Thursday, February 26, 2009

Something to Share

Someone left an anonymous comment on my "Response from Mel Martinez" post. It is so great and to the point that I wanted to make sure everyone saw it. Thank you, by the way, to my anonymous reader. This is exactly my point when I say that taking from the wealthy and giving to the poor as well as the undoing of welfare reform in this new spending bill will make us dumber and less productive as a country. This is not just an idea, but something that has been proven by history.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, will prove the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

~~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers , 1931 to 2005 ~~~

Friday, February 20, 2009

A Song I Heard ...

So I went searching for a song I heard on the TV show House this week. Turns out Hugh Laurie actually composed the darn thing himself. So much for finding the sheet music! You can check it out here. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to listen to it and figure it out myself. I'm so envious of people that can do that.

Response from Mel Martinez

Here is the response I received from Senator Mel Martinez:

Below is a response to the recent comments I received from you:


Dear Mrs. Crews:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the American Recovery and Investment Act. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.

As you know, our economy is facing a number of serious challenges, and I agree with President Obama that action must be taken. However, I also believe that elected representatives have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used wisely as we work to address our economic challenges. Since the beginning of this debate, I have reached out to members of both parties and worked hard to promote a responsible mixture of infrastructure spending and targeted tax relief that would strengthen our economy and encourage job creation. Additionally, I believe that the stimulus package must address the root of our economic woes in Florida—the housing market. Unfortunately, my efforts to improve this package in the Senate achieved only limited success with the addition of a loan modification program to reduce the number of foreclosures and a tax credit aimed at reducing the excessive inventory of houses on the market.

Despite these additions, the bill that came before the Senate contained far too much wasteful spending, far too little investment in critical infrastructure, and tax cuts that were neither timely nor targeted in a way that would spur economic growth. I would have preferred more investments in highways, bridges, roads, and military construction. Additionally, I supported a 50% cut in FICA taxes paid by every American who receives a paycheck and a cut in corporate tax rates to encourage business investment. These tax cuts could have been easily implemented and would have immediately stimulated our economy. However, the Democratic majority was unwilling to accept these common-sense proposals, and on February 10, 2009, I voted against H.R.1 the American Recovery and Investment Act.

After the Senate passed H.R. 1, the legislation was considered by a Conference Committee composed of Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. During the Committee’s negotiations, the beneficial housing measures I worked to add to the bill were removed. I had hoped that these provisions would be retained and that actual improvements would be made to the legislation by the Conference Committee. Unfortunately, improvements were not made, needed provisions addressing housing were removed, and the bill produced by the Conference Committee was, in my estimation, even less acceptable than the original bill that the Senate passed on February 10, 2009. Although I would have preferred to support our new President on this bill, I voted against the conference report on Friday, February 13, 2009. I simply could not in good conscience support a flawed bill that spends this much money in such a wasteful and untargeted manner.

Florida faces very serious economic problems, and a lot of Florida families are hurting. Unemployment is nearly double digit, and every corner of the state is suffering from the foreclosure crisis. For this reason I worked with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to improve this bill. As a former County Mayor, I understand the budget strain and hardships that local governments are facing, but this legislation simply does not give us what we need - a focused bill with targeted tax cuts and infrastructure spending that would be timely and actually create jobs to unleash the private sector.

We in Florida need what the President promised: targeted, timely, and temporary spending. However, the agreement reached by Congress and the spending it authorizes cannot be sustained. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has already forecast two trillion dollars in additional spending to help stabilize and recapitalize our financial institutions. Therefore, it is incumbent upon Congress to get it right and put special interests and pork barrel spending aside. Rest assured, I will continue to work with my colleagues to find ways to use the resources of the federal government in a reasonable and responsible manner to encourage job creation, mitigate future losses, and put our housing and financial markets on the pathway to recovery.

