Good thing I stocked up....

I'm buying more though because Q 2 easing isn't over yet. As I have been predicting (not rocket science) your best investment besides paying off credit cards and switching to personal loans, is food. Especially any bought overseas.

Too bad I was right about gas and couldn't stock up.  Soon gas hits five bucks, remember that little post?, it will probably pay me to trade the Suzuki for a Toyota Prius or it's equivalent for gas mileage.

Not to say moving closer to work wouldn't  help but car shopping is more fun. But unlike most people around here I know I can afford it! LOL.

Coffee May Rise 40% on Frost After Kraft, Smucker Raised Prices - Businessweek

Brazil, the world's biggest coffee grower, is facing the risk of frost after hail this month, raising the prospect of a 40 percent jump in bean costs after Kraft Foods Inc. and J.M. Smucker Co. already increased prices.

The chance of frost in Brazil increased with the weakening of La Nina, a cooling of waters in the Pacific Ocean, Brazil’s Somar Meteorologia said this week. Frost in 1994 damaged 35 percent of the crop by 1997, sending prices up 39 percent that year, according to Somar. Should cold weather damage trees this year, coffee may rise to a record $4.20 a pound, the median in a Bloomberg survey of 11 analysts, traders and investors.

All kidding aside....

i like this. After all, if you can override any President, you can rule anyway you want. More like a Parlimentary system, I suppose, but can't be any worse the mess we have today!

Wandrin: Not News

Not News
Here are just a few news items that seem to have missed the headlines:

The National Republican party decided that they would not run a candidate or support primaries for the US Presidency. Costs too much. Better to spend their billions on elections to make Presidential veto proof legislative bodies.

Some Senate and Congressional members are proposing more income tax reductions. They point to the lower unemployment numbers confirming that lower taxes are working.

Compared to other potential Presidential candidates, to compete fairly, somewhat hair challenged Mike Huckabee plans to get hair supplementation.

Donald Trump was asked to provide proof that his hair is 100% organic.


Posted by Wandrin at 11:22 AM
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You would think that the powers that be are desperate....

You can't really beat union money in local politics so you go around the end and create special schools. Unfortunately, these schools will only take children who will do the work leaving the slugs in the public schools.

And those kids will be passed on to the army, criminal gangs and the welfare roles as they have a half dozen kids of their own.

We'll just have to blame it on the rich!

Good News For School Choice « John Stossel

Last week, the Indiana Senate passed the biggest school voucher program in the country. The voucher program would apply to families with incomes under a certain level (for a family of four, $61,000.)

Vouchers will also be capped at $4,500 per student, less than half of what Indiana public schools spend. But if Washington DC’s experimental voucher program is a guide, voucher schools will still get better results with half the money.

How can privately run schools be that much better? Economist Don Boudreaux drew an insightful analogy on his blog this week:

Suppose that we were supplied with groceries in same way that we are supplied with K-12 education.

Residents of each county would pay taxes on their properties. A huge chunk of these tax receipts would then be spent by government officials on building and operating supermarkets. County residents, depending upon their specific residential addresses, would be assigned to a particular supermarket. Each family could then get its weekly allotment of groceries for “free.” (Department of Supermarket officials would no doubt be charged with the responsibility for determining the amounts and kinds of groceries that families of different types and sizes are entitled to receive.)

…When the quality of supermarkets is recognized by nearly everyone to be dismal, the resulting calls for “supermarket choice” would be rejected by a coalition of greedy government-supermarket workers and ideologically benighted collectivists as attempts to cheat supermarket customers out of good supermarket service -- indeed, as attempts to deny ordinary families the food that they need for their very survival.

That’s where the government-run education system stands now. Good for Indiana for increasing school choice

This guy has been reading my mind.....

Now if he'll just send me that damn check!

Where Did All the Anti-War Protestors Go? « John Stossel

The anti-war movement was all over the news before President Obama was elected. But apparently they weren’t really anti-war ... they were just anti-President Bush. Two college professors just released a study of national protests between 2007 and 2009. What did they find?

… After January 2007, the attendance at antiwar rallies [measured in] roughly the tens of thousands, or thousands, through the end of 2008.

