Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tributes to Hotel California

Two dudes remake this classic.


This is an original video of an Eagles concert, guessing from 1976-1977.





Hotel California - The Eagles (Cover) - The funniest bloopers are right here



Regards
John Crawford

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Study says most corporations pay no U.S. income taxes

Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

read more | digg story

Obama gaining among rural voters

Southeast Ohio, where many small communities are economically hard-hit, may be a bellwether.

read more | digg story

John Cleese Talks About Sarah Palin

"Monty Python Could Have Written This".... John Cleese

The former Monty Python star shares his unsparing thoughts and views about vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. An interview for http://www.seesmic.com.




Regards
John Crawford

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Monday, October 13, 2008

Berlin Announces World's Largest Electric Car Infrastructure

Electricity provider RWE will install 500 power-points, where electric cars can charge up. Daimler AG and Smart are partnering in the project, which aims to have100 electric Smart Cars on the streets of Berlin by the end of 2009.

read more | digg story

DIGG THIS --> An Open Letter To The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Winner

As we head into the home stretch of the 2008 U.S. Presidential race, the rhetoric and promises we've been hearing about the last 2 years will soon fade. They will give way to the climax of victory. It will be at least 100 days before we get any real statement from the new administration, and we will undoubtedly get more empty promises. With that in mind, I'd like to give them some specific things to think about, and shape their decisions.


1. Government and Business need to be friends. Anyone who has or has had a business knows that government at all levels is their enemy. Be it taxes or regulations, government is a thorn in the side of every business. It's no wonder that businesses try to find every imaginable loophole in the laws. Take a look at Japan for instance. Government and business work together to better the economy, and even have long term plans. Hint, Hint, and I'm not talking about strengthening the lobbyist relationships.

2. NO MORE BAILOUTS! I mean, are you gonna come help me when my web business going belly up? I think not, so stop doing it for those huge corporations where the CEO has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars. Let the free market take care of itself. Punish the perpetrators. That's what the EU is going to do.

3. We need long term plans to end our fossil fuel dependence. For now, all we've done is curb our driving habits, and maybe purchased something more fuel efficient. But that's temporary. We need to go at this from as many angles as possible.

---First, we have to maximize our use of alternative energy. There should be wind towers EVERYWHERE, my electric company should be beating down my door to put them up on my land, and everywhere else possible.

There should be power units lining our rivers to harness the power of the waterways.

Homeowners should be compensated for installing solar technology or building homes (or other buildings) with solar technology.

The big oil companies need to shift their focus to finding alternative energy technology.

---Second, we need to stop using taxpayer money to build and improve roads, unless it improves mass transit. We should be building rail infrastructure, everywhere. Ever been to Europe? you can take the train or bus to practically anywhere, or within a few blocks. We seem to only think about that in major cities. I live just 30 miles from the nations capital, but mass transit is largely inadequate in my area. Worse yet, they have no plans, short or long term, to change or improve it. This is bad news for the hundreds of thousands of commuters that must trek the highways into and around the nations capital each day to work. In fact, it's a crime if you ask me.

---Third. This is where government and business need to work together The U.S. Automakers need to redirect their focus to alternative fuel vehicles. We need to transition, not just offer options. They need to stop worrying about creating a new line of fossil fuel vehicles each year, stop retooling their assembly lines for them, and stop marketing them altogether. Alternative fuel vehicles sold in 2010 should be the norm, not the exception.

---Lastly, set a date to outlaw the internal combustion engine for private transportation, say 2025 or so. This will FORCE the world to change.

4. I liked Ross Perot's idea of eliminating the tax code, throw it away. If everyone, including big businesses, paid a flat 10% tax on their disposable income, we'd have plenty of money to run the government and provide the services we expect the government to provide. (Perot advocated 13% I believe). Just think about how simple that would make filing taxes, none of those complicated forms, and ambiguous tax codes to sift through. And it would be so much simpler for the government to plan and budget because they would have a much better handle on how much money will be coming in.

