Thursday, February 26, 2009

$25, 573.48 - what Barack Obama's budget will cost each taxpayer

Posted By: Toby Harnden at Feb 26, 2009 at 19:06:47 [General]

So how much will President Barack Obama's budget cost us? The projected 2010 budget of $3.552 trillion can be found on page 114 of the "New Era of Responsibility" budget here.

The US Census bureau estimates that the current US population is 304,059,724. Dividing the $3.552 trillion by that gives us close to the $11,833 that Drudge came up with. ABC's Jake Tapper reports that there wil be $989 billion in new taxes over the next decade.

I'm an American taxpayer and the starkest figure is what this could cost me. The latest figure I could find for the number of US taxpayers is 138,893,908 returns in 2007 here. By my reckoning, that's $25, 573.48 each.

so you think the new taxes don't apply to you.. haha.. think again... if you breath.. you will pay more taxes...

Obama's Budget: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011

February 26, 2009 12:00 PM

President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.

1) On people making more than $250,000.

$338 billion - Bush tax cuts expire
$179 billlion - eliminate itemized deduction
$118 billion - capital gains tax hike

Total: $636 billion/10 years

2) Businesses:

$17 billion - Reinstate Superfund taxes
$24 billion - tax carried-interest as income
$5 billion - codify "economic substance doctrine"
$61 billion - repeal LIFO
$210 billion - international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
$4 billion - information reporting for rental payments
$5.3 billion - excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
$3.4 billion - repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
$62 million - repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
$49 million - repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
$13 billion - repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
$1 billion - increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
$882 million - eliminate advanced earned income tax credit

Total: $353 billion/10 years


and in the process - The great anointed will literally KILL small business, the job and revenue generating engine of our country...  and as he kills the new businesses and old... and dries up new jobs creations.... he will be driving up our dependence on foreign oil... and sending our wealth overseas for energy...  and also you can get ready to pay much much higher tabs at the grocery store too, as he is eliminating the subsidizes to the Amercian farmer, the payment that allows Mr. Farmer to stay in business.... this man and the folks he put in place, besides being tax cheats... and losers... and idiots... well, you just fill in the blank_____________.       and the other thing that is not being mentioned is inflation... yelp, it is coming... so get ready for 35% interest on your credit cards, 20% interest at the bank, and that zero car loan will become 20 to 25%... we had it back in the late 80's... and it's coming again...   so inflated prices, high interest, less petroleum, higher taxes on small business, and more taxes paid by all...   


Wow... just what I was thinking the USA needed... someone who is in charge who thinks we can spend our way out ... haha.. tell that to your friendly banker when applying for another extension on that note... Well, I only have so much income so I think I will borrow more to have more .... haha... and oh yeah, buy the way Mr. Banker, I am thinking of applying for a Government Job, so I won't be paying taxes either...  


bet that will fly..... haha... 


have a great day... and take a deep seat... we are in for a big ride.

The Cal Ripken President
As Obama prepared to deliver his address to Congress on Tuesday, the Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner, Fox News' Bret Baier and Charles Krauthammer all gushed that history was being made as the first African-American president appeared before Congress.
    
Even Gov. Bobby Jindal, whom I suppose I should note was the first Indian-American to give the Republican response to a president's speech, began with an encomium to the first black president. (Wasn't Bobby great in "Slumdog Millionaire"?)
    
Are we going to have to hear about this for the next four years? Obama is becoming the Cal Ripken Jr. of presidents, making history every time he suits up for a game. Recently, Obama also became the first African-American president to order a ham sandwich late at night from the White House kitchen! That's going to get old pretty quick.
    
But as long as the nation is obsessed with historic milestones, is no one going to remark on what a great country it is where a mentally retarded woman can become speaker of the house?
    
Obama spent more than twice as much time in his historic speech genuflecting to the teachers' unions than talking about terrorism, Iraq or Afghanistan. So it was historic only in the sense that Obama is the first African-American president, but was the same old Democratic claptrap in every other respect.
    
