Curious

This is just out of curiosity.

The new stimulus bill that is putting every family in debt by almost $10,000 will provide those who earn less than $75,000 a year a whopping $13 per week this year, and $8 per year next year.

Here's my question: based on your normal, typical lifestyle, what would YOU do with your $13 a week?

I would really be curious to see how that huge tax credit is going to be able to impact the economy, and stimulate it.

Please let me know by emailing me at ptwoodycrew@aol.com. Feel free to yuk it up, or have some fun with this. And if I post responses, I will do so anonymously, so as not to embarrass anyone.

Just for the record, I don't qualify for that tax credit. But if I did, it would have to be at least $20 a week just to pay my daughter's allowance. For $13, I could get what? A gallon of milk, the daily paper and a morning donut...

Not sure how that would get America out of a recession.

Now another question - Mr Obama got elected by promising a $1000 tax refund/rebate/whatever for every family making less than $250,000. I'm kinda wondering what happened to THAT.

Silly me! I know what happened to it - Pelosi is using it to protect a sea marsh mouse in her district, and Reid is using it for his train set from Vegas to LA.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought mice were considered vermin. And now they are more important than Americans who are hurting. Strange!

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Cabin Fever

Yep. That time of year. Though I really did appreciate the short heat wave that melted a lot of the snow, I'm still subject to cabin fever. I am not a winter person.

Can't wait to get back outdoors, working my not-so-puny little butt off. I need the exercise, love the fresh air and long for the sweet smells of spring and summer. Ah-h-h, the smell of car wax and chrome polish!

Actually, I prever the smell of hay, clover and flowers, as well as salt air.

It's almost time to renew my license, and I noticed that, while most men do no voluteer to be organ donors, their wives often talk them into putting it on their license. Women - even after you're dead they want to tear your heart out!

Went to the doctor for the third time in my life. He said I'm the healthiest dying man he's ever seen. He asked what I was doing to keep the COPD from escalating as it normally would. I told him to read my book on Natural Healing. He has scheduled me for some tests, to see if he can find something else to kill me off with.

Have you heard? Dr. Stephen Liggett of the University of Maryland has broken down the genetic code of the 99 rhino viruses that cause the common cold. That means a vaccine may be on the horizon - and that's nothing to sneeze at. Pun intended.

MaCain has come up with a way to pay for the stimulus bill - he's going to request that Obama's cabinet picks all pay their taxes.

The wind has been wicked today! I let the dogs out and a gust came up and rolled two of them across the yard. A trash barrel went flying past the window - without touching the ground.

Well, Happy Valentine's Day, folks! Tomorrow is our anniversary - 9 wonderful years. 9 out of 17 ain't bad. Just kidding - it has been a great 17 years - wish it were longer.

Well, gotta go - putting together a new dBase for the 2009 HotKarz calendar.

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Don't Bank On It

It took some doing, But I got hold of a copy of the 1100+ page "stimulus" bill just passed by Congress - at least, as it was passed by the House.

And, unlike a single representative or senator, I actually READ it. Granted, I did not understand it all, and there were references to things not in the bill itself. So it's impossible to determine EXACTLY what it does and does not include.

But I was unable to locate anything in the bill relating to any type of "cash for clunkers" deal.

That's not to say it isn't salted away in there somewhere - my eyes are old, get tired, and my A.D.D. tends to get me off-focus sometimes. So it COULD be there. But I did not see it.

So, until some lawyer working with SEMA says otherwise, I will assume for the moment that it was not in this bill.

But it is interesting to note that Congress has tried a "cash for clunkers" bill twice. And the people behind it - Feinstein and Waxman - have a good deal of power in Congress. So, we will have to remain vigilant, as it is likely they will try again, under a different disguise.

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Disgusted

I just received a letter from Senator Collins concerning her support of the so-called stimulus bill. According to her, it was a "bipartisan effort", even though no Republicans on the house side voted for it, and only three in the senate voted for it.

She went on to say that she did not believe what the economists are saying; that she felt compelled to believe what the Democrats were saying, instead.

And then the real truth came out - this porker of a bill which adds $10,000 of debt to every family in Maine includes a pork provision to help her and Snowe get re-elected in the next elections - $427 million in temporary "medicare" money to Maine - which Maine does not, by law, have to use for Medicare.

In other words, fellow Mainiacs, our illustrious senators Snowe and Collins have been bought by the Democrats, and they sold us out for their 30 pieces of silver. And the reason: they feel that helping to bring that blood money into Maine government will buy them enough votes to keep their seats in the senate.

Maybe. But I would rather believe that the people of Maine are not that shallow. That the people of Maine can weigh the $10,000 their family has now been put into debt, against any negligible amount they might receive from those medicare funds.

Think about it - if every citizen of Maine were to each receive an equal share of that $427,000,000, we would each get about $200. But that bill has cost each family $10,000.