5. We have to start making friends on this planet. We have this habit of going around the world and bloodying the noses of anyone we think may have had a part in terrorism. While I'm for the block bully being taken down, we have not gained many friends along the way. The U.S. has alienated itself over the last 8 years. Even our allies are backing away from us, as they know that no country is off the radar. Now we have a presidential candidate that would all a new cold war to start with Russia.

Listen, take a literary note from Hollywood. There have been many movies and television series about a "post-war", post-apocalyptic America. Inevitably, peace and longevity are only achieved after we are able to break down the barriers and develop a meaningful dialogue with the enemy. OK, in some cases we had to destroy an alien race, but we're not dealing with that here. I think we should NOT be afraid to sit down with our sworn enemies and talk about peaceful co-existence. This planet is not getting any bigger, and we're all running out of places to hide. Compromise, tolerance, and mutual respect are all we need.




Regards
John Crawford

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Saturday, October 4, 2008

DIGG THIS-->More About Nothing: The Bailout, Sarah Palin, and OJ

Enough already, isn't this election over yet? I am so sick of hearing about anything involving the 2008 election. Every place I go it's there, in my face. Can't listen to the radio cause the ads are there too. I completely avoid CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC. I have in my face all day long at work, when I get home I already have my fill.

OK, my rant is out of the way. Oh wait, there's the $700 billion bailout that we the taxpayers have to pay for. It's not bad enough we are spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, now we're going to condemn our children, and our children's children, and more to financial disparity. Can it get any worse? Ross Perot told us back in the 90's when he ran for President that our children would be the first generation to do WORSE than us. Any of us with children in the 18-30 age range know they are staying at home longer then ever before. They are not able to get established liked we did. It's next to impossible for them to have their own life and be comfortable. What Congress did this week, sealed the fate of our grandchildren, and probably their children. George Bush, and all the guilty parties will have long left this Earth by the time the "Red" is gone from this thing.

OK, now I'm done ranting. Let's talk about Sarah Palin. She's her won worst enemy, she needs to shut up. The more she talks, the more the polls lean away from the Republican ticket. She's not helping her cause at all. American voters are becoming acutely aware of her complete inability to run the country if the need should arise. My suggestion, she needs to drop the librarian look. Drop the hair, get some sexier glasses (or hey maybe wear contacts). She dresses like Hillary Clinton. At this point she has nothing to lose. When she is in front of the camera, she needs to look like the girl next door. Her campaign people need to focus on her beauty and sex appeal. Wear something a bit more revealing, open a button or two, show a little leg. Sounds very sexist, right? It is, I'll give ya that. But if she wants to capture the votes of your average hormonally driven male voter, she needs to turn up the heat, way up. I'm almost shocked this hasn't been tried this yet.

On a lighter note, I think a really cool turn of roles would be for Sarah Palin to guest star on SNL as Tina Fey. Play all of her skits as she would. I think it would be hilarious.

As for this weeks VP debate, WHO CARES! Being Vice President of the United States is the easiest job on this planet. You get a cushy pad over at that Naval Observatory in Bethesda. You get paid to basically do nothing, just be on standby in case the President dies, is killed, or otherwise incapacitated. Lest we forget that John McCain is 72 years old! Oh, and you get Secret Service protection for the rest of your life. Hey, you can't beat that with a stick. Seriously, I mean, take a hard look at the VP's of the past 30 years. How does history remember them? Barely, that's about it, they are insignificant in presidential history. Most of us, if asked who was VP in any given year, would not know the correct answer, it's that unimportant. They have no role in day-to-day operations. They got their 15 minutes of fame by arguing the correct pronunciation of potato, and Al Gore "inventing" the Internet. Just for the record, Al Gore did NOT invent the internet. It's been around since the 1960's as a DOD (DARPA) program. Al Gore just opened the door for the rest of the world to have it. He may actually be the most memorable VP in our history. I bet if you ask 10 random people to name something Dick Chaney has done while VP, I bet 7 of them will say "shot someone while hunting".

Too bad for OJ, poor guy. I guess his luck had to run out sooner or later. This whole thing about stealing his stuff back is all trumped up. I think he just wanted his glove back (from the first trial).



Regards
John Crawford

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