A blog about Travel, Politics, and Personal Journals.
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Another Chapter with PG&E and their Customer Service. FACT CHECK: Health insurer profits not so fat ‘Stealthy Agenda’: Obama Ally Revelas Mission for Radical Change How old is to old to sit on your dads lap? Why be afraid of liberals (left-wing) in charge they are doing so well right here in California. ISS and shuttle sightings PG&E Smart Meter Reads A Deadbeat in my view is Great Quotes by Democrats House Dems Seek Records From Health Insurers April 09 May 09 June 09 July 09 August 09 September 09 October 09 November 09 
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My new and improved smartmeter has stopped sending data to the computer that allows me to look at my usage. I contacted customer service Saturday 10/31/09 to let them know and really didn't expect a reply until next week. Well they emailed me back with what all I can say is one stupid and non caring email. Below is my graph and emails. My email sent from PG&E site: The last read I have is 10/27. As of today 10/31 the graphs do not seem to be updating. Customer Service: Thank you for contacting us via our website. SmartMeter usage for today will become available tomorrow starting between 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thank you for using our online services. Customer Care Pacific Gas and Electric Company
My reply: Are you not understanding me? My meter has not updated since 10/27/09. It is not updating. Can you not reply with a better answer? Today is Sunday 11/01/09 I should be able to view at least up to Friday 10/30/09 but the last day showing on the graph is 10/27/09 and that is last Tuesday. If you are unable to answer my question please pass this on to someone who can.
This speaks for itself. If this has been posted I'm sorry. Was offshore all week. I know I don't have any MSNBC clips or YouTube to share with you all. But I felt the urge to blog. Why are all the conservatives so afraid of a liberal president and a liberal held congress and senate? Just look at how well the liberals have been doing running our state!! While I watch MSNBC take on that darn Fox network. Really I don't watch I just see the liberals wish they had the audience Fox does. High speed rail is coming do you think anyone in Kern will get a job? Somehow I think it will be like our road projects. Out of town companies getting the contracts and bringing in the help. I've heard it said we had a movie star as president. Now we have a president who is becoming a movie star. How does one run such a powerful country with a leader who spends all his time on TV and talk shows? Wait I do have a YouTube to share. This is what I hear when the liberals whine when we assert our first amendment rights. For the first time last night I watched the space station and the shuttle pass over us from PEI, Canada. Was a pretty awesome sight. I don't know if anyone is interested but you should be able to see the ISS and shuttle tonight from Bakersfield with the naked eye. I'd like to pass on the website with times and directions for those who might be interested. Amazing this station travels at over 17,000 miles an hour. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov...
While on vacation I've been monitoring my electric usage daily to see how I was doing with everything turned off. Have a look at the second from the end that is 57 KWH and nobody is even home. The days before and after I can believe they are about 5 KWH per day. I contacted a customer rep who said that day it showed 57 KWH was a bad read and only an estimate. I wonder how they figure their estimates? He also said it would correct itself the next day when it read again and got a good read. Well you can see the day after is there but it never corrected itself for the high read. I contacted them again and got a totally different story. None of this information is really accurate. In fact they can't see the same information they offer us. I guess from what I'm told is when it is time to read the bill it will try 5 times to get good info before they send out a bill. But of course the story seems to change with each rep you contact. There is another annoying item. Why can't they tell the same story? I have to wonder who is telling the truth. I don't care how good these smart meters are if they can't send correct data to the office how can we trust the info they use for the bill. And why do they give fake info for us to use on their website? And why can't the reps see the same info offered to us? They see different information. I'm sure the cost of these new meters are bieng passed on to us the customers. I'm not liking what my money is buying. Sorry if the font on the picture is small I'm lucky to have figured out how to paste it into the blog. I made a comment concerning deadbeats and it seems a few people want to know what a deadbeat is. So here is my opinion on one. A deadbeat is one who constantly takes from the system without contributing. A deadbeat is someone who feels they are owed something for free. A deadbeat is someone who is able to work but chooses not to. A deadbeat can be someone who has a job but doesn't pull his