What Could You Do With $42 Million Dollars?…

The IRS just spent it to send you a letter stating what you VERY likely already know in announcing that your stimulus is on the way and that you have to file an income tax return.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080307/ap_on_go_ot/dear_taxpayer

Just to throw out some ideas on productive uses of such a chunk of change.

– Could that “announcement money” be used to help in cities that have high populations of poor and homeless?

– Could that “announcement money” be used to help in cities that still have significant damage from natural disasters?

Frankly, it’s a lot of money, but not enough to make any dent in the infrastructure issues that came to mind. But humanitarian aide as cited above seemed to be the most likely better use.

Looks like Linda Stiff is serving as acting Commissioner at the IRS and that Henry Paulson is head at the Department of Treasury that the IRS is under. It’s not clear who/what group was immediately responsible for this spending decision.

Perhaps you’d like to contact your senator or house representative for your state to let them know how you appreciated the use of this public tax money.

Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220
General Information: (202) 622-2000
Fax: (202) 622-6415

For contacting your state’s representative:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

Im not even gonna ask how much is being spent to run that commercial about TV’s not working without a converter box or replacement after Feb 2009. And how could we better use that money?

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No scraping please…. _____________________________________________

Ole Straight Mex McCain…

12 Million people invaded the US … he thinks they can stay…

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No Stimulus for You!… and others wait til May

Sadly, if you made less than $3000 in 2007, you will NOT get a dime under the current Stimulus package. These people are too poor to spend this on necessities?

Unemployment benefits that ran out…will stay run out.

Looks like the current version will give a tax Rebate of taxes paid up to $600 for singles now…..but you wont even get stimulated til May or June.

$50 billion in incentives for businesses to buy new equipment… (No, …..you have to put the equipment in a business still located in the US…yeah)

I keep hoping that I misread something on this….
Now it has to go through the House and Senate… Perhaps, some help for those making less than $3000 or with their unemployment depleted…

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/460097.html

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Why is there a Downturn/Recession on the Doorstep?

Umm cause the US has lost an assload of high and mid wage jobs, thanks to Democrat (think Clinton) and Republican (think Bushes) support for NAFTA and CAFTA. And both parties sat idly by while 12 million (or more) people invaded the country.

Trade a (up to $300 $600) one time, already paid, tax rebate (for a single person) for a $40,000 or more full time job? Buehler?…Anyone?

It’s a rebate btw…What if you were unemployed some or all of 2007? It will rebate up to $300 $600 of the tax you had withheld.

AND…if you are eligible, …..you wont get it til May AFTER youve already had to file your return.

Anyway, FYI, here is an interesting blog posting. I wont vouch for accuracy, but it’s thought provoking especially in these times.

http://berrystreetbeacon.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/the-nafta-superhighway-the-road-to-a-north-american-union/

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The Right Tool For the Job…HDTV

HDTV or even SDTV (standard definition..ie less dots to make up a image on the screen).

I don’t have either. Why do I continue to watch a perfectly nice old 13″ analog set? I used to have cable btw…and frankly I watched a lot of Comedy Central and the Weather Channel with the occasional Dennis Miller HBO show or movie thrown in.

And I concluded after a year that it wasn’t worth the extra money…which quickly adds up…to have that tiny bit of additional content to vegetate in front of.

So, to me the want (notice I didn’t say need) of HD or even SD television is related to the content you plan to view.

It’s all about content which is subpar at this time.

–Movies would be cool although I can count on a few hands the movies that I’d really have to have HD to enjoy any more than on a regular set.

–Sports, especially football and NASCAR and Indy racing would be good examples for HD.

–Animal, nature, science and world travel type programming would be cool in HD

-But In reality, I mostly watch parts of:
Late Night Talk Shows (Letterman, Leno, OBrien, Ferguson, Feresten

Local news

Nightline

Charlie Rose

Saturday Night Live

PBS stuff…This Old House, etc

So… for an additional $700 plus, I can see every zit and blimish on David Letterman or Infomercial bonehead Kevin Trudeau? Umm no.

