So I think I am going to start a write in campaign. . .for myself. If I win, here is what I purpose.
1. flat tax. abolish the code. a % across the board. Period, no deductions for kids, no deductions for charity, or write offs or bad investments. Nothing. If it's not enough raise it till we get it right.
2. Discuss socializing medicine. My little family with just one sick child spends over 10% of our income for medicine.
3. Double teachers salaries but hold them accountable and make the school year longer by 30 days!
4. Kill earmarks. A bill is a bill, in the old I'm just a bill song, you never saw little tiny bills running around singing chorus. Sorry congress, you are going to have to work a little more. Sessions in order.
5. No unilateral movements into other countries. What if all let California and New York make all the decisions. If we can't get France, Russia, Germany, Japan and China to agree, stay out. I would actually listen to the U.N.
6. I would invest in energy, clean energy. I would give 5 million start up funds to small companies to create new methods to get energy.
So those are my ideas. I also thought of some people to fill key cabinet positions.
1. Secretary of state- Nana. If other states don't behave, she won't use weapons that will kill them, she will just give them the "look." They will cower, you watch.
2. Secretary of Education- Michal. She will kill all the nonsense that keeps our schools from performing. I also have no doubt that she will let parents know when they are failing.
3. Secretary of finance. Alli. I have never met someone who is as frugal with their money. She could teach the Street a thing or two about proper investment.
4. Supreme Court appointments- Scott- he has proven to be level headed and just in his judgement. (judgement in College football teams excluded)
5. Homeland security- Dan. He doesn't trust anybody anyway.
6. Press Secretary- Grandpa Dibb- Somehow all conversations will turn to three topics, his cars, his golf game, and his childhood stories. (he would also be my special liaison with the auto industry, since he is their best customer, he can probably tell them a few things)
7. Ambassadors- My wife and her two sisters. At least I know the other countries will be communicated with daily via blogs, facebook and phone.
8. Vice President- This one was tough, but I think it would be Tara. Half the time her ideas are crazy, half the time they are right. I run about the same and since we disagree on everything, we will either be right 100% of the time or 100% wrong.
So Letterman, Leno, View girls, that octogenarian with the suspenders and the power grid behind him- let's get to the interviews. I promise I will leave you with some good soundbites!!!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Election 2008 and finacial crisis
Dear Boys, (all others, go visit the wife's blog-much less boring)
(my mood- good, background music- Waiting for the night to fall- Depeche Mode From the Album Violator)
In 7Th grade I found I liked history. It was sparked by a teacher who presented the Civil War in a way that I found fascinating. It was one of the rare times when I aced a subject. I remember that I got the highest score of all the students in all of the classes, I don't think I can say that happened too many other times.
At the time I lived with my Grandpa who was dying of Diabetes and the family favorite, alcohol. He used to sit and watch documentaries about wars and he served in WWII. I would pick his brain about all kinds of things. I have always wondered what it was like to live at points in time and through him, I could sometimes get a glimpse.
So with that thought in mind, I start a set of blogs on current events. I want you to know what "we" thought at the time of the event. I want you to have more than the one paragraph that we got in the history books to cover an event like the shooting of President Regan.
2008 has been a strange year. I remember telling Mom that we were headed for trouble on January 2ND because it seemed like all the fortune tellers on the business channels were creating a sense of self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. All you could hear was the housing market was going to crash this year. . .either those guys are genius, or they created their own mess. Naysayers have more power than you can ever imagine.
Our economy was already skidding. Our family watched our transportation costs go from $30.00 fill-ups to $80.00 and our part of the nation is cheap comparatively. Milk is now even more expensive than gas. It is $4.00. Those increased costs are just a small example of the inflation that we are experiencing right now. Most of that inflation is hidden since on the flip side, housing is going down so we don't hear much about inflation. Luckily again in our part of the country housing is under control is still seeing an increase. Forbes magazine recently ranked us as the #1 recession proof city in the nation. (we have a little bit of oil around here and housing costs are good)
My sector of work is in decline as demand for big ticket items is declining due to the lack of disposable income. We are looking at about a 10% decrease this year if we have a good year. It will all be about these next few months.
