You didn build that !

Mitts motorcade went right in front of me on my way home from the grocery store last night. I didn't even know he was in town. About 7 state patrol cars and one ambulance. At least they don't completely shut the roads down for him yet. I was honored just to watch him pass.

Joe Biden was in town today. Hard to get much done with one hand protecting my wallet. (that line never gets old) He is still trying to explain away the "You didn't build that" comment. Under that reasoning can Obama make any claims to have done anything in office? Bin Laden, sorry Mr President you didn't build that. Obama care? Sorry Mr president you didn't build that.......

Today's out of control government news.

5 million spent by veterans affairs for two conferences including 52 k for a parody video and 84 ks on promotional items like pens and hand sanitizer.
Again, If the government has this kind of money to blow, they have no right to ask for more taxes from anyone. this is obviously a general cultural problem within our government where there is no respect for the source of their funding.

Here is the link to the FOX story.
link
I would have prefereed to cite the AP version so no one would claim bias, but somehow they did not report the story, but the AP's crack political reporters did get this scoop today "Michelle Obama Workout Routine: First Lady Hits Gym Before Dawn –- And Before Hubby "

harddock wrote: john b wrote: Yea, it's a lot like paying the neighbors kid to cut your lawn instead of your own, and then complaining that your kid didn't earn enough to pay for his books in the fall. It was your President and his Senate that hired them.

Since when does the president and senate participate in the bidding and letting of road building contracts?

john b wrote: Yea, it's a lot like paying the neighbors kid to cut your lawn instead of your own, and then complaining that your kid didn't earn enough to pay for his books in the fall.

It was your President and his Senate that hired them.

Looks like we got a lot of Presidential Candidates for 2016 at least from the commentors on this topic.........


Talk, talk, talk,..........and where does it get us? Enough said. That's why I am not on Facebook.

Worry about what we have control over and not what you have no control over, don't read the newspaper and quit watching the gloom and doom news organizations. In 50 years, we definitely won't have to worry about anything for most of us.

Ya'll have a good day.

Roll Tide!!!!

That would help explain why 3 of the nations largest bridge and highway jobs this year were awarded to Chinese companies. They did give the best price! Our government is looking out for us.

Wow, with those prices it sounds like Chicago does not want people down town. I would simply honor their wishes.

john b wrote: I understand why you may feel that way about light rail and Amtrak, but they are forms of transportation that are accessible to the general public. GA airports are not. If you don't own your own airplane or want to charter a corporate jet than the airport is of no use to you whatsoever. I think you have to weigh light rail and Amtrak on a scale that includes the impact on cities, roads, parking, use of imported oil and pollution. On an energy efficiency basis light rail is pretty good. I use the Glen Ellyn Metra to Amtrak downtown Chicago to Springfield now and then, it is nice service. US is one of the few developed countries without a good ground based transportation system like light rail. A system like in France, China, or Japan could get me from Chicago to New York in about 5 hours. It is expensive to build, but much less expensive to operate than the airport system we have. I think you just have to choose very high density routes. It may not be the right time to spend money on them right now however.

John, I kind of thought you might not apply the logic across the board, and justify you specific prejudice. Airports, light rail and amtrac are all different degrees of the same thing, subsidized specialty transportation used by a small percentage of the population who pays for them. As a contractor I cannot move my tools on light rail. I have no desire to take a train that cost as much as air but travels much slower. I realize it is suited to very large densely populated areas,(even then it cannot run at break even) but areas like Minneapolis that do not have the density feel the need to get a train to make them look like they are a real deal. Having a rather recent light rail system I can see for myself what it was like before and after the train. It came in at 150% of the cost estimates. Congestion around the line is far worse, because the train gets priority at stop lights it can take three light cycles to cross the track. Congestion is no better on the major freeway arteries that the line serves. There has never been a study that showed reduced pollution after light rail was added. The entire state pays for the operation of the line that serves Minneapolis and three suburbs. For the cost of the line we could have added 12 lanes of freeway, more than doubling the freeway capacity which would have served a far higher percentage of our citizens, specifically the ones who's gas taxes paid to build the line instead of freeway.

The reason we cannot control our government spending is that everyone wants to cut the other guys programs, but they will fight to the death to protect the ones they use.

I understand why you may feel that way about light rail and Amtrak, but they are forms of transportation that are accessible to the general public. GA airports are not. If you don't own your own airplane or want to charter a corporate jet than the airport is of no use to you whatsoever. I think you have to weigh light rail and Amtrak on a scale that includes the impact on cities, roads, parking, use of imported oil and pollution. On an energy efficiency basis light rail is pretty good. I use the Glen Ellyn Metra to Amtrak downtown Chicago to Springfield now and then, it is nice service. US is one of the few developed countries without a good ground based transportation system like light rail. A system like in France, China, or Japan could get me from Chicago to New York in about 5 hours. It is expensive to build, but much less expensive to operate than the airport system we have. I think you just have to choose very high density routes. It may not be the right time to spend money on them right now however.

