The good news is thathe weighed in at 6lbs 6ozs yesterday, and was
back up yo 6lbs 8ozs today.
Last night was better, but still pretty rough, I am napping when Reese
does today!
Have a great weekend everyone
Mom was amazing, and pushed for 10 minutes!
What an amazing blessing, to quote George Strait, "I saw God today..."
Stay tuned...
Is it a coincidence that the Bears had a blowout win yesterday in
honor of our new baby? I don't think so...
He is a hero, I get it, but some of the ideas he threw out last night still have me scratching my head. (I still have a big issue with his stance on immigration)
The comment about paying people the difference in what they used to make to what they make while getting new job training at a community college? Huh?
So if I get whacked at the Enquirer, decide to go to community college, and take a job at Walmart as a greeter, John McCain wants to pay me the difference!!! Hmmm, sounds like some kind of expanded welfare program.
No thanks John, I think most Americans have the capacity to pick themselves up and turn themselves around without sapping more money from the national debt.
(This is the clip)
Just when McCain could not have driven me any further away, he does
something like this and totally redeems himself!
Sarah Palin, VP, absolutely love it.
Congrats McCain, you just won yourself an election...
Bill Hengeli, the homeowner, and his brother-in-law were in the garage when the fireworks began to explode.
"I had my back turned," Hengeli said. "I got trapped in the corner. I ran through the center of it all to get out."
| |
Chalmers and Beasley should both be in the starting line-up, which
will make watching games a ton of fun.
Have a great weekend!
NEW YORK (CNN) -- There is an industry in this country that is making billions in profit while average Americans are struggling to fill up their gas tanks.
It's an industry that made an average profit of nearly 17 percent in 2007 while most Americans could barely keep up with inflation.
It's an industry whose members paid a grand total of zero dollars in tax on their endowments last year.
Are you outraged? Are you ready to call on Congress to investigate or demand that a "windfall" tax be placed on these egregious profits?
Well put down the phone because the industry I'm talking about is Higher Education. And make no mistake, it is an industry.
The top five college and university endowments reported a combined value of over $100 billion at the end of 2007. That's five funds, a hundred billion in cash. Not a nickel in tax. Not an ounce of outrage.
Harvard University, which has the largest endowment in the country, has a total of $34.6 billion. To put into perspective just how much money that is, consider that the largest charitable foundation in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has a total endowment of $37.3 billion.
But while their financial statements may look similar, their missions aren't. The Gates Foundation is working to cure malaria, develop new tuberculosis vaccines, and stop the spread of AIDS. Most of our colleges and universities are only working to spread the radical political views of some of their professors.
Let me be clear: I have absolutely no problem with Harvard or any other school having billions in cash. In fact, good for them!
I have no problem with Harvard posting an unbelievable 23 percent rate of return on their money last year. The truth is, I'm jealous of it.
I have no problem with the fact that if you project Harvard's endowment out using their historical rate of return they would have over half a TRILLION dollars in 20 years.
I don't even have a problem with Harvard not paying one dime of tax on any of that money.
What I do have a problem with -- and it's a big one -- is how Harvard spends that money. Or, maybe it would be more accurate to say how Harvard, doesn't spend that money.
Schools with large endowments (at least $500 million) reported spending an average of 4.4 percent of their stockpiles in 2007. Meanwhile, those same schools made an average of over 19 percent on their money.
But I also have another problem, and that is how these sanctimonious institutions who are so good at complaining about the injustices of our government are nothing but really highly educated hypocrites.
For what's been estimated to be about $300 million a year (less than 1 percent of their endowment's value) Harvard could completely waive tuition, room and board for every single one of their students. Instead, they announced an increase in those fees of about 3.5 percent for next year. Being a student at Harvard will now cost a staggering $47,215 a year.
Doesn't Harvard know how many millions of Americans are struggling to afford college? Don't they want to pay their fair share and help those who are less fortunate?
Some politicians in Massachusetts who can't stand to see so many billions dangling just out of their reach, have proposed a new tax on large university endowments. They don't have a cute name for it yet, so let's call it an "endowment windfall tax."
Under their proposal, all endowments over a billion dollars would be taxed at 2.5 percent, a rate any wealthy individual or corporation would salivate over. The tax would net the state over $1.4 billion a year, which is a lot of money considering that Boston currently receives about $1.8 million a year from the school.
So how did Harvard, which is basically the Exxon-Mobil of higher education (minus the accusations of price-gouging), react to that proposal? In a word, conservatively.
"You'd be taxing success here," Kevin Casey, Harvard's associate vice president for government, community and public affairs complained in a quote that will soon be framed and hung in my office. "Over time, this would put us at a real competitive disadvantage, which would drastically hurt the Commonwealth."
No Kevin, you're looking at it the wrong way. These politicians aren't trying to hurt you, they're just trying to level the playing field. Greater Shrewsbury Liberal Arts Community Technical College for Women down the road is struggling and here you are making billions. If they could just redistribute some of your profits to GSLACTCFW then everybody would be happy.
