A Vacation from Taxes Yay!

So, in the second grade I ran for class vice president. A very important post I assumed. I lost. David and Phillip Nowick won President and Vice President that year. How did that happen you ask? Well, they obviously knew a lot about politics; that it really didn't matter what you said while campaigning. As long as you get the power, that's what is important. The Nowick twins promised the class that they would get soda and candy machines in the room. The election was a LANDSLIDE! I wasn't too upset though, 'cause I was hoping they really would get candy machines in the classroom.

They never did get those machines in the classroom. I can't remember what they actually did as the class leaders. They probably got us to fight all the kids in Mrs. Zayaz's class and probably borrowed money from the fifth graders (at terrible interest rates) to buy slingshots for the fight. [I sure hope those metaphors come across]

Anyway; what brings me back to second grade today? Well, I was thinking about the stimulus check that we're all supposed to be getting and I just wanted to thank the Chinese government for bankrolling that and the Iraq war. I also wanted to thank John McCain and Hillary Clinton for offering to buy my vote by suspending the gas tax for the summer. It reminds me of when some republican thought that in 2004 we needed another rebate, just in time for the elections, almost as coincidental as all those Orange Alerts in 2004.

Ok, I'm getting a little off track, but what amazes me is that no one seems to realize that this is not "free money" from the government. In the first place, we pay taxes to the government so they have money to spend, so in essence they're loaning us our own money. In the second place, we are already spending more money that we have. This is bad. Assume the average American is about $8,000 in debt, well the US government is currently over $9,343,105,630,594 in debt. When you're a regular Joe, you get a credit card so you can rack up your $8k in debt. Well, even American Express doesn't trust the government, so they have to go to other governments to borrow money. China (you know, the commies) finance about 70% of our national debt . What no one seems to be talking about is what happens when they call in their debts? This could theoretically put us in a very bad position (even worse than now) .

Everyone seems to be talking about the economy, but no one seems to be talking about what to do. Sure, getting eighteen cents off a gallon of gas would be nice, but that just means we have to borrow more money to take the place of the taxes we didn't get from gas. What we need to do is STOP SPENDING! It's like I'm looking at someone who is a shopaholic with an unending line of credit. What do we tell these people? "Stop spending and pay down your debt. Sure it will suck for a while, but once it's over you'll feel better." We need to be telling our government that.

On the plus side, at least now the Democrats are seen as the fiscally responsible party (hopefully they won't screw that up) because they finally see that you can't just spend and spend without repercussions. The Republicans used to call the Democrats "Tax and Spend" of course this is just another few words used to marginalize a sane idea: we have to raise money to spend money. Heck I have to work so I can buy my video games, pay my mortgage and go on the occasional vacation. The other side of the coin turns out to be exactly what the Republicans (at least the current administration) believe: "Spend and Spend". As I've mentioned this doesn't really work well because we're always borrowing money that we can't pay back.

I really don't understand how so many people can not understand these simple concepts, but it seems that the Nowicks were right in their thinking. Say whatever you need to in order to get into office, because once you've got the power you can do whatever you want.

Al Gore Says: "Told You So!"

This is a really interesting 5 minute video about the amount of CO2 emissions for the US. If you ever doubted how much they occur watch this and be scared. You can read more info on this right here.

New Seattle Soccer Team!

Well, it's now official, the new Seattle MLS team is going to be named the Seattle Sounders FC. It's a big win for the fans who wanted to keep the name Sounders but it's also got that "new flavor.

Hopefully I'll be able to get out to some of the games. Less than a year away!

Read more here.

This Morning in My Head

This is totally due to 120 Minutes. Watched it last nght and this was the first song I saw. What ever happened to these guys? They were huge for a year... Kinda like the Lemonheads I guess. I wonder if Winonna dated this guy too?

In My Mind This Morning

Well, this is what showed up in my head this morning. Blur... hmmmm. I have a confession to make; I Tivo 120 Minutes on VH1 Classic, and this one was on one that I watched with the kid last night. I used to love 120 Minutes when I was younger, and it's great to see all the excellent music I grew up with, and even some that I only now have an appreciation for.

I like Tivo'ing it because I can get through 120 minutes worth of music and commercials in like 20 minutes. I skip all the ones that I've heard WAY too much of (The Fixx), the ones I've never really liked (The Smiths (don't tell!)) and stuff that was just annoying (Tom Tom Club!). Of course there are some real gems in there that I can't get enough of: They Might Be Giants, The The (who I only recently got into), Blur, and a few other I can't think of. right now.

So, I guess that's why these guys were in my head this morning, and if you're into '80's music, I really reccommend Tivo'ing 120 minutes at least a couple times just to check it out.