Long Haul Trucking

The election is over and America in its infinite wisdom has chosen the candidate that promised them the most stuff. We survived Carter’s debacle and Clinton started with a Democratic majority in Congress, went too far and the Democrats lost their majority. Hopefully, the same thing will happen this time and in two years the Republicans will find their conservative soul and a backbone so we will at least have some checks and balances.

Life on the Road has been offline since Friday. I’ve been lobbying to get more control and the longer it’s down, the better my chances are of getting total control. I’m just a truck driver, but even I know about backups and redundancy. I’ve already offered space on this server with a current backup, I’m not sure of the exact details of the outage yet, so I’m not sure why they can’t restore the site on my server.

I’m also in the middle of decision of my own. I’m seriously investigating another company to work for. The money maybe a little less, but it might be more consistent. I will have to find a place to store the trailer until it’s sold and I may be gone more but the company I’m with now, hasn’t been a trucking company for a long time. It changed into a warehouse and a brokerage that happens to have a few trucks. I’ve made good money and even last month, with almost 50% of my total miles being empty, the loaded miles were really good and made up for it.

The new company will be more like Graebel, that pays a rate per mile with a fuel surcharge, with strict detention and layover rules. It will mean going to Canada and more New York City but the one driver I know over there seems to really like it. Maybe it’s just time for a change.

While Life on the Road is having technical difficulties and everyone is watching the country go you know where in a handbasket, watch the last of John, Sarah (Tina) and an appearance by Cindy McCain on Saturday Night Live. Which is actually pretty funny. Someone get me one of those Palin 2012 t-shirts!

If by some electoral miracle, John and Sarah do win the White House, when the dust settles after all the rioting in the streets, this White House will probably do more to encourage people to service only because of their examples. All the charity work that Cindy McCain really does instead of the 1 or 2 percent Obama-Biden give to charity, the military service of John McCain and even the example of a regular mom getting involved in political service. I would rather be led by example than told what to do by someone that makes a teleprompter sound like a sermon. But that’s just me.

Have we hit rock bottom yet? Probably not. The price of oil is dropping, so that’s good right? Not so much. The price of gas is still high and businesses still can’t get the credit or don’t want to invest in any more equipment or people or anything else. If no one buys stuff, there’s no reason to ship that stuff no one is buying. Plus if oil drops, everyone will forget and lose sight of becoming energy independent, like we always do. What’s the point of investing in new technology, new drilling or anything else, when oil’s so cheap? Remember when diesel was over $4.50? Huh? What? When? Britney’s sister is pregnant again? That was just a freak thing that happened, it will never happen again.

Florida is tough for me to get out of with a load on a good day. I thought there were a couple of things lined up, but they fell through. Normal stuff. The truck stop is almost full even in the middle of the day, not good. I’ve noticed a few trucks (moving style trailers like mine) that were already here when I got here and they’re still here, not good.

Is the election over yet?

I can’t listen to any more news. McCain is struggling and it doesn’t look good. I just want to point out a few things: The economy didn’t fall on its butt until this last year. The seven years Bush was in office were actually pretty good, even with the war going on. I keep hearing how there are people in Congress that don’t know how we got here. Figures, since they were the ones that put us here and in their arrogance they can’t see that putting their fingers in the market screwed it up. You would think they would know how to fix it, since they’re the ones that broke it. Admitting you have a problem is the first step in fixing your problem. Or something like that. That’s not going to happen with the arrogance in this Congress.

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After unloading near Miami, FL and heading back north, the southbound interstate 95 was shut down. Cops were blocking the onramps and more troopers were blocking the southbound lanes. Obama is in the area. I’m sure it’s for security, but my only thought was that he doesn’t want to be on the same interstate as the unwashed masses. Even if I was voting for him, I couldn’t take the arrogance of the man. From the Presidential seal modification, the Greek columns at the convention and now he’s planning his victory party with Iranian caviar. Isn’t there a trade embargo with Iran? Maybe it doesn’t include the cavier.

And now with Joe the plumber. I thought the democratic party was pro working man. Aren’t they supposed to be the compassionate ones? Aren’t they the party that wants everyone to be included? Since he’s not in the union, he’s not relevant to them. Since he wants to better himself instead of remaining elbow deep in other people’s feces, his questions don’t count. Since he’s a registered Republican he’s not relevant and not supposed to speak to the anointed one. I wrote a Joe the Plumber post over on Life on the Road you can check out.

Since we are registered as “unaffiliated”, I get calls from both sides. I always give different answers on surveys, so don’t believe any polls you hear about, especially about the Nevada candidates. I had one democrat caller say they wanted to talk about the issues, but they asked if I was supporting Obama, I said, “probably not”. They didn’t want to discuss the issues anymore and hung up. I want them to convince me to vote for their guy. I’m not talking about the survey takers, that’s different, this was clearly a party volunteer. One time I was asked if I was supporting Obama and I answered, “Hell, yeah! I want him to take ALL my money, not just some of it.” They hung up too.