After claiming that the disastrous stimulus bill would create or save 3.5 million jobs -- "more than 90 percent" in the private sector -- Obama then enumerated a long list of exclusively government jobs that would be "saved." 
    
He was suspiciously verbose about saving the jobs of public schoolteachers. Because nothing says "economic stimulus" better than saving the jobs of lethargic incompetents who kick off at 2 p.m. every day and get summers off. Actually, that's not fair: Some teachers spend long hours after school having sex with their students.
    
As with the Clintons, Obama so earnestly believes in public school education that he sends his girls to ... an expensive private school. He demands that taxpayers support the very public schoolteachers he won't trust with his own children.
    
It is one thing to tell voters that school choice is wrong, because, you know, the public schools won't get better unless Americans sacrifice their children to the teachers' union's maw. But it is quite another for Democrats to feed their own kids to the union incinerator.
    
Consequently, no Democrat since Jimmy Carter has been stupid enough to send his own children to a public school.
    
And yet the stimulus bill expressly prohibits money earmarked for "education" to be spent on financial aid at private or parochial schools. Private schools might use it for some nefarious purpose like actually teaching their students, rather than indoctrinating them in anti-American propaganda.
    
The stimulus bill includes about $100 billion to education. By "education," Democrats don't mean anything a normal person would think of as education, such as learning how to talk good. "Education" means creating lots of useless bureaucratic jobs, mostly in Washington, having nothing to do with teaching.
    
Apparently, nothing irritates public schoolteachers more than being asked to teach. While 80 percent of the employees of private schools are teachers, only half the employees of public schools are. The rest are "coordinating," "facilitating" or "empowering" something or other.
    
The Department of Education alone provides more than 4,000 jobs that haven't the faintest connection with teaching. And now the stimulus bill will double the Education Department's funding. (For those of you who went to a public school, that means it will become twice as big.)
    
We've come a long way from Ronald Reagan promising to eliminate the Education Department, which itself was a Jimmy Carter sop to the teachers' unions.
    
Federal meddling in education has been an abject failure, so the Democrats' plan is to keep doing more of the same. If only there were some aphorism about people who fail to learn from history -- oh, well!
    
It can't be easy to reduce the educational achievement in America year after year, but the education establishment has done it! Yes they can!
    
Thanks to the hard work of thousands of government workers at the Department of Education and well-paid teachers' union employees, American schoolchildren perform worse on education tests for every year they spend in a public school.
    
It turns out that being in U.S. public schools has the same effect on people as hanging around Paris Hilton does.
    
In fourth grade, the earliest grade for which international comparisons are available, American students outperform most other countries in reading, math and science. Fourth-graders score in the 92nd percentile in science, the 58th percentile in math and the 70th percentile in reading, where they beat 26 of 35 countries, including Germany, France and Italy.
    
But by the eighth grade, American students are only midrange in international comparisons. (On the plus side, by the eighth grade they're noticeably fatter.)
    
By the 12th grade -- after receiving the full benefits of an American education -- Americans are near the bottom. Let X represent the number of years spent in U.S. public schools, and Y represent average test scores in math and reading -- oh, never mind.
    
With an additional eight years of a public school education under their belts, Americans fall from the 92nd percentile in science to the 29th percentile. While American fourth-graders are bested only by South Korea and Japan in science, by 12th grade, the only countries the American students can beat are Lithuania, Cyprus and South Africa.
    
Which suggests that if public education were extended all the way through college, by the time a student gets to graduate school he might very well be qualified to be ... speaker of the house!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Spring?

"Formal education will make you a living; 
self-education will make you a fortune."

— Jim Rohn

Well, well, well.... right on cue....

Our most gracious idiot VP who can't chew gum and talk at the same time....   sigh.. what a national disgrace he must be to our Anointed leader... he sure it to the rest of us...  

