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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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High-minded foreign & domestic events criticism, deep philosophical meditations, and increasingly drunk and vulgar renditions of Freebird.
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18 comments:
I think Congress has a lot of gall to take any pay raise, period.
Maybe a solution for the USA (and Congress)??
The Chinese have the answer to our problem.
SINO DAILY
+ Chinese executive sentenced to death for corruption:
Beijing (AFP) Dec 29, 2008 - An executive at a major Chinese mining company was sentenced to death for taking bribes and embezzling more than 10 million dollars, state media reported Monday. Yu Weiping, deputy manager of Yunnan Copper Group, took bribes of more than 4 million dollars, and embezzled over 41 million yuan (6 million dollars), the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Color me petty but heh, I seem to remember that with the gas prices skyrocketing at the pumps, we were all forced to see groceries, homebuilding materials and just about everything rolling down the pummeled with not just cost upcharges but with 'temporary' surcharges tacked onto the delivery bills.
Sooooo, with gas prices down to the Texas dirt, I'm not seeing any reflection of that anywhere, in fact just got a load of hay with the surcharge still tacked on.
Kind of a catch 22 with the economy where it's at but still, we're all in this together.
Mainsailset, it is my experience that prices/surcharges never come down once they are increased, at least not to the price prior to the increase.
In St. Louis, we supposingly are not taxed on food and medicines. So, all they did was come up with a new and we are still taxed on both items. What a Country!
Should read: In St. Louis, we supposingly are not taxed on food and medicines. So, all they did was come up with a new tax and we are still taxed on both items. What a Country!
The difference here is that the 'temporary gas surcharge' we got nailed with was a separate line item on your delivery bill. It ran from $15 to $50 that I saw.
Because it's called out 'temporary gas surcharge' I don't see how these guys can get away with still charging it out.
mainsailset, UPS sure hasn't stopped charging it. And this was the crappiest year for delivering xmas prezzies ever. They've gone from being the better of the two to being just as crappy as FedEx.
IMO, it was a total profit deal, raising the price of oil over and over during the last 8 years, and they crashed it back down so that people won't want so badly to invest in alternatives (more likely under Dems, as they know.) Fuckers. It was no accident. It was planned. Even the crash, I think, though now they're scrambling because there might be a new new deal, and that scares the shit out of the wealthy.
UPS sure hasn't stopped charging it... They've gone from being the better of the two to being just as crappy as FedEx.
Judith, I'm biased... UPS is still better than FedEx. UPS is a Teamster Union shop. My wife who works for Yellow Worldwide (used to be Yellow/Roadway) is a Teamster. I'll never support a non-Union shop. They are killing America.
But I will give FedEx some credit, they are a decent company. The problem is no Union protection for the worker... wages and their healthcare is not the best. You get sick at FedEx you're out the frikkin' door, quick.
My wife's trucking company has adjusted their pricing to coincide with fuel charges but I'm sure UPS is going for profit now after some lean times.
We are still waiting for Christmas presents from UPS.
I had ordered second day from Amazon. Amazon did their part and the stuff was sitting at UPS warehouse about 8-10 miles from us, on the 23rd. They were supposed to be here the 24th and were "in transit" for delivery on the 24th all the way until about 10 pm on the 24th when the UPS website changed scheduled delivery to the 26th....then they kept changing it.
We got a couple of the packages yesterday...still not all of it though.
The items that I had ordered media mail via USPS arrived on Monday and Tuesday - long before the second day air.
Amazon refunded my shipping yesterday - they were excellent and easy to deal with.
I feel really sorry for the UPS drivers though. Last night, when they delivered, they were running and they had their truck packed all the way into the front windows where they were sitting. They cannot return to the warehouse until it is empty.
The FedEx guy who came to my office yesterday said that he was expected to make 500 stops that day - UPS is just as bad or worse. As I said, at 5 pm they had a packed full truck and were expected to deliver it before coming back to the warehouse.
I feel a little bad about calling Amazon and bitching about them - but damn, the stuff was supposed to be under the tree. Most of it was from Santa, so Santa was kind of lame this year. (My kid knows that Santa is us, but he plays along with me for my benefit and I continue to pretend just as I did when he was little - I wonder how his girlfriends will deal with it?)
