Life In Sherman Oaks

Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo kicked off the Tea Party Convention in Nashville last evening by calling for a reinstatement of the literacy tests that were used in the South from the post civil war era until the 1960′s to prevent African-American from voting. The proposal, by Tom Tancredo, was met with CHEERS, by his all white audience. See the video. http://cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2010/02/05/bts.tom.tancredo.cnn

If the good folks of Massachusetts thought they had voted for a good old boy who would go to Washington and work in good faith with Democrats to work across the aisle to come up with good ideas for the nation — they made have made a big mistake, Newly elected Scott Brown who took Ted Kennedy’s seat as Mass. junior Senator said upon being seated, “The stimulus bill didn’t [...]

The fun begins at 3PM on February 4th. Check out who you will get to hear for your $549.00! By the way, this is a FOR PROFIT EVENT, organized by a nashville lawyer who defends drunk drivers. Meet & Greet Reception w/hors d’oeuvres, 7:00-8:00pm and Entertainment. Who? – LISA MEI (retired air force, defense contractor and country singer) – RAY STEVENS (Ahab the Arab country singer) at 8:00pm Prayer Session [...]

The Family Research Council spokesman Peter Spriggs said today that gays should not be allowed to openly serve in the military because they might cause forceable sex acts in the showers. But then again, Peter Spriggs also thinks gays shouldn’t be permitted to work in the U.S. Department of Education. 61% of regular U.S. church goers support gays being allowed to serve in military. Family Research Council is a very [...]

It seems as if Republicans have completely forgotten that they were all here during those wonderful Bush years. They’ve forgotten REPUBLICANS voted for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that increased the deficit by $1.3 trillion, plus interest. They’ve forgotten REPUBLICANS all voted for the Iraq war, that, to date has increased our deficit by $1 trillion, cost us thousands of lives, plus interest. They’ve forgotten REPUBLICANS were all, [...]

In 1980, just shy of one-quarter of the total national income was concentrated in 10% of all American families. By 2004, that same one-quarter of the total national income was concentrated in just 1% of Americans. In fact, by 2004, just 10% of all American families controlled 70% of America’s money. 90% of the people controlled just 1% of the money. This division between the rich and the middle class, [...]

Republican Marsah Blackburn, minority whip — stated the Republican position today that a 5% tax cut across the board is the best solution for the country. Okay. Let me ask you a question. When you have a drop in income — do you say to yourself — okay, well, I’ll just spend 5% less across the board. I’ll pay the DWP 5% less, the Gas Co. 5% less, I’ll pay [...]

One of my first jobs was working as a Financial Analyst for the CFO of a large corporation. He was always trying to figure out ways to cut costs — partly because it was his job and partly because his bonus was tied to it. First, we went thru benefits to see which employee benefits we could cut. Then we went thru to see which employees might be cut. Last, [...]

After deregulation of their friends on Wall Street, the discretionary war in Iraq and two sets of tax cuts for the wealthy that cost us $1.3 trillion in tax revenue — both of which costs us a huge $1.3 trillion deficit by the end of the Bush administration… The Republicans are complaining about the new Obama budget. to me — that’s a little like having a drunken husband who for [...]

Newly elected Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts said again today that he believe in a women’s right to choose and that he disagrees with his party when it comes to overturning “Roe V. Wade.” Brown has further said that the Republican party should not take him for granted. that while he is fiscally conservative — he is more socially liberal. Some pundits have said that Scott Brown may be [...]

Republicans Hensarling and Blackburn said today that they believe the best way to reduce deficit is to cut social security. This is from the same Republicans that are opposing the expiration of the Bush Tax cuts for the wealthy at the end of 2010.

Republican Rep. Jab Hensarling says President Obama is responsible for budget deficit. After the interviewer pointed out to Jab that: (a) 90% of the budget $13.5 trillion deficit was handed over to Obama by a Republican administration and (b) that most spending is non-discretionary — Jab just kept living up to his name and telling stories. Maybe he wants to go along with his colleague Blackburn from Tennessee who wants [...]

After the Supreme Court ruling, revising the constitution to read, “We the Corporations on the United States of America” — a ruling Republicans believe to be excellent for the advancement of free speech — a corporation has decided to run for Congress! Finally….(see video)

Since President’s budget came out today, I thought it might be interesting to look at health care and health care costs. Last year, as a country — we spent on average $8,160 per person on health care — $2.5 trillion altogether. But averages are deceiving. There are 308 million Americans. According to this data, 31 million of us require $1.45 trillion worth of health care or an average of $46,774.00. [...]

National Cybersecurity Initiative to protect our information networks. Funding of $36 million will support ongoing projects to improve surveillance technologies to detect enhanced, emerging and advanced biological threats. Efforts to develop next-generation Bio-Watch sensors will continue in order to detect bio-attacks at the earliest possible instant. The Budget also supports the termination of outdated systems such as the terrestrial-based, long-range radionavigation (LOrAN-C) operated by the U.S. Coast Guard resulting in [...]

The London Times is reporting that the CEO of Goldman Sachs, the company who may be most reponsible for the current recession and received tax payer loans in order to prevent it from going into bankruptcy — is going to give himself a $100 million compensation package this year. Goldman is saying the announcement is premature. By the way — this is a picture of Blankfein’s $41 million home in [...]

The President’s Budget will build upon the $5 billion provided in the recovery Act for weatherization assistance in order to spur development of an industry that will have the capacity to meet the President’s goal of weatherizing one million homes annually. The proposal is deigned to save Working families on Average $350 Per year in gas and electric bills. By upgrading a home’s furnace, sealing leaky ducts, and adding insulation, [...]

Enhance Security at Over 90 Major Ports, to improve homeland Security, increase international Trade and Commerce, and Create Jobs. This investment will help make our Nation’s ports a vital and secure link to the global economy, not a vulnerable entry point for those who seek to harm us. The Administration is committed to improving the protection of our critical port infrastructure. The Budget continues to provide risk-based funding through the [...]

The President proposes to expand Access to Broadband. As a country, we have made significant public investments so that, regardless of economic status, Americans have access to telephone service and electricity. In this day and age, we must do the same for broadband. Like any network, the more people who are a part of it, the stronger we all are. The more communities that have access to high-speed Internet connections, [...]

Too many of our Nation’s railways, highways, bridges, airports, and neighborhood streets are not keeping up with the needs of our Nation due to lack of investment and strategic longterm planning. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our country’s infrastructure the grade of a “D.” The unsatisfactory condition and operational performance of our roads and bridges carries real costs from billions of dollars in car repairs to wasted fuel [...]