Just a while ago... Mr. Biden... who last night was given 4 mins of national attention as being the man in charge of recovery... forgot... yelp..you guessed it.. forgot the name and address of the website he is in charge of .. he is in charge of what.. yelp.. recovery     dot    gov.... kind of hard to remember when your mouth is constantly overloading your brain...   what a joke we have for leadership... and just when we need it....

did you notice how in being instructed in how to live our lives, it was stated but it was just a moment in passing that there was a bill for the Anointed to sign (remember, this is the same person who said he would promise to go through bills line for line with that red pencil marking off the pork.. yeah, right) that would put in place another almost two BILLION with almost 9000 earmarks for real important life and death items, like 2000000 for tattoo removal in CA, 900000 for stable flies in NE, Sen Ted Kennedy center for the senate...5.8 million.... and they talk about the bankers gone wild.. these are the nuts who are supposed to be guarding the hen house... with the chief cheer leader jumping up and down making wild and ridiculous statement, the assistant cheer leader out of his mind and can not even remember what his position is, or it's name.... and then how embarrassing to watch the bimbo who looked so enamored with the anointed that she wanted to jump his bones.. throw him down and have her way with him on the podium... 

how this group must look to the world around us... where there used to be respect and decorum, there is now none... used to be decisions were made out from wisdom, integrity, and fortitude are now being made on the fly, with haste, no thinking through, no wisdom, no respect of history, and no fore site. It seems now it's cool to make a decision, not how or why or should we, just make it and travel on... 

have you read the numbers on who and what in our nation... 80% of the nations wealth comes from small business... small business is 250,000 and more per year, a very easily attainable figure if one has any type of business at all.. and yelp, you guessed it, if you make over 250000 your taxes will go up.. sigh...   how wonderful....      and who do we need to generate the new wealth and make jobs...in USA? yelp, small business... it was reported on CNN that in the last 5 years, the Fortune 500 companies accounted for zero NEW jobs...  all new jobs created in the USA in the last 5 years came from yes, you guessed it, SMALL BUSINESS!   

another known but never stated loudly is most under 250000 don't pay taxes anyway....

the the top 2% he talks about... he is raising their taxes... gosh.. talk about biting the hand that feeds you... we are counting on their money paying our way.. yeah, right...   let's see the great leaders tax return... or better yet, his birth certificate that proves he a indeed "born in USA".

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

When you think you have conquered the world... remember that

"Mosquitoes can ruin the hunt for big game."

David Allen

Monday, February 23, 2009

Is Your March Madness Office Pool Legal? 
Author(s): Maynard Ontario

The smell of freshly-pressed bracket sheets fills the office air. The water cooler talk of upsets, sure things, and Cinderella stories remind us that March Madness, college basketball's championship tournament, is here again. 

For many Americans, the March Madness office pool is a sacred tradition. According to online gambling site LazerWager, 2008 March Madness office pools were worth more than $2.5 billion with 27% of American employees participating. But while you study the match-ups and make your picks, you may be asking yourself: "Is my office pool legal?" 

In short: No. Betting on college sports is legal only in Nevada, where it now brings in more than $600 million a year. Though the FBI may not be conducting 24-hour surveillance on your cubicle, participating in or organizing inter-office gambling, like all unlicensed sports betting, is illegal. In most states, involvement in such pools can result in a misdemeanor charge and up to one year in prison. 

In reality, the likelihood of facing prosecution for participating in an office betting pool as an employee or employer is virtually nonexistent. Employers, however, face significantly higher risk than employees. And if you're the company owner, the liability risk may be more than you're willing to accept. Many bosses and owners may laugh at the fact that their "little office pool" is actually illegal. And although the risk of prosecution is low, if you own the company, you need to be aware that March Madness can pose serious legal liabilities. 

