The Bush tax rebate is doomed to failure.

Too little, too slow, too late. That sums up Bush’s “economic stimulus” package. The concept behind this stimulus was that 130 million Americans would get $300 to $1800 from the government and run out and spend it on canoes, juicers and other non-essential goods to “stimulate” the economy. It ain’t gonna happen.

Instead of dispersing the rebates quickly, without giving consumers adequate time to factor in their rebates to their bill payments, the IRS decided they would send out 130 million checks over a 3-4 month period. Even the majority of those who “e-filed” through services like Turbo Tax will have to wait into the summer for a check simply because their filing fees were deducted from their Federal return.

Every poll now shows that a huge majority of Americans will spend their rebate on bills or save it. We’ve had time to factor it into our incomes. We’ve planned this money into our budgets. Instead of being looked at as “found money” it will go to the credit card and mortgage company investors concentrating even more wealth for the elite 10% who control 90% of the money. Bush sure has taken care of “the Aristocracy” (his words, not mine). Down to his last moments in office he listened to his age old financial advisers who’s agenda has continuously been to look out for the haves at the expense of the have-nots.

Pumping federal money into oil reserves that are full, military contractors and the wild west banking sector will be Dubya’s claim to fame. Meanwhile working Americans will continue to lose their homes and jobs because Corporate America must keep and increase their profit margins. The American worker, once every companies greatest asset, is now viewed viewed as the greatest expense and liability when trying to show a return to share holders. Has it dawned on any ardent supporters of capitalism at any cost that the ultimate price may be capitalism itself? I know it sounds Marxist to label capitalism self imploding but is it happening right in front of us? You cannot concentrate wealth while creating poverty, under any label, without disastrous consequences.

Hey IT Guy – Work on your resume.

If you’re looking for your next IT job work on your resume. Personally I quit updating my resume on Monster and Dice regularly because every time I made a change two weeks or more of phone calls would follow. A lot are from Indian call centers for staffing agencies. I do not respond to these at all because they are pure opportunity chasers taking chances on big returns for a small percentage of candidates placed.

Lately I’ve been doing the hiring again. Soon I’ll be taking on another desktop support person and Sys. Admin in Raleigh. I’m reminded why only a small percentage of the IT resumes out there get noticed and others get passed over. These problems could negatively affect a resume in any industry, not just IT. They are mostly unintentional oversights or problems caused by lack of attention to detail. Some are blatant fact manipulation. Here’s the basics of what draws or detracts my attention to or from a resume. Some of these will might increase your resumes visibility on job boards.

  1. Spelling – Use the spell check. The English one.
  2. Grammar – I will hire a foreigner, but not one that obviously can’t communicate in good English because they can’t write it.
  3. Simplicity – Good formatting makes all the difference. Personally I don’t look at a resume that isn’t formatted with some thought using proper chronological order. I don’t want to see the first job you ever had bagging groceries listed first or certifications glorified before experience.
  4. Present an index or bullet points of your skill set under your objective. This will really help on job boards because most headhunters are searching by keyword and the more matches you get the more communication you will receive.
  5. Don’t submit your resume for jobs you’re not qualified for after making quick modifications to fit the posted requirements. This is usually obvious to the hiring manager and it will only come back to haunt you at interview time.
  6. Don’t try to emphasis or supplement corporate or industry certifications for experience. Certifications are generally considered to be a plus these days, not a requirement like professional licenses.
  7. Narrow down your resume to a specialization if possible. I always thought my resume was too broad in terms of technologies I’ve administered when I was applying for a jobs with titles like “Exchange Administrator”. Now that I’m in Management I feel a little better about presenting a spectrum of experience. Starting out I would suggest getting your foot in the door with a specialization. If you genuinely have experience in more than one area of an industry keep multiple resumes highlighting accomplishments in each discipline and field them to opportunities accordingly.
  8. Know what you’re really worth. Decide and post your salary requirement ahead of time. This could save everyone a lot of time. If you’re too high you won’t get called and you can’t eat the cost of living decrease anyway. If you’re low a recruiter will question the authenticity of your experience or smell desperation. Get in the right range and you’ll get a call. Believe it or not I’ve learned that most headhunter’s really do know what a position is worth, not just what their client’s willing to pay. You should too.