own weight and allows others to carry him. A deadbeat comes in many forms and colors. I'm sure this list could go on. My feelings on health care is everyone should be offered affordable health care. I don't feel people who can afford health care should spend their life without it then when they get sick expect to run out sign up for it. How many people out there can afford health insurance but they choose not to waste their money on it? I'm sorry but you can't tell me illegals won't be covered. They aren't even suppose to have jobs here and they do. They already have ID and stolen SSN's so how can you say they won't be covered under this government plan? I'm sure there will be a thriving business for forged documents for that. I do not agree with a government take over. And say what you want that is where it would go. I was raised to take responsiblity for my own life and not rely on anyone else or blame anyone but me for where I am in life. When I was 2 years old my father who was a truck driver was ran over by a truck. He was sent home from the hospital being told he would never walk again if he even lived. He said he had a family to support and he did walk again. He drove a truck for 20+ more years before he retired. And anyone who has to put another bloggers name in his blog post to get attention is childish and a loser. Now I'm done even commenting on certain peoples blogs because they are a broken record and they like reposting the same blog that was already posted. It seems if you don't have the same point of view they seem to name call and that just takes away from a civil discussion. If you dont agree with them your some misinformed idiot. I received this in an email and found it humorous. It's not meant to piss anyone off. Great Orators of the Democrat Party 'One man with courage makes a majority.'
'In 1929 when the stock market crashed President Roosevelt got right on the Television
Joe Biden (Quoted 2008)
This post isn't about the health care debate but this government trying to railroad private industry and executive compensation of private industry. When will your pay be set by the government? We've heard about limiting salaries of other executives. How is this ok for the government to do this? Executive pay should be up to the stockholders of a company and its board of directors. Requests for financial information issued at a time when Obama's health care proposal is under intense attack from Republicans and other critics, including the health insurance industry. WASHINGTON -- Democrats on a House committee are seeking detailed financial records from dozens of large insurance companies, officials disclosed Tuesday, part of an investigation into "executive compensation and other business practices" in an industry opposed to President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul health care. The request included records relating to compensation of highly paid employees, documents relating to companies' premium income and claims payments, and information on expenses stemming from any event held outside company facilities in the past 2 1/2 years. http://www.foxnews.com/poli...
Yes again we are shown how much better the government can do things. The money that funded cash for glunkers came from the $787,000,000,000 stimulus package. Part of that stimulus money was borrowed from China and other countries. Now when you go purchase a foriegn car (Kia, Toyota, Mazda, etc) doesn't that $4500 end up leaving the country? Do you get where this is going? I'm paying for this? How many offices does a person need? Spam Spam Spam!!!Contact Congressman Kevin McCarthy
I tried to post this article and I'm not sure it came out the best format. The full story can be read at : http://articles.moneycentra... By Jon Markman Imagine becoming so successful at your job that you stack up $2 trillion in income, which you conservatively place in short-term U.S. Treasury bonds for safekeeping. Now imagine that when you try to cash in those bonds to buy a few things for your kids, the clerk at the bank abruptly shuts her window and tells you to go away. That is essentially the situation faced by China these days as it wonders whether its plan to manufacture goods for U.S. consumers over the past two decades in exchange for a pile of credit slips was really such a hot idea. The answer is coming up as a big, fat "uh-oh" as the U.S. deficit and debt obligations balloon to levels never before contemplated, and Beijing is denied requests to buy U.S. and Australian mines and oil properties. And as Beijing leaders talk openly, if obliquely, about their angst, they are unsettling world credit, currency and stock markets, which don't know what to make of the idea that the world's largest This is a good time to assess the chilling possibilities, as the resolution of this pending crisis will afflict investors, workers and business owners alike. What's so Ponzi about the Chinese-U.S. relationship? Basically everything. Look at it this way: After a currency debacle in 1998 left its economy in tatters, Beijing decided to radically restructure its financial relationship with the West. Policymakers pegged the value of China's currency to the dollar, which had the effect