Time to pay, but 10,500 lack bills for property tax

That is the headline of the article in the Houston Chronicle and on Chron.com. It seems to me that if we want to get our point about property taxes being to high, protesting your appraisal value is one way. It is also probably the easiest since you do not have to deal with the up to 15 taxing entities that could have "claim" on your property. Not that being said, most people do not have the time to protest their taxes by themselves, so I would suggest using one of the companies that will protest your taxes for a percentage of what you would save. It cost you nothing up front and can save you large amounts in the end. I'll use my home as the example. My pre protest value was going to be $116,800, by protesting it it was reduced to $105,000 that is a savings of $11,800 which is a 10.2% decrease in my taxable value. Now if you figure that my tax rate including homestead exemption is around say $3.50 per 100 in valuation I just saved around $450 in taxes this year. Not a huge amount but it makes a huge difference if you start to look at things on a say school district level.

XYZ ISD has say 100,000 homes in it and say 20 % of the homes protest their value and all of them get their appraised value reduced by oh let's say 5%, the result is dramatic. We will assume that the average value of the homes is $100,000 and the district tax rate is $1.75 per 100 in valuation look at the numbers

100,000 homes times ( 1000 x 1.75) = $175,000,000 in tax revenue. Yes 175 Million in tax revenue. No on to the appraisal protest

Ok

80,000 homes with the same appraisal values and tax rates. - 80,000 x(1000x1.75) = $140,000,000

20,000 homes with appraisal values 5% less and the same tax rate. 20,000x(950x1.75)=$33,250,000

Which ends up with a reduction to $173,250,000 it is only a 2 million dollar reduction but that $2million is more than most people think. It can send a message to the leaders of the district that the residents are going to whatever they can to keep their wallets from overflowing. The key for all good tax conscious people is to help spread the word to your neighbors to help to by protesting their appraisal value, and explain to them that their mortgage payments can come down because of this small effort on their part, and in the worst case it cost them nothing if their appraisal value does not go down.

Read the Article and spread the word. Conservative ideas are spread best by word of mouth, and from one friend to another. We are our most powerful when we work at the neighborhood level and expand out from there.

RIP President Ford

We have lost another member of the community of historical figures today. President Gerald R. Ford passed away at the age of 93 in California.

His passing is being covered by every media outlet out there. From ESPN to CNN and everything in between.

Here are some small pieces from a couple of the articles about this great man.

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history

"His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."

He was the longest living president, followed by Ronald Reagan, who also died at 93.

Ford's death marks the second loss for the Michigan football community this year. Legendary coach Bo Schembechler died last month, a day before Michigan played arch rival Ohio State. "At Michigan we have lost a legendary figure who represented the highest ideals of the 'Michigan Man' -- a gentleman who was integrity personified," said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr. "We love him and we will miss him, but we are compensated by the knowledge that his spirit and his love for the University of Michigan will endure."

President Bush called Ford a "great man" who was a "true gentleman." "He assumed power in a period of great division and turmoil," Bush said. "For a nation that needed healing and for an office that needed a calm and steady hand, Gerald Ford came along when we needed him most."

Jimmy Carter, who said Ford "frequently rose above politics by emphasizing the need for bipartisanship and seeking common ground on issues critical to our nation."
"I will always cherish the personal friendship we shared," said the former Georgia governor.

After playing football at the University of Michigan and serving on an aircraft carrier in the Navy during World War II, Ford was elected to the U.S. House in 1948 as a Republican, representing a district that included his hometown of Grand Rapids. He spent 25 years in Congress, working his way up to minority leader in 1965.
In October 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after pleading no contest to tax evasion. President Nixon, ensnared in the rising Watergate scandal, asked the well-respected Ford to leave Congress to replace Agnew, and he accepted.

According to AP, Ford was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin.

In September 1974, Ford granted Nixon a pardon, sparing the former president the prospect of going to prison. The public and political backlash was angry and bitter, with Ford accused of making a tawdry deal with Nixon to secure the White House for himself.
Ford always denied that any deal had been struck. But the pardon colored the rest of his presidency.
"It was a tough decision," Ford told USA Today in an interview in 2000. "We needed to get the matter off my desk. ... so I could concentrate on the problems of 260 million Americans and not have to worry about the problems of one man."

Love him or hate him, agree with his decisions or not. I challenge anyone who is on either side of the debate to say that Gerald Ford was a man of integrity and courage who after his time in public service was over, turned to more enjoyable pursuits including golf, and skiing, as well as supporting charitable organizations, and kept his political views to himself.

He will be missed may he rest in peace.

Craddick to have challenger for speaker position

GOP rival threatens Craddick's House rule.... that is the headline in the paper on Christmas Eve. The big question is why would the chronicle run this story now? Well it is simply a matter of looking for news. Seems the feel good legislation mentality is seeping down into the Texas House.

State Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, is expected to formally announce his candidacy against Craddick as early as the middle of this week, several lawmakers said Saturday.
McCall has a reputation of getting along (see this as playing nice with the opposition) with different factions. If elected, he is expected to bring a more even-handed approach ( which means those out of power or disagree will cause more problems) to the role, allowing members to vote the interests of their districts, rather than succumb to the dictates of the speaker. (I always thought that the speaker was supposed to work to push the agenda and corresponding legislation of the majority party through the process)

We see that there are people who do not like Craddick nor his tactics and his dealings are being compared to Tom Delay.

Craddick, of Midland, has drawn criticism from most Democrats and some Republicans(Rinos) for his strong-armed rule.
The House speaker, who is chosen by 149 other state representatives at the beginning of every legislative session, wields considerable power because he or she appoints legislative committees and influences which bills come to the floor for debate — and which die in the legislative hopper.
Craddick was a major force behind measures that limited lawsuits in Texas and a new business tax designed to reduce school property taxes.
He also is a strong supporter of school vouchers and favors strict anti-abortion legislation.
Democrats also blame Craddick's heavy hand in the controversial congressional redistricting dispute in 2003 that escalated bad feelings in the House as Craddick sponsored then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's plan to carve out more GOP seats.

Read the article and see that the majority of the people who are speaking out are democrats who would gain from a more moderate person as speaker.

Just my POV but it really is sad that people are looking for this sort of crap to sling during the holiday season

FW: MAN RULES!!

At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down

Finally, the guys' side of the story. (I must admit, it's pretty good.)We always hear "the rules" From the female side.

Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules!
Please note... these are all numbered "1" ON PURPOSE!
1. Men are NOT mind readers.
1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.
1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.
1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.
1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!
1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.
1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a Problem. See a doctor.
1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.
1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't Expect us to act like soap opera guys.
1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.
1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of them makes you sad or angry, then we meant the other one
1. You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.
1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.
1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.
1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.
1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.
1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle, besides we know you will bring it up again later.
1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.
1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine...Really.
1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or golf.
1. You have enough clothes.
1. You have too many shoes.
1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!
1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Pass this to as many men as you can - to give them a laugh.

Pass this to as many women as you can - to give them a bigger laugh

Funny Videos: Stupid Karate Guy

Funny Videos: This so called karate expert gets owned by a piece of wood. Then he blames everyone but himself.

This guy is the Freaking Funniest Guy Ever

For all of those fishermen out there...

humour blonde

Funny Blonde Video

State of the Texans and 2006 Draft Report Card.

Well we are 12 games into the Texan's season and we are sitting on a 4-8 record with wins over Jacksonville (twice), Miami, and Oakland. Of those the two against Jacksonville are the most pleasant surprise. However at the same time we have lost a Washington team that we should have beaten, as well as 2 close loses to the Giants and Buffalo that could have very well been wins. So the question that is sitting out there is this team better than last years joke of a team? In a word yes, how much better is up for discussion. The two things that I have seen that are an improvement over last year, are the fact that the defense is better, and as a team they are not giving up if they are down. Other than that this team has both a lot of question marks as well as holes in it, and if the season were to end today they would have the 5th pick in the NFL Draft, and as of this posting there is speculation that they would take Adrian Peterson the Oklahoma RB in the first round. But enough of this dreaming, I intend to take a look at the 2006 Draft, as well as how certain individuals have played.

