US Economy.

US Treasury reported that tax receipts in 2014 grew by $247 billion, or 9%, because of an improving economy as well as the expiration of some tax provisions and higher tax rates on high-income individuals.
The economy not only bolstered tax receipts from wages and payroll taxes, it also boosted corporate profits and therefore business tax revenue.

On the spending side, outlays grew by just $50 billion or 1%.
A big reason for the modest growth in spending was controlled dollars going to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In addition, spending in many other areas of the budget fell. These included defense, homeland security, justice, unemployment benefits, and housing programs.

The drop in the 2014 deficit is the fifth consecutive annual decline. That trend has come as economic stimulus programs to counter the damage of the financial crisis dried up and Congress implemented broad spending cuts known as the sequester. It was also spurred by changes in tax rates for high-income households.

Great improvement and perhaps a surplus by the end of the coming 2 years.

Just a thought.

Republican Senate candidate.

 

Republican Senate candidates have been holding the firewall in the most high-profile races around the country: Joni Ernst in Iowa, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Cory Gardner in Colorado. But one Republican Senate candidate in Michigan is doing exactly the opposite getting disowned by her own party.

 

The critics of Terri Lynn Land’s campaign have turned harsher recently, accusing Land of ignoring the normally requisite advance notice given before public appearances, and of ducking the press any time she feels threatened by its line of questioning, among other problems.  

 

U.S. News called her campaign “invisible”.  Conservative radio host F. Beckmann published an “autopsy” of Land’s campaign in the Detroit News. The National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled almost a million dollars from Land’s campaign.

 

Bill Ballenger, a former Republican senator, told ABC News that no one in Michigan had guessed Land was going to be “as inept and inarticulate as she’s proven to be.”

 

What an encouragement    !!!!?

 

Just a thought.

Doubtful...*!

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman told ABC News that President Obama has made more lasting changes to the country while in office than President Bill Clinton.

“Bill Clinton is an incredibly gifted politician, but Clinton was not a consequential president. Obama, although clearly not the natural politician, is a consequential president.”

Krugman has previously been a harsh critic of Obama. In 2009, he was featured in a Newsweek cover story titled “Obama is Wrong: The Loyal Opposition of Paul Krugman,” which identified him as the leading liberal voice against the president.
“People who had this idea that Obama was going to bring a transformation of America, I thought were being naïve,” Krugman said.

But, by God, we got health reform, and a significant financial reform. We are getting the environmental action … it’s not everything you would have wanted, but it’s more than anyone else has done for decades.

Krugman also said that Obama’s achievements were more consequential than those of Republican President Ronald Reagan.

“In the end, Reagan did not leave the structure of America’s society particularly different,” Krugman said. “He did not in fact change the basic legacy of Lyndon Johnson and FDR.”

Krugman’s ranking of consequential presidents, he said, would be Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, followed by Obama and then Reagan. Well said, then.

Just a thought.

Who Done it?

An ex-con enjoyed 15 minutes of freedom before he was shot by a former inmate he once had beef with in prison.

Devon Simmons served 15 years on an assault conviction and was released from the Otisville State Penitentiary. He planned to take a train from a nearby Metro-North station in Orange County to Manhattan.

A car rolled up. Police said Simmons got in the car - even though he didn’t know the driver. He was apparently duped into thinking it was sent by relatives to pick him up.

The car stopped, the trunk latch is released and a guy jumped out of the trunk and starts shooting,” State Police Capt. Pierce Gallagher said. “The minute he sees the guy, Simmons start running.”

He managed to get to a nearby train station, where someone called 911. State police say the man underwent surgery at Westchester Medical Center.

 

Two men spotted fleeing the scene in a car with Illinois plates. Cops busted the two in Manhattan. Welcome Back to Jail boys.
 

 Just a thought.

Solicitation...

They were planning their future together. She said the relationship had its bad times and that Schellpfeffer was jealous and abusive.  

She filed a restraining order against him, then later dropped it.

“I grabbed a  knife, and I said to him… ‘If you do not give me my car keys and let me leave, I’m going to slice this couch.’ And I did a slice and then he screamed. He threw my keys at me.”

Even with all the drama, the relationship endured and Strom and her children moved in with him. “We always made up right afterwards,”  “We have such a strong bond of love…that we would continue to stay together.” 

She hired a man to kill her fiancé and boyfriend of six years.  He was an informant for the local police department. Their meeting was taped.

“She was young, vibrant, beautiful... We just clicked,” Schellpfeffer recalled.

He believes his life was never in danger and Strom did not intend for the hitman to go through with the plan. He says he attributes her plot to mental illness. At one restraining order hearing, Schellpfeffer proposed to Strom in front of the judge and she accepted. He still cares about his former fiancée

She was sentenced.... after a plea for solicitation to commit first degree intentional homicide.

