*545 PEOPLE
*By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, *if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?*

Have you ever wondered why, *if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?*

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices, 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi.



She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ .

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or
"politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of theOrlando Sentinel Newspaper.

As the Under Armour stock still keeps eroding here are the stock sales on that dreaded day of November 1st when the Plank family took out over 200,000,000 in stock sale. With the stock deflating at $29 - it's time for the CEO to step up. Kevin's new digs at Sagamore Farms in Hunt Valley Maryland is nice but It didn't do stock holders any justice. I'm sure their employees are a little uneasy that the stock value is almost near the opening day price.


Plank J Scott Sale 765,000 59.00 – 59.00 2,521,840 $45.1 M
Plank J Scott Planned Sale 615,000 -- – -- -- $36.3 M
Plank Kevin A Sale 1,300,000 59.00 – 59.00 100 $76.7 M
Plank Kevin A Exercise of Options 550,000 0.00 – 0.00 100 $0.0
Plank Kevin A Planned Sale 750,000 -- – -- -- $44.3 M
Plank Kevin A Planned Sale 400,000 -- – -- -- $23.6 M
Kdp Trust 2 L L C Planned Sale 75,000 -- – -- -- $4.4 M
J Scott Plank Found... Planned Sale 85,000 -- – -- -- $5.0 M
Jsdm Family L L C Planned Sale 150,000 -- – -- -- $8.9 M

Father's Day 2008

I'm sitting here this Father's Day watching the closing minutes of Meet The Press as they do a special tribute to Tim Russert. He was a man that gave so much and he seemed like he had so much more to give. The show was hosted by good friend Tom Brokaw with a panel of close friends.

Doris Kearns Goodwin had stated it very clearly that Russert had lived a great life and in a conversation she recently had with Russert he stated, "that if he did die he had accomplished everything he wanted in his life. The only thing he wanted to see was his son get married and have Grand kids."

It's sad that a man so cherished and loved doesn't get his wish and his life ends early.

I reflect back to 1986 when my Dad was in the hospital from having a massive stroke. He had high blood pressure and didn't realize that his body was ticking time bomb that he didn't take care of.

My Dad was picking up a rent check from one of our tenants and started to stagger and the tenants called my mom and the ambulance. It was a long two days in the hospital and there was still no diagnosis. My dad was pretty much gone mentally from what the doctor's could tell. They had seen no signs of recovery and no movement on his part. He was 44 at the time, how could this happen to a man in his prime.

My mom wanted me not to see him for the first day because I was 16 and didn't think I could handle. Little did she know the strength I had and she tried to shelter that as she did with most of my childhood. It was day two and I wanted to see my dad. She prepared my visit by saying to me that my father hasn't moved in two days and is not responding. I can still hear her in my ear "David, you are going to speak to him but he will not move, you are going to see no motion and someone that cannot respond back." I was prepared for that but I didn't believe it. I wouldn't believe it.

I walked up to that hospital bed and held my dad's hand and spoke to him gently and asked how he was. He didn't respond. He didn't move. I told him how things were going in school and that I missed him and I wanted him to come home. I told him that mom said that he wasn't going to respond and I told him that he had to prove her wrong.

I remember vividly as he laid there with wires and tubes and all over this was the man who got up every morning to make me breakfast and take me to the bus stop by 6:45 AM. Never Quitting - Never Giving Up. I told him now was not the time to give up. It was time to fight. He was going to have the toughest fight of his life, but he had to do it for me and my brother Mike.

"Dad I want you to see me graduate - I want you to see me get married - Dad I want you to see your Grand kids. You can't give up, you need to come back to us. Do you understand?" He started to move his head in what i could tell was a nod and in agreement. "Dad - can you hear me?" He nodded again with greater movement and motion this time.

He reached his hand out and then squeezed mine and I cried as I kissed his hand. This was the father I knew, one who would do anything for his son.

It took him two long years of rehabilitation and perseverance and determination with the help of my mom. He came back and now twenty two years later he stops by every other Sunday to see his grand kids. His and my dream came true and he had a second chance.

I feel for Tim Russert's son who will never have that chance to have his dad play tee ball, or just go to the movies with the kids.

