Everyday, I hear the politicians and pundents talking about balancing the federal budget and getting rid of the deficit. Well if they really wanted to balance the budget, they would just ask me. Now I'm Just Sayin, this seems like a pretty simple problem to fix if you're serious. Here are just a few of my budget balancing
1. No more aid to any foreign government, no matter how good friend they claim to be. These folks remind me of the kind of friends that most drunks and drug users have. They see you drowning, but they just keep taking everything that you have to offer until you're completely broke, down and out, and then they move on to the next victim. So I say to all of our "friends" around the world, take care of yourself, and oh by the way start paying back some of what we've loaned you over the years, we really need it.
2. Everyone in the Congress should have to pay not less than 25% of his/her own health insurance. That way they will have some idea what it's like for the rest of us who pay for ours. In addition, you know how when you start a new job, you have a waiting period before your benefits start? Well I think that everyone in the congress should have a 6 month waiting period before their health insurance kicks in. At least if we did that, they would know how those folks who have no health insurance get by. And oh by the way, they should also have to qualify like the rest of us, so if anyone in their family has a pre-existing condition they can't get it.
3. Cut congressional pay by 50%. Now why would I do that? It's simple, they get paid by us the tax payers, their taking money from the special interest and getting rich by listening to them and not us, so let those folks pay them. Congress and their cronies in big business, foreign interest and any other interest that they can get to write a check are robbing us blind so why should we pay them nearly 200K a year to rob and steal from us?
4. Cut Congressional staffs by half across the board. Yep that's what I said, with half the staff, they can only cause half the problems that they currently do. Right now they have people just sitting around thinking of crap laws that we have to follow and they don't.
5. Every person working for the Federal Government (including the president and congress) should be on a 401K plan like the rest of the people who have retirement plans. Did you know that a congressman or senator can collect a pension if he/she serves for just 5 Years? Now they have to be 62 to get the money, but you've got to be kidding, who the hell gets a pension after just 5 years work? And oh by the way, if they serve for 20 or more years, they can get upwards of 80% of their high 3 years salary in retirement for life. No wonder the country is broke. These are the same folks who want to abolish the Education Department, and cut subsidies to poor people. Don't get me wrong, I think that everything needs to be looked at, but these clowns aren't looking at what their costing the tax payer at all.
No, I'm not a Crack Pot, I just had to get those items out of the way before I could get to the real money.
Does anyone remember the Deficit Commission whose report was completely ignored by both the President and both houses of Congress? Well there were actually some great ideas in that report. Why can't we limit the Mortgage Interest Deduction by putting a cap on it? If you can afford a million dollar house, you probably don't need the deduction any way, and oh by the way if you do need the deduction, you can't really afford the house! Also what's wrong with having a flat tax that everyone pays regardless of income? Half the people in the country don't pay any taxes at all. The people at the very top pay nothing because they pay lawyers and tax advisors to work the loop holes, and the folks at the very bottom don't pay anything because the government says they can't afford it. Well, that leaves the rest of us in the middle and we're paying for the rest. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sick of it.
By the way, let's stop giving tax breaks to people to create jobs! Those folks aren't creating any jobs in America, their creating them in India, China, Pakistan and Mexico. Don't believe me, try calling someone to fix your cable, or cell phone. Hell, some banks now have people in foreign countries working the call centers. Stop listening to that let's give them a tax break to create jobs rubbish, you and I both know that they aren't creating any good paying jobs in this country. It used to be that if you had a degree in say Computer Science, or Engineering it was pretty easy to find a job, but not any more. These days, companies get all of the computer and engineering folks they need from India and oh by the way, they work for half of what you or I could live on.
If we really want to balance the budget, and rid our children and grand children of the debt, we would take the recommendations of the recent Deficit commission to heart, and start doing those things immediately. Know why that won't happen? Simple, because no one in this country is serious about deficit reduction, if your congress person voted to cut or do away with a program that you make money off of, you would vote that person out in a New York Minute (for those in Cleveland) that's about 20 seconds.
If you want to balance the budget, write your congress person and tell them, no more Earmarks, no more Tax Breaks, no more Raises for themselves or other federal employees. Tell them to raise the retirement age for anyone under 55 to 72, tell them to fix the tax system by abolishing the IRS, and setting up a flat tax that everyone pays which will bring in more taxes to cut the deficit, tell your congress person to stop voting to give tax breaks to companies who take our jobs and move them to other countries. People, our elected officials have betrayed us by lying to us, trying to divide us by race and class, all the while lining their pockets, and selling us out to the highest bidder. If we don't wake up and join together, we're headed for third world status, and believe it or not, we're not that far off. Yes we still have all of the trappings of a prosperous country, but it's fools gold.
