Inspired

I have a new slogan thanks to Juan McCain, "I am a foot soldier in the
soulpatch revolution"

Hey, did you know it was McCain's idea to make the surge in Iraq?

Learn this word folks, Mexamericanada...

Rudy DOA

Clearly my support for Rudy was not enough. He got absolutely baked last night in Florida. What disheartens me more though, is the rumor that he is throwing his support to John McCain. A good friend who I text back and forth on debate and primary nights asked me, "Will you vote for McCain if Rudy is his VP in the general election?", my response, No.

I don't vote for people based on their VP's, that would be like accepting a job because you thought your new boss's secretary was rock solid.

I am going for broke 100% with Mitt Romney, who has been my back-up plan for weeks now. I know this is bad, but if McCain is the Republican nominee, I am just not going to vote. Unless, someone steps in as a third party in Ross Perot fashion.

Check out this pic Guido sent me last night, recognize the guy on the sideline? (That is my high school football coach next to me, with his head just behind Kalvin's helmet) This is from when OU beat Miami, again, this season.


By the way, I start my last class tonight!

Tell me how this helps again...

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican congressional leaders completed a deal Thursday with the White House on an economic stimulus package that would give most tax filers refunds of $600 to $1,200, and more if they have children.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader John Boehner scheduled a news conference for 1:30 p.m. EST to announce the $150 billion package, hammered out in a week of intense negotiations with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Congressional aides, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced, said they hope the checks could go out as early as June.

Individuals who pay income taxes would get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those couples with children an additional $300 per child under the deal. Workers who make at least $3,000 but don't pay taxes would get $300 rebates.

The rebates would be limited to individuals whose income is $75,000 or less and working couples with incomes $150,000 or less.

The rebate part of the plan would cost about $100 billion, aides said. The package also includes close to $50 billion in business tax cuts.

The package would allow businesses to immediately write off 50 percent of purchases of plants and other capital equipment and permit small businesses to write off additional purchases of equipment. A Republican-written provision to allow businesses suffering losses now to reclaim taxes previously paid was dropped.

Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed to drop increases in food stamp and unemployment benefits during a Wednesday meeting in exchange for gaining rebates of at least $300 for almost everyone earning a paycheck, including low-income earners who make too little to pay income taxes.

Celebrate

I cannot tell you how pumped I am for Saturday!

Bon seems to be recovering from her crud, but Reese was up a ton last night coughing. I hope she can get recovered for her fiesta.

Cranking through school work...

This is hillarious...

Transformer...

My transformation to some kind of political economic nerd continues.
Time that was once dedicated to ESPNews highlites and ESPN radio in
the car has been replaced with Fox Business, CNBC and Glenn Beck. I am
just totally into this stuff right now and enjoying talking with the
people around me about this stuff. This is an extremely pivotal time
for our country in many respects.

One of my favorite things to do right now is to just ask people which
presidential candidates they like and why. It is not to give me an
opportunity to combat their thinking, just to hear what people really
care about and who they see as the best leader. It is very much my
intent to someday run for a political office, so start saving now for
the campaign fund.

Reese and I had some great solo time this weekend with Bonnie on the
Chrysalis walk. I can totally see a change coming in her as well, she
is no longer the "perfect" angel and has some defiance and moxie
starting to come through. We had a nice "come to Jesus" moment at the
Y Monday night. Thankfully in that battle of wills Daddy was able to
outlast the tempered one. Where does she get that anyway?

Oh well, on to a meeting,

Peace out

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

I love you so much!

Election Endorsement

As you will see to the left, like a boomerang, I have returned to Rudy.

Rudy's tax and health care plans are phenomenal, the best of any other candidate individually and you get them all wrapped up in one person! What "concerns" me is his strategy, if it works he is golden, if it backfires, it will cost him all. He has put all of his eggs into the Florida basket.

If for some reason his campaign crumbles, I have decided that Mitt Romney is my option B. And that is where it stops at this point, I do not have enough confidence in any of the other candidates to give them my vote.