… After the election of Barack Obama as president, the order of magnitude of antiwar protests dropped [...] Organizers were hard pressed to stage a rally with participation in the thousands, or even in the hundreds. For example, we counted exactly 107 participants at a Chicago rally on October 7, 2009.

Amazing. Especially because the war in Afghanistan ramped up after Obama was elected. American fatalities shot up in 2009 and 2010.

The protesters have remained silent over Libya.

And I’m struck by the hypocrisy of the supposedly “anti-war” politicians who voted against Iraq, like Nancy Pelosi. Since Obama was elected, she has voted to continue the war in Afghanistan … and supported the attack on Libya.

Only a handful of Congressmen have remained principled on foreign intervention. One of them is Ron Paul. On my FBN show this week, I’ll talk with him about why he opposes our “aggressive foreign policy.” Thursday at 10pm EST.

I didn't think camping was so much work......

Spent a couple of days in the 5th wheel on her maiden voyage. The main discovery is we had to get a better mattress because who ever designs RV's never camps in them! Anyways, we're setting it up as a separate house as it will be when we retire and hit the road in a few years.

Right now however, I think we'll trade up to a newer and bigger unit when that day comes. Maybe I'll get a truck camper instead for fishing and gold panning around Idaho and make other arrangements for our retirement. But that's what experimenting means this far out from Social Security time.

In the meantime, I see I missed Glen Beck being fired from Fox's line up. Teach him to bad mouth the rulers !!

 let alone expose the rot that the Empire is experiencing.

Also, what the hell does the Easter Seal group doing lobbying the Government?

Lobbying Spending Database-Easter Seals Society, 2010 | OpenSecrets

Easter Seals Society

A special interest's lobbying activity may go up or down over time, depending on how much attention the federal government is giving their issues. Particularly active clients often retain multiple lobbying firms, each with a team of lobbyists, to press their case for them.......

George how I miss you on "Earth Day"....

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

Going camping...

No Internet so see you later.

Only one solution for business to solve this problem...

Move offshore!

That is if you can't buy enough politicians. I always remind people of Microsoft's crimes under the Clinton gang's persecution. Unfortunately for Bill Gates, a liberal Dem, he was accused of monopoly and price fixing etc.(  he gave money to the Repubs.)

Anyways the case was in court for years until, SURPRISE, Bush won and dropped the case!

(Did I tell you he gave money to the Repubs!) LOL.

All Pricing Is Criminal « LewRockwell.com Blog

In his book, The Language of Dissent, former Federal Trade Commissioner, Lowell Mason, went to great lengths to point out how, under the various antitrust laws, if a firm charges a higher price than its competitors it is a “monopoly per se” (i.e., in a competitive market, one could not get away with this practice); if a firm charges a lower price than its competitors, it is engaged in “predatory pricing” (i.e., the only reason for pricing beneath the level of your competition was to drive them out of business); and if a firm charges the same price as its competitors, it is engaged in “price-fixing.” Mason gave a talk to a business group at which he brought this out. A member of his audience commented that the government had charged his firm with all three violations!

Even the big guys screw up.....

We still are coming up short on sales every month. The main office remodelled a lot of stores and removed everything people wanted to buy! They tried to go upscale with Hanna Montana, Martha Stewart, Justin Bieber, TV chef Paula Dean and God knows what else to bring the Yuppies in.

No dice!

But the biggest mistake was removing the features in the center aisles that induced "impulse buying." I remember filling a candy box with a hundred or so $1 boxes every day. But it "cluttered"the floor

And that's just one example that was taken away.

Another mistake is putting all new hires on part time. This makes scheduling during busy times better and saves a few bucks on insurance but increases turn over and disloyalty amongst the associates. Which means that if you want a job you better have two of them to eat. This leads to the only career options now are in management which means a lifetime of servitude to the corporate culture and constant stress.

Fortunately, to prevent law suits out the ass  and a mass exodus of those of us full timers we were  "grandfathered"  in.

And the following article is correct, most of the people responsible for this fiasco were canned. By the way, this comes from hiring straight out of college or from a non retail background and operating with your head stuck up your ass because your trained with the concept that the big shots know better than the people on the floor.

Many years ago, Sam Walton warned the top management  to listen to your associates as they know the customer and how to serve them but they forgot how the company got too be the biggest retail corporation, (until these guys took over) in history!

