Thaddeus McCotter’s presidential slogan: ‘Seize Freedom!’

Michigan Representative Thaddeus McCotter is running for president. His website lists five core principles of his candidacy, including the notions that:

—Our liberty is from God not the government

—Our sovereignty is in our souls not the soul

—Our security is from strength not surrender

—Our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector

—Our truths are self-evident not relative

I might agree with some of these thoughts but I want to hear his explanation.

What does ‘Seize Freedom!’ mean? Thaddeus McCotter has some ‘splainin’ to do.

“Giant Sucking Sound” Returns

ABC World News reported just this past week that 98% of all clothes in the United States are imports.

It was reported in the Los Angeles Times on June 30, 2011 that the White House is pushing for free trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama. At the same time they are concerned about the loss of American jobs. The concern is about “the 46 year old male, the family breadwinner, with a high school education who had worked more than a decade in a factory that is closing.”

This is astonishing. The Democratic Party, they are the party that claims to be concerned about America’s middle class and poor, is pushing for these treaties to be passed. The GOP opposes the treaties because of a requirement that training for those losing their jobs is included in the laws. They too seem to favor exporting more jobs.

How many jobs have we lost to free trade? The Economic Policy Institute estimates more than 500,000 job have been lost in the United States to Mexico. US Bureau of Statistics lists imports from Mexico have increased from $134 billion on 2002 to $229 billion in 2010. Exports in the same period increased from $97 billion to $163 billion.

Shouldn’t the Market Decide Debit-Card Fees?

This Businessweek item in the June 20, 2011 edition asks a question we should all ask. How much government interference in business is too much?

The Dodd-Frank financial reform law requires the Federal Reserve to set a limit on how much banks may charge for processing debit-card transactions. The average fee now is 44¢ per transaction. The Fed has proposed a limit of 12¢ beginning July 21.

The banks, naturally, don’t care for this. These transaction fees bring them about $20 billion a year. So they have been conducting one of those ludicrous lobbying campaigns that sweep over Washington from time to time, warning of higher prices, reduced services, plagues of locusts, more naked congressmen on Twitter, and just about any deplorable development you can think of if the new regulations are allowed to go through. On June 8 the Senate defeated a proposal to delay the limit for six months to allow time for further study.

The banks’ campaign against the price cap is so elaborate, expensive, and sometimes disingenuous that it is natural to assume they must be in the wrong. They’ve spent millions on lobbying. Organizations with preposterous names such as Americans for Prosperity (who isn’t?) gin up letter-writing campaigns, and consultants stage other “grass-roots” activities to give the impression that citizens are deeply concerned about this issue-which they aren’t.

Shenanigans aside, the big banks are in the right. Why should the government set the price for using a debit card? Most prices in our economy are set by the market-an arrangement that’s worked pretty well over the past couple of centuries. If 44¢ is more than this service really costs, surely one of America’s thousands of banks will take a deep breath and offer to do it for 42¢.

If Visa and MasterCard have enough market power to prevent that from happening, the answer is antitrust, not price controls. It’s too bad that America’s banks don’t have enough confidence in free markets to make an honest argument on their own behalf.

–

It was announced today that the final decision by the Federal Reserve is a 21¢ fee. Interestingly both Visa and Master Card stocks went up after a hold on trading.

Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators

This is the GOP plan copied from Jobs.GOP.Gov

Summary of the Plan

Empower Small Business Owners and Reduce Regulatory Burdens:

Require congressional review and approval of any government regulations that have a significant impact on the economy or burden small businesses.

Audit existing and pending regulations to identify and address those that hinder economic growth.

Fix the Tax Code to Help Job Creators:

Increase American competitiveness to spur investment and create more American jobs by streamlining the tax code and lowering the tax rate for businesses and individuals including small business owners to no more than 25%.

Reform the tax code to allow American businesses to bring back their overseas profits without having to pay a tax penalty so they can invest in our economy and create American jobs.

Increase Competitiveness for American Manufacturers:

Pass the three pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea to create up to 250,000 jobs.

Continue to open new markets to American made products.

Encourage Entrepreneurship and Growth:

Modernize our patent system to protect our nation’s innovators, discourage frivolous lawsuits, and expedite patent reviews.

Re-Authorize and improve federal programs and approval processes to streamline development of new products. Remove barriers to building a first class workforce so that the United States can compete in the global marketplace and lead the way in technological development and growth.

Maximize Domestic Energy Production to Ensure an Energy Policy for the 21st Century:

Promote lower energy prices through increased domestic production. Encourage all forms of energy production.

Pay Down America’s Unsustainable Debt Burden and Start Living Within our Means:

Build upon the House Republicans’ Budget by enacting significant spending cuts.

