Saturday, September 18, 2004 :::
 

Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)



Ahh bless the Liberals...

Not protesting..not heckling...Just standing quietly holding a sign.....
Hmmm

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/18/2004 08:49:00 AM

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Friday, September 17, 2004 :::
 

Construction May Have Led To Crash Into House


ST. CLAIR SHORESMich. - Construction in a St. Clair Shores intersection may have led a driver to crash her pickup truck into a house early Friday morning, according to police.

A 35-year-old Grosse Pointe woman was driving her Ford F-150 pickup truck on Pleasant Street when she missed a turn and crashed into the front of a home located at Grove Street at about 1:30 a.m. The intersection is currently being repaved and there were construction barricades at the scene, according to Local 4's report.




WTF is this........it was the Cunstruction Zones Fault???? Ummm...The driver is the idiot who crashed the car!!!

Things like this just make me want to scream... "It wasn't my fault! It was the Orange Cones fault!"

WTF

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/17/2004 03:02:00 PM

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Thursday, September 16, 2004 :::
 

Thanks be to Red Halibut at CGA!!!


In todays PC world!!


Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow. Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

shall, hereafter, be changed to read:

A young person of the female gender was the possessor of a small immature ruminant of the species genus Ovis, whose outermost covering reflected all wavelengths of visible light with a luminosity equal to that of a mass of naturally occurring microscopically crystalline water. Regardless of the translational path chosen by the aforesaid

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/16/2004 07:25:00 PM

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my grandmother gave me a wish
i could either have a perfect memory or a huge penis
i can't remember my decision

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/16/2004 07:21:00 PM

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Time to Boycott CBS and ALL of its affiliates!!


Gotta Love Travis County, Texas!

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/16/2004 05:55:00 PM

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Wednesday, September 15, 2004 :::
 

Ah..Marion Barry won his Democratic Primary to a City Council seat in the District of Columbia. Pretty standard for the type of leadership qualities the Democrats look for, wouldn't you say??

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/15/2004 08:06:00 AM

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Tuesday, September 14, 2004 :::
 

A couple had been married for 50 years. They were sitting at the
breakfast table one morning when the wife says, "Just think, fifty years ago we were sitting here at this breakfast table together."
"I know," the old man said. "We were probably sitting here naked as jaybirds fifty years ago."
"Well," Granny snickered. "Let's relive some old times."
Whereupon the two stripped to the buff and sat down at the table.
"You know,honey," the little old lady breathlessly replied, "My
nipples are as hot for you today as they were fifty years ago."
"I wouldn't be surprised," replied Gramps.
"One's in your coffee and the other is in your oatmeal."

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/14/2004 04:21:00 PM

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OK...I have not been to a baseball game in a couple years...but if Frank Francisco EVER steps on a Baseball field again....not only will I NEVER go to another Baseball game, but the commissioner of Baseball should be brought up on charges.

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/14/2004 01:33:00 PM

1 comments

 

OK, CBS.... it is time to produce the originals

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/14/2004 01:13:00 PM

3 comments

 

Creative Speaking:

Kerry is using an exaggerated figure for the cost of the Iraq war in his latest line of attack against Bush, claiming in the latest version of his standard stump speech that the war in Iraq has cost "$200 billion and counting." The Democratic National Committee uses an identical phrase in a TV ad. But that's too high.

There's little question that the Iraq war and its bloody aftermath will cost $200 billion, eventually. But so far, the bill for the war is still under $120 billion, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Kerry runs the figure up to $200 billion by counting money scheduled to be spent next fiscal year, plus additional funds for the future that haven't even been requested yet. He also is counting money projected to be spent for operations in Afghanistan and to protect US cities, not for Iraq.

Source:
Factcheck.org

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/14/2004 12:43:00 PM

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Gee...and you wonder why I don't like Pro Baseball!


Texas Rangers-Oakland A's game turns ugly when player hurls chair at fans


Texas reliever Frank Francisco threw a chair into the right field box seats, hitting two spectators in the head, as Oakland A's fans taunted the visitors after a two-out, top-of-the-ninth homer tied the game.
One of the fans, an unidentified woman, was bloodied and her nose was broken

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/14/2004 07:37:00 AM

3 comments

Monday, September 13, 2004 :::
 

New TAX INCREASE for Michigan


County Tax Shift: It Quacks, It Waddles; It’s a Duck
The Michigan Legislature has adopted a fiscal 2005 state budget that closes an approximately $1 billion gap between expected revenues and projected spending. Around one-third of the gap is filled by a hike in the state taxes on tobacco and Detroit casinos. Another one-third comes from actual reductions in spending and smaller-than-expected spending increases. The final one-third comes from fund shifts and accounting changes.

Possibly the most controversial element of the budget is advancing the county property tax billing date from December to July, phased in over three years. In 2005, one-third of county property taxes would be billed in July, and two-thirds in December. In 2006, two-thirds would be billed in July, and one-third in December. In 2007, the entire amount would be billed in July. (July billings are due Sept. 15, and December billings are due Feb. 15.) This move allows the state to gain $183 million, which would be used to make future state revenue-sharing payments to counties.

