LOTTOMIKE's Blog

summer is a nice time of year.i'll be glad though when september gets here.the heat is unbearable at times and its so humid here its hard to breathe.can't wait until fall my favorite time of year.

i blogged a good while back about credit cards.i have a couple now.my question is could you live without credit cards and still be able to buy a home,car or purchase certain things on the internet or be able to buy tickets to ball games or even get a rental car.what i'm wondering is could you not just do most of these things with a debit card?

i had some new neighbors move in recently.they looked like trouble but i'll give the benefit of a doubt until i'm given a reason to think different.didn't take long though.they asked to use my phone so i sat down on the couch.looked down and noticed a wanted flyer with both of these idiots staring right back at me.i thought no way could you be this stupid and leave something like that laying around.i saw the place they were from and remembered it in case i needed it later.well a few days later lots of things were happening which i won't print here that made me call a few states away and drop the dime on this couple.turns out this gal is a white collar criminal that masterminds in stolen goods and jewelry theft and operates out of florida.just looking at these two they look like normal middle class people but at first it was other things that caught my eye that told me they were trouble.they befriended my girlfriend because she is good hearted.she is also disabled from a bad car wreck and we have to travel several hundred miles once or twice a month to get her medical care.well my wife told me they were asking her all kinds of questions on what day was our appointment,how long were we gone and just things they really had no business asking.the straw that broke the camels back for me was this woman left her two toddlers in the house that were four and two years old for several hours by themselves.i went and got the manager and we fed the children something until the mother got back.the manager wanted to call the law then but i convinced her not to since the children had no guardian at this point in time if the woman was turned in for neglect.so i got up the next day and i called crimestoppers and turned the woman in.i checked on the man and apparantly he is in good standing so there will be someone to watch his children so that made me feel better.some may say its wrong but they broadcasted their business by leaving a flyer laying around on the floor with wanted info on it not to mention giving me more than one reason to have to turn them in to authorities.never hurts to be aware of your surroundings and observe what goes on around you.

well in the blog entry before me and my kids were showing off our titans jerseys.now word has come in that steve mcnair former quarterback of the titans is dead.

anyone here take vitamins?    interested in hearing members experiences with different kinds of vitamins.i've tried different ones especially the vegetarian kinds.

miss everyone here and just when it seems i'm about to be able to regularly post again something happens such as family emergencies,unemployment,or some other thing pops up to get in my way.my mother had a brain anuerysm last august and the doctor literally told us to get ready plus she was already in bad health.he said she had a five percent chance if she was lucky.well my whole family including my father and step mother prayed hard and she pulled through and made it and was out within a month.strange thing is my mother was never really religious but making it out of that alive really changed her and she reads the bible regularly.well a few months later i was laid off from a job i had for almost a decade.there was a few times in the past i was laid off for months but came back but this time is for good and i haven't worked all of 2009 so i have spent quality time with my kids.i've got a few goals.i went to start posting again and having fun here like i used to before i got overwhelmed with everything in life.i was dealt a few bad hands and a few good ones too but i'm learning to deal with adversity better.by the time november rolls around my oldest daughter will be five and it will also be five years since i started posting here.it will also be when arkansas starts its new lottery and i think i'm going to start playing there and i'm confident it will be ball drawn too.my goal is to be working by then and posting regular and hopefully everything will fall into place.hope everyone has been doing well.........

hope everyone here is well.can't wait until arkansas gets lottery.i'll be crossing my fingers and hope they use the ball drawings.

hey todd i hope you don't mind me posting this but it made me excited to see this.in fact i've had a feeling eventually this would be a wild card the government would pull out to help put some money into the economy.this is a win/win situation because as you could imagine gamblers put billions into the economy.

Online Gambling - US to Overturn UIGEA to Stimulate Economy: According to news sources in order to mend trade ties with the European Union and to potentially stimulate the US economy, a Senior Democroatic lawmaker will move forward with a repeal of the UIGEA. "The bill introduction should happen in the next month," stated a spokesperson for Barney Frank the Chairmen of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

The ban on online gambling recently implemented by the Bush administration could possibly be history due to the need to generate revenue for a failing US economy. Several US states are also looking to legalize forms of online gambling with hopes to increase revenue. The European Union is also preparing to file yet another complaint against the US regarding the enforcement of the UIGEA at the World Trade Organization.

"Mr. Frank will bring back legislation to repeal the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act)," stated the spokesman, referring to a bill created and passed in 2006 when the Republican party controlled Congress and the White House.

Supporters of the repeal of the UIGEA argue that billions of dollars could be earned in taxing and regulating the online gambling industry. The online gambling regulations set in place by the US republicans, cost billions of lost market value to many European based publicly traded online gambling companies as well as billions of dollars of potential US tax revenue.

