Reinke Faces Life

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_269185729.html

Sep 26, 2007 6:43 pm US/Central
Crew Paints Over Roadkill Raccoon In Lemont
Area Residents Say This Isn’t The First Time Crews Have Treated Animals Carelessly
Mike Puccinelli Reporting

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(CBS) LEMONT, Ill. A photograph sent to CBS 2 shows a raccoon dead in the middle of a Lemont street, and yellow stripes painted right over its body by road crews.

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Your gooferment at work.

Now you know how I feel every April 15th and every (Dej)Election Day!

In their defense, it wasn’t a case of “treating an animal carelessly”. It is probably that the work rules don’t allow the Certified Line Painter to get of the truck and shovel it off. That’s probably the job of the Certified Wildlife Removal Specialist. And, we have a labor dispute when the wrong union gets certain work. Probably, the fellow could have done it and the state would have just paid the “right” union worker extra. Now the Certified Job Designer will have to change the Certified Line Painting Procedure and put the job back out for bids.

Argh! Makes me “Certifiable”. Argh!!

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Has anyone noticed the trend in TV advertising that makes men, particularly fathers, look stupid, inept, or bad.

Example: T-mobile has the Dad do 5 * 5 = 26 and the Mom says “that’s why you have to stay in school”.

Now they wouldn’t dare target an ethnic minority for this type of treatment! So why is it OK to assign this role to men?

I am not going to buy any product, or family of products, that advertises in this fashion. And, I urge you to do the same. And, as I spot them, I’m going to point them out. I invite you to do the same.

So, if you use T-Mobile, then don’t call me.

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Add Thomas English Muffins — make Dad who ate Mom’s looks like a dishonest ass!

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Lesson Learned: Find out about the hotel; arriving at night leaves you no, or poor, room choices.

By way of background, Frau has a heart condition and I have allergies. When we booked the Golden Nugget, it was because of the hotel footprint. It was a few feet from the car valet, elevators, and the rooms were all close to the elevator. We requested a non-smoking room close to the elevator. Never heard anything negative from the travel agent; nor the hotel. Best we could do considering all the factors was to arrive at the hotel at 1800 local time.

Guess what?

Not only was there no non-smoking room, and there was no room in the main part of the hotel. (I didn’t even know they HAD an out building!)

What a surprise!

Eventually a non-smoking room was found in the “South Tower” (probably from the casino pit’s hold for comps) that was a long city block from where we wanted to be. The hotel staff was unappologetic and unsympathetic. Argh!

I pointed out that if I hadn’t shown up at all, they would charge me for that room, so why did I NOT have that room? Blank stare!

If rooms are assigned at check-in, then why do I have to be physically there to check in? What good is a reservation? Not much. So, what I envision is that they are in the business of selling rooms on a first-come first-serve basis. Show up with or without a reservation and they will sell you a room. First come and you get the pick of the litter. They may know that they have to give me a room, so they probably don’t sell “my” room. But they do give away “my” room. Argh!

Don’t like? Tough!!

If it wasn’t that we selected their hotel for some very specific medical reason, I would NOT be so upset. I’d have been better off going the next day in the morning and I would have gotten “my” room.

So my “They Suck” award goes to … … the Golden Nugget and my travel agent for their inability to deliver on their moral, and possibly legal, commitment.

I’d like to chat with the IT folks and see why they can’t do it right fmpov.

Lesson Learned: Make sure you are getting what you pay for!

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OK, I messed up. I went off on vacation and stupidly left the power transformer at home. Now that was the root cause.

In my attempts to “fix” my problem, singularly DELL stands out as my personal villain in this particularly morality play. Based on my prior experiences with them, I was not expecting a good results. In the list of things that I tried, they were my next to last option. True to form, they not only managed to disappoint me, but they actually teased me with a promise and then managed to dash my hopes.

Strike One: My luddite friend attempted to identify the replacement power supply from the DELL website with my service tag. (The LUGGABLE’s unique identifier.) But, the site would not recognize the tag. (That would have been too easy!)

Strike Two: I called from the hotel and, with the very same service tag, Nicholas was able to id my system, find the needed power supply, and place the order. I, very carefully, (this call is being recorded for quality assurance — my ass), expressed the fervent desire to have the power supply in my hotel in Las Vegas. I even joked that he should be sure NOT to send it to my home. He assured me that “it could NOT happen”. He insisted on sending me an email confirm with everything I needed to track the order. I explained that without the power, I had no way to check that email address without the power cord. Sigh.

