Broken Masterpieces

April 13, 2005

San Diego City Council Approves "Living Wage"

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- City Council adopts living-wage ordinance - Here's a great way to get a city out of debt, make it harder for businesses to succeed.

"This is absolutely devastating. There's a great chance I'll have to close down," said Kevin Sullivan, who runs a gas station on the ipayOne Center at the Sports Arena property, leased by the city. He estimated his payroll would jump by $100,000 a year.

This is reality. The people hurt the most are the ones actually providing jobs. Nice social engineering.

Posted by Tim at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2005

CNN - Minimum Wage Proposals

CNN is reporting on the proposals to raise the minimum wage and along with that, bankruptcy and flex-time proposals.

The plan from Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, also includes tax and regulatory breaks for small businesses. His amendment would lift the minimum wage by $1.10 over 18 months, in two steps of 55 cents.

The rival proposal from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, would boost the wage to $7.25 in three increments over 26 months.

Frankly, I hate any raising of the minimum wage (I think the whole idea of the minimum wage blows) but understand the political realities. I believe Senator Kennedy has ZERO idea about how businesses are run. This forces the small taco shop type businesses to raise prices to keep in the black. Everyone loses, including the cutting of staff which leads to cutting corners on things like food safety. I'm sure Senator Kennedy has a ton of experience in the real world so understands how this hurts but doesn't help.

Santorum's proposal contains an idea that Republicans have advocated, without success, for years: "flex-time," which gives employees the option of shifting their work hours over a two-week period. Supporters say this would allow workers to adjust their schedules to meet family needs.

Kennedy said this would end the 40-hour work week by denying workers overtime pay for up to 10 hours every two weeks.

Fortunately for me, I'm not tied to big labor and can work flex-time anytime I need to. It allows me to attend School Site Council meetings, go on field trips with my kids, help with Little League, deal with sickness, etc. In Kennedy's world, folks who are subject to these silly laws must take sick time or vacation time to deal with the above type of issues. If they work extra on another day, they'll get paid overtime but will have lost the sick/vacation time.

During the same eight-year period, members of Congress have raised their own salaries seven times, by a total of $28,500, he said.

Talk about a waste of money!

Posted by Tim at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2004

Pork - Politics at it's Worst

Charlotte Observer | 11/26/2004 | Congressional lame ducks lay golden eggs

Citizens Against Government Waste (www.cagw.org) has compiled a list of nearly $23 billion in pork projects it found in appropriations bills for fiscal 2004. CAGW has recommended 592 ways to reduce spending it estimates could save $217 billion in fiscal 2005 and $1.65 trillion over the next five years. Among the recommendations are limiting the terms of committee chairpersons, passing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, enforcing procedural rules and passing a line-item veto.

One of the reasons that Republicans took congress over in 1994 was the promise of some fiscal sanity. I guess that ain't happening. I'm sick and tired of hearing about deficits and how taxes need to be raised. NO! What needs to happen is for the politicians in Washington to spend the already outragreous amount of money WE send them wisely.

Posted by Tim at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2004

MSNBC - Economy did better than original estimate

MSNBC - Economy did better than original estimate

The figure was the second and final revision to second-quarter GDP performance and handily outpaced Wall Street economists' forecasts for a 3 percent rate of growth. Though well down from the first quarter's 4.5 percent rate of expansion, it left the economy in better shape than anticipated for a widely forecast pickup in growth in the second half of the year.

Of course it was a smaller headline but this is good news for the country.

Posted by Tim at 07:04 AM | Comments (0)

June 17, 2004

Greenspan for a 5th Term?

CNN.com - Senate gives Greenspan 5th term at Fed - Jun 17, 2004

I don't like anyone to be entrenched (especially an appointed position) like Greenspan. I wish he'd just get out of the way because it's politically impossible to get rid of him. Larry Kudlow for Federal Reserve Board Chairman.

Posted by Tim at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2004

A Failed Union Leadership

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business -- Grocery workers set to vote on pact

Has anyone seen a union leadership let down the rank and file more than the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Southern California? I feel real bad for the workers as their leadership was using this as a political stand for health care. Guess what, most of us do pay part of our premiums and health care is expensive for those evil corporations. Oh yeah, the California Teachers Association was running some pro-United Food and Commercial Workers ads. Shame on them for making it look like their rank-and-file was taking sides. The only union that really works is the one the Major League Baseball players have. Union leadership needs to be cleaned up. How many of them didn't get paid when the poor grocery clerks were out of work? These shills for the Democratic party are bad for everybody but especially for the people they are supposed to represent.

Posted by Tim at 06:29 PM | Comments (1)

February 25, 2004

Pondering the Federal Deficit

The worst thing about the federal deficit is that the first reaction from too many politicians is to raise taxes to reduce or eliminate the deficit. Imagine a President Kerry; first thing he'll do is try and raise taxes and he'll do it by demonizing people who actually make money. Heck, the press will be on his side and you never know what could happen. I firmly believe that President Bush needs to take immediate action on this issue or there will be a big rise in our taxes.

Posted by Tim at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2004

Alternative Minimum Tax

FOXNews.com - Politics - Official: Middle Class Trapped in Alternative Minimum Tax

This is a real bad deal folks!

Posted by Tim at 07:32 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2004

Beware the AMT

FOXNews.com - Business - Money Matters - Beware of the Alternative Minimum Tax

The blogosphere needs to get on this topic. The AMT ends up punishing people (unexpectedly) who are doing their best to follow the rules. We need to contact our representatives and get some movement.

