Saturday, January 27, 2007

The rigged 2004 election

To this day we keep hearing about Bush "stealing" Ohio in the 2004 election. It gets play by the news media every single time someone mentions it.

Here's an interesting article about two poll workers in Cuyahoga County being sentenced for felony vote fraud. Yet for some reason, it has received absolutely no media play at all.

Take a guess on what party was responsible for the fraud. I'll give you a hint.... it wasn't a Bushie.

Impeachment

Elizabeth Holtman thinks Congress should impeach President Bush. Elizabeth needs to read Gordon's post.

"His impeachable offenses include using lies and deceptions to drive the country into war in Iraq, deliberately and repeatedly violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on wiretapping in the United States, and facilitating the mistreatment of US detainees in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the War Crimes Act of 1996."

The Nation: Impeachment: The Case in Favor

Internet pandemic

As someone who works in IT, I see first hand how costly security can be for businesses. And how much damage malicious viruses, malware, etc. can cause. It's only going to get worse... but we all need to do everything we can, from a personal standpoint, to keep our computers secure.

"Criminals controlling millions of personal computers are threatening the internet's future, experts have warned.

Up to a quarter of computers on the net may be used by cyber criminals in so-called botnets, said Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet.

Mr Cerf, who is one of the co-developers of the TCP/IP standard that underlies all internet traffic and now works for Google, likened the spread of botnets to a "pandemic".

Of the 600 million computers currently on the internet, between 100 and 150 million were already part of these botnets, Mr Cerf said. "

BBC: Criminals 'may overwhelm the web'

Friday, January 26, 2007

Edwards

You know how I know John Edwards is always looking out for the little guy..... He comes up with projects like building a $6 million dollar home just so some poor construction guys can feed their families.

That's why this guy's going to get the Democratic nomination.

Various

A couple of items of note that I read in the Wall Street Journal this week.

First, it appears a change in the 1099 reporting for tax exempt interest is causing the big investment houses from sending out their 1099's on time and those that do are likely to have to send corrected 1099's later. My suggestion is to wait and file your tax returns if you have significant investment income.

Second, there was an article by Jonathon Clements entitled "Why You Should Think Twice About Investing In Real Estate." He lays out many of the points I mentioned on an earlier post regarding real estate investment.

Unfortunately, I can't link you to the articles (they're subscriber only) but if you would like email me at gtvcpa@yahoo.com and I will send you a pdf copy of the article(s).

On another note, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has sent out a correction stating that they will be using the $9,000 wage base instead of the increase of $9,500 as earlier reported. It was just in time for everyone to reprogram their payroll systems to the adjusted rate. Now they get to spend their productive time reprogramming back to the old rate. (reason #865 why you should relocate your business to another state)

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Kelo

Right after the Kelo v City of New London decision came out, I was telling one of my dear liberal friends about how wrong it was for the court to decide that it's OK for a government to seize someone's private property and sell it to a private company.

She hadn't really followed the case so she just assumed that it was the Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist cabal serving big business interests. When I told her it was the liberals on the court, Kennedy, Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer et al, she seemed somewhat surprised.

That's the big misconception many rank and file liberals have about liberal ideology in practice. Many liberals think they are champions of the little guy, but it's much deeper than that. Liberal ideology starts with the assumption that the state knows better and as a result should have all the resources to distribute as they see fit and this Kelo case was a perfect example of liberalism in practice.

Andrew Napolitano has a great article titled "Property Rights after the Kelo Decision" which really lays out the assault on private property rights this decision provides the state.

While I was totally outraged by the Kelo case, I really should not have been surprised. Really, why shouldn't the government be able to seize your property for whatever reason it's sees fit? It does that already. We have mandatory income taxes required to be paid... that's a property seizure. A government passes a minimum wage law.... that's a property seizure. A government says you can't develop your property because it's a wetland, that's a property seizure.... it never ends.

As Barry Goldwater once said "a government big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take it all away."

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Zip Dip and Zoning

How difficult is it to run a small business? Chris Torbeck, owner of the west side ice cream icon the Zip Dip, knows all about it. He decided to add picnic tables to the area just behind his store on Harrison Ave but was told that he was violating the zoning regulations since it was a change in his business.

"As a result, Torbeck could be forced to move his business - because it's zoned only for residences - or pay as much as $300,000 for changes and a legal fight over the zoning issues."

Not even in my wildest imagination did I think we'd have to do what we have been through," Torbeck said Monday."

Cincinnati Enquirer: Zip Dip

Monday, January 22, 2007

SLUTH award follow up

Here's an article about the rash of foreclosures in Ohio.

Check out my earlier post about financing your residence.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

The Weather Channel

On a day when the "white death" has reared it's ugly head in the Cincinnati tri-state area, this article from World Net Daily is appropriate. I've always been a big fan of The Weather Channel. But once again, emotions have taken over a once trusted "news" channel and the straight facts take a back seat to a political agenda.

"The move away from scientific forecasting of the weather to sensationalized leftist political advocacy is in part due to the influence of Wonya Lucas, executive vice president and general manager of The Weather Channel Networks.

Lucas admitted in a recent interview with Media Village that the reprogramming of The Weather Channel was influenced by her tenure at CNN when that network shifted from presenting straight news to personality-driven programming."

WND: Con Job at the Weather Channel