¢ A Long Due Reply. ¢ 01-17-08

I have received a number of emails like this in the past few months. Below is my reply.

<< Read the last paragraph even if you skip the rest ~ this woman is a nut case!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement funds, 401Ks and Mutual Funds - all to help the 12 million illegal immigrants and other unemployed minorities!

Boy, are we in trouble... This woman is frightening. Take special note of the last paragraph. Is she really this whacked out?

Nancy Pelosi condemned the new record highs of the stock market as "just another example of Bush policies helping the rich get richer." "First Bush cut taxes for the rich and the economy has rebounded with new record low unemployment rates, which only means wealthy employers are getting even wealthier at the expense of the underpaid working class"

She went on to say "Despite the billions of dollars being spent in Iraq our economy is still strong and government tax revenues are at all time highs. What this really means is that business is exploiting the war effort and working Americans, just to put money in their own pockets."

When questioned about recent stock market highs she responded "Only the rich benefit from these record highs. Working Americans, welfare recipients, the unemployed and minorities are not sharing in these obscene record highs." There is no question these windfall profits and income created by the Bush administration need to be taxed at 100% rate and those dollars redistributed to the poor and working class." Profits from the stock market do not reward the hard work of our working class who, by their hard work, are responsible for generating these corporate profits that create stock market profits for the rich. We in congress will need to address this issue to either tax these profits or to control the stock market to prevent this unearned income to flow to the rich"

When asked about the fact that over 80% of all Americans have investments in mutual funds, retirement funds, 401Ks, and the stock market she replied "That may be true, but probably only 5% account for 90% of all these investment dollars. That's just more "trickle down" economics claiming that if a corporation is successful that everyone from the CEO to the floor sweeper benefit from higher wages and job security which is ridiculous." "How much of this 'trickle down' ever gets to the unemployed and minorities in our county? None, and that's the tragedy of these stock market highs."

"We democrats are going to address this issue after the election when we take control of the congress. We will return to the 60% to 80% tax rates on the rich and we will be able to take at least 30% of all current lower income tax payers off the rolls and increase government income substantially." We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income in our country and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest."

When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied: "We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long ways to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as 'Americans.'"

Send it on to your friends. I just did!! >>

In the past I have just trashed messages like this, but I have to say something. First, I will not be sending this on to anyone, because I don't know where it came from. There is no documentation or any evidence that Nancy Pelosi said any of this. The fact that this information is missing is a cause for suspicion. There is no way to verify that this is exactly what she said and that the words have not been changed around or edited to make her position sound worse to all those who do not agree with her position in the first place. And this is all something like this does; reaffirm the position of those who already agree that Nancy Pelosi is a "nut case."

Which brings me to my second point. Is anyone who doesn't agree with the current tax policy insane? The epithet "nut case" exposes more about this email than anything else. It exposes THE problem in the un-United States right now. We are un-united. And we will continue to be un-united until we can rise above the name calling and the down right dishonesty about our positions and the positions of others. WE can't have a legitimate debate and find solutions to these problems we face if we are constantly poking fun and disrespecting those who disagree with us.

I do not agree with Nancy Pelosi about many issues. But I do not agree with President Bush on many issues either. I believe they are both wrong when it comes to a FAIR tax policy. But I certainly don't think either of them is insane and I believe they have legitimate points of view. Unfortunately, we will probably never know what system is best. We just continually swing back and forth to the right and to the left and can never seem to find the middle.

And we ALL know for a fact that the middle is always best. Many of us do not want to admit this and swear it isn't true. But nature, physics, and history cannot be denied. If there is no compromise, there will never be any solution to the problems we face without conflict. If all of us cannot give some ground, these issues will never be resolved. If the people can not learn to discuss different points of view in an adult manner, our fate is to be a nation governed by children.

Please accept my thoughts in the spirit they are intended. This makes me sad, not angry. I do understand your position on taxes. I understand that you have earned your money and want to keep as much of it as possible. But I also understand those who say you would not have that money if you did not live in the United States; that you would not have had the opportunity for financial gain if it were not for the security and services that are paid for with tax dollars. I understand the position that all should pay the same percentage right across the board. I see our National Debt climbing by the minute and understand that if we do not raise taxes now, we are just raising the taxes on our children and their children. But that is not uncommon here in America. It just might be the norm. Me first!

¢ Formula for Search Engine Ranking Changes...Again. ¢ 12-23-07

Some of you may have already gotten the full benefit of my tirade on search engines. <G> They are a good thing. BUT they are not reliable as the sole source of visitors to your website. One thing the search engines can be relied upon to do is to bring the scammers out of the woodwork. Beware of any organization that guarantees your placement in the top 10 of any real search engine’s results. In order to guarantee that, they will have to scam the search engine too. If they are successful, it won’t be for long.

The skinny: Search engines change. They change because people find ways to manipulate them. The latest change is a case in point.

A new factor in ranking your website.
Search engines have been using the links on your web pages to determine ranking for a while now. They will continue to do that, but now they will now be doing it with a vengeance. Like before, good links will help. The change is that now bad links will hurt. Each link on the page will be analyzed and given a score. Points are added for really good links. Points are subtracted for really bad links.

What is a bad link? There are a few types of bad links.

• A dead link that goes nowhere.
• A link that is totally off topic.
• A link that is not reciprocated. ¡You lose even more points if the link is to a high ranking website that does not reciprocate!

What to do.

• If you have a link page on your website, it may be time for a thorough inspection. Get rid of the bad links. If you want to direct a visitor to a website that will not reciprocate, just display the domain name without linking it.
• Make your positive "on-topic" links more positive by "reciprocating key words" with a linked web site. Incorporate key words from the other website into the text on your page whenever possible. If the linked website is really on-topic, this should not be a big chore.

In my opinion, these changes in the search engines are an improvement. I have been saying it for a long time. You can attempt to manipulate the search engines to your advantage and the search engines will change to stop you. The most important factor in getting visitors to your website is to get your link out there.

Search Engines are free advertisement. You get what you pay for.

ANNOUNCEMENT: