National Holiday for 300 Million Population

MENENDEZ FINDS THAT MMS’S OIL SPILL RESPONSE RESEARCH TANK IS INOPERABLE

2010-07-20T16:51:00.002-04:00

http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=3b988f07-6cfa-42db-a417-4a9669c3fe71

MENENDEZ FINDS THAT MMS’S OIL SPILL RESPONSE RESEARCH TANK IS INOPERABLE

The Minerals Management Service's Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (OHMSETT) is touted on its website as "The National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility" (click here: http://www.ohmsett.com/). Interior Secretary Ken Salazar mentioned the Leonardo, NJ facility during testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on June 9. However, when U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) contacted the facility to arrange a tour, his staff was told that the tank had previously developed a leak and wouldn't be operable again until sometime in July.

Comment Below:
After months of oil pollution from BP's continuous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the world finds that the primary testing tank for testing oil spills at ocean depths of more than a mile has been inoperative for some time. It strongly suggests that testing has been a low priority for some time. The MMS is supposed to be America's watchdog to make sure deep drilling will not lead to catastrophic spills. The oil industry provides the funding for the tank.

The technology that BP is using to stop the leaks is from the 1950's, although the robots and the cameras are newer. It seems that the oil industry should fund heavy research not only to prevent a spill, but to stop and clean up a spill rapidly in the future.

Shame on BP, the oil industry, and the MMS.

World War II And Current Unemployment

2010-07-03T13:36:00.002-04:00

In order to beat the Germans and the Japanese during World War II, the Allies bombed German and Japanese factories. Thousands of bombing runs were made dropping ton after ton of bombs. The costs probably ran more than a trillion dollars in today's money. Eventually the bombing runs served their purposes. The most profound effects were that Germany and Japan lost their air forces. Thousands of factories were bombed and destroyed bringing the War closer to the end.

The same thing happened peacefully in America. Thousands of factories in America were closed by management with the approval of our federal and state elected officials. In addition to the blue collar workers, white collar American workers lost their jobs also. Surprisingly, the factories and offices while being closed in America were being reopened overseas. Additionally, the American federal government flooded the American labor market in America with tens of millions of illegal aliens. The illegal alien migration was supposed to stop with President Reagan's amnesty program, but all Presidents since Reagan allowed the flood of illegals. With the H1B visa, hundreds of thousands of aliens are working in America taking American jobs.

The basic reason for outsourcing was that labor was expensive in America and much cheaper in other countries. The illegal aliens in America took jobs Americans did not want, was another famous quote. Nobody explained that their were other factors to consider besides labor cost.

American parents and grandparents are realizing that that their children would never reach the level of economic success that they did.

Nobody explained that Americans like to work. The American economy depended on high employment and many high wage earners. American national defense depends on wide and varied vibrant American industry. Nobody explained that a few would reap the benefit of the imports, certainly not the consumers as a whole. Why should the American consumer pay fifty dollars for a toaster or pair of sneakers that probably cost Sears $10 to make and ship to America? If you want to see the latest and greatest new factories and transportation and utility infrastructure, you have to go to China or India, they are no longer in America.

Most of the American states are cutting their programs because they do not have the funding for them. Most Americans do not like giving $130,000 each to support the public education from kindergarten thru high school for each illegal alien child and unlimited medical and hospitalization for each illegal alien. Most states could easily balance their budgets if they did not have to support illegal aliens.

The biggest buyer of all goods in the United States is our Federal Goverment followed by the state and local governments. Our Governments should have a buy American made first policy which they do not have right now. They should also send home all H1B aliens that they currently employ. They should also review the outsourcing efforts that their vendors participate in. I do not thing any state should deposit their funds in an bank that outsources overseas when the state's citizen residents could use the jobs.

Any consumer company should use American labor rather than overseas labor or H1B labor here in America.

The foreign workers are exploited, as well as the illegal aliens and the H1B workers for greed, many of them eagerly because of harsh conditions in their home countries. President Bush's quote that Illegal aliens took jobs that Americans did not want should always be amended to include at that low rate of pay with few benefits if any, but would take the jobs at a better rate of pay and benefits. Deflation in wages has hit America in the meat packing industry when the packers fired Americans and hired illegals to perform work.

Two Jewish Supremes Are Enough

2010-06-28T17:46:00.003-04:00

Seven Jewish Justices have served on the U.S. Supreme Court, including the two currently serving Jewish Justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

On May 10th, 2010 President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to fill the vacancy being left by the resignation of Justice John Paul Stevens. If confirmed, Kagan would become the eighth Jewish Supreme Court Justice, and the third currently serving.

I think 2 Jewish Justices at any one time are enough to serve America on the Supreme Court. It would be too kosher to have three. Maybe Elana Kagan could replace Ginsburg or Breyer if either passed on to a better world, keeping the number of Jewish Justices to two.

100 Million Jobs Lost, Labor Should Have Stuck Together

2010-05-24T17:05:00.005-04:00

It seems like the Presidents and Congress have loaded up the Bomber fleet with more than 100 million jobs, flew off of American soil, and released them over China, India, Philippines, Australia, Mexico, and other countries. The allowed it to happen with no regard to the American worker and their families. President Bush and President Obama and Congress were consistent in enabling the American jobs to land overseas and the overseas countries receiving American jobs were glad to get them for their citizens. Millions of American citizen families suffered due to loss of job, struggling for basic needs and bursting their bubbles for the American dream. If you do not have a good job, you most likely will not have a financially sound retirement.

Now they say American unemployment is around 10%, but most realize it is really more than 20% because many have given up looking for jobs. The Federal, States, and local governments are financially unsound in America due to a lack of tax revenues and excessive borrowing. Now teachers, state and municipal workers, police, firefighters, and other government workers are being layed off and many others are taking salary haircuts.

Thirty thousand government workers demonstrated this past weekend in Trenton, New Jersey against sever state budget cuts. Most states have their own demonstrations. Now the government workers are worried.

Where were all of these people when manufacturing was leaving America? Where were the state employees when tens of thousands of customer service jobs left America? Can they say they did anything for the engineers or computer people that were outsourced overseas?

It has gotten to the point that no other groups of labor supported me and my industry, I am almost glad that a ton of misery is falling on the local and state workers facing layoffs, salary haircuts, and reductions or loss of pensions.

And the teachers, police, and firemen wonder where public support lies. Most of us went through and are still facing the same things and we have no empathy for you now.

There is a famous saying: "What goes around comes around".

It means that all of labor should be in it together. That no-one can let bad things happen to labor in one industry because it will only re-occur in another industry.

Not Many of Us Earned $106,800 Last Year

2010-02-11T12:09:00.004-05:00

Not Many of Us Earned $106,800 Last Year

http://www.nyc.gov/html/opa/html/taxes/socialsecurity.shtml

I feel cheated. The social security portion of FICA is 6.2% of your covered wages, up to a maximum wage base of $106,800 in 2010 which is the same as the maximum wage base for 2009. Since 1964 I have earned a paycheck, the vast majority of the years Social Security Tax was withheld from each and every paycheck from January through December. There probably was two or three years when I was paid up in Social Security Tax sometime in November or late December. I remember it was a good feeling to have a few hundred dollars extra in my paycheck those years, especially around Christmas time. Most years though I contributed each year every paycheck to the last one because I almost never earned the declared maximum wage base amount.

I propose to remove the maximum wage base amount and put no cap on the earnings to withdraw Social Security taxes. There are a lot of people making more money than the $106,800 and why should they get relief in the Social Security tax while most of us pay every paycheck.

The million dollar salary and bonus people on Wall Street completed paying their Social Security withdrawal amounts with their first paycheck this January. I doubt America's millionaires and billionaires will miss the money if they paid the 6.2% extra beyond the current $106,800 on earnings. Many would complain loudly. Business executives, doctors, lawyers, and pharmacists can afford to pay Social Security tax like most of us from January through the end of December.

The millionaire professional sports players as well as the wealthy music artists should pay.

As citizens we pay tens of thousand government workers and elected officials more than the $106,800 current limit and many do not deserve so high a salary anyway. Many of those have retired and continue to receive more than the $106,800 limit.

Removing the cap on earnings for Social Security tax withdrawal is the easiest way to fund Social Security for the next generation.

The Medicare tax is 1.45%. There is no cap on earnings for the Medicare portion of FICA.

Above was comments and below was copies from the stated URL.

SOCIAL SECURITY AND FICA

Most employees and employers each pay up to 7.65% of PAYROLLcovered wages for social security and Medicare taxes. Together these taxes comprise FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act).

The social security portion of FICA is 6.2% of your covered wages, up to a maximum wage base of $106,800 in 2010. If you reach the maximum payment, you do not pay any more social security tax until the next calendar year. The Medicare tax is 1.45%. There is no cap on earnings for the Medicare portion of FICA.

The wage base for social security is adjusted each year and is shown below for three years:

Social Security Wage Base

Year	Annual Wage Base	Tax Rate	Maximum Social Security Tax
2010	$106,800	6.2%	$6,621.60
2009	$106,800	6.2%	$6,621.60
2008	$102,000	6.2%	$6,324.00
2007	$97,500	6.2%	$6,045.00

Welfare Corporations in America

2010-02-10T12:28:00.002-05:00

Welfare Corporations in America

We all know about the welfare corporations in America. They are those corporations that do not pay well and provide their American workers no or very little in benefits. One company is proud to help sign their employees up for Medicaid and they earned billions in profit last year. That corporation and many others have no shame. This company also brought in illegal aliens to clean some of their New Jersey stores and the illegal aliens were released and found different jobs in New Jersey within 24 hours. What a cheesy operation!

I think that employers not providing health insurance to an employee should pay 15% employer tax to fund medicaid and charity care. Workers earning high salaries usually have health insurance, so lower paid workers usually do not and the employer would pay about $1.00 per hour for those people.

Two hospitals in my county went bust and closed recently because they suffered huge losses from poorly insured and those without insurance. Google Union Hospital in Union, New Jersey and Muhlenburg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey to find their stories. Both hospitals existed for generations. This put thousands of people at risk. And more at inconvenience because of longer travel.

What do you think about my proposal on the welfare corporations? Write to your congressmen.

New Rules For Employment, Fight For Every American Job

2009-12-09T01:20:00.003-05:00

Twenty years ago, management would evaluate where to establish a new or move an old customer service center, factory, office, warehouse, or data center and the result would be that it would be established somewhere in America supported by local American labor.

Today, management also takes into consideration utilizing facilities and labor from foreign countries, and they are outsourcing there, heavily displacing thousands of American sites and tens of millions of American workers.

Many American sites today are shadows of what they were in the recent past because the primary employer(s) left town to move overseas. Most of these towns have only the elderly left on Social Security retirement or disability while the rest left to seek work elsewhere. The towns are bankrupt because most of the real estate has been abandoned with no-one to pay taxes. Local government had to downsize, laying off teachers, police, firemen, and administrators due to lack of revenue. Many, lucky enough to have a job, had to take severe cuts in pay and benefits.

There are 20 million and more unemployed or under-employed Americans today. The migration of jobs overseas did not happen overnight. It was steady over many years. In the beginning, most American companies were sensitive to public outcry when they layed off their workers. Instead of laying off large numbers all at one time, they would downsize a few hundred workers at a time and a few weeks later lay off more. There was no public outcry and the companies became bolder and layed off thousands at a time. They moved entire facilities overseas.

Since President Reagan millions of illegal aliens have also displaced Americans on the job in America. And it is not just the produce pickers supporting American produce. Illegal aliens are cutting meat in the slaughter houses. They are working in the warehouses. They are working in all forms of construction. Many are in our restaurants. There is a second society in America that speaks Spanish and almost no English. American citizens that speak only English will never be hired for the jobs that the American employers have given to the Spanish speakers. It has been documented that the illegal aliens will work in America for half of the salary and benefits that an American would do the job. The most famous instance is when American meatcutters were displaced by illegal aliens.

America has a VISA known as the H1B for temporary college trained alien workers to be brought into America to work when there are not enough Americans to do the work. With more than 10% unemployment of those seeking work and millions of additional American citizen workers that either gave up seeking work or are under-employed, the hundreds of thousand alien H1B holders should be sent back to their home countries.

The key to the successful past was moderation. The key to the current American employment failure is excessive.

More than 100 million American have been displaced at least once on the job by aliens and they all have the right to be bitter. It is a bitter taste when you are cut off at the knees and you have to lower your spending. You find that you cannot provide for your children or parents as much as you did before. You may have to leave your home because you cannot afford the mortgage anymore. Many cannot afford health insurance anymore. Most find that the high salary rate they once had is no longer available because many are now seeking the same available job. Some find that the new jobs are temporary lasting only 3 or 6 months or maybe as long as 2 years if they are lucky when they are displaced again and have to start over seeking employment.

Thousands of Americans were not mentally or physically strong enough to handle the stress of losing their jobs and they became very ill with heart attacks and strokes and many died.

Our President, senators, representatives, governors, state legislatures, and county and city elected officials have to learn that is is not alright to let American jobs go to foreign countries or to allow foreign workers here in America. American citizens must write letters and emails to all elected officials. Americans must demonstrate peacefully. Articles must be written to the editor of our papers.

If we have the opportunity to hire, hire the American first. Most hiring managers are under no requirement to hire aliens. Do the right thing and hire Americans.

Our federal, state and city government probably have tens of thousands of H1B aliens working in America on government contracts. Why? Get rid of them. Mayor Blomberg of New York City allows IBM to bring in aliens to work on city contracts in New York City. How unpatriotic can a mayor be?

All over America our police, sheriff departments, marshalls, troopers and other police organizations have ignored the illegal alien problem. They play like Sargent Schultz in an old TV program that he sees nothing and knows nothing going on in a German POW camp. A million police organizations across America can round up millions of law breakers if they were motivated.

There are trillions of dollars spent each year by our American government when you add up the federal, state, and local organizations seeking products and services. The procurement should require the work and products be accomplished by legal American residents. Made in America products and services should be favored by all government agencies.

Obama and Congress is talking about another 200 billions of dollars to stimulate job creation. If employers do not get the message to hire Americans only, they will outsource overseas or hire illegal aliens or even sponsor more H1B's. They have their hands out for the next 200 billion but have they recieved the message or not?

NYC Bloomberg HIT BY NERD JOB ROB

2009-08-12T17:52:00.002-04:00

NYC Bloomberg HIT BY NERD JOB ROB

CITY $$ FOR INDIAN HIRES

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06282009/news/regionalnews/nyc_hit_by_nerd_job_rob_176570.htm

While the city vows to save and create jobs for recession-ravaged New Yorkers, one of its biggest contractors is importing techies from India, instead of hiring local computer nerds.

IBM won a $1.9 million contract with the Department of Finance to analyze its old main databases so they can be improved, but the company has transported "consultants" from Mumbai and other parts of India to do most of the work.

Comment

Mayor Bloomberg and IBM Corporations are traitors to American workers and improving the American economy. There was no need to hire aliens Indians when there are a million unemployed IT workers qualified, willing, and able to perform the work. In fact there is no need for any H1B alien workers to be hired when American unemployment is ranging up to 15% and higher in some states.

IBM is a traitor corporation importing temporary Indian workers when American citizens are qualified, willing and able to perform the work.

Mayor Bloomberg is not a good American citizen. Maybe he should leave America and live with the Indians that he admires more than Americans. As the founder of Bloomberg that provides financial information is heavily computer technical which Mayor Bloomberg understands as a former CEO. He thoroughly understands what has been happening in the Information Technology during the past decade including the massive layoffs of American jobs to offshore locations primarily India and the replacement of additional massive numbers of Americans in America with H1B aliens.

Mayor Bloomberg has blood on his hands for not steering those jobs to Americans instead of Indians. Mayor Kotch used to ask in public, "How am I doing?" If Bloomberg asked the same question I would tell him, pretty crappy and that I thought he stunk out loud.

The American economy is in great pain and Americans are losing jobs in tremendous numbers. Mayor Bloomberg and IBM could have improved America's economic problems and unemployment, but they decided not to do so.

As an elected official in the largest city of America with America and New York City in economic decline and unemployment so high how could Mayor Bloomberg approve importing aliens to perform work in America? Is he not sensitive to American labor specifically IT workers? Why can't he be loyal to America instead of India.

IBM Corporation may have short term gain with cheaper labor from India, but their reputation is damaged. They are disloyal to America. I used to admire IBM and had many friends employed with them, but I no longer admire IBM and I do not know anyone employed at IBM anymore.

Pay Now for Illegal Alien Problem or Pay a Lot More Later

2009-08-10T15:45:00.002-04:00

There is a flood of millions of illegal aliens in America and our police do nothing to capture them, their employers, their landlords, or their sanctuary granting elected officials. The tens of thousands of alien H1B visa holders are supposed to fill jobs in America with qualified aliens in America when there are no Americans available to perform the work. With unemployment reaching 10% and adding an additional 10% Americans that gave up looking for work or are grossly unemployed and everyone would say there is no need for H1B visa holders in America now. H1B visa holders are illegal aliens in my book.

Millions of American citizens would have the opportunity for jobs when the illegal aliens are sent back to their home countries. Employers cut wages and benefits when they replaced citizens with illegals and now can increase those salaries and benefits to attract American citizens.

America's cities, counties, and states are going broke paying for the needs of the illegal aliens in the areas of health care and education. Each million illegal aliens sent back to their home countries would free billions of dollars in our towns, counties, states, and federal government. States known as high tax states would automatically become moderate tax states when illegal aliens are returned to their home countries.

It is unconscionable that legal American citizens compete for social services with the illegal aliens because that is the system today. Many American citizens lose out in benefits because illegal aliens got there first and there are no more available slots. Some clinics say there is no hope for future services to anyone because the resources are tied up with current client for the long term.
Two hospitals out of four in my county were closed in the past 2 years because they could not overcome the low funding of charity care patient mostly illegal aliens. When your American citizen relatives and friends are wait-listed for services because of illegal aliens it is time to make changes.

American citizens paid for my American education and it is fair that I help pay for the American education for the next generation of American citizens. It is unfair for me to be taxed to pay for the annual tuition of the children of illegal aliens.

There is a Spanish only speaking society being built in America. I suspect a dozen Spanish channels on my cable TV system that are a waste of my time. There are tens of thousands of jobs in America are for Spanish only speakers and English only speakers need not apply. There are an estimated 24.5 million people in America that cannot speak English. We know where the morning day labor street is in almost all communities in America. We see the illegal aliens almost everywhere we go. We see the landscaping and construction crews. We see the office and department store cleaning crews. We see the busboys in our restaurants. We see the crews at the fast food restaurants.

And the problem is getting bigger.

Most of our ancestors were immigrants and they learned English quickly and sought citizenship rapidly which is different from the recent Spanish immigrants and their radical organizations that want to build a separate Spanish speaking society in America. They want the benefits of citizenship without learning English and our government since Reagan has supported them.

President Reagan granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and it was promised that that was the last time. Now it appears that President Obama is seeking some form of amnesty for millions of illegal aliens also, which is wrong. More and more Hispanics are being elected into public office with their radical Hispanic agendas. Now we recently have a Hispanic Supreme Court Associate Justice that belongs to radical Hispanic organizations. It is only a matter of time before she spouts some Spanish in public and additionally votes for her first of many radical Hispanic issues. Instead of impressing us as a good American citizen she will flaunt being Spanish instead.

American citizens are sick and tired of losing good jobs to illegal aliens and H1B's and want the jobs back. They are sick and tired of paying the bill of educating millions of children of illegal aliens in America. Americans are sick and tired of paying for the health care of illegal aliens and H1B's. American citizens are sick and tired of the Spanish society being built in America and want English-only measures enacted. American citizens are angry that our officials will not enforce the immigration laws on the books...the laws exist and do not need to be rewritten. American citizens are angry that the Mexican border remains very porous and illegal aliens and drug dealers can cross it for the most part at will.

We know that President Obama is working on a new immigration plan, but everyone knows the status quo and fear the additional issues he will spring on us soon and can only imagine what extra costs will be placed on us the American citizens.

The entire farce has gone on long enough. It is time to fight back. Write to all of your elected officials and tell them the bullshit is over. Ask them whether they support American citizens or the illegal aliens. Ask them whether they want to provide tax relief to American citizens. Ask them whether they want to employ millions of Americans within a short amount of time. Ask them whether they want to diminish American society by supporting the Spanish speaking society.

One Slaver Convicted, Thousands More Out There

2009-07-14T16:01:00.002-04:00

One Slaver Convicted, Thousands More Out There

http://atlanta.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/atl071309.htm

Department of Justice Press Release


For Immediate Release July 13, 2009	United States Attorney's Office Northern District of Georgia Contact: (478) 752-3511
Operator of Employment Agency Sentenced to Federal Prison for Harboring Illegal Aliens Liang Yang Transported Illegal Aliens and Provided Jobs in Chinese Restaurants Throughout the East Coast

ATLANTA, GA—LAING YANG, 37, of Duluth, Georgia was sentenced today by United States District Judge Timothy C. Batten to serve 5 years in federal prison on charges of conspiring to harbor illegal aliens.

Comment

There are tens of thousands of people doing the same thing as Laing Yang but somehow they have not brought much attention to themselves. The FBI and ICE have ignored them and do not deserve their paychecks because they are not enforcing the law. And when a specific individual is arrested others quickly come out of the woodwork to replace him or her.

Read the article as I did in disbelief that the illegal aliens were not sent back to their home countries and the owners of the restaurants were not prosecuted also. Looks like the FBI and ICE did a real sloppy job by not prosecuting the illegal aliens and the restaurant owners.

The current role model of the FBI and ICE is a prison guard from the Hogans Heroes TV show. Seargent Schultz a basically good-hearted man who, when confronted by evidence of the prisoners' covert activities, will simply look the other way, repeating "I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!" (or, more commonly as the series went on, simply "I know nothing – NOTHING!") in order to avoid being blamed for allowing things to have gotten as far as they already had-or get a one-way trip to the Russian Front. If you see an ICE or FBI employee, point and mimic them by saying "I see nothing".

So now we know that small businesses such as Chinese restaurants hire illegal aliens. We see them everyday working on landscape and construction crews. We see the day labor street locations in all of our towns where employers drive by to hire someone for a few days.

We seen major employers outsource cleaning crews and cafeteria workers where illegal aliens are brought in.

A major highway store brought in illegal aliens to clean the stores at night, where it was reported that the illegal aliens were not deported, and found new jobs within a day.

Even legal aliens brought to America as temporary workers under the H1B Visa and about 23 other similar visas are exploited by their employers looking to save money by replacing American citizens on the job in America with higher salaries, benefits, and working conditions. Almost all H1B visa holders contract workers brought to America by third parties.

The H1B program is a farce because it was established to supplement American workers when there were no Americans available to perform the work. With unemployment approaching 10%, and adding about 5% more people that gave up looking for work or are underemployed, there is certainly enough Americans that are now qualified, willing, and able to perform the work of the H1B's.

We have always called the people exploiting aliens as modern day slavers. They are greedy people looking out for themselves. While ultimate employers may pay decently for workers, the slaver unjustifyingly takes more than their fair share. And the vast majority provide low salaries but do not provide benefits at all.

There are adequate immigration laws as well as adequate illegal alien laws. The President should follow the law and investigate, arrest, prosecute, and imprison the violators of the law. He swore an Oath to obey the constitution. Send him emails telling him these are vote killers by doing nothing. Ask him if he wants to be a one term President.

Write your elected officials to stop the farce and prosecute the employers and landlords of illegal aliens. Prosecute government employer that provide sanctuary to illegal aliens. Send all illegal aliens back to their home countries. Send all H1B aliens back to their home countries.

Bernie Madoff Gets 150 Years, 10 More Replace Him

2009-07-12T16:51:00.002-04:00

Bernie Madoff Gets 150 Years, 10 More Replace Him

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31604191/ns/business-us_business/

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin cited Hill’s letter as one of the most stirring examples of an “extraordinarily evil” fraud, one worthy of a staggering sentence for Madoff: 150 years behind bars.

Aside from an accountant accused of cooking Madoff’s books, no one else has been criminally charged. But the family, including his wife, and brokerage firms who recruited investors have come under intense scrutiny by the FBI, regulators and a court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s assets.

COMMENT
Where are the conspirators that helped Madoff to continue his Ponzi scheme for so many years? Someone "investing" billions of dollars had to have a large organization to operate.

There are many organizations that manage money for individuals, pensions, and other institutions. Just about all banks and brokers offer the service. There are hundreds of mutual funds that also offer the service. Hedge funds manage money for clients. There are other institutions that manage money also. They all operate basically the same way if they were honest.

Who were the people in the Research Department that recommended various securities to invest in. If he had a reputation for large gains for his investors who were those that picked the securities? One would think they would be identified and sought after by the media long ago.

Who was the Madoff operating manager? This was the person managing the opening of accounts, transferring money, mailing statements, monitoring trades and clearings, making sure dividends and interest was paid, monitoring organization assets, managing customer service, interface vendors including brokers, bookkeeping, accounting, and portfolio accounting and other things. If Madoff was partying, someone else had to be "in charge" to make the organization run smoothly and the Ponzi scheme to continue.

Madoff operating department managers cannot hide. Each department is usually fed information from others. There is almost always some checks and balance every step in the operations of a business or account. First there is always a budget. Second actual income and expenses have to be tracked. Any variance to budget has to be addressed. Monthly status reports are usually required to discuss accomplishments and problems.

Human resource organizations store a wealth of job descriptions, organizational charts, salaries, performance reviews, personnel disputes and actions, and policy manuals.

To service the customers of so many billions, there must have been 50 or more financial advisers where there should have been almost daily contact with many of the largest account holders. Accounts of pension funds, trust accounts, foundations and other types require quarterly reporting of the holdings which in many cases are sent to boards of directors, lawyers, accountants, advisers, and other groups. With portfolio analysis reports, quarterly statements for large accounts should have been more than 100 pages each quarter. Frequently, many large portfolios are copied at competitor organizations for their analysis. It is stunning that the Madoff investors and their professional advisers did not smell something fishy long ago.

Everyone knew that Madoff had billions to invest, where was he investing? I do not think he brokered his own trades... where did he trade? Certainly, the brokers he traded with identified how much money they made each year from his accounts. They probably provided some portfolio analysis to his accounts. Broker and bank institutions have fraud prevention systems and auditors that should have sent up warning flags. Was Bernie Madoff or any of his companies on any broker or bank fraud prevention reports?

How were the automated accounts managed with the computer systems? Someone had to organize the computer systems. How did everyone obtain their gain each quarter, individually or by some number. Did Bernie write a memo giving all account holders a flat gain each quarter? How was each quarter's gain entered into the system. Who were the people involved? The business professionals and computer systems people need to be investigated in how they operated.

I receive quarterly statements listing holdings from each fund that I own. I review the statements for safety and diversity. I want to make sure that each company will be in business for at least the next several years. I also want to make sure that my holdings are diversified within each fund and in aggregate with all of my holdings. I cannot believe the investors or their professional advisers accepted less.

It appears that Madoff paid commissions to an army of salesmen for them to sign up new investors. Who were these people? What due diligence was done by their organizations to validate the Madoff supplied investments? If they rated the Madoff investment, how was that done. Was there any guarantee to the investors.

It is clear that the Bernie Madoff does not have a leg to stand on. The old saying "if you cannot dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. It seems that the Federal oversight organizations were certainly baffled and continue to be baffled. All they need to do is to bring in an experienced operating manager of an honest organization that invested money for their clients. There are probably many available to assist in the criminal investigation. He or she can point out what was honest and what was not.

Bernie Madoff was one of many Ponzi schemers any he was sent early to jail because he confessed and pleaded guilty. Our fearless leaders in government had many years to audit Madoff but failed to do so. They say that there are no laws to investigate and prosecute people like Madoff quickly enough, so why not improve the laws. They also say that investigators are lax to perform their duties, so something must also be done with that fact.

The Madoff victims included many sophisticated organizations that should have know better than to invest with Bernie. Many smaller investors who were definitely not sophisticated were victimized also. Not only the small investor but the biggest investors need protection in the market. The federal and state governments need to rapidly step up to protect all investors. Nobody knows how many other Ponzi schemes that are operating cheating the public because there are no investigations and prosecutions.

America would have a better economy today if the tens of billions of dollars Bernie stole was at work for legitimate investments.

Congressmen, Grill Corporate CEO's on Employment

2009-06-28T01:55:00.002-04:00

Congressmen, Grill Corporate CEO's on Employment

If you are familiar with the C SPAN channels and others, the Senate and the House engage in hearings to gain information and feedback on issues facing America. Frequently, there are articles of hearings in the paper and digital press within 24 hours or less. They have many hearings on all types of subjects. Many hearings go on at the same time.

Transcripts of the hearings are available to the public except for those regarding national security. Leaders of corporate America frequently give testimony at the hearings. Frequently the same people give testimony before a Senate hearing and within hours gives testimony before a House hearing.

Let the corporate executive leadership know that employment of Americans and legal immigrants are important to economic improvement of America. Ask them what the hiring plan is for their businesses over the next couple of years. Ask them how many people they are outsourcing overseas or bringing back to America jobs that were previously outsourced. Ask them how many alien temporary workers they have especially when American unemployment is predicted to reach 10%. Ask them how many illegal aliens they have working for them in America. Ask them how many jobs they contract for labor and how those workers are vetted to be legal workers in America. Ask them why they have contract labor in America. Ask them how many people they are seeking to hire immediately and how Congress can speed up the hiring process. Ask them how soon the jobs will be returned to American citizens.

Ask them how much they are spending overseas for outsourced labor of jobs that could be accomplished in America. Ask them what types of jobs they are. Ask them what their experience is with a workforce overseas. Ask them what it would take to bring the jobs back to America.

Praise the businesses that are growing the number of jobs for Americans in America. These are the corporations that should be recognized for their patriotism.

