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Two to think about before we bail out Wall/Main Street

I don’t understand something. You all know that I always monitor the news. Yesterday, the Dow Jones dropped 777 points at the close of business. I have a simple reason why the bill failed: the education of the American public was really lacking and the rush of the bill through conception to final bill. US Senators and Congressmen/women at times vote on bills that they haven’t even read. There were so many commentators and pundits that talked about a crisis after the failure of the vote, and put it in easy to understand terms that affects the “average” household. On CNN in the evening, it showed on a graph on the need for the passage of the Treasury Troubled Asset Relief Program bill. Where was this before the US House vote? It could have been used as just one piece of the puzzle whether the bill should pass or not. I am still concerned about the federal government considering spending up to $700 billion. I will stand by my overall belief that anything that the government gets involved in as compared with anything that is put up against the free market forces, it is not managed as efficient.

Today, so many reasoned people are saying that the bill should have passed to keep the line of credit going to pay businesses’ payroll. I’m also hearing today that the reason we are in this financial credit halt is that banks issued credit to those who could not afford, or riskier buyers of, homes. This helped the economic growth in the last ten plus years. Many business leaders’ greed caused this because the need of “growth” of increase in business year-to-year even when there wasn’t any collateral or assets to support the home loans that were signed.

The one thing that I have to admit that everyone must do better is to be more proactive than reactive by picking up the pieces after a problem reaches a crisis state, as the credit availability tightens as it has right now. Amazing how in America where we have free speech, we cannot fully debate out in the open, in the halls of the U.S. House of Representative and/or the U.S. Senate the pros/cons of a bill to spend this price tag. I mean how Wall Street does and our political leaders explain Wall Street bounce back and were in the positive 485 points?

Let’s not compromise a principle just to inject any short-term solution. Thank goodness our Founding Fathers of this country didn’t think that way about our US Constitution. Let’s not rush into any passage of legislation. I like the idea of having any bill posted on the Internet a minimum of twenty-four hours for any interested party to give comments before it becomes law. Off the top of my head, these are just two things that I would like to put caution to our American economy.

Being my own director for maintaining free enterprise economy

It’s too bad that I didn’t graduate right now, but keep the values of when I did graduate. (Of course, many of you can figure out when that year of my high school graduation.) There’s no doubt that if either one would have happened where I am and what I would be doing is something different.

But I think that it’s neat these days. I remember the two occasions during the last month or so that I found out first about the presidential candidates vice-president selection from my Sprint phone right after work watching Fox News. Today, I monitored the failure of the passage of the U.S. House of Representative vote on the $700 billion bailout of the Treasury Troubled Asset Relief Program bill. I can watch now watch on the Web because they had a camera shot of Obama on the campaign trail, the Speaker of the House comments about the failure of her leadership of passage of the bill, and the O.J. Simpson trial in Las Vegas.

It is a far cry from when CNN was the only cable network that offered live coverage of news events that affects so many parts of our lives. And with the Web now, I can be the director of the news stories of today’s news.

I am pleased really that the Treasury Troubled Asset Relief Program bill did not pass because in principle I believe in the free market economy. If I work hard, I should reap the benefits of that risk and hard work. If my risk ends in a financial failure, there should be some personal financial loss. That is the overall principle of what I believe the risk with the rewards. If we bailed out the “toxic” mortgage assets, what industry will be next? Will the government bail me out when I make a mistake now for the decades of showing up to work 99% of my scheduled work shifts?

Up-to-date on NASCAR ... Accountability of tax money

It’s back to work tomorrow after a couple days off. I caught up on the two NASCAR races that were recorded on our cable’s DVR. During the morning, I was watching the race and coverage of the Treasury Troubled Asset Relief Program that the President proposed earlier in the week in a picture-in-a-picture on the television, and listening to sound coverage on my laptop. I watched as on Thursday afternoon that there were agreements for the Congressional bill, but then there was the meeting at the White House with the President of the United States, the presidential candidates, the Congressional leadership. It changed the announcement of the agreement.

I have been working on multi-tasking, as I need to do at work. My wife and I needed two DVRs because of all the shows that we are recording. I was watching the NASCAR race on the television screen, writing some stories, texts on the computer, while watching and browsing news stories on the laptop, too!

In a way, I am glad that they have waited more to pass the $700 billion legislation. It follows with my overall principle that when that much money is doled out there must be accountability for taxpayers’ money. When government spends our money, it usually doesn’t spend it wisely.

We need to hold more of our elected officials accountable for spending our taxpayer money. That is all I’m asking we commit ourselves to do!

Looking at life differently three years later …

A strange story happened last night at P.F. Chang, a bistro Chinese restaurant.  My wife and I went there for dinner after church. As usual, we were seated near two other tables that were already seated.

I usually know what I want when I eat at P.F. Chang. But my wife decided upon her meal really quickly. We ordered an appetizer soup along with our entrees. We noticed that the soup was taking longer than it usually does.  She was showing a dessert tray to, now, the three tables around us. When the server approached the table we asked about the soup. She thought that we wanted it with the meal, which didn’t make sense. When she told my wife if she needed a smaller individual bowl, because it was frustrating already waiting for the soup, my wife waved it off saying that it didn’t matter. The server was startled. I think that the server was new and really didn’t know how to react. I sensed that she was just out of training.

When it came to the time when she would suggest the desserts to us, she didn’t bring out the dessert tray, where all fake samples of the dessert dishes were presented. Working at the company that I do and living where there is underlying racism, did you know that I could have said that I was discriminated against because I was a different race than the other guests at the other tables?

