and it's time for another review

#2.  Close Gitmo.  Nope.  Failed miserably.  Still open.  But no more "enemy combatants" are being held there.  Now there are only"undocumented peace challenged persons of indeterminate origin."  I feel safer already.

#3.  5 million green jobs.  In the works but I'm still dubious.

#4.  Transparency.  Er, no.  "Private" meetings with the media, signing bills without reading them....the list goes on.  Epic Fail here.

#5.  Lower sea level.  No noticeable difference yet.

#6.  End use of torture.  In the works.

#7.  End use of extreme rendition.  In the works.

#8.  No lobbyist influence in the gov't.  He blew by this one like a freight train passing a tramp.  Embarrassing really. 

#9. Release medical records and college transcripts. Still no. I'm putting a time limit on this. November 1, 2010. Anything after that is the beginning of the campaign for the 2^nd term.

And #1. Raise taxes on the rich. OH how he's hammering the rich. And all of us along for the ride. During the campaign it was "anyone making more than $500,000."  After the election it bacame $400,000 and now it's down to $250,000.  Most recently Article I Section 9 has been ignored. Banana Republic status may be right around the corner as all the contract law I learned in law school gets tossed out the window.

This one's been around awhile but because of my recent career move it's been manifesting itself again.  You cannot prove the absence of a negative.  CAN'T!  I'm dealing with an irate taxpayer on the phone and advise them they didn't file thier FT 1120 in 2005.  "Prove it" is almost ALWAYS the first words out of thier mouth.   First, because we're bigger and we wrote the rules, the burden of proof is on the TP.  Second, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!  See, here's the spot on my desk where your return would be if you had sent it and it's not there SO YOU DIDN'T SEND IT!  

It's just so....so...stoopid!

No idea if this will display or not but here's my bracket.  http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/441541

I think my "overrated" MSU and underrated WVU both proved thier mettle this past week. 

Buckeye's will Beat the Saints but lose to Louisville.

I have those Mountaineers upsetting an overrated Kansas AND overrated MSU!  They'll also tumle to L-ville in the Elite 8

USC's on a roll.... they get an upset over BC.

No upsets out west until Memphis takes out #1 U Conn.

In the East - how on EARTH did FSU get a #5 seed?  Buckey Badger sends em home.  The rest of the bracket plays out but the Duke-Nova game should be one of the best in the tourney.

A few upsets in the South.  Butler over LSU (the SEC is down this year - no Kentucky even! - so let's enjoy watchin' em get beat)  ASU over March darling Syracuse.  'Cuse just doesn't have the bench.    Sadly the underrated Zags hit my #1 NC and don't get past the Sweet 16.  ASU/Okl will be close and I HATE taking OU but I gotta.  They'll get pasted the next round.

Memphis beats L-ville.  Take it to the bannk.  The other bracket has Pitt vs NC.  In Detroit.  VERY tought game to pick.  Winner of this game wins it all and I took NC but I'm not happy about it.  Same with taking Memphis to loose the title game.

Watched the poorly reviewed pilot of this new series: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219024/

Stana Katic is cute and plays the female detective nicely.

I've always liked Nathan Fillion for no good reason.  Was Private Ryan!

Not a bad show but not a ratings grabber either.  Q&D: Writer wants to model new character on sexy female detective, doing research.  Characters are stock, pulling from multiple tried and true lines.  Nice cameos by James Patterson and Stephan J Cannell. 

This warrents a second watch and probably a third.  The chemistry between the leads is nice.  We'll see how it progresses, which secondary characters start getting attention, and how the crimes and crimesolving develops.  For the time being it makes the Tivo list but could be gone by mid-April. 

I make my living with numbers.....kinda....and several of my favorite hobies revolve around either numbers, statistics, words or some combination thereof.  So it was with GREAT enjoyment, mirth and glee that I found this ... it kinda sez it all

Contrary to what the current administration might be putting forward.  I first noted this kind of thing in the ravening of the Secretary of State Madeline Albright during the Clinton Administration.  And now THIS is the continuation.

But for any Albions who wander by here, please know this is NOT the default position of all Americans.  Some of us still think of you as the mother country.  We realize you gave us or legal underpinnings (dating back to 1066.)  That you gave us our language (even though some are attempting to legislate it away.)  That you have given us most of our great literature (From Shakespeare to HG Wells!)  That after fighting AGAINST us for 30 years you have fought by our side for most of the last 200. 

