NetFuzz - Feel The Fuzz Y’all

Preach it loud brotha Neal: “I’m hearing
this more and more often these days. The ever-present wealth envy has
settled (for the time being) on the idea that evil, nasty, putrid,
scummy, disgusting, horrible, noxious rich people just don’t pay taxes,
and it’s about time someone come along and make them pony up. I’ve
already read for you several emails from people complaining that they
know for an absolute fact that rich people are rich because they don’t
pay their taxes … and they know this because they know a CPA
somewhere and their CPA friend told them so.

I regularly get calls from organizations representing this charity and that asking for donations.  Now, I don’t mind donating to what I feel are worthy causes, and nowadays I usually do so directly to whatever charity I choose rather than going through one of these fund raising companies.

I am not saying that every front end to a charity is bad, but that vast majority of the ones that I have dealt with or been called by qualify as crooks and scam artists in my opinion.  Oh?  How can that be?  How can I be so cold?  I am going to explain, and you might be shocked by what you find out.

First thing, when someone calls you from one of these companies like the State Police fund, or the Fireman’s Charity League or even the one I received just tonight, the Sheriff’s Department taking donations for “Puppy Patrol” which is taking money for programs that teach kids to say no to drugs in school.  These all sound great, don’t they?  Yes they do, and that’s what they are counting on.

You see, it’s not the charities themselves that are the problem, at least not in most cases (there are some fraud charities out there, but they are rare).  No, the problem normally rests in these front end companies that do the soliciting and collection.  That problem is the amount of money, the percentage that gets passed on to the charity.  This is where it gets criminal in my opinion.

This “Puppy Patrol” charity that called me tonight, one thing I asked early in the phone call was how much actually got to the charity?  Most callers don’t like to answer that one.  In this case, it was 15% … yep, that’s it, only 15%.  For every dollar they collect from people, they keep $0.85 and give $0.15 to the charity.  OMG!!!  For every $100 they take in, they keep $85 and pass on $15, that’s it!  If they collect one million dollars ($1,000,000) in a year, they keep eight hundred fifty thousand ($850,000) and give only one hundred fifty thousand ($150,000).  Does it start to make sense now?

That’s right; these companies keep most of the money and only send bare minimums to the charity.  Now, they’ll claim that they have light bills to pay and employees to pay and more and that’s all true.  However, why can reputable charities accomplish all of this and keep only 20%?  They pass on 80% and not 15%, so what’s the big difference between these two types of companies other than one is legit and the other is run by greedy bastards that are exploiting people’s good nature for profit.

So, what’s my point in all this?  Before you give your hard earned money to some charity, make sure you ask them how much actually makes it to the charity.  If they only give 10% or 15% or something silly like that, don’t give them your money.  Instead give it to a local charity or directly to another to make sure that your entire donation goes where it should.  Personally, I don’t give to any company that passes on less than 70%, but that’s just me.

One thing that I hate in this world is hypocrisy. Especially from those people that hold influential positions or places, who then abuse their status while attempting to be high and mighty. In the end they fall fast and hard if anyone with a brain or any common sense actually listens to what they have to say, rather than lapping up the idle vitriol that comes forth without question.

In this case, I must focus my ire upon Oprah. Now, I have never really been a big fan of Oprah or her show. However, she has done some good things and I have always thought that though her views were slanted, she tried to do some good for people.

Now she has crossed a line in my opinion. Actually, she crossed it once a while back and has kept on going. This is where the hypocrisy comes in. Keep in mind that Oprah has the eyes and ears of millions of people in the world; I mean literally millions of people that watch her show and are heavily influenced by whatever she says and does. A great many of those people that follow her show aren’t even influenced, they live their lives by her. Whatever she says to eat, read, do or otherwise is exactly what they eat, read, do and so on.

The first thing she did is not something I take issue with, but it sets up what I do take issue with. First thing, she publicly endorsed Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. That in and of itself I don’t have a problem with, she is free to support anyone she wants. She even made it known on her show that she supported Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama. That’s OK too, although I have a small issue with that because I think that her entertainment show ought to be separate from her personal political affiliations. That’s just my personal opinion, but since she doesn’t have a politically themed show, I don’t think it’s appropriate.

Now, the next thing is what really got my goat, especially with what comes later. A large portion of her audience (the majority of which are women) wanted her to interview Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. I thought this would be a good idea, she is after all the first female Republican Vice Presidential Nominee ever. What ticked me off was that Oprah declined the interview, much to the anger of her fans, saying that she would not use her show as a platform for politics or endorsing politicians.