Ask the executives why there are difficulties hiring Americans. Ask them what Congress can do to help their corporation hire more Americans.

If Congress has hearings and call on corporate leadership to give testimony why not add a few questions about their corporate hiring plans in America. The American economy will benefit if even a few hundred thousand jobs are returned to American citizens and the hemorrhaging of American jobs overseas and within America is lessened. At least a few hundred thousand is a good start.

America Is Nation Building Again

2009-06-24T12:51:00.002-04:00

America Is Nation Building Again, For the Third Time

We all are familiar with the two wars America is engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are still at least new weekly American casualties in each country. It appears that neither will be solved short term because there are so many large rebellious factions in each country.

Bush Senior was smart enough not to advance on Iraq during the Kuwait War ad he was able to bring the troops home in short order. But Bush Junior was not that smart and we are still militarily engaged there.

The Russians fought many years in Afghanistan and finally left without any victory. In fact America supported the Taliban that fought the Russians there. Everyone knew that the country was a training ground for 9/11 terrorists. But again, our favorite Yale University History Major, George Bush did not learn his lessons well and sent American military there where Obama is escalating the number of American troops.

Bush knocked out, disassembled, or fired the Iraq Army, police, fire department, post office, civilian leadership, and other institutions. Shortly thereafter there was riots and looting. Then the Bush administration realized they had to recreate Iraqi national and regional leadership, a national constitution, train a new military and police force, and other pursuits to rebuild the Iraqi nation. The job is not completed yet.

America will have to rebuild the nation of Afghanistan also.

There is a third episode of nation building that not many people are talking about and that has been going on since Reagan. That is the nation building of the Spanish speaking in America. Already many news outlets are discussing the second society in America.

Cable TV and most retail stores are both English and Spanish. We have more than 10 million illegal aliens in America that our national leaders favor more than legal citizens. Spanish speaking lead all immigrants arriving into America. Spanish speakers have the highest birth rate of any other group in America. Spanish speakers will displace African Americans as the second majority in America within a few years. In a decade or two they will if population growth continues, displace English speakers as the majority population in America. Hispanics are gaining seats in Congress and local offices. A Hispanic is seeking a seat on the Supreme Court. TV commentators stated that it may be possible to have a Spanish President in America within the next couple of years.

For centuries, immigrants sought citizenship and learned English when they arrived in America. The Spanish immigrants are reluctant to learn English. More and more English in America is being converted to Spanish. Now there are Spanish speaking jobs in America that no English only citizen will be hired for. Spanish advertisements are being shown on English speaking TV. Spanish speaking children can spend their entire 12 years of education in Spanish led classes in America. Thousands of teachers were fired and replaced by thousands of ESL or English as a Secondary Language. And the majoriy of ESL teachers are of Spanish heritage that are biased to anything Spanish. But our educational systems are still producing Spanish only students.

More and more Americans are learning about the Spanish speaking people in America than we ever had to before.

We even ignore tens of million of illegal Spanish speaking aliens as to not have confrontations with them.

English was good enough for most of our ancestors that immigrated to America. America was a melting pot with a common language, English. Now, our schools are flooded with Spanish only speakers. Felon employers, landlords, and elected officials granting sanctuary are not even being investigated let alone being prosecuted. And the social costs of the illegal aliens are on the American taxpayers. All documents of government are now in Spanish also.

World leaders speak and world level communications are done in English. International airline pilots must speak English. Most other immigrant groups know some English before coming to America and make efforts to learn more quickly.

Our children will probably see a majority population of Spanish speakers in America. With that goes the vote of government. They may make Spanish the official language of America. They will probably turn everything in America as we now know it Topsy tervy where it is unrecognizable. More than 2 centuries of American English heritage will be discarded and replaced with something all in Spanish, a new nation.

Lets keep American English speaking heritage the same and make English the official language of America. Lets be creative in rapidly teaching Spanish speakers the English language. Lets have English as a common language for all of us. Lets write to our elected officials. And vote them out of office if they support the Spanish speaking nation building in America.

Red, White, & Blue Products & Stores

2009-06-02T16:41:00.002-04:00

Red, White, & Blue Products & Stores

The Bush administration, the Republicans, the other free market advocates came so close to destroying the American and World economies.

They did it by beating up on the American working class. They lowered wages and benefits of American labor. They eliminated or reduced past protections of American labor such as OSHA, EEOC, FDA inspections, and many other things. They greased the tracks to outsource tens of millions of American jobs overseas. They protected tens of millions illegal aliens to work in America by forcing illegal alien law in existence to be ignored. They forced the American middle class to pay billions of dollars for the education and health care of tens of millions illegal aliens and their families, they allowed a million Americans to be fired and replaced by H1B alien "temporary workers", they allowed billions of dollars of dumped merchandise into America, and they just allowed all foreign goods into America while not determining whether or not it was good for America overall.

America should look for American goods and services to help rebuild America. It is difficult to find American goods but at least we should all make an effort. If any of us are buyers of goods and services for business you ahould select American ones first. We should all lobby our President and Congress and our local and state leaders to buy American first.

We should also examine the stores and businesses we make purchases from. How much of there stuff is imported? Almost all of the big highway store merchandise is imported. Ask where something you want to purchase is built or grown. Ask the sales person if there is anything available made in America. Tell the store manager that you are interested primarily in American products. Write to the corporation telling them you want American made merchandise.

Merchandise should have red, white, and blue labels on it to specify that it is 100% American. Stores and other businesses should also have red, white, and blue labels to shouw they are 100% American.

America does not want "American" cars that are ony 80% made in America, they want 100% American. Let your elected officials know that. If we build a high speed railroad, lets get all of the cars, engines, tracks, switches, and other goods from American companies that will produce them in America using American workers.

Your electric, water, and gas company is funded by local funds that all should be spent locally. Many are programmed by aliens. Shouldn't they use local American banks? Some buy foreign vehicles. Shouldn't their engineers be American? Contact your elected officials.

Same thing with the banks, brokers, and insurance companies Americans and our governments use. Shouldn't they use Americans to perform the work instead of aliens?

American consumers and our American government should clearly spend their money where it is good for America.

If you want to find brand new infrastructure and full employment go to China and South Korea where American bad corporations outsourced. Not only did we lose the jobs but the funding for new roads, highways, utilities, schools, airports,and housing.

Lets be real about imports. Fair trade is better for America than free trade. Lets protect American business by preventing dumping. Lets evaluate the impact to existing American business whether or not something should be approved for importation to American. How fair are our trading partners to America...have they allowed our goods into their country without hassle?

We are not going to be able to bring back employment without being selfish maintaining jobs in America and maybe even bringing some of them back to America. We must also support new American businesses. We should seek fair trade with our partners.

Bring Back the Uptick Rule

2009-05-31T17:10:00.003-04:00

Bring Back the Uptick Rule

The sec is seeking comments from the public on the Uptick rule. I wrote the following comments on their website.

Bring Back the Uptick Rule
More and more people in the United States no longer have defined pensions and rely on their small 401k s for extra income in addition to their Social Security checks. The small investor during the past 2 years has taken a financial beating losing as much as half the value of their assets.

For the most part the small investor is not as sophisticated as the professionals and we need a fairness break in bringing back the old uptick rule.

I graduated with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration several decades ago and I am struggling to maintain my asset base and to bring some income into my broker account. Some months compared to the previous month I lost money even though I try to be conservative in my trades. I do not consider myself skilled in investing as a professional trader.

I do not think there is enough disclosure real time in the hedge funds and the sovereign funds, also.

I am also sure gas and oil prices are manipulated by greedy people and that the American government is not doing enough for fairer prices. Gasoline just jumped more than 30 cents in the last month. Last year I was charged $5.09 per gallon for home heating oil.

Half of my money is in money market funds or CD s earning less than 1% because I do not want to risk it. Most of my friends are fearful of their IRA nest eggs and doing the same thing or are even more protective of their savings. There are trillions of dollars on the sidelines not being invested.

We already learned that some business is unethical, fraudulent, and misrepresent the facts with the liar loans and other problems during the Bush administration. Business needs rules and watchdogs, not the elimination of the rules and the lack of investigation and prosecution of those that seek to manipulate the system. We already tried elimination of rules, watchdogs, and prosecution and we found that does not work.

We Do Not Need An Anarchist Sonia Sotomayor On Supreme Court

2009-05-27T22:08:00.003-04:00

We Do Not Need An Anarchist Sonia Sotomayor On Supreme Court

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/anarchy

Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to U.S. Supreme Court, an Hispanic woman. This is how she identifies herself instead of as an American. She is supported by many Hispanic groups that also support illegal aliens in America. She appears to be an anarchist to me. Too many people swear to uphold the constitution and the laws of the United States and they fail to do so. George Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Mayor Bloomberg, and governor Corzine and many other American elected officials swore to the oath of office and disregarded the law. If Sonia Sotomayor is confirmed and swears the oath to become a justice of the Supreme Court, she will lie to her oath of office and be an anarchist too.

A state of society without government or law is a definition of anarchy. We have it for years since Ronald Reagan was president and it continues during the Obama administration with no signs of relief. When Reagan gave amnesty during his administration this was to be the last time that we had to deal with the illegal immigrant problem. Since the Reagan amnesty things got worse.

The law that is broken involves millions of illegal aliens, the employers that illegally hire them, and the landlords that provide them shelter. It also includes Mayors such as Bloomberg in New York City and Governors such as Jon Corzine of New Jersey that provide sanctuary for illegal aliens, which is also illegal. The American southern border does not protect America from illegal aliens and drug runners. There is some motion to capture illegals at the border but it is not accomplished vigorously. The efforts are like emptying the Atlantic ocean with a teaspoon. So is the prosecution of employers of illegal aliens which also moves at a snail pace. Prosecution of landlords that provide shelter to illegal aliens is slower than a snails pace. Prosecution of the sanctuary elected officials does not exist.

New Jersey and California among many other states have vast budget problems that are partially caused by the billions of dollars of local and state expense to pay for the education and health care of illegal alien families. The problem could be remedied by leadership from President Obama to send ICE out to vigorously arrest the employers and landlords of illegal aliens, which would start drying up the employment and housing of the illegal aliens in America, giving the illegal aliens the message clearly to return back to their home countries. The states of New Jersey and California would feel financial relief within a couple of weeks.

I want Americans on the Supreme Court, not people that see themselves as Hispanics first. The Hispanics already forced a dual language and a dual society in America recently adding Spanish to English which was the sole language of America since its founding. Already "ENGLISH" cable, broadcast TV, radio, newspapers, advertising, billboards, and much more have dual language in them. Instead of learning English in school, many young Hispanics have their classes in Spanish. Union County College has pages of varied classes in Spanish in their catalog. From what I understand, they can graduate from high school without learning English. Governor Corzine wants to charge illegal alien high school graduates in state tuition at state universities, instead of out of state tuition which is much higher. New Jersey graduates thousands of illegal aliens each year at a cost much higher than $10,000 per student per year. They should be sent back to their home countries with their parents.

Union County also had 2 hospitals close recently, Union Hospital in Union, New Jersey and Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey due to underfunding of patients without insurance but required hospital services. New Jersey is also paying for the babies of the illegal aliens. An American citizen couple has to be economical and save their money to pay the doctor and hospital for the birth of their child and to fund the child thru the years providing clothes shelter, clothing, and care, adding up to as much as $200,000 in expense per child or more. Many of the illegal alien mothers and their newborns obtain everything for free from the county and state in America where they live which is unfair.

The bleeding hearts put American citizens at risk because they now have to travel four times or more the distance to reach a hospital that is open. Many Americans cannot obtain support at clinics because the illegal aliens have taken them over in many cases. The situation has arose where many American citizens are boxed out of clinical care where they can get fillings for their teeth and have to rely on emergency care where they usually do no fillings but pull the teeth.

Corzine, Bloomberg, Bush, Obama are sending American states to budget hell because the local and state government have to fund the education and health care of tens of millions of illegal aliens. Everyone knows or suspects who the illegal aliens are on our streets in all of our towns and cities. The paranoia of our police not to arrest law violators such as illegal aliens, their employers, and their landlords is abominable.

America does not need a Hispanic crusader and anarchist, Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court.

The bleeding hearts are turning America into a third world country. America does not need a third world judge on the Supreme court.

Personally, this can make Obama a one term President and send Corzine home instead of back to Trenton.

It would be much more acceptable for the American citizen public if immigration was legal and moderate, but it is not. Some people can follow the rules and others think the rules do not apply. Moderate numbers of illegal people starting out in America such as a few thousand or tens of thousands across America would be barely noticeable to help support but tens of millions are outrageous and very stressful and nearly impossible to support.

Geithner: Consumer watchdog under consideration Is A Dumb Idea

2009-05-21T20:14:00.002-04:00

Geithner: Consumer watchdog under consideration Is A Dumb Idea

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_geithner_budget_3

"WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the Obama administration is considering an independent agency that would set and enforce financial services regulations to protect consumers.

Geithner said the administration is studying the structure and how much authority such an agency would have. Geithner's comments Thursday were the most specific acknowledgment yet that such an entity could be part of the Obama administration's broader effort to overhaul financial sector regulations.

Geithner was testifying before a House appropriations subcommittee."

COMMENT
Many organizations did not perform their charters under Bush, such as the SEC, ICE, FDA, and many others. The leadership of these agencies should have been pressed to prosecute violators but they did next to nothing. This was part of the Bush Republicanism of less government and facilitating business fraud and misrepresentation. Obama can be quite effective with various government agencies such as the SEC. FDA, and ICE if he wants to press their leaders and funds them properly.

There is no need to create an independent agency to protect consumers. All one has to do is to remember 4 words "usury", "forfeiture", "jail", and "licensed".

The states and federal government over the years have legislated in favor of the consumer or in the favor of business especially the shady, corrupt, and greedy ones.
Today we have seen the effects of the Bush and Republican "free market" and the lack of supervision of financial institutions by government. Thank you Bush and Republicans for practically destroying the world economy. Bush allowed excessive rates of interest and fees and penalties to be charged by financial institutions. Bush and the Republicans fostered fraud and misrepresentation with the liar loans. Too many criminals made a ton of money while hurting the American consumer and others.

Now is the time to re-establish decent usury laws in America. What is a fair maximum lending rate for a prime home mortgage, second mortgage, new or used car loan, student loan, credit card loan, home improvement loan, and other types of loans? What should be the maximum fees and penalties on each of these consumer loans?

Usury has always been a crime. (I may be mistaken because I am not a lawyer or at least may not phrase it correctly, but you should get the gist of it). If the maximum rate of interest on a first mortgage is 8% and somebody charges more than the rate of interest is usurious and illegal.

Forfeiture is easy to understand when the financial institution forfeits the property (if any) and repayment if they violate the usury or excessive fees or penalties laws and the consumer does not make any more payments and also keeps whatever the original loan was for. Judges in Arkansas have ruled for the consumer and forced the lender to forfeit for many decades when the lender violated Arkansas usury laws.

Jail is where the government should send the hustlers that wrote the liar loans and packaged them up to sell to other institutions in the world. I always thought fraud and misrepresentation were crimes.

Licensed is where a salesperson has to study and pass tests in order to sell loans or be an institutional trader of financial instruments. All institutions have computer systems that track mortgages, other consumer loans, cash, and all...institutions must track loan sales to consumers better as to better vetting the applicant, obtaining credit reports, appraisal of property, surveys of property, fees charges, interest charges, closing costs charged and other attributes of a legal sale. If the individual violates the law, the man or woman loses his or her license and cannot work in the industry anymore. And may also be subject to fines and jail. An institution can lose its license and not be able to sell certain loan types and may be also subject to fines and jail for its executives.

A new Federal Agency to enforce regulation and protect the consumer is not really needed. Any judge should be able to rule for forfeiture when interest is usurious or the fess or penalties charged are more than the law allows.

My 2009 $250 Stimulus Went to Increased Taxes

2009-05-16T10:49:00.002-04:00

My 2009 $250 Stimulus Went to Increased Taxes

I was thrilled to obtain my 2009 stimulus award of $250 if only to help keep my head above water. I do not plan to really increase my spending anytime soon, but to try to whittle down my spending.

The first tax killer was made by the State of New Jersey on highway tolls. Depending how you interpret it, the NJ Turnpike Authority raised tolls on both the NJ Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway as much as 40 to 50% recently. The tolls were never cheap, but now they are excessive. And I believe there are additional substantial toll increases planned for 2012 and 2023.

The second recent tax killer was the federal tax increase on cigarettes that began on April 1, 2009 of about 62 cents per pack making the federal tax a total of $1.0066 per pack. The total tax on a carton of 10 packs of cigarettes in New Jersey is $38.50. The Governor of New Jersey is talking about another 12.5 cents per pack increase.

The third tax increase is the Unites States Postal Service increase in first class stamps from 42 cents to 44 cents that started Monday, May 11, 2009. Even with the price increases, Postmaster General John Potter told Congress in late March that even with the rate hike the post office will run out of money if it doesn't take drastic steps like eliminating Saturday delivery and temporarily reducing payments to a trust fund for retiree health benefits. He said the service faces a $6 billion fiscal year shortfall, in part because of the recession. The Post Office needs a new model to do business and to compete with United Parcel and Federal Express.

The fourth tax increase is an estimated $250 increase this year probably more on the real estate tax on my house including municipal, local schools, and county taxes. None of the three tax entities that form my real estate tax bill have ever in more than 3 decades have ever reduced taxes for the year or even were requesting zero tax increases for the year. They have always had their hand out for more money each and every year.

My 2009 stimulus award of $250 is dedicated to the famous sinkhole of taxes, but especially to new tax increases. I do not think that this was intended for the stimulus package. Congress, the President, Governors, state legislatures, mayors, town councils, and county freeholders should keep taxes flat if they cannot reduce them. It looks like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. How can the economy be stimulated when taxes are rising so quickly and to such high numbers eating away so much money that could be spent on purchasing things instead of being dried up in tax coffers.

The giant sucking sound is stimulus money going to pay newly increased taxes instead of stimulating the economy. All of our representatives are failing us.

I hope I receive another stimulus check next year or I believe I will be under water with my current bills and lifestyle with more tax increases this year and next. And I cannot swim. They also say that inflation is low this year, but it seems very high to me especially with the tax increases.

Americans seize jobs they once pooh-poohed, Foreign Student Workers Stay Home This Summer

2009-05-05T14:06:00.002-04:00

Americans seize jobs they once pooh-poohed, Foreign Student Workers Stay Home This Summer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- This summer, the guy running the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carny might be a laid-off, middle-aged accountant instead of the usual bored college student. And the towel attendant at the pool might be from East Providence instead of eastern Europe.

All over the country, resorts and other summer businesses are getting swamped with applications from out-of-work Americans, many of them professionals. They are competing for jobs usually filled by young people and foreigners -- making beds, serving brunch, mowing lawns, running concession stands and operating carnival games and rides.

COMMENT

Millions of Americans are working at or near minimum wages this year and many others cannot even find jobs at those levels. Some Americans work 2 or more part time minimum wage jobs. Even American college and high school students are seeking these jobs because finding jobs in America are difficult for them at this time.

The article states that thousands of Americans are lining up for temporary seasonal jobs at resorts, restaurants, tourist areas, hotels, and amusement parks. These employers should hire Americans first. Foreign student workers should know that the American economy is not good and they may be overlooked from employment in America during the summer. Foreign student workers should stay home this year because if they must work they may find employment underground where they may be treated unfairly or even abused by employers, and even cheated on their wages. With travel and living expenses, most foreign students coming to America to find work this year will find a lot of expense and little income if any from their labor.

America will welcome foreign college students because the tourist spots have not been doing well and they need the income. This is probably the best time for them to visit America because most prices are competive and the availability is high and the lines should be short.

Excessive Cigarette Taxes Bad For Country

2009-04-29T02:18:00.002-04:00

Excessive Cigarette Taxes Bad For Country

The federal government just increased the federal tax on tobacco and many states have increased their taxes on tobacco also. The lowest price for a carton of Marlboro cigarettes in New Jersey is now more than $70 including New Jersey's 7% sales tax. I have avoided going to New York City for many other reasons but I think the same carton would be very close to $100 there.

Congress this year passed an increase in the federal cigarette tax from 39 cents to just under $1.01 per pack, which took effect April 1, 2009 just a few weeks ago. Many states and some cities are looking to increase their excessive taxes on cigarettes even more. Cigarette prices have doubled and even tripled in price due to tax increases the past few years.

Most smokers are not billionaires like Mayor Bloomberg or millionaires like Governor Corzine who favor even bigger tax increases for cigarettes, but are rank and file Americans struggling to keep their heads above water. Even the rank and file Americans will buy cigarettes and continue to smoke despite the health risks because smoking is very habit forming and other reasons. The high cost of a carton of cigarettes is now a major expense for many people.

Struggling Americans will always prioritize how to pay for cigarettes with all of the other bills they have to pay and make the right decisions for them.

Some Americans will delay major purchases such as a new car, a new home, new furniture or appliances which is obviously bad for the economy right now. Some Americans will seek alternatives at the grocery store such as fewer fresh produce and dairy products and cheaper cuts of meat which is bad for their families especially children. They may be forced economically to just make minimum payment on the credit cards because they do not have anything left over to pay down what they owe which keeps them paying obscene interest charges for much longer than they should. They may be forced to make their clothes and shoes last longer because they cannot afford new ones. They may be forced to stay at home during vacation time because they have no money to go anyplace. Gift giving occasions will be less than the year before. Excessive taxing is cruel on rank and file Americans smokers and their families.

New York and New Jersey smokers can find cheaper smokes in Pennsylvania and even cheaper ones in Delaware. Smuggling is getting more popular as cigarette taxing goes up. It is immoral that Bloomberg and Corzine facilitate smokers to break the law to go out of state or to smugglers to buy cheaper cigarettes.

A more enlightened approach would be massive enrollments in free stop smoking classes. Many smokers need to try stopping several times before it they can stop smoking forever. I am sure stop smoking professionals have many additional ideas.

Many states, the federal government, and New York City are hard up on tax revenue and abuse smokers and their families with excessive cigarette taxes. Corzine, Governor of New Jersey has seen 4 cigarette tax increases since 2002 that now stands at $2.57 per pack and he is seeking an additional 12.5 cents per pack increase at this time. The states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania revenue from cigarette taxes have gone down since the last increases in each state. It is moronic to increase the cigarette taxes again when revenue dropped during the last increases. They think their public relations will be better if they are shown taxing the smokers.

There are better solutions for the states and the cities to balance their budgets than to raise taxes on smokers and their families. New Jersey should force the Abbott districts to pay their fair share of education instead of stealing the majority of state aid for education leaving other towns with next to nothing of the state aid. It is also cruel to make rank and file Americans and legal citizens pay the education and health costs of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigration used to be moderate with a few families, but now there are excessive numbers of illegal aliens in America and we cannot afford them. New Jerseyans are moving out of the state complaining about the high taxes. New Jersey citizens and legal aliens are wait listed at hospitals and clinics for health care because illegal aliens have taken the available appointments.

Redistributing the Abbott district education aid and sending the illegal aliens back to their home countries can save the average homeowner in New Jersey at least $1,000 each year initially and more in the future. And state revenue and spending will easily be better balanced without other draconian taxes such as the cigarette tax. Wake up Jon Corzine and the state legislature.

I cannot afford to pay for illegal aliens, but if I was Bloomberg a billionaire and Corzine a multi-millionaire I would be for sanctuary of my city or state until I realized the harm it caused the majority of my city or state's residents. Corzine is driven all over the state and he knows that each average homeowner pays at least $1,000 in taxes and is also blocked out of state funds for education for another $1,000 that has to be made up with local school taxes. It is time for Corzine and even Bloomberg to be honest.

Don't be hostage to foreign oil interests anymore

2009-04-28T18:05:00.004-04:00

Most of us either waited in our cars during the gasoline crises of the Carter administration or heard about it. We remember the driving around looking for a gas station that was open and operating their gasoline pumps. We remember waiting in long lines for our turn at the pumps. We remember the limits on how much we could buy at any one time when we got to the pumps. During that time I was unable to ever get a fill up on gasoline. And I remember usually obtaining about $5 worth of gas each time I was lucky to find a station pumping gasoline and after I waited in a long line. Frequently, I had to get gasoline from a second station because I could not get enough the first time to make the round trip to work and home.

Carter went on TV and wore a sweater to show he was lowering the heating temperature at the White House and to encourage us to do the same. Many actions were accomplished at that time like mandating more cars with higher miles per gallon. All of the energy progress of the Carter administration was watered down by subsequent presidents including Readan, the two Bush s, and Clinton.

We have had painful $5 gasoline for our cars and $5 fuel oil to heat our homes during the past few years. Yes the oil companies maximized their profits and unjustly rewarded themselves and punished the American consumers and the American economy.

The oil companies always seem to know when to pullback the price of oil after they engorged themselves on tens of billions of profits for themselves. Usually when the oil companies pullback prices the American leaders and public seem to forget to do anything about the excessive prices. But during the Obama administration it appears that American leaders and the public will remember that even when there is a short pullback in prices the oil companies always raise prices to even higher highs

Another leader with great plan is Boone Pickens:

There are several pillars to the Pickens Plan:

* Create millions of new jobs by building out the capacity to generate up to 22 percent of our electricity from wind. And adding to that with additional solar capacity;
* Building a 21st century backbone electrical grid;
* Providing incentives for homeowners and the owners of commercial buildings to upgrade their insulation and other energy saving options; and
* Using America's natural gas to replace imported oil as a transportation fuel.

All Americans should go to the Pickens Plan website http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/ and read all about it. There are even action plans for people to follow.

Current Status of American All Electric Car

2009-04-26T13:08:00.002-04:00

Current Status of American All Electric Car

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/16/technology/grove_battery.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009041709

If you want a good series of reports on the American all electric car, go to your library and read the April 27, 2009 edition of FORTUNE magazine with Warren Buffet on the cover. The link is to the article written by Andy Grove. Other articles in the magazine include "Car Wars: Asia vs the U.S."," Buffet's Electric Car", "Climate Crusader", and "Recharging Detroit".

The articles are eye openers and among the best work ever by FORTUNE magazine.

COMMENT

Andy Grove is correct when he mentions that:

"When gas was topping $4 a gallon last summer, the urgency to find alternative sources of energy to power cars and trucks became clear to most Americans. But with oil prices toppling since, the push for new energy technologies is being shoved aside by the nation's other economic woes. That is a mistake that could cost the United States everything - especially if this recession is followed by a period of fast growth."

And Andy Grove further stated,

"As a start, Energy Secretary Steven Chu should organize an industry council - like the World War II Production Board - and run it as if we were under wartime pressure. He can pull in the National Academy of Engineering and the National Science Foundation and have them recommend the technical approach. He can use the National Labs for R&D.

But the critical limitation is going to be battery production. To get an adequate supply of batteries for U.S. automobiles will require new manufacturing capacity that costs billions. Let us create a government-owned foundry organization that supplies, say, the first few million batteries, until the electric car and battery industries reach a critical size. Then let this organization license the manufacturing technology to private companies and let it go out of business."

America is behind in battery development but must develop the next generation of car batteries in order to have a viable transportation industry. I certainly do not want any of the American electric vehicles announced so far. Most appear like expensive toys that can travel 40 miles on a charge or less with a charging time of approximately 8 hours. The electric only vehicles appear unsafe on the road when competing with tractor trailers, SUV s, pickup trucks, and most gasoline only vehicles. The hybrids combining electric with an additional gasoline motor is ridiculous.

America wants an electric vehicle that can travel 150 or more miles on a single charge and can be fully charged within 2 hours. The car must be able to travel on highways. The car must be safe for the driver and passengers.

President Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu should make it a national priority for America to leapfrog in battery technology. Everyone should motivate Obama and Chu by sending them emails and regular Postal Service letters. Everyone should contact their congressional representatives.

If America fails in taking the lead in battery technology and production, then we will be importing batteries forever and the American car industry will become just a memory.

Go to your library and find the April 27, 2009 edition of FORTUNE magazine with Warren Buffet on the cover. The link is to the article written by Andy Grove. Other articles in the magazine include "Car Wars: Asia vs the U.S."," Buffet's Electric Car", "Climate Crusader", and "Recharging Detroit".

700 Points Were Added To the Dow Last Week

2009-03-16T04:28:00.002-04:00

700 Points Were Added To the Dow Last Week

It was a feel good week last week in the stock market. The Dow added 700 points last week, which was special after recent previous weeks were horrible with the Dow losing much more. While the Dow climbed last week most of us are still climbing out of the holes created with the recent previous losses. And the Dow increased during consecutive days which was also applaudable.

I'm not a stockbroker but some stocks still seem very risky such as the banks and the American auto companies. Many of the banks reduced their dividends to a penny per quarter including General Electric. The President and Congress has not said that they will guarantee interest or dividend payments or pay 100% par on the bonds from those companies either. Some other corporations seem to be in trouble with debt to be paid soon and without enough cash on their balance sheets. The price of oil is lower than it was so some of the oil companies will not earn as much for the time being as they did when the price of oil was at its peak. The rating companies did not do such a good job rating the now so called toxic securities. Personally, I don't think AIG stock or bonds are worth pocket change.

It is a very confusing time to buy securities as an average or below average American investor. One thing for sure very short term FDIC insured bank CD's are better than money market accounts, zeros or regular Treasuries because they pay a little better. Traditionally bank CD's are guaranteed in amounts up to $100,000...but today the maximum is $250,000 until December 31, 2009 when it reverts back to the $100,000 amount. CD's should be bought in monthly or bi-monthly ladders to take advantage of interest rate changes. The secret is to buy them for the short term less than a year because interest rates may go up as the Bush Recession dissipates and things become better in the economy in order to combat inflation. I have almost 10 small CD's all maturing on different days all within the next 6 months.

