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Okay expect nothing at this space for a few days, as some guy saw fit to ask my littlest sister to marry him.  And I\’m assuming in a drunken coma she said yes, and that happens this weekend.  On the plus side I\’ve spent weekends hunting with the guy and I didn\’t get the urge to shoot him, so I have to assume that means he\’s a pretty decent guy.  So I\’m off to that and with any luck I\’ll survive the weekend.  With even more luck everyone else will too.

Well this is just creepy.  It\’s the video from a sewer snake cam in North Carolina that runs across some very bizarre lifeform.  Watch the video first, then jump below the fold for the answer.

Pretty bizarre right?? Looks like a scene out of Alien yeah, just waiting for that eggs to watch and the screeching critter inside to eat the camera?

Well turns out it has a very terrestrial answer.  They are colonies of Tubifex worms, also called sludge worms or sewer worms, that attach themselves to roots that have worked their way into the pipes.  They are moving because they are responding to the heat of the light on the camera.

Still creepy though huh?

…and already Minnesota\’s newest Senator is proving worthless for looking out for the interests of Minnesotans.

The Senate was considering the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010 (HR 2892) and a number of important amendments were made, several of which have already been voted on, and two of which are coming up on Thursday.  Call your Senators and voice your opinion, especially to Franken whom has already proven to be the least in touch with Minnesotans.

S.Amdt. 1371 was proposed by Senator Sessions, to permanently authorize the E-Verify program that allows employers to verify if their employees are legally able to work in the United States.  In addition it would require all federal contractors to use this tool.  A motion was made to table the amendment, which would effectively kill it.  That motion was defeated 53-44, with Senator Klobuchar voting to save the amendment and Senator Franken voting to kill it. Since the motion to kill it by tabling it failed, it was then voted on by voice and it passed.  This secures the future of an absolutely critical tool in the fight against illegal immigration.

S.Amdt. 1399 was proposed by Senator DeMint, to require the completion of at least 700 miles of reinforced fencing along the southwest border by December 31, 2010.  Granted this is something that was already required but heh, it\’s a start.  DHS is kind of like a small child, if you don\’t keep reminding them to clean up their room it\’ll never happen.  A vote was taken on this amendment and it passed 54-44.  Again Senator Klobuchar voted for border enforcement and Senator Franken voted against it.

These were two important and critical amendments but not all is well yet.  There are at least two very important amendments coming up which need to pass.  Call your Senators and let them know they need to vote for them.

S.Amdt. 1375, being proposed by Senator Vitter removes any barriers to the implementation of the so called \”no match\” rule, which basically lets the Social Security Administration send letters to employees whose personal information does not match the Social Security number they are using.  In some cases these are simple errors, but most of the time they are indicative of identity theft being committed by illegal aliens.  This allows the SSA to let employers know there is a problem so that the problem can be addressed.  This seemingly common sense measure has repeatedly met resistance by those who wish to make identify theft easy for illegal aliens.

S.Amdt. 1415, being proposed by Senator Grassley allows employers to use E-Verify to verify the legal status of all employees, not just new hires.  Under current law, amazingly E-Verify can only be used to check on the work eligibility of new hires, which means thousands of potentially illegal employees may be unchecked.  It doesn\’t require employers to check current employees, it simply gives them the option to do so.  Allowing an employer to go beyond requirements and verify the legality of their workforce seems like a goal that should be encouraged and we should give employers the ability to do so.

Call your Senator today and let them know you want them to vote for both of these critical bills.

Now pretend that Hollywood made a movie for every moronic theme possible.  Yeah, I know they pretty much already do but stick with me here….because I think this would be even beyond Hollywood\’s standards.

And if you watched that and actually wanted to see that movie, YOU are the reason for Hollywood being just awful.

[H/T Cracked]

Ok now that you\’ve had the damn memorial are we done with 24/7 Michael Jackson coverage?? This was ridiculous about 30 seconds before he was dead, much less a week later.  I don\’t wish death upon anyone nor do I mean to disrespect the dead, but let\’s face it, he\’s been a national punchline for the last ten years and nobody cared until after he was dead.  Pretending to care now somehow makes it noble?

Either way, it\’s not worth this much crap.  You had the memorial, can we move onto something important now??

Unemployment is at its highest in a generation, with no peak in sight.  And that’s not including all the folks who, like me, are “underemployed” (in my case, that means being an accounting consultant without a client who has had a generous employer who has continued to pay me and provide benefits….for now).  While job losses mount, there have been few tangible signs of economic growth on the horizon.

How can this be since we’ve “saved” the financial industry and the car companies, “stimulated” the economy, and are now prepared to “reform” health care and “protect mother earth” from the stuff that makes plants grow and soda pop fizzy?

Why the lack of growth?  The simple fact is that economic growth must come from the private economy.  Government can’t make the economy grow.  It may be able to facilitate it with wise policy choices and the signals it sends to the marketplace.  It can inflate an economy with profligate spending and lax monetary policy.   But it can’t create real, sustainable growth.  I know of no historical example to the contrary.

What makes the private economy “do the stuff” to make an economy grow?  It has been famously posited that markets operate on the emotions of fear and greed.  I will add two more: confidence and optimism.  These two are in short supply in the economy right now. 

One cause is that those with money to invest in activities that might grow the economy are sitting on the sidelines.   One report describes over $400B in private equity capital that is univested.   

I would offer that the reasons for this, rather than some hangover from the Bush administration, lie squarely on the policy choices made and proposed by the Obama administration. 

