not true. Administration is playing with your brains. In many of the schools, there are academic deans, deans of students, "lead" teachers (1/6th of their time), numerous guidance counselors, all of whom are doing administrative work, not teaching in the classroom with students, and they are being counted in the number of teachers to be used in the ratio against the number of students. The increase in administrative positions (so many of which are still counted as "teachers") is ludicrous. Somebody should really do an audit of the actual number of students each teacher in the classroom has. By keeping these people in the category of teachers, administration also keeps its ratio of administrators looking deceptively low. Again, the school board should audit a list of all the employees. And they shouldn’t ask for the job descriptions for the perpetrators of this deception. Ask the teachers what these people do. And remember, too, every administrator must justify his position by requiring some kind of report from the teachers. More work for the teachers that has little to nothing to do with our children. A second big deceit is how well our district is doing in educating our children. We like to brag about our higher GPAs every year. Why are they higher? Because teachers are forced to give higher grades or be called into the office to get squeezed until higher grades are given. Look at our WKCE scores. Lowering the bar every year does not increase those scores. Do not blame that on the teachers. Teachers want to give credible grades, but they are coerced into raising grades. When students learn that teachers can’t fail them, what do you think students do? Study harder? Not. Teachers are encouraged not to give homework (because when kids don’t do it and get F’s, that doesn’t look good) or at least make homework optional. That increases success? Not. Come visit the schools. See how successful some of the innovative programs really are. On paper so many things can be written up to look and sound good. In reality, the intent may be good, but the programs are not doing what the public would like.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:04:59 GMT

MTGMOM,

Call Wachholz again. And again. (I can send you his direct telephone number to bypass his secretary if you want it).

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:01:57 GMT

GROOVYONE,

It wasn't my intention to pick on you specifically, and I apologize if it came off that way. My point was that MOST people in this city are pretty lazy. Trust me, I'm not one of them. I've challenged the Administration to demonstrate the apparent urgent 'need' to restructure, and was never given a clear reason. I challenged the Administration to define all those fancy schmancy marketing terms that were printed on that yellow SSPSS flyer a few years ago. They made a very feeble attempt at doing so. One of the former staffers over there even got so mad at me for not 'fading away' after months and months went by without my questions being answered that he told me nobody would answer my questions in the future. Did that stop me from challenging them individually when they do things that I don't agree with? No way! It only empowered me to follow them even more closely than I had in the past.

My point was that if EVERYBODY started making phone calls, and possibly calling the media when things are grossly unreal over there at 93rd & Lincoln, that'll get more people's attention than if everybody simply kept their mouths shut. The School Board really hasn't done many things the way I would want them done, but they're elected to their post and Kurt Wachholz is not. Focusing anger on Wachholz is a waste of time. The energy should be directed at the Board to get things changed.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

groovyone — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:18:43 GMT

I have called reps for the goverment when a school wouldn't let my son stay even though his brother was allowed to and other families that didn't live in the "home" area got to stay. My son had special needs and was told to leave the school he had been attending for three years, while his older brother stayed. That got the person under Wachholz there and she instisted that it was stated in policies that he couldn't stay but the state rep I called, couldn't even find that information. When I asked the rep from the school, she couldn't tell me. After TWO hours of pleading with them to allow my son to stay, she informed me all he needed was a letter from his doctor stating that going to another school would be against my son's best interest.

I filled out the survey against the restructuring and it was done anyway. I voted against the new time change and that was done anyway. From what I understand, more parents didn't want those changes, but it happened anyway. I have had a meeting with the pricinpal and VP of Hale regarding an issue and my child was called a trouble maker and a loudmouth to another student by the Vice Principal and nothing was done regarding the issue we went to see them about. All my daughter did was ask students to sign a petition if they agreed with her, that petition went against a teacher and in turn, my daughter was called names.

So, Stubborn, I am sorry, but talking to the school district doesn't always help. Those are the reasons why I said the district does what the district wants. I am glad you get their attention, but it doesn't work for everyone!

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

mtgmom — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:28:38 GMT

Your right stubborn. Last time though I contacted Wacholz I got no response. Of course, though it would have been nice to know about this BEFORE it was voted on too.

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

STUBBORNOLDMAN — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:54:11 GMT

GROOVYONE (and everybody else),

Your statement of "will it do any good to talk to them?" is a self-fullfiling prophecy. If nobody contacts the Board members about anything, they will rightfully think that nobody cares and they can do whatever they want. As a result, you are correct when you wrote, "[the] school district does what the school district wants", but probably not for the reasons you think.