Trillions of dollars have been lost in stock and bond prices during the past several months and there really looks like there are some real bargains out there. The market is smart and many companies deserve for their securities to be low priced. But there are some corporations that may have been unfairly priced lower. The secret is to find those companies with excellent balance sheets and with continued growth in profits.

I'm slowly buying back into the market with companies that pay high dividends that look like they have no need to cut their dividends. I look to gain not only from increases in the prices of the stocks but also with nice periodic dividends. Maybe I can reinvest the dividends.

Personally, just as the market went down so much so fast, I think it will climb up rapidly, but not as fast as it went down. For many of us that lost 30% or more of the total worth of our investments, we have to be in the market in order to recieve the hopeful gains of the improved future market. Many people enjoyed the 700 point rise in the Dow this week in the increased prices of their stocks and bonds because they were not on the sidelines.

The market is always a roller coaster, but as the economy shows improvement the stock and bond prices of solid companies should rise.

Most of us should make the market our hobby and learn as much as we can about it. We should subscribe to financial newsletters and magazines. We should read books on Investing. We should join investment clubs. We should read the financial newspapers. We should take advantage of training offered by our brokers.

Diversity is critical. As we become older we should invest in highly rated bonds more than highly rated stocks. People in their twenties and early thirties can take more risk because they have longer time horizons before retirement (I do not think that the prices of many great stocks and bonds will go much lower than they are today and will look like real bargains in the future).

For those uncomfortable in the stock and bond markets, FDIC insured bank CD's up to the maximum guaranteed limits offer the best very short term return and guarantee of principal.

For others, do not jump into the market, but spend the time doing homework on a security you are interested in buying to make sure it is for you.

Hopefully the Dow climbs a few hundred points each week as the economy improves. I think it will more often than not in the near future.

Alfalfa Sprouts: More Salmonella

2009-03-09T18:02:00.003-04:00

Alfalfa Sprouts: More Salmonella

SunSprout Salmonella Spreading
Date Published: Monday, March 9th, 2009
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/4987

"The salmonella outbreak linked to recalled SunSprout brand alfalfa sprouts that began in Nebraska and spread into Iowa, has now been reported in South Dakota and Kansas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that SunSprouts brand alfalfa, onion, and gourmet sprouts were recalled and now, the Associated Press (AP) is reporting that the outbreak has spread to two more states."

COMMENTS

Just when you think we paid our dues with the salmonella tainted processed peanuts, another salmonella outbreak occurs.

In the case of sprouts, the sprouts themselves could be contaminated and no amount of washing could eliminate the contamination, they do not know at this time.

I am sure that George Bush and the Republicans cut the number of FDA inspections during his administrations and that President Barry Obama should increase the staffing of that organization to provide America with more safety.

Governors should also provide inspection of the farms in their states and any food processing plants in their states. States lose jobs when there are outbreaks. People get sick and some can die. One would think owners or executives would clean up their acts voluntarily, but it seems they have to be put on notice to do what is right. Georgia should have closed the plant and fined them heavily for being so dirty and contaminated.

We all hear about checks and balances. Maybe the states and the FDA should reinforce each other.

There should be a system of grading to notify consumers about the health and safety inspections of plants, livestock, processing plants, and food storage plants. The public should know how often everything is inspected.

There was nothing printed about when the last health inspection of the Georgia peanut processing plant was accomplished and the grades they received. I hope the plant was inspected at least during the past year. I would be angry if there were no inspections at all at the Georgia peanut plant. And I am mad if they were inspected, how come they were said the so filthy recently with the contamination?

If America has bolstered FDA resources along with state inspections, then America will have a safer food supply.

You Usually Get What You Ask For

2009-02-18T00:27:00.002-05:00

You Usually Get What You Ask For

I cut out the duration of watching the NBC business channel with the Wall Street tickers and commentators from several hours each day to maybe one hour per day. And I stopped watching CNN's Lou Dobbs. All I know is that I feel better about everything. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but I think it may be a little more than that.

One of the commentators on the NBC business channel made an observation that without all of the comments, the air time would be reduced from about 8 hours during the business day to about an hour each day. The channel programming shortly before the opening, during the open day of the New York Stock Exchange, and shortly after the close is about 90% comment and mostly Republican biased comments also.

America will pay a penalty for all of the Republican biased opinion because some of an economic recovery is based on perception that things will get better. The NBC show is overwhelmingly down at the mouth that the recent stimulus plan will do no good. The show is gloom and doom about everything the Obama administration is trying to do. Obama's staff and plans are no good for the economy is spouted hourly.

Larry Kudlow is a forceful speaker and he bellows his complaints about the Democrats. One wonders whether he flies above his desk before he pukes his negative accusations daily about the Democrats. Larry may be a nice man off camera but on camera he is a leading cause of depression in America. And he is not the only one.

Lou Dobbs is a host on CNN where he is very opinionated also. During the elections, I enjoyed his show, but since then lost me. One of the Lou Dobbs causes is to free the 2 Border Agents sentenced to prison I still agree with, but most of his current issues I disagree with. The casinos in Las Vegas should have daily lotteries on how many "what in the world...", sighs, and tsk, tsk , tsk's he does each show. I cannot take that indignation on his show anymore.

If NBC and CNN want to continue to go down the road of wild opinions, yelling and screaming, insults, and similar paths they should hire Vince McMahon chairman of the WWE, the expert. Then it would be real entertainment with wild clothes and makeup. Maybe they would hit each other with chairs. Maybe they would body slam each other.

But I like my news pretty vanilla without most prejudice and occasionally I like the WWE with all of its expected fanfare. I do not want my news to continue with WWE type fanfare and bravado.

NBC and CNN should lend some support for Obama and his cabinet. The should look for the good news rather than the scandals. At least give him a break during his first 100 days in office or even a year or two in office, before crucifying him and his programs. Most people cannot take a steady diet of bad mouthing and saying there is no hope because the stimulus package will not work.

Economics is mental. If people think the economy is good they will spend, loan, invest, hire and everything else positive and it does become self fulfilling prophesy, but if everyone is told the opposite, it will take much longer for the economy to become better and that becomes the prophesy fulfilled.

Mexico Should Handle Their Own Social Problems

2009-02-13T15:46:00.002-05:00

Mexico Should Handle Their Own Social Problems
or Legal Americans Should Come First In America

Mexico's leading way to handle its social problems is to send their poor people to the United States as illegal aliens. Their leading second way to handle its social problems is to magnify its illegal drug business in Mexico and to export most of it to the United States. It is time for Mexico to stand up for itself and take care of their own people.

I never have been to Mexico, but I have seen charity advertisements for children in Mexico City that have no food, clothes, schools, or medical care living in huts with dirt floors. There is not even sanitary sewer facilities in most of the country even where American businesses have established factories in Mexico.

Mexican leaders must all be Republicans because they have no empathy for their Mexican poor. Even the Catholic church does not seem to do much for the poor. Why they do not guarantee high school educations for all of their children is beyond me. Why they do not have some form of food stamps so their hungry can eat is ridiculous. Why there is no health safety net for the Mexican people is beyond me. From what I have heard, most Mexican children are not immunized like American children from childhood diseases and other diseases that are pretty much stamped out in America. Minimal social safety net programs seem to be dreaded by the Mexican government because like our Republican leaders in America do not want to spread socialism in their respective countries.

However the American Republicans favor illegal Mexicans and other Central and South American illegals entering America for the cheap labor and for an entire class of people to otherwise exploit. And then the American Republicans exploit the middle class Americans because they are replaced on the job by the illegals, and not only that pay for the education, medical, other social programs, including sometimes jail for the illegals and their spouses and children.

Why should I have to pay for the education, medical, social welfare, and sometimes jail for illegal aliens with the taxes I pay to my town, county, state, and federal government when the illegals are illegal by definition. New Jersey could save more than a billion dollars each year in education, medical and other charity care, and jail expenses if the illegal aliens in the state were sent back to their home countries.

Because identification of illegals are forbidden, legal Americans must take their turn for social services and sometime are put on waiting lists because the illegal aliens have taken up all of the available positions in the programs. Frequently, instead of medical and dental problems solved within reasonable amount of time, Americans are wait listed and then handled on emergency basis involving unnecessary complications and pain.

The federal government would save hundreds of billions of dollars each year by sending the illegal aliens home. They say Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are all going broke why is America enrolling illegal aliens in those programs is beyond me.

The American middle class is raped by taxes to pay for illegal aliens social programs.

The country of Mexico has had generations to step up to the plate and move into the 20Th and 21st centuries to educate their children through the 12Th grade, to provide food, clothing, and shelter for their poor, to provide health care for all of their people, and to provide sanitary water and sewers.

Maybe American Republicans should all move to Mexico where they will not have to tolerate even minimum "socialism" there. It is better for American Republicans to go to Mexico where there already is social cesspool breeding for them to enjoy than to remain in America and turn America into a social cesspool.

Madoff's wife withdrew $15 mln prior to his arrest

2009-02-11T12:18:00.002-05:00

Madoff's wife withdrew $15 mln prior to his arrest

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20090211&id=9600705

Read the article.

Why is Madoff and his wife not in jail right now? It is unbelievable. Why hasn't all of their assets been confiscated?

Negotiate? Negotiate nothing. He cannot make full restitution. There is no bargaining power. Everyone knows the penthouse will be sold to partially pay his debt. It also smells fishy that all of their relatives employed in the company had no idea or did not participate in the fraud and theft.

President Obama, you have to get tough with the crooks or else others will think they will get away with things.

Do you agree that Madoff and his wife should be in jail right now and have all assets confiscated? Write or email to your congressman or congresswoman and President Obama.

Check Your Drug Profile At Your Pharmacies

2009-02-08T16:07:00.002-05:00

Check Your Drug Profile At Your Pharmacies

We should all check our profiles at our pharmacies probably every three months for the health and safety of ourselves and our families.

Pharmacies are advertising that they can check for allergic reactions and drug interactions when they have a complete picture of the drugs you or other family members are taking. Even when you need to take a drug of the shelf that does not need a prescription you should take it to the pharmacist to check for interactions or to find out what the pharmacist recommends for you or your spouse or each child you may have. The pharmacist needs to have a complete profile of all of the drugs you or family member are taking including the non-prescription ones.

It is always best to go to one pharmacy with all of our prescriptions where the pharmacist and the computer has a complete record. Too many people fill prescriptions at multiple pharmacies where the pharmacist and computer do not have our complete record. Sometimes patients also use mail order pharmacies. I do not think it is even safe to go to different branches of a drug chain where I doubt the pharmacist or his/her view of you on the computer has your complete record.

Even if you think your profile is perfect, it may not be. Computers crash and recoveries may be imperfect. Systems are designed and developed by humans who are capable of errors. Important data may be lost and they may not know it at the pharmacy. They may convert from one system to another and ignore some of the critical data. I have a serious drug allergy and a major drug chain lost the information which I am glad I checked with them.

Some medicines do not go well with each other. Some people are allergic to some ingredients of some medicines. We also have to pay attention to the stickers on the medicine bottles that sometimes tell us to take with water, or to take on empty stomach, or to avoid sunlight, or avoid dairy products, or to avoid grapefruit, or avoid other things.

Your doctor(s) are your first layer of good drug health because they prescribe the drugs you take. Frequently patients go to more than one doctor that prescribe for them. Patients must keep a complete list of drugs they are taking to show to each doctor and every pharmacy that they purchase drugs from. Sometimes it is best for a patient to put all drugs they are taking in a bag or box to bring with them on each doctor visit or pharmacy visit.

Pharmacies should allow people to give them names of the drugs and prescribing information they are taking but did not fill the prescription at their store to enter into their computer for better checking of allergies and interactions.

Right now you or a family member may be in jeopardy if something goes wrong and you did not communicate with your doctors and or did not maintain a complete record of your prescriptions and non-prescription drugs at one pharmacy. Only you can prevent an emergency room visit, serious injury, or even death by having better communications with your doctors and having a complete record at your pharmacy.

AP Investigation: Banks sought foreign workers

2009-02-02T00:25:00.002-05:00

AP Investigation: Banks sought foreign workers

AP Investigation: Bailed-out banks sought to hire 21,800 foreign workers in past 6 years

* Frank Bass and Rita Beamish, Associated Press Writers
* Sunday February 1, 2009, 10:47 pm EST

"SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications."

"The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions. Such visas are most often associated with high-tech workers."

"During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. The number of foreign workers included among those laid off is unknown.

"Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.

Companies are required to pay foreign workers a prevailing wage based on the job's description. But they can use the lower end of government wage scales even for highly skilled workers; hire younger foreigners with lower salary demands; and hire foreigners with higher levels of education or advanced degrees for jobs for which similarly educated American workers would be considered overqualified."

COMMENTS
Help us Joe Biden and Barack Obama!

Read the linked article which may be an eye opener to you.

Everyone wonders why the American economy is going to hell and it is because the jobs Americans were once proud of have and are disappearing everyday. The American middle class who was also the leading block of consumers in America has been tortured by the Republicans during the eight Bush years and the economists are confused why the American consumer is having trouble spending any money or has trouble paying the mortgage or credit card bill.

If American business takes away the jobs from Americans and gives it to aliens then fewer Americans will have disposable income or be able to pay their mortgages or credit cards.

It is not only the H1B problem. but the immigration problem where a million or more illegal aliens undercut and replace Americans in low skill jobs in America. It is also the insane overseas outsourcing of American jobs, also.

America bails out the banks, Fannie Mae, and insurance companies and they continue to hire temporary alien workers (for up to six years) instead of Americans while they have laid off more than 100,000 Americans in the recent months. That is even more arrogant than paying out billions in huge bonuses, extravagant parties, corporate jets, and million dollar office redecoration.

The vice president Joe Biden is heading a task force on the middle class will fail if it does not address the H1B and 20 other similar visa categories problem, the illegal immigration problem, and the way too casual overseas outsourcing of American jobs. Even if the Joe Biden Middle Class task force is successful to build several million new jobs in America, it would take less than a year for unbridled industry to usurp the jobs either outsource overseas, import alien temporary workers to work in America, and even allocate the unskilled or semi-skilled jobs to the illegal aliens. It is happening today and there is nothing to stop it from continuing unless Joe Biden and the task force do something about it.

By the way, not many reporters have mentioned it, but the general level of salaries in the H1B competitive arena in America have been diminishing for the past eight years during the Bush administration even though inflation has eaten heavily into the purchasing power of those jobs when Americans are lucky to be offered one. Evidence says that salary and benefit rates are diminished for Americans where illegal aliens are located in America. Locations where plants have been relocated overseas have been depressed across America and local governments have difficulty paying higher priced teachers, police, and firemen when the tax base is paid minimum wage.

Republican policies have created the recession by beating up on the jobs, wages, and benefits of the middle class. Now we have to pay for it with heavy job layoffs, a failing banking system that will not lend, depreciation of our homes, the inability to sell our home, a stock market where the middle class has lost trillions of dollars in retirement assets, and the prospect to be forced to work late into our retirement jobs. And that does not include high inflation of our food, heating, transportation, bank fees, utility charges, and just about all other things that are necessities that we must purchase. And we have to bail out the banks and insurance companies. And we have to prime the pump spending billions of dollars to create new jobs.

Joe Biden send the H1B and other alien tempoary worker visa holders back to their home countries. Send the illegal aliens back home across the Mexican border. Stop the insane overseas outsourcing of American jobs also. Solve these problems and you have gained employment for more than a million Americans and reduced the opportunity for the jobs to revert back to the aliens. Just think about the trillion dollars of income these workers could earn and the local, state, and federal taxes they could pay. All of the other task force efforts would be gravy.

Indian National Attempted Sabotage of Fannie Mae Computers

2009-01-29T16:59:00.003-05:00

Indian National Attempted Sabotage of Fannie Mae Computers

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=cybercrime_and_hacking&articleId=9127040&taxonomyId=82&intsrc=kc_top

"January 29, 2009 (Computerworld) A former Unix engineer for the Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, has been accused of planting malicious code on the corporation's network that was to "destroy and alter" all of the data on the company's servers this Saturday, court documents show.

Rajendrasinh Babubhai Makwana, 35, was indicted Tuesday by a federal court on a single charge of computer intrusion, according to documents released yesterday.

Makwana, an employee at Omnitech Systems Inc., was let go from his contract position at Fannie Mae's Urbana, Md., data center on Oct. 24, 2008, after he had "erroneously created a computer script that changed the settings on the Unix servers without the proper authority of his supervisor," read a complaint sworn by FBI Special Agent Jessica Nye earlier this month. Makwana had created that settings-changing script on Oct. 10 or Oct. 11, as much as two weeks before he was fired, Nye said."

"An Indian national, Makwana was released on $100,000 bond. He also surrendered his passport and was barred from using computers or the Internet except for use in any job he holds as well as to communicate with his family in India.

Makwana faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted.

Fannie Mae opened the 130,000-sq.-ft. Urbana data center, which is just outside Frederick, Md., in August 2005, and at the time touted its energy-savings construction and operation."

COMMENTS
First, I almost puked that an alien was working for a government entity such as Fannie Mae when temporary alien workers are only permitted to work in America when there are no qualified available Americans to do the work. There are thousands of Americans out of work now and quite a few are Network Engineers that should have been working in that spot.

Secondly, Omnitech Systems, Inc appears to sponsor the aliens in this case from India to enter and work in the United States, and then they contract with major corporations such as Fannie Mae, and then the H1B works as an employee of Omnitech systems, Inc at the American work site in this case, at Fannie Mae's Urbana, Md., data center.

Everyone notice that Fannie Mae did not sponsor this individual just like most major American corporations that hire H1B's, they contract companies like Omnitech Systems just for the usually cheaper labor. If Congress wanted to cut down on the hiring of H1B aliens in America, just enable laws that say they must sponsor them instead of hiring them through second parties like Omnitech Systems, Inc. There is a lot of legal requirements that must be met to provide a H1B visa such as comparable pay, and the fact that there are no Americans available to do the job, and other issues where big American companies do not want to get involved, but feel it is ok to allow a second party to do everything at arm's length from themselves. There are also heavy fines to abuse the H1B visa program. I am not sure but I think the sponsor is also liable to send the alien back to their home countries. And we all know that most major American organizations frown on travel expenses.

Fourth, this guy or girl was just indicted and paid $100,000 bail and is still allowed to use a computer at work. If he developed and installed the malware to bring down Fannie Mae for a week or more, then that is not a good idea. I would not have him near a computer and I would have his laptop taken from him. I do not think the individual is a happy camper and he or she could sabotage others while in America. If I was the employer, I would hand the individual a broom and enable the individual access where there were no computers..

Fifth, Fannie Mae gave this individual way too much access authority and it seem that they were not on top of their security access privileges. If it was necessary to give this individual God's authority to do everything they were wrong to place an alien in that position instead of an American. The senior security person at Fannie Mae probably should be fired whether an American or alien.

Sixth, Barack Obama, if you want to hire one million Americans right away, then send the H1B visa holders in America back home and enable Americans to obtain the jobs replacing the current H1B visa holders. Each year Congress has enabled hundreds of thousands of H1B visas and the visa holders are allowed to remain in America 6 years and sometimes longer.

Ok, if you want business as usual then bring more H1B's into America, more Americans will be without jobs and have very little money and can only buy necessities if that, and the American economy will continue to go into the dumpster.

Like the H1B, there are about 22 other visas that bring in temporary alien workers to work in America. One brings in Australian workers. Lets send the alien temporary workers back to their home countries.

Obama, Kick Ass or Fail

2009-01-24T11:16:00.003-05:00

Obama, Kick Ass or Fail

America had a wonderful inauguration of Barack Obama. America has high hopes on President Obama to solve the many problems left by his predecessor George Bush.

Many problems were due to the republican policy of almost no regulation, investigation, or oversight within the banking, brokerage, and insurance worlds.
Many problems were caused by just plain criminal activity.

Today the leading policy to date is to throw money eventually several trillion dollars at the problems. I am pretty sure the agencies are investigating to re-regulate and to adequately staff themselves.

But the major factor to set America correctly is to quickly punish the criminals and little seems to be accomplished on that right now. If America does not catch and prosecute the criminals right away, many will get away with it and others will just play out their hands in court over many years. Greed with little punishment will bring out the criminals to loot the government's investment in America's future. Fast punishment will give many second thoughts to break the law.

Why is Bernard Madoff not in jail and all of his assets confiscated? If he was on bail he should be so broke that he would either be living in a public shelter or if he could find a friend maybe he could sleep on someone's couch. Barry, the confiscate property in drug cases and IRS cases, why not confiscate Madoff's assets? Why not get him a quick trial to live the rest of his life in jail. On the TV news someone was screaming capital punishment in the background which means sentence him to death. LARRY KUDLOW, of CNBC TV says that Madoff should be sent to Gitmo and water boarded.

Madoff had a 3 person outside audit firm that should be punished. Even if they performed a few sample audits they should have found alarming things.

Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is another that should be investigated and prosecuted. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/22/2009-01-22_former_merrill_lynch_ceo_john_thain_resi.html . When his company is in jeopardy, why would any sane person spend more than 1 million dollars on redecorating his office? Why would he dish out billion of dollars of bonuses when his company was sinking. Why was he not telling the truth that Merrill Lynch was in deep trouble but told everyone that it was in good shape.

Did not AIG circumvent insurance law by claiming some of it pollicies were not insurance and fell into trouble by not having enough assets to pay off in case of claims? AIG is so fishy. Is it true that all of AIG's bailout money was paid overseas?

Obama, you have to go after the crooks with vigor to show people you mean business. If you do not then it is business as usual for the crooks only they have trillions of dollars of bailout money to additionally go after.......

Where Are The White Hairs, Gray Hairs, and No Hairs ?

2009-01-22T00:59:00.004-05:00

Where Are The White Hairs, Gray Hairs, and No Hairs ?

You cannot solve the unemployment crises without addressing age discrimination. It is so obvious, but almost no-one is talking about it. Most American businesses like to broadcast images that they are good neighbors, but it is a lie that they support their older employees.

Travel during rush hours and look around to find any gray hairs, white hairs, or balding people, in other words older Americans over 40 years of age. Try try estimate their ages as between 40 to 50 years of age, 50 to 60 years of age, and over 60 years of age. You will probably come to the conclusion that most commuters are under 40 years of age.

When you are at a workplace, look for older Americans and try to guess age ranges for most of them.

Ask yourself where are those workers over 40 years of age. Ask yourself where are the workers over 50 years old. Ask yourself where are the workers over 60 years of age.

Everyone knows that the jobs 20 years ago were staffed by those aged 40 and over today and those in the jobs today were all students then.

Beware of the bottom fisher employers with low pay and a major lack of benefits; they'll hire anyone they can exploit. These jobs destroy local communities and states because taxes from the employers and employees cannot support higher wage teacher, nurse, medical technology, police, and fire protection salaries and benefits. And they drain medicare, medicaid, and charity medical care.

With the new President, there is an opportunity to discect the problem. There are two problems which are that employers have higher healthcare expenses with older workers than younger workers and secondly employees need assistance to retrain because employers will not.

As one gets older, employers paid employee healthcare expense increases where many employers seek to lower their expenses and they weed out older employees. Healthcare expense for everyone should not discriminate older Americans.

Most employers do not pay to retrain or recertify their workers and they fire those with obsolete skills and hire ones prepared with the new skills and certification. Today training and education expense is so high in America that employees have the dilemma to support their families or to continue to pay for their own training and education. It is not enough to support education and training for kids right out of high school, but to also support individuals that have finished their early education and worked for a few years and need additional training or education to continue working. Training and education tuition expense for experienced workers should be less than half the amount it is today. Employees also need to pay daily living expenses while retraining or obtaining additional education. There are only so many hours in the day and it is almost impossibly to work full time and also attend class and study.

America must start caring for their older American workers. It is unfair to make millions of Americans forfeit their senior working years where they should be able to finish paying off the debt for their homes and children's educations, and save meaningfully for their retirements.

America cannot afford to discriminate about its labor force especially by age.

Satyam Computer Services Ltd Is A Stinking Pile of Dung

2009-01-09T18:30:00.002-05:00

Satyam Computer Services Ltd Is A Stinking Pile of Dung

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ3Az1Gk7TXI&refer=home

"Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Satyam Computer Services Ltd. chairman Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama were arrested and the remaining directors of the software exporter sacked, as India started investigating an alleged $1 billion fraud.

The brothers were detained on charges including forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy, Inspector General V.S.K. Kaumudi told reporters in the southern city of Hyderabad.

Officials have seized documents and the nation’s accounting body is examining auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC’s local unit, Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta said."

It appears that it was easy for Satyam chairman and his brother to be detained on charges including forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. How many other Indian outsourcing companies are also guilty of charges including forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy? When there is one, there are usually many more.

It remains to be seen whether or not Satyam has enough cash on hand to pay its bills especially payroll because nobody wants to work for free. The Indian aliens working in America do not want to be stuck in America without relocation expenses back to their home countries paid for by Satyam. It also remains to be seen how many of the 631 customers will remain with Satyam. It does not take a genius to see that when a customer leaves, then the jobs associated with that client are elliminated also.

Satyam employees should protect themselves and find work elsewhere. There are many more honest companies than dishonest ones like Satyam.

Satyam customers should have already made their risk assessments and should be implementing their plan to minimize risks with Satyam. American companies do not want to be part of the fallout from the illegal practices of Satyam.

Customers have a lot to worry about. As Sayam employees leave then project due dates get pushed forward in time and quality is lost. Some Satyam employees may sabotage work and physical assets to show their dissatisfaction. If Satyam goes bankrupt then all client assets may be lost.

Satyam direct competitors in India are already probably eating Satyam's lunch stealing customers and employees. Many American customers can probably use the chaos to replace the Satyam employees they hired in America or India with Americans to work in America.

Satyam Defrauded Investors and 631 Customers

2009-01-07T17:47:00.004-05:00

Satyam Defrauded Investors and 631 Customers

http://www.informationweek.com/news/services/outsourcing/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212701119

"Satyam customers need to move swiftly in evaluating how the Indian outsourcer's newly revealed financial fraud will impact their own IT operations, say analysts.

In a bombshell disclosure, Satyam founder and chairman B. Ramalinga Ramu quit Wednesday, admitting in a five-page resignation letter that the company had been meticulously inflating its financial figures for years."

The article says that 631 firms were Satyam customers.

Now 631 firms mostly American can bring those outsourced jobs back home to America.

No organization wants to be associated with frauds. It puts 631 clients at risk. Will Satyan go bankcrupt? What happens if Satyam does not pay its bills to its employees and others. How much risk if clients had mission critical projects at Satyam? Employees do not want to jeopardise their futures at criminal employers so there will be an exodus of the best Satyam employees, if not most of them. The clients should judge how much of their investment at Satyam is already lost in human skills an experience, software already missing, documentation lost, data lost, and hardware misplaced or stolen.

Local, county, state, and federal representatives should visit the 631 customers of Satyam and present the hire American position to them. I am sure many of the 631 customers would be willing to listen.

631 Satyam customers reaching out to other outsourcers in India will pay very high prices because they have no advantage in bargaining. And if Satyam was a bad apple in that barrel in India, how many other bad apples are there too.

Satyam H1B visa holders in America should be returned back to their home countries. Their employer is in serious jeopardy and if Satyam goes bankcrupt who will be stuck with past wages and their airfare back to India?

Executives at American big business, you tried to save expenses by outsourcing overseas and lost, now do the right thing and re-establish those jobs in America with American workers. American customers of Satyam have egg on their faces and are embarrasses and the best way to elliminate the egg and embarrasment is to hire American. To do business with Satyam was a bad mistake for executives because the company turned out to be a fraud.

I am sure American executives already with economic headaches do not need the additional headaches and risks of Satyam fraud.

Satyam customers bring those jobs back to America for Americans.

We Would Never Have These Benefits Without Unions

2008-12-05T13:52:00.000-05:00

We Would Never Have These Benefits Without Unions

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-10_benefits_your_employer_will_cut_next_year-594

The article comes from YAHOO titled "10 Benefits Your Employer Will Cut Next Year".

The article says that
1. Layoffs
2. Hiring freezes
3. Higher health costs
4. Travel restrictions
5. Training cuts
6. Canceled parties
7. Salary freezes
8. Reduced merit increases
9. Pension freezes
10. Cut 401k matches
are ten benefits that employers will cut in 2009.

The article blames the current recession in America and for the most part describes private enterprise not government jobs, even though many state governments are struggling to balance their budgets. It does not mention that police, firemen, teachers, other government workers, and health workers will continue to do well. Prime examples of those very fortunate are Congress, the Executive Office, and Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

The five pronged attack on the middle class by the President and Congress were the real reasons for the current recession.

The middle class or the vast majority of workers in America and the primary machine that drove the American economy suffered from income and benefit deflation during the Bush administration by first, allowing tens of millions of jobs to be outsourced overseas, second, allowed tens of millions illegal aliens to work in America, and third, facilitating millions of H1B and other alien temporary visas allowing legal aliens to replace Americans at work right here in America. Now, the middle class is too weak financially to bail out the economy.

Fourth laws that were created decades ago to protect the economy and credit markets were deleted by the Bush administration. One would think a Yale history major such as Bush would not want to repeat past mistakes, but he eliminated many laws and rules and threw the economy and credit markets into chaos. The Press should interview Yale history professors for comments on their infamous pupil.

Fifth, the Bush administration continued to break and weaken remaining unions across America. He made it harder for workers to organize into unions. His courts ruled against the unions in most cases.

If we are lucky we can talk to out older relatives that worked during the 1950's or earlier. They remember six day 54 hour standard per week workweeks. They remember the lack of dental and eyeglass benefits. They remember one or two week maximum paid vacation times. They remember no prescription plans. They remember no pensions or 401k's. They remember no minimum wage or most jobs were not included in minimum wage. They remember no state rules for breaks or lunch. They remember no safety rules at the job for workers.

Even professionals at an employer rooted for unions because if the unions gained something then they would gain it too, whether it was cost of living salary increases, an extra week of vacation, a dental plan, or eyeglass plan, for example.