I just think that it’s ironic that it’s the Chinese, while the other races were given the more in-depth service that is being discriminated in a Chinese restaurant. I think that over three years ago I wouldn’t have thought about something like that; it wouldn’t have crossed my mind.

The shows are back on! … More TV viewing than NASCAR!

I’m pleased that recently the fall television season has started. There are several shows that I’m looking forward to seeing: the entire CSI series, Bones, Criminal Minds, and the new show, The Mentalist.

This summer still has been a season of staying informed and watching the NASCAR circuit, The Chase for the Sprint Cup! I am a few races behind, but it’s still something interesting with the Car of Tomorrow car, the personality, and the business itself.

Speaking of television shows, I was watching a recording of the Fox Network television show Fringe. There was a conversation at one point of the show which I would like to tie into the present work environment. A character said at one point of the show: the job is what it’s not like it was ten years ago … how are we supposed to protect the world when corporation have higher security clearance than we do, when we’re not fully briefed on half the things we are investigating, and the truth is we are obsolete.

I sense that my job is not like it was ten years ago. The job requires me to work more, for less money and with less help because everyone is overwhelmed with many more responsibilities. As with the quote from a television show, I know many times when General Managers don’t give you the authority of doing what is necessary to “run” the business. And no doubt that the truth of what’s right is right and wrong is wrong now includes many grey areas. It is different than ten years ago in the same field—a very simple one.

It's ALL about work performance now

It seems like it’s been a long time since my last post. I opened all last week and now I’m on a mid-shift these last few days. Sometimes I wonder about the things that happen in my life. I wonder what others think, so that I can learn from their perspective. I wish that more would share their thoughts and feelings.

Yesterday, I attended a meeting with my Area Manager for our district with half of the associate managers in our district. It was a work day scheduled. He said in no uncertain terms that there will be no excuses to meet the financial expectations of the company. If any manager is not performing to its requirements they will be asked to work for another company. There is a traffic war for business sales and business growth. The competition is fierce. Integrity will be an important issue. And always planning the shifts is something important for what I’m accountable for the results of the store’s performance. 

Media/Government needs to answer for gas prices

I couldn’t believe the big question marks that I have about the gas prices and the confusion of our gasoline supply. On the way to Chattanooga we paid $3.64 a gallon of gas. Now mind you this was after paying $3.38 earlier in the week for gas. On the way back near Chattanooga, we paid $4.09 a gallon. I saw one gas station who was charging $4.79 a gallon.

During the weekend, I kept up to date on my Sprint phone on the news from Hurricane Ike, the after effects in the Galveston/Houston area. On the broadcast, I was hearing about the damage on the beachfronts and all. But the one thing that was neglected was the effects of gas prices because of what I’ve read almost a quarter of the refineries are located in the area. And because of the quick effects of the gas prices even when the Hurricane didn’t even hit the shores of Texas. I wish that I had answers, because I was affected this weekend.

Finish watching "Cars" in Chattanooga

I watched "Cars" at my wife's matron of honors place. It was really my type of movie, especially with the racing theme.  It was one of the highlight of our visit.

After blog on the road ... Sunshine left a lot in Chattanooga

We arrived safely in Chattanooga early this afternoon. After posting my blog entry, “Laptop blogging on the road,” I rested in the passenger seat of the car. It was a good resting period. As my wife told her friend and family today, I hardly had any rest from my twelve-plus hour workdays the last few days. My Sunshine lets me rest while she drives. That is definitely one of the many reasons why I love her more than I can express.

During the first leg of our drive, I was actually amazed that the Sprint wireless connection wasn’t interrupted at all! There were a couple of times that I lost connection with the Sprint TV on my Sprint Treo 755.

When we arrived in Chattanooga, we met with one of my Sunshine’s friends, and we are about to leave for another dinner with one of her other friends. I know that’s the one thing that I’m sad about: taking my Sunshine away from her source of connection with the rest of the world—her friends.

Laptop blogging on the road!

I thought that I would do a post online while I have my laptop on, sitting in the passenger seat while my wife drives. We are headed toward Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s one of those special journeys, and it is definitely a happy moment—or at least, I think so. I started writing from my home city and we’ve already observed a few interesting things.

I’m sitting in the passenger seat typing this blog entry. My wife is driving listening to her MP-3 player, singing along to what she is hearing. When I do have a signal, I am listening to Fox News for coverage of the effects of Hurricane Ike.

One of the stories which I heard on the news and saw on the road was the prices of gas. I heard at work yesterday that the prices might go as high as five dollars a gallon. I didn’t want to believe it. But now that I am seeing gas prices off the freeway of $4.59 (and one billboard sign saying that the gas station was out of gas!) after I saw leaving my home city at about $3.40 a gallon, there might be some truth to the story.

I have only another hour of battery life on my laptop left, so I’m putting finishing touches on this entry. We are near Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve caught up with a few e-mails and other stuff during this drive.

Let me say to you that this is so much better life than working at a fast-paced restaurant. It’s too bad that I cannot keep on doing this on a on-going basis.

I have installed the writing software that I have had for many years. Finally, I have completed an outline that I will try to get working on, to see if I have a good novel from it. I have many ideas themes I would like to see through, so my challenge is to see if I can narrow it down to a concentrated few so that I don’t confuse you all as I am a mass confusion in my head! I’ll keep you posted on the progress, challenges and, I hope, not frustrations.