STORM WATCH: Tornado

Moore, OK

UPDATED INFORMATION

Estimate size was 2 miles wide at one point
40 minutes on ground
17 mile long path
Tornado warning sent 16 minutes ahead of time
Touchdown was at 3:01pm
EF4
190 mph winds

@@@@@@@@
Enhanced Fujiti Scale 
Lvl___wind (mph)___damage _______%age 
EF 0 __065-085 ____light__________53%
EF 1__ 086-110____moderate______32%
EF 2 __111-135____considerate____11%
EF 3__ 136-165____severe_________3%
EF 4 __166-200____devestating___
EF 5 __200+ ______incredible______\ 1% together
(There is talk of putting in some higher levels as well)

STORM WATCH: Tornado

Moore, OK

Major tornado killed as few as 21 and as many as 51 reports are saying ... Most of them children from an elementary school

There were 7 kids who were in a storm shelter at the school where the roof collapse on them and a water main broke filling the shelter - they were unable to get out from under the rubble and were drowned along with the teacher.

I did not realize that few homes in the area do NOT have basements - you would think being in Tornado Alley they would - but the soil is either clay (which causes water to collect in the basements) or bedrock (which needs to be dynamited) so there is no real way to put them in.

The best they can do are underground shelter boxes with metal sliding doors - but they cost like $10,000 to go in and aren't very big ... About the size of a small bathroom or jail cell (6 X 10foot)

Add supplies to that so you can wait for rescue if need be and you've got about 6x6 left ... 4 people would fill that up fast.

The storm was an EF4 (more to come on that) which was between 1/2 - 1 mile wide with a debri field of 2 - 2 1/2 miles ... The speeds were clocked at well over 200 mph at one point and stayed on the ground for about 40 minutes ...

The record breaker of 1999 they keep talking about was 1 mile wide, was an EF5' had winds of 300 mph, and stayed on the ground for over an hour! WOW

These two tornadoes took almost the same path - in fact the paths, when payed on top of each other, look like a chromosome ... A tight X that crosses over Moore ...

I was shocked to hear that schools are only required to do tornado drills once a SEMESTER ... That's just twice a year ... In MN our schools have to do them ONCE A MONTH (just like fire drills)

New info just came in that I will post in seperate posting

Economic Education

More MN tax dilemma info

Current bills which have passed house & senate in the state ...

HOUSE BILL
would do the following:
~ expanding the alcohol tax (7¢ per drink)
~ Sports Memorabilia tax (to fund the Viking Stadium)
~ counties will be able to charge a "wheelage" tax on cars

SENATE BILL
would do the following:
§ drop the state sales tax to 6%
§ tax services rendered
§ tax clothes
§ taxes digital downloads
§ online purchases
§ pay television (cable/satellite/apple tv ... I thought we were taxed on all that already?)

THE STATE INCOME TAX LEVELS

Gov Dayton: top 2% of MN ($250,000 jointly earned) would be taxed at 9.85%
MN House: top 1.1% of MN ($400,000 jointly earned) would be taxed at 12.49%, plus surcharge
MN Senate: top 7% of MN ($130,000 jointly earned) would be taxed at 9.4%

The tax bills are supposed to "freeze" tuition at the U of MN (right, like that's gonna happen)
Send more money to schools (ie MPLS & ST PAUL proper schools just like in IL)
Pay for property tax relief ... But only for certain home values I'm sure

Dayton is dancing ... tap dancing ... around the word VETO .... he says they are pretty cose to meeting minds ...

Really?

While it sounds like everyone at the capital is agreed that they have to steal more money from our pockets ... By rising taxes ... How to do it is the controversy ...

We are all screwed ...

Just screwed

Economic Education

UPDATE:
Word is that the bill was voted on twice ... It failed the first time so they had more discussions and then it PASSED the second vote.

The bill will drop the current sales tax in the state but it will now cover CLOTHES, OVER THE COUNTER DRUGS (OTC) such as Tylenol/vitamins, and PERSONAL SERVICES such as hair cuts, etc.

Personal Income tax will rise for what the media is labeling the top 7% of MN residents (I think more like 10-12%)

Now this was just the MN Senate bill - there is one that passed the MN House which it needs to work with (even higher income taxes but no tax on clothing)

Lord forbid they should learn to CUTTHE DAMNED SPENDING like everyone else would have to do!

@~@~@~@~@~ @

What do you consider "upper class"?

Apparently in my state it has been determined to be $74,000 for individuals or $140,000 for couples ...

HEY DAYTON!! That is NOT the top 1% nor the top 5% in our state ...

That will raise $1.8 BILLION in one year ... Kiss your butts goodbye ... What's the point to getting a college education?

They also want to raise the states minimum wage requirement from $7.25/hr up to $9.95/hr!

Making $10/hr now? No - you do NOT get a corresponding raise ... You will however now have to pay more for goods/services to PAY for these new raises that others are getting, but not you.