The big mouths on the financial cable channels usually bad mouth unions. They blame the unions for the auto crises because 3 active workers are driving salary and benefits of not only themselves but 2 additional auto worker retirees. My point is that we have been taught for centuries in America to put something away for rainy days. The auto companies knew they would have to pay out a lot of money for pensions and pensioner benefits so why did they not salt the money away each year as they accrued the liability? If the auto companies saved up for the pension liabilities for the past 50 years, each year, they would be in much better shape today.

They also talk about high wages, but we all know the big mouths are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars or even million dollar salaries so why are they so envious?

To live a middle class life it takes a lot of money. Think about it. How many of us have two jobs and how many others also have our spouses bringing home their earnings, also? Professional couples usually do well, but most others do not do well at all. Minimum wage earners live below the poverty line. Bush refused to increase minimum wage for almost 7 years since its last increase and it is still way below the purchasing power of minimum wage of the 1960's. Until this year Bush refused to extend unemployment benefits. More than 47 million Americans do not have health insurance and tens of millions do not have enough to eat.

The big mouths on financial cable programs live in million dollar homes and drive upscale cars but they do not recognize the vast majority of Americans. It seems like they will not be happy unless there is more poverty in America. And it seems they are less than generous for those less fortunate than themselves. I will not watch them anymore and will write to their employers and advertisers advising them to fire the venomous faces and bring in more moderate people.

America faces a major recession caused by the Republicans. Watching the recent Congressional hearings and listening to many of the hard line Republicans is too much. Republican thinking put America into recession and hard line Republicans will keep America in recession if not bring us right into a depression. One would think that Republicans would have lost all of their credibility, but they are still spewing their vomit. I guess they all must be Yale history majors who are doomed and dooming all of us to additional failing policies from Washington.

U.S. Transit Agencies Ask Congress For Help in Averting Service Cuts

2008-11-21T15:59:00.001-05:00

U.S. Transit Agencies Ask Congress For Help in Averting Service Cuts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111803174.html?hpid=topnews

"Leaders of 11 transit agencies appealed to Congress yesterday for help in averting service cuts for millions of subway and bus riders across the country because of a financial emergency triggered by the global credit crisis.

Transit officials from New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago were among those who gathered in Washington yesterday to lobby lawmakers and their staff. They warned that 31 of the country's largest transit systems, through no fault of their own, could face $2 billion in immediate payments in the coming weeks as hundreds of long-term financing deals with banks and other private investors collapse.

The deals are souring because they hinged on the credit rating of insurance titan American International Group and other insurers, which guaranteed the agreements. AIG's recent troubles put the deals into technical default, allowing banks and other investors to demand early termination fees and immediate payment from the transit agencies."

COMMENT
I am no attorney but the whole thing just seems fishy to me.

It looks like the transit agencies are looking for bailout costing American taxpayers 2 billions of dollars which should not happen.

First, AIG entered into illegal guarantees. They are an insurance company and the article used the word insurance, but it was not really insurance. If it was insurance there would be government oversight. AIG entered into guarantee contracts exceeding its capitalization with no regard whether or not there were any defaults. They hid the agreements from insurance regulators by not declaring the guarantees as insurance. It is suggested that these agreements be declared illegal and null and void and criminal. Those at AIG that formed these agreements should be declared felons and prosecuted.

"The transit deals in question were made from the late 1980s to 2003. Once common, they were outlawed by the Internal Revenue Service several years ago."

Second, it does not matter that AIG's credit rating declined. AIG was never able to pay the tens of billions of dollars they guaranteed not only to the transit agencies agreements but to many others. The transit agencies were making payments, so there was no default.

Third, it is in the public interest that the transit agencies not be subject to actions not due to their fault. AIG led the fraud and misrepresentation.

Fourth, it is in the public interest that the transit agencies not be hindered by actions not in there control especially while the banks are being paid on time.

Lets name a few people as felons and penalize them. AIG certainly does not deserve any fees that they were paid for the transit agency guarantees. AIG should also be penalized. Some executives also need fines and at least long probation times. And the public does not deserve to pay anyone in this case.

U.S. Transit Agencies Ask Congress For Help in Averting Service Cuts

2008-11-21T15:59:00.000-05:00

Bumbling Dumbasses In Congress Bullying Car Execs

2008-11-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

Bumbling Dumb Asses In Congress Bullying Car Execs

It was a sad comedy to watch most of the proceedings of the Senate and House Committees grilling the car execs from Detroit recently.

Sure the execs in Detroit blew it during the last 25 years and there is no excuse for them. Since Jimmy Carter's presidency they did not heed. They had history repeat itself and they got severely burned. They also had the market with electric cars in California and America could have had at least one million electric powered cars on the road already, probably even five or ten times that number, but they killed it. Detroit also never funded their pension and health plan obligations each year to have the funds ready and available in the future when their workers retired. To fund pensions that were earned over many decades of employee hard work out of current earnings was asinine. Detroit car executives met the dumb, dumber, and dumbest qualifications.

Congress needs to wake up and realize it does not mean much to beat up on the Detroit car companies because they are dead already and do not know it yet.

Congress, especially the Republicans caused the recent problems for the Detroit car companies. First, the republican economic view of the world caused the vast economic problems today in the financial markets today. Most people need financing if they are to buy or lease a vehicle and the credit score required to obtain a loan is forbidding to most people, so Detroit cannot sell cars to most prospective customers because they do not qualify for loans in today's market.

The Republicans caused the oil market prices to be exceedingly high, causing hardship for hundreds of millions of Americans struggling to pay for gasoline, diesel, and home heating oil. The Republicans were in charge all this time. Many people decided that the high gasoline prices failed to justify buying or even keeping the gas guzzler SUV's that Detroit emphasized in building.

The Republicans failed to have a good energy plan for America. The Today Show indicated this week that Iceland has already eliminated coal and replaced it with geothermal for providing electric and hot water and heat for their homes. And Iceland has committed to the electric car to eliminate importation of fossil fuels. Brazil is already free of foreign oil. Israel will be free of foreign oil in a couple of years. America has no viable plan and looks backward in the world.

The Republican made the executives of the Detroit car makers go begging in Washington when everything could have been more functional if Congress and the President had a viable energy plan. Detroit would have to be integrated in America's energy plan if Congress ever stepped up to it. Maybe our grandchildren will see Congress and the President have a viable energy plan. With all of the arguments and hostilities I am not sure anything can be done that will really be successful.

Congress and the President have to settle on electric cars, natural gas fueled cars, ethanol powered cars, and hydrogen powered cars. Congress has to put its money where its mouth is and commit to creating the infrastructure across America for the new fuels. The Boone's plan for trucks to be powered by natural gas was excellent when oil was highly priced but would really be feasible if natural gas could be assured at low prices for many decades. That would be good to convert hundred's of thousands of fuel oil heated homes in America to natural gas which is plentiful in America.

The real dumb asses are the President and Congress because they never stepped up to a viable national energy plan. They allowed America to be held hostage to foreign fuel imports and the near collapse of the American economy. By not having a clear national energy plan from the President and Congress, the Detroit car execs basically continued what they were doing, building gas guzzlers.

Pope's concerned about high food prices

2008-11-10T18:09:00.000-05:00

Pope's concerned about high food prices

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/09/europe/EU-Vatican-Food-Prices.php

"VATICAN CITY: High prices around the world for basic foodstuffs have raised the concern of Pope Benedict XVI.

The pope told tourists in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that the Catholic Church is trying to draw attention to how soaring prices are worsening what he called the "grave and complex problem" of hunger.

Benedict says he is especially praying for those who practice small-scale farming in poor countries.

The high prices of food, seed and fertilizer have been blamed on several factors, including droughts, costly fuel prices, and the growing use of biofuels."

COMMENT
Prices are going sky high for everything not only food and oil, but all types of insurance and copays and deductibles, real estate taxes, movie tickets, everything in the highway or department stores, just about everything.

A small 10 ounce cup of coffee with tax is almost $2 and a donut is more than a dollar at Dunkin Donuts. My individual health insurance went up $60 per month in one year. Movie tickets went up $1.00. I last paid $5.099 for heating oil this past summer and $2.19 per gallon for gasoline yesterday and hope it will be much lower. Pizza pies went up $2. Sandwiches to go with a soda eats a $10 with little change. Most prescriptions went up 10% except for the cheaper generics. My cable bill went from $101 to $131 to $145 per month now in about a year. It appears that everything is being priced up.

Excessive cancellation fees prey upon everyone. Phones, cable companies, and others are charging almost $200 in penalty fees. I can understand a sliding scale penalty where they can charge a straight pro rata penalty so that if one cancels during the 12th month they would pay 1/12th of the penalty. But the penalties look like all is due even in during the last days of a 12 month contract.

The high prices are not funny because most people cannot afford the higher costs. The probably have to do without some things now. They may have to seek alternatives. They may have to reduce the amount they used to buy. Businesses do not realize what they are missing because of high prices.

I go to Dunkin Donuts about once per month now instead of everyday.
I think I can save at least $100 per month in out of pocket at another health insurer by shopping around.
We lowered the thermostat and wear sweaters in the home and when there is nobody in the house we shut the thermostat down to 45 degrees.
We leave the car in the driveway at least 2 days each week and we plan trips better.
We eat less pizza.
We try to bring a sandwich from home or at least get a sandwich with a discount coupon.
I get generics whenever possible.
As soon as I saw the cable bill for $145, I brought all unecessary equipment back to them and dropped service and equipment rental fees. I am seeking another vendor.

If prices continue to go up, economic conditions for most Americans will become more severe. It is unbelieveable, but there are millions of americans that are hungry or hungry challenged. I think a few people froze to death in their homes last season. Hopefully nobody dies this season. 47 million do not have health insurance and with unemployment at 10 million today I expect the preceding number to increase.

I should write to all of my congressional representatives. The Pope should also be concerned about most of us Americans, too.

More Bush Damage, When Is It Going To Stop?

2008-11-05T14:15:00.000-05:00

More Bush Damage, When Is It Going To Stop?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/opinion/04tue1.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&em

"Editorial
So Little Time, So Much Damage While Americans eagerly vote for the next president, here’s a sobering reminder: As of Tuesday, George W. Bush still has 77 days left in the White House — and he’s not wasting a minute.

President Bush’s aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage."

COMMENT
Instead of poisoning the well foreever, Bush and Cheney should be trying to rebuild some bridges across America and the World so that they could hold their faces up high instead of down in embarassment for what they have done.

Bush and Cheney, you are notified that it is all over for you as President and Vice President. Most of America and the World think of you as villains. You should try to be kinder now.

The future will be hard to live down if you continue to wreck America.

Read the attached article by the New York Times.

Bush and McCain Redistributed Wealth To the Wealthy 8 Years Now

2008-10-29T17:20:00.000-04:00

Bush and McCain Redistributed Wealth To the Wealthy Almost 8 Years Now

The George Bush and John McCain redistributed wealth in America several ways in the almost eight years recently.

First Bush and McCain gave tremendous unfair tax savings to the wealthy and biggest corporations.

Republican Teddy Roosevelt urged the progressive income tax for Americans, where those at the higher levels of income would pay more. Republican Teddy Roosevelt would be ashamed of George Bush and John McCain.

Secondly, George Bush and John McCain did not hinder one job from being outsourced overseas. This disrupted millions of Americans that lost their jobs and livelihood.

Next, George Bush and John McCain sponsored hundreds of thousands of temporary alien workers like H1B and 22 other visa types to replace Americans on the job in America. None of these people were farm workers, but all possessed at least a four year college degree. All of these H1B category aliens should be sent home because there are available, willing, able, and qualified Americans to perform those jobs.

Fourth, George Bush and John McCain fostered millions of illegal aliens to cross the American southern border mostly unhindered and to work mostly unhindered in all continental 48 states. They refused to arrest and punish the illegal employers of the illegal aliens.

Fifth, George Bush and John McCain did away with laws and oversight in America's financial and housing markets creating chaos and costing trillions of dollars in lost home and retirement savings for rank and file middle class Americans while making many financial executives wealthy.

Sixth, George Bush and John McCain may have totally ruined America's economy. Everyone says the Crash of 1929 was worse but our current crises is not over and it has been said to already be the next biggest failure since that time.

Seventh, George Bush and John McCain are not protecting the American public from harmful products. They cut support from oversight agencies even though the population has increased to more than 300 million from 200 million in 1968. No wonder Americans and our pets are getting sick from peppers from Mexico, dog food from China, and lead toys from China. America is not performing 3/4 of the inspections today that were done in 1968.

Eight, George Bush and John McCain repudiated Ronald Reagan's Redistribution of Wealth by using the investment tax credit. This is where people below the poverty line can get money from the government paid for by wealthier Americans.

The public and the media should ask John McCain how much he and his wife saved annually and their estate expects to save with the Bush tax program and how much they expect it to cost with the Obama plan.

The public and media should ask John McCain if he honors Republican Teddy Roosevelt's progressive Income tax program and his buddy, Ronald Reagan's investment tax credit redistribution of wealth program.

John McCain says he can do better but he is an ingrained conservative far right neocon republican and even if he would like to he cannot change his stripes. He is trying to sell himself as a republican elephant with lipstick, but we all know he is still a republican elephant.

A Solution For America's Energy Crises

2008-10-25T03:07:00.000-04:00

A Solution For America's Energy Crises

Watch 60 Minutes this Sunday to hear about the Pickens Plan from Boone Pickens himself. I'm from New Jersey and I watch 60 Minutes on Sundays at 7 pm on channel 2 a CBS station. During football season the show usually starts late because the football game that is broadcasted before 60 Minutes runs late, but they always show 60 Minutes for the full hour.

Here is where you can find out about the Pickens Plan and why there are already more than 1,000,000 Americans in the Pickens Army that believe in America's independence of foreign oil.

Below is an email I recieved notifying me that Boone would be on 60 Minutes this Sunday.

Hey Army-

60 Minutes on CBS is taking a look at the Pickens Plan this Sunday! They wondered if this is about politics but I told them what you know – this is about doing what’s best for America and ending our dependence on foreign oil once and for all.

Check your local listings and make sure you watch. A whole lot of people are going to learn about our plan on Sunday!

One other thing – we are going to launch a new way to reward those that are working the hardest to bring in new recruits to join the Army. Team Pickens will be sending out an email this weekend that explains all the details. But this is going to be good.

So watch 60 Minutes and keep building the Army – let's make our goal of growing to 1.4 million strong by election night.

Keep spreading the word – we are going to make America energy independent because of you.

-Boone

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not even Republicans have nice things to say about John McCain

2008-10-23T18:47:00.000-04:00

Not even Republicans have nice things to say about John McCain

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/19d3194e-a130-11dd-82fd-000077b07658.html

Read the article...It is an eye opener.

Sarah Palin spent other people's money more than $150,000 on wardrobe.

Others are upset at the negative tone of the campaign.

But all point to concerns about Mr McCain’s allegedly impulsive temperament.

Staunch Republican commentators, such as Charles Krauthammer and David Brooks, have come close to endorsing Mr McCain’s rival by citing Mr Obama’s “first-class temperament”

They cite fellow PoWs, such as Phillip Butler, who was also a colleague of Mr McCain at the Naval Academy. “Having been a PoW is no special qualification for being president of the US,” Mr Butler wrote this year. “I can verify that John has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first-hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.”

They say that the candidate’s decision to go against his instincts and embrace the social conservative base of the Republican party has created an internal conflict that makes him irritable, impatient and less effective

Then there are the “realist” Republicans who worry that Mr McCain has been captured by neoconservative advisers

Foreign policy was a key reason why Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, chose to endorse Mr Obama on Sunday.

“John tends to see the world emotionally through characters he knows. And once he has decided who the good guys are and the bad guys are, then facts and context won’t affect him.”

“Obama not only has a first-class temperament but he also has a first-class intellect. There is no doubt that John is very bright but you know Obama writes his own books. John gets his books written for him [by Mark Salter, his closest aide].”

Detractors accuse Mr McCain of dividing America. But the most acute cultural divide his campaign is exposing is within the Republican party itself.

The above was quoted from the article.
Comment
I could not have said it better, myself.

The Second 50 Reasons Why You Are Not A Republican

2008-10-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

The Second 50 Reasons Why You Are Not A Republican

This is the second list of 50 reasons why you are not a Republican.

Many people vote Republican, mistakenly, They believe that their success was all up to themselves and if they failed it was a problem they brought up on their own. They were taught that they could not ask government for any assistance and would have a lot of anguish if they ever had to apply for any safety net programs.

Below is a list of reasons why you are not a Republican and should vote Democratic. Many people will see themselves and if they thought about it would vote Democratic. Many will see themselves many times.

Just think about Republican McCain’s new proposal to eliminate the penalty for those 70 and ½ years of age that do not start to withdraw from their IRA’s or 401k’s because they would have to sell securities that have gone down a lot of money during the current stock market meltdown. In the first place most Democrats do not have an IRA or 401k and if they do they have been drawing down on it frequently and paying penalties because of unemployment, illness, major bills, children’s tuition, and many other things. If a Democrat retires, most likely they will be withdrawing well before age 70 !/2. This directly helps anal McCain because he could take advantage of it and save on taxes for himself. McCain and his wife have more than $100 million in assets and more than $4 million in annual income. How much more does this rascal require?

1. You reached the limit on a credit card.
2. You cannot pay more than the minimum payment on your credit card bill.
3. You had any utility turned off because of non-payment.
4. When you were a student you had to drop out of school one semester or more because of a lack of funds to pay tuition.
5. You never wore a tuxedo or gown.
6. You never were a member of a country club.
7. You never bought a car brand new from a new car dealer.
8. You have no jewelry worth more than $100.
9. You buy everything on time payments instead of cash.
10. Your children put themselves through college or trade school.
11. You put yourself through college or trade school.
12. You never attended college or your child was the first to attend in your family.
13. Your children are helping with your support.
14. You do not take all prescribed medication because you cannot afford it financially.
15. For any major repair on your house, you must obtain a loan to pay for it.
16. You never ate in a 4 star restaurant.
17. You never stayed overnight in a 4 star hotel.
18. You never paid more than $3 for a cosmetic.
19. You never had a spa treatment.
20. You never had domestic help.
21. You never had a landscaper.
22. You never bought anything from the liquor store that cost more than $20.
23. Your family had a collection to pay any bills of a loved one.
24. You never travel first class.
25. You never bought designer clothes.
26. You never paid more than $50 for a pair of shoes.
27. You never had season tickets to any professional sports venue.
28. You have one home.
29. You work for an hourly wage.
30. You earn less than $100,000.
31. You have less than 1 million dollars in a retirement account.
32. You home market value is under 1 million dollars.
33. You own no museum quality art.
34. You work unpaid overtime to keep your job.
35. The most you travel by air is twice per year or you never travel by air.
36. You never paid more than $1,000 per person for cruise travel or you never took a cruise.
37. You never had a complete medical evaluation from the Mayo Clinic or similar hospital.
38. You never paid more than $1,000 out of pocket for any medical procedure for any one year.
39. Your medical insurance refused any of your doctor recommended service or drug and you or a loved one had to do without it.
40. You never traveled outside of your home state.
41. You reached the Medicare drug program donut amount and are selecting the medications to buy and those to skip.
42. You never had a ride in a limousine.
43. You have to work to survive retirement.
44. You do not have a financial trust or similar entity.
45. Your relatives or yourself never had to or need to go through probate because there are few if any assets leftover.
46. You never inherited anything more than $1,000 in cash or things from any one person.
47. You never received a gift of more than $500.
48. It would be useless to sue you because you have nothing more than a house and little income.
49. Your children are worse off than you financially when you were their age..
50. You will never be as successful as your parents or grandparents.

The First 50 Reasons Why You Are Not A Republican

2008-10-08T18:09:00.000-04:00

The First 50 Reasons Why You Are Not A Republican

Most people try to live the ideal that they are independent of government. They believe that if you obtain a good education and work hard, the rest of your life for you and your family would be rosy. They believe anytime they ask anything from government that they would be asking for charity. They believe that anyone on charity is disabled, did not work hard enough, was wild with their spending when they had any money, did not work to improve themselves over the years, and probably suffered from drugs or alcohol abuse. Many saw their parents and grandparents successful enough not to ask for “charity”. When one is young, they think they are invincible and will be outstandingly successful. They believe in small federal government and that most things should be decided and paid for by each state. They believe in the free market and no regulation.

Many people vote Republican, mistakenly, because they were brought up by their parents to think that were Republicans. They believe that their success was all up to themselves and if they failed it was a problem they brought up on their own. They were taught that they could not ask government for any assistance and would have a lot of anguish if they ever had to apply for any safety net programs.

Below is a list of reasons why you are not a Republican and should vote Democratic. Many people will see themselves and if they thought about it would vote Democratic.

1. You or any loved ones depend on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment, any aid for children, Wick, Disability Insurance, or any other safety net program.
2. You lost your job because it was sent offshore.
3. You lost your job in America because your employer hired an alien temporary worker (H1B) to replace you.
4. You lost your job to an illegal alien.
5. You work in a two-tier salary environment for the same job.
6. You had to go through bankruptcy because of medical bills
7. You had to accept a pay cut doing the same job.
8. You spent more than 6 months looking for another job and could not find one.
9. You had to relocate to another part of America to find work.
10.You did not have medical insurance for even one day or more.
11.If you are working, anyone on the executive staff earns 40 times or more times your salary.
12.You lost your job because you became older and could not perform the work as a 20 year old anymore.
13.You do not have a guaranteed pension from your employer that is solvent.
14.You do not have employer paid health insurance.
15.Your health plan does not cover prescriptions or if it does, you are charged more than 25% copay.
16. You were denied any job in America that you were qualified because you did not speak a language other than English.
17.You know you will never see a pay raise unless the minimum wage is raised.
18.You are a member of the working poor.
19.You have more than $20,000 in education loans.
20.You had to wait more than a week for any service at the Veterans Hospital or you are a Veteran and were refused service.
21.You had to pay any penalty of more than $25 to any phone or cable company or bank..
22.You were stiffed by any employer of more than $100.
23. You currently pay for health insurance but do not think you will be able to afford it much longer.
24.You are a doctor of some sort and more and more of your patients lose their health insurance or have much difficulty paying deductibles, copays, your fee, or necessary prescriptions.
25.You had a small business or farm but could not compete with imports.
26.You or family members were injured by illegal aliens or drug dealers.
27.Your town is going bust because there are too many cheap paying jobs and not enough good paying jobs to support higher paying teacher, police, and fireman jobs
28.You lost your industry and are too old to be retrained.
29.You were warehoused during primary or secondary school and did not learn anything. You spent most of your time in school watching TV or movies. You dropped out of high school when you were of age.
30.You were homeless even for one day.
31.You were denied service at any hospital emergency room.
32.You had to travel more than 5 miles to obtain an in network provider from your health plan.
33.You had any loved one losing their home due to medical bills.
34.You had any loved one on a waiting list for public services.
35.You are downsizing your home because you can no longer afford the one you are living in currently.
36.You recently wear a sweater or coat at home during the winter because of the high price to heat your home.
37.You are being thriftier at the supermarket buying sale items and using coupons more diligently than ever.
38.You are eating out and going to the movies less frequently.
39.You shop more at discount stores.
40.You feel you are squeezed by local, state, and federal taxes.
41.You were fired from any job shortly before you would have been vested with retirement benefits.
42.You have not had a vacation in years other than staying home.
43.You had to spend down your 401k just to pay bills before you retired.
44.You had to support your parents or your children after they became adults.
45.Recently you neglected maintenance on your home because you could not afford the expense.
46.You hope to relocate to a less expensive state because your state is so expensive to live in.
47.Now you wish you worked for government because they pay better, have better benefits, and job security.
48.You delay making appointments to the doctor, dentist, barber, beauty salon and other places to save money.
49.You gave up a pet because you could no longer afford to take care of it.
50.Your life became progressively worse since Bush became president almost eight years ago.

Tie The Financial Bailout to Hiring Americans

2008-10-07T17:52:00.000-04:00

Tie The Financial Bailout to Hiring Americans

Everyone is focused on the financial institutions and markets. Major institutions have been bailed out. The Fed is buying commercial paper from non-financial companies. Aid is not to just banks, brokers, and insurance companies anymore. There is over $700 billion to buy bad paper. Fed rates may be cut again. It is going to cost American taxpayers more than a trillion dollars.

Congress and Bush have concentrated in how to help big business and they have accomplished a lot. Now is the time to focus on unemployment and to use the opportunity to tie American job creation with the bailouts. It is the right thing to do.

Pressure should be placed to accomplish more work within the United States instead of outsourcing overseas. Aliens on the 23 types of temporary worker visas such as H1B should be sent back to their home countries because Americans are willing and able to perform those jobs. Illegal aliens should be prosecuted and returned to their home countries. Employers of illegal aliens should be prosecuted.

America is bailing out big business (it is not just the financials anymore) and should get good paying jobs in America for Americans for it.

Outsourcing overseas and employment of aliens in America are un-American.

Sarah Palin, Instant Worldwide Fame

2008-10-05T16:59:00.000-04:00

Sarah Palin, Instant Worldwide Fame

Just think about it. Name any other Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska or Governor of Alaska than Sarah Palin? Bet you can't do it. Now everyone knows Sarah Palin because she was named Republican Vice Presidential running mate of John MCain.

She is in her 15 minutes of fame because she gave a speech during the Republican Convention, participated in the single vice presidential debate, is on TV everyday, is the first woman to appear on a Republican presidential ticket, is a national Republican leader, and is widely written about. Some women even identify with her.

She has to think about her future now because in about 30 days John McCain will lose the Presidential election and she will return to Alaska. She has to build up her rolodex now with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all of the influential people she meets now. She has to get a book deal set. She has to prepare for an extensive paid speech making tour. She has to decide whether or not appear on TV a lot like Pat Buchanon. She has to examine endorsement possibilities such as NRA, weapon manufacturers, hunting and fishing tours, near arctic clothes, snowmobiles, and others. Maybe she can become a United States Senator from Alaska.

Unless you are a historian of America, most losing presidential contenders are soon forgotten, especially the vice presidential contenders. I fear than Sarah Palin is motivated and can run her fame into at least $10 million to even $50 million. Too bad she will not be forgotten soon.

Unilever Lipton, Heinz, Cadbury, Nestle, Mars M&M's and Snickers Use Chinese Dry Milk Products

2008-09-30T23:57:00.000-04:00

Unilever Lipton, Heinz, Cadbury, Nestle, Mars M&M's and Snickers Use Chinese Dry Milk Products

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9489f1d0-8f51-11dd-946c-0000779fd18c.html Read the article.

Before you get scared, most of the products were made for the China, not American market. And the Chinese government swears that some of the dry milk product was not contaminated.

"The recalls have forced food companies to test their own products for signs of contamination, rather than rely on food safety checks from local authorities, and more carefully assess their suppliers. Most multinational food companies buy ingredients locally.

When the melamine scandal broke earlier this month, companies assumed their products were free of the chemical because the dairies from which they bought liquid milk had been cleared by the Chinese government. Subsequent tests by companies had found melamine in their products, nonetheless."

Comment
We all know that big business likes to use cheaper labor such as the Chinese labor market and export their products around the world eventually to other countries including America. A lot of ingredients to our food supply and prepared products are being exported from China to America. America has already faced a melamine problem with Chinese made pet food that made many animals sick and even killed a few. And we even had a recent scare with Mexican peppers where at least 1,000 Americans became sick.

Congress must force importers to label country of origin on ingredients of any prepare foods for humans or animals. Congress must enable adequate American federal laws, staffing, and enforcement to protect the American public and animals from contaminated food products.

The only other solution would be to recall all known contaminated products and ban the merchandise from our American shores.

I am suspect about Unilever Lipton, Heinz, Cadbury, Nestle, Mars M&M's and Snickers that Use Chinese Dry Milk Products even if they do not reach American consumers. They all have a black eye.

If they manufacture their products in America with American workers, and obtain most of their ingredients locally within the United States, and thoroughly inspect ingredients that they have to import they should advertise it to inform the public that their products are safe.

Right now I am sure I do not want to purchase or eat any Unilever Lipton, Heinz, Cadbury, Nestle, Mars M&M's and Snickers made in China or use ingredients imported from China for fear of getting sick.

The American Presidential Election Is Class War

2008-09-27T14:11:00.000-04:00

The American Presidential Election Is Class War

The Republicans are closing 8 years in power. Some say the Democrats have majority in the Senate and the House. They do but they are still seats short in the Senate and the House to pass anything unilaterally. And they need 2/3 majority to over-ride a Presidential Veto. The Republicans are in the catbird seat and know it at least until the Presidential Election in a few weeks, maybe.

Bush and McCain have let tens of millions of American jobs to be outsourced overseas with as many as 40 million more jobs that are eligible to go overseas. Bush and McCain never had any remorse about the disruption to millions of American workers being fired and having to start all over. Bush and McCain benefited companies relocating overseas.

First the Current Republicans are warmongers, including Bush and McCain, instead of treading a little more lightly in the world, they seek armed conflict. They ignored Papa Bush's excellent advice and example not to take over Iraq because he knew it wound up horrendous for America. Well, he was right. Look it up, these people have been labelled neocons. Everyone knows that Bush and McCain stretched the truth about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. Another thing, Papa Bush developed a consensus in the United Nations and was supported in grand way with other countries sending military assets to force Iraq from Kuwait. There was some support for the Bush McCain Iraq war internationally but it has been minimal and continues to diminish. McCain has said we will be there for 100 years or as long as it takes. McCain has mocked diplomacy, where even if there is a small chance to avoid military conflict by diplomacy, he is for guns first and then talk. McCain talks about winning the war and the only winners are the contractors reaping billions of dollars worth of contracts, while Americans are dying and being maimed for life. There is no-one to surrender in Iraq. America cannot stop Muslim factions from killing each other, which has been going on for centuries,...the Iraqi government and the powerful Muslim clerics have to put to stop the genocide. Bush and McCain has put America in an Iraqi and Muslim civil war which America cannot "win".