Speaking of voting, I’m filling out my absentee ballot after dinner tonight. I would take it in to the restaurant, but don’t want gravy falling on the Obama box by mistake. I’ve still got plenty of homework to do and I need to check with CSN and see how I did on my english placement test. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if I had to take a remedial class to get to a college freshman english class? How is someone going to tell if I need a remedial english class from one page of an essay? Just looking at this site, there are probably plenty of reasons I should be in remedial english. Nevermind. Math, that’s a different story. I know I’m going to be in the pre-math class, I’m not even worried about that yet.

Probably not. I’ve heard this a few other places that Obama’s Honolulu birth certificate looks a little suspect and his time out of the country, there is an issue with his citizenship. I never realized the Annenberg at factcheck.org is the same Annenberg project in Chicago that Obama’s was connected to. If they were the same you would think someone would have brought that up somewhere by now.

I’ve been home for about a week now. The truck went in the shop for a minor fix, then I took the truck to have the APU fixed. That APU thing has been in the shop so much I’m not sure it’s saved me money or not. It’s always something different. If it goes out again, I may not fix it. It’s nice to have because that’s the only way I have right now to make the microwave work. I need it to watch TV, but I haven’t watched TV in the truck for a long time now and when I do, it’s usually a DVD of a CSI rerun.

RTC Southern Nevada

The mass transit system in Vegas is great. You can take a bus just about anywhere in the metro area. It’s $1.25 to ride one way or $2.50 for a 24 hour pass, as many transfers and any direction for 24 hours. It’s a great bargain. I rode to the shop, picked up the truck, took it to the APU shop, back to the house, then to my dentist appointment the next day. I was in the dentist for so long it was past 24 hours, so I walked home. All buses have bike racks and it takes two seconds to put your bike up or take it down. The website for the bus system has a routing program, you put in your origination, destination and the time of day and it gives you three options. All with times and walking distance and a very detailed map and trip info. It really is pretty cool. And since Vegas is a 24 hour town, a lot of the buses have 24 hour schedules. Those aren’t for the tourists, they’re for the casino workers and everyone else that works the night shifts.

The Bailout Mess

What else have we done? I’ve listened to way too much news. The so-called bailout that wasn’t really a bailout was probably necessary, but all of the extra junk that they put in the bill probably wasn’t. Everyone says they want to fix the problem and not place blame. I would feel a lot better if an investigation was done and people went to jail. Why is this different from Enron? People are losing their retirements and 401k’s just like Enron. Enron lied about their books while the executives were spending shareholder money. People went to jail. In this mortgage security fiasco, people need to go to jail. Maxine Waters, Barney Franks and Chris Dodd would be a good start.

Everyone has seen this video right? The democrats yelling at the regulators trying to tell them Fannie and Freddie are cooking their books, while the democrats are saying there’s nothing wrong.

Chris Dodd on the bank and finance committe getting the most money from Fannie and Freddie? What’s up with that?

What about ACORN?

While we’re throwing people in jail, how about the people at ACORN? And wasn’t Barack Obama training ACORN community organizers and telling them how to intimidate banks with racism if they didn’t make loans to people that couldn’t afford to pay them back? And no one knows who’s fault this is? They can’t have an investigation because it would be like a bunch of foxes trying to determine which one of them raided the hen house when they all did it at the same time they’re all denying it.

ACORN gets raided in Nevada for voter fraud? What a surprise? They actually investigated and raided ACORN’s office. ACORN will have so much power when Obama gets in office they will do anything it takes to get him in office. Did you know in Ohio, when you register to vote, you can place your vote. So if you just make up a name when you register, they can’t check and see if your even eligible to vote until much, much later. If at all. ACORN is working BIG TIME in OHIO. What a stupid system.

I can’t wait for the election to be over. I really don’t think anything is going to get much better and might even get worse, no matter who is in office.

And the first commercial is out. I listened to the first half of the debate, then was able to come back to it when it was done. This commercial come out about 30 seconds after the debate was over. Barack Obama says he’s going to cut taxes on the middle class, how come I don’t believe him? The bar is at $250k, is that net? Gross? Adjusted Gross? That’s also in the range of a majority of small business’ and small business is the core of the economy and if they have to pay more taxes, they’re not going to hire or spend more.

You know everyone is going to be watching the VP debate.

No one really messed up. I thought McCain was smoother with his answers. Hannity kept mentioning how Obama’s answers were well rehearsed. You could tell when he went off script a little and lost his train of thought a few times. But since McCain spent more time in Washington working on the bailout fiasco while Obama was rehearsing his debate speeches, McCain did really well. But no one thinks any minds were changed. Probably won’t be any movement in the polls next week.

