From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 07:41:30 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:41:30 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation Message-ID: <090101ca50b1$1a00e460$4e02ad20$@com> Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY! 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!' Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God..' Think about this: If you forward this prayer to everyone on your e-mail list, in less than 30 days it would be heard by the world. One Nation Under God. From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 07:43:44 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:43:44 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Ho white and the seven dwarfs Message-ID: <090501ca50b1$69c0b1b0$3d421510$@com> Sleepy, Happy and Doc are rebranded Filthy, Smarmy and Randy lmao http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6341373/Ho-White-and -the-Seven-Dwarves-beer-advert-angers-Disney.html http://tinyurl.com/yfj7yl8 From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 07:47:00 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:47:00 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] James Perry-nola mayoral candidate and head of gno fairhousing Message-ID: <090601ca50b1$dee4f1e0$9caed5a0$@com> John you mean Bernazinni or whatever? I think I saw he would be affected by that 5 year residency rule for the city. JY ----------------------------------------------------- Sounds like another typical black candidate that will likely be another two-bit hustler in office. What about the guy who recently retired as the head of the FBI office in New Orleans? Now that's the kind of guy I'd like to see as Mayor. John From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 19:12:09 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:12:09 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Morning Bell: Exposing the Obamacare Shell Game Message-ID: <0c3201ca5111$95b9dc00$c12d9400$@com> MONDAY, OCT 19, 2009 Exposing the Obamacare Shell Game In his primetime health care address before a Joint Session of Congress, President Barack Obama promised the American people: ?I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits ? either now or in the future. Period.? But it is hard work adding $1 trillion in government spending while claiming with a straight face that you are not adding to the deficit. Enter White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who has just the solution : just strip out $247 billion of the spending in the bill, pass it separately, and voila ? your job just got one-fourth easier. The specific issue at hand is the centrally planned price control regime the federal government uses to reimburse doctor?s who participate in Medicare. Medicare reimburses doctors and other medical professionals for their services according to a congressionally created fee schedule that is annually adjusted by the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. The idea is relatively simple: If Medicare spending grows faster than our overall economy (which is almost always the case), then payments to Medicare providers are supposed to be reduced proportionately to keep expenditures in line over a period of time. Problem is every year Congress?under both Democratic and Republican leadership?routinely blocks the cuts from going into effect. Subsequently, the necessary cumulative cut in Medicare payments grows bigger. Without a change to current law, payments to physicians would be reduced by 21.5% as of January 1, 2010. The Senate Finance Committee bill addresses this problem by raising the reimbursement rate for one year and then pretending that Congress will allow massive cuts for the next 9 years. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) rightfully called the Senate Finance Committee proposal a fa?ade . The Obama administration?s proposed solution, however, is no more honest. Instead of pretending Congress will cut doctor?s Medicare reimbursement rates, the Senate wants to pretend the doc fix isn?t part of health care reform. So Majority Leader Harry Reid?s (D-NV) dissembled Friday: ?Correcting the Medicare doctors? payment discrepancy is a budgetary problem ? health insurance reform tackles a serious regulatory problem. That?s why we need to fix the Medicare doctors? payments first, outside of health reform.? The Washington Post editorial board responded this morning: Mr. Reid?s attempt to distinguish the budgetary and regulatory issues is nonsensical. The health reform measure includes all sorts of changes in the ways that various providers are compensated. True, the problem with inadequate Medicare payments is something of a preexisting condition to health reform, but that does not make it unrelated. The so-called doc fix is being rushed to the Senate floor this week in advance of health reform not because it has nothing to do with health reform but because it has everything to do with it. ? A president who says that he is serious about dealing with the dire fiscal picture cannot credibly begin by charging this one to the national credit card, with no concern for the later generations who will have to pay the bill. And it is the later generations that should be particularly concerned with this shell game. That $247 billion price tag is just the ten year cost of the doc fix. Looking over the long-term, the 75-year cost to our national debt is another $3 trillion. This past Friday the Obama administration admitted that the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before and the largest shortfall relative to the size of the economy since 1945. Just like Obamacare?s massive expansion of the Medicaid rolls , the doc fix shell game exposes the fact that Obamacare is just a continuation of the current budget busting health care system, not real reform. QUICK HITS According to data from the Congressional Budget Office and Kaiser Family Foundation, Obamacare would expand Medicaid and the State Children?s Health Insurance Program to the point that nearly one in five Americans would be on government programs that provide health care to the poor. This would be the biggest single