January 31, 2008
I Was A Bad Girl Last Night
By Peggy Schlichter
Well folks, I was a bad girl last night and did not attend the city council meeting. I wish I could say that there was a previous engagement that I could not get out of or something else equally important as an excuse, but I cannot.
I just did not go because I did not want to.
Am I kicking myself about this, this morning? Of course I am. It is a little to late now though. I have already been told a few times this morning that I should have just sucked it up and went. Which is true I should have. But I didn’t.
So, I guess that I need to give myself a good talking to about my attitude problem last night and get on with other things I am working on.
The Voices of Stuart 
a casual observer said,
January 31, 2008 at 1:56 pm
how you’ve hung in there this long and NOT missed a Stuart city Council meeting until now is beyond me…don’t kick yourself too hard, Peg…
just me said,
January 31, 2008 at 8:54 pm
everyone needs a night off. maybe in the future you can have someone else go just to tape for you.
Anonymous said,
January 31, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Peg I relize you are sick of the same ols S–T at the meetings,but we have no one else to go
also anonymous said,
February 1, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Peg,
You have made the people aware of the happenings at City Hall. Missing a meeting is not going to hurt. Can’t you listen to the tape that Ash makes at every meeting? And since he does tape record, do they have to be kept on file under public record law?
thevoicesofstuart said,
February 2, 2008 at 2:47 pm
10:28 pm – ash erases the tape after he writes the meeting minutes. there is no law requiring that the recording be kept on file unless it is of a closed meeting.
also anonymous 2 said,
February 3, 2008 at 10:08 am
as a citizen, and since it is recorded, if asked, would he let anyone listen to it?
thevoicesofstuart said,
February 3, 2008 at 10:55 am
10:08 am – don’t know.
in the know said,
February 4, 2008 at 8:09 am
So, how about the news. Histoplasmosis. The disease in the news reminded me of one of our local doctors who contracted it and it was thought to be from the large amount of pigeon droppings around the corner of divison and north 2nd. Thank goodness we don’t have the pigeons there anymore. And how about that Super Bowl! I am not a particular fan of football, but that was one game I wanted to see and was delighted with the outcome.
Did you ever wake up on a February 4th, in Iowa, to lightening and thunder and rain before. I can’t remember if I have. Finally, it looks like it might be Obama and McCain. Scary choice to make there.
Anonymous said,
February 4, 2008 at 11:51 am
Nothing scary about that at all. You have two very clear choices, and both are believable, for once. If you want war going on, taxes and big govt., you vote for McCain, if you want a chance to change it all, you vote Obama. On the otherhand, if we get Clinton, we get lies, Washington machine, and slick Willie for another go round.
thevoicesofstuart said,
February 4, 2008 at 3:36 pm
11:51 am – i agree with you on mccain and clinton but i don’t on obama. he likes to say the word change but there is no substance behind it. his idea of change is to get people to talk about it. he is also a democrat who believes that the government should take care of everything. the programs he has as part of his platform will cost everyone more taxes and still will not take care of the problem. it may help some but at what cost? how much more are you willing to give up out of your paycheck to support people who cannot pay their own way in life? another $100, 500 or thousand a year in taxes. the fed is continuing to throw money at all these banks and mortage companies that made all these bad loans to the tune of $60 B a month trying to keep them solvent. and don’t let the talking heads fool you because we are talking about solvency not liquidity. they can call it liquidity all they want but the end result will be the same…..bankruptsy. remember the savings and loan troubles of the 80’s. this will make that recession look like a walk in the park. then think about inflation for a minute. does everyone understand that adding unbacked money to a economy is the cause of inflation. has everyone noticed the price increases at the grocery store lately. when butter and biscuits go up 60% overnight you cannot tell me that we are not already seeing the result of these bailouts. and the stimulas package they are talking about now will just be another shot of unbacked money adding to inflation. does everyone understand that the government does not have the $150 B they are talking about for the package. they have only two ways of getting it. borrow it from china who has been demanding payments in gold lately because they do not trust the value of the dollar any more or just print it based on nothing. oh yeah, and if you did not know this the last time they did one of these stimulus packages back in 01 it did next to nothing for the economy. they did a study of the results of that package and 85% of the money sent out went to pay a bill or into savings. neither of which stimulates the economy. and the country is broke…as in $9.2 Trillion of deficit. and of that $9.3 Trillion deficit $5.4 Trillion is held by foreign governments mostly china. here is the debt clock. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
you just have to ask yourself why none of these so called front runners are not talking about cutting government spending, shoring up social security and paying off the deficit. if you tried to do this how long do you think it would take the bank to stop covering your checks?
