First and foremost, I believe that every citizen of the United States should have equal rights and Responsibilities.

I believe that any citizen in power is responsible to make all the changes they can for the better of all citizens. This is my health care proposal.  All health care coverage would be based on a sliding scale fee for all citizens.  You would get standard deductions for each family member and regional cost of living adjustments.  My argument…How long do you think the wealthy/powerful would wait before using their influence to lower health care costs if they had to pay more for it?  We would all benefit from it.  Please note that I said citizens.  Does this mean that the poor live on the backs of the wealthy?  Not for long I bet.  The wealthy have both the means and ability to make the changes that the middle class and poor do not and from what I have seen the wealthy generally do not hesitate to oppress and take advantage of those lower classes.  They can and do take money from the poor to build their coffers.

I Believe that if you enter this country illegally or do anything illegal as an alien, you should never be offered citizenship. As long as the United States is in crisis immigration should be limited. I believe that we should open our borders to only those who could benefit our country.  Someone with a job, needing an education, having an education in a needed area etc…at least until the economy improves.  If you are not a citizen you should not qualify for Social Security, Welfare, or any other entitlement.  If you are illegal and attempt to seek entitlement you should be evaluated for life or death crisis and sent right back to your country or origin for any needed treatment.  If your children are legal and you are not you have the choice to go back to your country and with or without them.  English should be the legal language.

I believe that all able bodied US Citizens should work. This means that if you can’t find a job you will be required to spend some extra time shoveling the old man next door’s walk or picking up groceries or just visiting with the elderly lady down the street.  You could mentor the young mother next door and offer babysitting while she did her volunteer time.  Young mom could take her children for a walk and each with a small bag to pick up garbage and cans along the roadway.  Cans can be theirs to keep and cash in.    If we all spent some time helping one another and doing what needs to be done we would be spending less time crying over what we don’t have and demanding entitlements we don’t deserve.  It is a proven fact that persons who feel useful have higher self esteem, suffer less depression and are more interested in the world around them.

I believe that US Citizens should have first priority for jobs with veterans topping that list. US Businesses that export jobs should be subject to a foreign employee tax that cost them as much as the United States workers would require.

I believe we should have equal trade agreements. The United States will only buy from those countries who allow us to sell equal amounts to them without all those import fees that makes our products unattractive.

I believe that our Government should outlaw “Parties”.  We all have the responsibility to look up our representatives voting history and attempt to plow through rhetoric.  Determine who is saying what.  You can find your reps history on the internet.  Just Google their name.  Right now parties seem to encourage partisan behavior.  It’s like watching a kindergarten playground with boys against the girls.

I believe the citizens of the United States should determine by vote congressional pay and benefits at the beginning of each term. Right now Congress is voting in future pay raises that can be enacted at a future date by simple inaction so it is not on their record.  Take a look and see how many of your reps abstained from voting on the new January pay raise.  That would include future benefits.  Once elected to office our congress is set for life even if they do a terrible job in a short 4 years.  They don’t have to pay for health care and receive a salary most of us could live very, very well with.  Many of us would be shocked if we knew actual numbers.  Congres/wo/men should submit pay raise requests and a monthly expense reports to a citizens oversight committee that is NOT appointed.

I believe that our education system is broken and parents and only parents should determine the best system to educate their child. Those parents should be allowed to spend their child’s portion of the education moneys on the educational style that would most benefit their child.   More money, more money is not going to get us better educators. Teachers who stop parenting and start educating with the support of the parent who is involved and chooses their child’s school will get us better educators.  Parent, Child and Educator should all be held equally accountable.  Let’s be creative.  Why shouldn’t a parent who works a second shift schedule be able to choose a second shift educational system for them?

He quotes, “The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since August, primarily because a department survey of households found a sharp increase in the number of Americans with jobs. Analysts expected an increase to 10.1 percent.” Christopher noted here that “Seasonal Adjustments” were used in calculating.  Basically that means that the entire year was added and divided by 12 to come up with an average rather than actual figures.  Hmmmm.  Do you think when the numbers are up next summer that they will use “seasonal adjustments” to artificially lower them?  Some how I doubt that.

What happened to all of those people on extensions that fell off the unemployment roles?  Congress had approved the extensions but then didn’t approve to fund the extensions for more than a year at a time.  They missed funding it in December when it was so critical while we were all distracted by the health care bill which wasn’t and so therefore we wonder if the move was a political slight of hand so they could say Unemployment levels have dropped.   Did they forget about all those people who fell off the rolls because they used up their unemployment and there were no more extensions available?    Or did they want the people to forget?  Of course unemployment will decline and continue to decline as long as unemployment doesn’t provide a safety net for those people who are un or under-employed.  Michigan provides small amounts of help.  You can get small amounts of grocery help if you are on unemployment and believe me, it’s not enough.  No affordable medical coverage is available while you are on unemployment and once off the rolls plan on loosing your dignity, your home, your car and anything else you aren’t able to sell before any assistance is forth coming.  If you become homeless there is even a risk of loosing your children.  It is terrifying and scandalous.  Anyone out there have ideas for those of us who “fell off” the roles and therefore are no longer considered unemployed?