Though you may have to be the party pooper, it is up to the company owner to set certain rules regarding gambling at work. A clear, concise section in your company's employee handbook should explain the legalities involved in inter-office betting. If you decide to prohibit or restrict gambling at the workplace, explain both the workplace and legal consequences so employees are aware that you take the issue seriously. 

If you own the property where your workplace is located, you have even more liability risk. The owner of the premises where gambling is conducted is subject to the same criminal liability as the organizers and participants whether or not he or she is involved in a single bet. 

The other side of the coin is that office pools usually carry low bet amounts and can create camaraderie among employees. The possibilities of long-shots and underdog victories make March Madness one of the most exciting events in sports; even non-sports fans are easily swept up in the enthusiasm. Following a team, trash-talking with friends, and putting a little money down add to the fun and can help foster a sense of community among employees. 

If you do decide to organize or allow an office pool, you can reduce your liability risk by keeping the stakes low and separating gambling and work. Avoid online brackets and keep your pool on paper. Prevent disruption at work by prohibiting game-watching over the Internet and encouraging pool participation only during breaks and lunch. Rather than using the typical buy-in bracket model, allow everyone to participate for free and simply provide prizes for the winners. Organize after-work parties to watch the games together. Make it fun—you may be able to build camaraderie without the added risks. 

Good luck with your brackets!

from trisha: lunch anyone?

would you be surprised to learn....

The co-chairs of the task force -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers -- both own foreign automobiles.

but then the chief tax cheat and man in charge of our money, sigh, is a 'cheat' so why would we be surpised that he does not support American industry???  


yesterday I rec'd this

neat birdbath from Jon. Randi and kiddos.
I also rec'd an OK FLAG for our park...
and a neat book from Paul and Heather and kiddos...
MK got me an awesome coffee mug dealy from OSU Vet teaching hospital.
and i know much more so don't get mad... I am thankful that the good Lord allowed us the opportunity just to get together... who knows when it will be our last?
love to all for cards and calls and emails and text etc

Friday, February 20, 2009

"No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals."
— Brian Tracy

Thursday, February 19, 2009

In yellow.. the trail I follow every day to walk my 4.5 miles....


I will not tell you the time it takes me.. haha... but it is more than an hour.... and it is up and down and across a creek or two and some mud and some tall grass and some limbs... interesting... shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... don't tell Ann, she thinks I am only walking about 2 miles... hehe... but in case you have to send out the search party... here is the trail...
Posted by Picasa

So congratulations, George Bush! Whenever history professors rank you as one of the "worst" presidents, it's a good bet you were one of America's grea

Why We Don't Celebrate 'Historians Day'
Being gracious winners, this week, liberals howled with delight at George Bush for coming in seventh-to-last in a historians' ranking of the presidents from best to worst. 

This was pretty shocking. Most liberals can't even name seven U.S. presidents. 

Being ranked one of the worst presidents by "historians" is like being called "anti-American" by the Nation magazine. And by "historian," I mean a former member of the Weather Underground, who is subsidized by the taxpayer to engage in left-wing political activism in a cushy university job. 

So congratulations, George Bush! Whenever history professors rank you as one of the "worst" presidents, it's a good bet you were one of America's greatest. 

Six months after America's all-time greatest president left office in 1989, historians ranked him as only a middling president. (I would rank George Washington as America's greatest president, but he only had to defeat what was then the world's greatest military power with a ragtag group of irregulars and some squirrel guns, whereas Ronald Reagan had to defeat liberals.) 

At the time, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. dismissed Reagan as "a nice, old uncle, who comes in and all the kids are glad to see him. He sits around telling stories, and they're all fond of him, but they don't take him too seriously" -- and then Schlesinger fell asleep in his soup. 

Even liberal historian Richard Reeves blanched at Reagan's low ranking in 1989, saying, "I was no fan of Reagan, but I think I know a leader when I see one." 