Michelle Malkin has a ton of information about why we should kill the bailout bill, how we got to this point and where Congress wants more money to go to mortgage counseling to groups like AARP, ACORN, La Raza and hundreds of other groups around the country now have their hands out. 1.3 million to La Raza for mortgage counseling? Are they nuts?

And Michelle’s piece on how thousands if not millions of loans handed to illegals and of course, now they can’t pay. Can anyone say SECURE THE BORDER? Oh, too late. Never mind.

Kill the bailout: Illegal immigration and the mortgage mess
By Michelle Malkin • September 24, 2008 07:49 AM
Among many examples cited by the FBI: a conspiracy in Las Vegas involving a former Nevada First Residential Mortgage Company branch manager who directed loan officers and processors in the origination of 233 fraudulent Federal Housing Authority loans valued at over $25 million. The defrauders manufactured and submitted false employment and income documentation for borrowers; most were illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Newt Gingrich and others are against it because it’s anti-capitalist. Why is Bush trying to cram this down our throats? Congress wants more control and oversight, which they should absolutely have, but the Democrats will pass it because for one, it’s one more step toward socialism and it’s a chance to spend money and they want in on it. Go read Michelle’s site she’s up to the minute on all of this.

A non-partisan report blaming the Democrats from Fox News. Names and facts. The Democrats created this mess and now we’re expecting them and the messiah to get us out of it? I’m not thrilled with Bush’s plan either but I wouldn’t hand over a trillion to one guy that’s going to be in charge of handing it out. Thanks to politics, they can’t have a solution without a bunch of strings and BS attached.

Everyone else knows how we got here. How come Congress forgot? Once you hear the explanation, you’ll see how simple it was, how it happened and know exactly what happened.

Chris Dodd is the top receiver of Fannie / Freddie contributions, so you’ll understand why he was against any oversight of the mortgage giants. (Obama being third on the list and he’s only been in the Senate for two years? I’m sure that’s nothing to worry about, nothing at all!)

UPDATE: Also read this from the LA Times in 1999 explaining in more detail, be sure and read the entire article:

Minorities’ Home Ownership Booms Under Clinton but Still Lags Whites’
All of this suggests that Clinton’s efforts to increase minority access to loans and capital also have spurred this decade’s gains. Under Clinton, bank regulators have breathed the first real life into enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, a 20-year-old statute meant to combat “redlining” by requiring banks to serve their low-income communities. The administration also has sent a clear message by stiffening enforcement of the fair housing and fair lending laws. The bottom line: Between 1993 and 1997, home loans grew by 72% to blacks and by 45% to Latinos, far faster than the total growth rate.

I was going to post about the idiot truck drivers at the Flying J, but decided to put it on Life on the Road – http://lifeontheroad.com/2008/09/24/fired-up/974.html

I’m getting sick of politics, I want to hurry up and have the election so I know whether we are driving off of a a short pier or a long one. The bailout, even if done right is only going to prolong the inevitable. And god forbid Congress actually puts aside politics for a couple of days and get something done. Someone mentions a bailout and spending money and everyone’s hand goes out. Everyone is trying to get their pet projects tagged into this bailout bill and help the poor people that are losing their homes because they’re too greedy. Hey! They’re bailing out the stupid idiots that bought and insured the mortgages, why not everyone? 

What has the Government ever done right? Medicare? Yeah right! Social Security? Don’t make me laugh! An Energy policy? Stop it! My sides are hurting!!! Giving themselves raises and the best benefit package of any company in the country? Okay, you got me there, THAT, they can do.

Congress still thinks they had nothing to do with this? How can they fix it if they don’t even know how they broke it? 

Ron Paul was just a little ahead of his time. If him and Bob Barr could get major coverage as third parties I would actually have hope. I’m predicting if Obama wins, Ron Paul will run again and win in four years. We will be in such dire straits, drastic measures will be necassary for our survival and Ron Paul has the drastic plan to get back to basics. If McCain wins, maybe things will get better slowly. He’s going to have to cut Capital Gains and Corporate taxes, but saying that will be political suicide because everyone hates the rich and especially the rich corporations.

I’ve heard a lot of pundits say that corporations don’t pay taxes, they pass them along to consumers and employees. But in order for us to compete in the world market and get corporations to build new factories, buy new equipment and hire lots of workers, we are going to have to attract them here with monetary incentives.

Obama’s plan? He’s going to make corporations pay taxes and then pay more taxes and make it so they have to create jobs here in America. Oh yeah, and cut the CEO salaries to something more reasonable. You can’t legislate the economy. You can’t force a corporation to do anything when they have to option to leave and build their products anywhere in the world.