The jobs that are added are mostly minimum wage.   Perhaps all of our lawmakers should try to live on $7.25 per hour.   Cost of living rose 2.7% last year, and general wages rose about *2% but jobs declined by *6%.   Minimum wage didn’t recognize the increase at all.   Do the math.  It doesn’t add up. I should note here that government pay increased by 3.7%, a full 1% above the cost of living increase.  I would just like to make enough to meet the cost of living.

Bills have been submitted, such as H.R. 156 which would have prevented congress from receiving a pay raise in 2010.  It sat in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee since its introduction on January 6, 2009.  H. R. 201 would have provided that no automatic pay adjustment for Members of Congress shall be made in the year following a fiscal year in which there is a Federal budget deficit. It got stuck in the same committee and you will find that most if not all of the bills submitted that would regulate congressional pay according to Washingtonwatch.com met the same fate.  Just in case you wanted to know I have listed the committee members below.  Please write them and vote accordingly!

Democrats

• Chairman, Edolphus Towns, New York
• Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Pennsylvania
• Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York
• Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland
• Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
• Rep. John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
• Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay, Missouri
• Rep. Diane E. Watson, California
• Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts
• Rep. Jim Cooper, Tennessee
• Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia
• Rep. Mike Quigley, Illinois
• Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
• Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of Columbia
• Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island
• Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois
• Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
• Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas
• Rep. Paul W. Hodes, New Hampshire
• Rep. Christopher S. Murphy, Connecticut
• Rep. Peter Welch, Vermont
• Rep. Bill Foster, Illinois
• Rep. Jackie Speier, California
• Rep. Steve Driehaus, Ohio
• Rep. Judy Chu, California

Republicans

• Rep. Darrell Issa, California, Ranking Minority Member
• Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana
• Rep. John L. Mica, Florida
• Rep. Mark E. Souder, Indiana
• Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr., Tennessee
• Rep. Michael Turner, Ohio
• Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, Georgia
• Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina
• Rep. Brian Bilbray, California
• Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio
• Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona
• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, Nebraska
• Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah
• Rep. Aaron Schock, Illinois
• Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Missouri
• Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, Louisiana

Wow!  Was this good news?   I’ve been looking for a job for a year.  I was excited.  As I read further my excitement waned.  They provided a list:

“1) Any additional background information that you feel will show us that you are the right choice for the job
2) a credit report to verify your details (DO NOT email us this info)
3) The best time for us to hold the interview. Morning (8-12) or evening (1-5)
Please note: A negative credit rating will not be a determining factor in your eventual employment, (your credit itself is not relevant), a full credit check however does allow us to verify accurately, legal US citizenship, employment history, social security references and a verifiable confirmation of address. This will help expedite the process in the interview phase.  To get your free report we recommend using this provider: Free Credit Report Once again, thank you for your interest in the position; I look forward to hearing back from you.   Warm Regards,  Heather Stevens SunTech-Corp Human Resources Director THE TECHNOLOGY THAT BRIGHTENS UP YOUR TOMORROW”

Now by the time I got to the bottom of this letter I was really let down and didn’t want to be.  So, just in case I Googled the SunTech-Corp and the most I could come up with was a canvas company in Florida.  For my second ‘just in case’ I did respond with, “I would prefer to keep my personal information private until I learn more about your company.  If offered the position on the contingency of the credit report, I will provide it at that time.”  I was not surprised that I didn’t receive an answer but was still disappointed.  This was a common phishing scam that was attempting to steal my personal information.  Don’t let the caution of not mailing the information fool you.  My resume is meant to show and intelligent sophisticated executive.  The phishers who target that group has to be sophisticated and subtle enough to fool their targets.  There were several things that clued me in.   Your credit report has all of your personal information and will let the person scamming you have all the information they would ever need to steal your identity.  Drivers License, Social Security Card and/or passport would give an employer all they need for your I-9 and they cannot request it until AFTER they hire you.

This week I got a new letter.  From employment ad on Craigs list PostingID: 1487915012 that I responded to.  The ad looked legitimate.  The response did not.

