iwishiwascool

Right... The irony of Tim's chart is that it is hosted on the Republican Senate's page. I think anyone who actually follows the gears of the economy knows that it is up to Congress to create the legislation to enact austerity and cut taxes (because that works!) or create stimulus/Job creation through capital injection. The republicans have been too busy pushing social issues after they realized that fixing the economy is hard work. Way to use that 2010 "mandate".

I'd agree if the trajectory weren't heading in a positive direction. It did not happen as fast as anyone would hope and who knows, maybe the old Mitt could have made it happen faster but there is a new reality.... He is facing pressures from Norquist and all the Special Interests he is pandering to say things like "We are going to lower taxes 20% across the board"; Followed by: "Don't worry about the math". He has had to cave and reverse course on social issues which I will never agree with. He is the product of the collective know-nothings who are married to ideology rather than realistic solutions. I'd rather have a pragmatist who may work slower but have a better end result than a blowhard puppet whose frenetic energy would quite possibly blow up the gains that have been made.

That's a complex problem, far more so than just saying "bring [manufacturing] jobs back". In a global economy, labor costs are a function of profitability. The only way to bring those jobs "back" is to either lower the cost of labor here or increase the cost to business who offshore labor costs. The former is obviously not an option (I'd argue that the Koch Brothers don't think so) and the latter is would be isolationist government oversight and violate every free-trade treaty we have. Prices for the rest of our imported goods would skyrocket. The only real solution is to innovate and create a new economy. Big businesses are lumbering and slow while start-ups, despite a high fail rate, often are the catalysts. So how do we encourage innovation and small businesses? Encourage investment capital to specific types of businesses. I am fine with increasing capital gain taxes on investments made outside of these types of innovators, Obama needs to take a hard look before pulling the trigger on increasing all capital gains.

Dude, your arguments before were at least well researched and reasoned. Now you are just starting to sound like every other pundit. Your referenced quote is truncated. Here is the full version: So in light of the actual facts that I put forth that shows that, if anything, Barney only showed for-profit private equity that the poor could be profitable and they did it on their own, you completely dismiss the realities that the elimination of certain SEC regulations, the uptick being arguably even less important than Glass-Steagall. I'll admit that there were a calamity of errors that went into the boom and bust of the aughts... I'll admit that Democrats share responsibility. If you ignore the reality that the economy is a complex machine and truly believe this black/white rhetoric you are spouting, Tim; you are no better than the simple people you think you are better than.

Again no time... You do realize that only one of the top 25 subprime mortgage lenders was subject to affordable housing laws... Right? 84% were funded by private lenders. So Barney Frank is culpable, right up until you look at the actual numbers.

I don't have time to get into this today, but I know all the revisionist arguments. Ive, in fact, read Michael Lind's book that inspired the GOP talking points. It's easily discredited. I'll just pose this little nugget... The people who discredit he 90s boom and assign blame for our lost decade to Clinton are the same people who disparage Obama for blaming Bush. Makes sense.

This article is called: Do you know the difference between CPI and Inflation You should read it. Additionally, Gas is a global commodity. If you think the president, congress, or any US citizen has control over it, you need more than the schooling I am giving you now. Increases in food prices are a direct result of actuarial and speculative adjustments based on the massive drought happening across the country. Fact. What's more... Here is the CPI (including gas and food) over the last 30 years: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/cpiw.gif Show me again where the big bad Obama exponential increase starts? Oh, the vector would actually be higher had it not gone down (as a result of decreased fuel demand) during his watch (no fault of his own).... gotcha. Put your fucking spoon away, this is a gunfight.

Inflation is at 1.7% it was 4.1% in 2007. What's more, are you talking about the supposed impact of quantitative easing? The action taken by the independent Federal Reserve who has complete autonomy from the presidency?? Tell me more about how much you know.

Get off your high horse. You took your mortgage, college interest and whatever other deductions are available to you. That is a government subsidy through the tax code. Tell us one tax increase that has taken effect to prove your Obama "give away" theory. Side note: The "Obama Phone" was a program started by Regan when Republicans fought a war against poverty... not poor people.

