End of Bush Cuts Means Higher Taxes

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I hadn't paid much attention to all the ballyhoo over Bush's tax cuts. I assumed it was just more of the class warfare we've seen so much of lately. They're scheduled to end at the end of this year.

Turns out, when those tax cuts expire, everyone's taxes are likely to go up. No more 10% tax bracket. The lowest will be 15%. I'm wondering how I'll fare? My income taxes already more than doubled this last year so this could be a big problem for me.

More on what's expiring and what's not from Yahoo News.

Money In Politics: A Look At Wisconsin's Recall

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A well thought out look at the money spent on the recent recall election in Wisconsin. The author points out Walker likely would have won even if he hadn't received a large amount of money from outside the state:

"So there’s your money effect, folks. Go from a 2:1 money advantage to a 7:1 money advantage, and it could increase your vote share by a full percentage point! Woo hoo!"

"I don’t mean to sound snide, but I’d say in general that if you pair the same candidates up against each other for the same office, you’ll probably get similar results. And I’d say that the real lesson here is how little the electoral results changed after a vast change in financing."

I'd suggest money could have a greater effect in some instances. Prop 29, for instance: Large infusions of cash can help the underdog. It allows them to make their case and possibly change electoral outcomes, but not always.

In the case of Prop 29, the minority might well have lost without the added infusion of funds that allowed them to present their side of the issue. In the local case of WalMart trying to change zoning on the Balloon Tract, the money- and the argument presented with it- wasn't enough.

Hat tip, as usual, to Radley Balko for the link.

Wendy's Closure Was ADA Related

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I bumped into a fellow on Saturday who was in the position to know. He told me the closure of Eureka's Wendy's restaurant was, indeed, because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He didn't know if local scuzbag, Jason Singleton, was involved.

There were a number of supposed violations and the chain's management decided it wasn't worth the expense to make the corrections so they shut the place down. Another one bites the dust because of the ADA.

On a related note, looks like Senator Dianne Feinstein is using the issue to get her name in the paper in an election year. She's made some waves so there might be some legislative resolution to the ADA issue on the horizon.

Open Office: How Rude!

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Some time ago I got rid of MS Office and installed Open Office, that free open source word processing program. I've generally been satisfied with it, until I downloaded the first upgrade yesterday. Now, every time I boot up the computer, Open Office starts.

HOW RUDE! I realize it's a free program but I can't imagine why anyone would want a word processing program to start on boot up? If anything, running on start should be an option, not the default. I didn't see anything on installation that gave the option of having it start on boot up. Maybe I missed it?

I've been trying to figure out how to make it stop. Found an Open Office icon in my start menu and thought I removed it by dragging it to the desktop (worried about registry errors if I deleted it). Nope. It still opens once the computer boots up. Can't find any reference to this in its Help section. Any suggestions?

Fred's Garden Update

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Some of you might recall I've been clearing out my old garden area after letting it go for about ten years. I cleared out even more this last year but the problem of morning glory and blackberries remains. 
I wasn't quite sure what to do as spring came around. I was tempted to let the beds sit and spend the summer trying to clear the weeds that keep popping up. After all, what's the point in planting vegetables if the berries and morning glory pop up right in the middle of them? I finally decided to make a go at planting a few things. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Here's what it looks like now. I started out with bush peas which you can't really see on the backside of the potato plant because there's not much left. They were a flop. Slugs and snails got to them from a start. What was left didn't do well and I gave up.There's some onions scattered in front of them and in the bed to the back and right. They haven't done well, either. I think it's either a nematode or onion maggot problem. 
You can see the funky trellises I made for Blue Lake pole beans. They're just starting to climb up the netting. They're doing ok but I lost a bunch on the row to the left due to slugs and snails.
Out a bit further, you can see some of the broccoli with a zucchini in the middle. I grew two zucchini plants this time. Hardly any fruit on them yet. What's with that?