expansion since Medicaid was created in 1965 . California is poised to become the first state to ban big-screen TVs due to their power-heavy demands. According to an internal Energy Department audit, the Energy Star program (which the Obama administration threw $300 million of ?stimulus? at) doesn?t properly track whether manufacturers that give their appliances an Energy Star label have met the required specifications for energy efficiency. The high-mileage car tax credit in President Obama?s failed stimulus allows for a federal tax credit generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a golf cart . U.S. and European counterterrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits ? including Americans ? are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary training camps. From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 19:14:11 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:14:11 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] URINE TEST Message-ID: <0c3501ca5111$de0c6a90$9a253fb0$@com> I agree whole heartedly with this, but how would passing it along make it change ? I have seen this same email years ago & nothing has changed. Syl -----Original Message----- This guy has a point! This was written by a construction worker in Fort McMurray. Read on . . . I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes, and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to earn that pay check, I work on a rig site for a Fort McMurray construction project. At any time I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem. HOWEVER, what I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Understand - I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their ass, drink beer and smoke dope. Could you imagine how much money this country would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check? If you agree, please pass this along, or simply delete if you don't.. Hope you will pass it along though, because something has to change in this country. From westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 19:21:57 2009 From: westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:21:57 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Murphy says restarts Meraux, Louisiana, FCC Message-ID: <0c4801ca5112$f4314010$dc93c030$@com> Murphy says restarts Meraux, Louisiana, FCC Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:15pm EDT AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Murphy Oil Corp (MUR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) restarted a repaired gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker at its 120,000 barrel per day (bpd) Meraux, Louisiana, refinery on Sunday, the company said. "We had a minor flange leak," said Murphy spokeswoman Mindy West. "The FCC unit was shut down Saturday morning to repair the leak and the unit was restarted Sunday." (Reporting by Erwin Seba) C Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world. From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 19:25:22 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:25:22 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Time Running Out to Stop this Radical Obama Nominee Message-ID: <0c4901ca5113$6e6c24d0$4b446e70$@com> At Big Labor?s demand, the Senate Labor Committee is preparing to vote on radical union lawyer Craig Becker?s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board without even holding a hearing. Aside from the Wall Street Journal, the media is turning a blind eye to this forced unionism extremist?s record. Please read this urgent message below to learn more about Craig Becker and then please contact your Senators and urge them to oppose this outrageous nomination to the federal agency tasked with overseeing America?s private sector workplaces. ________________________________ ?[Secret ballot] elections are profoundly undemocratic.? Those are the words of Big Labor lawyer Craig Becker, Barack Obama?s latest nominee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). . . . . . and the man your U.S. Senators could be asked to confirm any day now. That?s why it?s vital you call your U.S. Senators TODAY and demand that they vote against the nomination of Craig Becker to the NLRB. Here are your Senators' numbers: Senator Mary Landrieu: 202-224-5824 Senator Dave Vitter: 202-224-4623 You see, Craig Becker?s record proves that he is a radical -- even by Big Labor?s standards. In fact, as ACORN founder Wade Rathke stated, the appointment of Big Labor?s ?secret weapon? Craig Becker would be a ?big win no matter how you shake and bake it.? As the quasi-judicial agency that administers federal labor law, just one of the functions of the NLRB is to oversee secret ballot elections and resolve unfair labor practices committed by union organizers. That?s why the union bosses see a militant NLRB as one of Big Labor?s most treacherous accomplices in increasing its radical forced-dues power. Under a union-label NLRB, workers who try to dismiss unwanted union monopoly bargaining agents -- or even try to stop their forced dues from being used to elect handpicked Big Labor candidates ?- would be denied even the most basic protections. And, considering Craig Becker?s record, it?s not a stretch to believe that -- should he be confirmed by the U.S. Senate -- Mr. Becker wouldn?t think twice about rubber stamping even the most abusive forced-unionism schemes cooked up by union militants. You see, as a former AFL-CIO and SEIU union lawyer, Becker is solely responsible for forcing tens of thousands of workers under union boss control. In one case, reports from a Los Angeles SEIU Local union revealed that almost 63,000 people rejected membership in the union in 2007, but thanks to Becker, were still forced to pay dues. And Becker?s own words explain why. He was even so bold as to say unions were ?formed to escape the evils of individualism and individual competition . . . their actions necessarily involve coercion.? So, it should come as no surprise that Becker supports ?home visits,? in which union militants repeatedly harass workers at home until they sign union authorization cards. The fact is, Craig Becker is so extreme he actually believes