Republicans Bush and McCain believe in small government and have cut and not increased many agencies to match giant population increases since the 1960's, so that they do not have the manpower to perform their duties.

Thousands of Americans, including infants and children, became sick due to lack of inspection of human food, pet food, toys, medicines, and other things. Some people and their pets died because of their consumption or contact with inspected items. Republicans Bush and McCain are performing less than half of the inspections performed by federal agencies in the 1960's and the population of America increased 50% since then from 200 million to more than 300 million people.

ICE does not have the size staff to round up tens of millions of illegal aliens or to prosecute the employers of illegal aliens. Ice does not have the size of staff to prosecute safe haven cities from supporting illegal alien residency in their cities. ICE and the courts have blocked support from all local and state police agencies to police illegal aliens. The illegal aliens destabilize jobs, wages, and benefits for American workers and the Republicans know it.

Bush, McCain, and other Republicans have blocked or slowed the protection of the American border with Mexico. In almost 8 years of 2 Bush administrations there has been no statistical effectiveness of the border fence building. The border is as porous as it was when Bush first entered office. The Mexican border is the biggest gateway into America for illegal drugs and Bush and McCain know that too and they do nothing to protect the border. Congress has allotted the money for the fence to be built but it is the Executive Office of Bush and Son of Bush junior, John McCain to hire the contractors, manage the construction, and get the job done...but the results are their is a huge surplus of money and much of the proposed fence is not built.

The Border Patrol and the DEA are still understaffed and the border is still as porous as ever for illegal aliens and drugs.

Bush and McCain have diminished the safety net for Americans in need. They cut budgets and have made sure most benefits have been reduced by not increasing them due to inflation. Sure, millions have food stamps for example, but the amount of the stamp award has not been increased and we know most food prices have increased 20% to 30% or more during the past few years.

Laws that have been around for generations were put there due to combat excesses of the wealthy and to protect American workers and their families have been cut by the Bush and McCain and then agencies are too far understaffed to perform much enforcement. It is odds like the lottery to get the EEOC to support a claim. OSHA has had its teeth pulled by Bush and McCain. Workman's Compensation for any worker injured on the job today is woefully inadequate.

Bush and McCain have supported businesses not to offer, reduce, or to drop health care benefits for their workers. They approve large employers to seek out public insurance coverage for their employees. Millions of working poor rely on Medicaid or other public health resources. Bush and McCain have been talking about tax credits to offset health insurance premiums but you have to have substantial income to use it, which makes it moot for more than half of America's citizens. Most personal bankruptcies are caused by medical bills and this is increasing. Bush and McCain have had their chance to improve the medical delivery systems and medical insurance during the last 8 years but have failed. The Tax Credit is good but children, retirees, the handicapped, and the working poor and the moderately paid are unaddressed by this McCain solution.

Bush and McCain have no regard for American workers in America by allowing and expanding the H1B and 22 other temporary alien worker visitor visas so that aliens can replace Americans on the job in America. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs in America and have been replaced by H1B or other visa category aliens. There is no job in America, where an alien cannot be brought in to work in America.

Bush and McCain believe in less oversight and regulation and have eliminated may laws enacted by our forefathers due to problems they had during their time. Look and the huge banking scare in America today. Snake oil salesmen were allowed to sell bogus mortgages to basically the working poor and now their are trillions of bad mortgage contracts rocking the world financial markets.

Billions of American tax dollars have already been spent to support major American financial institutions and Bush and McCain are seeking $700 billion more to bail out major institutions and their senior executives. The end of the bail out is still no where in sight but this is a dangerous situation where America and the world can be in major depression if solutions are not found or just to plain inaction. Bush's Fed and Treasury were asleep while on duty to protect the American public.

Unemployment is reaching new highs and are plotted to go much higher. Many Americans are losing their jobs and having to settle for work below their education, training, and skills. No solutions to increase employment with good paying jobs have been presented by Bush or McCain. They have a market approach that says do nothing and have faith that employers will be hiring again eventually.

The economic stimulus has been circulated to millions of Americans and has been spent, which has proven that the American economy requires more stimulation, but no proposals exist except to do nothing by Bush and McCain. During the past few years the American consumer has been jolted by high inflation in gas and heating costs, food, and everything else. The typical American consumer has no discretionary income to buy much except for necessities. And wages have declined during Bush McCain.

During the Bush administrations, it is true that the wealthy have become wealthier. It appears that little or nothing beneficial has trickled down to working Americans except major problems. The working Americans have declined in almost all aspects of their lives during the Bush administrations. Things look brighter for the wealthy with McCain and much brighter for working Americans with Obama.

One wonders why $100 million dollars and $4 million dollars in annual income is not enough for McCain. How come he blatantly persecuted American workers with his votes? How could he vote against minimum wage more than 17 times? The Republicans jeopardised America in just 8 years and that is enough. George Bush, John McCain and other Republicans can see failure every time they look into the mirror. And McCain has been the poster boy of American welfare since he was born 71 years ago recieving shelter, food, medical, retirement, education, salary, and more as the son of an active duty Naval officer, as a student at Annapolis, as a career naval officer, and as U. S. Senator. If one added up the costs of what McCain has received from the Federal Goverment, it would probably be more than any other person alive or dead and he is still living to cillect more from the federal government.

Bush and McCain have caused millions of American workers to suffer their own "Hanoi Hilton" prison of torture and inhumane conditions. Millions of Americans had to be fired where they would be unemployed most for long periods of time. The had to tell their spouses that they would not have the salary and benefits they once had. Many lost health care. Many could not help their children with college expenses. Many marriages failed. Many had to seek jobs below the earnings and benefits they once had. Their children suffered. Many could not handle the situation properly and became physically or mentally ill and some died prematurely. Some people have been fired multiple times already due to foreign outsourcing, H1B, and/or illegal aliens during the Bush administration. The Bush McCain victims never received 5 years back pay for their prison term as McCain. McCain, you are a cry baby.

George Bush's best day as President will be when he leaves office in January. America's best day will be when McCain loses the Presidential election and leaves the Senate to retire to his estate in Arizona. America's best day recently will be when Obama becomes President. Liar mortgages has been frequently mentioned in the Press lately but liar politics has not. Bush and fellow Republicans have almost destroyed America. It makes no sense to elect son of Bush, Mr. 90% voting with Bush, John McCain, unless you want to continue the destruction of America.

What Is Good For Warren Buffet and Goldman Sachs Is Good For America

2008-09-25T13:08:00.000-04:00

What Is Good For Warren Buffet and Goldman Sachs Is Good For America

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-24-buffett-goldman_N.htm

150 years ago we are all familiar with the snake oil sellers roving around America trying to scam the public with their self proclaimed remedy quick cure for most ailments. They would draw crowds with some sort of performance such as music and fast talking sellers would draw in the crowd claiming all sorts of quick cures that their elixir was good for. People buying the elixir were lucky if the product did not harm them. Many were harmed and sometimes the snake oil seller was run out of town if they were lucky and sometimes the public physically harmed them.

Today’s snake oil charmer sells homes that the buyers cannot afford. Some snake oil charmers sought homeowners that built some equity in their homes for them to refinance their short-term debt with renegotiated first or additional second mortgages effectively zeroing out any equity they may have had. Many mortgage applications are called liar loans because they misrepresented the facts of the property and the applicant. The sellers were paid for their property, the real estate brokers made their money, the mortgage company made their fees, the buyers had a nice place to live temporarily, and the banks made money also until the buyers could not make payments. With all of this fraud and misrepresentation going on no one has gone to jail but the FBI is doing some investigation. Better late then never.

Now banks, insurance companies, brokers around the world are holding maybe 1 trillion dollars of this questionable paper consolidated from hundreds of thousands of mortgages that the snake oil charmers made.

President Bush and Congress are trying to form a Bill for the government to buy these undesired mortgages to the tune of $700 billion dollars. Many citizens think this will turn out to be another gift to the rich, where the executives and stock holders benefit and the public gets stuck with the bill. This is the best idea the President and Congress have come up with to solve the world credit problem and the American banking system from widespread failures.

If I had the money I would never buy any of these mortgages and take possession of any of these properties sight unseen or not to investigate each one. No one knows how well these properties were managed. Some properties may have been washed away by a hurricane or burned by fire. Some may not be otherwise livable and require a lot of repair for other reasons. Many may have been foreclosed by non-payment of taxes and sold by the local sheriff. Other mortgages may be over inflated and exceed current market valuation of the mortgaged premises. Evidently, many homeowner incomes were not vetted properly, many homes were not appraised, some homes may not have been adequately insured, some may not have recently been surveyed, and some may need maintenance if not major repair, many mortgages may have been wrongfully approved, and some institutions may have kept these “assets” off of their balance sheets.

Tax losses should appear for the banks in full because they did not perform their due diligence on each accepting each mortgage. The banks should take their medicine when they bundled the garbage for others to purchase taking the mortgages off of their books and placing it on the books of other institutions.

Most states license real estate brokers, real state salespeople, real estate appraisers, real estate mortgage brokers, and bankers that work with real estate products where the state and federal administrators should examine the practices of each and penalize those that broke the law. Those that broke the law should have their licenses revoked.

If America is going to buy mortgages, let’s buy with knowledge about each underlying property and pay no more than what the underlying property is worth or maybe even a little less than that.

If it is necessary to throw investment money at these institutions then call it that and put in big sweeteners for the taxpayers like first make these funds loans with heavy interest so that they can be paid back and the treasury bills can be repurchased and those buyers can get their interest and the American tax payer can obtain a profit. Secondly, these companies should grant common stock as a sweetener for the loan for additional taxpayer profit. Finally, these federal loan money should come with conditions so that executive salaries are halved, no executive bonuses are paid or even accumulated until the loans are repaid, and that no other profit sharing, bonuses, stock payments are made or accumulated for anyone in the company until the loans are repaid to the Federal government. Force the institutions to clean up their own messes rapidly by establishing severe fines on them if they do not meet or exceed imposed management schedules.

Why should the United States get terms less than those Warren Buffet received for his $5 billion dollar investment lately in Goldman Sachs?

Mean Girl, Sarah Palin

2008-09-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/23/palin/index.html Have patience, site has long intro but will automatically go to the Palin article.

Mean Girl, Sarah Palin

John McCain should watch his back with Sarah Palin because she is opportunistic, looks after herself and no others, has no loyalty, and takes no prisoners. All McCain has to do is to talk to the men in this website article.

Sarah Palin knows how to draw crowds without any substance. Pigs and lipstick, hockey mom, born again Christian. Where is the meat? The only meat Sarah Palin has is in her freezer after she kills it and butchers it. McCain may soon think of himself as a trophy Alaskan Moose to be taxidermied and hung on Sarah Palin's wall. Sarah Palin knows how to play the media and will sell a lot of newspapers and obtain many minutes of TV airtime but what she says and does lack substance.

Many think Sarah Palin has already replaced the past Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley. Sarah moves to put her enemies in jail, to lose their jobs, or at least disgrace them. By the way she sees most people as enemies when they can no longer help her with her ambition. John McCain reached into a bag of rattlesnakes and pulled her out. Sooner or later he will be bitten. Hopefully he can recover and live a long retirement.

Moose John McCain asked for it by selecting her to be his running mate. I wonder what kind of expression McCain will have on his face when Sarah Palin bags him. Everyone knows it will happen sooner than later. She turns on everybody, eventually.

Can We Talk? The Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin for Vice President of the United States?

2008-09-21T15:08:00.000-04:00

Can We Talk? The Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin for Vice President of the United States?

It was a big surprise when John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. I never heard of her and most Americans were as astounded as me. We found out she was a mayor of a small town of 6,000 and a governor of a state with about 600,000 people. We also found out she earned a 4 year degree, was a beauty contest participant, a TV broadcaster, partner in a salmon fishing business, avid hunter, and mother of 5. John McCain , out of all the other possible vice presidents to choose from selected her. It seems the lady is the grand prize "Peter's Principle" example of someone being promoted well above her skills, experience, and education to perform.
As if it would be difficult for her to be Vice President alone, but she would also be first in line as President of the United States of America, in which 305 million Americans would depend. And insurance actuaries say John McCain is not likely to live through his full four year term if he was elected President.

Palin probably wears her gun shooting glasses everyday. She probably has two freezers at home to store her salmon from her salmon business and the moose, elk, bear, and other critters she kills with her husband. She is a fundamentalist in religion believing in strict scripture interpretation and no drinking, smoking, or dancing. She supplements heating with wood burning stoves. She would have thousands of women killed each year in backstreet illegal abortion clinics by imposing her beliefs on others. She has a difficult time to say "no" such as when John McCain offered her the Vice Presidential office even though she knows she is really not up to it.

I cannot see her husband as Mr. Mom. Up to now he seemed content to drive his snowmobile and win races, run his salmon business, and perform his union job. Being governor of Alaska with only 600,00 citizens is like being Mayor of a medium sized city in other states and not much of a challenge to him. Becoming husband of the Vice President of the United States I do not think would be his cup of tea. I would hate to be the person to give him a reality check that he would be discouraged from participating in his salmon business, returning to his union job, racing his snowmobile, and hunting.

I felt bodily sick realizing Sarah could be Vice President and additionally emotionally sick when the thought of her becoming President. After suffering and being punished by the Bush administration for almost 8 years, to go through events with John McCain and Sarah Palin would really be too much not only for America, but the world. And Sarah is more conservative and more of a neocon than Bush and probably John McCain.

I could only chalk it up to John McCain getting senile. He already showed his bad decision making by voting with George Bush more than 90% of the time. And he is a conservative, neocon tough guy Republican.

Pigs, hockey moms, and lipstick may encourage some voters but that will mean nothing when defending America from North Korea, Russia, China, militants, and all of the other crazies in the world. It will do nothing to solve the Republican Bush problems of depressed wages and benefits of America's workers, insufficient job growth of good paying jobs with benefits, the critical failures of the banking, credit, and home ownership, trillions of dollars of public debt, trillions of dollars aggregate during the Bush years of losses in balanced foreign trade, and others. America is losing ground compared to other countries in manufacturing, education, feeding of its citizens, quality of American health care, number of citizens below poverty line, and many other measures. American armed forces are near burnout combating two wars simultaneously over many years: Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kennedy was excellent when he selected Johnson as his Vice President because Johnson could help win the election by giving him much of the South and because Johnson was both Majority and Minority leader of the Senate over the years he knew how to get legislation passed in Congress and he was probably the most successful of any Vice Presidents/President to pass such a wide and varied number of laws through Congress. America was lucky to have Johnson when Kennedy was killed.

Palin is no Johnson. She is not qualified to even be Vice President. Let her stay in Alaska where she can kill Bullwinkle and field dress him. Let her deny global warming. Let her live her conservative republican life in Alaska where she cannot harm the rest of the country's 305 million people. Let the Alaskans soak the oil companies so they can fund their state and give every citizen all 600,000 people thousands of dollars each year as rebates and dividends. Let her look at Russia from her window on a clear day.

I think it is unpatriotic to run a dumbass for Vice President and to be first in line to be President of the United States if something happens to John McCain. I cannot believe what McCain was thinking. It could only be that he knew he would loses the election and it did not matter unless he is indicating signs of senility and bad judgement.

It may be fun for Sarah Palin now to recieve all attention during the campaigning, and well enough for her to lose and go back to Alaska. But I do not think that she, her husband or her children will be happy if she won and became Vice President and even less happy if something happened to McCain and she became President. She is too much of a dumbass and would say "yes" to become President of the United States. God, Help America.

Christopher Cox, Another Republican Screw Up

2008-09-17T14:25:00.000-04:00

Christopher Cox, Another Republican Screw Up

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sec-issues-new-rules-against/story.aspx?guid=%7BEE66429D-1713-4944-8FF2-76762394126A%7D&dist=msr_5

"WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. securities regulators issued new rules Wednesday designed to protect investors against so-called "naked" short-selling, including requiring short sellers to deliver securities by the close of business on the settlement date and making clear that those lying about their ability or intention to deliver on time are breaking the law. "These several actions today make it crystal clear that the SEC has zero tolerance for abusive naked short selling," said Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. Cox was criticized by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Tuesday for not doing more to prevent abusive naked short selling."

Comment
The SEC is supposed to protect small investors from predators in the stock and bond markets, but Republican Christopher Cox crippled many small investors by ignoring to prosecute uncovered short selling by predators anxious to lower stock prices for their personal gain.
Cox destroyed billions of dollars of equity for small investors and their pension plans by allowing uncovered short selling.

This is part of the Republican brain wash that less regulation and less oversight is good. Masters of the Republican philosophies including President Bush and Senator McCain also weaken government agencies established to protect the public by decreasing their budgets so that they are not adequately staffed to perform their duties.

Food and Drug inspections are at the lowest of all time and Americans are getting sick and some have died for it. America performed 25 times more inspections in the 1960's than they do today and our population has more than doubled since that time.

Labor agencies have been gutted so that OSHA, EEOC, and others can barely perform 5% of their inspections or evaluations that they should. Secretary of Labor Cho is working to eliminate any effectiveness of OSHA before Bush leaves office.

There are not enough ICE staffers or Border Control people to round up illegal aliens nor prosecute any employers hiring illegal aliens.

The Federal Reserve and other watchdog federal agencies believed in the Republican "free market" and less oversight and the banking system and home mortgage systems are in the toilet.

One would think that America would have an energy plan by now since more than a dozen other countries either are already free from imported oil or are on their way to that freedom, but we don't. The Republicans are still oil bigots and even while Big Oil has refused to drill on millions of acres of oil land in America, have made offshore drilling a major issue that Big Oil will most likely refuse to drill on also. It is time to bring America to the 21st century and be realistic to commit to renewable energy and natural gas that America has plenty of. The media has called America the Saudi Arabia of natural gas in the world.

Republicans believe in the unregulated free market which gave us high inflation. Consumers have less descretionary funds for merchandise because they are paying excessive gasoline and home heating bills. Food has went up double digit also. The also aimed to deflate incomes and benefits of the workers which was highly successful but now these consumers do not have the money they should have to keep the economy going. Even at the lowest rung of the pay scale, minimum wage earners had to wait 7 years of annual inflation before they receive their first increase during the current Bush administration and it was inadequate. Even McCain voted against minimum wage increases at least 17 times.

America has a consumer economy where it is critical that consumers spend their money on goods and services. But when the consumers do not spend or

And these are the people that fudged that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction and brought us many years of war there and McCain says we may have to stay there 100 years. The Republican neocons are war mongers.

Nobody has seen any beneficial result from the Republican smaller government, free trade, less regulation or any other Republican concept that Bush put in practice. In fact they all became disasters. McCain and Palin still believe in the Republican concepts of smaller government, free trade, less regulation, and others that have been proven not to work.

Republicans ruined most things American and they still think that they are right. McCain and Palin represent 4 more years of Republican free markets, less regulation, and less oversight and war.

I do not how they can show themselves in public anymore. They screwed everything up and want to screw thing up more. They are disgraces to themselves and America. And they want to screw up America even more if McCain and Palin are elected in November.

Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin Give Back The Money

2008-09-17T00:41:00.000-04:00

Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin Give Back The Money

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/13/1394679.aspx

"Palin has come under fire in recent days for misleadingly saying she told Congress “thanks but no thanks,” refusing an earmark for a bridge to a sparsely inhabited island in her home state. Independent groups and media fact-checkers have said Palin advocated for the federal earmark before opposing it, only ended after Congress had essentially killed it, and kept the $223 million for the appropriation after the project was killed."

Comment
Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin Give Back The Money. The money was earmarked for a bridge that you told Congress "thanks but no thanks" and you are bragging that you are refusing the earmark. Well more than enough time has passed for you to return the money to the Federal government. It is unethical to keep money under false promises. Right now you are keeping the money under fraud and misrepresentation. Effectively, lady, you are a thief.

Senator John McCain and his co-conspirator are bragging that they will veto all pork if the are elected to President and Vice President of the United States of America in November. Are you guys comedians? Well what if the pork project gets approved but the state or other beneficiary rejects the offer, does every state or other beneficiary get to keep the funds for the project? John McCain, tell your running mate, Sarah Palin to give back the money to the Federal government.

I do not think the lady was vetted properly. She is a thief and a liar. John McCain you do not look good by selecting Sarah Palin. John McCain you should throw her off the ticket. To continue with her really would indicate your bad judgement.

Sarah Palin may be a hockey mom, but she is also a greedy pig. With or without lipstick, she is still a greedy pig.

Which Is More Gruesome?

2008-09-14T00:20:00.000-04:00

Which Is More Gruesome?

Most of us have been subjected to the telling of the tortures of Senator John McCain when he was captured after his jet was hit during the Vietnam War and he spent 5 years as a prisoner of war at the "Hanoi Hilton" where he suffered medical treatment neglect, insufficient food, torture, and inhuman conditions. The description of his capture and captivity was pretty descriptive and would probably rate a "R" rating with an announcement in advance that the description was gruesome and many would rather not hear it.

For this Americans are supposed to think that this is the man we want in the White House because he is an American hero, but I cannot give up the thought that anyone who goes through so much pain has to be somewhat wacko crazy. It is like a plant that has ideal growing conditions and someone steps on it. The plant will never be the same or have as much promise.

Senator McCain, his leader, President Bush and the Republican Congress gave American workers their "Hanoi Hilton" suffering.

How much misery was spread by Senator McCain when he voted down minimum wage increases 17 or more times. All minimum wage is to bring a little more comfort to those less fortunate. There was no increase for more than 7 years until last year and it was insufficient to enable purchasing power to be restore to that of minimum wage of the 1960's. There was a second increase recently and now minimum wage is still $3.00 less per hour to return it to that of the 1960's. Can you imagine going without a wage increase for more than 7 years? Can you imagine getting a small increase knowing that past presidents and congresses were much more generous than the current ones?

McCain, Bush, and Congress gave America depressed wages and benefits. Nobody can deny that must have been their objective. Millions of good paying American jobs have left America. Tens of millions illegal aliens were allowed into the country to replace legal Americans on the job by working for much less salary and benefits. A million white collar American jobs were replaced by H1B and 22 other alien temporary visas here in America. There is no job in America that Senator McClain, President Bush, and Congress cannot bring in an alien temporary worker with their 23 temporary worker visas. Think about tens of millions of legal American citizens going home to tell the spouse and children that they have just been fired. That these people were unemployed and most had token unemployment benefits. That those families would be on diminished income for many months and for some forever. That the families would have to give up many things they once took for granite. That many people could not handle the job loss situation and became mentally and physically ill, with many of them dying prematurely.

Senator McClain, George Bush, and Congress ruined the American economy. There are not many good paying American jobs around anymore. Most industry went overseas. Almost everything in our department and food stores is imported into America. There is no balance in our payments to and from other countries. They allowed crooks to steal and screw up the American banking system. The Bush bailout is going to cost America a trillion dollars.

McCain, Bush, and Congress turned Wall Street into worse than Las Vegas. Most Americans thought Wall Street was regulated and fair for consumers to purchase bonds and stocks and sometimes commodities, but this is no longer true. Most Wall Street trades are not even counted in the trading each day because there are additions forums for huge investors to trade and they do not have to report. There are now brokers and exchanges that allow shorts to be traded without even being covered and that they can not find sufficient stocks that they can borrow. There are now new huge players in the market like hedge funds and international country funds that are mostly ignored by our watchdog agencies. It used to be said it was safer to invest in Wall Street, but now it appears it is safer to bet in Las Vegas.

McCain, Bush, and Congress are selling American strategic assets to foreign countries with abandon. They forget that America provided 52% of world GDP during World War II when we fought wars in Europe and also in Asia and supported all of our Allies not just with war materials but also with food and other necessities. Our plants are rusting while other countries have new ones. The experienced and skilled workers are retiring and are not training the next generation of Americans to do those jobs because the plants are overseas. Skilled and trained workers are ignoring engineering and other major skills because they saw the outsourcing overseas and the
H1B aliens that replaced their parents and others on the job here in America. Switzerland building a critical component for an American missile caused delay in delivering the parts because of political disagreement with America. We all know that Russia is extorting Europe over energy.

McCain, Bush, and Congress have let our children down by letting them fail in their studies ranking lower in too many categories compared to other nations. Most of our children cannot afford to attend colleges or universities. The world changes so fast that the parents need to be updated in their work categories periodically and their employers are lax to fund it and governnment is lax to make it affordable so many people get fired and replaced by younger recently trained people.

McCain, Bush, and Congress have made life gruesome for American workers and their families. They let America down and have caused "Hanoi Hilton" level problems for millions of American workers and their families. American workers are the backbone of America and should never be forgotten or exploited as they have been by McCain, Bush, and Congress.

Ask the Governor of Your State Where Your $3269 State Rebate and Dividend Is?

2008-09-11T01:05:00.000-04:00

Ask the Governor of Your State Where Your $3269 State Rebate and Dividend Is?

Winter is coming and today I had my old oil burner tuned up for winter. A couple of months ago I paid $5.099 per gallon for my latest delivery which is the most I have paid per gallon. It brought me to think how I could save on this years heating costs because I know the price of heating oil is going up over last year's heating season.

We have been covering the inside windows with palstic to cut out drafts for the past several years. If we can find some money we will try to add insulation this year.

Last year we lowered the overall temperature so that most of us wore a sweater while awake in the house. We lowered the temperature another 5 degrees when everyone went to bed. We lowered the temperature even more when there was nobody in the house. They said last winter was warm and I hope this winter is warm also.

Today I learned about the $3269 state rebate and dividend paid to all 600,000 of Alaska's citizens where they can now afford to pay high home heating costs and wondered where my big state check was.

And Alaska has no income, property, or sales tax. The state of Alaska taxes the oil companies in Alaska for its revenues and still has billions leftover to pay the annual dividend and the one time rebate to all of the Alaskan citizens and still have billions of dollars of surplus. Alaska has more than 30 billion dollars of surplus.

I admire that kind of social welfare for its citizens and Governor Palin as its leader.

Governor Palin also recieves $1.75 for each $1.00 paid in taxes to the Federal government while most states get less than $1.00 for each dollar their citizens pay in income tax.

It almost sounds good enough to move there.

McCain Voted Against Minimum Wage Increases 17 or Maybe 19 Times

2008-09-10T21:33:00.000-04:00

McCain Voted Against Minimum Wage Increases 17 or Maybe 19 Times (Read the article)

Most American people know their wages are at minimum wage or linked to it. A full time worker at minimum wage is below the poverty line. The current minimum wage is more than three dollars below where it should be so that people at minimum wage today can buy the same goods as someone on minimum wage in the 1960's (not counting the latest obscene hikes in food and energy).

Senator John McCain currently running for President of the United States has voted against minimum wage at least 17 times and as many as 19 times recently. What does this say to American labor? What does this say about the man who has all the money in the world more than $100 million dollars and an annual income in excess of $4 million dollars with his wife Queen Cindy who cannot come to grips voting to allow poor wage earners a little more money?

If that is the way they run their Budweiser beer distributorship, waiting years for pay increases, I do not think I want to work for them at all. With 8 homes, many cars, and a personal jet I do not even want to be a family employee of theirs. I would not even be surprised that they treat their business and home employees harshly.

Senator John McCain and President Bush already lost tens of millions American jobs overseas due to outsourcing, lost millions of jobs of American citizens to illegal aliens working freely in America, and lost another million jobs by allowing aliens to work in America replacing Americans on the job do not have any good feelings for the American middle class and there is nothing to expect differently if John McCain is elected President.

The McCain slogan of "change" is to continue and rapidly expand all of the George Bush failed policies. Change means you haven't seen nothing yet with the Bush policies that McCain is going to expand rapidly and much further than now.

If you are hurting because of George Bush today, you will really be in pain and agony with John McCain and you may not be able to survive.

Lament For Only Half Of America's Workers Displaced

2008-09-02T17:57:00.000-04:00

Lament For Only Half Of America's Workers Displaced

During the Democratic Convention last week there were many speeches lamenting the loss of millions of American manufacturing jobs that went overseas and the hardship for those workers trying to continue to make a living and the problems caused when overall income drops for those communities and states affected by the plant closings. The noticeable tag line with those comments were not to get any of those jobs back or to halt the drastic off-shoring of American jobs, but to create 5 million new jobs in the alternative energy field.

The only concession admitted was to reverse the rewards to employers that offshore jobs.

Nobody lamented for the millions of Americans that were fired and replaced by illegal aliens at lower wages and benefits. It is pretty rude to be fired and see that your job still exists but instead of you performing it it is being accomplished by an illegal alien. The most publicized events were in the meat packing industry where employers paid illegal about half of the going wages and benefits they paid Americans doing the same job. The cruelty was to the hard working Americans that were left jobless and their families, and having to start their lives over. Most Americans have no pity for the illegal aliens since they were and are illegal and should not be in America.

Nobody lamented for the hundreds of thousands of American citizens replaced on the job by H1B temporary worker aliens brought in when Americans are not available to perform the work. Americans are qualified, available and willing to do the work making the H1B Visa holders unnecessary in America. The H1B program turned the information technology, engineering, and other jobs in America on its head. Many Americans were forced to train their H1B alien replacements or be fired and lose any severance pay. How would you like to be unemployed and know that some H1B alien is doing your job where you used to work? How would you like to try to support your family while starting over? People, these jobs are in America and nobody is protecting the American worker in America for these jobs. Even if you train for a job that can only be accomplished in America, they are bringing in and can bring in more H1B's and replace Americans.

It is a farce to say train for a job that can only be accomplished in America. There are H1B and other visa types where Americans on the job can be replaced with aliens on the job right here in America.

Your elected representatives know the score because they have been told by people like me and others. But they really need to get an earful and an eyeful with emphasis if millions of Americans start writing snail mail and emailing and demonstrating peacefully to their elected officials. It is time the timid media documents the facts also. Less opinion and more hard news is necessary.