OK, we are talking about an interview based on a historical moment (first potential female Republican VP), not an endorsement. Plus, she had previously come out with her support for Barack Hussein Obama. To me, if you are going to do one, you should do the other. Especially when your reason for the other flies in the face of the first thing you already did.

That was bad enough, but now I read that Oprah is going to move her show to Washington during inauguration week. Still, not bad by itself, but it just goes to further show what a hypocrite Oprah is. She supports Obama on her show, snubs Palin on her show, then moves her show to Washington for Obama’s inauguration. Wow. I mean, I can understand liking and/or supporting one candidate and not the other, but doing so publicly on such a large scale while claiming it was in the name being fair? One word comes to mind, hypocrite.

One last thing, this isn’t about my own preference for one candidate or another. I am not some “right wing” blogger with an axe to grind. This was about blatant hypocrisy by a very powerful and influential woman. Truth be told, I didn’t like either candidate, but since Barack Hussein Obama won, I hope he does all the stuff he said. He talks a good game, but he is still a politician and I don’t know that I believe it.

This came to me via email by my family, it is so profound I had to post it.  I don’t know who the original author is, but they have my vote.  I did some clarity editing but it is for the most part as I found it.

On to Bailout Plan B:

Simply put, I am against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.  Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to all Americans as a “Dividend”.  To make the math simple, let us assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18 and over. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.

Divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion, and that gets you to a hefty $425,000.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a “Dividend”.  Of course, it would not be tax free, so let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.  Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500 in taxes. That sends $25.5 Billion right back to Uncle Sam.  Neat, huh?

It also means that every adult 18+ has $297,500 in their pocket, so a husband and wife have $595,000.

What would you and your family do with between $297,500 to $595,000?

Let’s see:

• Pay off your mortgage … housing crisis solved!
• Repay college loans … a great boost to new grads!
• Put away money for college … it’ll be there and allow more people to actually be college grads!
• Save it in a bank … create money to loan to entrepreneurs and earn some interest!
• Buy a new car … create jobs!
• Invest in the market … capital drives growth!
• Pay for your parent’s medical insurance … health care improves!

Remember, this is for every U.S. Citizen 18 and over, including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers, Enron, and every other company that crushed their employees. If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it instead of trickling it out.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U.S. Citizen.

As for AIG - liquidate it and sell off its parts.  Sell off the real estate and let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean up.  Where is the bailout for Small Business America when we fall on hard times?  Why should AIG get preferential treatment just because they are a “big” company?

Here’s my rationale, we deserve it and AIG does not.  We were never invited to the last 10 years of party time bonuses.  And remember, in reality, this plan truly only costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

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UPDATE: It looks like AIG got more than it bargained for, and no, not in a bad way.  Instead of the $85 billion dollar bailout mentioned above, the have gotten about $150 billion so far.  That’s not a typo folks.  We have people that are homeless, starving and dieing in the streets and our Government gives $150 billion dollars to an insurance company (don’t insurance companies rip us consumers off anyway?) because they couldn’t run their business on their own.  How lame.  You can hit the link to read more here.

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (GM) decided to have a canoe race on the  Missouri  River.   Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak  performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won  by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.  A  management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate  and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the  Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering while the American  team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a  deeper study was in order, American management h ired a consulting  company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering  the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how  to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to  the Japanese, the rowing team’s management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering  superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give  the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder.  It was called the Rowing Team Quality First Program,’ with  meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower..  There was  discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra  vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the  Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management  laid off the rower for poor performance halted development of a new  canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new  equipment.  The money saved was distributed to the Senior  Executives as bonuses and the next year’s racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, this is The End.

Here’s something else to  think about:

GM has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the  US claiming they can’t make money paying American wages.

Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside  the US .   The last quarter’s results:

Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while GM racked up 9 billion in losses.

GM folks are still scratching their heads.

If this weren’t true, it might be funny.

Yo, how y’all doing?  I wanted to step up and say something about the recent election we just had, and the fact that everyone keeps asking me what I think about the first black president being elected.  Like I should be some type of authority on the subject.  Well, I decided to tell all of you, what I tell them, they ain’t no black president.  WHAT?! You gasp?  That’s right, you heard me.  Has anyone looked at Obama?  He and Joe Biden are like the two whitest people on earth … except maybe for Bob Saget.  Yeah, OK, his skin has a darker shade to it than Biden, but look at how he acts and talks, and look at how much money he has.  He ain’t no brother, he’s as black as the Huxtables, get outta here.  He may be a good president, I don’t know, but stop beating up the color of his skin man.  That just don’t make any difference.  I’m out, peace.

