LOTTOMIKE's Blog

only 720 days,17 hours and 2 minutes to go until his presidency is done!!

well my bankroll is back up in the thousands again.take a look at my avatar and my signature.believe it or not money has never meant much to me except as a means to get things done.i've always put it in the bank except for purposes where it was really needed.i'll be moving soon.getting another apartment but downstairs where my kids will be safer.my immediate family got to go shopping to get a few things like clothes,etc.so they are happy but they seem to think i might be greedy in a way because i have thousands on hand.i don't blow it and i put it back for hard times like i went through this fall and summer.i made it through with online winnings won in the spring.a long time ago i went through drink,drugs and women like a tornado through the plains.i had fun but it almost killed me and i learned my lessons.as far as drinking goes a few seizures put a stop to that.as far as drugs go overdose put a stop to that.as far as women go i was lied to and almost killed by a man i thought was her roommate but was husband.those days are over and life got a tad bit saner and boring but at least i found something to get excitement off of and thats gambling.its another thing i'm good at but it won't kill me like the others i've mentioned.i have learned self control and i always seem to put plenty of dollars in the pocket.i hit at lincoln on the greyhound trifecta for 2,600 the other night.i let that online gambling bill get in my craw for a while and lost some sleep and hair but i'm just about over it.i'm no longer pissed about the money i'm losing due to the gambling bill but just the governments insistence on babysitting me.where were they when i was killing myself with cigarettes,beer,liquor,etc?they were probably doing worse things but thats none of my business just like my business is none of theirs.sometimes you have to go through hell to see the forest through the trees.i see that now......finally.

CAPITOL HILL (Jan. 25) - Democrats' promise of a quick increase in the minimum wage ran aground Wednesday in the Senate, where lawmakers are insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses that rely on low-pay workers.

On a 54-43 vote, Democrats lost an effort to advance a House-passed bill that would lift the pay floor from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour without any accompanying tax cut. Opponents of the tax cut needed 60 votes to prevail.

The vote sent a message to House Democrats and liberals in the Senate that only a hybrid tax and minimum wage package could succeed in the Senate. But any tax breaks in the bill would put the Senate on a collision course with the House, which is required by the Constitution to initiate tax measures.

In a separate vote, the Senate also effectively killed a modified line-item veto bill. The Republican-inspired measure would have permitted a president to pluck individual items out of spending bills and submit them to Congress for a vote.

Raising the minimum wage is one of the new Democratic Congress' top priorities. The wage floor has been unchanged for 10 years. The bill would increase it to $7.25 in three steps over 26 months.

"Why can't we do just one thing for minimum wage workers, no strings attached, no giveaways for the powerful?" asked Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., a leading sponsor of the bill.

The House passed the increase two weeks ago. Since then Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Charles Rangel, the chairman of the tax writing Ways and Means Committee, have prodded the Senate to keep tax proposals out of the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled Wednesday's vote to demonstrate the Democrats' lack of Republican support for a straight minimum wage bill without tax cuts. Every Democrat present voted to end debate and five moderate Republicans joined them.

"There seems to be agreement to raise the minimum wage," said Republican Sen. Michael Enzi of Wyoming. "The difficulty has been how do we take care of some of the impact to small businesses that will result from this."

Reid is backing an $8.3 billion tax package that would extend for five years a tax credit for employers who hire low-income or disadvantaged workers. It also extends until 2010 tax rules that permit businesses to combine as much as $112,000 in expenses into one annual tax deduction.

The cost of the proposal would be paid with revenue realized from a proposed cap of $1 million on executive compensation that can be tax deferred. The tax package also would end deductions for court settlements or punitive damages paid by companies that have been sued.

A vote on the full tax and wages package is not expected until early next week.

The differences between the House and Senate bills will require Pelosi and Reid to work out an agreement on how to move a similar tax package through the House.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate's tax writing Finance Committee and co-author of the tax proposals, said the Senate bill will be held in the Senate until the leaders resolve the impasse.

"It's just a couple or three steps away from the goal line," Baucus said.

Super Bowl XLI will have a fresh look with two teams that haven't seen the NFL's title game in a long time. The Bears are back in the Super Bowl for first time since winning Super Bowl XX in January of 1986, while the Colts will make a Super Bowl appearance for the first time since the franchise, then located in Baltimore, beat Dallas in Super Bowl V. Both teams started the 2006 season fast with the Bears winning their first seven games on their way to the NFC North title and the Colts starting 9-0 on their way to the AFC South crown. The game will feature strength against strength with the Colts offense, ranked third in the regular season, going against a Bears defense that finished the season ranked fifth overall. Both teams have plenty of talent, with Chicago sending seven players to the Pro Bowl, six from the defense or special teams, and the Colts boasting five Pro Bowl players, all from the offense.

what freedom of ours is going to be taken next in the name of terrorism?

my brother lives in phoenix,arizona.he told me it snowed there and they got one and another half inches of snow.phoenix is not a place that gets snow on a regular basis.strange that he got snow and we have yet to recieve any snow here in memphis,tennessee.....

