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Well to update, I ran into a neighbor at the grocery store that happened to know the grandfather's phone number where this young man lives. I had a nice chat with granddad and left a message for my newest client to call me. He never called but sure enough, I found his bike in my driveway yesterday morning with a flat rear tire. When he came by this evening about the bike, I asked him the couple of questions I had, got the efile signature forms signed, and he left with a smile about those refunds that will be coming his way. After a lousy start to the weekend, this made my evening.

:)

You may have all the colors, but you have demonstrated time and again that (1) you have no understanding of the principles that this country was founded upon, and (2) that you are mainly not interested in discussing issues when you have the option of ad hominem attacks. What Herman Cain accurately calls the "SIN" tactics: Side-step the issue, Ignore facts, and Name-call.

Good thing we had Dubya. Looks like he had some pretty good ideas such as Gitmo, Afghanistan, Iraq, National Security, Drone Warfare. After all, most of the successful Obama counterterrorism policies are a continuation of the Bush policies - in some cases he's actually expanded them.

These 11 States now have More People on Welfare than they do Employed! AL, CA, HI, IL, KY, ME, MS, NM, NY, OH, SC Last month, the Senate Budget Committee reports that in fiscal year 2011, between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and other benefits, the average U.S. household below the poverty line received $168.00 a day in government support. What’s the problem with that much support? Well, the median household income in America is just over $50,000, which averages out to $137.13 a day. To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30.00 an hour for a 40-hour week, while the average job pays $20.00 an hour.

In 2011, Massachusetts "overhauled" its ethics guidelines for legislators. The State Ethics Commission has finally come up with new training for lawmakers stressing transparency and accountability. At least, that's what they say the training emphasized: the training session was closed to the public and reporters who showed up to observe. "Can I tell you --" Ethics Commission Chairman Charles Swartwood III said, interrupting himself when he was asked why ethics training of public servants was held behind closed doors. "Don't argue with me." When asked to identify himself for the record, the public official replied, "I'm not saying, because that's a private matter." When lawmakers left the session, they said they were "more confused than when they entered," because the ethics officials contradicted themselves when discussing the new regulations. (RC/Boston Herald) ALL POLITICIANS SEEM TO BE THE SAME, DON'T THEY?

Well, while we wish for some change that makes life better, how about a law that there can be NO MORE LAWS, WE HAVE ENOUGH LAWS. So what that means is, for any new law you want to pass, you have to repeal and totally eliminate some old law. (Of course, I'd prefer That you had to eliminate 2 old fo every new, myself, because I think we have WAY TOO MANY NOW. When we got down to half as many, then it could go to 1 for 1. LOL )

Are you sure that your house, yard and car are not red?

I wonder, if at the next audit I need to assist in, if my client went along and pleaded the 5th, how far would that get him?

Limit unemployment to 26 weeks as it was first set up. A short term bridge. What happened to personal responsibility? When I was in my early 20s and starting my family, I worked 2 & 3 different jobs to make ends meet. What is wrong with a person working 2 minimum wage jobs to take care of themselves and their family? We have become a nation of needy wimps. Stop paying people not to work, and they will go to work. In the meantime, they can reduce their bloated lifestyle. (more personal responsibility) In our town, there are way too many "Help Wanted" signs for there to be any excuse.

Is Jay Carney beginning to act like someone who doesn't care whether or not he keeps his job? If he's smart, he will resign and claim it's a matter of principle. If not smart, he will stick around until the administration throws him under the bus, along with a bunch of people from IRS, CIA, and the State dept. http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/05/21/carney-sweats/ Will somebody please ask this man about Myanmar and make his day? This stuff is custom-made for SNL. If they don't do a Jay Carney skit soon, their writers are just out of touch. (Or they could just run once of his recent press conferences verbatim - no editing needed.)

There are all kinds of reasons why people don't get a specific job they have applied for, but I think we all know of people who could get some job but as long as they can draw unemployment, they won't accept anything that pays less than they were making before, or doesn't have benefits, or involves some kind of work they don't want to do, etc. I can understand that to a point but with unemployment benefits continually being extended some of these people will find that their skills are outdated by the time they finally have to accept a job and their earning power will be reduced. And the longer they stay on the unemployment rolls, the less attractive they are to potential employers. I don't think extended benefits to the point they have been extended really helps anyone. We have tremendous unemployment in this area due to the closing of all of the furniture factories that used to be located in the US. I don't pretend to know what the answer to this problem is, but handing people a check to not work doesn't seem to be the answer.