the only choice workers should have is WHICH union they should be FORCED to pay dues to. And should one refuse, he and the rest of Big Labor?s lackeys on the NLRB will choose for them. Nothing would be more disastrous for American workers! With the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) due to take up the nomination next week, right now is the most crucial time to expose Becker?s forced unionism record. Of course, to stop Becker?s appointment, the full Senate must reject him, but if the HELP Committee doesn?t do it?s job by probing his radical views, it?s safe to say that won?t happen. That?s why it?s vital you call your U.S. Senators today urging them to vote against the confirmation of Craig Becker at every opportunity. Senator Mary Landrieu: 202-224-5824 Senator Dave Vitter: 202-224-4623 And, if at all possible, please make your most generous contribution today to help the National Right to Work Committee keep Craig Becker off the National Labor Relations Board. But most importantly, call your U.S. Senators IMMEDIATELY and demand that they vote against union militant Craig Becker?s nomination to the NLRB. Sincerely, Mark Mix President P.S. The U.S. Senate could vote any day now to confirm militant union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). That?s why it?s vital you call your U.S. Senators at once and demand they vote against Craig Becker?s NLRB confirmation. From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 19:38:27 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:38:27 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Well now, let's see who got the best of the "Cash for Clunkers" deal......... Message-ID: <0c4d01ca5115$42347e60$c69d7b20$@com> Well now, let's see who got the best of the "Cash for Clunkers" deal......... Check the math. The irony is that the people who took the bait on this deal are the ones who can least afford the losses they incurred. This article is worth the little bit of time to read. By the way, a Dallas car dealer, 30 years in the business, told me that many if not most of the "clunkers" were spirited out of the US and NOT destroyed. They ended up on used car lots in Mexico or were scavenged for parts. It's illegal of course, but laws never had any effect on the used car business!!! Further, many of the new car dealers have yet to collect from the US Gov. ______________________________________________________________ This is from a car dealer out in Los Angeles, CA. ______________________________________________________________ SO...you took FEDZILLA up on its offer of $4500. dollars to trade in your old "Clunker" (interesting choice of words)? Well, let's see who got the best of that "deal"... If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you got $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000. You could have gotten $3,500 if you had just traded the car in. So you really are $1,000 ahead (depending on your clunker's value) at this point. Not too bad... However, you WILL have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500. So, rather than save $1000, you will actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, trading in a "clunker" that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making. Even if you save $1,000 dollars a year in gas due to better mileage, you're still gonna be in the red for five years....hello? But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer. For example, the month before the "cash for clunkers" program started, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 because competition was stiff due to poor sales from the stalled economy. When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. Honda, Toyota , and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did. Now let's do the math... You traded in a car worth: $3500 You got a discount of: $4500 --------- Net so far +$1000 But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500 --------- Net so far: -$ 350 (that's minus...in the red) And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before ---------- Net Loss: -$3350 We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, dealer prep, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the five years of interest on the car loan; but let's just stop here while you kick yourself. Suffice it to say that those costs will be much higher than any savings you get from "better mileage". So who actually made out on the deal? FEDZILLA collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. Manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. Lots of good or repairable used cars got taken off the market, crushed and sold as scrap metal to(ready for this?) CHINA ! (Look it up...) And the poor consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford. FEDZILLA'S merry men (who promised that people making less than $250,000 would pay "not one red cent more in taxes") will make millions in new tax revenues after convincing Joe Consumer that he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the "government" In fact, Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege. Chicago politics gone global...with an agenda. If you find errors in this math, please let me know.. .being a simple guy, I'm always willing to learn new things; and if you took "advantage" of the Clunkers deal, I have some swamp land down in Florida that's for sale. And remember, these are the same Einsteins who want to take control of our health care system. Hold on to your wallet!! AND - on top of that many of the "sales" were really "leases" so we have people who, before the "cash for clunkers" program couldn't afford the monthly payments for a new car, "leasing" a new car with a 36-60 month term. Does anyone else see that in 24-36 months there will be a tremendous influx of "repos"? The owners haven't paid the lease payments, haven't done any maintenance and have probably abused the cars since they knew that the car wouldn't be theirs for very long. This will create a tremendously large pool of poorly maintained and abused "used" cars. The "new" car dealers can't give away cars today because the potential buyers have all used the "cash for clunkers" program, the charitable organizations that relied on donated automobiles are not getting any donations and WE the taxpayers get the privilege of paying for it and China benefits from cheap, readily available scrap. AND - WE elected these idiots! From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 19:49:54 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:49:54 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation Message-ID: <0c5301ca5116$db779ca0$9266d5e0$@com> http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/b/billygraham-prayer.htm http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/prayernation.asp http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=75565&cat=13 ----------------------------------------------------- Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY! 'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!' Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called 'One nation under God..' From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 20:04:38 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:04:38 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Morning Bell: Exposing the Obamacare Shell Game Message-ID: <0c6601ca5118$ea4eacd0$beec0670$@com> If Rahm Emanuel would say the Pope is Catholic, I might start to believe otherwise. Rahm Emanuel is a true product of the corrupt, thug Chicago political system. John -----Original Message----- MONDAY, OCT 19, 2009 Exposing the Obamacare Shell Game In his primetime health care address before a Joint Session of Congress, President Barack Obama promised the American people: ?I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits ? either now or in the future. Period.? But it is hard work adding $1 trillion in government spending while claiming with a straight face that you are not adding to the deficit. Enter White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who has just the solution : just strip out $247 billion of the spending in the bill, pass it separately, and voila your job just got one-fourth easier. The specific issue at hand is the centrally planned price control regime the federal government uses to reimburse doctor?s who participate in Medicare. Medicare reimburses doctors and other medical professionals for their services according to a congressionally created fee schedule that is annually adjusted by the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. The idea is relatively simple: If Medicare spending grows faster than our overall economy (which is almost always the case), then payments to Medicare providers are supposed to be reduced proportionately to keep expenditures in line over a period of time. Problem is every year Congress?under both Democratic and Republican leadership?routinely blocks the cuts from going into effect. Subsequently, the necessary cumulative cut in Medicare payments grows bigger. Without a change to current law, payments to physicians would be reduced by 21.5% as of January 1, 2010. The Senate Finance Committee bill addresses this problem by raising the reimbursement rate for one year and then pretending that Congress will allow massive cuts for the next 9 years. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) rightfully called the Senate Finance Committee proposal a fa?ade . The Obama administration?s proposed solution, however, is no more honest. Instead of pretending Congress will cut doctor?s Medicare reimbursement rates, the Senate wants to pretend the doc fix isn?t part of health care reform. So Majority Leader Harry Reid?s (D-NV) dissembled Friday: ?Correcting the Medicare doctors? payment discrepancy is a budgetary problem ? health insurance reform tackles a serious regulatory problem. That?s why we need to fix the Medicare doctors? payments first, outside of health reform.? The Washington Post editorial board responded this morning: Mr. Reid?s attempt to distinguish the budgetary and regulatory issues is nonsensical. The health reform measure includes all sorts of changes in the ways that various providers are compensated. True, the problem with inadequate Medicare payments is something of a preexisting condition to health reform, but that does not make it unrelated. The so-called doc fix is being rushed to the Senate floor this week in advance of health reform not because it has nothing to do with health reform but because it has everything to do with it. A president who says that he is serious about dealing with the dire fiscal picture cannot credibly begin by charging this one to the national credit card, with no concern for the later generations who will have to pay the bill. And it is the later generations that should be particularly concerned with this shell game. That $247 billion price tag is just the ten year cost of the doc fix. Looking over the long-term, the 75-year cost to our national debt is another $3 trillion. This past Friday the Obama administration admitted that the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before and the largest shortfall relative to the size of the economy since 1945. Just like Obamacare?s massive expansion of the Medicaid rolls , the doc fix shell game exposes the fact that Obamacare is just a continuation of the current budget busting health care system, not real reform. QUICK HITS According to data from the Congressional Budget Office and Kaiser Family Foundation, Obamacare would expand Medicaid and the State Children?s Health Insurance Program to the point that nearly one in five Americans would be on government programs that provide health care to the poor. This would be the biggest single expansion since Medicaid was created in 1965 . California is poised to become the first state to ban big-screen TVs due to their power-heavy demands. According to an internal Energy Department audit, the Energy Star program (which the Obama administration threw $300 million of ?stimulus? at) doesn?t properly track whether manufacturers that give their appliances an Energy Star label have met the required specifications for energy efficiency. The high-mileage car tax credit in President Obama?s failed stimulus allows for a federal tax credit generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a golf cart . U.S. and European counterterrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits ? including Americans ? are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary training camps. From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 20:05:03 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:05:03 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Well now, let's see who got the best of the "Cash for Clunkers" deal......... Message-ID: <0c6701ca5118$f9b11f00$ed135d00$@com> This just goes to prove ANYTHING the federal government sticks its hand into never works or ends up hurting the American taxpayer/consumer. WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN "NEVER" TO TRUST THE GOVERNMENT? John -----Original Message----- Well now, let's see who got the best of the "Cash for Clunkers" deal......... Check the math. The irony is that the people who took the bait on this deal are the ones who can least afford the losses they incurred. This article is worth the little bit of time to read. By the way, a Dallas car dealer, 30 years in the business, told me that many if not most of the "clunkers" were spirited out of the US and NOT destroyed. They ended up on used car lots in Mexico or were scavenged for parts. It's illegal of course, but laws never had any effect on the used car business!!! Further, many of the new car dealers have yet to collect from the US Gov. ______________________________________________________________ This is from a car dealer out in Los Angeles, CA. ______________________________________________________________ SO...you took FEDZILLA up on its offer of $4500. dollars to trade in your old "Clunker" (interesting choice of words)? Well, let's see who got the best of that "deal"... If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you got $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000. You could have gotten $3,500 if you had just traded the car in. So you really are $1,000 ahead (depending on your clunker's value) at this point. Not too bad... However, you WILL have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500. So, rather than save $1000, you will actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, trading in a "clunker" that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making. Even if you save $1,000 dollars a year in gas due to better mileage, you're still gonna be in the red for five years....hello? But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer. For example, the month before the "cash for clunkers" program started, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 because competition was stiff due to poor sales from the stalled economy. When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. Honda, Toyota , and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did. Now let's do the math... You traded in a car worth: $3500 You got a discount of: $4500 --------- Net so far +$1000 But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500 --------- Net so far: -$ 350 (that's minus...in the red) And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before ---------- Net Loss: -$3350 We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, dealer prep, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the five years of interest on the car loan; but let's just stop here while you kick yourself. Suffice it to say that those costs will be much higher than any savings you get from "better mileage". So who actually made out on the deal? FEDZILLA collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. Manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. Lots of good or repairable used cars got taken off the market, crushed and sold as scrap metal to(ready for this?) CHINA ! (Look it up...) And the poor consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford. FEDZILLA'S merry men (who promised that people making less than $250,000 would pay "not one red cent more in taxes") will make millions in new tax revenues after convincing Joe Consumer that he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the "government" In fact, Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege. Chicago politics gone global...with an agenda. If you find errors in this math, please let me know.. .being a simple guy, I'm always willing to learn new things; and if you took "advantage" of the Clunkers deal, I have some swamp land down in Florida that's for sale. And remember, these are the same Einsteins who want to take control of our health care system. Hold on to your wallet!! AND - on top of that many of the "sales" were really "leases" so we have people who, before the "cash for clunkers" program couldn't afford the monthly payments for a new car, "leasing" a new car with a 36-60 month term. Does anyone else see that in 24-36 months there will be a tremendous influx of "repos"? The owners haven't paid the lease payments, haven't done any maintenance and have probably abused the cars since they knew that the car wouldn't be theirs for very long. This will create a tremendously large pool of poorly maintained and abused "used" cars. The "new" car dealers can't give away cars today because the potential buyers have all used the "cash for clunkers" program, the charitable organizations that relied on donated automobiles are not getting any donations and WE the taxpayers get the privilege of paying for it and China benefits from cheap, readily available scrap. AND - WE elected these idiots! From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 20:31:13 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:31:13 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] WARNING ON SEASONAL FLU VACCINE Message-ID: <0c7d01ca511c$a0fd4f10$e2f7ed30$@com> Ok...the story in the link below is scary...especially since I just received the seasonal flu vaccine last week!! http://www.generationrescue.org/desiree_jennings.html From Westley at da-parish.com Mon Oct 19 20:53:08 2009 From: Westley at da-parish.com (Westley Annis) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:53:08 -0500 Subject: [StBernard] Game-you will get addicted! Message-ID: <0c8e01ca511f$b0d84540$1288cfc0$@com> Tic Tac Toe The old classic game is back........ http://tinyurl.com/2uof4m