Out of the Money....not so cool

4 number one seeds in the final four....who would of thunk it!! So I guess I will not be winning the pool this year. I did win it a few years ago...$500 bucks!! And I know very little about basketball....I am back to place I usually am....the bottom third! My only chance to get in the money....is that if Memphis wins. If they win I could possibly slide into 10th place....we will see.

How about Davidson....Too bad they lost. It would of been great to have a super underdog in the final four. I didn't even know where that college was.......It's in North Carolina.

Raining Cats and dogs here in St Louis.....pretty bad for opening day. They say the Cards have a power house hitting staff. We will see!

Friday.....man's night

My wife tells me that she is getting together with the ladies tonight to view the DVD she made of one of her friends 50th. That means I am home with the kiddies....not really an issue. My oldest is off to a bday party....my next is off on a retreat...that leaves the two small ones (10,12) the 12 year old is having her own girls night...little friend coming over to watch a movie...IN THE BASEMENT....that takes care of the horde of women that live in the house....

NCAA Basketball....my famous Nachos...Beer..then into the Hot Tub for more beer and Blues..sounds likes a great night for me. A buddy is coming over and my little best friend and male soul mate of the house (my 10 yr old son) are taking the place over.

TGIF........now that's cool!

McCain swings right....cool

The headline reads " McCain urges a hand up on mortgages, not bailout.

That a boy McCain....find those fiscal conservative values. Obama and Hillary want to bail out not only the mortgage and financial companies out but want to help John Doe due to the fact that he did not understand that when you make 50k a year....you can't own a 400k house with zero down.....

I heard of a study that said that well over 60% of people do not want the government to help out these unfortunate souls. It's about time !

I hate to see people have hard times....however, if you made your bed....then you must lie in it. Charities are in the business of helping the less fortunate and people in need. The private sector....that's us....need to support those organizations. We don't need to have the Government Tax us to death and redistribute the monies to people who were just dumb in the first place. The recession is happening, we have had them before and we will have them again. The Gvt must be in charge of the monetary policy....but they cannot even agree on this issue. Many people believe that Greenspan was the greatest....others blame this recession on him. Read his book....hard to read...but very interesting on how complicated this economy really is

Here some financial tips that I have lived by:

Don't spend more then you earn!
Except when it comes to 2 things Cars and Houses. Cars...buy used and houses don't buy without having 20% down and use the 35/65 ratios to ensure you can pay it easily

No credit card debt.....ever.....pay it off monthly....all of it
Be cheap when you are young
Clip Coupons and buy food on sale
SAVE MONEY ALL THE TIME

This may not sound fun....you won't have the 50" big screen and drive the coolest car....but you will have money to have the good things in life....a nice home for your family...that yearly vacation with your kids...they will remember those things....not that you had a new car every three years.

Anyway...off the soapbox.....back to the cables.

P

Hillary....not so cool about Bosnia

I could not believe that Hillary actually did this.....she had Obama in the cross hairs...the press is sniffing his pastor out and she goes ahead and stubs her toe. Obama's crew must have been thanking the ....pastor...for all the extra prayers to shift the focus...

Well they did it. I thought she was smarter then this....

Another crazy issue.......cool

I just had to share this one.......One of my reps just brought in a supplier information form from one of our customers. It's pretty typical that customers make you fill out a form before they do business with you. They ask general information...federal ID number and such. They also ask to qualify your business as a small business, veteran owned, Minority owned, non profit. Here comes the new one......and let me quote...." Gay or Lesbian-owned Business (GLBE)- A Business that is at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by one or more self-identified gay or lesbian individuals who are U.S."

Is this the craziest thing you ever heard.....WHO CARES!!!!!Oh and if you do check this box....you need to attach a copy of your current membership certificate from the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce or Business Alliance for Gays and Lesbians.

What is this world coming to.....

If you read the details, it's even funnier...."self-identified" so if your buddy "outs" you....nope...if you are living in the closet....nope.... So you need to be marching in the parade and pay dues to the famous Gay Chamber of Commerce!!!! to get to check the box.

I told you a lot happened when I was gone.....

Catching up with cool stuff!

A lot happened when I was away.....first of all.....I saw the Huckster at the St. Louis Airport. He was right in front of me at Starbucks. I thought it was him....then I said...nah....looks a lot thinner....no one with him...so I let him brush by me and not say a word....what a puss I am. Then a guy about 10 feet past me says " hey are you Mike Huckabee" of course it was and I missed my opportunity to say Hey Huckster!

Then the whole Barrack issue with the pastor. Ok the Pastor is a racist nut....He uses the pulpit to advance his political agenda....Ok Ok the guy sound nuts....And Obama was buddy buddy with the guy....not just a parishioner...this guy was an "uncle". Should Obama had cut the cord? Should he have left his parish? Should he of distanced himself?

Well think about this..... We here the same few sound bites from a history of 20 years of preaching....We assume that he always preached like this...We also assume that Obama was a willing participant in thought on these issues....
Let us also think about the Catholic Church....let's say stem cell research.....the church says NO....the church preaches on this issue....does that mean every Catholic believes their should be no research on stem cells? I hate to say no.... Most just sit and listen and quietly disagree.