After all most, I don't think our customer  even know who Martha Stewart is . LOL

Walmart's $1.85 billon dollar mistake - Daily Artifacts

- $1.85 billon dollar customer experience mistake made by Walmart (a conservative estimate of lost revenue that does not include the hundreds of millions spent on remodeling stores)
- What happened? Walmart rolled out "Project Impact" - a major change in strategy and store customer experience - starting in 2008
- Why? Customers answered a Walmart survey and told Walmart that they would prefer less clutter in the stores
- Walmart revised their decades-old strategy of low price and wide selection
- 15% of the inventory removed from the stores
- 30% - some suppliers reported losing 30% of their stock in Walmart stores due to the revamp
- Removed pallets of items like juice boxes or sweatshirts stacked in the centers of aisles.
- Slimmed down merchandise on “end caps,” displays at the ends of aisles
- Shortened shelves
- Revamp not only removed items but cost "millions of dollars" per store in refurbishment costs
- Saw an immediate loss in sales and decline in same-store sales data (

We are the Empire...

What part of Empire don't you like. How about wasting money and lives of our troops on NATO projects. Or other UN ventures. How about driving our jobs overseas with goofy environmental regulations, tax regulations that make no sense, persecutions and prosecutions of people because of partisan politics, or making every thing you do illegal unless you can win in court and bankrupt yourself.

The most troubling is the buying of votes and the whores in Washington living like kings as you and I pay for it. (Did you look over that tax return and check how much these ass holes stole!)

But in a few years we'll get a new gang in there and we'll get "change".

NOT!!!

Emperor Obama by Sheldon Richman

 There in a nutshell is the imperial premise: Our future depends on the condition of the rest of mankind. Therefore, the president may bomb or invade anywhere he likes as long as he believes intervention is feasible. And as long as he can get the U.S.-dominated NATO and UN Security Council on board. (NATO, incidentally, was never established for such a purpose.) Obama’s touted “coalition” is cold comfort to those who realize that freedom and fiscal moderation at home are jeopardized by a government run amok in the world.

Once upon a time, people actually believed that a president could not constitutionally commit troops abroad without a declaration of war by Congress. With some exceptions, that belief held presidents in check for a while. But it passed away sometime after 1942, and since then presidents have gone to war — big-time and small — whenever they damn well pleased. Congress has simply been too timid to assert itself against imperial presidents. After the undeclared Vietnam war disaster, a War Powers Resolution was passed in an attempt to limit future presidents, but it was a pale substitute for the war-declaration requirement — and besides, cowardly Congresses have never pushed to enforce the resolution.

The Anti-Federalists saw it coming. We can’t say we weren’t warned.

The new truck and 5th wheel.....

If you don't plan for your retirement you don't get one! This wheeler is free and clear and as soon as I get Patti's car paid off I'm trading it for a larger, newer model with a washer-dryer combo and new generator. In the meantime we have a great camper for weekends and vacations around here.

More pictures as we clean her up.

The truck is a 2003 Ford F350 4x4 dually with the Lariat interior and all power options. I mean heated seats, mirrors, windows, locks 6 channel CD player, adjustable foot pedals, banks exhaust and 6 litre diesel engine. Of course 12.5 loaded and  16 miles to the gallon empty means we aint commuting with it but it will pull anything I can afford.

After a three day negotiations with a local dealer I got the truck for NADA book price, out the door, including tax and paperwork bullshit for 21350 at 72 mos. at 3.99% and $335 a month from my credit union . This price also includes gap insurance in case I total the truck and the insurance company doesn't pay it off.

 P.S I have $1000 deductible adding $255 a year for full coverage on both units so I'm good for the whole pay off!

Oh yea, we got the 5th wheel thrown in free and clear as diesel model is a pain in the ass to sell right now! But instead of selling you trade up and let somebody else worry about it.

Not that Patti would give me the title to do that, LOL!

Somebody call Reid's office.....

How else would this idiot get elected. That and Casino money. Hey, it worked for the gang in Nevada in getting online poker outlawed.

 Next thing they'll outlaw is breathing then they can really make a killing!