The broccoli is doing pretty well, despite a rough start. About the only problem is it looks like most of them are going to mature around the same time. I wanted the harvest spread out a bit more. Funny that I tried planting them weeks apart but they still mature the same time.





We had the large head to the left for dinner last night.

For once I've had no problem with cabbage worms or loopers. Unlike last year, I applied Bacillus Thuringises a couple times this time. Probably in a bit stronger dose than recommended. They say to use it every two weeks, but I sprayed it last time over a month ago and no caterpillars are to be seen.
 



This picture shows the zucchini with some fave beans on the far side. To the left of those favas I just planted another bunch of favas that haven't come up through the ground yet.












Here's from the far side of the yard looking back towards the greehouse. Doesn't look so bad from here, huh?













Here you can see the lame fence the neighbors put up a while back. It turned out to be a bit of a blessing. We helped clear the area for the fence. It used to be filled with a sprawling banksea rose with ivy  and other weeds overgrown through it- never mind the old fence.

Once the fence was up, it actually made the yard look bigger, probably just because of the clearing we did. That gave us the idea to clear out even more to give us a bunch more gardening space. It's taken me a few days but I've cleared it out to the old compost piles (far end of picture). The debris on the bottom right is part of what I cleard. It's laying on the old banksea rose.

We both enjoy artichokes so we're thinking of cramming this whole new area full of artichoke plants. We'll have to wait and see what sort of stuff pops up after the soil gets wet again. I'm sure there will be all kinds of berries and morning glory that I've missed.

Here's a close up of the far end of the picture. Towards the back is my old wooden compost bins (covered with berries and morning glory) and to the left what used to be a cleared area I grew tomatoes in years ago. That's kind of what the cleared area looked like before we cleaned it up. Now I've got to work my way through to the left about ten feet and I'll have yet more freed up space. After that I'll have to fight the stuff growing out of the old compost bins.




Not sure if I'll plant any more veggies in the near future. I will try and start some brussell sprouts in a couple months so we can have some for winter or early spring. I botched my attempt at brussell sprouts last year.

These six packs are my last planting for now. They're dwarf marigolds "Sparky". I like them cause they only grow to about 6" and add color to the garden, along with repelling some pests. I'll fill in some empty spots with them. They should pop up out of the soil by Friday or Saturday.


So that's it for now. I'll be working on clearing the weeds and brambles all summer and beyond, I'm sure.

Money In Politics: A Look At Wisconsin's Recall

To contact us Click HERE
A well thought out look at the money spent on the recent recall election in Wisconsin. The author points out Walker likely would have won even if he hadn't received a large amount of money from outside the state:

"So there’s your money effect, folks. Go from a 2:1 money advantage to a 7:1 money advantage, and it could increase your vote share by a full percentage point! Woo hoo!"

"I don’t mean to sound snide, but I’d say in general that if you pair the same candidates up against each other for the same office, you’ll probably get similar results. And I’d say that the real lesson here is how little the electoral results changed after a vast change in financing."

I'd suggest money could have a greater effect in some instances. Prop 29, for instance: Large infusions of cash can help the underdog. It allows them to make their case and possibly change electoral outcomes, but not always.

In the case of Prop 29, the minority might well have lost without the added infusion of funds that allowed them to present their side of the issue. In the local case of WalMart trying to change zoning on the Balloon Tract, the money- and the argument presented with it- wasn't enough.

Hat tip, as usual, to Radley Balko for the link.

Wendy's Closure Was ADA Related

To contact us Click HERE
I bumped into a fellow on Saturday who was in the position to know. He told me the closure of Eureka's Wendy's restaurant was, indeed, because of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He didn't know if local scuzbag, Jason Singleton, was involved.

There were a number of supposed violations and the chain's management decided it wasn't worth the expense to make the corrections so they shut the place down. Another one bites the dust because of the ADA.

On a related note, looks like Senator Dianne Feinstein is using the issue to get her name in the paper in an election year. She's made some waves so there might be some legislative resolution to the ADA issue on the horizon.