(Needless to say, I pestered the heck out of the hotel bell staff about my package.)

It was amusing when I got the phone message from home from DHL telling me that they were trying to deliver my package. I called DELL and they acted dumbstruck that I wanted the package at my hotel. No problem! They could redirect my package and I could have my package on MONDAY! I calmly and quietly pointed out that I WOULD BE AT HOME by then. Then, the helpful DELL person said she have the delivery delayed until Monday and I could have it them. Argh! (No, I didn’t tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine.) After we debated the merits of their assertion that it was “not returnable”. They transferred me to “customer (dis)service” who would decide if credit would be issued. For security purposes, I had to give my name, address, city, state, zip, phone, and email. (Security my a double Q) “Let me put you on hold while I look up your case!” Double Argh! The vocabulary just drove me nuts. Eventually, after a half hour on my cell phone, it was all straightened out.

Strike Three: The next day, I got a strange phone call on my phone. Which when I answered, they hung up. Later I picked up a long nasty voice mail from DHL saying that “they could not complete the delivery and that the extra charges would be charge to my credit card”. (This I can’t wait to see that!!)

Note for the record: the email has ship to home address. Argh!

CONCLUSION: DELL really sucks. They may sell computers cheap, but don’t depend upon them for anything after that.

(I was reminded, during my call, that if I had purchased the four year extended warranty that they would cover the power supply. “barbara streisand”!! They forget I’m a methodical record keeper –like I’d forget this one!! About a month into the new warranty, the wire to the LUGGABLE power block went bad. They did nothing but moan ‘n’ groan about replacing it. The wire would not deliver enough power to boot the box, but you could boot the box on the battery, then plug in the power supply and it would recharge the battery. I was supposed to send them the power supply with the wire, and then in two weeks, they’d let me KNOW if it was going to be replaced. So how full of it were they? I forget the power supply and they under the warranty will send me another? “barbara streisand”! By the way, that four year extended warranty would have cost as much as the machine did. When they originally tried to sell it to me, I said “I should just buy two”! And, they wanted to sell it to me. No joke!)

If you think I am really frosted, you’re right!

I have a long list of lessons learned. But the principle one is don’t depend upon DELL … ever!

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UPDATE: With apologies to my favorite Luddite (because deep in my heart I thought he might NOT have been up to the task), I too today entered the the Luggable’s Service Tag 3KZZ571 into the Dell website and it responded “service tag not found”. So, a relatively easy task, enter tag, find part, and order same, turned into the nightmare. Argh!

UPDATE: Another friend said he had DELLs and could have sent me the power supply. But I knew from my prior power problems that a lesser DELL power supply would not have worked.

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UPDATE:

My recent disaster has led me to do a slew of thinking about it.

BTW, I was not thinking clearly in LV. I could have used the hotel’s browser at 12$/hour, done gotomypc to Frau’s machine at home, where I could have reached my backup of the fob’s password file. With that I could have then done anything I needed to.

Argh! I hate when I am dumb.

So, from the hotel’s browser, or any inet connected screen / keyboard, I can now g.ho.st.

Sunday night, I should have bought the notebook at Sams for $600. I could have then used the inet from the room for 10$. At that point, I had my fob. I could have then retrieved ALL my data from MOZY. The next day, I could have gone to the verizon store and updated my vwbbie to a usb model. And, I’d have been really essentially back in business as usual.

Sigh!

Hindsight is always 20/20.

I coulda taken my employer’s notebook on vacation with me.

I should have had the replacement power cord delivered to a real person and reshipped it.

I should have brought my old dell with the bum battery.

I shoulda … remembered the cord.

The shouldas, couldas, and woulda will kill you.

Sigh!

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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2007/09/12/insulting_blacks

Insulting Blacks
By Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

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“I don’t feel no ways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don’t believe He brought me this far,” drawled presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton, mimicking black voice to a black audience, at the First Baptist Church of Selma, Alabama. I’m wondering if Mrs. Clinton visits an Indian reservation she might cozy up to them saying, “How! Me not tired. Me come heap long way. Road mighty rough. Sky Spirit no bring me this far.” Or, seeking the Asian vote she might say, “I no wray tired. Come too far I started flum. Road berry clooked. Number one Dragon King take me far.”

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Politicians pander. And, anyone who’s fooled by them is just a sheep to be shorn!

