I believe

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on December 27 that "the system worked" after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to ignite a bomb aboard a Northwest Airlines airplane on Christmas Day. She latter had to clarify that statement. She continues to affirm that the people who live and work in New York City will be protected when terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, goes on trial sometime in 2010.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly assures all that his department is up to the job of protecting New York City during the trial of Mr. Mohammed, after a van with tinted windows and no license plate was recently left on a street near Time Square unattended for at least two days.

I believe them when they say they can protect us. I believe them because I’m an idiot, but you shouldn’t.

Happy New Year,

More Health Care Stuff

There is an interesting AP article by Arelis Hernandez (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_service_dogs/print). Titled “After 8-year delay, VA program hopes to help vets”. It describes an eight-year attempt to match service dogs with disabled veterans. To begin the program the VA first conducted a six-year feasibility study which resulted in inconclusive findings. So far, the program has matched two veterans with service dogs. In 2001, when the program started, there were many organizations that trained dogs to do service work; the VA could have used them, but chose not to.
As I see it, President Obama is asking 85% of the U. S. population to give up a portion of their health care benefits so that the other 15% can have health insurance. If the VA system I have described above is representative of what future U. S. health care will be like, I don’t think that many people will be happy with it.

Health Care Under President Obama

A thirty-something walking down the street sees a watch for $500.00 in a shop window. The storekeeper sees him looking at the watch. The thirty-something thinks; that watch is too expensive and starts to walk away. The storekeeper then picks up the watch, runs out of the shop, grabs the thirty-something by the neck, forces him to take the watch and to fork over $500.00. The thirty-something then calls the cops and has the storekeeper arrested.

The next day the same thirty-something is walking down the same street when he bumps into President Obama. President Obama tries to sell him on his new health care package. The thirty-something declines saying that, for him, it is just too expensive. President Obama then calls the IRS and has him pay anyway. No cops were called, but they should have been.

Health Care

The reason there is are so many overstated arguments about health care today is because of the dearth of good information coming out of Washington. Further, it seems to me that what little information there is, about this complicated and many faceted subject changes from day to day depending on what the political winds dictate. How does one have a coherent conversation under these circumstances?

Professor Gates is a Tax Cheat

Henry Louis Gates is the founder of The Inkwell Foundation, which provides $500 grants to scholars to conduct research in African-American studies. The foundation received $205,400 in direct public support in 2007, and provided $27,000 in grants. However $17,000 of the grant money went to the organization’s treasurer, a secretary, a board chairwoman and Gate’s fiancée. By reporting what is really compensation as grant money, Gates and the recipients were able to avoid paying federal, state and local income taxes, social security and Medicare taxes and workman’s (work-person’s) compensation premiums.
I wonder if Professor Gates and Treasury Secretary Geithner use the same tax preparation services?

Remembering Mountain Lakes

Sold

President Obama’s Stimulus Plan

A month after his inauguration, President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package into law. Mr. Obama said the money would be invested in health care, education, job creation, infrastructure, and energy. About $282 billion would go for tax cuts.







This is on top of President George W. Bush’s $750 billion to bailout ailing banks and insurance companies.







It will add about 1.5 trillion to the present $9.5 Trillion U. S. debt.








To be paid for by, guess who.

Foreclosure Fix

To help prevent further foreclosures and to stimulate lending, I think taxpayers should buy up parts of shaky mortgages. Here is how it would work. Say, for example, a homeowner with a documented income is unable to pay his or her monthly mortgage in full. For this person, taxpayers (through the federal government) would buy down a part of the mortgage principle to a point where the homeowner would be able to make reasonable monthly payments. Taxpayers would now own part of the homeowner’s home, and the bank or entity that held the original mortgage would immediately receive an infusion of cash from the transaction to be used for future loans.

Here are some suggestions as to how taxpayers would be repaid: If the home were eventually sold for a profit, taxpayers would first receive their original investment and would share in any profit in proportion to the percent of the home they owned. If the home were sold at a loss, taxpayers would receive their original investment, with interest, before the homeowner received anything. If the homeowner eventually paid off the mortgage, then he or she would have to continue to make payments until taxpayers were paid in full, with interest. The homeowner would also have the opportunity to buy back the taxpayers’ share in the home at any time.