An American Bridge Made in China

Shanghai - Bay Bridge — Workers at Shanghai Zhenhua finish the welding on a section of the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge

The United States had established itself as the industrial center of the world. Somehow we have lost that standing to China. It should be a wake up call to America when we must import steel spans for a new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from a country that we considered our economic opponent. Should we blame Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger for opening trade with China? No! We should we blame ourselves for our own in-fighting while the rest of the world passes us by.

The New York Times featured this article “Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label” in today’s paper. The eye opener in the story is Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.

How can America compete in a global world that will pay some of its workers $12 a day? We must set aside our political and philosophical ideas and come together or the United States will cease to be the power it was in the 20^th century.

Four Tips for Photographing Fireworks

Thanks to Costco Photo Center, without the advertising, and some additonal information.

Turn the camera’s flash off. If you are including people in a shot you can try the Night Portrait flash setting, but otherwise, shut if off.
Turn off Autofocus. Autofocus will probably have difficulty finding the right focal point for fireworks.
Set the camera to Manual and the f/stop to the largest possible aperture (lowest aperture number). Remember with f/stop, the smaller the number the bigger the aperture.
Set the shutter speed to 1/60^th of a second. It’s a good place to start but be sure to experiment with slower speeds like 1/30 & 1/15 (this will probably require a tripod).

The Most Feared Interview Question

“Tell Me About Yourself”

interview fear — "Tell Me About Yourself"

When I was searching for a job I anticipated this question. I had my answer prepared.

If you’ve ever interviewed, you’ve probably gotten America’s LEAST favorite question, “Tell Me About Yourself.” Most applicants HATE it, because they don’t know how to answer and, usually, it comes at the start when logically, the interviewer doesn’t know anything about you. Let everyone else blow this one! If you have a killer answer ready, you can sew up the interview right here. When I was searching for a job I anticipated this question.

How To Answer The Question

Here’s your formula to shine: Before every interview, make a list of the qualities & skills they need for the position, then give specific examples of how you possess those traits. You want to show them that you are exactly what they need.

You can’t use just a list of words because people forgot words — that’s why we all make grocery lists. Actually, words are only 10% of our true communication, while your voice — the way you use your words — represents 20-25%, and the largest chunk, 65-70% is your image and body language. Since people believe what they see, you have to paint them a picture of how your skills meet their needs by reassuring them that you’re a great fit.

Suppose you’re interviewing for an administrative assistant position, with responsibilities including answering phones, taking messages, returning calls, and flexibly executing any/all assignments. Your most effective approach is to tell stories about similar past experiences. “I’m good answering the phone, taking messages and making calls” will be easily forgotten. What detailed, distinctive examples can you offer to show you’ve got the goods?

Prepare to impress at your interview by making a list of 8-10 specific examples of when you worked really hard (on the job, through volunteer work, in school, extracurriculars, etc.) utilizing the skills they need. Interviewers are smart, but they’re not mind readers — they’ll only know what you tell them. And if YOU don’t reassure them you’re a great fit for the job, someone ELSE will, and THEY’LL be hired.

summarized from http://galtime.com/article/money/43161/13584/most-feared-interview-question

Breaking News – Politics Over Wisdom

Weekly Initial Job Claims have been above the 400,000 level for the past 11 weeks. That number includes this past week. “President Obama’s big Afghanistan speech caused nary a tremble in the polls. Before he spoke, most Americans didn’t support him. And after? His popularity continues to sink” are the words of Wayne Simmons on HumanEvents.com. What’s a politician to do? Why not release some oil from the national reserve? That’s it! And so 30 million barrels will be released even though there is no shortage, gasoline prices are falling, and Saudi Arabia has quietly increased its production.

The Los Angeles Times front page story on June 24 calls the decision a “Hail Mary Pass” to help boost the economy. Really? Lower gasoline prices will induce business to start investing or consumers to start spending when they save 50 cents a gallon. That is a dream.

Is this “change we can believe in?”

Withdrawing From Afghanistan

I heard President Obama’s speech tonight on reducing our military participation in Afghanistan. He has kept his word about a withdrawal of troops starting in July 2011. I was disappointed in him for sending a total of 60,000+ troops to that country. I believed that Joe Biden’s idea of drones, special operations and targeted strikes would better serve America’s interests.

I know Senator John McCain fears that we are becoming isolationist. His appraisal is incorrect. Not every situation demands a high level invasion. McCain suffers from his Vietnam experience.

The Afghanis and Pakistanis view America as an invading and occupying force. This is not the way to win friends and influence people.

America’s withdrawal is the right thing to do.