This guy's behavior is questionable. He knows it all.     Just a thought.

A Famous Dog..!!...

Image is not related.

A nurse, Teresa Romero, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus, Ebola, outside West Africa.

She had treated two missionaries who later died from Ebola. The virus has killed 3,879 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

She might have become infected when removing her protective suit after cleaning one of the missionaries' room. The cause is still unknown.

A court order to euthanize Ms. Romero's dog was issued despite uncertainty over whether the animal was also infected or risked spreading the disease.

The fate of the dog sparked huge interest on social networks, after Ms. Romero's husband, who is kept in isolation, alerted animal protection groups via social networks.

Two protesters were hurt when they tried to stop the van in which the animal was being transported.

Ebola is a serious disease. One patient in Taxes required contact at least 150 individuals and quarantine some. It is all about our habits, some needs to be changed.

Just a thought.

The Fight, Palin...

The drunken brawl involving Sarah Palin and her family last month was a wild one.
Klingenmeyer told police he was angry that the Palins had showed up and were causing problems. He had asked Bristol to leave and she responded, “Who the f*** are you?” Klingemeyer told her he owned the home and Bristol said she didn’t believe him and “she will kick his a**".

An officer described Bristol Palin as “heavily intoxicated and upset” and told police that Klingenmeyer had “drug her across the lawn by her legs” calling her names.   She also said both her sandals and sunglasses had been taken.

Matthew McKenna tried to break up the fight and saw people “piling” on Todd Palin. He also said after he saw Bristol punch Klingenmeyer six times a “bunch of wives tackled her a**.”

Track Palin, shirtless “ appeared to have an injury under his left eye, on his upper cheek.” The officer said that Track Palin was “angry and intoxicated.”

The Palin’s 20-year old daughter Willow told police Klingenmeyer had “assaulted” Bristol and she had been pushed by an “older lady” and others involved in the fight were “saying things like f*** the Palins.” Police described Willow as “extremely agitated.”

Knew.....!!! ?.

The biggest problem the United States faced in dealing with Syria and the rise of the Islamic State was America’s allies in the region, Joe Biden said.

Turkey let foreign fighters cross into Syria, and with, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia funneled weapons and other aid to Syrian rebels [the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda and ISIL].

President Obama made a similar point
 about Syria’s Arab neighbors fueling extremist organizations in their zeal to oust Al-Assad, though he did not name the culprits.

Turkey is watching as Kobani being run over by ISIL. The town is surrounded for weeks. Turkey considers Syrian Kurds terrorists.

When Obama warns from the red line, It wasn't clear who used biologic weapon since US allies are desperate to get red of Al Assad.

Leon Panetta's memoir criticizing Obama for not following up, McCain, and others to interfer in Syria, provide weapons to the rebel and leave US forces in Iraq. Short sighted advise.

US is not sure which direction should go.  The oil rich countries are clearly supporting certain terrorists. So here it is, today some are fighting on one side, and tomorrow fighting the other. 

Just keep the American people busy with a problem in the Middle East.

Just a thought.  

A little to drink?

Image is not related.

A law enforcement source said the victim was “a little drunk” when leaving Birthday soirée with a friend and the lawyer. The trio went back to the lawyer’s apartment.   Eventually, the friend was asked to leave by the alleged victim. The Post reports that "witness accounts of her extreme drunkenness in the hours before the party".

That version of events, in which the pair had consensual sex, conflicted with one presented by a police source, the victim awoke from a booze-filled haze to find she was having sex with the lawyer.

“She’s a credible woman. But anytime alcohol is involved, things get complicated,” a police source said, a possible third-degree rape [incapable of consent].

Everyone in (1 Police Plaza) could not be happier about this,” a police source said.
All in all, no winners.                     Just a thought.

Boots on the. Air?

The United States sent helicopters into combat against Islamic State targets west of Baghdad on Sunday, the first time low-flying Army aircraft have been committed to fighting in an engagement.

The helicopters carry two-man crews and, with their missiles and powerful cannons, increase the amount and accuracy of the firepower that the U.S. military can bring to bear against the Islamic State in support of Iraqi ground troops.

But because helicopters fly relatively "low and slow," the Obama administration is taking on greater risk in terms of exposing U.S. forces to casualties.

Jeffrey White, analyst who closely follows developments in Iraq, said the use of helicopter gunships means that U.S. troops effectively are now directly involved in ground battles.

"It's definitely boots in the air. This is combat, assuming U.S. Army guys were flying the helicopters".

Just a thought.