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese394.html

This Is the Month
by Charley Reese

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As a rule of thumb, don’t believe anybody above the rank of lieutenant colonel. That’s the rank most warriors are forced to retire at. Most of the rest are politicians in uniform.

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Ahh, the old tank driver nails the “perfumed princes”. Wonder how the testimony would have been different if they flew in a Marine gunny right from the front. I bet they’d have heard in no uncertain terms about the “war effort” and results. Might even have made a few of them blush. But, I’d bet a paycheck there would be no powerpoint slides.

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http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2007-09-11-0027.html

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SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. – On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag.

Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.

The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.

Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her Stars and Stripes t-shirt.

“Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no,” said Langston. “She didn’t like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt.”

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

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See! That’s ONE of the problems with gooferment skoolz.

(And, I’d dispute the assignment of the word “educator” to the babysitting service they provide.)

It’s a free speech issue.

Private schools can enforce whatever dress code they see fit.

“Public schools” are part of the gooferment. The gooferment is bound by that pesky First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Hopefully, some of the patriots in North Carolina will “educate” these “educators” with exactly what that means!

Argh!

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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2007/09/04/no_health_care?page=2

No “Health Care”?
By Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

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People who are urging us to follow other countries that control the prices of medications seem uninterested in the fact that those countries depend on the United States to create new drugs, after they destroyed incentives to do so in their own countries.

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HillaryCare, EdwardsCare, Medicare … … it’s all the same trash.

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http://americandaily.com/article/20149

Congress is Destroying America’s Schools
By Alan Caruba (09/03/07)

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If you want to witness the most blatantly un-Constitutional and un-American laws at work than just take a walk through your local schools. They are currently under the control of the federal government.

Why any town or city bothers to hold an election for members of the local board of education is a mystery to me. Between the U.S. Department of Education and a union, the National Education Association—masquerading as just a group of concerned teachers—local boards have no real power to reverse the subjugation and destruction of the nation’s education system.

Since the Constitution does not even mention education, it is a continuing mystery why the federal government has a department devoted to it. Well, it’s less of a mystery if you consider that its purpose is to indoctrinate the children passing through it to accept a whole range of values and ideas that lots of Americans think are wrong.

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Gooferment skoolz making illiterate cannon fodder that can flip burgers too!

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_2

Edwards backs mandatory preventive care
By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 2 minutes ago

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TIPTON, Iowa – Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

“It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat “the first trace of problem.” Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.

Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.

“The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death,” he said.

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OK Citizen, bend over for your required proctology exam.

I thought Hillarycare was bad enough. Then, come Edwardscare that makes her look “moderate”. This might be enough to to send the patriots to the slit trenches.

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070901/D8RCVPCG0.html

Feds to Restrict Volunteers at Disasters
Sep 1, 7:56 PM (ET)
By DEVLIN BARRETT

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In an effort to provide better control and coordination, the federal government is launching an ambitious ID program for rescue workers to keep everyday people from swarming to a disaster scene. A prototype of the new first responder identification card is already being issued to fire and police personnel in the Washington, D.C., area.

Proponents say the system will get professionals on scene quicker and keep untrained volunteers from making tough work more difficult.

***AND***

The Federal Emergency Management Agency came up with the idea after the World Trade Center attack and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when countless Americans rushed to help – unasked, undirected, and sometimes unwanted.

Many of those volunteers angrily dispute the notion they were a burden. They insist that in many instances they were able to deliver respirators, hard hats, and protective boots to workers when no one else seemed able.

Ground zero volunteer Rhonda Shearer and her daughter launched a fast-moving supply system that bypassed regular channels, often infuriating city officials.

Even as she delivered box trucks packed with supplies over months of recovery work, she increasingly ended up in a cat-and-mouse game with New York City’s police and emergency management agency.

Shearer, 53, said the experience convinced her that agencies are ill-equipped to handle major disasters – but don’t want outsiders pointing out their failings.

Similar frustrations arose after Katrina, when people were shocked that the government struggled to take basic supplies such as water to the worst areas.

“They’re more worried about keeping volunteers out than doing an analysis of what really went wrong,” Shearer said. “Independent citizens need to be involved, where we have no ax to grind or cross to bear. But we will tell the truth, and we will tell what we see and bear witness to the incompetence.”

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What a bunch of “barbara streisand”! Go tell it to anyone who will listen.

It’s all about control. And, looking good. And, the “authorities” did so well at Katrina, the WTC site, and the countless other disasters.

Wake up! It’s a police state. All for your own safety of course.