As a family, we are struggling. Cars need replacing and debt continues to increase. Extras are decreasing. I need you to know though, that we are the rich of the Earth. Keep that in mind, we have so much that others don't have. We are also in a better spot than many of our fellow Americans especially considering we live off of a single income.
So this brings me to the 2nd biggest story of the year, the elections. Aaahh the elections. I can't tell you how many great arguments (meant in the positive meaning of the word) I have had with great friends over politics. This year has been different. I feel like I am the only one that wonders what it is that these guys have that make them candidates for President. I have not seen these guys offer any options as to how they will change it anything, even though they all love the phrase. I want someone who is going to change things for real. I mean I want a flat tax for people and a flat tax for corporations. (I am OK with the flat tax for corporations being changed to be competitive)
I don't see things like this being done. I don't see real "arguments" taking place. Take the gloves off guys, but do it about policies not how many homes you have and who wears lipstick, human or otherwise.
One of the most frustrating things for me is the choice of McCain's running mate. I feel like I am the only one who sees her as a last chance grab by a losing party to make things different. She is a woman and I understand that it would be smart to go for a woman and try and get some of those votes. I think a woman could do just as good of a job if not better than the male. I just don't think this lady has it. One of my concerns with McCain is he is not that young. He has years of wisdom and has had many experiences that would make him valuable, but now that he has put an inexperienced women on the ticket, I worry she might have to take his spot before the term is over. I think the only experience Palin has with "foreign" policy is the lower 49 states. I could be wrong, but we vote on what we know.
Obama. Yikes. The guy is slick. I have a friend who believes he is the anti-Christ. He comes out of basically no where. Goes to Africa a few years back and gets huge national coverage for it. He is a press-magnet. Except for conservative talk show hosts, the press doesn't seem to say anything negative about him. His policies are vague. I think Biden was a good choice for him and draws me closer to even contemplating to vote for him.
It used to be that I voted for people based on their stands on moral issues. Some are still really important to me. I don't agree with Gay Marriage. I am religious, I believe in God and in God's laws and that goes against them, there is nothing else to it. I don't agree with the law not allowing them to share insurance as long as they show some sort of Union, like the rest of us. Marriage is a religious word and as such should be left that way. It is not personal. My friends who are gay know where I stand, they know I love them as people and we just agree to disagree on this issue.
I don't want these issues to be resolved by the Federal government. I want the states to solve this. If all the religious want to live in the mid-west and live their ideals, let them. If the populous states want to allow it, let them. If I don't agree, I can move and visa-versa.
That is my real concern. The government should worry about the things that affect the whole union. Health care, education (double what teachers make!! BUT hold them to the same level I get held to at work, perform or get out!!)
It has taken me a couple of days to finish this blog. Since I started the government has suggested a bail out of nearly 700 Billion dollars for the financial sector. I disagree strongly. I didn't see these sectors handing out money to tax payers when they were doing well. I think this should be about the homeowners. Yes many of them bought way outside their spending. (I don't live in Oklahoma because it is my dream, I live here because I can afford to.) The rest of the world is looking at the U.S like we are idiots. We preach a free capitalist economy until we screw it up. Then we let the rich off and charge it to the poor.
All right, all right, you get the point. I hope you read this text and we as a nation made the right choice. You be the judge.
Love, Dad
(my mood- good, background music- Waiting for the night to fall- Depeche Mode From the Album Violator)
In 7Th grade I found I liked history. It was sparked by a teacher who presented the Civil War in a way that I found fascinating. It was one of the rare times when I aced a subject. I remember that I got the highest score of all the students in all of the classes, I don't think I can say that happened too many other times.
At the time I lived with my Grandpa who was dying of Diabetes and the family favorite, alcohol. He used to sit and watch documentaries about wars and he served in WWII. I would pick his brain about all kinds of things. I have always wondered what it was like to live at points in time and through him, I could sometimes get a glimpse.
So with that thought in mind, I start a set of blogs on current events. I want you to know what "we" thought at the time of the event. I want you to have more than the one paragraph that we got in the history books to cover an event like the shooting of President Regan.