Geez .. Between states & federal taxes we can expect to being able to keep about 35% of our paychecks while they take the rest ....

So sad

Economic Education

New Job Numbers are out ...

MARCH 2013

88,000 New Jobs
(estimate was 200,000 jobs ... Yuck)

Unemployment
7.6%

WHAT??!!

Well, when you start to lose people who are actually LOOKING for work, then yeah the unemployment numbers LOOK better ....

Civil Labor Force
DOWN
- 496,000

Retail Industry lost: 24,000 jobs
(added 32,000 jobs 6months before)

Only 63% of those who can work, do work (down 0.2%)

Lowest since MAY 1979
(Jimmy Carter was in office, Reagan was running for prez, things looked really nasty)

Current unemployment numbers

06.9% Adult Men
07.0% Adult Women
06.7% Whites
09.2% Hispanic
13.3% Black
24.2% Teens

Numerology Class

WHO DO YOU TRUST TO DO A BETTER JOB HANDLING THE ECONOMY?
_____________MAY_________DEC
_____________7-10________13-16, 2012
Pres. Obama__44%_________54%
Republicans___40%_________36%
ABCNews/WashingtonPost
7-10MAR2013
1001 adults
MOE +/- 3.5%

WOW - that's a full 10 point DROP ... I'm thinking that people are just tired of losing money, losing jobs, losing patience!

Then there are all the flights overseas for ... NOTHING ... There's all the campaigning that happened when he wasn't even running for office (2010-2011) ... All the golf games .. All the vacations ... and more vacations ... Oh and, even more vacations ... then there are the talk shows ...

If Obama can use mass media & Internet to speak to his own people, then why couldn't he do that for the Nobel committee & his "good will" tour?

It would certainly save us tons of money for transportation .... and security .... and ....

green fees

Things That Make You Go HMMMMMM

Well there are, right now anyways, 19 states where MEDICAL marijuana is "legal":

AK
HI
CA
OR
WA
MT
NV
AZ
NM
CO
MI
ME
VT
MA
RI
CT
NJ
DE
DC

And only 2 where it is legal for recreational use:

WA
CO

Interestingly, new studies show that it is a "gateway" drug to tobacco use ... Hmmm ... While I do believe that many pot users also use cigarettes ... I'm not so sure there's a correlation - that's like saying tooth decay leads to heavy drinking. While I'm sure heavy drinkers have tooth decay, I don't think one started because of the other ...

Just as I'm sure that smoking cigarettes doesn't lead to marijuana or visa versa!

While I do believe in "natural medicine" ... I do NOT believe that marijuana is MEDICINAL - while the side effects of its usage may help with the side effects of chemotherapy ... I don't see it as a medicine.

Unless the FEDERAL government legalizes it - it's still ILLEGAL!!!

Don't do it!

Things That Make You Go HMMMMM ...

Begin back peddling ... NOW!

23FEB2013
" ... there are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can't come back this Fall"

27FEB2013
" ... (Reporter: your confident that teachers are already getting pink slips, is that what you said?) ahh - yeah, I know they - yes there's a district where have, they're getting them just because there's an earlier union notification than most, so - Cattahau county WV - but the baste majority of them will be rolling out in the next two months" [sorry if I spelled that incorrectly]

1MAR2013
" ... (Reporter: secretary Duncun, earlier this week on a couple of occasions you've said that there are teacher who already being laid off because of the sequester - are you prepared to say now that that was an exaggeration on your part?) let me get really clear, why you're getting caught up in the details here - what I said was that teachers were getting notices and they were getting - and in the district we were talking about, 110 teachers have gotten notices. Now, I think there was a misinterpretation that I meant they were being laid off tomorrow, that's not what i said that's not what I meant. (Reporter: you said now, you said they were being laid off now) their beginning to get slips now, getting notices now. That's where I think some of the misunderstanding was. But the fact of the matter is, whether its what's already happened, what's coming across the country [insert his slight snicker here] over the next two months, which I also said, 10s of 1000s of teachers potentially are going to be getting these notices across the country, so the impact here is very very significant."

4MAR2013
"... so when I said pink slips, it was probably the wrong word - I probably should have used 'job elimination' 'positions eliminated' you sort of heard repeatedly, I should have been clear there.
Secondly, when I said 'impact on teachers' I should have said 'impact on educators' it's not just teachers, it's also support staff, guidance counselors, folks who work with special education students ..."
Education Secretary Duncan

Yeah ...

Sounds about right for this administration ...

Never mind that these "lay offs" "pink slips" happen EVERY YEAR at this time dispite the Sequester ...

Oh and that county that was laying off 110 teachers? It was really 5 teachers and they were on the block before the sequester even came into play! It was based on budgets and necessity.

So who broke this story?

The Washington Post ... Strict liberal media!