Posted by Tim at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2003

More Bad News For Some Democrats

Yahoo! News - GDP Roars Ahead at 8.2 Percent in Q3

As another campaign issue vanishes in the wind...

Too bad most of the Democratic candidates for president couldn't offer positive messages. Then they could be happy that the economy is growing.

Posted by Tim at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2003

Kindergarten Teacher Ripped Off By Dell

UPDATE (11/15): Thanks to James at Electronica Radio, a blog by the producer of a tech show on KABC radio in LA, for getting the teacher on the show today. Even though she was at the end of the show and didn't have much time, they gave some recommendations and would get involved themselves, if needed.

UPDATE: Kevin McCullough discussed this story on his radio show and the teacher may be on KABC radio this Saturday morning. Thanks!

The following is an email I received from a kindergarten teacher here in San Diego County:

I bought a Dell computer which arrived at my door on August 18. Much to my disappointment, wrong parts were sent to me...a CD-Rom was installed instead of the DVD-Rom I had ordered. Then I found out the DVD burner only burns -R and -RW, not the +/- R and RW that I had requested. It took me over a month to fight with Dell in order for them to compensate me. They finally sent me a DVD-Rom, which I had to install myself. However, they couldn't give me a DVD burner that burns all 4 formats simply because Dell does not make a burner that can handle all the formats. So they just gave me an external hard drive for compensation.

Just when I thought the nightmare was behind me, another one was right around the corner. Many of the applications weren't working correctly. These were just simply programs like Office 2000, Studio 8, also my CF Card Reader and my Epson printer. I've called tech support over 13 times, each time I was on hold for over 45 minutes and was transferred around countless times. In many occasions, I was on the phone for over 4 hours(or more)that my phone battery died on me. When I requested for the tech to call back if I was to cut out, no one ever called back, ever!!!!

So I thought I would just reinstall Windows XP and all the drivers to give the computer a frest start. Then the reinstallation froze in the middle of the process. This prompted a tech to suspect that XP was corrupted to begin with, which explains why was having such tremendous problems with my applications. Dell decided to send me a new set of System Recovery CDs, then along came a bill of $258. Needless to say, I called Dell immediately! One department said to disregard the bill, another said I must return all 30 defective CDs, or I would be charged $258. However, I never received 30 CDs from Dell to begin with. How could I send back something when I've never received them in the first place?

Finally, I got tired of dealing with Dell's incompetence and, once again, aked for my money back. But Dell refused to give me my money back because I'm now outside my 30 day refund window. I reminded Dell that my problem started on Day 1 of delivery, but everytime I tried to ask for my money back, the customer care agent would always try to redirect by attention by sending me to tech support. I was too naive, thinking that I could trust Dell's good name and integrity in helping me resolve all the issues.

To make matter worse, the only solution Dell is offering is to give me a full system replacement. By definition, the way Dell replaces your system is by sending out a REFURBISHED computer. Now, I've paid over $1800 for a refurbished computer, what a joke!

I've written a 3 page letter of complaints, but Dell wouldn't even give me the names of the CEOs of Customer Care and Tech Support. I went on the Net and did a searched on "BAD DELL CUSTOMER CARE" and found numerous complaints on many forums. Amazingly, everyone was sharing the exact same story...computer installed with the wrong parts, would not replace but sent out refurbished parts only, extremely long holding time, and no accountibility. Many people have tried sending registered letters like me, and never got a response back. I've exhausted my resouces and simply don't know what to do anymore. So, if you have any suggestions, any at all, I would greatly appreciate it.

This is absolutely horrid. Please spread the word about what Dell is doing. Hopefully, they will make things right. Please contact me if there is something that anyone can do to help out this wonderful teacher.

Posted by Tim at 11:03 AM | Comments (1)

November 06, 2003

Sorry Dems, More Good Economic News

I'll use the Bush Blog for the source of the latest good news about the economy. I know how much Democratic leaders don't want good news about the economy so they can say it's just Bush propoganda.

Did anyone hear Greenspan's remarks? He said raising taxes will slow the economy down. DUH!!!!! Us conservatives have known that for quite a long time. Welcome aboard Alan. Now if some of the lefties would get on board.

UPDATE: QandO has a better take on this topic than me right here.

Posted by Tim at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2003

Federal Deficit

The headlines are reading of a $500 billion deficit for 2004. UGH! President Bush needs to start vetoing some spending bills. Cuts are necessary. Everything but Social Security, Medicare and defense has got to be on the table. We need some real reinventing of government. All that Al Gore did was cut a bunch of civilian defense jobs. Rumsfeld needs to be empowered to bring the Pentagon into the 21st century and all other cabinet members need to do the same. This whole prescription drug benefit needs to be dropped and done correctly later.

One word for President Bush: VETO

Posted by Tim at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2003

Fire Greenspan, Hire This Guy

I'm definitely an amateur when it comes to finance but I'm getting tired of the caution of Alan Greenspan and the rest of the Federal Reserve. Dang it folks, let's get this economy rolling. President Bush and Congress have done their part now do yours. If not, bring in Kudlow. We need some fresh blood. We've got too many people in very powerful jobs that haven't been out in the real world in a long time. Times are tough for some people and we don't need to wait 9-12 months for the Fed changes to take effect.

Posted by Tim at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)