VADUM: Obama's favorite gangsters convicted again - Washington Times

ACORN pleaded guilty to unlawful “compensation” for registration of voters, a felony under Nevada law. The plea came after senior ACORN executives Amy Adele Busefink and Christopher Howell Edwards were convicted of providing cash bonuses to voter-registration canvassers for exceeding daily registration quotas. Campaign workers received cash if they registered 21 voters or more. Fittingly, the Las Vegas-based program was called Blackjack.

Mr. Mouse, Ms. Poppins and various celebrities living and dead have been registered to vote over and over again precisely because ACORN has been allowed to get away with polluting the nation’s voter rolls for so long.

Significantly, this is the first time ACORN itself, as opposed to its individual employees, has been convicted of a crime. The fact that the nonprofit entity was found guilty strongly suggests that ACORN’s

hey, these babies are mean!...

Cop Sprays Baby Squirrel....

What is Oba mama's plan?......

Talk about the deficit and talk and talk until after he's out of office. Then the next President will talk and talk and talk. Oh yea, a few dollars will be cut. Don't bet on anything big. Too many people on the take in Washington to make any real change.

Of course, some new tax increases on me and you to pay for all the wars, fraud, waste, corruption, President and wives vacations, etc. etc.

As for taxing the rich. Several things come to mind. If the government gave you 10 million or so then took back (raise your taxes) what kind nitwit would you be not bitch and then go "ok, I guess it would be good for the country now give a bigger check."

Besides as I've pointed out in the past on this blog, rich people don't pay taxes on the whole, but collect them for the government from their customers and employees. Raise their taxes and they raise their prices or fire the help. Walmart would just cut my hours again because the rich didn't get rich by giving money away!!!

Another thing, most governments would only give them more money under the table to keep the politicians in office because that's how the system works.

Want real reform? National sales tax! Everybody, even the welfare recipients, pay their fair share. Just buy something and pay your taxes.

 Buy a yacht and get soaked.  What's not to like?

LOL. Not going to happen as I've pointed out many times in the past. The system is hopelessly corrupt!!! Every budget cut comes out of somebody's pocket who is bribing the politicians and it aint going to happen!

Houston... We are the problem....

Can't get enough of the good life. Yea, what we need is more of this shit.....NOT!!!

65 Ways That Everything That You Think That You Own Is Being Systematically Taken Away From You

#1 Do you think that you own your house? You might want to think again. Most Americans that "own a home" are paying a mortgage. If you stop paying that mortgage you will lose that home. Over a million American families were kicked out of their homes last year. This year a million more American families will get the boot.

But when those families get booted out onto the street they don't get their down payments back. They don't get all the mortgage payments that they have made back. The banks get to keep all of the money and all of the houses.

Perhaps you don't have a mortgage. Does that mean that you "own your home"?

No, not really. Just refuse to pay your property taxes and watch what happens. At best you can say that you have the right to rent your home from the government.

And check out this partial list of taxes:

#12 Accounts Receivable Taxes

#13 Building Permit Taxes

#14 Capital Gains Taxes

#15 CDL License Taxes

#16 Cigarette Taxes

#17 Corporate Income Taxes

#18 Court Fines (indirect taxes)

#19 Dog License Taxes

#20 Federal Unemployment Taxes (FUTA)

#21 Fishing License Taxes

#22 Food License Taxes

#23 Gasoline Taxes

#24 Gift Taxes

#25 Hunting License Taxes

#26 Inheritance Taxes

#27 Inventory Taxes

#28 IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

#29 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

#30 Liquor Taxes

#31 Local Income Taxes

#32 Luxury Taxes

#33 Marriage License Taxes

#34 Medicare Taxes

#35 Payroll Taxes

#36 Property Taxes

#37 Real Estate Taxes

#38 Recreational Vehicle Taxes

#39 Road Toll Booth Taxes

#40 Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)

#41 Sales Taxes

#42 Self-Employment Taxes

#43 School Taxes

#44 Septic Permit Taxes

#45 Service Charge Taxes

#46 Social Security Taxes

#47 State Income Taxes

#48 State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA)

#49 Telephone federal excise taxes

#50 Telephone federal universal service fee taxes

#51 Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes

#52 Telephone minimum usage surcharge taxes

#53 Telephone recurring and non-recurring taxes

#54 Telephone state and local taxes

#55 Telephone usage charge taxes

#56 Toll Bridge Taxes

#57 Toll Tunnel Taxes

#58 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

#59 Trailer Registration Taxes

#60 Utility Taxes

#61 Vehicle License Registration Taxes

#62 Vehicle Sales Taxes

#63 Watercraft Registration Taxes

#64 Well Permit Taxes

#65 Workers Compensation Taxes

Nothing ever changes in Washington.....