Reagan changed the country, Reeves said, and some would say "he changed the world, making communism irrelevant and the globe safe for the new imperialism of free-market capitalism." In Reeves' most inspiring line, he says Reagan "was a man of conservative principle and he damned near destroyed American liberalism." 

By 1996 things hadn't gotten much better for Reagan in the historians' view. A poll of historians placed Reagan 26th of 42 presidents -- below George H.W. Bush, his boob of a vice president who raised taxes and ended Republican hegemony under Reagan. Four of the 32 historians called Reagan a "failure." 

I guess it depends on your definition of "failure." To me a failure is someone who aspired to be a legitimate scholar but ends up as an obscure lecturer at Colorado College. 

Speaking of which, Colorado College political scientist Thomas Cronin explained Reagan's low ranking, saying Reagan "was insensitive to women's rights, civil rights, oblivious to what was going on in his own Administration -- the procurement scandal, HUD, Iran-Contra." 

Soon after he took office, President Reagan famously hung a portrait of President Calvin Coolidge in the Cabinet Room -- another (Republican) president considered a failure by historians. 

Coolidge cut taxes, didn't get the country in any wars, cut the national debt almost in half, and presided over a calm, scandal-free administration, a period of peace, 17.5 percent growth in the gross national product, low inflation (.4 percent) and low unemployment (3.6 percent). 

Unlike some recent presidents with Islamic middle names, he didn't run around comparing himself to Lincoln constantly. 

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. ridiculed President Calvin Coolidge as a hayseed who slept too much and took decisive action only once in his life. Schlesinger never tired of pointing out that Coolidge slept 11 hours a day, as if hours of sleep is the true measure of presidential greatness. 

Perhaps Schlesinger's venom toward Coolidge was meant as penance for his once mistakenly admitting that Eisenhower was a good president -- another hated (Republican) president among historians. 

Under President Dwight Eisenhower, the gross national product grew by over 25 percent and inflation averaged 1.4 percent. George Meany, then AFL-CIO president, said that the American worker had "never had it so good." Like Coolidge and Reagan, Eisenhower was enormously popular with the American people. 

In a poll of "leading scholars" taken soon after Eisenhower left office, he was named one of the 10 worst presidents. The distinguished scholars -- none of whose names anyone remembers today -- called him dumb, dismissing the five-star general who smashed the Nazi war machine as "Old Bubble Head." As Patton said, these "bilious bastards ... don't know anything more about real battle than they do about fornicating." 

It's as if geologists took a poll and announced their opinion that gold was heavier than lead. 

Reagan and Eisenhower have recently started to move up in the presidential rankings -- for the same reason George Washington is always ranked one of the best. Historians ought to detest Washington, but his exclusion from the top ranks of these pompous historian polls would expose the absurdity of their rankings. 

Putting preposterously overrated presidents like John F. Kennedy or FDR in the same category as Reagan or Washington is like a teenage girl ranking the Jonas Brothers with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles as the three greatest bands of all time. 

Liberals may call him a "war criminal," but historians have inadvertently paid Bush a great tribute this week by ranking him as a "below average" president. I can only dream that, someday, no-name, left-wing historians will rank me as one of the all-time worst columnists. 

Monday, February 16, 2009

From Heather.. WD 40....

Subject: WD-40
 

I got up very early and went outside to pick up the Sunday paper, when I noticed someone had sprayed red paint all around the sides of my neighbors brand new beige truck.  I went over and woke him up and gave him the bad news.  He was, of course extremely upset and we stood there trying to figure out what we could do about the problem. We decided there wasn't much recourse but to wait until Monday, since nothing was open.  Just then another neighbor came out of his house, surveyed the situation and immediately said to get his WD-40 out and clean the red paint off.

 

Guess what!  it cleaned up that paint without harming the original paint on the truck!  I'm impressed!!

 

Water Displacement #40.  The product began from a search for a rust preventative solvent and degreaser to protect missile parts.  WD-40 was created in 1953 by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company.  Its name comes from the project that was to find a 'water displacement' compound.  They were successful with the fortieth formulation, thus WD-40.  The Corvair Company bought it in bulk to protect their atlas missile parts.