Finally, do yourself a favor and google "Deficit Commission Recommendations", read the document and pass that information on to as many people as you can. There will be some things in this report that all of us hate, but it's the most comprehensive set of realistic recommendations that I've seen to start ridding ourselves of this countries budget woes.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
THE CUDA KING A FISH STORY
While most of you were preparing for the Super Bowl over the weekend, Ben, Matt, Bear, Whit Louie and I were in Key West, FL participating in the first annual Cuda Bowl fishing tournament. The objective of Cuda Bowl is to see who can catch the largest 6 Barracuda over a two day period. Three must be caught on day 1 and 3 more on day 2, with each fish being measured and the person with the largest number of inches being declared the winner. So now that you know how the CB works, we can go into the exploits of the characters involved, with special emphasis placed on the Cuda King.
On day one at 8 sharp, we split up into groups of 2 anglers and a captain per boat. Ben and I were with Capt. Pat Bracher, Matt and Louie went with Capt. Bob Paulson and Whit and Bear were assigned Capt. Doug. As we headed out, we all pledged that this would just be fun for us and that none of us really cared who won, and besides, there were a lot of other folks in the competition, so we just wanted to have a good time, ha ha! These boats are fast (ours had a 115 hp outboard) and thus we arrive out on the flats in seemingly record time. Almost as soon as the boat stopped, I made my first couple of blind cast and found myself reeling in my first Cuda of about 43 inches. Not a bad start for a city kid. Next Ben pulls in his first, wow 47 inches and he takes the lead on our boat, but not for long as I proceed to pull in a 44 inch er, but things are just getting interesting. We have all day, and since it's still early we decide to throw back the next few without measuring because if you measure the fish, you have to count him in the 3 for the day.
Pat decides that the fish in this area aren't big enough, some A-Hole has moved into our area, so he decides to move onto another spot. THIS IS WHERE I ALMOST LOSE MY LIFE FOR THE FIRST TIME-Ben, gets a bite and is reeling in another Cuda, and boy he's putting up one heck of a fight when he stops running away from the boat and turns towards it. Pat's yelling to Ben, "he's headed for the boat, reel, reel", Ben's yelling back "I'm reeling". Now I'm just standing on the Bow enjoying myself watching Ben fight with the fish when all of a sudden, the fish decides that he wants to get into the boat with us, so he jumps out of the water, (probably traveling at about 30 mph) and almost takes my leg off at the knee. Only my quick thinking and Bojangles like moves saved me from certain disaster. The sad part is that the fish while weighing maybe 25 lbs, appeared too short to measure as he was probably slightly less than 40 inches, so we threw him back into the water, but we did get a good laugh out of it, once I stopped sweating. Later in the day, Ben caught a 51.5 inch er, and I caught another 40 inch er, so after 7 hours we called it quits for the day.
When we arrived back at the dock, we found that some of our comrades had not done quite as well as we had, with Matt and Louie not getting the 3 minimum fish into the boat, however Whit and Bear got theirs, and Bear was only 2 inches short of me. When we got to the central meeting spot with the rest of the competitors, Ben was the leader overall by 3 inches and had the the day one lead.
Day 2 - Ok, remember when I said that none of us were going to take this serious? Well, with Ben in the lead, and some of us hating to lose to him, you can forget that! So, I'm trying to get in that last hour or so of sleep, when I hear moving around in the room, and look over at the clock, yep you guessed it, Ben's all keyed up, and can't sleep, so he's up getting ready to go fishing. Just one problem, the boat won't be there until 8, so we both get up, make some coffee and decide what the hell, let's wake the rest of our crew up. Ok, so we have breakfast and head for our boats. All of the captains are ready to go and I'm just 8 or 9 inches behind Ben after day one, so I'm ready to catch the big one, and if you think yesterday was wild, wait until you hear what happens today.