 If you were a decision-maker for a firm with major international operations, would you confidently make investments with Obama’s plan to remove the deferral of taxes on foreign profits, essentially subjecting these profits to double corporate taxation- both in the U.S. and host country?  Nope, your capital is probably staying on the sidelines, and with it the fact that growth in international jobs by U.S. companies also tends to grow U.S.-based jobs for those companies  

 If you’re the owner of a small business, would you feel optimistic enough about future growth to hire more people? Especially considering:           

• You have an income tax increase looming, not only from the reversal of the Bush tax cuts, but from all of the proposals to tax “high incomes”.  Never mind the fact that your “high income” may very well be pass-through profits from your business (organized as an S-corp., etc.) that don’t result in cash in your pocket today.  The tax increase is nothing more than skimming away the capital you might use to re-invest in your business. 
• You are facing a potential huge increase in energy costs due to the Cap & Tax energy legislation. 
• You are concerned about your workforce being strong-armed into unionization through the removal of the secret ballot to certify unions. 

 It’s easy to see why these businesses aren’t in a hiring frenzy.

 If your company is involved in health care, would you have the confidence and optimism to be making big investments now with pending legislation that looks to many like a back-door nationalization of the health care system?      Nope, you’re waiting and hoping the threat of Medicare-like price controls on your product or service will not come to pass. 

 These are just three examples for many as to why Obama’s policies are exactly what is holding the economy back.  He is either unaware of how economic growth is created, or worse, doesn’t care.  Perhaps, in making the omelet of a more Hopey and Changey America, a few million jobless are simply the eggs that need to be cracked.

Just to introduce myself, I am the \”guy in the corner\” Kevin described in a post a week or so ago. 

I followed with a longish post about Cap & Tax, but didn\’t introduce myself.

My political claim to fame is that I am a mid-level Republican Party apparatchik in the greater Rosemount area.  I acknowledge that this is fame on par with the guy who works the express checkout at Target, but it does make me a popular phone-conversation-buddy of GOP gubernatorial candidates.

My professional background is as an accounting and finance consultant.  I\’m a CPA and MBA.  Business has been weak this year (Hire Me!), so in my underemployment I\’ve decided to do some blogging.

My biggest interest area, from my financial background, are economics and taxation issues.  This probably compliments Kevin\’s favorite axes of Immigration and 2nd Amendment .

And, for the record, I have yet to meet Drunk Guy.

A wonderful July Fourth weekend, with only one person needing to visit the hospital and one minor vehicular accident.  By our standards that\’s a complete success.

The troop pullout from Iraq begins…and nobody is reporting on it.

So where are all those \”green jobs\” Obama kept promising would lift us out of this depression?? Even the AP is curious.

Remember back when signing statements were documented proof of how evil President Bush was and Obama righteously declared he\’d never use them. Fast forward to today where Obama has already issued six of them. Hypocrite much?

FINALLY…the cellphone industry has come up with a standard charger. It\’s been pretty much a universal rule that whenever you leave your charger behind, nobody else within a 100 mile radius will have the same type of phone. Guaranteed.

How McDonald\’s conquered France…um, no offense but isn\’t that like bragging that you put your pants on by yourself this morning?

FireFox 3.5 is out and it\’s apparently a huge improvement over past versions. I\’ve been a Firefox user for awhile, but lately it\’s been mostly out of stubborness. Although to be honest, it would be hard to leave the billions in add-ons behind. Especially in the last few months the browser has become bloated, slow and buggy…basically it\’s become Internet Exploder. The Firefox 3.5 reportedly fixes all of that and returns it to it\’s roots.

Theoretically Africa alone could feed the entire world. I don\’t doubt that\’s true for a second, but I think you\’ll find that the effort to salvage agriculturally sound land will be miniscule compared to the efforts needed to remove the corruption and greed in African governments. Because if you don\’t get rid of the latter the former is worthless because the distribution system would be so problematic you\’d have entire crops rotting on shipping docks.

Just when you thought they couldn\’t do any worse, the Iranian mullahs prove exactly how inept they are at rigging an election.

Support for Sotomayor falling. Nothing like your future colleagues telling you you\’re way off to put a dent in the resume.

Back when Bush was President we kept hearing about how he was going to declare a dictatorship or cancel the election.  It was stupid then and it\’s stupid now.  Which is why it\’s sad to see Rush engaging in the same claims about Obama.

Ok now we should really be worried.  Obama thinks California is what we should use as a model for our economy.  Considering California is broke and has had higher unemployment than the national average, I think they are a good example of what NOT to do.  But then again, he won.

Fox News continues to absolutely dominate other networks in the ratings. Wonder why that could be.

According to California Democrats, dissent is now the equivalent of terrorism.  If you call your legislator and let them know what you think, you\’re damn near Osama Bin Laden

The Obama Administration actually argued, in court, that they shouldn\’t have to release any information that could potentially embarrass the administration.  Actually that might work out well for us.  Does that mean we never have to hear from Obama or Biden again???

Democrats exhibiting a political version of Munchausen By Proxy syndrome??

ACORN is changing it\’s named to \”Community Organizations International\”, since the old name is too tarnished by scandal……um, yeah, because the name was the problem.

Another reason vegans suck.

Some often repeated myths about the US health care system.

Hmmm, not all is right in Camelot…the press dared challenge Gibbs.  In other news, Lucifer seen shopping for a parka.

Obama has adopted another Bush policy….indefinite detention of terrorist suspects.

No rules of engagement in Afghanistan….no fighting near homes.  Doesn\’t that pretty much guarantee that the Taliban are just going to park their ass in an Afghan home and snipe at any American troops going by?