LoneStarLivin's Blog

So, I occasionally play the Texas Lottery - and I mean the Texas one, not the Mega Millions one.   By occassionally, I mean probably five times a year I will plunk down my dollar.  Only a dollar.  If I am 'meant' to win, then it only takes that one dollar.

Why do I waste my five dollars?  Well, 5 times a year I get to spend a couple of days thinking about all the things I could do with a couple of million dollars.

I will not play the Mega Millions though, no matter the jackpot.  Why?  Because, at least with the Texas lottery, I know my waste of a dollar stays in the state.  With the other lottery, multiple states share the revenue (although I am not sure how the agreement is structured on sharing).

Mr. Perry, bless his heart, has now floated the idea of selling the Texas Lottery to a private company - the most likely bidders are from Europe.  In that case, the company pays $12 billion up front and they get to keep all the revenue from ticket sales.  Well, that certainly would violate my 'only waste a dollar if it stays in Texas' rule.  Lottery story here.

Mr. Perry has all but sold parts of Texas highways to foreign companies too.  A stretch of the 121 tollway in Collin county was slated to be turned over to a Spainish company, letting them charge whatever tolls they wanted - forecasted to be twice that of the NTTA managed tollroads.  Tollway story here.

At the last minute however, that is being reviewed.  Hopefully, Mr. Perry won't sell off too many other assets.  Wouldn't it be ironic if a Mexican company ran the Alamo!

Did you know a good chunk of your massive property tax bill goes to subsidize foreign citizens education?

I was enrolled in a full time MBA program that was limited in nature, which means some folks who apply, even with good scores would not be admitted.

This particular program however, unofficially reserved one half of the seats for foreigners.  So home grown folks from Texas, who paid for this program with tax dollars, were turned away in favor of foreign citizens.

You might say, 'well, since they are not residents they will pay the higher out-of-state tuition rate, so we make money on them'.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  A little known rule states that if a student received ANY aid from the college, they automatically qualify for the lower in state tuition.  So this program director, besides filling half the program with foreigners, mostly from her own home country, also made sure most of them received some type of aid. 

So not only does this public university unduly favor foreigners at the expense of Texans, they frequently hand out Texas tax dollars to these foreigners, and then charge them lower rates than residents of other states would pay to attend.

And you wonder why tuition in Texas keeps going up for your children and grandchildren....

Some folks seem to be jumping up and down over some islands in the South Pacific who report they are losing land.  Tuvalu claims it will cease to exist as a nation within 50 years due to global warming and the rising sea level.  (http://www.sydhav.no/terje/tuvalu-e.htm)

But when the Solomon Islands gained land area recently after an earthquake, they jump and down and complain too.  (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070407/wl_afp/solomonsq
uakeisland_070407125221)

If Tuvalu losing 2 meters is bad, then shouldn't the Solomon's gaining 10 meters be good?

Full-time liberal Russ Feingold recently condemned Americans for being uncomfortable over Muslim appearing men.  These imams, wearing robes, sashes, and what not, were kneeling in the aisle of a plane and praying prior to take off.  (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-01-29-air
line-security-profiling_x.htm)

Russ thinks it is unconscionable for an American to be nervous around a Muslim, and think people should refrain from racial profiling.  According to Russ, you and I should be just as nervous around a white haired grandma as we should a robe dressed Muslim.

Seems to me, if a bluebird had swooped down and pecked me on the head once, and then came back a few more times after that, I might be a bit nervous walking under a tree full of bluebirds.  Whereas if I had never been accosted before by, say a sparrow, then I would have no objection to lounging near a tree full of those.

Of course, when it comes to higher education in his home state, Russ is all FOR racial profiling.  He is a staunch supporter of the universities of Wisconsin and elsewhere to pick out people based on race and treat them differently.

So to recap Mr. Feingold's beliefs:

• Preventing drug importing, illegal immigration, or terrorism: racial profiling bad!
• To enroll in English, algebra, or accounting: racial profiling good!

So, the first quarter results came in, and a whooping $130 million was raised by people who want to make the United States a better place. (80m for dems/50m for repubs) (http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Apr05/0,4670,ObamaMo
ney,00.html)

Now, since all these people want to help so much, let's see what they can do. I will be picking on the dems mostly, since they are the most vocal about how much help we should be giving, but they don't seem to put their money where their mouth is.

Mrs. Bill Clinton lead the pack with $26m and one of her most vocal "oh the injustice" cries (well recently), is the recently hot button topic of subprime mortgages. If Mrs. C were really concerned about the plight of homeowners losing their homes, what would happen if she contributed just half of her liberal-gotten-gains to help the afore mentioned unfortunates?

• Assuming a US average monthly payment: $1,200
• Assuming foreclosure threatened delinquency of 4 months
• Average amount needed to save a home: $4,800
• Number of homes Mrs. C could save with $13m: 2,708

Mr. Obama, with his $25m in liberal-gotten-gains, recently championed universal health care. The premium for my basic health care coverage is $78 per month. (non employer funded) With just half of his funds, Mr. O could provide over 160,000 individuals with basic health care coverage.

Mr. Edward's more modest haul of $14m would of course be applied to his pet project of repopulating Louisiana. Louisiana has a median home price of $88,000. By donating just one-half of his liberal-gotten-gains, Mr. Edwards could allow roughly 80 families to emigrate back to Louisiania. (http://local.reply.com/real-estate/louisiana.html#hom
es)

For the conservation side of the bench, I suggest they pool their funds, and donate half (25m) to the families of members of our military killed in the line of duty - providing $7,500 to each family. (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualti
es/)

The point of this little item is that the projections for spending on the 2008 presidential race is north of $2 billion. That's alot of money to waste to get a $400,000 job and instead of wasting all that money on junk mail, postage, and temporary ads, these self proclaimed advocates could do some material good for many, many people. .

Some call them "Anchor Babies" or the process "Squat and Drop". Mexican women heading across the border to create a citizen.

Unfortunately, many immigration judges are allowing this "anchor" to keep the illegal woman in the country, reasoning they are not allowed to deport the anchor baby, and it would be "unreasonable" to eject the parent, thus orphaning the child.

A group in southern California is sending out dvd's to illegals encouraging the women to lie and say they are breast feeding a baby in order to avoid arrest.

That is why the first step in immigration reform should be no more automatic citizenship. If the mother is illegal, so is the offspring.

Write your senator and representative and encourage them to not allow illegals to produce anchor babies.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/s
enators_cfm.cfm