Well folks, here we are, one week into the (pre) Obamanation.  I find it interesting that the stock markets fell for days straight after Obama one, instead of going up.  I mean with all of the Bush haters out there (read: Media Bias), I thought people would be doing the conga through Times Square when the Messiah won the election.  It will be interesting to see how things play out now that Obama has the job and people are starting to see the real Obama versus the “Hey, vote for me, I will pay your mortgage and put gas in your car” Obama that was on the campaign trail.  Most of you that read this will assume that I am bashing Obama … and well, you are right, I am.  But not because of McCain or anything like that.  When you get down to it, both of the presidential candidates were still politicians, I don’t believe either one of them.  I hope that I look back on this later in life with fond memories of good times and baskets of warm puppies, all brought on by the Chosen One’s masterful manipulation of the force, such that all the world’s problems get solved with a wave of the hand.  Wow, the cough medicine is in full effect tonight.  I think that’s enough for me, remember to thank a soldier since it’s Veteran’s Day.  It is to them we owe our freedom.

This folks, this is the kind of person that is wanting Obama in office.  Watch the video and watch this woman talk about how she won’t have to worry about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage with Obama in the white house.  She goes on to say that (paraphrased) “she’ll help him, and he’ll help her”.  This is just insane, I am completely dumbfounded at how stupid some people are.

Yeah, something like that.

Well folks, here we are.  The people of the United States have elected Hussein Obama as president.  It’s no surprise to me, I expected this all along seeing as how charismatic and well spoken he is.  Plus, with G.W.’s approval rating, he pretty much handed the election to the opposing party.

Obama has said some great things, things that made me want to vote for him.  It’s the things he says and does (votes on) when he doesn’t have a mic and TV camera in front of him that scare me.  He has proven that he wants to get rid of all guns, period.  He has said that he will bankrupt the coal industry, and hurt any other carbon fuel operations.  He has said that gas and electricity prices will go through the roof, and he can’t wait for that.  He has said he wants to push his agendas of income re-distribution, which is basically socialism.  Making sure that those who work support those who don’t, and where then is the incentive for me to work hard then?  Why is it worth my time to improve myself and get better qualified in life if everything I gain gets taken away from me and given to someone who is too lazy to better themselves?

Despite what this reads like, I am hopeful.  I am hopeful that I am wrong and that Obama will turn out to be the Messiah that the biased press has painted him to be.  I personally believe though, when I compare his words to his deeds, that he is full of hot air.  Guess what?  I think we are seeing that already, because the day after the election Obama is already back pedalling.  He was on TV this morning stating that (paraphrased from memory) “it may not be in this four years, it may be in another four years, but there will be change”.  Doesn’t that sound a lot like him telling us to overlook all that he said he was gonna do, because now it isn’t really going to happen?  Seems like it to me, but what do I know.

This is going to be an interesting four years, and I guess we all have to call each other Comrade now.

So, let us take a look at this, shall we?  Here is a man, who is portrayed by the media to be all but the second coming (and maybe even that too).  This man wants to be in charge of the most powerful nation in the free world.  This man, Barack Hussein Obama, who has less time in office than Sarah Palin who gets attacked left and right for her “inexperience”, wants us to trust him with everything that is America.  He claims to be knowlegable enough, and smart enough to handle the job of running a super power, but he doesn’t know that his own aunt is in this country illegally.  He knows that she is from Kenya, but claims he didn’t know that she was in fact not a citizen and that she had been ordered back to her home country some time ago.  Something doesn’t add up here.  Either he is hiding something and lied about it, or he is just that freakin’ clueless.  Either way, I don’t think I want him in my white house.

On another note, according to this article, she was living in public housing.  OK, there is nothing wrong with that, but does that mean that he cared so little for his own family that he couldn’t take some of his piles of cash and help her out by getting her into a better place?  Again, not the kind of thing that makes me want him deciding the future of the country I call home.  This whole thing sounds pretty darn lame if you ask me, and don’t get the impression I am just bashing Obama, cause I am not.  I don’t like McCain either, but this story about Obama’s aunt just had me flabbergasted, so I felt I had to share.

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