Have you (or anyone) ever contacted your County Supervisor about anything? I've contacted mine a few times, most recently to ensure that he makes certain that those low-life County Supervisors Coggs and Clark repay the money they stole for going to Barack Obama's Innauguration party back in January on the taxpayers' dime. My Supervisor did exactly what I had asked him to do and he kept me in the loop as to developments on this case. It was resolved properly and the money was repaid as far as I can tell.

dev.www.jsonline.com/.../38407329.html

Have you (or anybody) ever contacted your Aldermen about anything? I have. I've had about a 50% success rate in getting things done when I've contacted mine over the years. Still, if I didn't contact him, then I'd likely still have the problem that I was complaining about at the time. I've contacted ranking officers in the WAPD about problems/questions that I've had in the past years. Again, I'd get about a 50% success rate at getting a response. If I follow that up with a phone call, the success rate always increased. I don't think I have to remind anybody about what happened when 100,000+ people signed that petition to recall former County Exec Tom Ament for his involvement in the Pension Scandal mess. My signature was on one of those petitions. How many of you actually voted in the past election? I voted. I *may* have voted more than once, thanks to our Democratic State Senator Jim Sullivan's and our Democratic Governor Jim Doyle's refusal to support photo-ID at the polling places. Did any of you even vote ONCE in the past election?

My point is that the average citizen has a lot more influence on local politicians and elected officials than on nationally elected officials. I'd never think about politely criticizing Barack Obama's decisions in any letter or phone call I'd make to the White House because he'd likely put my name on a national "Terror Watch List" along with all the other ex-Military guys who are apparently now going to be on it (according to Obama's Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano). OK, that's a bit of a stretch, but I hope you get my point. Call the Board members! Call them! Call them! What have you got to lose by calling and voicing your opinion to these Board members?

Everybody in the District keeps telling everybody that they think an open dialog between parents and staff is essential. Look at those types of phrases used on this most recently published School Board Newsletter. They obviously are interested in keeping us informed, so they are also obviously interested in having US inform THEM.

www.wawm.k12.wi.us/.../February2009Message.pdf

Do it! Communicate with them! Do it! Don't just complain about it. Pick up the phone! Call them! Let them know that you share Superintendent Wachholz' desire to foster an open communication link between the District, parents and community members (yes, that even means you taxpayers who DON'T have kids in the WAWM school system). If you agree with them, let 'em know. If you don't, let 'em know.

Be polite certainly, but be firm in stating your viewpoints to the Superintendent and Board members. Look at the make-up of the current Board. Most of them don't have a job, so they likely don't have first-hand experience in how their decisions affect us working folks in West Allis. Let 'em know how you feel.

If you REALLY are as mad about this as is expressed in all of your comments above, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Call them! I posted the contact info for all of the Board members above. Stop being so pathetically apathetic (typical of most West Allis residents). Consider how many calls these Board members get from the taxpayers about School related issues. My guess would be that the number is pretty close to zero which means that your call carries a lot of 'weight'.

Have I done my part in getting you people to get off your collective 'gluteus maximuses' to actually call them about it? If not, there's no hope for you and little hope of the Board stopping their spending spree. Annette Frymark was the only Board member who voted against giving Superintendent Wachholz this 11.7% retroactive raise. Give her credit since it's very rare for any split decision to be made on this School Board about anything. Maybe we can sway a few more Board members to stop spending our money so foolishly in the future if we continue to call them. Call Frymark to tell her you think she did the correct thing in voting 'no'. Then, call the others and let them know how you feel about their 'yes' votes. There's power in numbers. Just ask Tom Ament if you don't believe me. Dealing with our School Board will take significantly less 'numbers' than what it took to deal with Tom Ament. Call them. You might be pleasantly surprised. If nothing else, it'll give you a good feeling knowing that you're actually getting involved with the process to make things better around here for everybody (well, almost everybody).

re: WA-WM Superintendent Mr. Wachholz

groovyone — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:01:16 GMT

will it do any good to talk to them? From experience I have found the school district does what the school district wants, example the restructuring of the schools. Most parents didn't want that and it happened anyway. Because "We need change to benefit the kids in the district" I believe that is what Ms. Delany said before it happened. Sorry to say, but it all comes down to the money. How much can they spend on themselves and how much can they make from the goverment. President Obama is asking hotshots in the auto industry to take pay cuts and stop bonuses and such, maybe Mr. Wachholz should be a man and say, "thanks but I can wait til things get better, i know the people in west allis can't afford this right now". Fat chance of that coming from his mouth!