City Budget Highlights.

I found this on the Chicago Sun Times web site. I found it interesting. My thoughts are italicized.

Highlights from Chicago's 2009 city budget

November 20, 2008

• 635 city employees laid off — possibly dozens less, depending on how many take cash incentives to retire.
• More than 1,600 vacant jobs eliminated.
  
• Six partial shutdown days around the holidays.
• Slow police hiring to 200 in 2009, saving $10 million.
• Because we definitely don't need more cops. We like being the Murder Capitol of the nation.
  
• Raise amusement tax to 5 percent on live theatrical, musical and cultural performances in venues seating more than 750 seats and 9 percent for sporting events, concerts and movies.
• Extend amusement tax to include 135,000 Chicagoans who get their cable TV by installing a satellite dish.
  
• Obviously Chicago owns the air and space that is directly above us. This is ridiculous.
  
• Increase parking tax — from $2.25 per car to $3 — on motorists who pay more than $12 to park.
• Lower Denver boot threshold from three unpaid tickets to two older than one year.
• Six-week amnesty for 3.5 million overdue parking and red-light tickets Dec. 1 to Feb.14.
• Basically only good for any tickets before Jan 1st, 2007. If you got it in 2008 you don't get any type of help.
  
• Blues and Jazz fests reduced from four days to three with fewer stages at each.
• Must not be making much money off the show.
  
• Double daily library fines from 10 to 20 cents.
• Raise ambulance fees from $325 and $8 a mile to $600 and $13 a mile for basic life support and from $400 and $8 a mile to $700 and $13 a mile for advanced life support. Nonresidents will pay $100 on top of that.
• Nonresidents should know better than to get injured or sick while visiting this city. Because your less of a person than those that live here.
  
• Raise residential permit parking guest passes from $10 to $16 for a book of 30.
• This makes sense to me.. strange.
  
• Increase the public vehicle license fee paid by limosuines and charter buses from $100 to $200 to $500 for everybody.
• Raise $9 million by requiring businesses and residential high-rises to purchase annual licenses for their garbage containers at a cost of $80 to $780.
• Cut $1.7 million city subsidy for free trolley rides.
• There's free trolley rides here? Wow.. I don't get out much.
  
• Privatize 35,000 parking meters by year’s end and apply $150 million to shortfalls this year and next. If it doesn’t work, more layoffs and tax hikes needed.
• Yes!! Privatize them so the company that gets the contract can make even more money than the city did! Brilliant!!
  
• Establish five-year, $100 million annuity with discretionary proceeds from the Midway Airport lease and spend $20 million a year through 2012.
• Save $5 million by consolidating city departments that handle consumer issues, human services, economic development and business affairs.
• Install red-light cameras at 50 more intersections.
• 50? Why not every 6 corner intersection and every intersection crossing a highway. Might as well make the most out of them. Will they catch bicyclists that don't stop as well?
  
• Raise $2 million by seeking sponsorships for city assets and events, beginning with a new agreement to provide beverage and vending services and city-owned facilities.
• Eliminate Fire Department Segway patrols in the Loop.
• There was a need for this to begin with?
  
• Raise daily and annual fees for merchants at Maxwell Street market to save popular Jumping Jack program for neighborhood festivals.
• Uh.. the Jumping Jack program is idiotic. What service does it really serve that the neighborhood organizers couldn't find in some other form?
  

Chicago's Parking Ticket Amnesty Program

Chicago has decided to start up the Parking Ticket Amnesty Program again. It's been about 6 years since the last opportunity for people to get a little help with their parking tickets.

Six years ago the city offered to wave all late fees on tickets and cut the prices on the tickets in half. This time around they're just going to cut the late fees in half. Oh, and only to the tickets you got before Jan 1, 2007. As if that's really going to help out a lot of people.

It is a good smoke screen to get people to actually fess up to the tickets they have. It will also make it easier for the city to get up to date addresses on people that have moved a hundred times since their last ticket. That way the city can actually send you notices and they can add more late charges.