of keeping it artificially low. The cheap China didn't need much of anything made in America, so instead of buying cars from Detroit and furniture from North Carolina with its factory profits, it bought Treasury bills. The purchase of all those bills drove down U.S. interest rates. So as middle-class and blue-collar Americans saw their wages stagnate or decline, they discovered they could still keep their old lifestyles by borrowing. Over the past decade, Americans were able to outspend their incomes by easily rolling their debts forward through serial home refinancing. The situation was never ideal, but it worked as long as the value of their collateral -- their homes -- kept rising. As long as China kept buying Fannie Mae ( Was that so bad? Well, now think about this in the context of a Ponzi scheme such as the one perpetrated by disgraced financier Madoff's clients for years thought they were rich because he sent them brokerage statements that said so. But that scheme worked only as long as new money kept coming in. When international money flows seized up last year and too many people wanted to redeem their accounts at once, Madoff's $50 billion game fell apart. Then his victims suddenly discovered that their brokerage statements were worthless pieces of paper. Madoff clients' households crashed, and now one-time millionaires are broke. The reality is that they were always broke; they just didn't know it yet. The credit that has kept American families afloat for the past 10 years is similar to those Madoff-produced brokerage statements. The credit is good only so long as China keeps recycling funds through the Ponzi scheme. But if Beijing leaders ever decide that it's just too risky to own U.S. dollars and debt, then the system is going to come crashing down. Of course, it is not really in China's interest to stop the scheme, even if it wanted to, because its own economy would likewise blow up. Satyajit Das, a credit derivatives expert in Australia, likens this to stepping on one of those land mines that are activated by the weight of a victim's body. As soon as the weight is lifted, the mine explodes, and the person's leg is blown off. China is thus frozen in place, damned if it does and damned if it doesn't. It's a classic "People need to realize that China doesn't actually have any real U.S. money," Das says. "Unless they can turn in their bonds and exchange them for something else, they're only paper assets. Yet if they try to exit the position, they'll destabilize the dollar, and the value of the rest of their assets will plunge. And that's not even their biggest problem. It's that they also need to keep buying Treasurys, or interest rates will go up and their capital losses will be terrible." In short, Das says, Beijing thought it had discovered the perfect scheme for establishing independence from the West, yet it has instead made its dependence worse than ever. And he observes that one unspoken reason that China has gone whole-hog on its massive, $650 billion fiscal stimulus program -- creating more factory capacity in a country that is already reeling from overcapacity -- is that the effort gives it cover to stockpile copper, oil, iron ore and other hard assets that it considers to be better stores of value than dollars. Now here's why this affects all of us: China and the U.S. together built the most monstrous liquidity bubble in world history as each pursued what it believed to be logical self-interest without any regulator, such as a stern global central banker, telling them that they were on a path of mutually assured destruction. Now it's reached the point where global capital markets will impose their own discipline. Because most money generated over the past decade was spent on consumption rather than investment -- it's as if Madoff's clients blew their fake money on chartering jets rather than buying real property as a store of wealth -- there are few new buyers of goods. This has killed U.S. retail sales, crushed employment, lifted the foreclosure rate, stymied homebuilders and undercut loan demand. There are no good solutions. The Chinese need to open their markets and let their currency float on the open market, but they won't for political reasons. And the U.S. needs to either halt its runaway deficit spending so that the world is not even more flooded with our debt, or swallow its pride and issue Treasurys denominated in Chinese currency. That probably won't happen either. Which means there is only one solution left: a long, slow, boring, lonely, soul-crushing process of digging out from under the piles of debt that got us into this mess. You might even say that the bursting of the credit Ponzi scheme has left us all in jail now with Madoff. Let's hope that our sentence is shorter than his. http://articles.moneycentra...
I know there has been heated discussions here on this subject and plenty seem to think the cost is just a drop in the bucket when you look at the big picture. I found this article interesting and the numbers costly. But that is just my opinion.
Illegal immigrants again in the budget spotlight The economic downturn has activists pushing for a measure that would limit the services Californians provide.