Starting off with the draft, I would for the most part give the class an incomplete grade. There are several reasons for that. First of the players drafted half of them are out with injuries. Second it sometimes takes a couple of years to have some players develop. That being said on an individual basis here are the grades for the Texans 2006 Draft Class.

Rnd 1 Mario Williams C+: He has shown at times that he can be as good as Julius Peppers, and at other times he looks like Dr. Pepper. Granted he is young but he is also shown a great amount of talent and athletic ability. He is the one who tipped the game tying 2 point conversion away in the Miami victory. He is a keeper and will benefit from a full off season of conditioning and training.

Rdn 2 DeMeco Ryans A+: This guy is a player, plain and simple. He started out on the outside and moved inside and has started from day 1. He is with out a doubt the Defensive Rookie of the Year, and hopefully the QB for the defense for a long time.

Rnd 3 Charles Spencer Inc: Broken leg ended his season early. Showed a nasty streak and some skills in the early part of the season. Look forward to seeing him be able to play the full year.

Rnd 3 Eric Winston C: This grade would have been an Incomplete if not for the injury to Weigert which has forced him into playing time.

Rnd 4 Owen Daniels B-: has taken over as the starter at TE, would like to see him get a little bit stronger, but other than that he is a good talent. He runs good routes and just about catches everything thrown his way.

Rnd 6 Wali Lundy D: he has shown moments of promise then has reverted to a timid back. He may well become the third down back if the Texans do get Peterson in the draft.

Rnd 7 David Anderson Inc: was supposed to be the 4th wr and return man, has not seen much time other than on special teams, so cannot say what his value is or going to be.

Now as far as the team, I am happy with the progress that I have seen with the defense, They are playing better, their biggest problem is the lack of play makers. They have a solid group but out side of Ryans, Robinson, Weaver, and Williams they do not have enough people that the other team fears. We are close but need 1 or 2 more star level players to make this defensive unit a top 10 unit.

The offense on the other hand still has so many holes it looks like Swiss cheese. Part of the problem is the fact that it seems that the offensive line breaks like a frozen candy bar. If Winston, Hodgdon, and Pitts can play together for the rest of the year and stay healthy we could be onto something. Add Spencer back next year and draft a couple of young nasties to try to work in we could have a solid offensive line. That being said then we can look at seeing what a real running back can do to both help David Carr, and make defenses play a more honest scheme, which will open things up for Andre, Owen Daniels, Eric Moulds, and crew..

This year so far has been a step in the right direction, however we need to see how things progress over the final 4 games and how free agency and the draft are handled before I will say they are on the right track. But right now things look promising.

Amendment to Pakistan's Rape Statute Becomes Law

Just read the article and make your own conclusion about Islamic law and what these people really want as well as what they think about women.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Despite nationwide protests by
hard-liners, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday signed into law an amendment to the country's controversial rape statute to make it easier to prosecute sexual assault cases.
Human rights activists have long condemned Pakistan's old law for punishing — instead of protecting — rape victims while providing legal safeguards for their attackers.
The new legislation, known as the Protection of Women Bill, was supported by Musharraf's government as part of efforts by Islamabad to soften the country's hard-line Islamic image and appease moderates and human rights groups who opposed the old law.
The changes take effect immediately, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afghan said during a nationally televised broadcast.
"It has been done to safeguard the rights of women," Afghan said.
The law was enacted even as thousands of religious conservatives rallied against the changes at several protests around the country.
Islamists gathered by the hundreds at separate events in the southwestern city of Quetta, the eastern city of Lahore and the city of Rawalpindi, just south the capital Islamabad.
Under the new law, which was approved last week by Parliament, judges can choose whether a rape case should be tried in a criminal court — where the four-witness rule would not apply — or under the old Islamic law, known as the Hudood Ordinance.
It also drops the death penalty for sex outside of marriage. The offense would now be punishable with five years in prison or a fine of $165.
International and local calls for change intensified after the 2002 gang-rape of a woman who was assaulted after a tribal council in her eastern Punjab village ordered the rape as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste.
Hundreds of opposition supporters have rallied against amending the old laws, which were introduced by late President Gen. Zia ul-Haq to make Pakistani legislation more Islamic.
Opposition leader Senator Khurshid Ahmed, from a six-party coalition of Islamic groups known as the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, has condemned the changes as "an attempt to promote an alien culture and secularism in Pakistan."

