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All posts for the month November, 2012

Zig Ziglar dies today at 86

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 28, 2012
Posted in: Special Interest. Leave a comment

We loss a great man of God today. I met him a few months after Katrina, he was concerned about me emotionally and spiritually after the disaster. We sat for a short time and he said, ” a long time ago I asked God to build a wall of fire around me so that I would not have to fight the devil, and I promised Him that with that unused energy that I’d promise to use it to build the Kingdom”. He was doing that! He suggested that I do the same, and assured me I’d be better than before. I did, and I am!

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In Zig Ziglar’s world, the morning alarm rang on the “opportunity clock.” And “if you aren’t on fire” when you get to work, “then your wood is wet.” And you have to remember that “money’s not the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen.” And there will be setbacks, but “failure is an event, not a person.”

Killing The Dollar Bill Could Save The Government Billions

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 28, 2012
Posted in: Economy, education, politics. Tagged: . Leave a comment

The dollar bill’s days may be numbered. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office, which is an arm of the U.S. Congress, argues that replacing U.S. dollar bills with dollar coins could save the government roughly $4.4 billion in net benefits over the next 30 years.

“We continue to believe that replacing the note with a coin is likely to provide a financial benefit to the government,” Lorelei St. James, a director the GAO, stated in a report prepared for a Congressional hearing on Thursday. In 2011, 40 % of dollar coins in circulation were returned to the U.S. Treasury unwanted, leading to a $1.4 billion surplus in the currency, according to the U.S. Leading the initiative to kill the dollar bill are Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), NPR reports. Although both Arizona and Iowa stand to profit from increased production of dollar coins. Iowa is home to a huge metal company and Arizona hosts some of the country’s biggest copper mines. Harkin contends that the U.S. should follow the global trend toward coins if the government wants to save money.

Printing dollar bills involves heavy reliance on a single commodity used to manufacture the notes — cotton. When cotton prices spiked in 2010, that pushed up the cost of printing a dollar bill to 9.6 cents (in a more normal year, such as 2008, the cost is closer to 6 cents to print a dollar bill). Although a dollar coin actually costs more to make, it stays in circulation roughly 10 times as long as the dollar bill, according to Daily Finance.(Huffington Post 11/28/12)

WHAT LOUISIANA NEEDS (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities):

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 28, 2012
Posted in: politics. Leave a comment

Since the Republicans loss of the 2012 election Gov. Bobby Jindal has immediately set his sights on the Presidency.  In recent interviews Gov. Jindal has said that Republicans must end “dumbed-down conservatism”and stop being the “stupid” party.While it’s great to hear that the Gov. Jindal is interested in fighting for all of Louisiana, his record here in Louisiana has been all about protecting the rich-particularly his donors. Unfortunately, Governor Jindal is the least accountable, accessible and transparent governor since Huey Long. Maybe this new epiphany will make the governor more accessable.

Louisiana ranks sixth among states with the largest economic income disparity.
The average income of the richest 5% in Louisiana is 14.1% larger than the income of the bottom 20%.
Under Gov. Jindal much of the tax code has been written to favor corporations.

So how can Governor Jindal be for the 100% of Louisiana citizens?
1.  Governor Jindal can repeal the Louisiana Science and Education Act. This is the same Jindal who, in 2008, signed the Louisiana Science Education Act, which also sounds good on the surface. The act allows local school boards to approve supplemental materials for public school science classes as they discuss evolution, cloning and global warming. Though marketed as support for critical thinking in classrooms, the law was actually designed to open the door to teach creationism and scientifically unwarranted critiques of evolution in Louisiana public school science classes.

2.  Governor Jindal can ensure working families have access to affordable care.
Jindal has formally rejected the health care exchange set forth in the Affordable Care Act(ACA), making good on a statement he made during the presidential campaign.
The exchanges were a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act(ACA). Once implemented on the state level, exhanges would provide a way for health insurance companies to compete with each other while meeting government standards, and let citizens apply for subsidies that will lower their health care costs. Even very vocal critics of the ACA like Gov. Rick Scott from Florida are now reconsidering their positions.  Governor Jindal can expand access to 400,000 Louisiana citizens and even more through the health care exchange.
Governor Jindal can focus on tax fairness and job creation for Louisiana’s working families, instead of just tax giveaways to giant corporations.

3.  Governor Jindal can focus on reducing poverty by expanding the state earned income tax credit for Louisiana’s working families.
The Governor can address tax fairness in the 2013 legislative session by enacting the following policies that can help protect working families here in Louisiana:
·         Eliminate Tax Loopholes and unnecessary exemptions.
·         Reinstate the STELLY tax brackets.
·         Enhance the earned income tax credit and child tax credit for working families.
·         Fund the health care system by raising taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and gambling.
(Reprinted from LouisianaProgress 11/16/12)

From the WestWingReport: If Rice is nominated for SecState GOP may want to rethink (given its electoral troubles w/minorities) its threat to filibuster a black woman.

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 27, 2012
Posted in: Foreign Policy, politics. Leave a comment

From the WestWingReport: If Rice is nominated for SecState GOP may want to rethink (given its electoral troubles w/minorities) its threat to filibuster a black woman.

Did you know that…It is possible to die from a broken heart — This condition is called Stress Cardiomyopathy. Remember to tell as many folk as you can you love them this season.

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 27, 2012
Posted in: Special Interest. Leave a comment

Did you know that…It is possible to die from a broken heart — This condition is called Stress Cardiomyopathy. Remember to tell as many folk as you can you love them this season.