and speaking about banks i ran across a bi-weekly report on the federal reserves website that shows that banks overall do not and are not capable of maintaining the required amount of cash reserves. in fact as of jan 08 they were in the minus postion. see for yourselves here.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h3/Current/
if you look at the non-borrowed (3) column and the required column right next to it the entire bank system is insolvent.
after i saw that i googled to look for banks and whether or not they had started limiting cash withdrawals. and sure enough citibank has started doing that with no notice to their customers. granted that there have been fraud attempts on some of their accounts in new york city but analysts that are watching the situation say that is a smoke screen for their cash reserves problem.
all in all i don’t think that anyone should make up their mind yet about who they will be voting for until it is a lot closer to the election and you get to see where this whole economic picture is headed and how bad we are going to be affected. i don’t think there is a so called “front runner” that has any idea about what is headed our way or what needs to be done about it.
think about it.
in the know said,
February 4, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I guess the scary thing is, and we can do nothing about it, no matter who we elect, we don’t know how they will handle the office and what they will do. We can only find out after the fact. Our best bet is to vote with the one who has not strayed or changed from their original positions and look into the way they have handled other situations. Scary also, because Obama is young and vulnerable to persuasion, whereas McCain is older (and looks forward to a long life) but maybe to staid in some principles. We just won’t know until whoever takes office will we?
thevoicesofstuart said,
February 5, 2008 at 7:19 am
7:57 pm – based on the scenerio that you propose in your comment there is:
1. nothing we can do about it.
2. obama and mccain are both vulnerable in different ways
and
3. we have to take a wait and see stance before we know what a elected president will do.
in this instance i think that the economy will give each candidate a chance to show their true colors before the general election in november.
the one statement you made “Our best bet is to vote with the one who has not strayed or changed from their original positions and look into the way they have handled other situations.” to me says more about your hope for the future. but it is only half of the picture. you actually have to do the homework to check out the candidates. the key word being “you”. if you think that the talking heads on tv and radio will actually give you factual information you would be sorely mistaken. you have probaly already discovered this if you have watched any of the debates and the way they bias the candidates.
the long haul between now and the national convention will give you plenty of time to monitor the candidates and see exactly who is or is not trying to blow smoke up your skirt.
i have already told everyone who i am supporting and wish to maintain a conversation that is not just a “horn blow” for him. as much as i would like to lead you as viewers to the same conclusion i feel that in something this important everyone should make their own journey.
in my book we are at a critical crossroads for this republic. anyone who knows history understands that the country learned this lesson before and our recent past and current leaders have chosen to ignore the lesson.
whether the “powers that be” choose to take the correct actions now to mitigate the effects of previous bad policy or we elect a new president who also has not learned from history or we elect someone who knows those lessons and is not afraid to tell the american people the trueth about what is coming. that is our choices. there are no others.
i don’t know about you but i don’t like bad news as much as everyone else. but what i dislike worse is not being told the trueth so that we can figure out how to get it fixed and get on with doing it. there is nothing worse in my book than having the trueth hidden until there is no way to avoid the consequences. and even making the consequences even harsher than need be.
to borrow from old doctor phil “past performance is a true indicator of future performance”. look at the candidates past performance, voting records, their ability to speak intelligently about cause and effect, their ability to answer a question not spin it to a non-answer as we have seen all to many of them do to avoid showing their ignorance on a subject or evade an answer. look at who is able to see the difference between a symptom of bad policy and the policy itself that needs changing.
will it be easy to wrap your head around looking at the world differently. no. will it be easy to give up preconcieved notions about the state of things that effect our lives. no. will it make a difference to the future of this country. definitely.
do not make this election about emotion, looks and media bias. make this election about logic and ability to look folks in the face and say the hard trueth so we as a nation can get on with the task of fixing the problems that we have.
think about it.
in the know said,
February 5, 2008 at 8:19 am
Because I am tired and not feeling up to par now, I won’t go into much detail. I agree with you very much. I will try to get back later when I am up to it. I would like to quickly address your last paragraph on how we should be voting. Too many people let their votes be cast according to gender, race, religious affiliation, and all the other non meaningful reasons of picking a leader. We need to put aside all the media debates, for these are all orchestrated and pre rehearsed questions and answers. If they could ever have a debate where the questions were off the cuff and the candidate has to respond to an unknown, only then will we get a clearer picture of how they will handle the responsibilities of office. I’ll get back to you, need to go lie down.
thevoicesofstuart said,
February 5, 2008 at 12:34 pm
in the know – hope you feel better soon.