Against the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank's advice, the republican party lead by the Bush administration rushed to finalize the passage of the UIGEA which essentially banned businesses from accepting payments in connection with online gambling, primarily related to payments made through electronic fund tranfsers, credit cards and checks.

been very busy these past few months with kids,job,life,etc. i stopped here recently and bought three each of a bunch of different scratch offs but didn't win a thing.you guys in georgia have got the best lottery in the nation.never would've dreamed that rebecca paul would've done us the way we've been done here but she did.this lottery here the first three years was spectacular until the fallout in summer of '07 with all the computerized nonsense and of course you can tell the scratch offs aren't what they used to be in terms of payout.i really got my hopes on arkansas though.i hope they don't mess the lottery up there when they get it like we did here.hope everyone is well here.

hope everyone here has a great 4th of july holiday.things have been pretty rough for me the past year and a half so i haven't been posting as much due to serious financial and family issues that needed tending.with gas prices not to mention everything being so rough these days i'm seeing a lot more people dealing with the same issues.the first couple years i was here it was like a dream and i was winning a lot and everything was going great and then of course the internet gambling ban was passed,my state went RNG and then my finances went from great to obliterated in a very short period.my job folded after eight years and then i started having other troubles too.its a wonder i haven't had a nervous breakdown but thats everyday life where the highs are high and the lows will test your spirit.i made an effort not to get on here and that was very hard because most people know that for years i was on here pretty much nonstop but i had to step back because i knew i'd want to play if i started posting again but it was a bad time because of me being broke plus other factors so i had to step back and focus on other things and its hard when life is about all work and no play which has pretty much been it for me that past year and a half.things are still rough at times at this point but i think its time for me to get back to the spirit of things before the bottom fell out and try and have some fun again so i'll be here more like old times and hopefully here soon i'm hoping arkansas will pass a lottery so i'll have a new place to play.hope everyone has a safe fourth of july

me and my uncle were talking and he said that his wife was worried because my uncle busted one of those compact fluorescent bulbs in their bedroom and she said it had mercury in it.funny thing is he was trying to get me to buy some and i was going to go get them but now i am thinking twice.are these bulbs dangerous?

hope everyone is doing well here.doing the usual myself and trying to get through another day.to the point now that gas,food and bills take up all my resources so i don't play anymore but thats the state of things here in the summer of 2008 and could stay that way until the politicians finally see the huge amount of americans slipping out of the middle class.

sorry i haven't posted lately and probably won't for a good while if things keep going at this current pace.just a few months back it was hard but living was managable and doable.this was a few months back.now out of nowhere rising food,gas,rent,etc. threaten to put me and mine one step closer to the street and i never thought this would happen but its pretty dire.i had 2,300 dollars in savings just over two months ago that has beaten eaten up by my vehicle breaking down on three or four seperate occasions recently.this most recent is a combination of belts,pulleys and compressor all having to do with my air setting me back a grand total of 960 dollars and officially broke.before that it was a distributor and something else that put me back nearly 400 bucks.before that another 300 or 400 for a fuel pump plus sensor.before that i had to get two front tires and a couple weeks later another for the back after a couple flats plus running over a nail and that set me back another few hundred.i sit in my vehicle at work and have to do patrols all night so thats another 25 bucks a night.i've already prepared my family that soon if our vehicle breaks down again we have no finances to fix it which means we'll be on foot.went and bought some bread,peanut butter,bologna,chicken nuggets,soda,paper towels and cereal which cost me 30 buxcks when a few months back the same items totaled 22 bucks.my rent was just raised again also and between all this its put a hell of a strain on my personal relationship not to mention my finances and mental well being.goodness when are all these prices going to quit rising and stabilize.even just six months ago i would not have believed i'd be in the shape i'm in right now.never ever has things looked this bleak and i've got friends moving back in with parents who are grown.my buddy said overseas the dollar is virtually worthless and a joke.the american dream is now a nightmare for lots of people in this country and i think its going to get worse.are they trying to wipe out the middle and lower class?  it really doesn't look like a solution is in sight for these crisis in my opinion.......

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69 percent disapprove. The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.

The previous record of 67 percent was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.

Bush's rating has worsened amid "collapsing optimism about the economy," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies presidential approval. Record gas prices and a wave of home foreclosures have fueled voter angst.

Bush also holds the record for the other extreme: the highest approval rating of any president in Gallup's history. In September 2001, in the days after the 9/11 attacks, Bush's approval spiked to 90 percent.

In another record, the percentage of Americans who say the invasion of Iraq was a mistake reached a new high 63 percent.

Assessments of Bush's presidency are harsh. By 69 percent-27 percent, those polled say Bush's tenure in general has been a failure, not a success.

The telephone poll of 1,016 adults nationwide has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Low approval ratings make it more difficult for presidents to maneuver, limiting their ability to get legislation passed or boost candidates in congressional elections.

The White House declined a request for comment.

Bush has had dismal ratings through most of his second term. His approval rating hasn't reached as high as 50 percent since May 2005. He's been steadily below 40 percent since September 2006.

Views of Bush divide sharply along party lines ' more so than for previous presidents.

Among Republicans, 66 percent approve and 32 percent disapprove. Disapproval is nearly universal - 91 percent - among Democrats. And 23 percent of independents approve, 72 percent disapprove of the job he's doing.