However, if you do have parking tickets from before January 1st, 2007 then I guess this is good. Considering that most late fees on tickets after a year are at least a hundred bucks, so now you're just spending an extra fifty bucks.

I know what the ticket game is like. After all, I'm on a payment plan for $1,500 worth of them. Of course, all of mine were after January 1st, 2007. Once again, no help for me.

So is it really all that good of a deal? I guess so if you have a ton of tickets but it doesn't seem like much.

The amnesty program was inspired by the newly signed bill that has dropped the number of tickets that will get you the boot. Which was recently dropped from 3 tickets to 2 tickets. That's right, if you have two tickets on your name then your vehicles are now eligible for the boot.

If your not familiar with the boot system it works like this.

You have 2 tickets. They put the Denver Boot on one of your tires. Your car is now immobilized. You have 24 hours to pay off your tickets or start a payment plan to remove the boot. Plus a booting fee and a boot removal fee. If you can't make arrangements to remove the boot your car will be towed. Now you have towing fees and possible storage fees to pay for as well. If you don't make arrangements to pay off your tickets and the fees after a certain period of time; your car will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Here's the catch. Let's say you owe $600 total to get your car back. Your car gets auctioned off for $1,200. The city gets every penny of that and you still owe for your parking tickets, towing fees and storage fees.

So here's my suggestion.

If you have a car that is booted, you know you can't afford to pay off your tickets and the city is going to take it. Take everything you want out of the car and then take a baseball bat to it. Smash everything you can get to and then take a boxcutter and cut the upholstery to ribbons. Smash the windows, the radio and then pop the hood and start cutting belts and hoses.

I mean.. if they're going to take your property, sell it and then not even take the amount off of what you owe then why give them anything?

Bailout.

I've always said that nothing really effects me in the overall scheme of things. To be more precise, I'd say they don't effect me directly. Which has been my way of thinking for a long time. If something gets bad then you become better. You don't sit and complain and let things continue.

I've always been proactive for the individual. Each person is in charge of themselves. If you choose to buy a home, then you choose to pay the taxes on that home. If you choose to drive a car, then you choose to pay for gas. If you choose to have children, then you choose to raise them to be respectful and diligent. By choosing these things you earn the right to complain about these things. By choosing not to do these things, you can still complain but your complaints are useless.

At some point or another we're all effected by government. No matter what, every single person in the nation has had to use or be brought upon the government. Either in the big view (federal) or the smaller view (local). This includes all services that are ran by these governments.

The recent Bailout by the government is ridiculous. I know that Special Interest parties have constantly been supporters of whoever takes their money. They give them money and sooner or later they get some kind of tax break or favor. Ever wonder why celebrities endorse certain parties? Maybe it has to do with the fact that people who make multi-million dollar salaries get taxed as much as you and I do. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe it's because the tax brackets haven't been thought of as a new way to make more capital for the nation. Or perhaps, every person is treated equally even though some of us can't pay the bills or are living on the street and others can afford their 5th vacation home.

Since when does the government propose to pay off these companies debts? Does the government, as a whole, receive money from these companies to help with the many costly national proposals? If it did, wouldn't that make it a government institution? I can see why the government would want to bail out a government institution. I can not see why it would want to bail out a private business. Perhaps it has to do with stock options that are owned by many politicians. Why would they want to lose their money when they can save it. All ideas that I know nothing about.

That's right. I don't know any true facts to what I just said. It's all things that are in my head and I'm just 'vocalizing' here. I don't need to spend countless hours looking up facts because this is all my opinion that I've obtained from reading articles. Then again, where would I get the facts needed to know what politician owns how ever many stock options in certain companies and whether these companies are the ones being bailed out.

I do know that politics have a lot to do with washing hands. You do this for me and I'll donate this much money to your campaign. Every donation is given in hope by the common person. You donate in hopes that this person will win the election and they'll do the things they've promised. You believe in their ideals. How many corporations have you ever heard of that have any type of hopes or ideals that didn't have anything to do with their bottom line? Corporations don't wonder what will happen to their employees when they shut down factories and move them overseas. They just look at the bottom line. It's cheaper to do these things overseas and that will make them more profit.