But, but what about the fact that our stupid greedy government has decided to screw us yet again and sell lots of the broadcast spectrum which forces television stations to stop sending my perfectly fine old analog signal in February 2009?

What will a person like me do? There will be a converter box that will take the digital version of the same signal and convert it back to the analog and most likely I will watch that 13″ analog TV til it caputs. After that, perhaps the various technolgies of LCD, plasma, OLED and DLP projection will have had the survival of the fittest and true dark black and screen life and other issues will be closer to sorting themselves out.

Then there’s regular DVD and VCR for SDTV and can still be watched on HD..btw.

And then the current two flavors of HD DVD…ie BluRay and HD-DVD. As of this posting it looks like BluRay has a lead on movie studios and content providers that (once again plan more content) for BluRay

Leo Laporte noted that cable channels now have some channels in HD, but….may not look as impressive as expected due to video compression.   Leo’s podcasts, especially “The Tech Guy” is a good resource for thoughts on HD and more.
http://twit.tv

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Oprah to Get Her OWN Channel…

There’s a waste of bandwidth…

Has she even got her private school scandal resolved yet?

Sorry Harpo.

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FDA approves Sales and No Special Labeling of Cloned Animal Meat

Yikes! While they claim their research shows no material difference….I don’t want to be the balance of the real world research…And as of now, we don’t have the right to disclosure if a restaurant or food product for sale has this content…

Umm…sorry..I don’t want to eat that shiz.

Once again the crack media didn’t sound the alarm on this til it was a done deal… Nice. I guess Britney, Paris and Lindsey were doing something more important that week.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080115/us_nm/cloning_food_dc

Perhaps you may want to let these folks know how you feel about being the next phase of the testing. And that you want full disclosure in food labeling.

Phone: 1-800-216-7331

Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20857

Here is a link that says it takes comment on Clone meat labelling til January 28, 2008

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=090000648039b84e

Looks like you have to select “Federal” and “Food and Drug Administration” and fill out the form and your comment.

Docket ID	AMS-LS-07-0131
Docket Title	United States Standards for Livestock and Meat Marketing Claims, Naturally Raised Claim for Livestock and the Meat and Meat Products Derived from Such Livestock
Document ID	AMS-LS-07-0131-0230
Document Title	Comment on FR Doc # N/A

Andrew Von Eschenbach is the current head of the FDA.

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No Child Left Behind…The Digital Gap/Divide…

I’ve heard the hype about the OLPC (One laptop per child) that Negraponte is heading up. There are others working on low cost laptops allegedly for third world countries and perhaps in the states too… To address the alleged digital gap… O no…

Firstly….
The OLPC looks good in the pics. Fine..
So….the one that the child in the alleged third world country gets ….( I can only speak from experience in rural Peru and Chile….but there’s…umm most of those countries without rural electricity…and sharing a high speed internet link?…you would be lucky in most places even in a city to find a dialup …so..the net sharing thing…like a nancy pelosi idea gone terribly impractical. Hmmm And maybe clean water and sewage trump playing (i mean learning) online?

Secondly…
I’ve have been chewing on the “digital gap/divide” a lot lately though as I see more and more of the US high tech folks on the sidelines working in “service” jobs… and the supposed advanced learning and skills….

To be honest, most of those kids, if they are lucky enough to get a job at all, will need the 3R’s, a clean shower and decent breakfast. The UI on the cash register or kiosk is aimed at the lowest common denominator. There will be a VERY small percentage that will actually end up being techs. In case you all havent noticed…more and more of thats in India or where the lowest cost is…

And just like in the states, if there aren’t many or any good, high paying jobs at the end of this skill building and this kid is still shoveling llama dung….or growing coca plants….Umm yeah.

At that point, they can become bloggers, play WOW and check out some PRON…in a desolate village? Nice.

More on this as I get a chance.