America should step up and do the following:
1. Empower all Law and Order officers to arrest illegal aliens for deportation and their employers and landlords for violations of immigration law. The laws exist, but are seldom enforced.
2. Bring back the Army back from Iraq and let them protect the border with Mexico.
3. End the H1B visa program and send all H1B visa holders in America back to their home countries.
4. Establish a fair trade policy where we do not have the free wheel loss of industry and jobs overseas. Moderation is good. Wholesale slaughter of American industry and jobs is bad.

New Rules To Stretch Your Food Budget

2008-08-31T14:25:00.001-04:00

New Rules To Stretch Your Food Budget

Several days earlier this month, August 2008 we blew our food budget for the month before the month was over. We generally have a flexible food budget where we can spend extra money because we generally have some extra money in the checking account. But this month was different. Some of our other bills had to be paid and they went up in price such as our real estate taxes, grocery, utilities, energy, and our health insurance premiums. It is getting difficult to find items under $1 in the grocery or produce departments. Most health and beauty items are more than $1. Nothing is less than $2 per package in the meat department. Everything is over $1 in the dairy except yoghurt and that is rapidly approaching $1. Most bread is more than $3. It was noticeable that we were almost out of money for the month in the checking account. Our family discussed the problem and decided to try the approaches below.

Less Eating Out
Food prices have jumped at the restaurants and we decided to avoid eating out as much. We generally have an entree and a beverage sometimes with a salad if it is included in the price. We already avoid deserts. We carry water and sometimes soda usually with some fresh fruit in the car so that we can make it home for a meal rather than stopping on the road someplace.

Some restaurants have advertised early bird sales and others have coupons. When we do go to a restaurant we favor those with early bird specials and coupons.

No More Coffee on the Road
Currently a small coffee is more than $1 and a donut costs $.95 each. In the past if we were outside of the house, we would take morning, afternoon, and evening coffee breaks without hesitation. Now we do our best to make it home and make our own coffee for about a nickel or no more than a dime per cup. We carry water and usually soda from home in the car, sometimes with fresh fruit for breaks.

Sales and Coupons
We follow the ads and cut coupons. We used shop only in one supermarket but now when there are sale items that we need we may also shop at one or more additional supermarkets each week. One supermarket tracks what we spend and what we saved and we are saving about 20% of what we spend by using the store price card, in store sales, and coupons.

Shelf Tags
We also look at shelf tags and compare prices. We found one week that store brand peanut butter was cheaper in the smaller size than in any of the bigger sizes. We used to pick the bigger sizes because we thought we got a quantity discount, but now you have to use the shelf tags.

Expand Food Repetoire
We have been eating the same things during the past 2 decades and decided to expand our choices. It was easy to add pickled beets and olives to our salads once in a while. We also added a couple of salad dressings to choose from at home. We added a couple of cold cereals. We always baked chicken but just started to sautee chicken breasts using spray olive oil on the pan. I never made home made lasagna or beef barley soup and some other things that I am experimenting with now.

Portion Control
Portion control is important to us now especially with meats, poultry, and seafood. If you buy boneless and skinless chicken breasts family packs, usually there are small ones and big ones in the same package. We split up the big breasts for two servings instead of one. We used to pig out and eat until there was no more left. Now we portion out good first servings and for seconds we portion out much smaller servings with the aim to save enough for a lunch or even another dinner for the remaining leftovers.

Substitutes
We like our delicatessen items but now many things are over $10 per pound and almost nothing is currently under $5 per pound which is outrageous. We try to stay away from the products with nitrates or other chemicals like bologna and salami, but I do like hard salami once in a while and instead of buying it a pound at a time, I buy just one quarter of a pound just to satisfy my cravings occasionally. Sliced ham, turkey, and roast beef are real pricey now in New Jersey. Sliced ham is usually the cheapest on sale sometimes at $3.95 per pound. Turkey is usually at least $5.95 per pound and roast beef is astronomical at usually at least $7.95 per pound.

We found that boneless and skinless chicken breasts in the family pack are one good substitute for deli meats. We can find them at $1.99 per pound on sale and they can be sliced with a knife easily and baked or sauteed in minutes. Homemade sliced chicken breasts are half the price of the cheapest sliced meats offered in the deli. We bake more slices than we need and store the rest in the refrigerator for cold sandwiches the next day.

We are eating more PB&J sandwiches, too. Sometimes we spread some peanut butter on a few crackers. We also added soft cream cheese for variety.

Bakery items sky rocketted in price. We are substituting cakes and pies with canned fruit or sugar free jello which are expensive but still cheaper than the bakery items. Some whipped topping sometimes makes it special.

Meal Planning
In the past we usually made up our minds what we wanted for dinner each day just before it was time to prepare it and frequently the decision was to eat out. Now we plan our meals which is better because frequently a meal can be prepared in advance so it only needs to be heated up. This saves the extra cost of restaurant meals and enables us to make meals at home more appealing and better add variety to our meals by choosing what to eat in advance. It enables us to have the ingredients available to use for each meal and to portion control the meals better.

In the past most leftover items went bad before we used them. But now we know that something is a given day's meal and we use it then.

Home Water Filter
We buy a lot of water in the individual bottle and gallon sizes. A home water filter for the kitchen sink will save us from buying water for the home. We rinse out individual bottles and reuse them a couple of times which will save us from buying much of the water we use outdoors. But reused bottles can get contaminated with germs so we recycle them after a couple of uses.

Pantry
We try to stock up on items we use a lot that are on sale and especially if we also have coupons. There are a lot of items that seem to go on sale once each month that we try to buy what we need for the month instead of buying for the week and paying full price the other weeks. We stock excess items in the heated back porch until we can place them on the kitchen shelves.

Brown or Yellow Bag
When we know we are going to be away from home for 4 hours or more we fill a brown paper or yellow plastic bag with beverage, maybe a sandwich, fruit, cookies, maybe yoghurt and plastic spoons and other things. This way we can pull in at a highway rest stop or just about anyplace and take a break and have refreshment. Most times we do not have to buy food or beverage on the road. But occasionally, we'll buy cofffee at Burger King and other times a bag of french fries from Nathan's to share.

By following our new rules to stretch the food budget we expect to save another 10 to 20% beyond what we already save while maintaining healthy diets. But as prices seem to rapidly rise it will not be as pleasant to deal with the food price increase crises. One thing will be to get my backyard garden back from the deer that eat up anything grown and I will pester the county to cull the local herd.

Will Bush, Daddy Bush, and Ronald Reagan Show at Republican Convention?

2008-08-28T13:24:00.000-04:00

Will Bush Daddy Bush, and Ronald Reagan Show at Republican Convention?

John McClain has a three dilemmas whether or not to invite George Bush to his convention, another dilemma to invite Daddy Bush, also, and whether or not to invoke Ronald Reagan.

The current President Bush has a very low approval rating which John McClain needs to distance himself from otherwise he becomes painted with the same disapproval poles. But the President is the leader of the Republican Party that cannot be ignored. The handling of President Bush at the Republican Convention is the first real diplomatic challenge for John McCain.

The second dilemma is to invite Daddy Bush to speak. Most Americans hold Daddy Bush in a favorable light. We thank every day that he was smart enough not to tear down Iraq and bring down Saddam Hussain when he was President. We like to believe that he would have upheld the Geneva Convention and not torture any enemies. We like to believe that Daddy Bush was more practical and pragmatic than his son being so dogmatic about "free trade" and harming the middle class. Daddy Bush never disfavorably commented about his son but we all know that he thought his son was wrong because his example was so different. I do not think Daddy Bush has the same loyalty for John McCain.

There are no other living Republican Presidents. Reagan, Ford, and Nixon are dead.

Perhaps, McCain will have a Frankenstein Republican Convention and try to bring back to life President Reagan. Maybe we should have a lottery about how many times Regan's name will be invoked during the Republican Convention. Maybe there will be a movie about Reagan shown during the convention. Maybe they will get a Ronald Reagan living relative to speak. Trying to count how many times Ronald Reagan's name is said during the convention on TV, cable, and the Internet will be as difficult as trying to estimate how many jelly beans Ronald Reagan was famous for keeping in a dish on his desk in the Oval Office.

But America knows that Ronald Reagan was no George Bush or John McCain. Ronald Reagan made final decisions but he delegated to his cabinet and held them to their goals or he would fire them. If something was not working he would quickly get it back on track. Ronald Reagan was practical and pragmatic. Ronald Reagan was a union member for decades and a union President where he knew American labor needed a fair wage and benefits and that moderate amounts of film production overseas could not be helped as long as the American film industry was still vital. Ronald Reagan knew America provided 52% of world GDP during World War II, supporting our Allies and fighting Germany one side of the World and Japan on the other. Ronald Reagan knew we should never offshore entire American industries nor should we ever sell American strategic assets for foreign countries. If John McCain invokes Ronald Reagan they will distort what he was really about. The Reagan family should never allow it to happen.

My dilemma is whether or not to watch the Republican Convention next week. One side tells me it will be very sad, but the other side is that it could be tremendously funny.

John McCain and whoever he picks as Vice President I think will lend themselves to America as two comedians, such as Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy, trying to sell their agenda in earnest, but nobody seriously buying it.

It Is Nice To Be King John McCain

2008-08-25T13:04:00.000-04:00

It Is Nice To Be King John McCain

It Is Nice To Be King John McCain. John McCain gets to walk around in $500 pair of shoes. John McCain has so many homes he did not know how many homes he had. Queen Cindy McCain spends more on clothes each year than the gross annual pay of the majority of American households. They even fly on their own jet.

The American dream for King John McCain was to marry a very rich woman and for Queen Cindy McCain was to have a rich daddy. Today they have around $100 million in assets with at least $4 million in annual income. Their goal is to preserve their pile of gold(wealth) and to pass it on to their children and grandchildren intact. King John McCain religiously supports King George Bush's of the Bush Dynasty tax cuts for the wealthy.

Real Americans cook their own meals, dust, vacuum, wash dishes and laundry, shop for their own groceries, make their beds, mop floors, clean bathrooms, wash windows, cut grass, and shovel snow. I doubt that King John McCain or his wife Queen Cindy can tell you the last time they did any of that. They are definitely out of touch with most Americans.

King McCain conspired to depress wages and benefits of the majority of Americans by facilitating unharnessed free trade, millions of illegal aliens to enter America and the lack of enforcement of more laws on the books, and hundreds of thousands of H1B temporary workers that are no longer needed in America. King McCain has already stated he supports continued Republican free trade.

They have no empathy for America's hungry, homeless, uninsured, or others struggling for their American dream. In fact they want to minimize America's major safety nets, Social Security and Medicare as well as the minor ones such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, and others.

Personally, I fear the King John McCain programs more than those of King George Bush. Bush became distracted with the Iraq War, but King McCain will if elected come into office with a terrifying agenda and of course the rank and file American citizens will suffer from it.

At times King John McCain thinks he is a regular guy but he has been the Admiral all of his life in his mind just like his father and his grandfather were real Admirals. King John McCain is a self deluded acedemically challenged dangerous cranky old man with a fearful agenda that is wrong for America. Say "Hello King" or "Hello Admiral" if you run into him on the campaign trail and you will probably get a positive response from him.

T. Boone Pickens for President

2008-08-21T16:05:00.000-04:00

T. Boone Pickens for President

http://www.pickensplan.com/

Our elected officials know nothing and they do nothing to relieve America of the heavy cost of foreign oil and the related costs from converting our food supply to ethanol. Some countries are already independant of foreign oil and others committed to their plans and are on their way. America does not have a plan and independence of foreign oil is nowhere in sight for America.

T. Boone Pickens is a citizen of America who is not running for political office but is spending millions of dollars of his own money to inform America about his plan to make America independent of foreign oil.

His plan is a good one. His plan is the most publicized of any. He has met with the presidential contenders McCain and Obama. He has appeared on national TV. He has a website and a blog.
He has hundreds of thousands of supporters for his plan.

T. Boone Pickens would have my vote today if he was running for President of the United States of America which he is not. He makes much more sense than those that are running.

Presidential Candidate From Hell, John McCain

2008-08-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Presidential Canidate From Hell, John McCain

Just when the country is sick and tired of Republican Neocons, John McCain spouts out about not losing in Iraq, and promising to kill Osama Bin Laden, and acting tough with the world including Russia over Georgia. While most of the country believes that America should not start wars, this guy is looking for more wars.

This guy was not spectacular growing up in fact he was not only a legacy admitted student to Annapolis and a below average student, he was a troublemaker racking up far too many penalties violating the schools policies.

While he spent many years as a prisoner of war, he is not the same kind of hero as John Glenn and many others. Most people made choices that were heroic, but McCain had no choices as he was shot down in Vietnam. Not much has been said how he was shot down, that he was not as fit as he should have been or that he did not follow orders or training, or that the enemy was just lucky that day.

McCain cheated on his first wife. Enough said.

The Navy did not want him to be promoted into the Admiral ranks and passed him over. Nothing has been said why they passed him over. He certainly had some juice because his father and grandfather were Admirals. If the Navy did not want John McCain, I do not want him as President either.

McCain and his wife are the Ken and Barbie of Congress with more than $100 millions in assets and an annual income of more than $6 million. Their personal lifestyle has been hidden from the public and that is wrong. Lets publish pictures of the exteriors and interiors of their homes. Lets see what their personal jet looks like and lets be informed about the trips they took. What kind of art, jewels, cars, and other possessions do they own? They say the bulk of the assets are in a beer distributorship. How do they treat their employees? Do they contract out labor? How many servants do they have? If McCain became President he would have to step down in his lifestyle to live in the White House.

America has been crippled by the Bush regime and McCain wants to continue the Bush policies which does not make any sense to me. Personally, I think the McCain agenda is even harsher than the pain and suffering Americans had and still have with Bush.

McCain is 71 years old and is too old to be President. He has not kept up with society. He is not Internet savvy. He shows memory lapses. He does not have good enough reasons to be President.

His birth, infancy, childhood, teenage years, college years, and all through his working years,, McCain has been at the public trough. His Dad and Grandfather were Navy Admirals and McCain lived on military reservations. He was paid to attend college at Annapolis for free and when he graduated he began a career with the Navy and retired and started a new career in Congress. Nobody can count the dollar value of the meals, doctor visits, prescriptions, clothes, housing, retirement contributions, and other benefits for McCain that Uncle Sam paid for. McCain is the ultimate welfare benefactor. But he has no empathy for other Americans without adequate food, shelter, clothing, hospital and medical benefits, education opportunities, and other thing. McCain is a hypocrate.

McCain is not qualified to be President, and the qualities that he possesses are wrong for America.

Raise Federal Minimum Wage Now

2008-07-22T17:12:00.001-04:00

Raise Federal Minimum Wage Now

new news
The new increased Federal Minimum Hourly Wage will now be $6.55 per hour starting this Thursday, July 24, 2008 which is a far cry from the $10.08 per hour which would have brought the Federal Hourly Minimum Wage to the same purchasing power of the Federal Hourly Minimum Wage of the 1960's.
new news

America is suffering through high cost oil and food which is running up the costs of everything else. Public transportation, rents, college tuition, utilities, insurance, and everything else is going up in price. Our economy depends on consumer spending and the first place to start to improve the economy is to raise the Federal Minimum Hourly Wage from the current level of $5.85 to at least $10.00 which is the amount it should have been raised to during the last increase a long time ago to give those workers the purchasing power of the minimum wage earners of the 1960's. With the high increase in oil and other things recently it should probably be much more than $10.00.

The Republicans led by President George Bush wanted low wages for Americans and that is what they did by not providing decent minimum wage for people. Now the problems of high prices is coming to roost making new purchases difficult especially for minimum wage earners. Now the Republicans need consumers to spend money to help the economy and need to increase the minimum wage to a decent, humane level.

Unbelieveably, it took almost 10 years on July 24, 2007 when the federal minimum hourly wage was increased to the disgraceful $5.85.

For the American economic machine to work properly, Amercian labor must be treated fairly. The Republican leadership took advantage of lower wage earning Americans by keeping the minimum wage artificially low for far too many years. Bush and Congress also unfairly increased the supply of low wage workers by not protecting the border with Mexico allowing millions of illegal workers to seek jobs replacing Americans on the job in America, not rounding up the illegal aliens and deporting them, and not prosecuting the employers of illegal aliens.

If the Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was increased to $10.00 or more which is the right thing to do, it would help solve another national disgrace problem of the illegal aliens at least to some extent. Employers would replace many illegal aliens with American citizens who are generally better educated and can speak English. Employers would be discouraged to hire illegal aliens because legal American citizens would be better bargains if they had to pay $10 per hour for labor. More American citizens would be encouraged to work at the $10 per hour level than at the current unfair disgraceful level of $5.85 which was made effective July 24, 2007. If employers replaced illegal aliens with American citizens the illegal aliens would probably return to their home countries.

It should be noted that most states have higher minimum wages than the Federal government and the worker receives the higher rate. Even the state of Texas will pay more starting July 24, 2008 at $6.55 per hour.

Write to your elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels telling about your concerns. If Americans do not express themselves, we will continue to wind up with disgraces in the future.

George Carlin Knew: Corporate America. ("It's a big club, and you ain't in it," he said.)

2008-07-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

George Carlin Knew: Corporate America. ("It's a big club, and you ain't in it," he said.

COMMENT

Most people working for corporations are not those that he was talking about. Most people are not even union workers anymore but just plain rank and file struggling to support their families and pay their bills. These are the people that have social security withdrawn from every one of their paychecks through each year. He was talking about the big owners and executives of corporate America. These are the individuals that make so much money that the maximum amount needed for their social security is withdrawn from their first paycheck each year.

These are the silver or gold spooners that have no worries to pay for their needs like health care, energy, educating their children, or even putting food on the table. These people do not need scholarships for their children to attend college. Their kids do not have to sign up for the military to obtain GI Benefits to attend college, because they already have the money for it.

Congress and the President all leaders of Corporate America, murdered or maimed for life tens of thousands of young Americans, destroyed millions of jobs for Americans by fostering overseas outsourcing and enabling hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to enter the country, and supporting H1B and other temporary worker visas when they are not necessary. They looked the other other way and have not solved the Mexican border problem and have not prosecuted the employers of illegal aliens. They enabled the contamination of America's people and animal food and poisoned our children with contaminated toys. Food and energy costs have gotten out of control and are poised to rise higher but they do nothing!

The other "corporate America" that Carlin was talking about are the executives and major owners that for the most part have not kept their word on pensions and retirement benefits. Most retirees that were promised pensions do not have any or if they are lucky to get something it is of reduced value from what was promised. Corporate America is not only fleeing America and American jobs but importing aliens into America to replace Americans on the job. They have successfully been able to reduce wages and benefits for Americans lucky to have jobs, or at least have the jobs flat. The purchasing power of working Americans today is less than the purchasing power of the 1960's. And the support blanket for Americans in hardship is less than that of the 1960's. College tuition was affordable in the 1960's but is out of reach for most Americans today without tens of thousands of dollars of college loans for most students. Bush and Congress made it impossible or at least very difficult to enter bankruptcy and allowed even social security checks to be subjected to garnishment, even from people living below or at the poverty level.

Corporate America has thousands of lobbyists and spend billions on our elected officials not only in Washington, DC but in our states and counties obtaining things to benefit themselves but usually harming rank and file ordinary people and usually making us pay for it and not benefiting from it. I help pay for health care and educating children of illegal aliens from paying taxes, but I do not benefit from it, in fact 2 local hospitals closed in my county from a lack of funds to pay for overwhelming charity care from the state putting citizens at risk. Clinics and medicaid providers are sending Americans away from non-emergency health care because the appointments are filled with illegal aliens. When they appear to do good for the rest of us they do half measure with the medicare donut forcing many Americans to scramble to receive their medication and raising federal minimum wage after almost after 10 years of no increases and not increasing it to the purchasing power of minimum wages of the 1960's (the increase should have been to at least $10.00).

Carlin knew about Corporate America and the fact that most of are not in that club and are suffering from the sadistic policies and law breaking they allow because they are in power.

Carlin was funny, but we also needed his observations about America to understand better and to diffuse the propaganda being dished out to all of us.

Drop the 54 Cent Tariff on Imported Ethanol

2008-06-27T16:07:00.000-04:00

Drop the 54 Cent Tariff on Imported Ethanol

If you live in the Farm Belt of the United States you may be enjoying a lower price on fueling your car with a blend of ethanol and gasoline, while others living outside the Farm Belt are paying a premium to fuel their vehicles because American ethanol is not distributed to them. Basically the Farm Belt is where American ethanol is produced and sold and there is not enough of it to distribute to all states. Most states do not have any ethanol to distribute to their residents today and it is forecast that it may take 20 years or more for America to produce enough ethanol for all residents.

Oil is highly priced today and the trend is going up. America needs the importation of ethanol in the supply and demand equations of oil reducing demand to lower or at least slow the price increase trend of oil. Americans in most states should be able to enjoy the lower prices of imported ethanol just like the Farm Belt states enjoy the lower price of American ethanol.

The 54 cent tariff on imported ethanol is an unfair tax to residents of most states in the United States. Residents of most states cannot obtain American ethanol because it is all consumed where it is made in the Farm Belt states and there is none left over to distribute to other states.
The 54 cent tariff on imported ethanol effectively prices it out of the American market, while eliminating the tariff would encourage importation.

If America wants a little relief from high oil prices, then the tariff must be abolished to encourage the importation of ethanol. Importing ethanol would reduce America's dependence on foreign oil a little, but even a little is important. The countries producing foreign ethanol are not the same countries producing foreign made ethanol.

The American federal government stores oil for emergency usage and should also store ethanol for the same reasons.

It does not make sense for residents in most states to purchase flex fuel vehicles that can burn fuels that are mostly ethanol such as e85 which is 85% ethanol as well as mostly gasoline blends if there is no ethanol available in their state which is the case today. Some countries reached or are soon to reach energy Independence like Brazil by eliminating the need for gasoline and replacing it with ethanol. America's thirst for ethanol is more than 10,000 times greater than the ethanol produced in America today and that demand will increase over time. America's ethanol producers will never be able to produce enough ethanol to satisfy America's demand for it.

Congress should abolish the 54 cent tariff on imported ethanol immediately. This tax hurts the American economy and is painful to the American consumer. It is un-American.

We Need Pragmatism to Solve Oiil Problem

2008-06-23T08:46:00.000-04:00

We Need Pragmatism to Solve Oil Problem

It seems we still have an impasse on the oil problem. The Republicans want to develop a field in Alaska and others along the shoreline of the United States as well as build more than 100 new nuclear reactors in America. . The Democrats are taking a holier than thou position not to develop any new wells and especially ones in Alaska and along the American coast and they are not for building new nuclear reactors. Except for some price sensitivity, there is almost no conservation.

There are many small scale solution niches of the oil problem but none seem to be on the horizon for meaningful impact for at least 3 to 5 years from now. Bacteria are converting wood waste into oil in a lab. Electric cars are improving distance between charges, charging of the battery times, and speed but production is still low. Producing electric from wind and solar power is increasing slowly. Thermal energy is being looked at more frequently. Many people are increasing the amount of insulation for their homes as well as replacing their windows with modern efficient ones. Much of the corn crop is converted to ethanol. Synthetic oil from coal has been successfully tested for military jets, but production will be minuscule for several years until plants are built. People are buying energy efficient light bulbs and appliances.

Altogether the efforts to date on alternatives for oil is barely 1% savings and it can be suggested that demand for additional energy over the same time periods has exceeded the availability for new alternatives.

America imports 75% of its oil needs and that amount is projected to increase over the next 20 years, old oil wells are not producing as much oil as they have in the past, in America there is not much motivation to develop new wells, refineries, or pipelines, the price of oil has ratcheted up highly and is expected to rise higher, there is famine and America is converting food products to energy. There are no national goals or plan to solve the energy crises. Most of the world oil producers are not friends of the United States and are unstable.

The energy crises is pushing the American economy into recession with job loss and price inflation. The terrorists could not conceive a better effort than the energy crises to cause such misery for hundreds of millions of Americans. As the price of energy increases, the misery increases for more Americans. And the price of oil is expected to increase severely over time.

America must be self reliant on energy instead of dependant on foreign oil. An assessment of America's reserves of oil, gas, and coal should me made to determine future use. Can America draw several million of barrels of oil daily from oil shale areas? Do we have enough natural gas so that we can convert a million homes from fuel oil to natural gas in the next couple of years at a reduced price for homeowners? Can we produce a million barrels of synthetic oil from coal daily in the next three years? What infrastructure is needed for future energy production? America should not be afraid of developing new wells and mines, the first problem is to start eliminating dependence on foreign oil. Can we speed up the research and development of the oil producing bacteria?

American society should be examined. Self sufficient downtown areas should be encouraged. America's downtown areas have mostly declined since the 1960's and should be revitalized. Americans should be encouraged to work, shop, and live within walking distance of each other. The two and three car household of today should not be encouraged. Public transportation should be encouraged and be converted from oil to electric power whenever possible.

Solar power should be in use for all homes, government, and commercial buildings especially when used primarily during the day when sunlight is available. Applications for solar power should include building heating and cooling systems.

Government advantages given to promote the purchase of SUV's should be eliminated to start removing big, heavy vehicles for personal use off the road.

Without national goals and a national plan, America is a sitting duck for higher oil prices and bigger disruptions of America's economy. Contact your town, county, state, and national elected officials and demand to know what they are doing to get off of foreign dependence of oil, to reduce the prices of energy, and to encourage energy alternatives. If we do not raise a fuss with them, they will continue to stick their heads in the sand and America will suffer worse during the next 4 or 8 years.

5 Electric Cars You Can Buy Now

2008-06-19T13:05:00.000-04:00

5 Electric Cars You Can Buy Now

http://finance.yahoo.com/loans/article/105265/5-Electric-Cars-You-Can-Buy-Now

CNNMoney.com highlighted 5 electric cars based on range, the amount of miles one can get on a charge, charge time, the amount of time it takes to charge the battery(s), purchase price, and top speed.

The bad news is that none of the cars seemed practical for most of and the good news is that 2 of the car manufacturere promised they were working on more practical electric vehicles for the near future.

The Tesla Roadster charges in 3.5 hours, has a range of220 miles, a top speed of 125 mph, but costs $109,000.

Gem Car is from Chrysler global Electric Motors and charges in 6-8 hours, has a range of 30-40 miles, a top speed of 25 mph, and costs $7-13, 000.

Dynasty iT Sedan charges in 6 hours, a range of 30 miles, and a top speed of 25 mph with a cost of $14-25, 000.

The Zenn charges in 6-8 hours, a range of 30-50 miles, a top speed of 25 mph, and costs $16,000.

The Zap Xbra charges in 6 hours, a range of 25 miles, a top speed of 40 mph, and a price of $11,700.

If cost was not an issue with me I would buy the Tesla Roadster or at look into it further. It charges in about half the time of the other cars. It has more than enough range for me 99% of the time for me where the range is not an issue for me. I'll never get to the 125 mph but that speed indicates I could take it on the highways with speed leftover, unlike the other cars listed. But the cost is $109,000 and I am more of an under $20,000 car buyer.

I think the market is there for a practical performing electric vehicle at a fair price in the tens of millions of vehicles.

I think there will more practical electric vehicles in the market place within the next 2 years, but if production is only in the thousands and if demand is in the millions the lucky few obtaining vehicles will pay a premium for them due to a shortage of availability.

Hopefully the charging aparatus will be in each vehicle so that one would only need to plug in an electric wire from an outlet into the vehicle. It would be easy to plug in from home for most stand alone homeowners. It would be less practical away from home or if someone lived in a large housing complex. Charging facilities for the public would have to be available.

My major concern is whether the local electric companies could support charging of thousands, and eventually millions of electric cars daily. Our local electric companies become stressed during the summers on very hot days when air conditioning and fans are in heavy use, so tens of thousands or even milllions of electric chargers would compound the stress. PSE&G, my local electric company and your local electric company should be working on a solution to handle additional demand.

No Nuclear, Mr. McCain

2008-06-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/us/politics/18cnd-mccain.html

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Senator John McCain said Wednesday that he wanted 45 new nuclear reactors to be built in the United States by 2030, a goal that he called “as difficult as it is necessary.”

In his third straight day of campaign speech making about energy and $4-a-gallon gasoline, the presumptive Republican nominee told the crowd at a town hall-style meeting at Missouri State University that he saw nuclear power as a clean, safe alternative to conventional sources of energy that emit greenhouse gases. He said his ultimate goal was 100 new nuclear plants.

Mr. McCain has long promoted nuclear reactors, but Wednesday was the first time that he specified the number of plants he envisioned. Currently, there are 104 reactors in the country supplying some 20 percent of the electricity consumed. No new nuclear power plant has been built in the United States since the 1970s.

Comment

Nuclear is not good enough, John McCain. America can do better.

Each nuclear plant across the world is a dirty bomb as well as the nuclear wast of each reactor. Each reactor puts citizens at risk of terrorists. Everyone still remembers the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979.

It is unlikely that the reactors could be built from utility company funding but would have to be overwhelmingly subsidized by the federal government.

NIMBY...Mr McCain if you want nuclear energy lets start by putting it in your backyard. And build another in Washington DC next to the White House and the Congressional Buildings. Most Americans do not want a nuclear reactor in their neighborhood or backyard either.

The world's bad guys are nuclear such as North Korea and Iran. And we all know they are converting some of their "peaceful nuclear energy" to "weapons". We should;d show them that there are better ways to provide for energy for their people. We should try to reduce the number of the world's reactors to promote peace.

Everyone recognizes that Americans demand for energy is almost insatiable. Even with conservation and energy efficient appliances, America needs more energy resources. Even with wind generators, rooftop sun cells, ethanol and other bio fuels, synthetic fuel from coal, power generating dams across our rivers, and other techniques, all together it hasn't made much of a dent yet in reducing our need for foreign oil. The high prices of gasoline and diesel fuel has resulted in a minor reduction of driving across America.