 

Ken East (one of the original founders) says there is nothing in WD-40 that would hurt you...' IT IS MADE FROM FISH OIL' .  When you read the 'shower door' part, try it.  It's the first thing that has ever cleaned that spotty shower door.  If yours is plastic, it works just as well as glass.  It is a miracle!  Then try it on your stovetop...  It is now shinier than it has ever been before.

 

1) Protects silver from tarnishing.

2) Removes road tar and grime from cars.

3) Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.

4) Gives floors that `just-waxed` sheen without making it slippery.

5) Keeps flies off cows.

6) Restores and cleans chalkboards.

7) Removes lipstick stains.

8) Loosens stubborn zippers.

9) Untangles jewelry chains.

10) Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.

11) Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill.

12) Keeps ceramic/terra cotta garden pots from oxidizing.

13) Removes tomato stains from clothing.

14) Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots.

15) Camouflages scratches in ceramic and marble floors.

16) Keeps scissors working smoothly.

17) Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes.

18) It removes black scuff marks from the kitchen floor!

      Open some windows if you have a lot of marks.

19) Bug guts will eat away the finish on your car.  Removed quickly, with WD-40!

20) Gives a children's play gym slide a shine for a super fast slide.

21) Lubricates gear shift on lawn mowers.

22) Rids kids rocking chairs and swings of squeaky noises.

23) Lubricates tracks in sticking home windows and makes them easier to open.

24) Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.

25) Restores and cleans padded leather dashboards in vehicles as well as vinyl bumpers.

26) Restores and cleans roof racks on vehicles.

27) Lubricates and stops squeaks in electric fans.

28) Lubricates wheel sprockets on tricycles, wagons, and bicycles for easy handling.

29) Lubricates fan belts on washers and dryers and keeps them running smoothly.

30) Keeps rust from forming on saws and saw blades, and other tools.

31) Removes splattered grease on the stove.

32) Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging.

33) Lubricates prosthetic limbs.

34) Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).

35) Removes all traces of duct tape.

36) Folks even spray it on their arms, hands, and knees to relieve arthritis pain.

37) Florida 's favorite use 'Cleans and removes love bugs from grills and bumpers.'

38) Protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements.

39) WD-40 attracts fish.  Spray a LITTLE on live bait or lures and you will be catching the big one in no time.

40) Ant bites.  It takes the sting away immediately and stops the itch.

41) WD-40 is great for removing crayon from walls.  Spray on the mark and wipe with a clean rag.

42) If you've washed and dried a tube of lipstick with a load of laundry, saturate the lipstick spots with WD-40 and Presto!  Lipstick is gone!

43) If you spray WD-40 on the distributor cap, it will displace the moisture and allow the car to start.

 

Keep a can of WD-40 in my kitchen cabinet over the stove.  It is good for oven burns or any other type of burn..  It takes the burned feeling away and heals with NO scarring.  Remember, the basic ingredient is FISH OIL

Finally, I find someone who agrees with me... our elected saviour needs to be in a 'timeout'!

Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

In 1932, automobile production shriveled by 90%.

President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.

In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82.

This was reflected in unemployment rates. The latest survey pegs U.S. unemployment at 7.6%. That's more than three percentage points below the 1982 peak (10.8%) and not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%). You simply can't equate 7.6% unemployment with the Great Depression.

Other economic statistics also dispel any analogy between today's economic woes and the Great Depression. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose in 2008, despite a bad fourth quarter. The Congressional Budget Office projects a GDP decline of 2% in 2009. That's comparable to 1982, when GDP contracted by 1.9%. It is nothing like 1930, when GDP fell by 9%, or 1931, when GDP contracted by another 8%, or 1932, when it fell yet another 13%.

