This is cool

Try this. Go to the site and put in your street address and look at the satellite image. Or the hybrid. My address you can zoom way in. It's really neat.

http://maps.google.com/

Christmas

I love all your christmas pictures and posts. Way to go, keep up the good work.

Oh, there he is

The real Paul and the real problem, I mean, accident, I mean, president.

Will the real Paul Mocarski please stand up?

Party animal

Can't you see it? He can hardly contain his excitement at being social.

Representatives huh? So who exactly are they representing?

House approves $39.7 bln spending cuts By Richard Cowan
Mon Dec 19,11:26 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Monday narrowly voted to cut $39.7 billion from federal spending over five years, including health care and other social welfare, as part of a conservative push to contain these growing programs.

By a vote of 212-206, the House, at the end of a rare overnight session, approved the spending cuts, which were opposed by Democrats.

"We have a plan to reform the government and achieve savings," said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, an Iowa Republican.

In separate legislation, the House also approved a 1 percent reduction in spending this fiscal year for all federal programs, except for the Veterans Administration, to save an additional $8 billion.

The five-year budget bill, which was trimmed from the nearly $50 billion in savings approved by the House last month, is expected to be debated by the Senate this week.

Democrats criticized spending cuts to student loans, child care and other programs. Rep. John Spratt (news, bio, voting record) of South Carolina, the senior Budget Committee Democrat, complained that Republicans were negotiating last-minute deals to help medical equipment manufacturers and suppliers, while maintaining reductions in some programs for the poor.

Rep. Chet Edwards (news, bio, voting record), a Texas Democrat, said, "This bill under the Republican leadership makes Scrooge look like a philanthropist."

A large chunk of the spending cuts, about $11.2 billion over five years, would come from Medicare and Medicaid, the health-care programs for the elderly and poor.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning economic analysis group, said the bill would raise co-payments for many Medicaid beneficiaries, "as well as the premiums they can be charged to enroll in Medicaid in the first place."

Additional savings would come in student loan programs, which Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat, called "the biggest cuts to student aid programs ever."

The spending-cut bill also would make a significant change to U.S. trade policy.

If enacted, it would repeal a trade law known as the "Byrd amendment" that allows the government to distribute some duties it collects on foreign goods to U.S. companies involved in trade disputes with foreign competitors.

Under a compromise, the law, which has been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization, would be repealed after a two-year grace period.

American companies have collected more than $1 billion since 2000 under this law.

Throughout this year, the Republican-led Congress has been pushing some form of spending reductions, which they said were necessary in light of huge U.S. budget deficits and unexpected hurricane clean-up and rebuilding costs.

The $39.7 billion in savings would be dwarfed, however, by an estimated $14 trillion the government is expected to spend over the next five years under a Republican budget plan approved last April.

Democrats argued that the spending cuts were falling disproportionately on the poor as Republicans also were pushing through Congress tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Some of those Democrats have acknowledged the need to control the growth of these federal programs, a problem that will only get worse as baby-boomers retire and enroll in federal programs such as Medicare. But they argued that long-term reforms, not stop-gap spending cuts, were necessary.

House Republicans abandoned earlier attempts to cut food stamps by about $700 million. The program helps the poor buy groceries.

The government would gain $3.6 billion in revenues over five years by raising premiums companies would pay to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

And we care what Mexico says because ....

Mexico Criticizes U.S. Immigration Bill for Security Focus
Measure Would OK Partial Fence on Border, Impact Worker Permits
By IOAN GRILLO, AP

MEXICO CITY (Dec. 17) - The Mexican government slammed the U.S. Congress for approving an immigration bill that would tighten border controls and make it harder for undocumented immigrants to get jobs.

The House of Representatives voted 239-182 in favor of measures that would enlist military and local law enforcement to help stop illegal entrants and require employers to verify the legal status of their workers.

The House also authorized the building of a fence along parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, but did not include any new temporary work program for migrants, something Mexico insists is needed.

"The government of Mexico ... believes that a reform which only considers security measures will not contribute to a better, more integral bilateral management of migration issues," the Foreign Relations department said in a statement.

"The U.S. executive branch publicly expressed its commitment to an integral immigration reform, with a new program for temporary workers," the statement continued. "The Mexican government will redouble its efforts to achieve this shared goal."

President Bush urged Congress almost two years ago to enact a guest worker program that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country temporarily to fill jobs unwanted by Americans.

House leaders wouldn't allow a vote on a volatile proposal to deny citizenship to babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants.

But the House did approve building 700 miles of fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, giving priority for construction in Laredo, Texas. The city is across the border from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where warring drug cartels have been blamed for more than 140 killings this year.

Mexico argues existing barriers built along heavily crossed sections of the border have not stopped migrants from crossing, rather have pushed them through more desolate, dangerous areas.

A record number of more than 415 people died crossing the border illegally in 2005, according to statistics from the U.S. Border Patrol for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. That compares to the previous record of 383 deaths in 2000.

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission described the U.S. measure as "part of a tendency to criminalize migration with a wall that calls to mind the Berlin Wall."

As well as building a wall, the bill would require the Defense and Homeland Security departments to design a plan to use military technology to stop illegal crossings and require all employers in the country, more than 7 million, to check the legal status of workers.

U.S. authorities estimate there are about 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States, about half of whom are Mexican.

When do I get graffitti?

Looks very wet. But he looks good. And who are Tito and Trevor? Why doesn't the tank say "Suzette Rules"

Paul's Christmas tree

We sent Paul a little tree and he actually put it up and decorated it. I'm very impressed. PJ is worried that the present he got Paul won't fit underneath it. That would be the big box to the left of the tree. lol

At Tami and Joe's

Scott and Joe with our Big Daddy.

FRG Xmas Party

The boys with Santa at the Family Readiness Group Christmas party. PJ talked forever. Alek went nuts when he came in but was on his lap for almost 5 seconds.

Some short judo class clips

Here's the links to some of PJ's stuff

Jumping jacks, sort of, PJ's in the green striped shirt

Push ups, kind of

Basic back falls

New fall, don't remember the name

He loves this class.

Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas Dad

Gift idea

Or just something nice to do. Now anyone can purchase phone cards through AAFES for the soldiers in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm putting the link below. You can send them to a specific soldier and they'll send it direct or you can buy a card and let one of the organizations like the USO or VFW or someone send it to someone of their choosing. Either way, it's a great gift.

Go to http://www.aafes.org and click on the "Help Our Troops call Home" logo on the upper right side. The cards are cheaper than purchasing from outside providers and domestic calling cards don't work over there, they must be international.

Merry Christmas everyone.