A picture that is worth a thousand words.

I was walking through Wal-Mart, the great retail Satan the day before Thanksgiving and what do I see in the middle of the isle at in the video section but a pallet display of the Al Gore, environ drama.
But that is not all, the video is packaged as a bundle but instead of some other video we get a florescent light bulb as a goodies with your purchase.
I guess the marketing folks did not have to think to hard on this baby....
Also notice the cover of the DVD and the not so subtle message that it is sending.

Citizenship test being dumbed down now

Well I guess it was only a matter of time before the feelgood education bureaucracy got its claws on the federal citizenship test and started to dumb it down. The story in the Chronicle today as well as the links to the sample tests show that the liberal feel good, no accountability mindset is still strong in the federal government. There is a quiz online at the Chronicle website to test your knowledge see how well you do. I scored 100% my first time around also there is a link to the web page that has the pilot program

A couple of bits from the story first to pass the test you now only have to get 60% of the questions correct.

Immigration officials released 144 sample questions Thursday. On the civics portion of the citizens examination, applicants will be asked 10 questions drawn from a master list of 100. As now, applicants will need to answer six correctly.

Also there will not be simple right and wrong answers

Rather than being asked to simply list the three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial), citizenship applicants could be asked to explain why there are three branches (so no branch is too powerful; to separate the power of government.)
Instead of being asked "Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?" (A civil rights leader), applicants could be asked "Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for America. What was his dream?"Acceptable answers include: "Civil rights for all" or "Equality for all Americans."

This is all being done under the command of Emilio Gonzalez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and his reasoning is as follows:

"Our goal is to inspire immigrants to learn about the civic values of this nation so that after they take the oath of citizenship they will participate fully in our great democracy.
Gonzales said the current exam, which includes such questions as "What colors are the stripes on the flag?" (red and white ) and "Who wrote The Star-Spangled Banner?" (Francis Scott Key)," encourages applicants to memorize facts just to pass a test.
"That doesn't guarantee that they understand the meaning behind the question," he said.

Who cares if they understand the meaning, the objective is to make sure that those that want citizenship know about the country, how it works, and the history behind it. Not do they understand the meaning behind the question. For crying out loud, this makes me sick.

The other thing that makes this change a pile of crap is that because there are no singular right or wrong answers everything is dependant upon the examiner to determine the correctness of the answer, a perfect example...

Magali Candler, a Houston immigration lawyer who heads the regional chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, predicted the new test may produce a higher failure rate for some immigrants, particularly the elderly — in part because even immigrants with good English skills sometimes have difficulty expressing broad concepts orally.

But she said immigrants likely will rise to the challenge. "I have always thought that my clients studying for naturalization knew more about American civics than many of my friends and neighbors who were born here," she said.

Whether the test will be more educational or meaningful could depend upon how flexible examiners are on accepting immigrants' answers, she said.
On the draft question "What does freedom of religion mean?", for example, "there are a lot of different right answers," she said.
Even on the current test, she said, a client had trouble answering a question about the important benefits of becoming a naturalized citizen .
The examiner was seeking a response like, "You get to vote," but Candler's client answered, "You can't get deported."
"That's a great answer," she said. "And it's true."

Then there is the cost

The estimated cost of the test revamp is $6.5 million, which includes launching the pilot project, studying the results, narrowing the list of questions to 100 and implementing the new test nationwide.

Why not use that money to do something about border control, or maybe deporting some of the 12 million illegals that are already here. You know that 6.5 Million would make a nice deposit on the border fence. But then that is not what the jokers in Washington really want. They want a cheap, uneducated workforce that depends upon government handouts to survive, as well as free or reduced rate services like medical and school lunches. While those of us who have lived here our whole lives and are honest hard working tax paying citizens get bent over the barrel and taken to the woodshed. We need to start to let these goons in DC know that we will not put up with this sort of crap anymore.