What does that say about this administration

Numerology Class

AMERICAN VOTERS ARE FED UP WITH ...<

84% High Gas Prices
81% Growing Deficit
79% Gov't Spending Too Much
78% Grid Lock in DC
43% Loud Cell Phone Conversations
FEB 25-27,2013
MOE +/- 3%
foxNews Poll

Maybe this should be a "Things That Make You Go HMMMMM" article

Interesting ....

Numerology Class

(wow huge news day today)

Pew Research/USAToday Poll
(no number of pollies given)

IF NO AGREEMENT IS REACHED BY DEADLINE, WHO WOULD BE MORE TO BLAME.

_Feb____Feb___Dec
21-24___13-18__2012
45%____49%___53%__Republicans in Congress
32%____31%___27%__President Obama
13%____11%___12%__Both Equally
11%____08%___08%__Neither/Don't Know
(MOE +/- 3.7%)
-@--@--@--@--@--@-

NBC/WAllStreet Journal
1000 adults
Feb 21-24,2013

ARE SEQUESTER CUTS TOO SEVERE, OR IS IT TIME TO TAKE DRASTIC MEASURES TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT?

50% Too Severe
46% Drastic Measures needed
(MOE +/- 3.1%)

Things That Make You Go HMMMMM

Well ICE has made their biggest move yet in their "fairness" for immigrants .... crusade?

They have let 300 ILlegal immigrants out onto the streets for "lack of funding" due to Sequester ... Never mind that (a) it hasn't taken place yet ~OR~ (b) No one was told about it, not even LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ~OR~ (c) some of them were CRIMINALS in their jurisdictions.

Maybe they shouldn't have wasted money on sno-cone machines & spa trips!

Get ready though, they are currently holding 30,000 people right now ... For right now.

The only conditions for their releases?

They must not leave the area & they must promise to show up for their court dates .... Cuz you know they are honest people. {sarcasm sign flashing here}

Immigrants from AZ were found guilty of robbery, burglary, and assault ... One ILlegal was even a wife beater/child abuser (no state mentioned for him though)

Some 90% of those rereleased will never report to court - they will simply disappear into the many communities they have set up.

The White House has come out, via Jay Carney (press secretary) to say they had nothing to do with this, it was a DHS/ICE thing ...

Yeah ...

Riiiiiiight

Things That Make You Go HMMMMM

UPDATE: 28FEB2013
BERNSTEIN ... the name of the other reporter was Bernstein

@@@@@@@

" Under the constitution, the President is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the president going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement, I can't do what I need to do to protect the country. That's a kind of madness that I haven't seen in a long time"
Bob Woodward
Washington Post
MSNBC "Morning Joe" program

You may remember Woodward from his Watergate stories with that other reporter (sorry, name is total blank right now - terrible headache)

He was speaking about the budget fight & not deploying a ship to the middle east.

" can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying 'oh, by the way, I can't do this because of some budget document?' ... Or George W Bush saying 'you know I'm not going to invade Iraq because I can't get the aircraft carriers I need' or even Bill Clinton saying 'you know, I'm not going to attack sad dam hussein's intelligence headquarters' as he did when Clinton was president because of some budget document"

Don't get him wrong -- Woodward is still a BIG liberal reporter ... So what does that say about Obama??

New Law

In Austen TX on Friday it will be illegal to use plastic bags in retail outlets ... The retailers have banned together to get a lawsuit going to stop this new law.

The retailers propose recycling the plastic bags ... Because you know it works so well now.

Actually I'm not sure those cheap, rip prone bags can be recycled ... I would think they would burn up instead of simply remelting ... I'll have to research that one.

But really - of all the things the Austen government has to deal with and they did THIS??

Wow ... I want one of those jobs

Numerology Class

Some quick numbers for you

Catholics (in light of Pope Benedict resigning)

2/3 majority needed to get new Pontiff
Hope to have new pope by Easter Sunday
Expect to begin on march 17th or so
(I suspect they already know who will get it if it's going to go that quickly)

1910:291 million Catholics in world
2013:1.1 billion in world
2013:75.5 million in USA
7% reside in USA
Huge growth in Africa & china

$¢$¢$¢$

Budget Stuff

$37,829 spent per SECOND
$2.27 million per minute
$136.19 Million per hour
$3.268 BILLION per DAY

House Financial Services meeting (yesterday 26FEB2013) the Debt Clock was proposed to be removed by Rep. Maxine Waters and Congressman Keith Ellison, who consider it just a political ploy ... Yes both democrats

US DEBT=$52,000 for EVERY man/woman/child in USA

More than 1/3 of debt during Obama administration alone

2023=$26.1 Trillion National Debt (if laws do not change)

Sequester=2% of US Budget

Under CURRENT law the PRESIDENT gets to chose WHERE the 2% is coming from ... So he could pull it out of the wages of the Federal government if he wanted to ... Or from any federal program ... He has CHOSEN military, education, national security ... Obama did it!