Auto production last year declined by roughly 25%. That looks good compared to 1932, when production shriveled by 90%. The failure of a couple of dozen banks in 2008 just doesn't compare to over 10,000 bank failures in 1933, or even the 3,000-plus bank (Savings & Loan) failures in 1987-88. Stockholders can take some solace from the fact that the recent stock market debacle doesn't come close to the 90% devaluation of the early 1930s.

Mr. Obama's analogies to the Great Depression are not only historically inaccurate, they're also dangerous. Repeated warnings from the White House about a coming economic apocalypse aren't likely to raise consumer and investor expectations for the future. In fact, they have contributed to the continuing decline in consumer confidence that is restraining a spending pickup. Beyond that, fearmongering can trigger a political stampede to embrace a "recovery" package that delivers a lot less than it promises. A more cool-headed assessment of the economy's woes might produce better policies.

Mr. Schiller, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, is the author of "The Economy Today" (McGraw-Hill, 2007).


Ed's Note: Have you ever seen such a poor start for an elected official and his administration? I can report honestly I have not in 62 years! Man, the mistakes this newly elected administration are making are so elementary, it is unbelievable...  my favorite now .. well there are really two out of the many... We now have a bonifided tax cheat as head of our treasury and IRS (so if you don't want to pay your taxes you don't have to, unless you are being picked to be a public official, or so his appointment teaches us)... (talk about having the fox guard the hen house!) and the President who will not quit campaigning and tend to business. wow... and I swear, I hear many times during the campaign how he may not have wisdom from experience, but was the greatest person ever to make a decision.. his were the best and most sound... and yet I have not seen one, yet, that was sound, let alone the best ever! Why on earth would one fill all the chairs at the table with folks who are inept or tax cheats, or have a history of running off at the mouth, or those who worked against you for years (now expecting them to embrace your platform, sigh) or have proven to their own party, let alone the American people, how unelectable they are (since no one wanted them when they ran for President, this Biden VP choice should have been our first indication of how poor this man was at making decisions... wow.. talk about .......)...  I can remember thinking how embarrased I was regarding the Presidency of Carter, Nixon, Johnson, and Clinton... wow, this might end up being the worst yet.  sorry... off my soapbox again... but it might not be my last time, either.. haha...  and the President this country could not get rid of fast enough, just might end up in the years that come, as history looks back, as one of the best leaders for his honesty, his intergrity, his decision making, his ability to surround himself with good men with sound advice, and his tanacity. 

I think term limits are AWESOME! 

(Oklahoma can be proud of one thing however. We have all our elected officials reflecting our core values except one, and he is there due to his name only, not his work, nor ability!)

I must stop this ranting, right Ann?

smiling, ............  have a great day!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Austyn spent day with Grandpa working.. sort of.. hehe..

Austyn and Grandpa spent most of Friday together and had a very good time together. Austyn started off playing WII rock band and then the piano, which we both decided needed some work on it if he is to continue to play it, so we called the "Piano Man" who is to call us back next Wednesday about coming out and taking a look at the sick piano and see if there is hope or not... and then we headed to the studio so Grandpa might work some and Austyn could play the drums.. and play he did. As he has done since birth, he continues to amaze his Grandpa at his musicial talent. He can truly rip off some great licks on the drums, is very original and can play about anything if he hears it once... he is good at figuring out "How they do that"...
Proud of him... you ask me??? hahaha... sort of ... kind'a... yelp.... I hope to shout!!! haha.... 


oh.. to top it off, Austyn got to met the Nick Gibson Band, a band that we manage, and shake each one of their hands... and Nick offered some advice to Austyn and the drummer Zack said he was worried now that Austyn might take his place... (Austyn was in the drum cage playing away when they pulled up to get their equipment to head to Kansas for a weekend of playing, and he was really nailing the song he was playing... ). 

I took several videos of him playing. they are very long so if you wish to listen and see him in action, I would download them first, then listen to them.. they are videos, so big files and they do take a long time to download, or at least I bet they do, they took forever to put online.. haha...

