The Way I See ItBy cj pollickThe Election – We support Neil Brickfield and Nancy Bostock for Pinellas County Commission seats. They will bring new views to the County Commission and new questions for the County Administrator. Sheriff Jim Coats is the clear choice for re-election as Sheriff. He has years of experience as a police office and years of police leadership experience – Pinellas County needs to re-elect Jim Coats. Congressman Bill Young should be re-elected due to his unwavering ability to represent people and not special interest groups in Washington. It’s our right to vote as American citizens – vote next Tuesday. First The Banks Now Insurance Companies Have Their Hands Out – We know that many banks are in deep trouble, but not many people thought insurance companies were also in financial trouble. We now learn that Prudential, Metropolitan, Allstate, John Hancock, AIG, and a host of other insurance companies seek federal funds to shore-up bad investments. Global Recession - In America over 760,000 jobs (not sure how many of those were filled by illegal immigrants) have been lost in the past nine months. There is a deep credit freeze that is hurting many business owners and the GDP (gross domestic product) has declined to its lowest level since 2001. The price of oil has dropped to $62.87 a barrel and gas prices have dropped to $2.69 a gallon (says AAA.) America is in a recession and things seem to be getting worse. Money is moving out of America with thoughts of an Obama tax plan to increase taxes on households that earn over $150,000. (Sen. Obama predictably lowered his increased tax target of wage earners from $250,000 to $150,000 in the past few days. Some experts predict he will need to increase taxes on all wage earners over $42,000, as he said, to "spread the wealth" in America.) Ukraine and Iceland are in deep financial trouble and are obtaining billions of dollars from The World Bank and other sources just to avoid full national collapse. Asian stocks are lower, European stocks are lower, Russia is sending federal funds to its banks that are having credit problems and many third-world countries are worried that nations that helped to support their economies will default on grants and other financial subsidies. The world economy is in a recession and things might get worse before it gets better, state economists from around the world. The US dollar has gained ground against the Pound and the Euro and the Canadian dollar is about .76 cents to a US dollar-- not a good sign for US folks who are in the tourism business. The global recession solution according the two candidates for US President? McCain wants to cut taxes and Obama wants to increase taxes. McCain wants to cut taxes for business owners to stimulate more jobs and allow taxpayers more disposable income. Obama wants to increase taxes for business owners and create more jobs at the federal level. McCain wants to eliminate "death taxes" while Obama wants to increase "death taxes" to 50%. McCain wants to allow people the freedom to create wealth by individual effort while Obama wants to "redistribute wealth' in America. Of course, if the world economy continues on its path towards a deep recession, neither candidate may succeed in implementing campaign promises. Remember when Bill Clinton said he would cut taxes for middle-class workers when he ran for president? As many of us know, he did not cut taxes for middle-class American workers, he increased taxes. This is just one example of presidential campaign promises unkept (which is true for many political candidates.) Bias Of The Press - Even though most large newspapers are fighting enormous financial problems, such as the New York Times, they continuously publish biased political news reports in an effort to help elect Sen. Obama and other liberal US Senators. Of course, the financial dilemma of the New York Times is not much different than other large newspapers across America. Declining newspaper advertising revenues and fewer daily readers have resulted in employee and spending cuts for most newspapers. Yet, and even with large corporate financial problems, the news media has supported candidates who plan to increase taxes for taxpayers and businesses that advertise (when financially able.) ?? Global Warming And Al Gore – Remember when people like Al Gore said we are on the brink of global warming? Seems as though Al Gore was wrong, as many note – worthy scientists have stated, and the nation’s weather is breaking record – laws. It is snowing in upper New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont and locally we are reporting record low temperatures (lows in the 30’s!) It makes you wonder how much money Al Gore has made with all of his “global warming” talk! Brrrr – turn-on the heaters ….? Tampa Bay Rays – This very young team fought their way to the World Series to learn some very tough lessons! They have learned among other things that the umpire’s calls have been terrible! (Are they pulling for the Phillies?) Rays fans have learned lessons also. Apparently being fearful of wearing their Rays logo shirts or carrying their ”trademark” cow bells! “Yikes, welcome to Philly!” |