This is for conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends.  The proposal is to promote a "Congressional Reform Act of 2009." It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 

I know many of you will say, "this is impossible."  Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us. 

We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House.  These people will become American heroes..  Please add any ideas on how to get this done.

***********************************
Congressional Reform Act

of 2009

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

        Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

2.  No Tenure / No Pension:

    A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

3.  Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:
    All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans..

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned  citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/10. 

    The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

    Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.
 
 

Cleveland, OH (AP) - A seven-year old boy was at the center of a Cuyahoga County courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him..  The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulation requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible. 
 

 
The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her.  When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they also beat him.
 
After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.
 
After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Cleveland Browns, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

It used to be that only BAD credit card customers got ripped off when it came to credit cards,  and now the credit card companies seem to want to RIP people off regardless of your credit.

I just saw this news article that says that some banks like Bank of America may soon be charging annual fees to its Credit Card holders who have good credit, and pay their bills on time...  It seems that they "aren't making enough money" off of those people who don't carry a balance, so they want to start charging you MORE money, even though the already charge the merchant around 2-3% for every transaction, and then turn around and charge you all sorts of transaction fees such as cash advance fees, and APRs starting at around 13%, and can go as high as 30% or more in some cases....

Just a heads up....  If your bank does this to you, I would suggest you cancel your card immediately, and find another credit card company that will be satisfied with making their money the old fashioned way, "By Earning It".....

http://wcbstv.com/consumer/credit.card.fees.2.1272124.html

I normally could care less about vacuum cleaners, but thought I'd pass this along, in hopes of helping anyone out that might need to get a new one too.

Our family's vacuum cleaner has been getting a little long in the tooth, and we needed to get a new one...   We kept on seeing those infomercials for the "Shark Navigator" vacuum cleaner, and if you watch any amount of TV you've probably at least seen their commercials as you surf through the channels...

Their commercials are pretty compelling.  A beautiful lady showing show great it works, how easy it is to use, and how it is supposed to do great when they stack it up against some of the better known vacuum cleaners out there.

We were almost convinced enough to order it over the phone just from seeing it on TV, but I wanted to do some research first.  I did a few google searches on on it and found some reviews, and strangely enough they ALL sounded good...   That was a red flag for me right there...

We found out that Bed Bath and Beyond carries them, so we went into our nearest store here in the Seattle area.

They had several machines there, and you could actually try them out on a few test carpet mats....

The mats had lots of stuff on them, so I think they must rotate them from the front door where people come in so they have a steady supply of dirty carpets to test their vacuums with...

I plugged in the Shark Navigator, and gave it a try.  They claim it is lightweight and easy to use, but I found that it weighs in at over 20 lbs, and it is definitely not easy to use, even though I'm over 6 feet tall and in pretty good shape.  My wife tried it, and said "I definitely don't want to lug that thing around, its waay too heavy!"

We tried running the Shark Navigator over the dirty carpets, and amazingly it just barely picked stuff up, and I found it to be almost useless....     We pulled out the suction hose attachment, and found that the suction it put out was almost nothing !    It was a complete joke....   I am so glad I tried this out before buying it, but I am not sure if this unit was just in bad condition, or if that is how they normally work.

We ended up going with the more expensive Dyson Ball Vacuum.  We got the Blueprint model, which was about 200.00 more than the Shark Navigator.   It is a LOT lighter, and weighs only 13 lbs.  It is also a LOT easier to move around, especially with the ball system that pivots the cleaner around and under things where you need to maneuver it.  It also has great power, a 5 year warranty, and it seemed to pick up lots of things the Shark Navigator couldn't.

In my opinion, you definitely get what you pay for when comparing the two vacuums here.

I'd just like to know if anyone here actually has one of these Shark Navigators, and how it works for you?   Did I just happen to find a bad demo model, or are they really that bad?   It was definitely an eye opening experience for us, and we're not going to trust anything we see on TV anymore unless we try it out ourselves first...

I have more info on the cat, and a photo.  Apparently this cat is living in an empty house, as their owners were forced to move out and could not take her with them.....

Hi Bill,
 
Thank you for helping me find a home for this poor lonely cat, attached you will find a picture of her.  Her name is Ashley, she is 10 years old, she is very loving and likes to sit in your lap.  She is litter trained and fixed, I don't know the breed.
 
Could you please forward this to the person that might be interested, thank you so much for your help.
 

If anyone out there knows someone that might be able to provide a good home for this cat, please let me know....   Thanks

Hi all,

Just thought I'd pass along a great company that did some flyers for me...

ColorPrintingWholesale is their name, and website is:

http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/

They do offset or digital printing, with great quality, and also at an affordable price...

I couldn't be happier with the flyers they made for me...  I highly recommend them.

I chose their 7 day turn around, and actually got my order delivered to me in about 4 days....   They do offer overnight service too, but I didn't need it that fast... Its nice to know they offer it though....

A local company quoted me over 1,000 dollars for 2,000 flyers, but ColorPrintingWholesale did it for less than 200.00...  

Definitely worth your time to check them out if you're in need of printing jobs, small or large...

Here is the new flying car, called the Transition. Land at an airport, fold up the wings and drive to work or home....   Very cool!

It will go up to 725 kms, at a speed of 115 km per hour...

Vehicle top speed on the ground is 185 km/hour, range is 724 km on highways 
It runs on gasoline, and the price is around $200,000.

Learn more about this amazing new vehicle here:  http://www.terrafugia.com/index.html

This week I found another great file sending service, that has a free option that might be of interest if you ever have to send large files....  Its called Mediafire.com

You can send up to 100MB files for free, with unlimited storage....

Their paid service allows up to 10 GB files, with unlimited storage for 6.97/month....

Here's their site:

http://www.mediafire.com

While I haven't used the service myself, at the prices they are offering it might give Sendspace.com some competition....

 If you do try it, please let me know how it works...  Thanks

I've seen a few blogs recently talking about video for real estate.  I may be biased, but I've actually shot several homes in my Seattle Real Estate Photography business that have also been shot with video tours done by other video providers....   In side by side comparison after comparison, the video tours always made the homes look darker than my photography did, and could not show the size as well as my wide angle lens could....     I really believe the video tours didn't do as good of a job to show the size of the rooms, and gave them a less favorable impression.

With my full screen slideshow tours that add panning effects, you actually get the effect of a video with a high resolution photo, so you get the best of both worlds, and a much higher quality image that is properly lit, and developed & sharpened to make the home truly "shine".    To get a well made video production, you need to have proper lighting and technique, that can't be done without spending a lot of money, and hiring a video production company....  

I'm not knocking video, and I think it can be a good addition at times, but the key to your marketing here is getting people interested enough to want to come and see the house...    So, I feel that professional photography along with slideshow tours with video-like panning effects give you the most bang for your buck...   You can use the photos for your flyers, the mls, and if you hire me you also get a great slideshow tour as an added bonus to really get them interested, and sell the home!    Here is an example of how my slideshows work, with several assorted views from various homes and properties:  Click For Slideshow

  In my opinion, the video tours you can produce on your own just don't project the professional image you really need....   People hire Real Estate professionals to sell the homes properly, and real estate professionals should hire professional real estate photographers to photograph them.  Video can be a good supplement, but you still can't make flyers with them......  You need to have good photography as the backbone of your real estate marketing, and I don't think that will change.....    :)