Now your saying....whoa Cable Guy....you sound like an Obama fan....Absolutely Not....He has no experience...no depth....and makes Hillary look conservative. I just think the press is kicking his ass for no other reason that they need to sell papers or advertising.

Payless Car Rental Blows

I needed to rent a van when I was in Florida. I usually go to Yahoo travel and put in my pick up airport and yahoo goes out and does some shopping. It usually comes back with 4-5 choices of companies to choose from. Form there, I take 75% of the best price and go to priceline.com It works almost every time. This vacation....I forgot about the car until the week before....no discounts for Johnny come latelys....so I choose the least expensive company to deal with. Picked a mini van....like I have over the past 10 years.

I picked Payless. I get to Tampa and I have to head off to the city to get the van....they are not on site. No big issue....many are not. When we pull in the lot I notice 2 things....there are almost no rentals.....and they are really in the long term parking business in Tampa. Still not an issue ....so far.

I then meet Mr friendly.....I give him my Travelocity reservation. He starts to check me in and then that smile creeps across his face.....how many people do you have? Do you have luggage? really 6 with luggage on a Florida vacation.....????? He then goes on to explain how what I rented is a regular minivan and that it does not fit luggage.....I would need to upgrade to the extended mini van...are you kidding me???? Nobody rents out the small minivan. This was just a scam. They started out trying to charge me an extra $350....I bitched and moaned and with ....if you can believe it...my Sam's card chewed him down to $100.....for which I will now just re neg when the credit card bill comes in. The worst part....this guy had this down, he had said this 100 times.....jerking around tourists that were now 5 miles from the airport during spring break with no other transportation. A holes.

I am back....no internet access...not too cool!

Just back from Florida....Thought I would be blogging all week. There was no Internet access in the unit I was in. I tried to use any open wireless ports.....but people are getting smarter these days and are putting a password on their routers. I was able to access the clubhouse wireless router, but it was a mile away and very inconvenient....so no blogging.

I was in Bonita Springs.....it was great. Just north of Naples, Bonita Springs is between a Naples and a Fort Myers in the sense of busyness. It was 80 most of the week and sunny. Great Time.

I have a few items that I will be spouting off about today....but first I have to read the 100 emails I received when I was away. We also have a container of patch cables coming in tomorrow and that should keep us busy for the afternoon.

Off to Florida.....verrrrrrrrry Cool

Extremely busy week with getting ready for vacation. I am sure I will have plant to say while lying around on the beach.......like ........how about a new Governor for NY?......idiot.

see ya from the beach.

Being Finaciallly irresponsible is cool?

Here we go....first the fed give out $600 per person....oh that's right not really everybody....mostly to people who don't pay taxes.

Now St Louis City is giving out 500k to help 1,000 families that are being hurt by changing interest rates in the mortgage business. PLEASEEEEEEEE

Tax monies being given to the general public due to their irresponsible behavior.

And think about this....from a county that cannot get there kids educated properly...we are going to entrust them to make the right decisions on who gets the monies.....take a look it comes down to 1,500 a family. That will never fix a families financial woes....it will just put off the inevitable...foreclosure. It's a very sad issue....but again MOST of the issues were caused by people not living within their means.

Trent Green 8.6 million?????

Kudos for Trent Green for pulling off a great deal for himself. He signed with the rams for 3 years and 8.9 million. A native St Louisan....he will finish his career at home. On the other hand......

Are the rams serious....you hire a 37 year old...with two recent concussions to back up.....the non leader Marc Bulger? That is so short sighted. Bad negotiations....if they are afraid Bulger may get hurt and they need a back up...sign up green....but not for three years and not for 8.9 million. I am sure the guy does not have a list of offers......

Invest in new guys and get them groomed to put Bulger out of our misery. This guy could not a hungry bunch of men to the dinner table. We need a team leader....

Rams......you wasted your money

Trent....Welcome back...Take Charge we need the leadership.

Credit Consolidators..people who use them....not cool

I am not sure who I can not stand more.....people who take advantage of people or people that are so naive to think that money matters disappear like magic. Both are idiots.

I have been hearing on the radio advertisements that state ....call us we won't consolidate your debt....we will eliminate it. I could not for the life of me figure out how that would happen. I figured it was taking all the credit card debt at 19% and rolling it into a personal loan or 2nd mtge for 10%. Seemed honest enough. If you were foolish enough to build up all that credit card debt....

Let me stop this so I do not get the bleeding hearts telling me that some people due to illness or accident fall into financial disaster.....I agree...it can happen. But this is 2% of the issue. Let's not let the tail wag the dog on this issue. Most people that have debt have one issue....they spend more then they make. If you go to their place...they have the newest TV...they have all sorts of "stuff" newer cars.....I have no pity for them. They dug the hole....I should not have to help them out.

Let's get back to consolidator. Business Week (my favorite magazine) has an article on the issue this week. The bottom, line is...these firms tell debt ridden customers to stop paying their bills. This will give them leverage???? really? what it will give you is collection calls and bad credit....they claim that then they will negotiate with the credit card companies and eliminate the debt for as much as 10-30% on the dollar.
Oh did I forget....yup you have to pay them! They get paid up front.