Again, thank you for sharing your views with me. If you have additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator


**Note: PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL. If you would like to reply to this message, please contact me through my website at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Boys Room Phase 1: The Floor


Our latest project has been a major overhaul on the boys bedroom. This is something I've wanted to do for quite some time now but we didn't have the envelope for it yet. Thanks to Christmas gifts from Papa & Nana and Grandma Hearne we were finally able to fill that envelope. Phase 1 was to remove the carpet and put down vinyl flooring. I really wish I had taken pictures before we moved all the toys and clothes and dresser out but oh well. You really can't even tell how icky this carpet is in these pictures. It somehow looks cleaner than it ever has in person. We're not sure what the deal is with this carpet. It was supposedly an "upgrade". Yeah right! I've never had a carpet hold dirt and yuckiness like this stuff. Our carpet in Texas had three muddy dogs run on it more often than we would have liked but I was always able to clean it up in a jiffy. This stuff leaves much to be desired. So far we have removed it from our bedroom, the living room and now the boys room. The only room left with carpet in the entire house is my craft room ... and that's just gonna have to stay that way for a while.


The carpet is almost gone.


We laid the vinyl outside and made some initial cuts for the closet and trimmed everything down to make it easier to work with once we got it inside.


Our little helpers.



And here it is! I took these pictures before we put the floor trim on but you get the idea.

All this went down the same weekend as the rooster attack and my broken toe so I got a little distracted about posting this. We actually finished Phase 2 yesterday. I'll post about that sometime soon. It involves "the wall of shelves" and I'm very excited about it. :)

Monday, February 16, 2009

Fondue Face & A Speech Lesson



A little video clip from our 3rd Annual Valentine's Day Family Fondue Night.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Do Your Part

I took a few minutes this morning to email my senators and representative to share my thoughts on the stimulus bill. I think it would be great if you all did the same. You can go to www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to contact them. Remember this is our government and it is about time they start listening to us. It has become obvious over the past couple of days that there are many politicians voting "yes" on this bill while not even being aware of many of the spending provisions in it. We should not act hastily to bury our children in debt. Just my two cents. Here is what I sent ... copy at will if you feel the same:

I'm writing to request that you please vote "no" on the rescue plan. It is obvious that neither the American people or the politicians in Washington are aware of everything in this bill. This is something that we should do with caution and scrutiny, not hastily just to "get something done". There are many items in this bill that have no place in a "stimulus" bill. Please do not vote to bury my children in debt. Spending money we do not have is not a good policy. We Americans would greatly appreciate it if the politicians in Washington could get some control on their spending just as we have had to do in these tough economic times. Wasteful spending is not going to help anyone.

Thank you for your time,
~Celena Crews

And please, if you do not feel the same as I do on this, do not post negative comments saying so. This is my blog so I am sharing my opinion. I've had some really rude crap happen over on facebook regarding politics and I just don't have any more energy to expend on replying to people lambasting other peoples points of view. This is America and we all have a right to our opinion. Hatespeak is not constructive, will get you nowhere and will cause me to lose all respect I may have for you. I'm not opening up a political dialoge here ... this is just something I feel we should all contact our politicians on ... whether you are for it or against it. It is about time we take our country back from out-of-control politicians. If you are capable of civil discourse and would like to have a constructive conversation on the issue ... call or email me.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming of kids, yarn, pianos, home improvement projects, wicked roosters and the like ...

Monday, February 09, 2009

Civics Quiz

Civics Quiz - I got a 70% which I think is good considering how long it's been since I've taken any kind of civics class and how little I paid attention. I wish I was as interested in this subject in school as I am now.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Something Wonderful to Share

The president of ChemoClothes sent me an email today. I'm so glad he did because I'm very excited about his new charity. I think he has an absolutely wonderful idea and I want to tell the world about it. You can read all about it at ChemoClothes.

From ChemoClothes.com:

Here is our first BIG project! We are going to make the world's longest scarf!! How long is the world's longest scarf might you ask? 200 feet? 500 feet? Try 33 Miles! 2000 people from Wales were able to piece together a scarf for another great cause... but with your help we can bring the record to the States!

We are asking that you make your donations 6 inches wide, but other than that, there basically no restrictions... it can be any color, any stitch, any style, and any type of yarn. We'll piece together all your donations so you can be a part of history. After our goal is reached we will make the scarf into personal scarves people can wear and we'll open it to the public to buy them. All proceeds will go to charity of course.


I'm going to do my part and see what I can come up with. Anyone care to join me? I'm also going to knit some hats and scarves to donate to the shop they are working on. You can read about it here: Request for Handmade Items

I've emailed ChemoClothes to see when they plan to open the shop to sell the handmade items. I will use it to base my deadline on. I would love to send them a huge box of handmade items. Let me know if you want to join in.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009