By Anna Gorman and Teresa Watanabe
As California lawmakers struggle with a budget gap that has now grown to $26.3 billion, one of the hottest topics for many taxpayers is the cost to the state of illegal immigrants.
The question of whether taxpayers should provide services to illegal residents became a major political issue in California's last deep recession, culminating in the ballot fight over Proposition 187 in 1994. That history could repeat itself in the current downturn, as activists opposed to illegal immigration have launched a campaign for an initiative that would, among other things, cut off welfare payments to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Those children are eligible for welfare benefits because they are U.S. citizens. State welfare officials estimate that cutting off payments to illegal immigrants for their U.S.-born children could save about $640 million annually if it survives legal challenges.
California has roughly 2.7 million illegal residents, according to an April 2009 report from the authoritative Pew Hispanic Center, accounting for about 7% of the state's population. State officials estimate that they add between $4 billion and $6 billion in costs, primarily for prisons and jails, schools and emergency rooms. Beyond those services, the illegal population adds to the overall cost of other parts of local government, from police and fire protection to highway maintenance and libraries. On the other side of the ledger, illegal residents pay taxes -- sales taxes on what they buy, gasoline taxes when they fuel their cars, property taxes if they own homes. The total is hotly debated, although most researchers agree that the short-term costs to state and local government are bigger than the revenues. Many companies that hire illegal workers also withhold Social Security and income taxes from their paychecks, based on workers' invalid Social Security numbers. That money goes mostly to the federal government, not to localities. The Social Security Administration estimates that in 2007, illegal residents nationwide contributed a net of $12 billion to the system.
The largest costs to California's budget from its illegal residents are in three areas: * Education: The state has no official count of how many students are in the country illegally because school districts do not ask. But the state legislative analyst estimated, based on data from the Pew Hispanic Center, that the state's 6.3 million public school students include about 300,000 illegal residents. At an annual cost of about $7,626 each, the total comes to nearly $2.3 billion. * Prisons: In fiscal year 2009-10, California expects to spend about $834 million to incarcerate 19,000 illegal immigrants in the state's prisons. In Los Angeles County, illegal immigrants add between $370 million and $550 million annually to criminal justice costs, including prosecution, defense, probation and jails, according to Supervisor Mike Antonovich.
* Healthcare: The expected state tab for healthcare in fiscal 2009-10 is $703 million for as many as 780,000 illegal immigrants. Of that, $486 million goes to emergency services. But low-income illegal residents are also eligible for some nonemergency health services, including prenatal and postpartum care, abortions, breast and cervical cancer treatment and certain types of long-term care, such as stays in nursing homes. Most of the nonemergency care for illegal immigrants was authorized by the Legislature in the 1980s. Much of those costs are beyond the control of state officials. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that the Constitution forbids school districts to turn away children who are illegal immigrants. And federal law requires emergency rooms to treat everyone, regardless of citizenship. How serious a problem those costs are is a subject of constant debate. "It is a catastrophic hit . . . on every level of government," Antonovich said. State Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego) who heads the Senate budget committee, counters that illegal immigrants are net contributors through their taxes and labor in farming and other industries. Cutting services to illegal residents is "penny wise and pound foolish," Ducheny said. The Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, based in Palo Alto, has analyzed research on the costs of illegal immigration. Most studies show that at least in the short term, illegal immigrants, who tend to be poorer and have more children than average, use more in public services than they contribute in taxes, the center found. But the center's director, Stephen Levy, said some of the long-term effects were positive. Educating illegal immigrant children, for instance, helps them eventually land better jobs and higher salaries, benefiting Californians with increased tax payments and more sophisticated work skills. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said it is wrong to blame illegal immigrants for the state's fiscal problems. He has, however, proposed to limit welfare and nonemergency healthcare for illegal immigrants and their families. So far, the Legislature has rejected his plans. One of the governor's proposals would place a five-year limit on state welfare payments to the U.S.-citizen children of illegal immigrants. That would affect approximately 100,000 U.S.-born children in about 48,000 California households headed by illegal immigrants, who receive a monthly average of $472. The measure could save $77 million annually, according to the governor's office.