2008 has been a strange year. I remember telling Mom that we were headed for trouble on January 2ND because it seemed like all the fortune tellers on the business channels were creating a sense of self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. All you could hear was the housing market was going to crash this year. . .either those guys are genius, or they created their own mess. Naysayers have more power than you can ever imagine.
Our economy was already skidding. Our family watched our transportation costs go from $30.00 fill-ups to $80.00 and our part of the nation is cheap comparatively. Milk is now even more expensive than gas. It is $4.00. Those increased costs are just a small example of the inflation that we are experiencing right now. Most of that inflation is hidden since on the flip side, housing is going down so we don't hear much about inflation. Luckily again in our part of the country housing is under control is still seeing an increase. Forbes magazine recently ranked us as the #1 recession proof city in the nation. (we have a little bit of oil around here and housing costs are good)
My sector of work is in decline as demand for big ticket items is declining due to the lack of disposable income. We are looking at about a 10% decrease this year if we have a good year. It will all be about these next few months.
As a family, we are struggling. Cars need replacing and debt continues to increase. Extras are decreasing. I need you to know though, that we are the rich of the Earth. Keep that in mind, we have so much that others don't have. We are also in a better spot than many of our fellow Americans especially considering we live off of a single income.
So this brings me to the 2nd biggest story of the year, the elections. Aaahh the elections. I can't tell you how many great arguments (meant in the positive meaning of the word) I have had with great friends over politics. This year has been different. I feel like I am the only one that wonders what it is that these guys have that make them candidates for President. I have not seen these guys offer any options as to how they will change it anything, even though they all love the phrase. I want someone who is going to change things for real. I mean I want a flat tax for people and a flat tax for corporations. (I am OK with the flat tax for corporations being changed to be competitive)
I don't see things like this being done. I don't see real "arguments" taking place. Take the gloves off guys, but do it about policies not how many homes you have and who wears lipstick, human or otherwise.
One of the most frustrating things for me is the choice of McCain's running mate. I feel like I am the only one who sees her as a last chance grab by a losing party to make things different. She is a woman and I understand that it would be smart to go for a woman and try and get some of those votes. I think a woman could do just as good of a job if not better than the male. I just don't think this lady has it. One of my concerns with McCain is he is not that young. He has years of wisdom and has had many experiences that would make him valuable, but now that he has put an inexperienced women on the ticket, I worry she might have to take his spot before the term is over. I think the only experience Palin has with "foreign" policy is the lower 49 states. I could be wrong, but we vote on what we know.
Obama. Yikes. The guy is slick. I have a friend who believes he is the anti-Christ. He comes out of basically no where. Goes to Africa a few years back and gets huge national coverage for it. He is a press-magnet. Except for conservative talk show hosts, the press doesn't seem to say anything negative about him. His policies are vague. I think Biden was a good choice for him and draws me closer to even contemplating to vote for him.
It used to be that I voted for people based on their stands on moral issues. Some are still really important to me. I don't agree with Gay Marriage. I am religious, I believe in God and in God's laws and that goes against them, there is nothing else to it. I don't agree with the law not allowing them to share insurance as long as they show some sort of Union, like the rest of us. Marriage is a religious word and as such should be left that way. It is not personal. My friends who are gay know where I stand, they know I love them as people and we just agree to disagree on this issue.
I don't want these issues to be resolved by the Federal government. I want the states to solve this. If all the religious want to live in the mid-west and live their ideals, let them. If the populous states want to allow it, let them. If I don't agree, I can move and visa-versa.
That is my real concern. The government should worry about the things that affect the whole union. Health care, education (double what teachers make!! BUT hold them to the same level I get held to at work, perform or get out!!)
It has taken me a couple of days to finish this blog. Since I started the government has suggested a bail out of nearly 700 Billion dollars for the financial sector. I disagree strongly. I didn't see these sectors handing out money to tax payers when they were doing well. I think this should be about the homeowners. Yes many of them bought way outside their spending. (I don't live in Oklahoma because it is my dream, I live here because I can afford to.) The rest of the world is looking at the U.S like we are idiots. We preach a free capitalist economy until we screw it up. Then we let the rich off and charge it to the poor.
All right, all right, you get the point. I hope you read this text and we as a nation made the right choice. You be the judge.
Love, Dad
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