If you get a minute, I really encourage you to read the transcript from Rudy's interview with Glenn Beck yesterday here:

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/4358/

New Pics

For those of you who have not seen America's most beautiful family in awhile, allow me to share...

Weekend Review

It all started Friday night...


Mom graced us with her presence and chilled with The Reese while Bon and I attended a Euchre Tourney thrown by old friends Vaughn and Russ. It was great to see them, I know Bon misses them a lot. We did pretty well, Bon had the privilege of winning game one with me, and then we were separated like Jack and Rose on the floating door, I think I even heard Bon say, "I'll never let go Jeremy," as I moved on to my next table. I ended up in a tie for second place, only 1 point behind number one! Oh well, good times...

Saturday morning Mom, Reese and I hit up Jungle Jim's and Petland while Bon attended a meeting. They had a bulldog, so we pulled it into the play area and got to play with her a little bit. We have decided our first dog will be an English Bulldog, it is just a matter of getting one at the right price.

Yesterday Reese had her two year appointment at the doctor, and all went extremely well. Someone told me that a good way to project adult height for kids is to double their height at age 2. Pretty interesting, not sure how accurate it is, but we will find out. Reese will be 5'7" by that calculation.

Three days until her birthday, in celebration here is one of her first photos...

Live Debate Reaction

- I have no idea what Ron Paul just said in that monologue
- John McCain just said, "climate change may in fact be real", really John, revolutionary
- Mitt just used "shining city on a hill", word to Tobymac
- Fred Thompson reminds me of a cool uncle from Nashville
- Huckabee just got WORKED by Uncle Fred
- Rudy mentions Reagan in every response, his strategy is clear, identify yourself with the last beloved Republican president
- It seems like Brit Hume is trying to get one of the candidates to say we should have fired on the Iranian ships this week, none are biting
- Ron Paul is ridiculous, get him off the stage, seriously, I am embarrassed for him
- Mitt just dropped a barb at Ron, and he muttered, "go ahead and make fun buddy" under his breath. Do people in other countries think we act live 8 year olds?
- McCain voted for the troop surge? Really, I have only heard that 100 times
- Nice slam on the NY Times Uncle Fred
- Rudy's new tax plan is sweet

Good night all...

Hacked

For the first time in my life, I have been hacked. Someone was able to get to one of my bank accounts through Paypal and purchase a camera for $533. So far Paypal has been extremely helpful in getting this matter resolved and we are on the road to getting the funds put back into my account. I had been living on the edge for a while with the home cpu with no virus or spyware protection, and while I do not think it would have stopped this incident last night I downloaded the super Norton software onto the computer. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me thing you know...

Shout out to D-Watts, who found his way to the blog. Heat Stadium is growing folks...

Interesting primary results last night, Bon and I agree we hope Hillary gets the Democratic nomination because she would seem to be easier to defeat. In addition, Bon and I are split on who we like, as I have said my endorsement is still available, but if I had to make a decision today it would probably be Mitt Romney. Bon thinks he is a shady puppet, so we will see how it plays out...

Big ups to Momma for passing her tax preparer exam!

Peace out

Enough Said

I am laughing hysterically on the inside...

The Buckeyes should be banned from a title game for 5 years. That's the best you can do, seriously? Back to back embarrassments...

Maturity?

It is a dark day my friends.

Instead of watching the NFL playoffs Saturday night I was instead tuned in to four hours of Presidential debates...

Am I finally maturing? I hope not, I just find this election extremely intriguing, and have re-opened the designation of my endorsement. I find myself in an interesting place because none of them are slam dunks for me at this point.

In addition, it looks like Barack Obama has some serious mojo working.

My thought process then becomes, what Republican has the best shot to give him a run for his money?

Expect more obscure rumblings about this election as time goes on...

Reese has her first gymnastics class tonight at the Y, should be a great time. Don't worry, we are not some uber-aggressive parents trying to make our child a star, it is mostly a social get together with 5 other 2 year olds.

