If 23 dollars an hour is financial abuse then please abuse me Meg Whitman. Have your way with me for 23 bucks an hour, unlike the illegal suing you I promise to suffer your abuse without question. Friggin world is upside down.
Latest feel good thing is to tax the rich bastards for all we can get. Trouble is, that's been tried many times before and it always backfires. The Maryland "millionaire tax" cost that state 257 million dollars. The luxury tax on yachts pretty much put the East Coast boat building business out of business. The bad mouthing of corporate jets has put 2700 gulfstream workers out of work. Like it or not the rich spend their money on things that provide many thousands of jobs in this country. Try to treat them unfairly and they will spend it elsewhere. The government is very good at killing the goose which lays the golden eggs. You see, the very rich, in general, are not stupid. They employ tax specialists and accountants who are much better than the government accountants. They are mobile. Tax havens exist all around the world and their private jets are welcome in all those places. Lake Geneva is a lovely place year round. The short-sighted liberals are using this class warfare to get votes. I don't know if it's on purpose or if they are just ignorant. They love to blather on about how unfair the flat tax is with their very deceptive commercials. A consumption tax is obviously the only fair tax possible. You spend half a million for a car and a boat, you pay $100,000 in tax. You spend 100,000 on a car and a boat, you pay 20,000 in tax. The average dude paying 30,000 or so on a car and whatever else they need that year pays 6,000 in taxes. You say, Whoa! that's more than we pay now. Remember, with the consumer tax there is no income tax. If you add your income tax and all the sales taxes, etc. that we now pay, it's a good deal. The great thing is, it would virtually eliminate tax cheating and all money obtained illegally would be taxed as soon as it's spent. Give it some thought, it's a no-brainer.
It's a crime to lie to congress yet they can lie to us with impunity. How the hell did that come about? You can be charged with contempt. Good God, any sane person can't help but have contempt for those smarmy people.
Two things to rember: The law of unintended consequences and when approached by someon e saying "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.", run as fast as you can.

European culture

Forunately for the United States the Europeans who came to the northern part of this continent were the individualistic and enterprising type, rebellious and distrustful of authority, they were true visionaries who saw a society that had never existed before. As many of those arrivng were fleeing from something as much as going to something but somehow they managed to form a democratic republic. Political corruption and human greed conspired against them but as the years turned to centuries they prevailed. Only in countries with similar personal freedoms can a person with nothing reach almost limitless heights. Thanks to the now denigrated "old dead white guys", we have opportunities afforded in few other places in the world. Why do the Mexicans risk their lives to come here? Their own country is corrupt and repressive. If you are not born into the right economic class, you have very little chance of advancing. Mexico was also conquered by the Europeans but these Europeans primarily came from Spain and Portugal and even after eventually securing their independence they did not have the good fortune to adopt a form of government which would provide for individual rights and freedoms and checks and balances to insure these freedoms and rights. As decades and centuries passed, Mexico became a land of super wealthy aristocrats with land grants from Spain and a huge poplulation of peasants. The only real middle class were the funtionaries and military there to protect the rich and control the poor. The U.S., due to its' government system allowing so much freedom evolved into a country with a huge middle class. The huge middle class is and always has been our strength. Someday, soon I hope, government will get out of the way and free the people with entprenaurial skills and ingenuity to again create a huge middle class. Probably not gonna' happen.

drip

Drip is an acronym for Don't Return Incumbent Politicians. It is the only way we can keep our government under check. It really doesn't matter if they are republicans or democrats and the libertarians will never get enough votes. Once in office any politiican is overwhelmed by staff, perks, a feeling of power. All of a sudden they are somebody. It takes less than a full term before they lose sight of the reason they are there. It's not even their fault, the huge machine is overwhelming. They are jumior members, subject to the whims of the long-time incumbents. They learn how to compromise, you pat my back and I'll pat yours. They learn that Tip O'neil was right, "All politics is local", and they start bringing home the pork. Our government has grown exponentially over the years and it may be too late but if we vote out the incumbent every time, there's a good chance we can limit the damage they do. It is true that the best government is the least government.

dripr

The monsoon finally is here and I've got a half acre of grass to cut every week for awile. I broke my cars air conditioner switch a few days ago and they wanted $89.00 plus shipping for a new one. They called back and said they couldn't get it until September, back-ordered. I was able to find the exact model of my Isuzu in a local junk yard and got the entire assembly for $45.00. If you are willing to do some looking and apply a little elbow grease, life is a lot cheaper. Essentially, you have two options in life: Learn how to take care of business efficently and inexpensively or make enough money so you don't have to worry about the expense. In a normal world the second method is best but in the coming new world you'll have a better chance with the first option. I suspect the new leaders will be the ones who mastered both.

One last note about the hypocricy of our government. Their lawsuit is over Az defying the federal authority on immigration. This even though the Az statute mirrors the federal law. Sanctuary cities, who are actually defying the federal law, are given a pass. Like it or not, a government cannot enforce only those laws it likes on any given day. These are smarmy people with no morals or ethics.