Because it is disingenuous at best and an egregious misunderstanding of his own figures at best. Most seniors holding their Romney signs would disagree that they are reliant on the government but that is a full half of the 46.2% Romney cited as "Never going to vote for him". Additionally 32 percent of those making less than $30,000 and 42 percent of those making between $30,000 and $50,000 support Romney, since 61% of those in the 46.2% made between 10k-30k and seniors tend to skew R, writing off the "47%" that "will never vote for him" I don't think anyone has a problem addressing the welfare queen trope, the reality is that reaction is tempered to the proportion of the problem it represents. Corporate bailouts and subsidies represent nearly 100% more of the budget than social welfare programs.

I'm laying low for the next six months or so. I gave him the thumbs up on it. I know he has the Sapphire card, not sure what else he carries.

I've used high rise/base camp and one specifically for recruiting called SendOuts (which was awesome). The thing I love most is the Arrowpointe Geopointe app which allows me to create routes for my F2F B2B calls. Since I work in multiple different industries all over the country (and now Canada) it's allowed me to maximize the effectiveness of my trips. I can even plot hotels (the ones that maximize my points) on the map to include in the routes.

I'm using Group edition.

I think you part about catering to those who want hand-outs is inaccurate; I personally know many millionaire democrats. There are a small segment of people (as Drudge found yesterday) that believe in the hand-out culture but they are a clear minority. Welfare fraud is committed exponentially more by the well-off providers than by recipients. I believe that in your Romney scenario, having a safety net allows for those risks to be taken, for the Romney/Ryan plan to cut taxes while decreasing the deficit to take place, those safety nets would need to be decimated. I don't think that is the answer. That's not the point. I think you are right in your last statement, and that is where I was going with this. I met with a simple blue collar guy a few months back who explained it this way: People in cities see government everywhere they look, they need it or the structure that holds the civility together would fall apart. People in the country rarely see government and are quite content handling shit on their own. I thought that was an unexpectedly thought provoking moment that gives insight to the foundations where fundamental beliefs start being built. Everything else branches off from there.

I use salesforce for all of my companies and where I once hated it, now I can't live without it. But I need to add a widget or figure out how to do something: I need to track and be able to run reports on gifting (Gift cards, dinners, tickets, etc.) I need to be able to track profitability of these gifts by contact and account over time. Any ideas?

One of my clients is interested in this now. He already has a million plus miles from spending and flying but wants more. He got this offer, thoughts? http://img.ed4.net/airtran/2012/0927_AP/title_1.jpg

What is it about CR demographic that skews it so far right? These results are more in line with what one would see here in Alabama, not Franklin County, Oh.

I was wrong about it. I blame the cocktail.

Leaving the baby home will be our issue too. Luckily my in-laws are awesome and should be comfortable with a week by that time.

Talk to DJ. He does this for a living.

True, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency resort last time I was in Hawaii, I can't imagine downgrading so far as to stay at a Holiday Inn. Not to mention, Oahu kinda sucks and they have nothing on Maui or Kauai.

I'll be on the road 4 nights a week until Christmas then 3-4 nights per week after the new year. All of my travel expenses are reimbursed by my company (which is one of 3 that I rep). The problem is that I drive almost anywhere so FF miles will be harder to rack up. All we really need are two coach tickets to Paris anyway so I think well be able to get there with the Sapphire card spending and whatever the next big AA miles giveaway card might be.

Yeah I totally have that card, and I did use the 80,000 flyer talk link not the 60k that I thought in my second post. I've found it to be a great card so far. We still use the sapphire card for day to day and monthly bill pays but for gas and dining (especially at their program restaurants) it's hard to beat.

Good call! I'm checking. Edit: You are totally right....

So I buy gift cards for clients that order steel from me, or others that are likely to (The south is a good old boy network and nothing gets you in better than cash money). I just found this on the Priority Rewards Center: http://www.priorityclub.com/rewards/us/en/redeem/details/gift-cards/GC025 11k points per gift card of which I buy 3 or so of per week. Jackpot. I'll have hotel stays for a year soon.