Okay, so I read all about this thing when it first was passed back in February. I thought I’d blog about it since checks will soon be out and people will soon be getting their bit of money.
Here are some little facts about this bill:
- You only get this tax rebate if you filed your 2007 taxes on time.
- Should be expecting around $600 per person (less than $75k),$1200 for married people who filed jointly (less than $150k). If you’ve made more than these amounts (those who are reading this probably did not), the amount goes down.
- Parents will get $300 per child.
- Folks who were in college last year, sorry, you don’t get one, even if you made money last year. Nor do your parents get the $300 per kid because you’re not under the age of 17.
- People with ITIN’s don’t get anything, even if they file jointly with someone who has a SSN.
- Whatever money you get from this bill, you have to pay back on your 2008 tax returns (if you are in the green).
Personally, I think this bill is a waste of time and money. I urge people to be smart and SPEND NOTHING and put this money away in an ING account or other high interest savings account until you have to pay it back. It’s better to earn interest on this “free money” than spend it (unless you desperately need to).
I find it funny Comcast has a commercial out to encourage people to spend this money by supporting local business’s. I don’t think it’s a good idea to spend any of that money since you have to pay it back in 2009. I just think it’s pointless and it hurts people. I’d opt out of it if I could.
Barack Obama has a new donator… me. I just donated to Barack Obama’s campaign and I do feel good about it. I decided it’s time. I support him, he is my choice. I want him to put Hillary away and finish this thing. I want a headline tomorrow to read “Hillary makes $10 Million in 24 hours to Barack’s $20 Million”. I want this so bad I can’t wait for it. I wait for a lot of things… Anyway, go Obama!
Decided to rant about what kind of experience I had with Mattress Warehouse. Hopefully this post will get some people to think twice before purchasing anything from them.
So Brian and I decided we want a Tempurpedic bed. Pricey, yes, but I figure 20 year warranty, get a king size so Candi can sleep with us, it’d be worth it. We go on a Sunday and pick out a great bed. We check out this Posturpedic. It feels great. It shapes to our bodies. We basically fall asleep. We strike a deal to get it. After some discussion, we get the guy to knock off 20% and free delivery. Great! We also discuss who needs to take off.
The next day I put in a request for leave, take a half day Wednesday, destress, have the bed delivered. Fabulous.
Tuesday night comes around, the guy calls and says they don’t have the bed. WTF? We ordered it! They don’t have it. How is that possible? Ugh, fine. The guy wants us to come down to check out another bed so we go. None of them feel the same. Bait and switch. We had none of it. We decided to give them the rest of the week to come up with the bed.
Next day I go to work as normal. The guy said we should expect a call Wednesday with an update. Okay… No call.
Thursday comes around and I’m pretty mad that they didn’t give us the decency of a call to update us on what’s going on. By this time, we’ve had it. We just want our money back. The guy said he’ll give us our money back but it’ll take a few days to transfer it. We should HAVE IT by Saturday. Okay.
We check our accounts Sunday night. Yes, it has been a week since we PURCHASED the mattress. Nothing.
Monday comes around, nothing is in our accounts. Brian said he actually got a call from them saying they need us to come in so they can swipe our cards to give us our refund. Uh, does that sound strange to you? I questioned it, highly, but we go anyway. He gives us a piece of paper with some more bait and switch mattresses on it. We want none of it from this company. He swipes our cards, prints out the little thing we need to sign (it was done in three transactions, two for me and one for Bri). The peice of paper has our credit card numbers on it! I thought that was illegal! Whatever, we sign them anyway. Then the guy wants us to sign that we GOT a refund. Uh, we’re not sure, it probably posted, but we’re not trusting this place anymore. Brian writes “refuse to sign” on it.
Today, Tuesday, we are lucky we DIDN’T sign it. Mattress Warehouse STILL hasn’t posted our refund. It’ll be 24 hours since we went back for the forth time. I’m sure some can say it might take some time, that’s BS cause our banks post right away! The second I deposit anything, I see it. I can’t access it, but I can see it.
We’ve contacted the BBB and Montgomery County consumer protection. Hopefuly they’ll fine them or do something. This should NOT be allowed to happen. So I end this blog with don’t shop at Mattress Warehouse.
Reading reviews and blogs and what not about the other nights democratic debate, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s good to be out of the political loop.
I hope this debate highlights a little more how stupid, ignorant, and undemocratic the media truly is. The media is a joke in this country and that last debate proved it (as if it WASN’T proven before in the countless bias debates held in this country). Why can’t people see this is a joke? They tell us what to believe. Look at each candidates time in these debates. It’s ridiculous. How are we supposed to get to know a candidate if they don’t get any TIME?
And the last debate, more questions were asked about Clinton and Obama’s CHARACTER versus questions about substance and adequacy for the most important job in the world. Isn’t that what they’re interviewing for? Why aren’t they asking the tough questions about policy and views of importance? With the economy being this shitty, gas prices soaring, and the war in Iraq with no end in sight, they choose questions that are of no importance.