I do not think that is a good deal.

I also believe the good people of Maine will find it difficult to knowingly vote for ANY politician, regardless of party, that is so corrupt that they kick us all in the teeth just to win some votes; or to vote for any politician so shy on morals that they have no integrity.

If these two RiNO's get re-elected, then the people of Maine will deserve the incredibly poor representation they get. Look around, folks - even during the Good Times, was Maine doing as well as other states? No. Did Maine grow? No. Did we have a budget surplus? No. Did our schools improve? No.

Now stop and think - just WHO has been running Maine all these years?

Look at the other states that have had long-time liberal control - Illinois, Michigan, California. All are bankrupt. Even during the good times they were losing money and jobs.

We need to regain control of our state, folks. To do that, we need better people running it. Both on a state and a federal level.

I've said this before and I will say it again - on election day, vote. Look for the name of the incumbent, then vote for the OTHER candidate, regardless of party. If you can't do that little thing to regain control of your state, then I really do not wish to hear the complaints about the exhorbitant taxes, bad schools, lost jobs or how hard it is to get car parts because someone voted for Cash for Clunkers.

Just so there is no mistaking where I stand, here is a copy of the response I just sent off to Collins after reading here letter:

"Apparently, math is not your stong subject, but the people of Maine can add. This PORKER bill is going to put every family $10,000 further into debt. And even if that medicaid money were equally distributed, we would only receive $200 each. NOT a "good" deal, by any stretch.

"3.5 Million jobs? Those who have actually read the bill do not see those jobs in it. At least, not in the short term, when they are needed.

"No, Collins, you have sold out for your 30 pieces of silver, and I will use every means at my disposal to support ANY candidate that runs against you.

"You and Snowe are RiNO's. You are traitors to your party - a disgrace. I will also pressure the RNC to not support you two in any reelection bids, pointing out that the "new" GOP cannot afford to keep any of the RiNO's that got them thrown out in the first place. Michael Steele understands that.

"Keep the dust off your resume....the people of Maine need senators with INTEGRITY.

"I'll make a deal with you, Senator: if the state of Maine is substantially better off a year from now because of this bill, I will put all my support behind you. If it is not substantially better off, you retire.

"But you will not make such a deal, because you KNOW this bill is really a loser. Just like those who voted for it!"

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What An Embarrassment For Maine

The Stimulus bill, as of 10:00 pm is not even available to be read by Congress, yet the Democrats still insist on voting on it tomorrow. Almost 800 pages, none of them will have read it, let alone have a chance to discuss it. They want to rush it through because they are deathly afraid how the folks will react if we get a chance to see it. That is not representation. That is tyranny.

And Pelosi and Reid have slipped right back in a lot of the pork that Collins, Snowe and Specter had them take out! In fact, Reid even added a last-minute earmark of his own - 8 billion for a high-speed railroad from his hometown Las Vegas to Los Angeles - so he doesn't have to fly and put up with the long waits and TSA searches at the airport. And Pelosi slipped in a 50 million dollar earmark of her own, to save a species of mouse that lives in her district. I am not kidding. She's not saving jobs - she's saving vermin that spreads disease.

Obama had promised to veto any bill with earmarks. But he won't.

Worse, from our standpoint here in Maine, is how our Senators have been a complete and sorry embarrassment. First, they turn on their party, under the guise of making a "better bill". The bill they helped craft was barely better at all. But they told the Democrats that they will only support it if the bill is not changed in conference, or if the pork was put back in.

Well, the pork was put back in. And according to several Senators, including Lindsey Graham, it seems that the three stooges - Collins, Snowe and Specter - will STILL vote for the bill, anyway, without even reading it.

In other words, it was all a farce. They never had any intention of opposing this bill. But in a sorry attempt to try and convince us, the voters, that they were only turning on their constituents for their own good, in order to get a better bill, that was only a smokescreen.

We, the People of Maine need honest people to represent us. It doesn't matter what party they belong to. What matters is that they have HONOR, INTEGRITY and treat us, their constituents, with RESPECT.

Neither Collins nor Snowe have any of those traits, and have no business representing the good folks of Maine. But the least they can do, if they are going to act like liberals, is to be honest and run as the Democrats they are. They are an insult to the entire Republican party.

Collins and Snowe - if you have an ounce of self-respect, or compassion for the people of Maine that you are supposed to represent, do not help get this bill passed. If it is to pass, let those who wroite it, own it. Let them take full responsibility for it. If you vote for it, don't offend us by coming back to Maine and bringing the stink of that bill with you.

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Another Opinion

Just received a comment on the last post, apparently from a Democrat who actually believes the stimulus bill is a stimulus bill, which is contrary to what most economists believe. It would really be nice if, before standing up for the bill, if folks would take the time to actually read it.

