Our Banks Help Terrorists...

So, who is catering to the illegal immigrants right under our noses? Believe it or not, it might be your bank.

It was Wells Fargo Bank that pioneered the non-U.S. documentation accounts and many banks, looking for money, are doing the same. So, get this...I’m a U.S. citizen who has being paying taxes, ensuring the FDIC is there and that the Federal Reserve is strong, yet when I want to open up an account, I have to prove that I am a U.S. citizen and provide my social security card.

Yet, if I’m fresh across the border, never having paid a dime to support the FDIC or Federal Reserve, as long as I have my little card given to my by the Mexican government, I can open up my account.

In the post-9/11 world, the FBI is screening new accounts being opened at banks by U.S. citizens, but seriously, who is down at the Mexican consulate checking the backgrounds of the people getting these Mexican-government-issued ID cards?

What’s my deal? Terrorism takes money...as proven to us by Atta...he had bank accounts and even went to an ATM within 24 hours of boarding his flight...now, thanks to banks accepting Mexican-issued IDs as proper ID to open accounts, they don’t even need to register with the U.S. Government to move terrorism money around here in the U.S.

Who is helping them do this? Our banks...banks like Wells Fargo Bank and 73 others in the U.S.

What Is Insider Trading?

Sure it looks fun in the movies and it is basically what started this whole Martha Stewart mess, but how many of us understand what insider trading is?

Well, there are a good deal of gray areas when it comes to the insider trading laws, much like how traffic laws are open to interpretation but can still land you in jail based on how they are interpreted.

Insider trading laws were enacted in a five-year period following the 1929 crash to combat some common abuses of the era.

Basically, it is illegal for you buy or sell shares of a company based on information that you receive from an officer or key employee of that company.

If this individual tells you, or in some other way, provides information to you that they believe will, or is commonly known to, effect share price and you then go and buy or sell shares in that company, you have then committed a crime.

Here’s the kicker. If the person telling you this information is not an employee of that company nor discloses to you that they heard this information from an employee of the company, you can buy and sell all that you want to with this information, completely legally.

If you are walking down the street and find a memo that says Microsoft is going to stop selling software and develop a new line of oven mitts, you can legally act on that information. More so, if you break into Bill Gates’s house and see this memo on his desk, you can be prosecuted for breaking into his house, but you can buy, buy, buy and sell, sell, sell, fully legally with the information that you saw while you were illegally in his home.

But, if you hear it from a Microsoft employee and you act on it before it becomes public knowledge, you can end up in jail for insider trading.

Properly Placing The Blame...

Many times when I am debating my libby friends, the objectiveness of my more conservative views is called into question. I want to take a minute to address this.

In 1992, when you walked up to my 18-year-old self, I’d have told you that I was pretty much middle-of-the-road. I knew then that I leaned a bit more towards the conservative side of things and also knew that as I built my net worth, aged into a more family-oriented person, and became more involved in politics, business and the state of America, I would lean more and more towards the conservative side.

What I did not know then, however, was the changes that would come about in the next ten years to the libby side that would help push me more to the conservative side.

So, you want proof of my objectiveness? Today, I vote mostly Republican, but even after everything, I still will hear out the other side, no matter how nuts I think they are.

I’m a mostly-Republican voter who voted for Willy Jeff Clinton in 1992 and voted for Gray Davis when he ran for Governor the first time, yet when I see that picture of Davis and Willy Jeff sitting next to each other talking that is on Gray Davis’s website, it pisses me right off. Why? Well, I gave each of them my vote...something that is very sacred to me, and what did I get in return? I got Monica Lewinsky, I got Wag The Dog, I got pardon after pardon after pardon, I got Senator Rodham and a fight to keep her lyin’ ass out of the White House in ‘04 and ‘08, and what I hope is not a Rodham re-election fight in ‘12.

I got an even more powerful Southern California Edison, I got driver’s licenses and a whole mess of other benefits for illegal immigrant law-breakers in California, and an entire sympathy movement for those law-breakers. That’s just what I can name right now off the top of my head!

So, what happened to middle-of-the-road? The conservatives stayed where they always have been while the libbies moved further and further away from the middle and where I was. I took a step to the right, the conservatives stayed where they were and the libbies took ten steps to the left.

My libby friends, don’t blame this conservative for moving away from the middle, blame your leaders for moving away from the middle. Before you blame me for not seeing your way, blame guys like Davis and Willy Jeff for only seeing it their way...a way that would benefit them. Blame them for the ridiculous things that I had to see and hear over the past ten years, not me for being pissed off about them.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman...Monica Lewinsky.” That’s what I voted for?...For this guy to lie to me to protect himself because he was stupid enough to not hold off on screwing around behind his wife’s back again until he was out of office. Clinton’s dick doesn’t have anything to do with his job as President? Every man’s dick has something to do with his decisions, it’s just a matter of how much sway it has, and Willy Jeff’s dick had enough sway to give us this whole rotten episode of American history.

To me, someone who trusted him with my vote, it defined his character. Am I against hot blows from interns? God, no, but I sure as hell would have had the decency to not do it in the oval office and would have known before hand that my dick’d get me into trouble.

And Davis? I’m sorry, but lying to me half the time doesn’t make the half the time he told the truth a good thing. So, don’t blame me, my libby friends for where I stand today, blame the Democrat liars and disappointments that I voted for before they helped shape this moderate into a staunch conservative.