Is the government trying to bail out these corporations to save the American people or are they trying to save themselves from the mistakes they've made over time. Was NAFTA a good idea? It sounded like it at the time to some. But where is the return investment? We give away jobs and we get nothing back other than more people out of work and having to settle for jobs that pay less. Or even worse, jobs that have turned over to temporary job services.

Ah yes, temp jobs. Aren't they great? You go to work and the company you work for charges $15 an hour for you. After their cut you might get $10 an hour. No benefits because your a temp. You don't amount to anything until they decide to hire you on after how ever many months of a probation period. Even then they'll probably find a reason to let you go so they don't have to give you benefits.

So basically, next Tuesday is the cut off date for registering to vote for this November. I suggest you do. I won't sit here and endorse a certain politician but I'd definitely suggest not voting for a captured soldier who's Vice President select thinks she can see Russia from her house. It's like the blind leading the blind. One has memory lapses and can't remember saying the exact opposite things a week before. The other thinks that she can run a country because she's a hockey mom. We don't need more idiots in office. George W was enough to make all Americans look a lot more stupid to the rest of the world. New-cue-lear.

If you want more information on voting in Chicago and Illinois check out these sites.

Chicago Board of Elections.

Illinois State Board of Elections.

If you don't know if your registered then check this site out.

Vote for Change.

Yes, it's paid for by Obama. Does that matter if your going there to see if you can vote? If you said yes, then please don't register to vote. It would be useless.

Again. Tuesday, October 7th is the last day you can register to vote for the elections in November.

If you don't vote then don't complain.

A little insight into me.

Ok. Here we go. Let's see.... topic.. How bout drugs?

Ah drugs, the things that make you go oooo... or ahhh... or WHAT THE FUCK? WHERE'D THAT BODY COME FROM!?

Let's start out simply. I was never one of the people that got drunk at high school house parties. I was never one of the kids that got wasted at college parties. I've never been a person that has ever seen a need for doing any type of drugs. In fact, if I look hard enough, I would probably find a bottle of Vicoden laying around from back in 99 or 00 when I had the remains of my appendix taken out.

I've never had the want or necessity to do any of these things. Maybe it was because my father drank a lot when I was very small. Maybe it was because of the numerous times I had to hold the hair of my sister who is 8 years older than me. Maybe it was because of the times I had to babysit my sister's son due to her being too drunk, stoned or cracked out. It might even have to do with watching how it effected my siblings and how I really didn't want to turn out like them.

Seems that all of this would have the opposite effect on a person. They say that most people turn out like the people they grew up with. Luckily I grew up with a group of people that were nothing like any of the things said above. No, I was never in foster care. I grew up with my natural family. They're some of the best people and they taught me much. I did have a group of friends that felt the same as I did.

So when people ask me what I do with my off days I tell them. I spend them at home. I watch tv, play video games, draw or screw around on the internet. "Why not go out on your days off?" Good question, I guess. Why would I? I rarely drink and I spend 4 nights a week in a 4am bar. Should I go there so I can sit around, drink water, listen to loud music and see what happens? No, I think not. You see, after you do my type of work long enough, it doesn't matter where you are, you start to work. Why go to work if your not getting paid?

I know a lot of people really like it when I do go out to drink on those 2 or 3 occasions in a year. But here's the question to you. Would you think it's funny and great if I drank like that on a weekly basis? Would you think it's funny and great that I'm acting like a complete idiot and playing grab ass on a weekly basis? I doubt it. I know it gets tiring for me to see after a while.

I don't want this to come off as a high an mighty roller sounding blog. I'm no better for not doing drugs than a person that has done drugs and survived. By survive I mean a person that isn't out begging for change just so they can get another fix. Once again, I've seen that on a personal level as well.

To be more to the point. I don't care about people smoking weed. It's far from being anything worse than smoking a cigarette. Any type of cocaine, heroin and the such are what I'm mainly talking about.