There is some controversy over whether this is a tax increase. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has no doubt, telling the Oakland Press, "Every year, we're going to pay not 12 months, but 16 — and at the end of the third year, we will have paid a full year of extra property taxes." The Press also quotes Greg Bird, spokesman for the Office of the State Budget, disagreeing: "You’re not paying an extra year. You’re simply paying at an earlier date."

The legal details of the new tax shift are awesomely complicated, and they are giving county officials and the real estate industry huge headaches. Still, figuring out whether this is a tax hike is not so difficult if examined solely from the point of view of how the proposal affects the net worth of an average taxpayer, who only cares about two things: How much do I owe, and when do I have to pay it?

Imagine you pay $100 a year in county property taxes. Under current law, between July 2005 and July 2007, you will have paid $200 in property tax — $100 in December 2005, and $100 in December 2006. You will also have accrued another seven-month’s county tax liability of $58, which will have accumulated from December 2006 through June 2007, but is not payable until December. Thus, an informal "personal balance sheet" at that moment would show your wealth down by $258: $200 in cash already paid out, plus a $58 accrued liability.

Under the new law, in contrast, you will have paid out $300 between July 2005 and July 2007 — $33 in July 2005, and $67 in December 2005; $67 in July 2006, and $33 in December 2006; and $100 in July 2007. Although you wouldn’t have accrued the $58 "accounts payable" liability that you would under current law, your personal balance sheet would still show your wealth down by $300: $300 in cash already paid, and $0 in accrued liability.

Therefore, you would be $42 poorer under the new system — the difference between the $300 decrease in your wealth under the proposed system and the $258 decrease under the current system. In contrast, the state would be $42 richer, having added $300 of your money to its accounts, compared to having $200 of your money in hand with an additional $58 in "accounts receivable." The $42 increase in your payments represents a tax hike of approximately 16.27 percent.

Moving forward from July 2007, you would be back to paying the old rate of $100 per year. When December of 2007 rolls around, you won’t get a new tax bill, but will have accrued another five months of "accounts payable" liability, or $42. At that point you are still out the $300 in cash payments and have added a new liability. And so it goes, rolling on into the future. You never do recoup that $42.

But that is not the only damage done by this proposal. For many taxpayers, there is also the opportunity cost of handing over their cash five months earlier. This kind of cost was calculated in a memo by a state House Fiscal Agency economist in 2001, when Gov. John Engler persuaded the Legislature to adopt a similar tax collection date shift for the six-mill state school property tax.

The fiscal agency explained that assuming the loss of an opportunity to collect a five percent interest rate between July and December on the money used to pay the tax sooner, and assuming a three percent annual inflation rate, the owner of a home with a $150,000 market value would be out $18.33 in "present value" for each mill paid in property tax over a ten-year period.

A similar calculation can be applied to the current proposal, adding to the loss in net worth described earlier. Therefore, the proposal is at minimum equivalent to a one-time 16.27 percent increase in a taxpayer’s annual county property tax bill, payable in 2006 and 2007.

So is this a tax increase? Taxpayers will have involuntarily lost wealth, and the state will have gained it. That is called a tax increase.

Instead of stealth tax hikes and semantic debates, the Legislature should instead consider balancing its budget through pro-growth policies that lower taxes and cut spending. The math will be easier, and it will be a real chance for leadership, rather than a nightmare exercise in accounting.

#####

Jack McHugh is a legislative analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Mich. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliation are cited.

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/13/2004 09:45:00 AM

2 comments

Sunday, September 12, 2004 :::
 

In a comment Thursday, Teresa Heinz Kerry seemed to reflect Democratic frustration that Kerry’s ideas are not yet winning acceptance. Touting her husband’s health insurance proposal she said, “Only an idiot wouldn't like this. Of course, there are idiots."

Idiots or not, a good number of likely voters have not yet seen Kerry as his wife and his admirers portray him: an unquestionably superior president.



And the Dems want her as our First Lady??

Oh, and I guess I am an idiot ;)

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 10:15:00 AM

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There is something Profoundly Wrong with this.....

600 lb Woman Grows to Couch, Dies

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 09:45:00 AM

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Never mind...Michael is not human

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 09:17:00 AM

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Ooops, just watched the start of the Italian Grand Prix.... I was, for a second......

I think he spun on purpose just to make the rest of the race exciting!

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 08:09:00 AM

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Is Michael Schumacher human?

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 08:07:00 AM

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There are several BB discussions I am involved in... I am always amazed.

Whats the best way to stop a liberal? Educate them with facts!

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 08:05:00 AM

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Fraternal Order of Police Endorses Bush!!!
President Bush has "full support" of the nation's largest police labor organization



Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, today announced the organization's endorsement of President George W. Bush in his reelection effort.

"For the past four years, President George W. Bush has proved himself to be one of the very best friends that rank-and-file law enforcement officers have ever had," Canterbury said from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the group's National Board is meeting this weekend. "We are fortunate to have this man in the White House and we are proud to give him our endorsement today."

Full Text Here

::: posted by Curtis aka exeter_acres at 9/12/2004 08:03:00 AM

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