It Was Sobering and Sickening to See…

It was more than sobering to see a Sheriff’s Commissioner’s Sale notice on a house in my neighborhood today. In all my years I’d never seen one on a property near me. (and yes there certainly have been those sales throughout the years)

I’m not sure if it was a case where this person got sucked into one of those horrible ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgages) or if there was a job loss, bad decisions or bad health… The property was evidently financed by Citigroup Financial. But, I don’t any of the particulars of this situation.

It was however a sharp kick in the stomach to remind me just how bad things are for what used to be a middle class in the United States.

It does sicken me to see the media just spin a lot of the bad situations as a mortgage crisis. It’s just not that simple. And certainly I know how bad the job market is and has been for at least the last 10 to 15 years.

And certainly when 12 million of anyone invades the country and further loads down an economy that already was predicting that the next generations won’t have medicare, pension or retirement… …. that I see an elderly parent and relatives count on for survival….

Then to further have to listen to someone like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates and others blather on about what they are “giving back”…. except it’s in some other country….(not usually the one that raised them up…by the way)

Yeah the whole evil mess just leaves me with a pit in my stomach…. and my prayers go out to that family…

This is no longer politics.

More Gestapo Government from the Democrats…

In Massachusetts, there is more big government legislation in the works… this time to make spanking a child illegal…

Now, I’m obviously NOT condoning actual child abuse.

But, I’m absolutely against the ever growing government meddling in the daily personal lives of people. And I witness on a daily basis, kids that receive less and less supervision and discipline which absolutely includes the occasional spanking.

The government rules and regulations will eventually have everyone in jail or in court EXCEPT the hard core criminals….

Please, knock it off.

Take all this government energy and round up the illegal invaders 10 at a time and send them home. That should keep you busy for several years…

More to come on this as I get time…

Malaysia to Make and Export…”Islamic” Cars

Sometimes news items just leap on the wordpress all by themselves… I guess the other cars of the world just didn’t have enough “bang” for the Buck ….. anymore.

I’m guessing they are using that Pinto design that was ahead of its time.

Looks like they will call this model…the “Proton”.. As names like..
“the Surge”,
“Boom”,
“Bam”,
“Terrorist” and
“Jihad”
were already taken by other car makers…

The features include (and as Dave Barry would say… I swear Im not making this up…)

Proposed by Iran, the collaboration would include installing features in automobiles such as a compass to determine the direction of Mecca for prayers, and compartments for storing the Quran and headscarves.
First link expired…
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071111/malaysia_islamic_cars.html?.v=1

This one should talk about it too. http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Malaysian_car_maker_unveils_’Islamic_car’

.More on this as I get a chance…

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Ahmed al-Janabi, a 45-year-old father of three…

This whole Iraq war is ugly, but this sickened me even more than usual tonight.

Ahmed al-Janabi, a 45-year-old father of three was shot multiple times in his eyes, and killed for what was on his ID cards. He was a teacher and father of three children. A Sunni.

I expect hellish amounts of public denouncement in outrage from all muslim countries over this, but especially the shiite ones.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071025/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Frankly, every arab muslim leader should pledge to stop the violence in memory of this innocent teacher.

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Republicrats or Demublicans?

Ok, first it was Bill C. and daddy Bush skipping merrily along all around the world. How were they paying for all that worldwide travel btw? O, don’t ask details… k.

Now a conspiracy to hand off the White House to Hillary? Or just a guarantee that nothing will change in 2008?

http://www.examiner.com/a-953145~Bush_quietly_advising_Hillary_Clinton__top_Democrats.html

No Bush-Clinton dynasty in 2008 thank you very much.

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It’s back…..The Adam Carolla Years…

“Hey Yo, Lovelines….I’m Adam Carolla and that’s ……Dr. Drew….board certified physician……..and addiction medicine specialist…..Oh yeah…. In studio tonight……Cheap Trick…”

Those words were chicken soup for the soul as you drove around Sunday night through Thursday. Well even the Cheap Trick part as I confess to air drumming to Dream Police as well…That was 10/1/2003. Looks like only 2001 and 2002 are up so far and he talks of only having a year or so at a time on the site. Soo…stay tuned.

