Congress Website Overrun by Citizens

September 30, 2008 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Daily Life, Economy

From the House of Representatives website as I was trying to share some views about the current crisis.

The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.

Dave Ramsey suggests the following course of action.  From an email sent by his organization.  It makes a lot of sense to me.  Who do you trust more with your money, Dave Ramsey or congress?  I mean think about it.

—Start of Email—

We are at a crucial time in our country’s financial history. Congress defeated the $700 billion bailout plan on Monday. However, they are revising it and trying to push it through again. I’m supporting an alternative plan that will keep our nation from going even deeper in debt, and I’ve been on TV and radio all week telling people about it.

We need everyone’s help!

3 Steps to Change the Nation’s Future

Follow the instructions below. Together we can change history.

Pray For Your Leaders

Pray for them to resist a spirit of FEAR and to embrace WISDOM. Even if you don’t like them or agree with them, pray for them and tell them you are praying for them. There is a spirit over this problem that must be broken. Also, most of the media personalities are afraid as well and that is affecting their reporting. Pray for fear to be removed from them; they are making this worse.

Send the Common Sense Fix

Send The Common Sense Fix to your Representatives and Senators and tell them how you expect them to vote, and that if they put this nation in $700 billion of debt, that you will vote them out. It’s their job to listen to us! (Whichever presidential candidate or political party that champions this plan from their leadership down will likely become the next president. That is because this plan fixes the crisis while going along with the wishes of the vast majority of Americans.)

1. First, read this page (PDF)
2. Next, copy the info on this page (text file)
3. Send it to your Senators and Representatives by copying and pasting the text in the web form you’re sent to.

*Note: If their websites are down, that means we’re making a difference! Keep refreshing the page until you get through. You can also go through Congress.org, though we don’t endorse this site.

Tell Others

Forward this email to everyone in your address book and tell them to urgently follow these 3 steps TODAY. The more people we have supporting this and contacting their elected leaders, the more likely we can turn our economy around!

— end of email —

Well I sent it off to Sen Corker and Alexander.  The house website was down.  I’ll try that later.

Comments

Ronald Reagan said it best

September 28, 2008 at 9:02 am · Filed under Economy, Mind

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.

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Paying for Education

August 13, 2008 at 8:55 am · Filed under Daily Life, Economy, People, Work

My kids just starting attending a private Christian school. Since my wife teaches there, we are able to put both of our girls in for free, which is nice. I’m really impressed with this school. My first impression is that parents are truly involved. The school has a program in which parents have to achieve a certain number of points each year choosing from a whole bunch of different activities in order to continue on the following year. Some of these activities include sitting in on your child’s class for an hour, maintaining a section of landscaping on the grounds (adopt a ground), teaching a class, attending parent-teacher meetings, helping with fall festival, etc. Yes, parents can get busy and forget about how important involvement in the school is and specifically the education of their child, but I think it goes deeper to something else.

These parents are paying some good money to get into the school. And in addition to those hefty tuition payments, the parents (whether property owners and renters) still have to pay for public schools through property taxes (renters pay through the lease payment). Though taxes are necessary, they become a hidden fee that you don’t see come directly out of your bank account each month. And that is my point.

When you have to put your money directly from your wallet into something you believe in, you darn sure are going to make every effort to ensure that it is put to good use. In the case of the school, parents show up. They spend time talking with teachers. They get on committees. They want success.

Unfortunately, when our monies are taken through backdoor channels like withholding taxes, electronic tithing (which I do), and property taxes, we can lose connection to that money and its purpose. If every American that now paid withholding actually had to pay it out of pocket like we do for gas in the car, there would be an uproar when it rises exponentially. The thing is, we just don’t see it. If we did, I think we’d each take a little more responsibility with how that money is being used. If public school parents were required to pay for their child directly and not through the property tax system, more public school parents would get involved (and not just in how good the football team is or who is the best chearleader). The effect would be more pressure on the school boards to do the right things and not the politically correct things. Teachers would see the trickle down effect of that. Kids that really want to be there would get a great education. Kids that don’t would save their parents the cost of the tuition and could pick strawberries for all I care. There appears to be enough of that work out there that we now need illegals to do.

So how involved are you?

Head on over to Ethos for Watercooler Wednesday.  You’ll find some good folks there.

Comments (1)

TN Tax Holiday this weekend

August 1, 2008 at 2:44 pm · Filed under Daily Life, Economy

I guess I forgot about this, but if you still have shopping to do for school, this would be the weekend to do it. Clothing, Computers, and School supplies qualify for tax free.

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Pickens Plan - Will it work?

July 8, 2008 at 3:19 pm · Filed under Daily Life, Economy

The picture tells all. Listen to the video on the website and see if you think it is solid. There is something to be said about having a plan. Pickens takes some of his own money and puts it to the test with wind power. The research looks solid enough.

It appears that more politicians in Washington are moving to the Drill Here, Drill Now platform. It seems like a no-brainer purely from a motivation standpoint. Even just saying we are going to stop buying as much foreign oil will cause prices to go down. In 1970 we were buying 24% of our oil from overseas. Today that number is 70%.

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Morning at Henpeck Market

September 1, 2006 at 4:00 pm · Filed under Economy, Health

Morning at Henpeck Market

Originally uploaded by icon tact.

Following along the thread of yesterday, here is a great place to grab a real authentic breakfast. Don and Jackie own Henpeck and its a great place to meet friends. I meet with Jack, Bruce, and Tony here Friday mornings for eggs, bacon, and a topic of the day. We were discussing economics of all things. You can find Henpeck south on 431, just past Mack Hatcher. As you enter, say hello to Don, who you`ll find behind the register most mornings.

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