Talk to you soon...

Rock On

I am anxiously awaiting the Iowa Caucus today and will be glued to some Fox News tonight checking out the analysis.

One of my growing favorite stations on XM is "The Boneyard" They play 80's and 90's hair metal rock. As I drove in to work this morning I was rocking out to:

Happy 2008!

The holidays were a little crazy, but now I am back to the daily grind and focused on the important stuff, like my blog. Here are some bullet points about things going through my head right now:

• I busted a gut laughing this morning when I looked at the Chillicothe Gazette online and found the following entries in the police report:

Theft - A newspaper was reported stolen from the 400 block of North Main Street in Frankfort between 6 and 7 a.m. Saturday.

Theft - Four wheels were removed from a residence on the 400 block of Douglas Avenue and replaced with old ones, reported 1:28 p.m. Sunday. (Key word, residence)

Burglary - Someone entered a home on the 0 block of Westfall Road, South Salem, and took popsicles, fudge bars and some change between 10:39 a.m. Sunday and 10:39 a.m. Monday. (I had 30 cents laying here and it is gone, call 911!)

• I am enjoying XM Radio, which I came away with from Christmas
• We have a ton of Christmas decorations and it takes some work to get them back in the attic
• Reese has started the "Why?" phase
• Daddy B, Aunt Krys, and RV will be here in 3 and a half weeks, cannot wait!
• Reese asks for Diesel (Beth's dog) everyday, clearly she needs a puppy. She even played catch with one of her stuffed animal dogs Saturday
• Reese's changing table has officially been transferred to a dresser only, she is too tall, what a dark day...
• I had some Mountain Dew yesterday for the first time in weeks and it tasted terrible, I have broken through, and actually prefer water at this point
• I also recommend Kashi products, we have been eating a lot of them and they are outstanding, including the pizza! Check out their website here
• The Wii is phenomenal, thanks Godfather for the experience, I see one of those in our future for 2008

Talk to you all soon...

6 days since a post...

Sorry, things have been hectic, there have been a number of times I thought, "Hey I should blog that," and then got sidetracked...

I want to touch briefly on "bold steps".

Ben has spoken of this a few times, and a group of our friends touched on this one night at our house.

God calls us to be bold.

And while sometimes that can be a little scary, it certainly stretches your faith and helps you grow.

Both of our mothers recently took bold steps, and we could not be prouder.

It wasn't that long ago that I called Bonnie an hour into a work day in Nashville and told her I had just resigned. She was 5 months pregnant with Reese, was working a temporary substitute teaching job, and I had nothing else lined up. All I knew is that I felt it was God's will that I not be employed there, so I resigned.

In a time where some referred to us as "crazy" or "secretly unhappy", Bon and I had one of the best times in our marriage, we drew closer to each other and closer to God. I would not trade that experience for anything, and I am sure Bon would not either.

I carry a different perspective now on life, and honestly crave that time of reliance on Bon and more importantly God. In fact, we feel that pull to grow again in our faith, and are talking about what are next "bold step" is, so stay tuned.

I do not tell this story to be some T.O.-esque self-hype machine, it just seems like we have a lot of friends and family who are in the middle of a bold step now, or are fighting the urge to take one.

Life is ultimately about experiences, not stuff, in this season of mass commercialization and overspending, take an opportunity to invest in yourself, your family, and your relationship with God.

Take a bold step, trust and pray for God's will, and enjoy the ride...

I'm Getting Old

I have recently come to the realization that I listen almost exclusively to talk radio all day, (Dave Ramsey, Glenn Beck, Colin Cowherd) and actually made the effort to watch yesterday's Republican debate in Iowa on the Des Moines Register website.

Why Do I love listening to the Herd?

This guy talks great sports and gives some great general life advice in this clip

Click here

If you have a few minutes, this is also worth your time to listen to, he completely cracks me up!

Click here

Something Old School Returns...

American Gladiators!

(Click words to see promo video)