Nuclear seems to be such a knee jerk solution to the energy problem. I cannot tell if it is a solution that puts America into a hot frying pan from the start or immediately throws America into the fire.

America's leaders must be pragmatic in choosing long term energy paths.

Maybe America should reduce its reliance on cars and promote and invest in public transportation. Maybe ground transportation should be electrified and forbidden to use fuel oil. Maybe the trains should be upgraded so that airline commuter flights are replaced by adequate train travel. This would provide relief to our busy airports making them safer and reduce jet fuel use.

Down towns should be promoted to live, work, shop, and play instead of long commutes to work, home, shopping, and entertainment. Too many Americans spend hours each day commuting using precious resources whether in their own cars or in public transportation. Americans should be able to walk most places instead of getting in their cars to do anything. Cycling should be encouraged also.

Most public buildings and private homes should be energy self sufficient and only rely on the utility grid for emergencies.

Electric utilities that use oil should be converted to coal or natural gas.

Are we using all of our feasible sights available to establish new electric dams on America's waterways? Are there better ways to harness energy on existing dams?

We should be promoting substitutes for oil based products such as plastic, tires, clothes, cosmetics, and everything else. We should be discouraging gasoline small engines used for lawnmowers, weed whackers, chain saws, and snow blowers and promote plug electric or battery powered versions.

There are a lot of solutions that we can come up with to reduce our dependence of foreign oil and bring our energy costs down. It takes some effort and we should be doing more things now. There are sufficient alternatives, some too numerous to mention here, that we should not even consider nuclear.

Write to your elected officials. Ask them what they are doing to conserve energy, get America off of foreign oil, obtain low energy prices, and prepare America's future electric needs. They haven't done anything. they need input from each and every one of us.

Cara Carleton "Carly" Fiorina, Economic Advisor to John McCain

2008-06-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Fiorina

Fiorina has been floated in some sources as a potential Vice President in a McCain administration.[38] She endorsed Senator John McCain as the Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential elections and campaigned with him.[39] At an economic round-table with the senator in January 2008, Fiorina praised McCain, claiming that "John McCain is a man who understands what the role of government should be, and what the role of government should not be."[40]

On March 7, 2008 Fiorina was named "Chair of Victory, 2008," an RNC coordinated group to raise money and conduct get out the vote activities, by the Republican National Committee. She also stated then that she would additionally be a point person for the McCain campaign as related to business and economic affairs, as well as publicly advocating the Republican Party.[41] Fiorina has along with Bill Gates been actively promoting expansion of H-1B visa guest worker visas. [42]

On January 7, 2004, at a meeting with Congressional members, Fiorina said, "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore. We have to compete for jobs as a nation."[16][17][18] Her statements angered Bay Area workers who felt that low wages overseas encouraged corporations to use less-qualified offshore workers instead of well-qualified locals.[19] Fiorina responded to this criticism by publishing a clarifying op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.[20]
Fiorina was named in the Time 100 for 2004.[21]

COMMENT

Nothing makes me gag more about John McCain than his economic advisor Carly Fiorina. She is the poster child of Overseas outsourcing of American jobs and the lies encouraging temporary alien labor through the H1B program replacing Americans on the job in America.

I guess McCain is for more outsourcing of American jobs overseas and the importation of more temporary alien workers in America replacing Americans on the job in America. McCain and Fiorina do not shy away from Americans losing good jobs overseas or the importation of aliens to America to replace Americans on the job, they seem to relish in it.

McCain and Fiorina are kicking American labor where it hurts. Every job outsourced overseas means an American gets fired, and s/he loses that income and benefits, and the local community and state loses the income also. And America as a nation loses the skills and income also. McCain and Fiorina support scabs, which are everyone replacing an American or legal citizen on the job in America due to illegal aliens residing in America, outsourcing of American jobs overseas, and the aliens coming to America on temporary H1B visas.

It is time for a change and McCain and Fiorina clearly do not support America's middle class. They clearly support President George Bush's anti labor policies. They are both anti-American. I'd even call both of them traitors to America.

Carly Fiorina is a failed businesswoman being fired from Hewlett Packard for halving the company's value during her tenure. She received a 21 million dollar golden parachute which was 2 1/2 times her salary. Why McCain would cling to her is beyond belief, you think he would lean on someone successful rather than a loser.

Pope gives Bush rare tour of contemplative site

2008-06-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iz5NfWQ4MwfbD7DuNXYSVorKzZsAD9195H500

Bush and Benedict share much common ground, particularly in opposing abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research. But they disagree on other issues, including the war in Iraq, the death penalty and the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

Comments

Bush sought out friendly faces during this European trip, said to be his last while President.

The Pope was exceptionally nice to Bush, spending a lot of time with him, and opening up private sections of the Vatican rarely seen by outsiders. I guess the Pope thought it best to go with the sweetness instead of the vinegar with Bush this visit.

The Pope is the leader in the world of the Catholic church and as such he knows and has specified the Catholic interpretation opposing abortion, gay marriage, and embryonic stem cell research. Bush is a Methodist born again christian without much religious training or stature within his religion. It is unfair to declare that the two men agreed on these matters.

Do not even think that the Pope supports George Bush.

If Bush needs a confessor to talk to everyday, I am sure the Pope can recommend someone.

John McCain, The Navy Passed Him Over

2008-06-13T16:37:00.000-04:00

John McCain, The Navy Passed Him Over

John McCain was the son and the grandson of Navy Admirals. Growing up on military bases he led a priveliged life.

While attending Annapolis, McCain specialized in punishment tours for breaking the rules. McCain was no scholar.

McCain was shot down from his Naval jet while over Vietnam and captured serving 5 years as a prisoner of war.

McCain suffered many tortures and required many months of rehabilitation to recover from his injuries and ailments.

McCain returned to active duty with the Navy and then quit when he found out that the Navy passed him over from the promotion list to Admiralty rank. When McCain realized he would not reach any admiralty rank he retired from the Navy, and eventually became a Senator from Arizona.

He has a reputation to be a maverick.

McCain divorced his first wife and remarried.

Personally, the man does not have enough character to be President of the United States of America. I do not think excessing at things bringing punishment tours as a student at Annapolis should be overlooked. I do not know if the American voters can accept a divorced man as President. If the Navy did not want him, I certainly do not want him as President of the United States. I do not understand the criticism of McCain that he is a maverick.

One of the nicest things people can say about President Bush is that he is a maverick. President Bush follows his own ideas rather than the constitution. President Bush does not follow the voice of the people in many instances too.

America does not need another maverick such as John McCain. John McCain supports George Bush on most things and will ignore the constitution when he can and will also follow his own direction even though the people are against those ideas....

John McCain can live the good life with his $59,000 military pension and his even bigger Senator pension and Social Security and Medicare, and his family's 100+ million dollars in assets. John McCain has done enough for America, America must retire him permanently to Arizona where he comes from. If he was home more he could take better care of his 95 year old mother.

Fuel Oils, The Next American Disaster

2008-06-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

Fuel Oils, The Next American Disaster

With oil spiking above $135 per barrel and gasoline at more than $4.00 per gallon, and home heating oil more than $5.00 per gallon Americans are in considerable pain already and signs indicate it becoming worse in the near future.

There are many markets for fuel oil such as sweet crude and heavy sulfur oil, and oil products such as unleaded gasoline, diesel, home heating oil, and jet fuel.

The Federal government says there is nothing to lower the prices of oil. Some senators saber rattle to tax huge oil companies for their windfall profits. This will get us nowhere.

It appears the "markets" where the oil prices are being speculated are in the oil futures/hedges "market". In less than a year there has been an increase of about 30% more speculators bidding up the price(s) of oil. Right now one does not have to prove they can cover a future sale of oil, either deliver the contract or pay for it. Margin requirements are as low as 7%. They have no interest whether or not they really have a business interest in hedging the cost of oil for their specific business purposes. There is almost no transparency of the individuals or their corporations involved. Secret hedge funds, sovereign funds, pension funds, and others in the oil market for high quick profits are endangering the economy of the world. Profits are the only concern and not the potential pain of society.

The gamblers have come to town to rape society with excessive oil prices. They are only interested in excessive profits. They found ways to manipulate the system and they are doing it.

Free traders think that "the markets will shake out any inefficiencies" and boy can they be wrong. We already suffered with Enron market manipulation, and the secondary mortgage market problems almost ruining America's banking system, and other excessive "free market" or unregulated activities. America cannot let the criminals continue to excessively drive up the price of oil without supervision.

With the bailout of the banks and brokers, America's society owns them. With the future costs of oil heading to $150 and beyond it appears that the American government will have to bail out consumers and others and "own" the oil industry too.

The media and our federal government should force transparency to identify the organizations and individuals playing in the oil futures sandbox and to state what they are doing.

Right now the bets are basically pieces of paper, but they must be backed up with real oil or oil products. The bets should be covered that they can deliver if they are selling oil or can pay for it if they are buying. Margins should be raised from the current 7%. It should be that there are reasons why someone is selling oil contracts and why someone would purchase oil contracts, which means the market should be composed to people in the oil industry. not some pension fund or hedge fund hoping to make a quick buck.

The Fed and the Treasury ignored the mortgage problem and we still have a major mortgage, housing, and credit market problems,...the Federal government must examine the oil markets and influence them towards a better path for society before it is too late.

Write to your elected officials. Ask them if someone can sell uncovered oil contracts? Ask them how low is the margin requirement? Ask them why pension funds are investing in oil contracts.
Ask your representative what he or she is going to do about it?

Open Letter to Linda Stender, Running for Congress to Represent New Jersey's 7th District

2008-05-31T19:25:00.000-04:00

Open Letter to Linda Stender, Running for Congress to Represent New Jersey's 7th District

You can reach Linda Stender at her website at www.lindastenderforcongress.com

Dear Linda, May 31, 2008

What are your positions on official English legislation, securing the Mexican border, securing America by rounding up illegal aliens and prosecuting employers of illegal aliens?

Right now Americans are being taxed without representation to support the social expenses of the illegal aliens which is unfair to legal citizens.

Do you support 2 societies in America, one English and the other Spanish? Already many jobs are for Spanish speakers only in America. The illegal aliens are scabs taking away jobs from legal citizens by accepting reduced wages and benefits. Union County lost 2 hospitals already Union Hospital and Muhlenberg because of underfunding of indigent illegal alien patients and legal indigents are denied health services at the clinics because they are full of illegal aliens. Our towns are heavily burdened with educational costs of the children of illegal aliens. How many millions of dollars in New Jersey state education aid has your hometown of Scotch Plains forfeited to the "poorer districts".

A lot of lipservice has been made on securing the Mexican border but little has been accomplished. America welcomes millions of legal aliens to America. America cannot afford unscreened mostly illiterate and sometimes sick or criminal aliens or the illegal drugs crossing the border illegally.

It has been socially correct for our police not to ask whether or not someone is an illegal alien or not, but those days are behind us in America. The illegal aliens break the law just by crossing the border and there are laws to prosecute employers of illegal aliens.

Only the slave employers benefit from employing the illegal aliens at low wages and they place the full social burden of health and education expense of the illegal aliens on the middle class. Legal citizens struggle to make ends meet and they suffer further paying social expenses of the illegal aliens.

I am not going to send anyone to Washington that does not stand up as an American, just like our parents and grandparents. They joined American society by learning English and obeying the laws. Somethings are very wrong in America and now is the time to stop them before they get out of hand.

NJ hospitals rally against funding cuts

2008-05-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

NJ hospitals rally against funding cuts

By TOM HESTER Jr. Associated Press Writer
May 12, 2008

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine on Monday said he's "bound and determined" to right troubled state finances as New Jersey hospitals rallied outside the Statehouse against his plan to cut state hospital aid by 14 percent. ..

The cut is part of $2.7 billion in cuts sought by Corzine in his $33 billion budget proposal that aims to fix state finances plagued by chronic deficits and high debt and taxes. ..

Corzine has also proposed cutting state funding for property tax rebates, state colleges, municipalities and nursing homes. He's indicated he will find alternative to his plans to close state parks and eliminate the agriculture department. ..

Much of the hospital cut would come from money given by the state to help treat New Jersey's 1.5 million uninsured residents. Since 1992, 22 hospitals have closed in New Jersey, including six in the last 18 months. Of the 76 remaining hospitals, half reported losing money.

COMMENT

When hospitals close, it is time for the public to open their eyes to reality and do something about it. When 22 hospitals close in New Jersey in 16 years, it just has to have put a lot of legal residents in jeopardy for their lives. One county in New Jersey lost one hospital, Union Hospital, and is in the process of losing a second, Muhlenberg Hospital, in the immediate future. It is going to take a lot more time for the residents in those areas to reach another hospital in an emergency. Many patients and patient visitors will no longer be able to walk, take an easy bus ride, or cheap taxi ride to their local Union or Muhlenberg Hospitals because substitute hospitals are now much further away.

New Jersey has 1.5 million uninsured residents and I would bet the majority of them are illegal residents. The next larger group are employers that do not provide health insurance to their employees.

Healthcare in New Jersey when it is not an emergency, is on a first come first served basis. Many clinics for the uninsured are turning away legal citizens because illegal aliens got their first.

It is unfair that the healthcare costs of illegal aliens be born by rank and file legal New Jersey citizens, since Washington has effectively mandated that the illegal aliens will stay. I am sure other states are suffering from paying the big bill they can no longer afford. Cheap labor is gained by business while they escape from paying health insurance to their illegal employees, but rank and file legal citizens are forced to pay for it and also compete for the limitted services.

There is an additional school funding problem in New Jersey and other states, where the same things are happening. Rank and file legal Americans are stuck paying for educating the children of illegal aliens and must compete for limitted resources unfairly.

While we would prefer to be kind and humane, the public funding for illegal aliens is breaking the backs of legal citizens. America must give preference to legal citizens. America must deport the illegal aliens. America must prosecute the employers of the illegal aliens, especially those that do not help fund their employee healthcare or the education of their children; these people not only exploit illegals but legal citizens.

Corzine, Obama, Clinton, Bush, Kennedy, and all other bleeding hearts, donate your millions to charity care and education if you want to keep your illegal aliens in New Jerseyand other states; the rank and file citizens have had it with paying for them.

And by the way, illegal aliens are criminals and their employers are criminals.

How can we try to fund everyone, while we take away funding from legal citizens?

The Two Pair of Pants Car

2008-05-22T17:43:00.000-04:00

The Two Pair of Pants Car

When I first heard of the hybrid car I thought it was a funny joke. The car manufacturers have been making gasoline fueled cars for a century and the California electric car, even though hundreds of people loved them, was banished by good old President Bush junior , oil interests, and the Detroit car manufacturers. The hybrid car reminded me of the old advertisements of a men's suit with two pair of pants which is no longer available.

The suit with 2 pairs of pants was an economical offering to the public because most men wear out the pants well before the jacket, so 2 pairs of pants would extend the usefulness of the jacket.

I still think that the hybrid is a joke because why would anyone want to buy a car with 2 engines? I think the hybrid car was bult to exploit consumers.

If the California plug electric car program, where there were thousands available and leased by consumers was not sabotaged by Bush and big business, America could possibly have millions of them consuming electric in use today minimizing on the use of fossil fuels imported from abroad. GM's Saturn division had the vehicle that appealed to me the most at the time they were limmitedly available. I think Saturn could have sold at least a million of them, maybe 2 or 3 million since then, but they had to ignore the consumers and refused to build more, in fact they recalled all of their vehicles and destroyed all of them except I think one that remains in a museum. Dumb move, again, GM.

Now we have this hybrid vehicle which the consumer pays for 2 engines which runs on liquid carbon fuel (usually gasoline) and sometimes on battery power.

Plug compatible vehicles will be available in the American market in 2009 by Toyota and 2010 by Nissan and other manufacturers have plans to sell their electric cars too. I think most people will have to order and wait for delivery of an electric car. I think the demand will be very high for them and most people will have to wait from one to four years to take delivery.

The hybrid car or as I like to call it the 2 pair of pants car is a sick joke from our the Republicans led by President George Bush and big business.

When there are millions of electric cars on our streets, I hope our electric utilities have the capacity to recharge them. But that takes planning and leadership which the Republicans are incapable of doing.

The Keystone Cop President and His Cabinet

2008-05-21T17:29:00.000-04:00

The Keystone Cop President and His Cabinet, also known as How to Turn the American Dream into the American Nightmare in Less Than Eight Years

A barrel of oil reached $131 per barrel today. The service tech for my home heating oil burner said he expects fuel oil to reach $5 per gallon this coming heating season. Because of high fuel costs revenue on the NJ Turnpike, a toll road dropped and will need to raise tolls in order to pay off its bonds. The airline industry has been hit with billions of dollars of additional fuel costs just in the past few weeks with rising oil prices and are in bad shape. Rents are rising to force tenants to help pay for energy to heat their apartments. Truckers are being hurt with high deisel prices raising their rates where they can and raising all prices on store shelves. Large food price increases are outrageous. Public transportation will require fare increases in order to pay for high energy costs and reluctant state and federal authorities to subsidize them. Unemployment is rising. Some businesses are going out of business because they cannot afford the high energy prices. Consumers are cutting back on general merchandise in order to pay for high energy costs and high cost food. Mortgage lenders ripped off the American public with funny loan packages and no documentation which caused severe writeoffs on the paper, diminished the availablility of current loans, and almost brought the American money market to a severe decline. And there is no sign that any improvement is coming anytime soon.

Our President and his Cabinet are the executives and suppposed to be the leaders of our country. Below are the 20 executive positions in George Bush Junior's casbinet level team.
The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments-the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Under President George W. Bush, Cabinet-level rank also has been accorded to the Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Director, Office of Management and Budget; the Director, National Drug Control Policy; and the U.S. Trade Representative.

They all deserve a grade of zero for what they have done and what they did not do. Basically, if they did not have bad luck they would not have any luck at all. Leaders are supposed to lead, but these people are like ostriches with their heads in the sand. If they were funny they would be like the old Keystone Cops in the old movies. They spent almost 8 years ruining America. They did a real good job destroying American labor. They are removing millions of families from the American middle class and preventing as many from reaching it. There is no empathy from them or their fellow republicans and democrats in Congress. They are turning the American Dream to the American Nightmare.

George Bush, Junior should be know as Bloody Bush, had to start a war in Iraq instead of listening or following his father's direction to stay out of there. And he and his cabinet bungled it every way they could. Tens of thousand of America's best have been maimed and thousands have died there and there is no solution yet in sight except to get the troops out of there. He also had penchant for blood as governor sending many convicts to death.

We saw energy prices increasing for years while Bush killed the California electric car. The current energy act seems to give billions more to the already extremely high profit oil companies. The major oil companies seem to act in their own interest not in America's. There should be an American energy plan that will solve today's problems but there is none. Tears came to my eyes when I recently saw the President in Saudi Arabia and the announcer said he asked the Saudis to open their oil fawcets more to help lower prices. The solution is not more foreign oil to solve the foreign oil problem. I knew they would say no. I would not have asked for something that would be refused or that they did not have the ability to do it. What kind of advice is he getting?

Why are we converting 30% of so of our corn and soybean crop to fuel without a plan to open up millions of additional acres to growing corn and soybeans? Where is our food plan? With Bush trade policies American farmers are suffering due to unfair trade practices allowing imports of honey and juices and other products into America. With high food prices, the current food stamp program provides much less food than the system did ten years ago and must be increased for the hungry. It is nice to have many food products year round instead of only seasonally but our farmers are competing with food all around the world. There is no signs to let people know what countries the food is coming from. Some imports have killed our pets and others had contaminated toothpaste reaching America. There is a lack of inspection of these products.

Where is America's transportation plan? The auto industry is still trying to reach CAFE standards set 40 years ago during the Carter Administration.

Education is totally incompetent. Our grammar and secondary students are being outpaced by students overseas. College is not affordable for most people. The debt incurred by those attending college is excessive. Students are avoiding much needed skill categories in America such as math, engineering, computer science, and others because they see these jobs outsourced overseas.

Bush's department of labor supports the outsourcing of millions of american jobs overseas, tens of millions of illegal aliens working in america, and the enablement of hundreds of thousands of H1B temporary alien workers replacing American citizen workers on the job in America. How can that be justified. She enabled the lowering of wages and benefits for American citizens remaining on the job. She does not support a decent minimum wage for low paid american workers. Therefore she supports the decline of the American middle class and to make it more difficult for others to reach it.

The veterans are being cheated from their promised benefits.

Where was the Treasury and the Fed before the current crises evolved, sleeping? I do not think monetary policy will minimize inflation when they decide to face it. I think the recession will linger for many years.

Health insurance and prescriptions are too expensive. Too many do not have good health insurance. One week in a hospital can be charged as much as $90,000 or more. Most bancruptcies are caused by high medical bills. Too many businesses in America depend on Medicaid for their employee health. American citizens are refused care because illegal aliens registered in clinics first and there is no additional budget for others. America's hospitals are closing due to lack of payments for charity care of illegal aliens, jeopardising life.

Justice and Homeland Security ignore tens of millions of illegal aliens that should be deported and their employers charged with hiring illegal aliens. They are still botching recovery of new Orleans.

There has been no improvement in the drug problem during the last 7 years. I would not be surprised that there are more drugs on the street today.

Continuing energy and food increases will cause severe economic consequences probably worse than the effect of the depression. Why don't the economists, play what-if oil went to $100 per barrel and an ear of fresh corn went to a dollar, or lowest airfares doubled, or rents doubled? What would it be like if oil reached $200 per barrel?

America's armed forces are severely strained by Iraq and Afganistan and the majority their resources need replacement. Bush used the reserve forces that were traditionally held for world wars and put America's civilian population at risk during severe catastrophies here in america.

The republican presidential candidate, McCain will only continue the incompetent Bush junior policies and turn America from a first rate economic power into a third world country. Obama and Clinton do not have it either however there should be much improvement over McClain, especially if Democrats gain a big enough majority to prevent the republicans from hindering a democratic agenda.

Bush and his cabinet have disgraced themselves and America and should just resign immediately. The administration should have been impeached long ago. All republicans should resign in Congess too for incompetance.

It is going to take some clear thinking and the President to work with Congress to solve the severe problems caused mostly by Bush junior and his administration and the republicans in congress.

Three years ago there were mandates from the elections to get out of Iraq and to fence the Mexican border and to round up the illegal aliens and prosecute the employers that hired them.
Nothing meaningful was acomplished to meet these mandates. In fact McCain want to remain in Iraq fighting for 100 years and the Democrats want to grant citizenship to the illegal aliens.

You do not get to become Secretary by being dumb and stupid. I suspect the president has a heavy hand on preventing good work being accomplished by cabinet secretaries if they were given some freedom to work directly with Congress. Let the secretaries carry the ball, Mr President. Open the problems up for discussion. Encourage people to discuss possible solutions. Step aside and let good people provide solutions. Bring some democrats into your administration. Bush has put a great freeze on progress and is in the way for America to solve the current messes. I fear that Bush has nothing to offer to meet today's problems. I fear much the same during the next four years when a new president comes to office.

The Lame Duck Is a Turkey

2008-04-29T14:00:00.000-04:00

The Lame Duck Is a Turkey

President Bush plugged away for drilling at ANWR or the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but even his own Executive Office says, "The report, issued by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said that if Congress gave the go-ahead to pump oil from Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2013 and reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2025.

But even at peak production, the EIA analysis said, the United States would still have to import two-thirds of its oil, as opposed to an expected 70 percent if the refuge’s oil remained off the market."

His response to the energy crises is to drill in the ANWR.

This is the man that killed the California and Arizona electric car, which if he and others in government supported it could have replaced million of gas powered vehicles with plug electric cars today providing some needed relief today with the high price of gasoline and diesel fuels. Read all about it in the following link, click here .

There are many countries that will be energy independant within 5 years. America has been in an analysis phase during the past 7 years of the Bush Administration with a prediction that it will take us 25 years to reach our goals. It will take another President to give America a decent Energy Plan for America. This President is a turkey, not a lame duck. By the way, John McCain, the Republican Party Presidential nominee thinks just like President Bush, another turkey. Gobble, gobble, White House.

The First Big Step For New Jersey

2008-04-14T11:17:00.000-04:00

The First Big Step For New Jersey

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20080413_ap_newreportfindsnjfifthmostexpensivestateforrenters.html

The article linked above states, "TOM HESTER Jr. The Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey is the fifth most expensive state for renters, making it difficult for many in commonplace jobs to find decent housing, according to a new report from an affordable housing advocacy group.

The report being released Monday by the Housing & Community Development Network of New Jersey, comes as Gov. Jon S. Corzine looks to cut property tax relief for tenants.
According to the report, a person earning $16.45 per hour , a bit less than the state's average hourly wage , would have to work 54 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent.

It also found a person earning minimum wage , $7.15 per hour , would have to work 124 hours a week to afford the same apartment.

The advocacy group said its research demonstrates numerous occupations , including preschool teachers, child care workers, home health aides, police and fire dispatchers, security guards, school bus drivers and social workers , don't generate enough income to afford decent housing.

New Jersey has the nation's highest property taxes, at $6,800 per homeowner. Tenants don't directly pay property taxes, but are presumed to do so through their rent payments."

New Jersey is failing its citizens with excessive taxes, a lack of inexpensive housing, and other ways. In business, when something fails there is a problem evaluation on the causes, at least a temporary solution, and a long term solution. There has been no problem evaluation of the problems of New Jersey. These problems manifested themselves in New Jersey for more than 10 years, but during this time period have become painful for New Jersey's low and middle class citizens.

Right now in New Jersey, there is a policy not to ask whether or not anyone is a legal citizen of New Jersey, which has a minimal estimation of 500,000 illegal aliens residing in the state. A policy to effectively prosecute the employers of illegal aliens and to deport the illegal aliens would be the first step to save money for legal American citizens in New Jersey.

It is taxation without representation when I have to support an illegal alien in any way which seems to be the Federal and New Jersey policy right now. Make the support of illegal aliens voluntary and see how many American citizens will donate any money.

Just think about the hundreds of millions of dollars saved each year when we do not have to pay for teaching illegal alien children in our schools, not only through high school, but in our public junior colleges and universities. The inner city school systems where most illegal aliens live receive the bulk of New Jersey state aid to education forcing the other local school systems to painfully raise school budget funds from local real estate taxes.

Think about the hundreds of million dollars each year New Jersey will save by not having to pay for the health care of the illegal aliens. It adds up from maternity services, to well child vaccinations, to various ailments and injuries, surgeries, prescriptions, dental services, and many other services for the illegal aliens that are paid for by legal citizens. And most legal citizens have difficulties paying for their own health care suffering by delaying visits to doctors and also skipping prescriptions because they cannot afford them.

Think about the tens of millions of dollars saved each year by not having to pay for the criminal justice system for crimes committed by the violent illegal aliens. It costs a pretty penny to catch someone and put them into the justice system.

Think about a smaller drug problem and the hundreds of millions of dollars that would save. Most illegal aliens are good people but the Mexican border hemorrhages the bulk of illegal drugs enter ring America. If there were fewer illegal aliens and the Mexican border was closed many of our legal relatives and neighbors would not have access to deadly drugs and subjected to the violence it creates.

There would be tens of thousands of rental units available for legal citizens if the illegal aliens were deported or just went back where they came from on their own. They arrived here on their own they can leave the same way. Supply and demand would start to lower rents in the state.

There are also thousands, maybe ten thousand H1B Visa holders, alien temporary workers, in New Jersey that replaced American citizens on the job. Put Americans back to work and send the H1B's back to their home countries. There is no shortage of skilled New Jersey citizens that are willing and able to perform these jobs. And they cost New Jersey communities and state a millions of dollars, too. And when they leave new Jersey they will free thousands of rental units in New Jersey.

Mr. Corzine get rid of the illegal aliens and the H1B Visa alien temporary workers and their families in New Jersey and you will be freeing at least a billion dollars each year in New Jersey state and local funds that could be put to better use in New Jersey. New Jersey would then be able to attract legal citizens and businesses from other states because they would then know that they would not be excessively taxed to pay for the illegal aliens in New Jersey.

This would be a terrific first big step to get New Jersey back on sound fiscal standing and to provide relief to its legal citizens.

Dick Cheney , the Modern Age Scrooge

2008-04-11T22:03:00.000-04:00

Dick Cheney , the Modern Age Scrooge

President Bush and Vice President Cheney reported their federal income taxes for 2007 recently. Basically Bush reported almost 1 million dollars in income and Cheney reported more than 3 million dollars in adjusted gross income. This is the income left over after deductions and exemptions.

The Bush's donated almost 18% of their AGI to charities including churches, the Crawford Fire Department, and Mrs Bush donated all of the net proceeds of her book to charity also.

The Cheney's donated almost 5.5% of their AGI to charity. There was no explanation of which charities the Cheney's donated .

I find it interesting that the Cheneys with more than 3 times the AGI of the Bush's, donate less than 1/3 the rate of the Bush's. And it seems that it is top secret which charities the Cheney's donated to. I can only think most were for right wing neocon causes.

At Kean University this past Christmas season, we saw modified Christmas Carol play where Scrooge was a woman and the time was changed to contemporary time. It was terrific, enjoyable, funny and I recommended it to others.

Someone should modify "A Christmas Carol" again making Cheney the main character Scrooge.

There are a lot more Americans suffering with hunger and decent medical health plans. Most Americans have problems paying for groceries, transportation, drugs, housing, and other expenses. Salaries and benefits have declined for most low and middle income citizens. Most Americans fear losing their jobs.

You never see the Cheney's at a food bank or serving charity meals. You do not see any empathy from them about people losing their homes due to bankruptcy or any other severe consequence to America's low and middle classes.

Cheney wants low and middle class Americans to volunteer to be in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan and does not want to give back to them.