I am pretty lucky and I guess so is my dad (not to mention my kids)

Happy Father's Day Dad!

So Google has been doing some major updates lately and I noticed that I was knocked out of My number one position for David Carberry. Now for Dave Carberry I was still ranked number one and I think that's primarily because of the Blogspot URL having my name in it.

Although this overall page probably never gets read I'm sure the total traffic from blogspot helps - not to mention it's a Google product.

I was trumped by a press release announcing the appointment of David Carberry to a larger role. Every time a Press Release floods the market it gives the URL or Keyword a boost - but it's never permanent. The Press Release if written correctly and being highly optimized will help but it comes down to overall links and simple SEO Basics.

So if David Carberry isn't in the title tag or the URL it might not stay up in that leading position.

It will be interesting to see what happens as Universal Search becomes more prevalent so if the other David Carberry is getting more reviews and links and recommendations then who knows but for now whether it Dave Carberry or David Carberry I'm still ranking.

We'll See

I didn't have the opportunity to make the click fraud session at SES but I did find this nugget of information. I reflect back on the old Dunkin Donuts commercial and the donut maker getting out of bed and disliking every second of it. Do you think that's what the engine makers like Google and Yahoo are doing? Waking up every morning and saying, "time to monitor the click fraud?" NAH - they are so happy seeing the cash registers ring that Google’s paying out a $90,000,000 settlement is a drop in the bucket.

So I applaud Jeffrey Rohrs "Sausage Manifesto”. The whole logistical problems the engines will wrangler with are having to hire additional help for all of the charge backs businesses will demand. If click fraud represents 25%-30% of actual clicks http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060309-001743, then how many billions of dollars would come out of Google's coffers annually?

In the media world TV stations are still in an archaic situation where media buyers post back on a rating point if the television station doesn't hit that targeted rating point as promised in the previous rating book. Do you think that same media buyer will ever pay extra for higher ratings achieved and improved performance - Hell No! Televisions have complete control of this nonsense and they still allow this to happen….Why? – BECAUSE THEY STILL ARE GETTING THE LION’S SHARE and the media buyers feel they have control!!

As the Internet grows and if click fraud is not reigned in the Engines have the final say and that is to their and their stockholders advantage. They probably have witness what traditional media has done and they aren't allowing this to happen to their model.

The difference is we have the technology to see the clicks and results and it would be in the best interest of the Engines to provide this data back to the buyer. It will take years for the Internet to catch up to the Media spend on television, but with the video portals coming into play this might give the Internet a leg up. Except for the fact of CLICK FRAUD yet again. Traditional advertisers will see the advantage of paying for the reach and knowing they get a guaranteed rating.

1. Invest in Proportion to the Problem
"Warranted or not, a lot of us have a sneaking suspicion that you pocket more money from invalid clicks (including third-party click fraud) than you invest in its prevention. ... If your data shows that click fraud is actually in the single digits, then please invest at least that much in its prevention."
2. Acknowledge that Tracking Alone Is Not the Answer
"We understand that conversion tracking is our responsibility to implement and monitor. However, even if we’re watching our conversion rates, please understand that we may not be able to identify fraudulent clicks due to market realities."

Give the added control back to the buying community. The engines could just build in the best click monitoring software and integrate it with their do it yourself platform. It’s seems so easy to spend money on the engines, but not so easy to save. In the short term they’ll generate more ad dollars than Outdoor and Radio but if they want to reach TV and Newspaper Spend they need to wake up every morning and say – TIME TO MAKE THE SAUSAGE AND FIGURE OUT WHAT'S IN IT!!!

It's Official - Well actually it was official on December 25th, 2007.

I'm just getting around to posting this. Where Was I? is now trademarked! If only I could get paid for every time someone said - hmm now where was I? It's a little more standard in the English Language than "Let's Get Ready to Rumble."But...You never know -

So I was in Miami/Del Ray last weekend with a few friends and had a blast. Straight men fair warning... stay far away from the Townhouse rooftop deck. Whoa - nuff said.

So the SuperBowl spot for Under Armour rocked - hopefully that drive a bit more momentum. $25 2 weeks ago - what a time to grab more. It's going up.