He is, of course, entitled to his opinion. But he is wrong on several levels. First, he believes the Republicans voted "party line" because all but three were opposed to it, but he does not believe the Democrats voted party lines when almost all of them voted for it. Seems like a double standard. It never ceases to amaze me when someone believes a Republican should act like a Democrat, or vice versa. This guy did not seem to have a problem when Democrats voted party lines when Republicans were in control. Or when they voted party lines on THIS stinker of a bill.

Furthermore, he seems to be of the misconception that Republicans opposed it because they are Republicans. Not so. They opposed it because it is the wrong solution according to Republican standards, which requires that a stimulus bill should actually stimulate something other than the pigs rushing to the trough, and we should be more respectful of taxpayer money and not use it for pork that is designed to buy votes.

Republicans also believe that Obama should honor his pledge of transparency, which is not happening. In fact, Obama promised that EVERY bill to be presented would first be posted, in its entirety, on the Internet White House site for 5 days, so the public can actually read it and comment on it BEFORE he signs it. That is not happening, either. He has yet to post anything at all.

It seems that the person who posted the comment, like most Democrats outside of the Beltway are not even aware that the Republicans put forth their own stimulus bill, which was 100% stimulus, 0% pork, and half the price tag of the Democrat version. They do not know about it because Pelosi and Reid would not even allow it to be discussed, and the liberal media conveniently forgot to mention it. So, Republicans are not opposed to stimulus. They are opposed to unnecessary pork being ushered in on fear.

Economists have no faith in the stimulus bill put forth by Congress, for several reasons. Not the least of which is speed. In order to constitute stimulus, the money must be injected quickly. But 80% of this pork laden bill will not even be pumped in until 2010 or after - probably long after the economy begins to recover on its own. So, just how does that "stimulate" the economy?

New cars for bureaucrats. New grass for the mall. A waterpark. A frisbee park. STD research. Free condoms. A hidden universal healthcare bill. A museum in Las Vegas to HONOR THE MOB - we don't need that under ANY circumstances. As an economist myself, I cannot for the life of me figure out how any of those things will stimulate the economy.

Several times our nation - usually under Democrat control - has attempted to spend our way out of tough times. It failed EVERY time. It failed when Japan tried it in the '90's. They now call that "The Lost Decade". Just look at your own family budget - if you are in over your head, do you think you can spend your way out of it? Of course not. That only makes things worse.

But here is what the poster missed in my blog earlier - that Pelosi, Reid, Frank and Obama are ambushing the Republicans who helped them push this travesty through. They made promises to Maine's senators, then immediately turned on them and broke those promises.

Maine residents should have a PROBLEM with that. Furthermore, we should have a problem with Pelosi, Reid and Frank trying to slip the Cash for Clunkers and other bills back in at the last minute, even after there had been agreement to let those things die.

It's one thing to have an opinion on a subject. But that opinion should be founded on research and facts, and not on party ideology.

The economy will recover, in spite of Obama's Doom & Gloom speeches. And it will recover in spite of any government intervention or screw ups. But this stimulus bill is apt to do more harm than good, and will cost our children and our grandchildren their future. What's worse: Pelosi, Reid and Obama are already saying this is only the first such bill - that they expect to push through a second one within months.

Not sure how you folks enjoy being saddled with Trillions in additional debt, but I certainly do not like it one little bit.

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Cash for Clunkers

Carl Cameron reported today that, during conference on the so-called stimulus bill, both Pelosi and Frank are putting almost all of the pork back into the bill - and that is likely to include the Cash for Clunkers bill that we fought against so hard.

And I cannot help but wonder if the RiNO fools - Collins, Snowe and Specter - finally see how they got used, and have sacrificed their careers for nothing. They were arrogant enough, and foolish enough, to allow themselves to be scammed by the liars on the left. The Democrats told those three losers that they would honor their promises. Yeah, right. In less than 12 hours they were already going back on their word.

Those three should have taken their cue from Judas - 30 pieces of silver can never erase a wrong.

But we have no one to blame but ourselves - we keep electing the very people who keep screwing us. And only WE can change that. In the voting booth.

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An Interesting Experiment

Recalling my education in basic science and physics, I tried the following experiment. I would encourage each of you to do the same, if only to prove something to your own satisfaction, and provide you with some peace of mind.

Place two or three ice cubes in a glass, and place the glass on a napkin or paper plate on a perfectly level surface. Now, CAREFULLY fill the glass with water, right to the very brim. Be careful not to overfill it, and get the napkin or paper plate wet. But also use care not to underfill it. The water should be right at the very brim of the glass.

Now, go away. After the ice has had time to melt, go check on the glass. If the napkin or paper plate is wet, the glass overflowed when the ice melted. If the napkin or plate is dry, then the glass did not overflow.