And I love how Hillary is being hypocritical, yet again. She previously said how the questions were (tear) too hard. Now she’s complaining that Obama said something about the questions being too hard (which that’s not what he said anyway, more media spin there). Amazing how a few months ago she was the one complaining about the difficult “gotcha” questions. Another adventure of Hypocritical Hillary.
So I’m out until the Democrats choose a nominee. Of course I still pay attention to the headlines. Everyday there’s more and more reason to protest and want change and to hate the war and hate the direction this country is going; how one in five veterans from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars have a mental disorder. We really take care of our troops in this country. Everyday I become more shocked and suprised there’s not riots in the streets of every city; how there’s not massive mobs of people taking on the White House. What’s wrong with us? Why do we put up with the media, the lies, our distrustful politicians who we keep electing? What happened to the protests and protest songs of the 70’s that got motivation?
I’ll end by saying will we get fooled again? I WON’T get fooled again!
After the Orioles losses last night, it got me to think about everything I would want to see changed about baseball (MLB). The Orioles haven’t won nor have been to the playoffs since 1997. They always come in 4th in the American League East. The Orioles and other sucky teams like the Nationals and the Blue Jays could benefit from serious changes.
Here’s what I think we need to change about the sport:
- Cut down the season. 160+ games is way too long. It runs into football and let’s face it, no one watches baseball as soon as football season rolls around. I figure cut the season in half. 70 maybe 80 games. Stop extending it. All the records are being broke because players have a lot more games to play. It simply isn’t fair. Cutting the season would also probably increase popularity. Look at how crowded every football game is. Baseball simply isn’t like that.
- Standardize EVERY stadium. A home run in one stadium is different than a home run in another? Bull s**t. Sorry, no. All stadiums should confirm to one fixed design. This way there’s no advantages to being in one stadium or another.
- HARD HARD HARD salary cap. PLEASE! Please put a salary cap on baseball. There might be already one but it simply isn’t good enough. When A-Rod is making MORE than the entire team of the Florida Marlins, there’s a problem. The Yankees and Red Sox will always win because they have so much money for talent. Poorer teams (like Baltimore) don’t even come close to what the Yankees make. When you have an unlimited supply of money, you can build a dream team every year. When was the last time the Yankees DIDN’T make it to at least the playoffs?
- Keep up with technology and drugs on the steroid front. All these players are STILL taking steroids. Football has been ahead of this for some time. You do them, you’re out. Simple as that. Drug test and suspend for violations. Lord knows we have the technology to stay ahead of the growth hormone game.
- Abolish the National League. In football, both conferences are identical. In baseball, the National League has their pitchers bat. Get rid of that, or make both conferences the exact same.
Basically, baseball needs to take a cue from football. Do these few things and I think baseball would be a more fair and enjoyable sport. Plus more teams would win every year, which increases more popularity because of band wagoners.
I wonder if I’ll ever see the Orioles win again.
Brian was thinking about getting Rock Band for the Wii when it came out. I decided to look it up exactly when it comes out cause I can’t wait to play it and we have a lot of fun over Shawn and Jen’s place.
Well, to my dismay, it seems like it won’t be nearly as cool as it is on Xbox 360. It doesn’t come out until June 22nd anyway.
Look at the article at http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/24/rock-band-wii-drum-kit-pictured-nagging-questions-answered/
Basically it WON’T have:
- customizable avatars, no using of Mii’s (what other games CAN you use them for?)
- downloadable content via the Rock Store
- Guitar Hero III guitars won’t work with it
- no online play so no bands, so basically all quickplay
- no leaderboards
So, yeah, it’s lame. The drum set looks cool but not worth it. We’re going to buy it for the 360 soon. Letting all you know, avoid PS2 and Wii, and buy Rock Band for Xbox instead.
I’ve been out of politics for about a month now, not watching Meet The Press or Chris Matthews or really deeply reading the news. I’m glad I have because the same stuff is going on. I’m tired of the election. That’s all anyone ever talks about anymore.
The main reason for this post is to just make a statement. I’m tired of the democrats. I’m not tired of being a democrat, but I’m tired of their politics. The way they talk yet do nothing. I have to admit, I still get hopeful when I hear things like this:
“It is no wonder that this memo … could not withstand scrutiny and had to be withdrawn,” said Leahy, D-Vermont. “This memo seeks to find ways to avoid legal restrictions and accountability on torture and threatens our country’s status as a beacon of human rights around the world.” (about the memo just released on Bush authorizing torture)
“On April Fools’ Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil, who are using every trick in the book to keep billions in federal tax subsidies, even as they rake in record profits,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. (about yesterday’s oil executive meeting with Congress, which accomplished nothing)
My question is will they do anything about the stuff they speak about? Will they stand up and put their money where their mouth is, so to speak? Will they walk the walk? Of late, the answer has been (of course) no. I’m tired of false statements. They don’t really give a s**t do they? They talk about fairness and liberty and peace and justice but they fall short everytime.