OK, I’m getting tired of the Republican bullying. They find one thing after another to fight about…solve the budget problem, will you, AND LEAVE SUSAN RICE ALONE! It’s only a matter of time before something one of you did be exposed to the public.

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 27, 2012
Posted in: Foreign Policy. Leave a comment

GOP senators criticize Susan Rice after meeting: Rice’s meeting with Sens. John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayotte on Capitol Hill came as the White House has signaled it may nominate Rice to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of State. McCain, R-Ariz., has said he may oppose her nomination because she should have known her statements on the Sept. 11 attack were false.

Rice said in a round of interviews days after the deadly incident that the attack may have emerged from a protest outside the consulate in response to an anti-Islam video produced in the USA. It was later learned there was no protest, and the attack was a well-organized terror plot likely timed for the anniversary of Sept. 11.

“The information she gave the American people was incorrect when she said that it was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a

“The information she gave the American people was incorrect when she said that it was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video,” McCain told reporters after the meeting with Rice. “The bottom line is that I’m more disturbed than I was before … about how four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya,” Graham said.

President Obama has defended Rice, who rose up through Democratic circles to advise presidential candidates on international issues. Under President Clinton, she weighed in on key foreign policy decisions, some of which remain controversial. White House spokesman Jay Carney wouldn’t say Monday whether the president will nominate Rice, but suggested that if he did, she would be a good candidate. Sen. John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, may also be in the running for the job, analysts say. “Ambassador Rice has done an excellent job at the United Nations and is highly qualified for any number of positions,” Carney said. Rice appeared on several Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16 and insisted the attack was prompted by the video. She recently said she was only relating the intelligence information she was handed by the White House, and Obama defended Rice, saying it was not her fault.

ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT TIPS I’M SHARING WITH MY BUSINESS STUDENTS TOMORROW:5 Things for your “Not To-Do” List

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 27, 2012
Posted in: education. 1 Comment

5 Things for your “Not To-Do” List
1. Don’t send emails first thing in the morning or right before bed.
Sending out emails first thing in the morning is a gateway that will lead you to continually disrupt your schedule, and sending out emails before bed will ultimately cause your mind to run and negatively affect your ability to sleep.

2. Don’t agree to meetings that don’t have a set agenda and clear ending time.
Believe it or not, people love the sound of their own voices and have an uncanny ability to turn 10 minute meetings in to 45 minute marathons. Just because someone else is not managing their time correctly doesn’t mean that it has to affect your schedule.

3. Stop greeting people with open ended questions.
In an effort to be friendly, many of us greet people with an opening like, “Hey! How’s it going?” This can lead to a 10 minute discussion what is going on in their life or what the weather is like. Learn to greet people in a friendly manner and remember to GET TO THE POINT!

4. Stop being a slave to email
Too many of us spend our day sitting in front of our computer waiting for the next email so we can get our marching orders. We find ourselves hitting the refresh button on our phone throughout the day so we can feel good about the fact that someone is sending us something. Instead, pick times throughout the day and batch your emails. Start small and check every hour at first, but eventually you should make it your goal to only check emails 3-4 times a day.

5. Don’t leave your social media page open all day
Social media is an awesome tool, but just like email we have to batch our responses or we will find that our time has been hijacked by our desire to always be the quickest to respond.
-RISMedia’s Real Estate, November 2012

What!!!!! 100 people dead, and you say oh well, they should have been thankful for their jobs in the 1st place!!!!!! OUTRAGE!

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 27, 2012
Posted in: Special Interest. Tagged: . Leave a comment

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The 129 Bangladeshis who died in a fire caused by poor fire safety conditions in their garment factory should be thankful for their jobs, according to Fox Business host Charles Payne. Speaking with Neil Cavuto on Fox News this Monday, Payne excused this Sunday’s fire as a rare event and labelled all critics of the unsafe conditions that contributed to the tragedy as anti-Capitalist:
PAYNE: It is tragic. The people in Bangladesh who perished didn’t want or need those jobs, as well. I know we like to victimize everyone in this country, particularly when it comes to for-profit motivation, which is being assaulted. But, you know, it is a tragedy but I think it is a stretch, an amazing stretch, to sort of try to pin this on Walmart but, of course, the unions in this country are desperate.

The Bangladeshi factory in question, Tazreen Factories, had no functioning extinguishers, locked the exits, and employed managers who told factory workers to go back to their stations when the fire alarm went off. Since 2006, over 200 people have died in Bangladeshi garment factories as a consequence of the substandard safety precautions prevalent in their factory. Some believe companies like Walmart — whose brands were found in the burnt factory — would move if production at the faculty were more expensive; that is, if things like basic safety precautions were implemented.

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During his defense of the factory, Payne referred to himself as “a spokesman for capitalism and the American Dream” and said “for a lot of people, this [Walmart business practice] is a step in the right direction.”

STUDY: Medicaid expansion would extend coverage to over 21 million Americans at modest cost to states http://t.co/or1WO6dW

Posted by danetteoneal1 on November 26, 2012
Posted in: Health Policy, politics. Leave a comment

According to a new study by the KaiserFoundation and the Urban Institute, states fully implementing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion would result in an additional 21.3 million Americans on insurance rolls while raising states’ Medicaid spending by less than 3%.

Since the federal government will pick up most of the tab for the Medicaid expansion, the states that choose to participate will be able to extend insurance to millions of poor and vulnerable Americans without using much of their own funds. In fact, the study finds that states will receive more than $9 from the federal government for every $1 they invest in their Medicaid programs. Even the GOP governors against reform would see a net budgetary gain from the expansion through lower uncompensated care costs and a healthier population.