Burkina Fasso can't say ANY of that.  Neither can ANY of the "other 190 countries."  To suggest otherwise is silly and immature.  But that's who we've handed the keys too.  Someday the adults will be back.  Be patient with us 

Score one for our side.  My liberal Obama supporting co-worker is starting to crumble.  He used to be a small business owner.  We recently had an issue here concerning a Subchapter S  corp and I had to do a little Q&D training session on what a Sub S was.  Typical small biz, protections of a corp but often treated like an individual.  I reminded hiom that HIS biz was a Sub S.  I casually asked what his annual income for the biz had been. 

Him: S250 - $300k. 

Me:  So you're rich.

Him: (laughing) not me brotha'....I make less than you!

Me: But according to Obama's tax proposals we're going to raise taxes on the rich and by him that's anybody making more than 250k - and that includes ALL THOSE Sub S corps out there.  90% of the jobs in the US come from small businesses.  Like you.

H:  But I was just barely making it.  I wasn't rich.

M:  Exactly.  Now imagine your fed taxes going up 10%.

H:  It'd put me outta business!

M:  Exactly.  And that's what's happening across the country and has been since shortly before the election.  Small biz's have been downsizing or not replacing lost workers, in an effort to absorb the hit they're going to take when O's tax hike goes ito effect.  No new jobs.  Fewer old jobs.  And now you know YOU were the "rich" that the hike applies to.

H:  Well THAT explains alot.  No wonder all these folks is complaining about his plan and blaming him for the stock market and unemployment.  It's not all Bush's fault after all.  Maybe I oughta start payin' a little more attention before the next election.

And with that I returned to my desk, where no one could see the self satisfied smirk on my face.

Conferences tourneys are starting up.....

My top 5: 

North Carolina, Pitt, Memphis, U Conn, Duke

Overrated: 

Wake Forrest and Oklahoma

Underrated:

Gonzaga, West Virginia (yes, IMHO the Big East is that good this year), UCLA

My prediction on the Buckeyes remains the same.  They need to finish in the top 4 of the Big 1(1)0 tourney to make the dance.  10 or 11 seed.  Loose in the 1st round unless they get a miracle bracket.

Had lunch with a co-worker today.  He's a black guy from "inner city" Columbus, about 5 years older than I.  He's a huge Obama supporter.  Fair enough.  The conversation over lunch began with his observation that "Obama's being made the scapegoat for all of America's problems."  I found this quite a surprising assertion as I hadn't gotten a whif of this from any source, right or left.  So I decided to play a game we used to call "round robin skunk tease."  It went like this:

ME: So who's fault IS it?

HIM:  Bush of course - all that defecit spending for 8 years and all that money in Iraq.

ME: But didn't Obama vote FOR the war?  And Hillary?  And Edwards?  And Kerry?  In fact, didn't MOST of the Democrats vote in favor of the war?  And didn't some of them (Murtha et al) make quite a bit of money on the deal?

H:  Well ... um .... yeah.  But it's STILL Bush's fault.

M:  And that defecit spending - didn't the Democrat controlled Congress approve those budgets?  Didn't they get thier earmark money?  Didn't people like Sen. "Your Name Here" Byrd get dozens of road, building and bridges named after him all over WVa because of the sepnding in those budgets?

H  Well yeah but Bush .....

M:  No - the Dems had a lot of diagreements with him, but his spending habits weren't among them ... until now.

H:  But he deregulated the lending industry and that let predatory lenders cause the collapse of the housing market.

M:  Wow.  Singlehandedly?  He did all that?  Just for kicks, give me ONE regulation that Bush did away with that wasn't approved of by a majority of the Democrats in Congress.

H: Er...um....well that's what "they" all say.

M:  This isn't about "them" it's about you and me having an adult conversation about an adult topic.  Think for yourself.  Name one.

H: I can't.

M: Fair enough.  Now lets talk about Obama.

H: Here we go....

M: No, really.  Why did you vote for him?

H:  He's black.  And he talks good.  And he gave us hope.  He was gonna change things.

M: WAS?

H: IS gonna change things.

M:  So he has the answers.  The solutions.  He's going to fix the economy and all the problems that Bush left the country?

H:  Yep.  That's why we voted for him.

M:  So what's he waiting for?

H:  Huh?

M: What's he waiting for?   He just tripled the defecit, socialized about 1/3 of the US economy, keeps appointing tax cheats and former lobbyists to high level positions and the stock market just keeps sinking.  When does he pull the rabbit out of his hat?  If the trillion dollar Obamulous wasn't his solution, what is?  Why is he allowing people to loose money in the stock market every day?  Why is he allowing the continued decline of the US economy if he has the answers to stop the decline?

H:  Hey, didja see the Blue Jackets traded thier goalie?

Thus endeth the lesson.