We get to our initial flat and start our day, and it's another great day in Key West, the temp is 72 by 9 am, headed for close to 80 and we're loving life. Once again, Pat finds the right spot, and as soon as we start to cast our hooks, the Cuda start to bite, and we're on our way. I get a quick hit, and before I can get mine halfway to the boat, Ben has one on the line, so we have some early morning excitement as within 30 minutes, we pull in 4 or 5 Cuda, but I'm throwing mine back because their not big enough for me to catch up with Ben and I figure I've got all day to land the big one. Ben counts 1 for 44 inches right away just to ensure that he gets his 3 for the day. He later pulls in another one in the mid 40's, so now he only needs one more and decides to throw a few back while he too waits for a bigger one. Now it's close to noon and I decide I had better start measuring to make sure that I get my 3 in for the day, and thus I end up with my 3 Cuda totaling 125 inches for the day, with no chance of catching Ben unless he lands a shrimp.
What happens next is that I almost lose my life for the second time on this trip, and it's really close this time. Ben only needs 1 fish, and it's starting to get late so he decides to pass on anything but Barracuda's until he has fulfilled his quota for the day. Pat see's a couple of Cuda off the front side of the boat and tells Ben to throw at them. He gets a hit, and right away we can all tell that this is another big one and Ben has his hands full. Once again, the fish is running all over the place, but then decides to turn back towards the boat, and clearly I didn't learn anything from yesterday because I am once again standing on the bow of the boat when this fish that must weigh at least 40 or 45 lbs jumps out of the water and almost literally takes my head off as he comes across the right side of the bow, goes clean over the boat and lands in the water on to the left rear and continues to run. After what had to be 10 minutes, Ben finally gets this monster into the boat and he's 52 inches. For the rest of the day, we keep coming back to how close I came to being a gonner if that fish had hit me, but I have to admit that when it was all over, it was kind of funny.
Finally we get back to shore and head over to the marina to see who has won the first annual Cuda Bowl. It takes about an hour, but finally we have a winner who hence forth will be known as the Cuda King. Ben is crowned CUDA KING with a total of 279 inches over the two days, the second place person was 10 inches behind, and thus Ben is crowned Cuda King. As for the rest of us, Bear finished 4th and I was 5th by less than 1/2 inch. We don't know who was DFL, but he wasn't in our group, so that's a good thing. We finished fishing on Sunday, getting in 5 more hours, and as luck would have it, I did finish with the longest fish for the week by catching a 53 inch er when it didn't count. I guess that's why Ben is the Cuda King, he came through when it counted.
This was a really great trip,made so much better because I was able to spend it with 5 good friends. We fished together, ate and drank together, and enjoyed each other's company.
If you're planning a fishing trip, contact one of our captains at:
Captain Pat Bracher · PO Box 764 · Big Pine, Florida 33043
Phone: 305.745.3408 · Email: fishovertime@comcast.net
Doug - tarpindoug@aol.com
Bob Paulson 305-744-8291
bobpaulson1@comcast.net
On day one at 8 sharp, we split up into groups of 2 anglers and a captain per boat. Ben and I were with Capt. Pat Bracher, Matt and Louie went with Capt. Bob Paulson and Whit and Bear were assigned Capt. Doug. As we headed out, we all pledged that this would just be fun for us and that none of us really cared who won, and besides, there were a lot of other folks in the competition, so we just wanted to have a good time, ha ha! These boats are fast (ours had a 115 hp outboard) and thus we arrive out on the flats in seemingly record time. Almost as soon as the boat stopped, I made my first couple of blind cast and found myself reeling in my first Cuda of about 43 inches. Not a bad start for a city kid. Next Ben pulls in his first, wow 47 inches and he takes the lead on our boat, but not for long as I proceed to pull in a 44 inch er, but things are just getting interesting. We have all day, and since it's still early we decide to throw back the next few without measuring because if you measure the fish, you have to count him in the 3 for the day.
Pat decides that the fish in this area aren't big enough, some A-Hole has moved into our area, so he decides to move onto another spot. THIS IS WHERE I ALMOST LOSE MY LIFE FOR THE FIRST TIME-Ben, gets a bite and is reeling in another Cuda, and boy he's putting up one heck of a fight when he stops running away from the boat and turns towards it. Pat's yelling to Ben, "he's headed for the boat, reel, reel", Ben's yelling back "I'm reeling". Now I'm just standing on the Bow enjoying myself watching Ben fight with the fish when all of a sudden, the fish decides that he wants to get into the boat with us, so he jumps out of the water, (probably traveling at about 30 mph) and almost takes my leg off at the knee. Only my quick thinking and Bojangles like moves saved me from certain disaster. The sad part is that the fish while weighing maybe 25 lbs, appeared too short to measure as he was probably slightly less than 40 inches, so we threw him back into the water, but we did get a good laugh out of it, once I stopped sweating. Later in the day, Ben caught a 51.5 inch er, and I caught another 40 inch er, so after 7 hours we called it quits for the day.