I hear 2.5 billion for the "Big boy-Mars toy"?   of coarse some important info needed here...

Goals and objectives

To contribute to these goals, MSL has six main scientific objectives:[12][22]
1.Determine the mineralogical composition of the Martian surface and near-surface geological materials.
2.Attempt to detect chemical building blocks of life (biosignatures).
3.Interpret the processes that have formed and modified rocks and soils.
4.Assess long-timescale (i.e., 4-billion-year) Martian atmospheric evolution processes.
5.Determine present state, distribution, and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
6.Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic radiation, cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.

As part of its exploration, it also measured the radiation exposure in the interior of the spacecraft as it traveled to Mars, and it is continuing radiation measurements as it explores the surface of Mars. This data would be important for a future manned mission.[23]

I

ABC News story
Taxpayers Subsidize CEO Pay, Report Says
By Susanna Kim | ABC News – 12 hrs ago

The Institute for Policy Studies, a self-described "progressive multi-issue think tank," analyzed the link between tax loopholes and excessive executive compensation and concluded that the loopholes created an "uneven playing field" between large companies and small businesses and led to lost tax revenue.
The latest edition of the institute's annual Executive Excess compensation study found that in 2011, 26 CEOs received more in compensation than their companies paid in taxes, and that the four major tax loopholes contributing to excessive executive pay cost taxpayers about $14.4 billion a year.
"The report is timely at a time when the tax debate is so intense in this country," Sarah Anderson, the institute's global economy project director and the report's co-author, told ABC News. "Some leaders are saying we need to reduce the corporate tax burden even more while major companies are taking advantage of loopholes to lower their tax bill."
The report critiqued the major tax loopholes, including the preferential treatment of "carried interest" income for hedge fund managers. "Carried interest" income can be taxed as capital gains - at 15 percent tops - instead of at 35 percent, the top income tax rate. The Congressional Budget Office's projected estimate for "carried interest" income - revenue from investment income or dividends - for 2012 to 2021 was $21.4 billion.
Companies can deduct executive pay as a business expense, just as they do inventory and appreciation. Because of a tax rule enacted in the early 1990s that limited the amount of cash that could be deducted to $1 million, corporations have increasingly paid executives in stock options. Corporations can exempt stock option compensation, and other performance-based pay, from taxation.

"We need to keep chipping away at the myth that massive payouts are necessary to attract talented managers," she said. "Having a meaningful deductibility cap would send the right message, and at least taxpayers wouldn't have to continue to subsidize excessive pay."
The report points to the largest beneficiaries of the tax loopholes, saying they benefit the most from the unlimited tax deductibility of executive paybecause their compensation has the largest proportion of deductible, performanced-based pay.
Oracle's Larry Ellison, the sixth richest person in the world with a net worth of $36 billion, according to Forbes, tops the list, and is followed by Discovery Communications' David Zaslav; Viacom's Philippe Dauman; Motorola Mobility Holdings' Sanjay Jha; and CBS Corp.'s Leslie Moonves.
Neither Oracle, Discovery Communications, Viacom and Motorola Mobility Holdings returned calls requesting comment. A spokeswoman for CBS Corp. and a spokeswoman for Discovery declined to comment.

ABC News story link, full story

Seth, Regarding fuel prices, fuel is the lubricant of the economy, PURPOSELY driving up costs when you are trying to improve the economy is like purposely pushing on the brake and the gas at the same time in your car and wondering why it is going so slow. It is sabotage in the name of ideology. If the alternatives are so great, we will adopt them, if they are not ready yet we should use the fuels we have until the others can compete. Ethanol has proven to be a disaster, we supplement a dollar of each gallon, it takes nearly as much energy to distil as it produces, it produces less energy per gallon in vehicles thus increasing the amounts that have to be moved,it creates more particulate pollution than gas, and uses massive amounts of ground water for irrigation. Farmers used to rotate crops and idle land to let the soil rejuvenate and leave a home for little creatures,. Not anymore. Now we are seeing what happens when you get a drought that wipes out a grown fuel. Corn prices are rising far faster than oil. The government is now buying cattle because farmers cant afford to feed them. Now the people going to food shelves are going to get steak, while I am choking down rice because my corn based groceries are going through the roof. What do you when you have cornered yourself with green energy mandates, and cant meet them due to weather? Wind power only works when the wind blows, solar when the sun shines, but those little oil wells pump 24-7, and it does not rain or snow in a coal mine.

Boehner says,

"at least he's [Ryan] not a knuckle dragger' like some of them"

Who's them?

Did he just call the TEA party something.


I'll get the popcorn and beer out tonight.