So in my personal life, I'm against drugs. I don't give a shit if anyone does them. Honestly, I don't care. I know plenty of people that do and that's your choice. It's when your choice starts to invade my life that I take interest. When your choice starts to sneak it's little head into my personal area I start to get upset. I don't like being upset. It usually involves me calling you out, an argument and someone not being happy. At times it might even involve someone finding a new home.

So with all of this being said, I hope it shines a little light on me. If you've ever wondered why you don't see me on my off nights now you know. It's rare and far between that I go out and a 12 pack lasts me months at home.

Stroller Dog Twinkie Cake.

So I went walking the other day. Ok, I didn't but it did sound pretty good. I mean wouldn't it be awesome to just walk up to someone and start off your conversation that way?

"So I went walkin the other day."

"Really? Where all did you go?"

"I think I need to get my tires rotated on my car."

"Thought you were walking?"

"Why is there no mayo in the fridge?"

"What?"

"Exactly."

I happened to spot something that I could barely see. When I got closer I realized that what I thought I saw I didn't really see because the thing I saw was definitely not what I thought I saw. It was in fact nothing of any importance at all. Which just blew my mind considering what I thought I saw was something that I honestly had hoped I'd seen. In the long end my coffee was just getting colder and no one really likes coffee if it's really cold unless it has ice in it. I guess it's not really coffee if you purposely put a lot of ice in it. At that point I'd have to say it's one of those iced coffee crapuccino things. Even then is it really coffee or some kind of cappuccino creation that is supposed to taste more like overly sugared dirt?

Ever seen those baby strollers that have nothing in them except dogs? Really? Shouldn't the dog be hooked up to the front and pulling your ass around? I guess if the dog has a thyroid problem or is just fat because there's an unlimited supply of twinkies laying around it's ok. It's not their fault, it's in their genes. I could go on an on about things in people's genes... After all, that's where we all come from whether your talking about genes or jeans. Neat, they sound a lot a like. I know a few jeans I wouldn't mind getting in to. Well, when they wear jeans.. usually skirts. Which is a whole different post all together. Especially since you don't really get into them... Anywho.. back to the matter at hand.

Where'd all these same size jeans with different actual measurements come from? Pretty sure that 40 x 34 is a basic size. Since when does 40 actually mean 44? Since when did guys get so paranoid about feeling better about themselves that we have to lie about our pant sizes? Which person actually thought this through? "Let's put 40 on the tag but add 4 inches so this guy doesn't realize he's actually that big around." Isn't it enough that most of us lie about how big our feet are? HA! You thought I was going to say penis. You dirty little creature. Get your mind in the gutter more often and perhaps I'll go that route.

Speaking about routes. Everyone has their normal route that comes and goes. This month you take the bus, next month you drive, the following you just walk and so on. But have you ever surfed into a calming breeze with a giant wave coming over your head? You have? Ok.. stop reading now. Actually, start reading from the beginning and when you get to this point start over again. Please repeat the process until you fully desire to not read it over again and then just close this window.

Now that those people are gone.

Have you ever seen a beaver that wasn't furry? You know the kind, the kind that has no hair... a hairless beaver. No, you probably haven't. They're almost extinct. I shit you not. Look at that and tell me I'm lying. Kinda sad, everyone loves the hairless beavers. They build dams and eat stuff and reproduce.... huh?

Onward ho...

What is it that has the power to descend and destroy everything on this rotating pile of tension? Why is it that everything has tension? If everything just went into it's place would the tension be so extreme? If the tension wasn't so extreme would everything be over so quickly? What the hell am I talking about?

Lands of gold and honey. They're few and far between these days. Then again, why would you only want gold and honey? You can only eat honey with certain things. Even though honey is one of the only products, besides twinkies, that can sit in your cupboard for 30 years and still be good. Back to the twinkies again. Where are those damn stroller dogs? I think I spot them going across the street. Look out for that truck!!

Oh wait, I already established that what I thought I saw wasn't what I saw but could have been close to what I saw had i actually been close enough to see it.

Oh, go twinkie your hoo hoo ya ding dong.