Well, when you plan is to get the gas prices up high, you create a crisis, up the price, and the rest is history. Of course it was a set-up. Cheney promised his fellow conspirators that they would make profits unheard of during the Bush Administration. Guess what. They did.
Oops Seven of Six, I think you meant Iamcoyote.
Anjha, I just found out that there are trailers full of packages in both Seattle and Portland that never got delivered because of the weather and the airlines not being able to fly. Now they're trying to catch up. We were told that only air packages will ship today, which is unusual, so I guess that's how they're fitting in the rest of the stuff. During the storm, I had to help dig out a UPS truck in my neighborhood that had gotten stuck. And it had chains. I gave 'em some cookies, too, cos they looked so frazzled.
I gave 'em some cookies, too, cos they looked so frazzled.
I had boxes of cookies all ready to give to them; but they never showed up so I gave them away to other folks.
Now I am thinking that I should put together some cookies for them because they were so stressed out last night. The poor guys.
The FedEx guy came this morning and dropped one of the packages and he was out in his truck turning the corner before I could even get my front door open.
He did see me waving and thanking - but my guess is that they are so tired of getting yelled at that they are just dropping and running so as to avoid the people.
If I am to give him some cookies I need to be watching, waiting and quick on the draw. The poor guys.
Oh and hey - they are not really going to go ahead with their pay raise are they?
They had better hear from us on this one.
I know that there are a few Congress Critters, Feingold is one of them, who do NOT take their pay increases. Feingold only takes his increase when he is re-elected, then he takes the one that is given in the year of his re-election because that is the one that the voters have a say in.
Damn I love Russ Feingold. I wonder why he was not given a job in the Administration...my guess is that it was for the very reason that Feingold said that he would not run for President; that he is needed in the Senate to usher through Progressive legislation.
We need Russ to be Majority Leader... like yeserday!
And your right Anjha, AZ's congressmen Harry Mitchell didn't take his raise last year, gave it to a Veterans organization.
No refunds from Yellow, Act of God folks... just the way the agreements are written.
You guys got hammered this year... heard on the news that it was the worst snowfall in the Seattle area since 1950 (or 1940?).
Oops, your right Judith, I didn't even look at the signature.
Anjha, you are not alone in loving Russ Feingold. I also think your right. He is needed in the Senate, and wants to stay in the Senate.
I once sent a contribution to his Campaign Headquarters for re-election. I received a nice letter from him with the check inside saying that although he would like to accept the check, he could not in good conscious, as it was not sent to the proper address. Bet Feingold sleeps well at night.
"We need Russ to be Majority Leader... like yeserday!"
Like we need to encourage Fiengold to consider the position when Ried is finally ousted in 2010 (and he will be ousted).
No refunds from Yellow, Act of God folks... just the way the agreements are written.
You are right - on UPS website they had announced the bad weather no guarantee, blah, blah, blahtity, blah...
However, Amazon refunded my shipping.
I am so impressed with Amazon.com and how they have handled everything. I do not think that there is a need to ever go to an actual physical store ever again.
Only some groceries now and again. I love my Safeway and they are within walking distance. I have really set up my life so that there is no need to ever leave my house. I love it here. I really do. Now I just have to figure out how we can keep it.
Anjha, you have done exactly what I have done. Eleven years ago, when I knew I was going to retire, I decided I need a cute little bungalow in a nice neighborhood. I found one, and got it for very little back in 1997. The object was to have low mortgage payments, so that when I retired I wasn't strapped with a huge house payment.
Then I took early retirement, paid off all debts (of which there were few), and scaled back my spending. In reality, there is nothing I need and very little I want (except a new patio).
Most everything I need is within a bike ride of where I live. I am very content, as I do not worry about paying my bills and have a little in reserve.
I too love my little house. It was built in 1940 with a lot of art deco sort of enhancements, and stained art glass windows in every room, but the kitchen. Because it was a one bedroom home, I had the attic turned into another bedroom. Best part, the house is five blocks from a great park. Life is good.
Now, if I could only stop
smoking.
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