“RE: Admin Assistant

From: Victor Daniels<assistantposition2010@live.com>

Hello,  I received your e-mail. I’m sure you’ll understand I tend to have a very busy schedule at this point.I’m Victor Daniels from the North Side Of Chicago. I’m a lawyer by profession and I have been pretty successful in a handful of ventures I get involved in; from litigations, stock market and real estate to various welfare and community service programs, I mostly get my hands occupied, so it is imperative for me to have a worthy assistant who can monitor and keep me up to date with my activities.
Please note that this position is not office-based for now because of my frequent travels and tight schedules, it’s a part-time, work -from-home job and the flexibility means that there will be busier weeks than others, so it’s a little difficult to pinpoint the exact number of hours you’ll be doing per week but i can estimate the regular 20hrs time frame for a part time job.If you can manage your time properly, this job may even give you some extra time to do something else on the side.
As I have said, I’d want us to get started with things as soon as possible. I do have a pile-up of work and a number of unattended chores which you can immediately assist me with, I hope we can meet up with the workload eventually.Permit me to use the coming week to test your efficiency and diligence towards all this, also to work out your time schedule and fit it to mine. I really need to find the perfect person for this job, I’m confident you can take up the challenge and on the long-run, we should have a relatively sound working relationship between us.
I’d want us to meet up on Yahoo chat as soon as possible so we can discuss this extensively, more so it’s easier for me to convey information once I’m online. My Yahoo ID is westvicky1880 . It may be a little difficult working out the time difference between us initially, with time however, we should get used to it.
I’m online most of the time when I’m not out or in a meeting so we should be able to have a chat sooner than you think. Do try to keep a date..I am glad you are willing to work with me and i promise to be a good boss. I have been checking my files and what i would want you to do for me this week is to run some errands for an orphanage home i’m donating to. I do this around festive periods like this. The funds will be in form of a check and it will be sent over to you from one of my clients and i have some list to email you once you received the funds,You will make some arrangements by buying some stuff for the kids in the nearest store arround you so you can mail them out to an orphanage i mostly make out donations to.
DESCRIPTION OF JOB: Process all owner distribution batches – print checks, statements and mail on a timely basis.  Assisting with management of employee’s  checking store supplies and placing orders  Process rental applications in Resident Data.  Type various letters ,Prepare 3 Day Notices.  Retrieve and process faxes  Send unpaid rent notifications to tenants.  Deposit and monitor payments of all owner contributions.
I will get you more information on that,I will like you to get back to me with your Contact Details such as:  Full Name:  Full Contact Address:  City:  ZIP Code: State:
Phone Number:  Your present occupation:  Age:  sex:
Once i receive your contact information i will get back to you with the task for this week,Understand that you will be paid $1000 bi-weekly and the paycheck will be mailed to your address in your name. Like i mentioned earlier, this is going to be a part time work from home job until you prove very efficiently enough to get promoted to a full time position in a physical location.I’m currently in UK for work now……..
Hope i am clear with that. Get back as soon as possible..  Victor.”

There are quite a few Red Flags that this one was a scam.  The first few were grammar, spelling and phraseology.   (I have noted the grammar errors in red. the spelling in blue and the strange phrases in green.) There were multiple errors that a lawyer should not have made.  The phraseology also made me believe that English was not the authors first language.   The more I read the more I found. (Note the bold Black)  A lawyer especially  should know that it is illegal to ask how old you are and what your sex is.  Doing a little more research on Google,  I discovered there was no attorney by this name listed with the Illinois State Bar nor in any of the states surrounding it.  If it is too good to be true, it probably is.   What is this scam?  What did he want?  I would think that it probably wasn’t legal and would be concerned regarding the promised pay check if it did follow through to a “position.”  This person asked for personal information because while I have my resume out there I do not post my address or phone on it.  Only my email address which also has no information connected to it.

Another Scam that seems to be pretty common was money laundering/bank fraud scams.  The potential employer would send you checks which you would deposit in an account in your name and then send monthly money orders (not checks) back to them overseas.  You were assured that you would be paid well and it was totally legal.

There is no way to keep up with all of the slimes and slugs out there who try to take advantage of you in this vulnerable time, but you can avoid getting caught in any of the millions of existing and future scams by educating yourself.  The FBI maintains a fraud website http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm that provides information on how to prevent fraud and what to do when you are caught up in it.  Monster has a great page on how to recognize employer scams. http://help.monster.com/besafe/ Consumer action has a booklet available if you know someone who doesn’t have internet.   http://www.consumeraction.gov/ All of these sites and the links connected with them provide the savvy consumer what they need to identify and prevent fraud.   Encourage your local news to research and do a specific story on consumer fraud and target it to the relevant topic of prevalent frauds directed specifically at America’s vulnerable and frantic unemployed.  Stay safe out there!