People like to say there are two sides to every story. Actually there are usually several sides to every story. When it comes to our new immigration enforcement law there are many aspects to be looked at. If someone were to actually READ the law they would see that it is pretty much formalizing the status quo. For purely political reasons the federal government refuses to address it. Our own idiot senator McCain joined forces with Ted Kennedy and gave amnesty to about 3 million illegals a few years ago. He was promised that border security would be enforced and their comprehensive immigration plan would take care of the problem. Of course, he was snookered, the border remained as porous as ever. Arizona is being sued by the feds for trying to do what the feds should be doing. If you come down here near the border you will see hundreds, yes hundreds, of really neat border patrol vehicles zooming up and down the highway. At the checkpoints, located about 30 miles North of the border you will see a dozen or so agents shooting the breeze while one agent checks the traffic coming through. If you go down to the actual border it's pretty hard to find a agent. They have cool 4-runners, horses, night-scopes, helicopters and all these 4wd vehicles. The BP lot in Sonoita, Nogales, Douglas and probably all the others is full of vehicles. They zoom back and forth to Tucson now and then but they should be on the border.
If u go to the Huachuca mts on any given day you can find trails with unbelievable amounts of trash left behind by the illegals. They catch a ride to all points North and join up with their buddies, get a job and fade into the woodwork. A high percentage bring drugs. belong to MS13 and other very bad gangs, commit a disroportinate amount of sex crimes including pedophelia. They depress wages doing jobs that Americans won't do. That's a fallacy. I've worked the fields and would do it again if it meant the only way to feed my family. All but the most useless legal citizens would do the same. Using standard military operating procedures I could use their resources and seal the border in six months, so could any NCO worth his salt. For whatever reason, they don't want to close the border and that's not a good thing.

Hven't been here for awhile but since no one reads them, doesn't really mattr. Should anyone want to know, I'll say this - Most of the Hispanic Arizonans are in favor of AZ 1070. I know most liberals assume they are not loyal Americans, shows how much respect they really have for our fellow citizens. Just as the vast majority of caucasian citizens do not want any illegal Europeans or Russians here, the citizens of Hispanic heritage don't want any illegal Hispanics here. There is a legal way to come and work and come for school and even to apply for permanent status and become a citizen. many people try the legal route and never get here, same as folks trying to immigrate to Australia, Canada, Mexico and pretty much all the countries in the world. If the country you live in is so bad and you can't make it to another country, do what you can to make your country better. Have a revolution or rob a bank, it's not our reponsibility, we cannot support 3 or 4 billion people.

government vindictivenes

One of his last acts before CLinton left office was to designate millions of acres of land as off-limits federal land, national forests, parks and monuments. These of course were all in the West. Over 50 percent of the land in the western ten states is federally controlled, less that 2 percent of the land in the eastern ten states is federally controlled. We have the resources in this country to be pretty much energy independent. We have the technology to use most of it safely. It will never happen no matter if God himself came down and picked up the coal or oil-shale, squeezed out the oil and poured it into a leakproof tank, leaving not a trace of disturbance. The environmentalists, who naturally populate the EPA, will find a way to stop any development regardless how badly we need it. They will scour the landscape to find an endangered species and if unsuccesful, they will find something and add it to the list. All civilizations come and go adn ours will do the same. The difference is we will lose it because of actions from our own government, the very people we elect to improve and protect our lot. They NEVER look at the law of unforeseen consequences, the powers that be enact sweeping "reforms", ruining peoples lives and livelihoods with never a backward glance. The incompetentcy is mind-boggling.

One of the reasons I cannot be a republican is their stand on abortion. I do think abortion should be a choice of last resort. I don't think any abortions should be done during the last four or five months of pregnancy. Life would be better if our government did not make it so hard and expensive for people to adopt a child. My main reason for not being against abortion is that I see examples of people who should have been aborted on a daily basis.
These days they use condoms to prevent pregnancy. When I was younger they called them rubbers. They also called rainboots rubbers. At about 14 yrs of age a friend of mine told me to be sure and bring a rubber cause we were going to score. I was confused, what game were we playing where you needed rubber boots in order to score?
Give a hungry person a fish and he'll be full for a day, teach a person to fish and he'll need a licsence, clearance from the EPA and medication for mercury poisoning.

obama money

It has happened on 3 occasions that I have heard someone refer to their welfare check money as 'Obama money". I thought at first they were kidding but after listening awhile it occurred to me they really had no idea where the money actually came from. To them it was just Obama money and any working people paying taxes had nothing to do with it. Has our school system failed to teach civics? At one time in this country there were about 8 people working in the private sector to support a government worker or person on the dole. It is now just above 1 to 1. With our high unemployment and the only jobs being created government jobs, that ratio will soon tip too far. As a result our government will borrow even more money, beginning a downward debt spiral from which we will not recover. Remember, the government does not produce, it is just our largest consumer. It's true when they say socialism is great until you run out of other peoples' money.