Does anyone else find it ironic that universities overflowing with liberal professors (a 2005 study revealed that 72 percent of professors view themselves that way) embrace conservative values only when it suits them?
As a conservative, I don't believe in taxing anyone just because they have a lot of money or are an easy target. That applies to individuals, businesses and universities. I believe that taxing success discourages success, and that's not what America stands for.
But I also believe in something else: consistency and accountability. And that's where most of our colleges and universities fail miserably.
Besides, Harvard, you're in the wealthiest 1 percent. Isn't it time to help those who are less fortunate?
She did say based on something she saw her educated guess would be
that we are having a boy, but it was not conclusive.
So it looks like we get to be surprised come September, although I am
pretty sure Bon is going to buy boy's clothes and keep the receipts.
The baby is 100 healthy, which is really all that matters, and is
weighing in right now at a robust 12 ounces!
PITTSBURGH — John McCain called Tuesday for the federal government to free people from paying gasoline taxes this summer and ensure that college students can secure loans this fall, proposals aimed at stemming the public’s pain now from the troubled economy.
In the longer-term, the certain Republican presidential nominee said he would double the tax exemption for dependent children and offer people the option of choosing a simpler tax system.
“We know from experience that no serious reform of the current tax code will come out of Congress, so now it is time to turn the decision over to the people,” McCain said in a sweeping economic speech at Carnegie Mellon University a week before Pennsylvania’s primaries.
To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to institute a “gas-tax holiday” by suspending the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. He also renewed his call for the United States to stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and thus lessen to some extent the worldwide demand for oil.
Combined, he said, the two proposals would reduce gas prices, which would have a trickle-down effect, and “help to spread relief across the American economy.”
Last updated April 8, 2008 9:20 p.m. PT
By KRISTEN HAYS
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
The concept of a multibillion-dollar pipeline to bring huge natural gas reserves to U.S. markets from Alaska's North Slope has been knocked around for more than 30 years. ConocoPhillips and BP said Tuesday that they have linked arms to make it happen.
"The time has come now with the value of gas increasing and the need in the United States for that valuable commodity to bring that gas to market," said Jim Bowles, president of ConocoPhillips' Alaska division.
The companies would build a pipeline from Alaska to Alberta and possibly into the Lower 48 states.
What's more, they bypassed an Alaska bidding process, eschewing state incentives and putting forth their own plan to lock in customers, gain approvals from U.S. and Canadian governments and build the pipeline.
"We're not asking for anything," Bowles said in Anchorage. "This project is moving forward on its own."
Gov. Sarah Palin, who championed last year's bidding under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, wasn't insulted. If it means a viable project will get moving, all the better, she said shortly after the companies unveiled their plan.
"Choices allow for competition between projects," said Palin, who discussed the venture with the companies before they announced it. "If it can result in finally more exploration and more development that is safe and sound, at the end of the day, that is all good."
The pipeline, with a cost estimated at $25 billion to $42 billion, would be the largest-ever private sector construction project in North America, ConocoPhillips said.
The Houston-based oil giant and London-based BP aim to spend $600 million to solicit customers to make long-term commitments to use the pipeline. That process, called an "open season," would occur in late 2010 and early 2011.
After that, they would seek approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and its counterpart in Canada, the National Energy Board, before starting construction.
Meanwhile, they will open a headquarters in Anchorage that will employ 150 by the end of the year. Eventually, the project will have 500 workers plus "several thousand contractors," said Doug Suttles, president of BP's Alaska division.
"We are starting now. We're off," Suttles said.
The only proposal of five in the Alaska bidding process that was chosen for further review by Palin's administration was from Calgary-based pipeline giant TransCanada.
That plan is for a 48-inch pipeline to run 1,700 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Alberta, where it would tie into existing pipelines to reach U.S. markets. TransCanada estimated a cost of $26 billion to $35 billion.
The ConocoPhillips/BP plan calls for a similar route.
Tony Palmer, a TransCanada vice president, said Tuesday he supports "alignment" with ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, BP, the state of Alaska and his company.
A project to bring the North Slope's natural gas to market in the U.S. has been discussed since crude oil started flowing from the $8 billion Trans-Alaska Pipeline in Prudhoe Bay in 1977. The Energy Department says the North Slope has proven gas reserves of 35 trillion cubic feet, but geologists say as much as 200 trillion cubic feet remains undiscovered.
(For those of you who are not aware, Jason and I flew to Tyler, Texas and drove a 26 foot Penske truck back to the Nati this past weekend)Needing money to help pay for her senior prom, 18-year-old Kelsey Tolliver was selling newspapers on Easter Sunday inside University Hospital.
That’s when she got an Easter gift and her prom wishes fulfilled by a stranger.
“Some man walked up to me, smiled, told me Happy Easter and to keep the change,” Tolliver said today.
She looked down and believed the man gave her $4 for the $1.50 Sunday newspaper, an amount she considered “a pretty good tip.”
After a moment, though, the bills felt too thick to be just four $1 bills.