Yes, Cheney would be a great character study as Scrooge in a modified "A Christmas Carol" play,
but I think he is personally beyond help from the ghosts.

Presidential Candidates Fail Again

2008-04-09T12:22:00.000-04:00

IT chiefs worldwide have no idea who the "IT candidate" for president is. Not that there is one.

If CIOs and IT managers around the world could pick the next American president, Hillary Clinton might win in a landslide.

That's the word from a stray question on a wide-ranging survey conducted recently by The Computing Technology Industry Association Inc. (CompTIA) that raises more questions than it answers.

The primary issue in America about IT (Information Technology) is jobs for American citizens working in America. If Americans continue to lose jobs due to outsourcing overseas and bringing aliens to America under the H1B Visa to replace Americans on the job right here in America...the rest does not matter to the majority of American voters.

American IT workers took a sharp stick in the eye as they found themselves fired and replaced by aliens overseas and even in America. Students recognize the fact and studies in IT major and minors in college have rapidly declined. People also say the majority of those Americans lucky to remain employed are Boomers ready to retire during the next decade leaving skills and experience that are difficult to replace.

America leaves itself more open to cyber attacks when most American computing is accomplished by aliens.

The IT press is run by the advertisers that provide contract labor to the American IT industry. The are going to lean towards overseas outsourcing and H1B outsourcing.

IT workers do not have a voice in the Press or in government. You never see rank and file systems analysts, programmers, computer architects, systems engineers, and other job titles testifying in front of Congress.

It is the same problem, retaining jobs for Americans in America for many industries such as engineering, graphic design, accounting, training, lawyers, architecture, teaching, and most others.

President Clinton's economic advisor from Princeton said as many as 60 million more jobs may be outsourced from America to foreign countries.

It truly is all about the jobs in America, stupid, playing on another earlier Presidential theme.

All H1B's Are Scabs

2008-04-02T19:51:00.000-04:00

All H1B's Are Scabs

There has been a major decline in union membership recently, and there are horrendous laws on the books to prevent the major union weapon known as the strike. Most legal workers in America today have held to a certain wage and benefit level. Employers and their co-conspirator government allies, most of them our elected officials do not bargain with a union anymore but with hundreds or thousands of individuals.

They can cherry pick which employees they fire to be replaced aliens individually by bring in H1B's or at a wholesale level by hiring illegal aliens, or they can ship the organization to a foreign country. Most of us have been outsourced or witnessed the outsourcing of co-workers. if we are lucky to keep our jobs, we have to keep quiet and work with the scabs or else we will get fired. Sometimes they bring in our replacements and we have to train them in order to survive on the job a little longer and maybe receive severance money or be fired right away and receive no severance money. For the most part American employers can get away with firing American workers for no cause due to at-will laws. Basically at-will is when and employer can fire you for no cause because you have the right to quit your job at any time. At will firing has been successful for companies in America because there is no public outcry. Most companies are sensitive to public outcry, but when there is none they will do their shady deals.

Lockout is the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries, the importation of illegal alien replacements to take the jobs of legal Americans, and the H1B Visa program that facilitates the replacement of American workers on the job in America.

There are no strikes because American labor is now pretty much not organized into unions and there are now anti-union laws that have severe punishment for unions to strike. President Carter fired postal workers. President Reagan fired air traffic controllers. Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and governor George Pataki of New York sought and won prison time for the President of the MTA union TWU and a severe fine.

I have to say that I admire the New York City TWU President for sticking to his guns for his members to have decent pay and retirement even though he went to prison and his union paid an extreme fine. Most union leaders today whether at the local or national level leave a lot to be desired in supporting their members because they allowed the loss of tens of million jobs in America without a fight and the future is no brighter for them and their members unless they show some backbone.

Americans are law abiding people. They enjoy fair play. They are not violent. They do not complain much. Most think losing their jobs to aliens is their fault even though it is not. I do not know of any violent event when a legal American assaulted a scab. But their are 500,000 illegal aliens that cannot be found that committed crimes in America that require priority prison time and then deportation many of them murderers that the Bush administration do anything about.

Just remember, you are supporting scabs when you purchase goods from companies that hire them. When you are a bleeding heart for illegal aliens you are rejecting jobs for you children , grandchildren, other relatives, friends, and neighbors. You are also magnifying the costs to your local, state, and national government. My county in New Jersey lost two hospitals due to excessive demand of services of people without insurance and low compensation for charity care where now emergencies will have to travel miles further to reach other hospitals risking life.

Just think about the H1B you may have to work with because there may be another H1B to replace you soon.

Just like the millions of Mexicans that have climbed fences and hitch hiked to destinations all over America, they can go back the same way when the American employers are prosecuted and the jobs and money dry up. We just have to find criminal justice employees to step up and do their jobs.

The scabs are the new slaves of American business. Whether they work in America or work overseas in their home countries they are underpaid and have few benefits. American business is cheating them and the long term consequence is continued bad reputation for America. Most are from desperate areas of the world where being a slave for American business is an improvement. Their countries are responsible for them not America. If the bleeding hearts want to save the slaves they should do it in the home countries of these individuals not in America.

Free trade as defined by Bush is wrong because too many countries take advantage of America. Fair trade is better when there is something for us too. Too many countries have barriers to prevent American services and goods from entering their countries. We cannot allow lopsided balance of trade with countries like China where we owe them trillions of dollars.

Bush tried to change America into a Roman Empire civilization where 5% of the population had any rights, had the money to pay for educating their children, pay for health care, had property, had a decent standard of living... and the other 95% had basically nothing and most were slaves. He is going to succeed if we let him by ignoring all of the problems he has caused. Caesar Bush is wrong for America.

"It is all about the jobs, stupid", should be the theme of American politics now. Write your local, state, and national elected officials. Stand up and let your feeling known. Boycott anyplace that you think hires scabs. Support the unions when you think they are doing some good. join peaceful protests. Discuss the issues with everyone but your employer.

The H1B Assault on American Labor Continues

2008-03-25T14:29:00.000-04:00

The H1B Assault on American Labor Continues

There are two bills in Congress to increase the number of H1B Visas that enables alien workers to replace American workers on the job here in America. The H1B visa was established to allow temporary alien workers into America to supplement shortages of American workers. There are American citizens available, qualified, and willing to do the work nullifying any need for H1B Visas at this time.

But, (read link) " One bill, introduced March 14 in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would retroactively boost H1B Visas from 65,000 to 195,000 for fiscal years 2008 and 2009." Another bill, " introduced March 13 by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is dubbed the Innovation Employment Act, and would hike H-1Bs to 130,000 starting this year and 180,000 from 2010 to 2015, provided all H-1B spots are actually filled. Both bills have been referred to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. " These are annual increases in the numbers of H1B Visas where the alien holders can remain and work in America for several years.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. should examine the issue more completely and then they will find their bills not necessary and harmful to American labor. These two Representatives are horses arses.

The Bush Triple Play against American citizens labor: the H1B Visas, overseas outsourcing of American jobs, and the facilitation of tens of millions of Mexican illegal aliens must come to a halt. The pendulum has swung too far to the conservative right. Bush and his willing and unwilling co-conspirators have harmed low and middle class Americans too much. With the current national economic problems Bush and company may have seriously damaged America.

" Lest the recent push for H-1B increases be considered a minor one, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed up in Washington just before the bills were submitted to ask the House Committee on Science and Technology to raise the H-1B limit. " Gates further testified, " Gates said the current H-1B limit "is arbitrarily set and bears no relation to the U.S. economy's demand for skilled professionals," according to his written testimony submitted to Congress. He also said failure to raise the H-1B cap is forcing Microsoft and other U.S. companies to outsource staff to other countries. "

If they need workers in Seattle, Texas or Arizona or any other place it is cheaper to obtain H1B's. But American enterprise is smarter than that. They could work with local colleges to train local Americans in the skills necessary. They could provide moving expenses and a cheap mortgage for an American and family if there is one to relocate. They could sweeten the salary for an American to relocate. They could contract with the American citizen worker to provide a golden parachute or stock options. They could train one of their own employees and hire a less skilled American to replace the trained worker in the old job. There are many optional ways for an American company to attract skilled American workers.

A lot of work for H1B's is temporary where they are "loaned" or contracted to a client. The work for example can be for government or the private sector. One example might be for a state motor vehicle department system to be redeveloped for all of the new technology, new laws, business intelligence, and new customer satisfaction initiatives. Another example might be for an energy producer to enhance their billing systems by a few digits to better enable the current high prices and future higher prices. Most clients require turnkey systems which would include testing, partial conversion and corrections, and full conversion and implementation and performance tuning.

The contractor would hire for H1B's or American citizens. The American citizens would want relocation expense to move to the client's location, a rental car at the client's location, and travel expense to return home every 2 or 3 weeks for the weekend. The H1B's do not require the same out of pocket expense as the American citizens would because they have no other place to go other than there home countries. And the contractor may set up the H1B's in furnished rental apartments and a car to share they can charge the H1B's for their share of the expenses. Of course, the Americans would cost more in salary than the H1B's also.

Some contractors will outsource much of the programming overseas to further reduce costs. And allow fewer H1B's to provide support at the client's site.

Most contract dollar amounts are large enough to pay for American citizen labor to do the work, but many contractors are greedy and do their best to steer the work to aliens overseas or to H1B aliens in America. How would you feel if you paid for gold for the contract and would up with silver doing the work? How would you feel if you thought Americans would be doing the work and found third work aliens showing up to do the work. I think many American government and business organizations that paid for services thought they got screwed with the Alien H1B's.

After a year or two, the H1B contract is over and the original contractor may or may not have a new assignment for the H1B's. The H1B's are faced with paying rent and other living expenses without an income. If there is work with the original contractor they may have to relocate on their own to the new assignment. They may have downtime without any sponsor or salary in America. They may have to apply back to US Immigration if they can find another sponsor in America.

Personally, I think H1B's should never be brought in for the contractors and be brought in for solely direct employers.

America does not need the corrupt Bush triple play against American labor especially H1B Visa holders. Tens of millions of illegal Mexicans have done too much damage already and should be sent home and their employers should be prosecuted. America should find away to reduce the overseas outsourcing of American jobs.

Have you lost your job to an alien at least once this decade? Have you found you salary and benefits reduced during the Bush administration, also. Do you think you will live as well as your parents did? Do you know that almost 50 million Americans lack adequate food and are hungry and almost 50 million Americans do not have health insurance? Are you impacted severely by the greedy mortgage brokers and other corrupt people foreclosing on a million American homes? Are you struggling with high gasoline and heating costs? Are you struggling to pay the high costs of groceries?

Get active in politics. Write your elected officials at the national, state, and local levels. Contact the people running for office. Talk to your friends, neighbors, and relatives.

H-1B Visa Propoganda Is All Bull

2008-03-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

H-1B Visa Propaganda Is All Bull

There are many companies in America who have vested interest in supporting and magnifying the H-1B Visa program in the United States. The source of this article is InformationWeek that receives advertising revenue from many of the companies making fortunes from the H1B Visa.

Below is the link to the U. S. Federal factsheet on the H1B Visa
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/FactSheet62/whdfs62.pdf .

The specialty occupations are for the most part engineering, scientific, and computer jobs requiring a lot of education, skill, and experience. The article from InformationWeek takes too broad a look at job openings including clerical, sales, and other "non-specialty" occupations.

My experience is that most H1B's in America are contract labor not brought to America by the direct employer. The end employer looks at the H1B as time and materials. The H1B usual work location is in the same building as the direct employer's staff. The H1B never receives the benefits, salary, or working conditions as the permanent employee. Much of the revenue generated by the H1B goes to the contractor that brought him or her to America. Most H1B's live cowboy style like a bunkhouse with more individuals sharing rent than normally acceptable in America. There may be four of them in a one bedroom apartment, for example. Generally, everyone knows that the contracted H1B workers can be fired with 5 days notice with no further obligation to them from the direct employer.

Why do you think most end employers will only contract with others that sponsor the H1B aliens and do not sponsor them themselves? They know they are skirting the law.

H1B contract workers are appealing to American corporations for many reasons. First, the H1B has no rights within the company where they may eventually work. While true employees are covered by the employee handbook, the H1B's are not. A true employee can expect to work out problems with human resources, but the H1B contractor cannot expect to be treated fairly there. At many employer companies, the working conditions of H1B's leave a lot to be desired such as just desk space in rooms with desks side by side and one phone to be shared, while the true employee has a carrel with desk, side chairs, their own phone, bookcases, white board, and file cabinets.

The loaded cost of the H1B contractor is much less than the loaded cost of the true employee. The wages are not even close. The rates that the end employers pay the contracting company that sponsored the H1B is less than the loaded cost of the true employee at the end employer. Health insurance leaves much to be desired for the H1B. I bet comparisons are made among H1B workers and not H1B workers and their true employee peers at the organizations where they work. Many true employees receive profit sharing, defined retirement, employer contributions to a 401k, dental, eyeglasses, free access to employer sponsored health club, and other goodies while the H1B does not receive any of it.

America has gotten fleeced more than once on health insurance because usually the H1B worker is insured, but not the spouse or children especially newborn infants. When the spouse or child requires medical care, if the hospital is lucky, they can receive charity care from the state.

The H1B usually has three bosses. There are usually managed by true employees of the end hiring company. Then they are managed by the organization that sponsored them. Then they have to follow rules of the H1B Visa.

It seems that some jobs are advertised in American newspapers that require advanced degrees with specific majors and experience with a heavy load of job related subject matter offering a low salary. Most Americans will not match the requirements and neither do most H1B, although many will match some of the requirements. Who can read a third world diploma or call third world past employers to verify experience? What usually happens is that the resumes are sometimes fudged. Before interviewing at an employer, the H1B is coached in the subject matter. If hired and the H1B has difficulty with something, he or she has the resources of their sponsor company to assist them. the sponsoring company may even bring in an expert for free for a few days to solve the problem as goodwill.

The InformationWeek author included " So, who's trying to fill the most jobs? According the NFAP report, S&P 500 employers with the most job openings as of January 2008 are Microsoft (4,005), Northrop Grumman (3,925), Lockheed Martin (3,901), General Electric (3,078), Countrywide Financial (2,415), JPMorgan Chase (2,164), Tenet Healthcare (2,050), United Health Group (1,927), Raytheon (1,694), IBM (1,670), Computer Sciences Corp. (1,666), Cintas (1,664), L-3 Communications (1,618), Bank of America (1,600), U.S. Bancorp (1,562) and Cisco Systems (1,504). "

I am sure that most of these jobs are not "specialty" jobs characterized as eligible for H1B Visa aliens. Google the company websites and you find which kinds of jobs there are available. Personally, I believe that no more than 10% of these jobs qualify as "specialty Jobs".
lot of organizations are throwing the manure about the H1B Visa program. Most of them for it and for expanding it are motivated by greedy profits. They lie and also try to confuse everyone. I've worked side by side with H1B Visa holders for thirty years and found them to be pretty truthful. Ask them about the H1B Visa program in America if you do not trust American citizens. During the 70's, 80's, and 90's, the numbers of H1B's were low or moderate. Since the 2000's the numbers of H1B's have increased excessively. During the 70's, 80's, and 90's it was easy for Americans to leave one employer and find a job with another employer.

In the 2000's the world has changed for American citizens in Information Technology. During the 70's through the 90's all recruiters in America were American. About half of the recruiters for permanent jobs or contracting jobs and American contracting companies are out of business and replaced by companies specializing in H1B or outsourcing American jobs overseas. In fact even IBM will outsource American IT jobs overseas.

If an American citizen obtains an employment interview now, he or she will be interviewed by third world people most likely H1B Visa status who have no vested interest in bring aboard American citizens. The H1B Visa holder is embedded in many corporations and are in the critical path of the goals of the management. Talk to American citizens on the job today about what they really think about their H1B Visa holder workers.

Yes, there are a very limited number of tremendously brilliant IT workers throughout the world, but most of the work is for the average skilled IT worker. Bill Gates on TV acts like he wants to hire all of the tremendously brilliant IT workers because he cries there is a shortage of American IT workers to do the job at Microsoft. But everyone should look at the characteristics of most of the hundreds of H1B Visa people he hires, which indicates he is hiring them mostly as average skilled IT workers for average skilled IT jobs. Bill Gates could fill all of those average skilled IT jobs where he has hired H1B Visa workers with American citizens. America has its share of the world's tremendously brilliant workers as well as average skilled IT workers. Bill Gates should tell the truth especially when he talks to Congress.

Most of the spin about H1B Visas are untrue and made by those making huge profits from the program, while the American worker is outsourced unfairly. American business in the 70's through the 90's were pretty sensitive about public opinion and hired H1B people at a minimum level and outsourced overseas at a very low level. When public opinion was not damaging to these companies they went forward with relish through the 2000's. The H1B program as it is used today is not right for America... In fact most are here in America illegally, by fraud and misrepresentation. Most H1B Visa holders are the same as the illegal aliens from Mexico, illegal and should be returned to their home countries and their employers should be punished.

New Rules for Corporate Boards Needed

2008-03-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

New Rules for Corporate Boards Needed

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/WaMuSkipCustomersSaveTheExecs.aspx

The people representing the stockholders in the corporate setting are each of the Board of Directors at each corporation. The stockholders invested in the company and hopefully they expect their rights to be observed. Most stockholders want the stock to appreciate due to corporate success in growing especially with profits each year. Many stockholders also want their investment to not only be worth more over time but they do not think highly of management of the Board when the stock price depreciates. In fact they are more displeased as the stock price depreciates even more. Additionally, they want to pay the executives fairly but not excessively.

The biggest joke is that the executive management picks each Director filling their slate of Directors that the stockholders approve or disapprove as a whole usually. The exception is when one or more stockholders have enough stock to add their own Directors to the slate of Directors. Read the biographies of the people on the Boards of Directors at each corporation when you receive the Annual Report and proxy statement for each stock you may own and think whether or not you are satisfied that each of these individuals represent you. Look at the biographies of the stocks held by the mutual funds you may own directly or held for you and make the same judgement.

Most people would like the Board to be arms length away from executive management to represent the stockholders and to set goals, frameworks, fire or otherwise punish executive when they do not perform well, specify direction, establish salary and bonus of the executives, and be another source of skills, wisdom and experience leading the corporation through current and future problems and successes.

If a corporation performs badly, stockholders cannot directly fire board members or executives directly unless they are big holders of the stock. Even mutual funds that may be big holders seem not interested in getting involved. One pension fund does seem to actively voice their opinion (Calpers) that I usually admire, but most others do not.

The link discusses WaMu Board of Directors granting excessive salaries and bonuses to a failed executive staff.

There should be new rules about Boards of Directors for corporations big enough to be listed on any American exchange.

An extreme example is an executive having a job as an executive manager of one corporation and also a member of the Board of Directors of several other corporations. How can this individual find the time to adequately perform all of his or her duties at each institution? It also seems funny that when this occurs, that there is a common group of these same type of individuals on several corporate boards together. If you let me be on your board, I'll let you on my board. These intertwined boards cannot be good for the stockholders, mutual fund owners, or America.

The WAMu board even when the stock lost 80% of its value recently, literally cannot be fired by the corporate owners: the stockholders. Stockholders cannot select the personnel to run on the Board of Directors. Whoever heard of owners of a business not being able to pick and choose members of the board? The Board of WaMu is as guilty as management for running the company onto the rocks.

The same factors are in play with the current financial mess with the Banks and Brokers. The Boards are just as guilty as the executive management for not being prudent with the dealings of the sub prime mortgages.

Most Boards deserve to be fired right now for enabling excessive salaries and other packages for themselves and the senior executives. A health insurance company Board enabled its CEO to accumulate a billion dollars worth of stock. Most Boards of large corporations pay their executives in the millions of dollars each year like rock or movie stars. The Boards have widened the gap of loaded pay of the lowest paid employees to the senior level employees to widen excessively.

The pay, perks, benefits, and stock options have risen excessively for most members of the boards of directors at major corporations. These part time jobs pay more than 80 percent of the salaries of full time workers across America. Usually these same board members also are on the boards of several other corporations as well as having full time jobs. The members of the boards determine their salary levels.

There should be new rules governing Boards of Directors. Most of the time they look like pushovers (pawns) to the dictator leadership of the executive management. The stockholders really have no say in the selection of members to the board. The stockholders cannot throw out members of a board for bad performance. There is not even much that the stockholder can vote on.

Maybe if we had the new rules, the current economic problems would not be as severe.

Washington Drenched in Egg

2008-03-14T17:25:00.000-04:00

Washington Drenched in Egg

Today the White House, the Senate, and the House were drenched in egg, as usual, on a continuous daily basis for the past nine years. Today's event was triggered by the near failure of a major brokerage house and its bailout by the Fed and JP Morgan Chase Bank. As usual the Fed Chairman gave a speech causing the Dow to drop another 100 points for the day which is normal every time he speaks.

There have been so many eggs broken covering so many elected officials over the years that there is a rotten egg stench in Washington. It is really bad inside Washington DC proper but you can smell it on the beltway around the city, too.

There is a new phenomenon going on because many of the elected officials are really bad eggs to begin with that they are becoming rotten eggs.

Most of us have cracked eggs at one time or another and we know what to do with rotten eggs. You throw them away. So they do not stink up our own homes we bag them and carry them right out to the garbage can and make sure the cover is back on tightly.

One would think that there would be oversight on the banking industry. One would think there would be laws regulating banks. One would think usury laws would exist so that the interest rates, fees, and penalties would be low enough to discourage the muggings of American citizens with gangster loan rates. One would think the bankers would be prudent on their own.

Just like the S & L Scandal, these guys and gals that created liquidity problems and asset valuation problem with the mortgages, turning world economies into decline, will not be punished for their deeds. They will probably not be fired. They will probably all be given payment increases. It really does not make sense to me.

I need a clothespin to prevent the stench from reaching inside my nose. I think America has to make a trip to the garbage can to get rid of those with egg on their faces as well as the thoroughly rotten eggs by voting them all out of office. What do you think?

Angry Boeing Supporters Target McCain

2008-03-08T18:29:00.000-05:00

Angry Boeing Supporters Target McCain

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8dw-9ToDpN8lzCLyiVd2NNL_d1QD8V9AE100

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Angry Boeing supporters are vowing revenge against Republican presidential candidate John McCain over Chicago-based Boeing's loss of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the parent company of European plane maker Airbus.
There are other targets for their ire — the Air Force, the defense secretary and even the entire Bush administration."

America is in economic peril and what do the fearless leaders in Washington, DC do? Well, they outsource an american contract worth $35 billion overseas. Makes sense to me with the past history of these cockeyed nincompoops.

Americans will get rebate checks in a couple of months to stimulate the economy, erase the possibility of recession or at least make the recession a mild one, and to stimulate good job creation, according to President Bush and the merry band of Congress.

With the balance of trade causing America to be a debtor nation, the brisk inflation of almost all comodities, the sinking dollar, and the cruel mugging of low and moderate income level American citizen workers, and other things will not be dented by the mear one shot payment of a few hundred dollars. America is in trouble due to many years of outsourcing tens of millions of manufacturing and service jobs overseas and enabling aliens to replace American citizens on the job in America with temporary alien worker permits such as the H1B.

When you mug American labor with a lead pipe, the cure is not a band aid. American labor is the heart of the American economy.

When the idiots learn that the rebate checks will not do much to solve America's economic problems, then hopefully our fearless leaders will look for other methods to stimulate the econpmy.

Well, they missed the boat with the $35 billion dollar American government contract to build in air refueling tankers to replace our aging fleet by awarding the contract to the parent of Airbus which is an overseas organization. Our government outsourced a contract that would have supported in America 44,000 new and existing jobs at the company (Boeing) and suppliers in 40 states. Now Europeans will support the contract.

When they find out the rebate checks are not enough to get America on track economically, then they will wish they gave the contract to an american company who would keep or put additional americans to work in America.

How dumb can you get? And I thought these people were Ivy College graduates from Yale and Harvard. What are these schools turning out nowadays, idiots?

It's Everyone's Labor Battle, You're Next

2008-03-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

It's Everyone's Labor Battle, You're Next

"The strike by 3,650 workers against American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) has entered its second week. Autoworkers are determined to resist the company’s demands for a cut in wages from $28 to $14 an hour and other sweeping concessions in benefits and working conditions."

As labor costs go down in many industries, you have to ask what industries are next? You cannot pay teachers, government managers, elected political officials, police, firemen, or even sanitation workers big bucks, when rank and file labor is earning only $14 dollars per hour. Most states have high real estate taxes and income taxes that is used to pay the salaries of government workers. As states lose their tax base, they have to furlough workers or reduce wages also.

There are still many workers in America that are earning high wages and they are looking the other way thinking low wages or job elimination will not happen to them. These people for the most part ignore the suffering of their brothers and sisters who are forced to accept lower wages or even forfeit their jobs altogether.

As more and more American citizens are jeopardised with lower wages and job elimination, then the fabric of America is destroyed. Fewer people will be able to afford cars, large screen TVs, or own their homes, or even save for retirement. More Americans will become more callous.

Far too many state and local governments have expenses that exceed their income. Many organizations are behind in paying pension obligations for their workers by billions of dollars. In the State of New Jersey, all tax organizations have been told to reduce the tax burden from last year's tax burden and none complied. Governor Corzine is trying to find billions of dollars to make up from a shortfall in revenue and excessive obligations. And the state lost hundreds of thousands of American citizens due to high taxes already. The state would have a population decrease if not due to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who drain educational, health, and criminal justice resources far beyond their tax contributions. And New Jersey is a sanctuary state which is helping it go bankrupt. Maybe New Jersey should go bankrupt and let its obligations be written off, I certainly feel no need to suffer myself in paying those obligations. And in my mind the obligations are primarily pensions to teachers, police, firemen, and other government workers.

New Jersey as has other states been in economic decline. Once very prosperous, New Jersey is losing jobs every week to neighboring states because of lower taxes and other comparisons. And New Jersey has lost many jobs to overseas countries. And New Jersey American citizens have lost jobs to aliens brought to America with temporary work visas such as the H1B.

We all have to become politically active. Maybe we should get out and demonstrate. We have to vote for the people who recognize what is happening in America and will do something about it. You have to recognize that as more people have to accept lower wages and benefits, or lose their jobs the closer home this will go for the same thing to happen to you. And as the overall income is reduced in you town, county, or state your government will not be able to pay high wages or benefits to their employees either.

It is no longer the other person's problem. You are on the banana peel too. We all have to watch out for each other. President Clinton's economic advisor from Princeton University, Blinder, says there are as many as 40 million more jobs in America that are on the blocks to be outsourced overseas. Congress is looking to increase the number of temporary alien workers into America when there are Americans citizens qualified, available and willing to do the work. There are millions of illegal aliens in America that are breaking the law by being here in America. There are a hundred thousand or more employers of illegal aliens that are breaking the law also. Our government at the federal, state, and local levels must buy American goods and services first. All other countries protect their industry while America seems not to do so which is wrong.

Spooners, American Royalty

2008-02-28T15:12:00.000-05:00

Spooners, American Royalty

It seems that most people running for office are the silver or should I say golden spooner children of wealthy past high office elected officials, like the daughter of ex Governor Christy Whitman of of New Jersey. The governor was also Secretary and head of the national EPA under this Bush administration.

We all know that New Jersey is in deep trouble balancing the budget primarily because of past Governor Whitman's voodoo economic policies that have come home to roost especially with this year's budget. The mother, Former Gov. Whitman cut revenue and didn't cut expenses. To make up for the shortfall, former Gov. Whitman didn't make the pension and health care payments of all the government employees in the state for six years. As if this wasn't bad enough, former Gov. Whitman raided the Transportation Trust Fund and pushed through a $3.2 billion bond issue that traded in the derivatives market as well so she could balance her budget. The state took a beating on the derivatives, and using a capital fund for operating expenses is like using an equity loan for vacations. No surprise here but the Transportation Trust Fund is depleted.

One has to wonder why so many children and spouses of high elected officials feel the need to run for office. Is it that they were spoiled by the trappings of office that their parents of spouse had? It is that they are committed to their family's political policies? Is it that they have the money from their family to seed elections? Are we turning the clock back to the age of royalty, and the politically connected and wealthy owned everything and the rest of us suffered as peons or peasants?

My stomach started to heave with the mother's political actions. New Jersey did have a surplus before she got her hands on the budget. Then she cut taxes for the wealthy. Then she did not make pension payments for New Jersey government workers for six years. Then she gambled further with state funds and lost it all.

Ex governor Whitman is a"gentlewoman farmer" with a huge, valuable estate with farm assessment to save in taxes. The Whitman have all of the money in the world but I pay a higher rate to taxes on my New Jersey home than she does on hers. I don't know for sure but she probably loses money on the farm investment, but saves plenty on the real estate taxes.
She uses a big tax loophole to save real estate money that I really do not think she deserves. The family does not depend on agriculture for their massive income.

Now the Whitman family is pulling for their daughter to win primary nomination. Representative Ferguson is retiring office of the seat the younger lady is seeking. This guy was a teacher and his rich father bankrolled him into elected office. This guy was a Bush clone and had no ideas of his own. He spent most of his time on the golf course where he was known as one of Congress's best golfers. Maybe we should be grateful that he spent so much time on the golf links. New Jersey does not need another Bush clone in office. He will not be missed by the people of the 7th district.

My advice to the daughter is to be real. Go ride your horse and play golf with your rich friends. The country is in enough trouble and does not need more. My stomach cannot take another Whitman in office. We do not need you in Washington. Why don't you try to increase the Whitman fortune like the Trump daughter is trying to increase her family's fortune? At least the Trump daughter is not stupid enough to run for office.

The Whitman family has done damage to New Jersey but not as much as the Bush family has damaged America. What are you trying to do, set a worse record?

America does not need Spooners. We already have enough Clinton's, Kennedy's, Bush's, Kean's, and many others. We need new blood in our elected offices.