I’m sure I’ll think of other things I could add to this list over time. All I can say is that these are some of the rules I follow and it works for me. But I am a headhunter’s worst nightmare – a waste of their time. I receive as many as 70 headhunter communications a month and respond to less than one a year with genuine interest. At this point I even have recruiters leaving job descriptions on my Contact page.

The black White Collar Democrat

Despite the outpouring of Internet, media and primary support for Barack Obama I personally don’t think he can, or will, beat John McCain. I have history in support of my analysis. Barack is a white collar Democrat. Historically only blue collar Democrat’s have beaten Republicans in a toe to toe match up. Barack can get the minority vote. He can get the rare suburban white collar Democrat vote, which is often seen in the wild but rarely travels in social circles, but he cannot get the blue collar workin’ man’s vote that’s necessary to carry states like Ohio. Remember Ohio? The place where the blue collar vote swayed to the right away from Kerry to give us Dubya? Kerry was another white collar Democrat.

Oddly enough Clinton has the blue collar in this race. Her hubby wore the blue collar too as he won two elections. White laborers like guys called “Bubba”. Barack can’t carry these Democrats. They won’t vote for him. So while the DNC may give Barack the nomination by way of super delegates the truth is Hillary is, in fact, probably more likely to beat McCain in the general election. Polls have show this to be true throughout the primaries. If you believe the polls.

“Citizen’s Media Integrity Board” – A good idea?

A Huffington Post commentor posted the following recommendation in response to an article regarding the possible opportunities for criminal action against Rush Limbaugh for election tampering.  Althoughthe post is very senstational I actually agree with most if not all of this idea:

“Election tampering Laws will only be enforced if it helps disenfranchise minority voters.

ABOLISH this government! Patriots Day April 19th, Philadelphia Independence Hall 9am:
State and Territorial Governors will assume authority over all Federal Agencies pending Ratification and Amendments to the Constitution including but not limited to: Ban on ALL forms of Torture, Publicly funded elections only, Mandated media contributions of equal time for all qualified campaigns, Ban on any form of Bribery of any nature to all public servants, Establishment of Citizen Media Integrity Board with Mandate to ban Campaigns from media for false or misleading adds and revoke broadcasting licenses from any broadcaster misusing the public airways and cable networks for false or misleading commentary or propaganda.

The seat of Authority in our Nation was forcibly removed from the hands of Tyrants and secured By The People For The People. And it Shall Not Perish From This Earth.”

Castleton’s McLamb charged with Tax Conspiracy

Breaking news on the Castleton Saga.  Let’s just hope he outs Suzanne Clifton.  I’m sure she’d love to have this completely covered by her scapegoat.  Maybe she didn’t do anything that qualifies as “illegal”?  There’s only two ways to look at her actions and if they were not malicious then she’s grossly incompetent and should be removed from every single business organization she’s involved with.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2814409/

The more I think about this I want more answers.   What motive would Jay McLamb have for not paying the payroll taxes to the Feds if the money was kept “by the company” as the N&O reports?  Incentive had to come from somewhere.  Suzanne Clifton is the “sole shareholder” so it’s not like Jay was boosting his share value and he probably wasn’t out writing company checks for personal purchases.    And I doubt we will learn that he just liked living on the edge by cheating the Feds as a work related hobby.  There had to be a kick back for him to perform this fraud.  The incentive could have only come from one place.  I would imagine the words were something to the effect of “fix the revenue so my company won’t go under or your don’t have a job”.  But that’s just intuitive speculation.  Personally I hope he cuts a deal and rolls on this bitch.

Bank of America’s new overdraft policy as of 03-01-2008.

First, I should elaborate that I have not been hit with this.  I was informed of it by a supporter of House Resolution 946: The Consumer Overdraft Protection Fair Practices Act.

Apparently Bank of America is one of the first bank’s to implement a new process of charging overdraft fees to punish their customers yet again.  As of March 1, 2008 customers will no longer be charged a $35 overdraft fee when a transaction clears their account without available funds.  Now a “pending transaction” or one that has not posted to the account can automatically invoke the $35 fee if it puts the acount in the red.  So what’s this mean?  An example will explain it best:

Lets say you have $425.00 in your checking account.  You go to dinner with your significant other and spend $45 at Applebee’s or another affordable restaurant.   When the check comes you provide the waitstaff with you BOA debit card.  Through a complete accident the waiter types $450.00 into the keypad instead of $45.00 and receives an approval code. Prior to this new fee processing schedule by BOA this would be no major ordeal.  Many consumer have been told by cashiers “don’t worry that transaction won’t be settled and the hold will come off your account in 3-5 days” which it does.  And the waiter swipes the card again and enters a transaction for the correct amount $45.00 which Bank of America, by their own policy, approves even though the account is now “overdrawn”.