Ok enough bragging.. haha... 
here are the links:


Enjoy!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Thursday, February 12, 2009

did you see the AWESOME sunrise this am...


Of course, this photo does not even warm up the sky colors... I seem to have missed the class on taking a great photo... but it was three times as red as this photo earlier... what is the saying? Red in the morning, sailors take warning, Red at night, sailor's delight... well after night before last, let's hope this saying is not right.... wow!!!
Have a great day!
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

from Trisha: playing at daycare. yay!!!!

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll 
fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they 
have planned for you? Not much."

— Jim Rohn

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

from Trisha: waiting on storm to pass

with monkey, bear and daddys phone.
"Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from 
having too much to do. It comes from not 
finishing what they've started."

— David Allen

(Hooray!  Garage sales can now be considered patriotic.) 

 

"This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a Very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

 

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?

A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

 

Q. Where will the government get this money?

A. From taxpayers.

 

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?

A. Only a smidgen.

 

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?

A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV

    set, thus stimulating the economy.

 

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?

A. Shut up.

 

 

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

 

If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs.

If you purchase a computer it will go to India.

If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy organic).

If you buy a car it will go to Japan.

If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan.

If you pay your credit cards off, it will go to bank management bonuses and they will hide if offshore. Same with stock investment.

 

Instead, you can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball, football, basketball game, or spending it on beer and wine (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only American businesses still operating in the US

Got'er done!!!

Dear Mr. Lucas;
Please don't vote for this stupid pork barrel spending bill for the sake of our future, our youth... who follow. 

email sent and faxed as well...  

now... lets see what good it does.. haha... who knows?????

have a great day! s

Oh my God... Have you heard those who serve us in congress defend this dumbass stimulus bill??

I am blown away. I just heard a congressman say... now keep this in mind, this is a bill that is 15 inches high if printed on both sides of plain paper... that "IF" something was in the bill he would vote against it and he could answer NOTHING about the bill in specifics... and he is voting in just hours.... 

It amazes me how soft and non caring we Americans have become in electing our leaders and officials..   we now have a known proven "IRS TAX CHEAT" as the chief officer of our treasurer and head of the IRS....  We have a proven non electible vice president who should be Dean of the school of bafoons! A President who has apologized for mistakes all ready and can not make up his mind and still had not said one thing concrete regarding the economy other than trying to spread fear among us so this "stimulus" package will pass... and our kids and their kids will suffer for it... 

This one bill doubles our national debt in the blink of an eye.. and within a year or two we will see double figure interest rates as a result. so get ready.. those credit cards will have 20 to 30% on them shortly... your  interest rate at bank will become 15 to 20 %... seen this in the late 70's and early 80's... except we did not have a leader telling us we were headed down in flames... sigh.. really Mr. President.. REALLY?  

The best thing I have heard in this whole discussion is ... instead of a stupid spending bill that does nothing... suspend the IRS tax collections for next two years.. take a deep seat and see what happens.. small business will go to hiring, growing.. spending, folks will instantly have more cash to do with... etc etc.. we would fix the problem without the dumbies in washington craming down our throat... "what we need"!

I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. It is time for leadership. I would bet a 100 dollars that not one person who is reading this has written their elected officials to let them know.. including this author!!

But I am going to fix that right now .... and send a note to each...  My dearly elected.... 

have a great day.. i sure am... haha.. 

Monday, February 09, 2009

Perkins Fire Department Fundraiser.... this Friday night

Who: The Masonic Lodge
 
What:  Bean and Stew Supper
 
When:  Friday, February 13, 2009   4:00PM - 7:00 PM
 
Where: High School Commons, Perkins High School
 
Why:  All proceeds will go to the Perkins Fire Department for Fire and Rescue equipment

fun in tub!

trisha sent these photos ob Isabella in tub... she is a water baby!