Anyone know the show date/guest for the rant about Out patient Hand Surgery and signing the waiver??? Please leave a comment if you do. Im missing that one and it’s classic.

The infamous site that captured a chunk of those classics with Adam is back. Check it out…my earlier posting for Lovelines.

https://mrobvious.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/lovelines-drdrew-andadam-carolla-or-course/

More to come as it’s available.

Mahalo

Senate Revives Amnesty Bill…Who is Selling Us Out Señor?

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00228

On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S.1639 – Which is reviving the Amnesty Immigration Bill for another vote in the Senate Thursday 6/28 ? or near that date.

Look at this list of Tax and Spend Liberal Democrats (below) ready to give 12 million illegal invaders of the United States, Amnesty and some Social Security and all kinda government program benefits that they will be soon legally be entitled to. Oh wait, and there’s some sell-out Republicans on this list too. Can you imagine 12 million invaders that would legally have claim to our benefits system? We are told that Social Security already can’t support the citizens we have now. Should I write this posting in Spanish? How soon will it be that Spanish would be our official second language? or first? Supposedly, magically, we will now seal our borders…really?…Then why not do that, then round up the invaders and send them to Mexico?WE DON’T WANT TO LIVE in MEXICO!

Remember the Alamo!

Please see how your representative voted and call their office, mail their office and email their office and let them know how you liked their vote….Señor!!!!

Akaka —————-(D-HI), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden —————-((D-DE), Yea
Bingaman —————-((D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer —————-((D-CA), Yea
Brown —————-((D-OH), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Yea
Burr (R-NC), Yea
Cantwell —————-((D-WA), Yea
Cardin —————-((D-MD), Yea
Carper —————-((D-DE), Yea
Casey —————-((D-PA), Yea
Clinton, Hillary —————-((D-NY), Yea
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad —————-((D-ND), Yea
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Dodd —————-((D-CT), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Durbin —————-((D-IL), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Yea
Feingold —————-((D-WI), Yea
Feinstein —————-((D-CA), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin —————-((D-IA), Yea
Inouye —————-((D-HI), Yea
Kennedy, Ted —————-((D-MA), Yea
Kerry, John —————-((D-MA), Yea
Klobuchar —————-((D-MN), Yea
Kohl —————-((D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Lautenberg —————-((D-NJ), Yea
Leahy —————-((D-VT), Yea
Levin —————-((D-MI), Yea
Lieberman, Joe —————-((ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln —————-((D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Martinez (R-FL), Yea
McCain, Ole Straight-talk John (R-AZ), Yea
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Menendez —————-((D-NJ), Yea
Mikulski —————-((D-MD), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray —————-((D-WA), Yea
Nelson —————-((D-FL), Yea
Nelson —————-((D-NE), Yea
Obama, Barack —————-((D-IL), Yea
Pryor —————-((D-AR), Yea
Reed —————-((D-RI), Yea
Reid —————-((D-NV), Yea
Salazar —————-((D-CO), Yea
Schumer —————-((D-NY), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea

Webb —————-((D-VA), Yea

Whitehouse —————-((D-RI), Yea
Wyden —————-((D-OR), Yea

Johnson (D-SD), Not Voting _________________________________________

Alexander (R-TN), Nay – Thank you all for your vote against this.
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Nay
Bayh (D-IN), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Byrd (D-WV), Nay
Chambliss (R-GA), Nay
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Dole (R-NC), Nay
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Grassley (R-IA), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Landrieu (D-LA), Nay
McCaskill (D-MO), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Nay
Sanders (I-VT), Nay
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-OR), Nay
Stabenow (D-MI), Nay
Sununu (R-NH), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Nay
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Vitter (R-LA), Nay

Gas Prices…Need I say more…

The high and low are ranging from about $3.05/gal to $3.70/gal with some even higher in Cali and Hawaii.

Drop me a comment if you are significantly lower or higher than this range.

**** I will try to read all comments, but due to volume I will only post some****