The next day you check your BOA account on line.  It’s negative (-$140.00).  Wait a minute.  What the ****?  You only spent $45.00.  Here’s how BOA’s systems now process transactions and fees:

Beginning Balance: $425

Accidental Pending: $450

Balance: (-$25.00)

Over the limit fee: (-35.00)

Pending: $45.00

Over the limit fee: (-35.00)

New Balance (-$140.00)

Eventually the accidental transaction of $450 will not be settled and it will drop off.  But instead of paying $45.00 for dinner you have spent $115.00 through no fault of your own (the original $45.00 plus the two $35.00 overdraft fees).  In an investigative converstation with a Bank of America Employee I was told these overdraft charges for pending transactions would not be refunded under any circumstances.

I can’t believe this is not getting more attention than it is.  This is the first time those who argue “don’t spend more than you have” and preach “personal financial responsibility” in defense of the banks have no ground to stand on.  This is stealing, plain and simple.  It is evidence that the banking industry has elevated itself above the laws and morals we claim to have founded this country on.   Now more than ever we need support for House Resolution 946 because once the other major banks conclude that BOA has punished their customers for profit, yet again, they will follow suit.

The media will not cover this topic because the major media outlets fear the loss of advertising dollars.   The banking industries crimes against consumers must be made known through viral propagation on the Internet.  Consumers must be given the option to remove their accounts from “overdraft protection” policies and the banks must be made to refund a percentage of those fees lawmakers consider excessive.

Move the Firefox 3 Home Button back to it’s original location.

After downloading Firefox 3 Beta 4 this drove me crazy for about 20 minutes and I could not find anything on-line that detailed how to get the home button back on the navigation toolbar.  I have no idea why the guys at Mozilla changed this.  As far as I’m concerned the Home button is part of routine navigation, not a bookmark.

  1. Make sure you have the Bookmarks toolbar open and the Home button is displayed.
  2. Right click on the Home button and select Customize.
  3. Drag the Home button to the Customize Toolbar dialog box.
  4. Now drag the Home button back up to the Navigation toolbar where you want it.

That is the illogical sequence required to get the Home button back to where it’s suppose to be.  It would be nice if we could just drag the button straight from one toolbar to another.  Other than this minor annoyance I’m relatively impressed with Beta 3.

No Country for Old Men Sucked.

There, I said it. It’s rare that I discuss anything as trivial as movies or entertainment but this movie deserves special recognition. Not because of how overwhelmingly good it was but instead what an absolute let down it ended up being. EVERYONE hyped this movie, even my best friend Daryl. So I was damned excited to see it. I liken this movie to interrupted sex. A complete let down. And before all the superior intellects start attacking with “you just didn’t get it” let me be straight with you: I got it. Once I started studying Euclidean geometry and reading Tolstoy I think I garnered the intellect to grasp good guys, bad guy, bad guy gets away. My problem with it was that it was BORING and not entertaining. I wasn’t even tired and I almost fell asleep.

I hated the time I spent watching this film so much that I Googled “No Country for Old Men sucks” this AM and found a thread on Rube Chat where a disagreement between contributors summed up the way I felt about it perfectly.

Old Country is a film that only the pretentious like…..because it allows them to tell those that dare to disagree, that they just don’t get it, or that they lack the intellect to wrap their minds around this movies supposed greatness. Answer me this…..what was the driving force of this film? The plot was thin, and there was really no point to all of the madness. DIE HARD is a simple formula done to perfection. There is a plot, a conflict, and a resolution. Much like the film that got robbed at the Oscars…..”Juno”.

Reply:

This is one of the most rediculous assertions I have ever heard on rube chat. There is so much to learn from this movie and for somone to just write it off like you are is so disappointing. The moral of this movie is so poignant that I am sad for people like you that just miss it, for some reason. It is unfortunate.