If you do this correctly and carefully, you will discover that the water in the glass did not overflow, even with the "addition" of the water from the melted ice.

How can that be? It is because water contracts when it freezes, and takes up less space. If you really want to take more precise measurements, you will find that after the ice melts, the water level may actually go down just a hair.

So, just what is the point of this simple experiment?

A lot of so-called "scientists" are trying to scare you into putting money into global warming projects, telling you that unless you do this, the ice fields will melt and flood all coastal areas and cities, causing mass destruction and catastrophy.

But you have just proven to yourself that if the ice melts, it will NOT raise sea level one iota. If anything, it may actually lower them a bit.

This is not to say sea levels may not rise. What this experiment does prove, however, is that they will not rise because the ice melts, EXCEPT for that ice which is landlocked. Landlocked ice could raise water levels, but most ice in the northern hemisphere is NOT landlocked ice. There is no land mass under the arctic. And the ice that is landlocked over the Antarctic at the South Pole is actually thickening, and not melting.

Why is that? Most real scientists who look at the overall picture as to what contributes to warming and cooling can tell you that the Earth is an elliptoid, not a true globe. And its axis moves - the Earth wobbles in its orbit around the sun. Spin a top, and watch as it starts to wind down. And there are periods when the northern hemisphere points to the sun, and periods when the southern hemisphere points toward the sun. Right now, and for the best part of the last century, the northern hemisphere has been sunward. So, while the ice to the north melts, the ice to the south thickens.

At least, that is one logical premise.

The point is, it would appear from our little experiment that if all the ice on the planet were to melt all at once, it is unlikely it would cause sea levels to rise more than 1 to 3 feet at the most - and probably not even that much.

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Uproar Ignored

Well, it appears that both of Maine's senators decided to ignore the uproar from their constituents - and from around the country, and chose to vote for the PORK bill that will cost our kids their future, and will ultimately drive the antique/classic car hobby into extinction, unless it gets stripped from the bill, permanently. Pelosi and Frank have both sworn not to remove anything except tax cuts, and to PUT BACK most of what has already been stripped out. Now THERE'S bipartisanship for ya. Never has there been such a massive transfer of wealth to the government, and never has government grown by so much in so little time. Today, Chuck Schumer (D) stated, "Americans don't CARE about the PORK in this bill."

Sorry, Schumer - it's MY money, and I DO care.

Pelosi, Reid and Obama said the stock market would LOVE this bill. Though the bill passed the Senate today, the market dropped nearly 400 points. I don't think the investors like this one little bit! And I do not think Pelosi, Reid and Obama understand the first thing about economics. Having a degree in economics, I know at least a little about it - enough to know this bill will not make things better in the short run, and will do our country great harm in the long run. Look for inflation coming in the next couple years, folks! PREPARE for it, if you can. Why? Because no one has that much money to loan us. So, we have to PRINT it, which dilutes the value of every penny. Hence, inflation is pretty much guaranteed.

Still, Snowe and Collins both voted for it, which is the ONLY reason it passed in the Senate. Of all Republicans, only THREE voted for this monstrosity that will do little, if anything, to stimulate the economy - the only thing I see being stimulated are the pigs rushing to the public trough. And two of those three come from Maine. They may not be aware of it, but their action has just made our state a pariah in the eyes of the nation. Internet boards are rife with comments about "the traitors in Maine". And those comments are coming from both parties.

Collins and Snowe should be put on warning, here and now. I will do everything in my power to unseat those RiNO's in the next election when their seats are on the block. And I will do everything in my power to promote ANY candidate, regardless of party, that runs against them. In a state like Maine, where 200 votes can mean the difference between winning and losing, Collins and Snowe should spend the next couple of years brushing up their resumes.

It is time the power hungry self-serving slobs in Washington learn that they cannot continue "business as usual", when business as usual means ignoring the will of the people, or the best interests of our nation.

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Remember When

For many of us, the '50's were the real "Good Ol' Days". Drive-in movies, drive in root beer & burger stands, the malt shoppe - and, of course, the Hot Rods. It was the duty od any red-blooded American boy to build a rod to cruise chicks with.

For those who remember well, and for those whose memories are fading and may need a little shove, check out these vids...and even if your memories don't go back that far, this is still pretty Kool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6KY-wq4trU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5Rr3lwH0I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClnbMd8DK_g

Thanx and a Hat Tip to Frank Barron for digging these up and sharing.

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12 Solutions For REAL Jobs

www.AmericanSolutions.com is a "think tank" of some of America's brightest minds. They have put together a REAL, coherent PLAN for creating jobs and rebuilding the economy.

If you want solutions instead of debt for generations to come, check it out - it costs nothing, and only takes about 3 minutes. Find it at:

http://www.americansolutions.com/General/?Page=01607eab-e608-4f34-8ca7-367da48a1430

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