Under another proposal, the governor could commute the sentences of some illegal immigrant felons in state prisons and shift them to federal detention centers. It costs the state $48,000 to incarcerate a prisoner, and the federal government reimburses about 12 cents on the dollar, according to state finance officials. The administration estimates that commuting sentences of 8,500 felons, along with other sentencing changes, could save $182 million, although other state analysts question that. State cuts in health services could shift costs to counties, some of which have begun denying treatment to illegal immigrants to close their own budget gaps. "It really is a punt," said Farra Bracht of the Legislative Analyst's Office. "We just keep shoving more and more to the counties. . . . They are the providers of truly last resort." Many state officials have called on the federal government to increase the payments it makes to the state for costs associated with illegal immigrants, because controlling the borders is a federal responsibility. So far, however, Washington lawmakers, faced with large deficits of their own, have not been willing. And others say the nation's humanitarian traditions and long-term interests compel extending a helping hand to people such as Delia Godinez. Godinez, a 43-year-old undocumented Mexican immigrant, left an abusive family and lives in transitional housing. Four of her five children are citizens and receive a total of about $650 each month from the state's CalWorks program. She also receives about $500 in federal food stamps and other vouchers. Without the aid, the unemployed Godinez said, she wouldn't be able to provide for her family. She is studying English and hopes one day to open a business and get off welfare. "I don't want to be my whole life with that help," she said. Many advocates say the ultimate solution is to reduce illegal immigration, not to cut off critical services that could jeopardize public health and safety. "When people come into the U.S., even illegally, they cross more than a physical barrier; they cross a moral barrier," said Steven Camarota of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates immigration restrictions. "We don't like it if someone can't go to the emergency room. That's just our way." anna.gorman@latimes.com Yeppers another round of bonuses to the FAILED insurance giant. Government aid to AIG totals about $180 billion. Maybe Obama should have used the money for his health care program and let this joke of a company fail. I'm sorry but this just makes me sick. I've had perfect credit for years and I've had excellent credit card rates. Now with the new law and because people abused their line of credit along with late payments I am starting to see it effect me. I had fixed rate cards now they seem to be becoming variable with an 11.99% interest rate to start. I've also seen my credit limits drop. They've at least sent letters allowing me to opt out and drop my card. I'm just glad I pay them off monthly or keep low balances. We have become the society of not taking responsibility for ones actions. But thanks to the credit card abusers and our President for the great job.
I'm going to raise you another CZAR!! How many czars does it take to run a country and private business? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id...
This Great Country was built on Independence not Dependence. So take your Universal Health Care and shove it., Balance Medicare and Social Security then come talk to me!!! I'm willing to take care of everyone when you stop spending on bull! Get Nancy P. to give up her perks and I'm on board. What more can I offer! If we are in this together lets do it!!!! Beat That! “You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” The late Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005 I recently viewed a TV commercial from Brighthouse Networks about the phone company charging extra for HD channels. I’m a Brighthouse customer and have the HD box. I noticed there were channels I wasn’t getting ie: Travelchannel HD, Smithsonian HD and a few others. I called Brighthouse and was told that it would cost $6.95 a month. It seems Brighthouse HD channels aren’t all free either. Found this article to be interesting. http://www.express.co.uk/pr... http://business.timesonline... Is this coming to the USA soon? How else can we pay for all these programs and bailouts? This is in response to the very first letter writer in the opinion section titled "Do your tax duty". I want to correct the author of the letter by saying the tea parties were not about people not paying their taxes but their concern on what the money is being used for and the debt being accumulated for generations to come. He also states to pay your taxes and stop whining. Talk about being uneducated and not knowing the FIRST AMENDMENT concerning freedom of speech and the right to assemble. Here again is a perfect example of the liberals and if you don't agree with them you’re not allowed to say anything or if you don't agree with this president you are being racist. I can only assume he thinks our tax dollars should continue to bail out companies to big to fail or continue to become more in debt to 
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