Oh no sir, a lot of us did not miss the “poignant moral” of this movie. Like I said before, I got it and I still thought the movie was boring as hell. Smokin’ Aces gets a better entertainment grade as far as I’m concerned. If you’re someone who was touched by this movie through a revelation that evil things happen and your powerless to stop them, you simply don’t get out of your own little comfort zone enough and face reality. Hell, just watch the news, or Die Hard.

Unsolved Triangle Murders

Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are nationally known as the Triangle Area. The name references the Research Triangle Park that sits in the middle of these three cities. I’ve lived in the Triangle since I was 8 years old. My wife was born in Raleigh. We’ve seen a whole lot of 2 lane roads turn into 6 lane interchanges over the past 20 years. The growth has been explosive because of the nice neighborhoods, jobs and a relatively low crime rate with the exception of areas in Durham. Raleigh alone is now bigger than Minneapolis, St. Louis and Charlotte. If you add in all the surrounding suburbs the Triangle could be the national model for urban sprawl.

In the past few years the area has gotten some pretty negative national attention because of crime. There was, of course, the Duke rape scandal. Crystal Magnum and Mike Nifong be damned. But that case was sensational grandstanding by a politically motivated prosecutor. The more disturbing cases are the unsolved homicides that have occurred in the past two years. As of yesterday morning the list of unsolved murder victims includes the former Student Body President of UNC, Eve Carson. What a beautiful girl she was.

Of course we don’t have any details in the way this case is being handled by law enforcement. We just need to hope it’s managed better than other area homicides involving women have been. Such as the case of Michelle Young, a pregnant 29 year-old mother murdered in front of her 2 year-old daughter who was found crying beside the body in November of 2006. The Wake County Sheriffs Department focused a lot of attention on her husband Jason, who was “out of town on business” and called his sister several times to go get a fax from his house. She went and found her sisters body. Apparently the Sheriff hasn’t been able to bring a case against Jason Young. He’s roaming free, likely guilty of killing his wife.

And if that wasn’t disturbing enough there is the case of another pregnant mother Jenna Neilson, 22, who was delivering USA today newspapers when she was attacked and stabbed to death on June 14, 2007. her body was found behind a local convenience store. USA Today ran a national ad for information in the case. There was a composite of a person of interest circulated by the Raleigh Police Department. Most people thought the composite looked like a woman but it was labeled “Hispanic Male”. That’s it. That’s all they’ve got as far as the public knows.

Sure there have been other murders in the area as well as killers who’ve been caught. But having followed the details of local homicide cases closely I can tell you most were solved through dumb luck. They caught confessed serial killer Samual James Cooper after he robbed a bank, ran from the cops and hid inside a Domino’s Pizza. This apprehension was 5 previously unsolved homicides past due. The deaths of beautiful and pregnant women seem to be the most difficult for Triangle area law enforcement. They have no leads, can’t pin cases, solidify evidence or make arrests. In these cases the bad guys are winning.

I’m aware this is reality and not an episode of CSI but progress needs to be made. People are getting scared. The perception is quickly emerging that you can be gunned down, beaten or stabbed to death in a suburban neighborhood and there’s a high probability that the killer’s going to get away with it because the police can’t build a case. I’m not advocating a drag net that sweeps up innocent people to parade them in front of the media. I am asking for better police work. The investigating agencies should call in the Feds if they need help and combine the resources of multiple agencies. It’s time an arrest is made in one of these cases surrounding these murdered wives, mothers and daughters.

The hardest thing for me to digest when writing this article is, based on this track record, the parents of Eve Carson have no reason to believe there will be a killer arrested in the death of their daughter. Some random thug may have beaten the Chapel Hill law enforcement community. At this point every agency and officer involved in these homicides has their reputation on the line.

Is Raleigh going to run out of water?

Probably so.  At this point we’d need two back to back Hurricane’s to save us.  Last night the city held a public forum on the topic.  The media reported people expressing their concerns about conservation, future water sources… blah,blah, blah.  Did anyone bother to ask about or elaborate on the contingency plan for when the taps run dry?

The discussion around our house has been “where are we going”? I’ve already got plans in action to send the wife and kids to Virginia if necessary.   I’m glad I’m working on it because it doesn’t sound like the city planners are.  Or at the very least they’re not letting the public in on the plan.