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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070830143114.52ur3g60&show_article=1

Unnamed players allege corruption in professional tennis
Aug 30 10:31 AM US/Eastern

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Match-fixing, some of which is linked to internet gambling, is not uncommon in professional tennis, according to a damaging report in L’Equipe on Thursday.

Two elite players made the claims, under anonymity, in an interview with the French sports daily claiming they have witnessed matches being “thrown” and that they had personally been offered bribes.

The allegations come in the wake of the controversy surrounding Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko, who is the subject of an ATP enquiry.

Davydenko recenty pulled out a match injured on the same day that large sums of money had been bet on his defeat to Argentina’s Martin Vassallo Arguello.

Betfair, an internet gambling website, refused to pay out on Davydenko’s defeat. Seven million dollars in wagers, 10 times more than normal for such a match, swung to Arguello even after Davydenko won the first set.

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I think I blogged here about the dangers of betting on anything that can talk!

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/28/science/28tier.html?ex=1345953600&en=3daa8d275c27c76a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

A World of Eloquence in an Upturned Palm
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: August 28, 2007

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ATLANTA — The chimpanzees, after spotting the humans at the corner of their compound, came over to us with their arms outstretched and their palms turned upward. This was the chimps’ way of asking for a banana — and a lot more, as researchers here at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have discovered.

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Seems like panhandling is a paradigm hard coded in our genes. Maybe that’s why my taxes are so high?

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http://sendtherightmessage.com/images/stamp_out_prohibition

Ohhh, they meant alcohol! Everyone knows that there is no similarity between alcohol prohibition and drug prohibition. No gangs killing innocent people. No infringements of our rights. No loading the jails with non-violent offenders.

Guess we’ll have to respond in the jury box.

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http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/2007/aug/23/death_by_government

Free Healthcare is Expensive

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A Calgary woman was in excruciating pain from worn-out knee cartilage.
She had to wait 16 months for her “free” surgery. It took so long that
she became addicted to “free” Oxycontin. The result? More time on
another long list, waiting for “free” drug rehab.

*** end quote ***

We have in today’s Amerika a perfect laboratory of “socialized medicine” in the “single payer genre”. The VA!

Yes, you don’t have to look and see what Hillary-care will look like. We have it already.

And, you want this for all of us?

Please count me out!

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KB:

Interesting, but how much are spent on “legal” freeloaders?

I’d suggest we dump all the “welfare” for “illegal” aliens, and right along with it, the “welfare” for all the freeloaders, including aliens, citizens, corporations, politicians, bureaucrats, “celebrities”, the media, and all those that “pig at the trough” by “servicing” all the gooferment programs.

We can while we’re at it end the phony War on Drugs, that doesn’t do anything about “drugs”.

Next, we bring home all the troops from all over the globe and become a porcupine like Switzerland.

Finally, nuke the Federal Reserve and let the dollar be backed by something other than politician’s promises!

And, life would get a whole lot better and cheaper.

Then, “legal” and “illegal” will have lost all meaning.

And there is a presidential candidate who’ll do most of this — Ron Paul.

See his site. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/
:-) crazy fjohn

—–Original Message—–
From: KB
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 9:32 AM
To: KB
Subject: 14 Reasons to Deport Illegal Aliens

INTERESTING ‘FACTS’…

Hope these 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read by the majority of Americans. Then they will have something to yell at their U.S. Congress members about. Our elected officials must open their ears and listen to us, or vote them out and get in those who are willing to stop the ‘downfall of the ‘AMERICA’ which we loved!!!:

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year.
http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the United States.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroine and marijuana, crossed into the U. S. from the Southern border. Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, “estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States “.
http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

So using the LOWEST estimates, the annual cost OF ILLEGAL ALIENS is $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR!

So if deporting them costs between $206 and $230 BILLION DOLLARS, start getting rid of em’. We’ll be
ahead after the 1st year!!!

Please pass this on. Americans need to wake up!

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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070827/D8R91P5O1.html

Storm Cleanup Begins in Soggy Midwest
Aug 26, 8:34 PM (ET)
By EMILY ZEUGNER

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The disaster declaration means residents can apply for assistance, including grants for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses.

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I am truly sorrow for the trouble these folks are having.

But, I have to rant about “federal flood insurance” and the strategy of rebuilding. I’ve often called Federal Flood Insurance as a boondoggle to allow rich folks to rebuild in risky places.