How Dems Are Bush’s Best Supporters Right Now...

I’m still trying to remain objective here, but I must say that the Democrats are doing one hell of a job of making it difficult for me.

Right now, I’m voting Bush in November, but one of the things I try to do, no matter how one-sided I am on an issue, is try to look at the other side.

I try to make sure that I do not close myself off to just hearing out one side, but make sure that I hear out both sides before making my final decision.

Now, as far as the Presidential Election goes, I keep trying to hear the Democrats out, but these jerks can’t get past their Bush-bashing to actually talk on the issues.

Now, I know the information that finally reaches me is having to go through the media filter that all news does these days, but even hardened Democrats must admit that the level of Bush-bashing is not leaving much media time for the actual issues that I would like to hear about.

I’d like to know how Wesley Clarke plans to keep my family safe amid terror threats. I’d like to know how Howard Dean is going to ensure the economy maintains its recovery. I’d like to know how in the world anyone still actually listens to Al Sharpton.

The problem is that they are too busy talking about aircraft carrier landings and presumptuous banners to get their message through to me, the voter.

So if Bush is talking about issues and they’re talking about Bush, to me, then, they’re Bush’s best supporters right now. Hey, thanks guys!

Let The U.N. Serve Its Purpose And Let The U.S. Do Its Job...

We all know the U.N. serves a purpose...when people around the world need food, medicine, or education, the U.N. is who should spear-head the efforts, but when it comes to putting the world’s foot down for freedom, we know that the only thing that will get done what needs to be done is a U.S.-led military force.

A great example can be seen in the U.N.-led Bosnian campaign. In Sarajevo in 1995, U.N.-led Dutch “peacekeepers” sat idly by while over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were rounded up by Serbs and massacred in a U.N.-declared “safe zone.”

Families are suing the Dutch and the U.N. for compensation, but they should have had their protection in the first place, especially in a U.N. “safe zone!”

For all that we are going through in Iraq, I shudder at where democracy in Iraq would be if we had let the U.N. handle Saddam. I cannot see how any American cannot look at the situation and not see the benefit of a U.S.-led force over a U.N.-led force.

As the Bush Administration works to hand a democratic government over to the Iraqi people, we must be resolute in our support of our troops and bringing democracy to America.

What would have happened if we’d have given up and the world had given up on us when we were fighting to bring democracy to the new world?

DMV’s Got My Money...

Let's start off 2004 by looking back a little. The registration on Teresa’s car is due on 01/26/04 and thanks to our former governor, I have to pay the full amount to the DMV then sit around and wait for their “efficiency” to eventually land me a refund check sometime, as they put it, “in early 2004.”

The worst part is that we are only four days out from the 01/31/04 cutoff of the folks who do not have to let the DMV hold their money, but, in fact, get to just pay the discounted rate.

I think this is a wonderful example of how we, the Californians, seemed to be the ones on the receiving end of the screw throughout the Davis administration’s reign.

No bank can hold my money for an undisclosed amount of time without paying any interest to me, yet the DMV can, right? Well, as I came to this realization of the DMV’s plans to sit on my money thanks to the former gov, I had to at least try to send word to his dumb ass, so I sent an email to his site, which is still up...www.gray-davis.com, but of course, it bounced back. Well, here is my email...

I’m not sure if this will ever reach you, or if you have just done your damage to Californians and moved on, but as I get ready to write out a check for my vehicle registration fee, I felt the need to at least attempt to contact you. I voted for you the first time you were elected to governor and between your scape-goating about electricity costs and your constant pandering to law-breakers like illegal immigrants, I must admit that you made me regret my decision to vote for you. You have made a Republican for life, my friend. Now, as I work hard to grow my business and pay my bills, I have to give the DMV my hard-earned money to hold for a few months while they get their refund checks out, thanks to one of the last acts you made in your Clinton-style exit. I guess I’m fortunate, though, because if you’d won, I’d have never gotten that money back, right? As you move on to probably sit on some Board of Directors somewhere in return for one of the deals you made to get into office in the first place, know this, my friend, your legacy in California will be that you were a failure as a governor and there are millions of Californians out here who are going to ensure that your legacy is remembered for what it was. Oh, and I must also thank you for the hours upon hours of laughter it gave me to watch you and Willy Jeff dancing and singing in church...Classic libby hypocrisy!

Back In 1904...

Back in 1904...

...the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
...only 14% of U.S. homes had a bathtub.
...only 8% of U.S. homes had a telephone.
...a 3-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
...there were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
...the maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 miles per hour.
...Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
...California was only the 21st most populous state with a mere 1.4 million residents.
...the tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
...the average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour.
...the average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
...a competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2500 per year, a veterinarian between $1500 and $4000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5000 per year.
...more than 95% of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
...90% of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
...sugar cost four cents a pound.
...eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
...coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
...most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
...Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.
...the five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza,
2. Tuberculosis, 3. Diarrhea, 4. Heart disease, 5. Stroke.
...the American flag had 45 stars.
...Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.
...the population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.
...crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.
...there was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
...20% of U.S. adults couldn’t read or write.
...only 6% of all Americans had graduated high school.
...marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
...18% of households in the U.S had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
...there were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.
...letters could take months to travel the world. This information came to me in an "electronic" mail, "copied and pasted" by me into a "software program" on a "computer" and delivered to you via the World Wide Web that involves no paper, writing, or teamsters (who drove horses in 1904), in just a couple of seconds...try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years...