When we arrived back at the dock, we found that some of our comrades had not done quite as well as we had, with Matt and Louie not getting the 3 minimum fish into the boat, however Whit and Bear got theirs, and Bear was only 2 inches short of me. When we got to the central meeting spot with the rest of the competitors, Ben was the leader overall by 3 inches and had the the day one lead.
Day 2 - Ok, remember when I said that none of us were going to take this serious? Well, with Ben in the lead, and some of us hating to lose to him, you can forget that! So, I'm trying to get in that last hour or so of sleep, when I hear moving around in the room, and look over at the clock, yep you guessed it, Ben's all keyed up, and can't sleep, so he's up getting ready to go fishing. Just one problem, the boat won't be there until 8, so we both get up, make some coffee and decide what the hell, let's wake the rest of our crew up. Ok, so we have breakfast and head for our boats. All of the captains are ready to go and I'm just 8 or 9 inches behind Ben after day one, so I'm ready to catch the big one, and if you think yesterday was wild, wait until you hear what happens today.
We get to our initial flat and start our day, and it's another great day in Key West, the temp is 72 by 9 am, headed for close to 80 and we're loving life. Once again, Pat finds the right spot, and as soon as we start to cast our hooks, the Cuda start to bite, and we're on our way. I get a quick hit, and before I can get mine halfway to the boat, Ben has one on the line, so we have some early morning excitement as within 30 minutes, we pull in 4 or 5 Cuda, but I'm throwing mine back because their not big enough for me to catch up with Ben and I figure I've got all day to land the big one. Ben counts 1 for 44 inches right away just to ensure that he gets his 3 for the day. He later pulls in another one in the mid 40's, so now he only needs one more and decides to throw a few back while he too waits for a bigger one. Now it's close to noon and I decide I had better start measuring to make sure that I get my 3 in for the day, and thus I end up with my 3 Cuda totaling 125 inches for the day, with no chance of catching Ben unless he lands a shrimp.
What happens next is that I almost lose my life for the second time on this trip, and it's really close this time. Ben only needs 1 fish, and it's starting to get late so he decides to pass on anything but Barracuda's until he has fulfilled his quota for the day. Pat see's a couple of Cuda off the front side of the boat and tells Ben to throw at them. He gets a hit, and right away we can all tell that this is another big one and Ben has his hands full. Once again, the fish is running all over the place, but then decides to turn back towards the boat, and clearly I didn't learn anything from yesterday because I am once again standing on the bow of the boat when this fish that must weigh at least 40 or 45 lbs jumps out of the water and almost literally takes my head off as he comes across the right side of the bow, goes clean over the boat and lands in the water on to the left rear and continues to run. After what had to be 10 minutes, Ben finally gets this monster into the boat and he's 52 inches. For the rest of the day, we keep coming back to how close I came to being a gonner if that fish had hit me, but I have to admit that when it was all over, it was kind of funny.
Finally we get back to shore and head over to the marina to see who has won the first annual Cuda Bowl. It takes about an hour, but finally we have a winner who hence forth will be known as the Cuda King. Ben is crowned CUDA KING with a total of 279 inches over the two days, the second place person was 10 inches behind, and thus Ben is crowned Cuda King. As for the rest of us, Bear finished 4th and I was 5th by less than 1/2 inch. We don't know who was DFL, but he wasn't in our group, so that's a good thing. We finished fishing on Sunday, getting in 5 more hours, and as luck would have it, I did finish with the longest fish for the week by catching a 53 inch er when it didn't count. I guess that's why Ben is the Cuda King, he came through when it counted.
This was a really great trip,made so much better because I was able to spend it with 5 good friends. We fished together, ate and drank together, and enjoyed each other's company.
If you're planning a fishing trip, contact one of our captains at:
Captain Pat Bracher · PO Box 764 · Big Pine, Florida 33043
Phone: 305.745.3408 · Email: fishovertime@comcast.net
Doug - tarpindoug@aol.com
Bob Paulson 305-744-8291
bobpaulson1@comcast.net
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