OK Toto....this is not Kansas anymore..
So what's happening? Idiots are signing up for their free lunch....and then the cc companies are saying to the consolidators...too bad pay 100%. Then the consumer...who know has not paid anything in months....of course they spent that "extra" money on a new TV.....is being harassed by collection agencies...FOR MONEY THAT THEY HONESTLY OWE PEOPLE
Unbelievable....these people then blame the cc companies....

Here are a few of my financial tips:
Spend less then you make
Save like crazy
clip coupons and buy generic items
eat at home...it costs less
DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON CREDIT unless you can pay for it at month end
buy a used car
Rent until you can afford a 20% down payment.

OK I am cheap.....but after many years of being called cheap....my family now lives a good life, better then most and we owe no one. Financial success takes decades....not months.

Getting ready for Florida....very cool

A week away from taking the clan to Florida. Spring break has been a ritual for me since my brother and I vanned down to Daytona beach in 1980. Now I can't say that I still go to the "all the Wild Turkey you can drink" parties anymore....but it still a great time. The west coast of Florida....to be exact...Captiva Island is one of the best places in the United States. The beaches are clean, the water is warm....it's a close community with great places like the MuckyDuck right on the beach. Nightly people mosey over to the duck to drink cold beers and watch the sunset. This, after a long day of doing absolutely nothing!

If you are looking for excitement this is not the place. The crazies thing they have is Monday night crab racing at Tweens.

I am looking forward to slowing time down for a week and building sand castles with my kids.. reading on the beach with my wife.. maybe sneak in a little Wild Turkey..can't get any better.

Don't be a hero......not cool

Many of you may have read about a St. Louis man that was run over by two kids after they had grabbed the tip jar at the local Starbucks. The man, a regular, saw them grab the jar and chased after them. Details are not out, but somehow he gets run over and killed by the two tip jar bandits.

A couple of crazy things....the two kids....they paid for their coffee and then grabbed the jar with less the $5 in it.
The guy somehow gets hit?
The two are from Atlanta doing a cross country trip and were arrested in OH shoplifting a month earlier. What a couple of losers.

I really feel bad for the man and his family. He was trying to do the right thing and he paid the ultimate price. But.....no money is worth your life. Stepping out In front of a car is just not the way to be a hero. People are nuts....at best just write done the license plate.

To help someone that is being attacked is one thing....to run after a criminal for a petty theft is another. What a waste of a good mans life.

St Louis has had a few weird ones in the past few weeks.....the Kirkwood shooting and now this. Pray for our city!


On the politics side......I cannot believe there is not a clear winner in the democratic primary. As I stated ....do not count Clinton out....the shine is coming off Obama.


This weekend Wyoming has there primary, both of them will be voting.

I guess PA will be the deciding vote.......

Big Day for Texas and Ohio......cool

Today should be a big day for the democrats. We will see if the Clinton machine will survive the Obama primary onslaught. Obama has been on the winning side of the ...what 11 primaries? This will be the test. You even had slick Willey out there warning Texans that's it's up to them to save the Clinton throne.

I am not sure who I want to win......I am not sure Hillary is electable.....but she is the better politician.....Obama....the shine is starting to dull. Wait till it's just him against McCain.....blood will be drawn.

More later.

Air Bus.......not cool Airforce

"The Air Force on Friday awarded Northrop Grumman and a European partner a 35 Billion contract to build refueling planes, delivering a major blow to Boeing Co."

This was the headline from the AP wire out of Washington.  This is really unbelievable!!

Let's first discuss the headline...I would like to know why the press is trying to hide the fact that the contract was awarded to Airbus.  OK NF is the Los Angles partner of the firm, but the plane will be built by Airbus.  

One other fact that you need to know before I start my rant.  The EAD Team plans to perform the final assembly in Alabama, although then plan will mostly built in Europe.  It will use GE engines built in Ohio and NC.

Are we nuts????  There are two major airplane builders....us and them....Boeing and the European union.  Airbus was actually formed by a bunch of European countries that want to get into the airplane market.  It was not a private enterprise.  The Governments set up the company and then bought from the company.  It was built to beat Boeing.  

This is really big news....this is where lots of jobs not only for Boeing, but thousands of sub contractors will be lost o their European counterparts.  Oh yeah, Alabama will get 2,000 jobs.  They are all low end assembly positions in one of the low cost areas of the US.  Now  I am not saying these jobs are not important.  but I will say that we already have them in other parts ofthe country for Boeing.  All of the engineering job, the high end jobs are the ones that will go to Europe.  Never mind we now will rely on Europe for this technology.

Also, the fact that we will need to call Europe to help us to keep our planes flying.  The current planes we have doing this are over 15-20 years old.  I am not sure I want to be dependent on  our "friends" in Europe  (OK the Brits are cool, but airbus in not in England) for upkeep of a major part of our military fleet.

I am going to write my congressman....It will probably do no good.....Missouri reps and the rest of the Midwest are Boeing Fans already.