NFC--lets go bears.holding that 6-0 lead....

AFC-later today.even though peyton manning went to tennessee he choked here to every year.then we won the national championship in college football the year after he left.he'll choke again hopefully.go brady and patriots!!

imagine your in 1987.its twenty years ago.i'm a teenager and your whatever age you were then.ok now would've thought back then that in 2007 you could no longer smoke in most places,can't spank your child in public anymore,michael jackson the most popular entertainer in the world would be a child molester,that the vice presidents son would be the president,that you could play any lottery from the privacy of your home,that instead of long hair all the rage would be the bald look,that rap music would overtake rock in sales to become the number one choice among teens,that nearly every person would have a cell phone rather than a home phone,that star wars would've had three more sequels,rocky was still cranking out sequels,lol.......

sorry about all the political in my blog lately.seems to me that i am yearning for the good 'ol days even though it wasn't that long ago.just gets to me and its hard to think how quickly things change in this country.anyone else feel like certain things are taken away or scaled back? all in the name of???

who do you think are some of the best and worst presidents ever?

me i think bush is one of the worst ever--invaded the wrong country, got the troops stuck in quagmire, lead the most divisive government in history, couldn't string a sentence together, suspended habeas corpus, kidnapped citizens of friendly nations, tried to appoint an unqualified croney to the supreme court, flouted international law and cost half a million civilians and 4000 US troops their lives unnecesarily entry that would be needed to make him one of the worst presidents ever...

i think reagan was one of the best over the past thirty years or so because he seemed to be an honest,tough,easy going man who kept us out of any major wars and did not have any scandals.he also led a long fight with the war on drugs. 

what are your opinions on the internet gambling enforcement act?  looks to me like there is some serious wipe out being done before this act has even been set in stone.some of your biggest payment processers were firepay,neteller and click2pay.with firepay bowing out early on and now you have neteller where some people do their poker or whatever they do and now they are down for the count also.this leaves one company and i hope they stick with us and don't get intimidated into folding also.all this is really messed up for people who had skills and got the bills payed by playing these fun games.well i went ahead in advance and started preparing myself should something happen when this first started back in october.maybe it will and maybe it won't but never say never either way or your fooling yourself.these are my opinions and everybody has their own theories about what is going to happen.well i spent hours tonight on the poker sites.they are showing massive amounts of players switching to the only alternative left and quite frankly thats not good.this is going to put them from being in the background to the forefront.i wonder how long it will take before the government realizes what a dumb idea this whole thing was.thanks bill frist and i'll always be ashamed to admit i'm from the same state you are bozo....

try these..... 8576,4756,5846

i've deleted cookies set by this site.i've signed in and signed out.i've used internet explorer.i've done everything i can think of but the little box won't open to let me post.????

BOSTON (Jan. 18) - Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say they have confirmed a study by the state that found nicotine levels in cigarettes increased from 1997 until 2005.

The analysis, based on data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by cigarette manufacturers, found that increases in smoke nicotine yield per cigarette averaged 1.6 percent each year, for a total of about 11 percent over a seven-year period.

"Cigarettes are finely tuned drug delivery devices, designed to perpetuate a tobacco pandemic," said Howard Koh, an associate dean for public health practice who worked on the analysis. "Yet precise information about these products remains shrouded in secrecy, hidden from the public."

The health department study released last October examined nicotine levels in more than 100 brands over a six-year period. The study showed a steady climb in the amount of nicotine delivered to the lungs of smokers.

Gregory Connolly, head of the Tobacco Control Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the increase found in Harvard's study is due primarily to an increase in nicotine in the raw tobacco used in the cigarettes.

"There's something going on either with the type of tobacco they're using or the addition of more nicotine to the reconstituted tobacco. We just don't know," Connolly said.

He also said the findings call into question whether the tobacco industry is living up to its 1998 agreement with states that it would launch a campaign to reduce smoking by young people.

"If that same industry turns around and advances the availability of nicotine in the product, you may not get fewer kids smoking," he said.

Cigarette manufacturers disputed the findings of both studies. Cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA said data reported to the state by the company shows nicotine yields for the Marlboro cigarettes were the same in 2006 and 1997.

The company said that the data reflect random variations in cigarette nicotine yields, both upward and downwards, and that variations are not consistent.

Health department officials have defended the report, which said that the higher nicotine levels made it easier to get hooked on cigarettes and harder to quit.

Massachusetts is one of three states to require tobacco companies to submit information about nicotine testing according to its specifications and the only state with data going back to 1997.

Harvard did a more in-depth analysis of the state's data and looked at one additional year. Work on the report was supported by funds from the anti-smoking advocacy group The American Legacy Foundation and the National Cancer Institute.

By STEVE LeBLANC