She counted it – and lost her breath.
In addition to the smile and Easter greetings, the man had given her $500 in $20 bills and the four $1 bills.
“By the time I looked up, he was gone,” Tolliver said from her mom’s Springfield Township home.
“I really didn’t know what to do. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t do that because I was selling newspapers and that would look bad. I wanted to scream but that would look bad, too.”
Tolliver is staying at her mom’s Springfield Township home this week because her school is on spring break.
She usually lives with her dad in Patriot, Ind., about 60 miles away. She attends Switzerland County Senior High.
Tolliver can’t imagine why the man – described as white with light brown hair, about 6 feet tall and in his mid-20s – would give her that much money.
“He didn’t look like he worked at the hospital. I’m guessing he was a visitor,” Tolliver said.
She’d never seen the man before – and hasn’t since.
She said she gave half of the money to her stepdad and used the rest to pay for her dress and other items for the April 12 prom at General Butler State Park in Carrollton, Ky.
“I already had my prom dress in layaway and I only owed $80 on it,” Tolliver said. “I went yesterday (Monday) and got it out.”
In addition to the $120 red dress, Tolliver also used the money to help pay for her silver shoes, purse and other accessories as well as for her share of the limo ride. She and eight or nine friends are attending the prom as a group.
“I just want to thank this guy. Bless his heart,” she said.
Editor's note: "Glenn Beck" is on Headline News nightly at 7 and 9 ET.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- What do these stories all have in common?
These stories prove how personal responsibility has all but vanished in America, and our government is leading the way.
Remember the kid from that interminable 1980s commercial whose father caught him using drugs? The father incredulously asked, "Who taught you how to do this stuff?" and the kid responded, "You, alright? I learned it by watching you."
Well, we are that kid and our government is that drug-using father who doesn't think that anyone notices his bad habits.
Our government is leading us by example, and I don't mean that in a good way. For years, it has spent us into oblivion, mortgaging our future for programs we can't afford, and Americans have happily followed suit, running up credit card bills and home equity loans for things they never should've bought.
Unfortunately, we're also learning something else from our government: how to avoid taking responsibility for our actions.
From Eliot Spitzer's alleged hooker craze to the revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger commutes to work in a large private jet even as he preaches the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions, there's never been a shortage of "do what I say, not what I do" hypocrites in politics.
But that same attitude has seemingly spread from individual politicians to an entire party.
Democrats aren't happy that delegates from Florida and Michigan won't be seated at the national convention because those states broke clear party rules. Well you know what? Too bad. We don't say that enough anymore. Too bad. You agreed to the rules; you broke them. Now you've got to deal with the consequences.
"But Glenn. ... Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will have enough delegates to win the nomination. We don't want this to be decided in some backroom by superdelegates."
Too bad.
"But Glenn. ... You don't understand. If we don't seat delegates from those states now, then we might lose their votes in the general election."
Too bad.
"But Glenn. .... The voters in these states are going to be disenfranchised if we don't let their voices be heard."
Too bad.
If you want to talk about disenfranchised voters, then let's talk about why just 17 percent of Americans have a positive view of Congress. Let's talk about why we still have wide open borders despite most Americans wanting them sealed. Let's talk about why we keep selling out our sovereignty and our security by borrowing billions of dollars from-less-than friendly countries, such as China.
Americans aren't disenfranchised because our leaders won't count votes in a couple of states. They're disenfranchised because our leaders aren't doing their jobs. They're disenfranchised because after working hard to support their families and to raise kids who understand the difference between right and wrong, their leaders do exactly the opposite.
In the cases of Florida and Michigan, I've patiently listened to all the moving arguments about why there should be a "do-over," but quite honestly, they're not arguments at all. They're excuses. If this race wasn't so close, or if these states offered a combined 36 delegates instead of 366, do you really think anyone would care? Of course not.
But no matter what you think should happen, you have to admit that Clinton's idea that we should simply count her "wins" in Florida and Michigan is completely ridiculous.
In fact, if you played a rimshot and a laugh track behind her every time she recited that line, people might actually agree to a two-drink minimum to see her speak. How could you possibly count the results from an election when your main opponent wasn't even on the ballot (at least in Michigan)? You can't -- unless you think the rules are simply there for your own amusement.
Last year, when the punishment against Florida was first approved, Donna Brazile, a member of the Democratic National Committee rules panel, said she hoped that the harsh consequences would "send a message to everybody in Florida that we are going to follow the rules." And Brazile knows a little something about that ... she ran Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000.
Voters in Florida and Michigan should ask themselves one important question before they blindly follow their party: Why did no one seem to care about "alienating" them last year when the rules were intentionally broken? It's only now, when their vote really matters, that everyone is suddenly so concerned about "enfranchising" them.
Florida and Michigan have a golden opportunity to stand up and say enough is enough, to send a message that it's time to not only take responsibility for their actions but for those of our leaders as well.
After all, what would it say about personal responsibility in this country if we allow the two states that broke all the rules to end up having the biggest say of all?
Isn't America great?