The guys there wont allow it. I have no belief in Illuminati or Bilderbergers etc. but the guy is prety spot on on how our Empire is governed. Make sure you read the part about Brzezinski's son working  with McCain's campaign while his daddy is an Oba mama handler.

Pretty convenient. Like Matalin and her weirdo husband, Jimmy bob Carville supposedly working opposite campaigns while in bed together.

And this is interesting:

"The sources of Obama funding read like a Wall Street
Who's Who - Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank,
J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and so on. No wonder he went back on
his pledge to accept the limitations of public funding for his campaign
and instead took the no-limit option of 'private' funding.

And those people are going to support a candidate who does not represent their best interests?? Oh please."

Barack Obama: The Naked Emperor - David Icke Website

The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.'

He also said in the same book nearly 40 years ago:

'Today we are again witnessing the emergence of transnational elites ... [Whose] ties cut across national boundaries ... It is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook ... The nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty ... Further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with some consequent risk to the present relatively favorable American position.'

And what does his puppet, Obama, now say that Americans have to do to bring about 'change'? 'Make sacrifices'. As Mrs. Demagogue, Michelle, said:

Can you spell double dip?......

Last time the economy tanked oil prices hit $140, maybe de javue maybe not but all bets are off if we don't put a stop to bombing oil producing countries and start drilling our own.

 

Good thing the Dem's are in charge, right? After all, they kept telling us how bad it was to make war over there and all. Now it's the Republicans turn to bitch. Not that they're serious. Just look at the budget cuts in the deficit. At this rate, nobody will bother voting except all the moochers on the take from government handouts.

And I'm not forgetting public employees either. Pretty soon they'll be the only ones with jobs!!!

Same ol' Same ol' in Washington...

Another fiscal year and another pack of lies. Ho hum. Budget deals that mean nothing but lie to the public are nothing new. Again, makes my point about these silly people called voters and voting for "change."

 

Well spring has sprung in the Rockies and we're going fishing andgold panning next week end if the weather clears. Maybe hit a bonanza and can then bribe some politicians in order to keep it, LOL.

Business improving some....

More customers this month and the compny restored our hours for now. Time will tell if the recession is over andthe new boom ignites. Ofcourse, it better hurry to save Oba mama's ass. But I'm not seeing any real threat from the Republicans beacause they all sound like Oba mama and his "Bush" policies.

The right will still be pissing and moaning about "nothing changes in Washington no matter who you vote for" and the left will vote for the Dem's because they make war  and don't call anybody they kill dirty names.

Now if gas stays above $5 by next year their all unemployed. Expect a big push to fix the oil problem.

Get 'er done!!!....

Shut our glorious government  down and let's see if the sky is falling. Only for the politicians, of course!

Can't have that now can we? LOL.

 

Costs of federal shutdown would be felt far and wide - Washington Times

 

tax audits would be halted in their tracks, this weekend’s National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington canceled, and national parks and the Smithsonian shuttered if Congress can’t reach agreement on annual spending and the government shuts down at midnight Friday.

The military, federal law enforcement and other key officials would still be at work, earning pay - except their paychecks would be halted until the government funding stream is turned back on.

Negotiations on Capitol Hill continued Wednesday, and House Republicans readied a bill to extend the shutdown deadline by another week. Democrats, however, gave no signal they would accept the stopgap measure, arguing a final spending-cuts deal is there for the taking if the GOP would relent.

Late Wednesday night President Obama called House Speaker John A. Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the White House for more than an hour of talks, and afterwards said a deal should be in reach if both sides are willing.

“What they did was narrow the issues and clarify the issues that are still outstanding,” Mr. Obama told reporters afterward. “I remain confident that if we’re serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown.”

Mr. Boehner, speaking just after the president, said neither side wants a shutdown, but agreed there had been some slow movement.

“We do have some honest differences, but I do think we made some progress. But i want to reiterate, there’s no agreement on a number and there’s no agreement on policy riders,” he said.