A little known part of the stimulus bill

I was told by a famous writer, artist and teacher (my daughter Cate) not to post long articles.
Here is what Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of the state of New York wrote in Bloomberg about the health care provision of the stimulus bill signed into law by President Obama on February 16, 2009. First, $22 billion will be spent (a bad thing) to put everyone’s medical records on an electronic file (a good thing). Also, a new bureaucracy called the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (NCHIT) will monitor your health care to assure that it is safe, effective (two good things) and cost effective (a very bad thing for geezers). The nation faces a $50 trillion bill for future health care, which will break the economy (a very bad thing). Future health care costs need to be contained (a good thing). This is how it will be accomplished. The cost of each procedure and the age of the geezer will be put into a formula. The higher the cost and age, the less likely the procedure will be paid by Medicare or Medicaid (a very, very bad thing for geezers).
To see the full article; look in the comments section.

You’re out of your element, Tim

On February 9, President Obama promised a clear and decisive plan to fix the economy from Treasury Secretary Geitner. The next day Secretary Geitner unveiled a plan to spend $1.5 trillion over the next few years, but had not the slightest idea as to how he was going to do it. The market tanked 4,57%. That’s what happens when you give some guy who doesn’t know how to do his taxes $1.5 trillion.

Another tax cheat

It looks like there’s going to be another tax cheat in President Obama’s administration. This might be a prerequisite for inclusion in the Obama team. Senator Dashchle inadvertently, and accidentally forgot to pay, $128,000 in taxes. It was a good-faith mistake, a slight oversight.
Senator Daschle is slated to be President Obama’s secretary of Health and Human Services. He will help design and implement the administration’s health care reforms.

Treasury Secretary Geitner

Tax cheat Timothy Geitner was sworn in as Treasury Secretary by Vice President Biden on January 26th. In his acceptance speech, Secretary Geitner promised to restore integrity in the Treasury Department. Well, at least he has a sense of humor.

Timothy Geithner is a crook

Timothy Geithner is a crook, and he is the dumbest guy in finance. Timothy Geithner failed to pay four years of FICA taxes. When the IRS audited two years of his returns, he finally paid them. He did not have the brains to realize that the IRS can go back as many years as it wants and audit tax returns when it suspects fraud. So he got caught again.

If this guy is appointed Treasury Secretary, as it appears he will be, he will be in charge of your money and my money and the IRS. Do you want a crook in charge of your money? Do you want a dummy in charge of your money? What about the poor IRS agents who audited his tax returns? I guess they will have to join the ranks of 11.1 million now unemployed.

Stimulus Package

I heard on the radio what I think will help the economy get back on its feet.

Congress should provide tax credits to homeowners who insulate their homes, buy energy efficient windows or upgrade their heating and cooling systems. The same could apply to business owners.

A tax credit would immediately stimulate the purchase of these products, which are mostly made in the United States. It would also stimulate work for the U. S. based home building industry, which is greatly depressed. And it would reduce carbon emissions from the burning of oil and coal needed to heat the homes.

Dear Mayor Susan Narvaiz

2053 Lexington Parkway
Niskayuna, NY 12309
January 13, 2009


City of San Marcos
630 E. Hopkins
San Marcos, TX 78666

Dear Mayor Susan Narvaiz

I am writing about the incident on Interstate 35 in August of 2008, where San Marcos Police Officer Paul Stephens stopped Michael Gonzalez for speeding. Mr. Gonzales was trying to get his choking dog to a vet. In my thirty-two years in emergency service in New York City, I have never seen a more callous, and inept response to an emergency than what took place after that stop. Mr. Gonzalez was stopped; he was no longer a danger to the public and was obviously distressed. Officer Stephen’s should have recognized the new emergency that presented itself and took action to save the dog’s life, not callously demand to see Mr. Gonzales’ license and take fifteen to twenty minutes to issue a summons, or to do whatever it was he did. In the meantime the dog choked to death.

In an emergence, the paperwork can wait.

In my opinion, Officer Stephens displayed a unique appreciation for human feelings that is disgraceful and an inability to properly respond to an emergency. He is lucky to be in the City of San Marcos Police Department because, if he were under my command, he would have received more than the reprimand that Chief Howard Williams gave him, a lot more.


Yours truly,



Joseph J. Hehir


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5598075S