There were no new jobs in August per the fed. Ashville, TN - Henderson County cannot find anyone to pick their apples. The need 500-1000 folks. The pay is $15/bin which translates to $15 to $20/hour. They blame their problem on the 1300 + illegal immigrants arrested there.
The fed has to get off its duff and do something. The Fair Tax Bill would increase employment for many. The Fair Tax Bill would increase everyone's pocketbook. The Fair Tax Bill would go a long way toward pulling us out of this recession. Immigration has to be fixed as #2. We either have to deport all the illegals or legalize them and stop the further influx of illegals over our boarders. Our borders are like sieves. No other country has such open boarders. The Mexican boarder fence was stupid and a waste. There are tunnels under the fence. The electronic fence doesn't work as well as it was suppossed to and we just keep giving the contractor more money. The funniest part is the fence isn't even on the boarder.

Fire FEE

Prop 13 said no new tax without a 2/3 vote so every new tax became a fee. The latest to pass the state fire board was a $90 fee for fire (it started higher). I guess we need another proposition stating that fees are taxes and any other word you can come up with that increases government income.

The legislature would rather give the power to do things like this to the agencies so the voters won't get mad at them. They can claim to be tring to stop or change the fee.

Behaving Badly?

Our elected officials are behaving badly to say the least. Obama is toying with the idea of cutting Social Security cost of living increases by .3%. Not very noticable as it will take 10 years to get a 3% cut. But why is Social Security a target at all. It is fully funded until 2038 and could be easity extended by raising the Social Security tax limit from 107 thousand to 135 thousand ( a 5% increase). Remeber the plan to put your money in the stock market? Look what happened to everyones 401K with recesions etc. Social Security is the old folks safety net. It keeps them out of the street and homeless shelters. Maybe you have saved forever contributing to your retirement accounts and then at retirement your corporation tanks because the stock market crashed again. Where would you be?

Congrssman Paul Ryan says he wants to cut out tax loopholes to pay for proposed tax cuts. Then on the other hand he keeps proposing tax cuts for his campaign contributors.

So why this bad behavior from our elected officials? They all were or have become the rich from the perks and contacts in congress. Tax cuts start at the top of the food chain and spending cuts at the bottom. Does anyone know what is in the black ops budget? It is spread throughout all the departments of your government. Some of it may go for some very good things and other parts very nasty things, but no one seems to know. Maybe this is the best place to do a 100% cut, until the someone knows where it goes.

It seems that it is good to be a big corportation and pay little taxes, be rich and pay a low tax rate, have an airplane and pay little and yet it is bad to be poor, on medicare, on social security or be on welfare as that is what congress wants to cut bebefits for as well as cut more taxes for the higher income.

If we could only get the fair tax bill passed (HR25/S13) the tax paid would be the same for everyone that bought anything new and all the other taxes would be eleminated as well as the IRS. Of course you say what about the poor? Well everyone will get a refund called a prebate to be able to afford the basic necesities like food. Congress won't budge because they are the rich and like their tax breaks the poor and middle class can't take advantage of. They like their perks like a per diem expense account that is tax free and not deserved for many (pay a housing and food allowance while they are home - why, pay them per diem when they are not really in session - why). They like their retirement program and medical program not ours.

We need to really get mad as hell and really not take it anymore. We need to ask serious questions of the up and comming candidates. We need to withhold our vote for the wrong answers or wrong behaviors. We need to vote. It seems the silent majority is allowing themselves to be hoodwinked into staying silent. The public is being dumbed down.

Congress, Weather, Elinen

The congress is cutting funds from farm conservation programs. Know Your Farmer and Know Your Food (KYF, KYF) program will probably go. Why don't they ever start at the top for making cuts?

The weather is getting wild an woolly again as it rains here and snows at 7000'. Are we going to have an early winter? After all it is almost July and my flower seeds are just getting up.

There is a lot of talk about comet or brown star elinen. 9/26/11 it is going to cause our magnetic field to switch and then 11/22/11 it will switch back. In between times there will be a some days without light. Spooky if it is true and that is what the NASA and the JPL say.

Wildlife and such

On the way to church this morning we passed a flock of turkeys in the street and then saw a herd of cattle being driven down Main St. This was the second cattle drive down Main St. right in front of the JnR Hotel this week. It was great but it was a little late since we have mass at 8:30 am on Sundays. I lucky to have the camera with me and took a couple of shots. They are posted at http://www.facebook.com/jnrhotel. The drive got hung up down the street near the Country Hearth. I guess the cattle smelled the bacon or the people watching scared them, most likely the later. From across the street on the corner I was able to zoom in on one in front of Golden's. You can see the fear in their eyes and I wasn't very close at all - a good 500' away. The drive was a real treat though because it isn't something you can see everyday. The first drive seemed much smaller because I almost completely missed it. It takes a while to get the sounds of the drive to register in the brain to look out the window to see there are animals & cowbows in the street going by. On the way back from church we saw a couple of geese grazing.

The squirrel hunters are doing well but they don't seem to be making much of a dent in the population. The squirrels are mutiplying just too fast.

The wildcats are getting a bit thick too. A jet black one has been seen on the Alturas side of Cedarpass. There was a nice picture of a regular one in Lake City. When the deer and livestock are gone who's next?

The rotary had their foundation dinner last night at the community church. If the chamber can modify one of the flyers a bit it will be great for the squirrel round up next year.

Vitality News for March 2011

The latest newsletter from the Modoc Economic Vitality Group has been downloaded to the website. To access it go to http://www.jnrhotel.com, then click on the Calendar Tab. On the calendar page is a red link to the newsletter.

So why is it so hard to get there? We have been running a contest recently involving finding the newsletter, telling us where it is and then getting a discount on lodging.

Spring is finally threatening. The squirrels are running for their lives because the hunters are here after them. Everyone hope the hunters are very successful because the squirrels are a menace to alphalfa farmers. Beside the holes and tunnels all over the place, they eat a significant portion of the crop.

My Facebook page for the hotel is now active too and there is a link on the hotel website http://www.jnrhotel.com that will take you to the Facewbook page. I hope everyone is enjoying all this work - http://www.jnrotel.com (hotel website), http://www.facebook.com/pages/JnR-Hotel/207586182601754 (Facebook Page) and http://www.jnrhotel.blogspot.com (blog page).

Someday I will add iphone capability to the website, spread the blog to the other places this software works with automatically and other things as I get time.

If you like all or any of this let me know.
Jim