Sorry, but perhaps we need to change the strategy here. If I, meaning the Federal Gooferment, pay for for your loss, then you don’t get to rebuild in the same place. That plot is forever “uninsurable”. You, or anyone, builds there at their own risk. No second bites of the apple. We have properties here in New Jersey that have been flooded out twice in the same year. Never mind the hundred year flood plain.

So there is my idea: If the gooferment pays you off for a loss, the site is now a green space.

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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/26/casinos_and_the_american_way/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+–+Jeff+Jacoby+columns

Casinos and the American way
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | August 26, 2007

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So it goes, year after year, in state after state: Entrepreneurs and investors who ought to have the same freedom to operate a casino as they would to open a shoe store or start a newspaper are forced instead to run an exhausting and expensive political gauntlet, often with no guarantee that casino gambling will even be permitted, let alone that they’ll win a license to build one. How many other peaceful businesses offering a popular form of entertainment face such formidable legal and political barriers to entry?

*** end quote ***

It’s that the politician want more “slush money”. Usually Jeff is more perceptive about motivations. Motivations of politicians are very transparent — more. More control of the people. More money to “do good”. Of course, if along the way a little change falls into the pockets of their friends, family, and themselves, so much the better.

Argh!

The marketplace is Lady Liberty’s friend. It makes everything transparent. If we had truly free markets in gambling, then the politicians would be able to steal from either your losings or your winnings. If we had a free market in drugs, there’d be no collateral damage. If we had a free market in products, everything would be cheaper. If we had a free market in money, there’d be no inflation tax. And on and on and on.

See the free market is like a global election with every small purchase. If we had free markets, how would politicians “save” us? They’d have to go find honest work!

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FROM A POSTING:

*** begin quote ***

I am really, really skeptical and as of right now, I am scheduled to get vaccinated tomorrow. Honestly, I’m a little worried and I still think this may have been a screw-up. I’d prefer that they do the blood test again but I don’t want to seem like an asshole. I’m also not sure if that’s even an option.

*** end quote ***

Dear XXXX,

Please don’t worry about being an a double q!

(Us old fogeys are uncomfortable using rough language around ladies; any minute we expect the sky to open and one of the good Nuns or Brothers of our past to administer an “reminder” painfully somewhere on our anatomy!)

Ever hear of the fable of the pig and the chicken? No! In a ham and egg breakfast, the chicken is involved, while the pig is committed. In this case, the doc is the proverbial chicken. Guess your role?

If you are in doubt, stop. It’s the Universe and your gut warning you that something is wrong. Humans didn’t survive long in the wild by not listening to your instincts.

You have every right to determine what gets done with your tush!

If you want a repeat blood test before proceeding, demand it! If the insurance doesn’t want to pay, pay for it yourself and fight with them later.

Get a second, independent opinion! Open the phone book, look up the nearest teaching hospital, call them, and get an appointment with the head chickenpox guy or the youngest girl doc in the department tomorrow! Don’t take the “barbara streisand” that there are no openings. I use the line “if your Mom was sick would he have an opening. Yes! Good news, your Mom’s not sick. Give me her slot!” :-) (It works once in each office!)

I’ve been thru a ton of stuff with my wife over the years. Docs are nothing more than “good guessers”. 95% of the time they are running fixed plays right out of the playbook. UofK, UCLA, Joslin, and Mayo even have their handy dandy diagnosis decision trees in pdfs on their website. When my wife was in real trouble, I printed the cardiology one from Duke and stuck it under her cardiologist’s nose and made him explain every thing again in little words. While not pleased, he did it. (She’s snoozing on the couch now rather than in a coffin!)

Please do what you need to assure yourself that your getting the correct treatment. If the doc kills you, or worse disables you (i.e., there are real horror stories about medical blunders), the doc will say “Ooops! Next patient!”. You’ll be cleaning up his mess forever.

I can NOT afford to lose any fellow XXXXX that know how to blog!

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http://washingtontimes.com/article/20070823/NATION/108230096/1002

Bush hit over jobs for illegal workers
By Stephen Dinan
August 23, 2007

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If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.

A 2006 audit showed federal, state and local governments are among the biggest employers of the half-million persons in the U.S. illegally using “non-work” Social Security numbers — numbers issued legally, but with specific instructions that the holders are not authorized to work in the U.S.

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You know how I love it when the gooferment looks foolish!

Like who’s the biggest polluter, yet we get the EPA. Like ICE raids businesses! Like ribbon cuttings aot maintenance.

Here’s one for that file!

Wake up sheep. The gooferment is the problem.

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