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Best 2010 cars for resale value

Kelley Blue Book has published its annual Best Resale Value Awards for model year 2010 vehicles.

When we buy a car, we think of the price as the true cost, along with the expense of insurance, gas and maintenance. But the real cost of a car is depreciation — how much in value it loses during the initial years of ownership.

Here are the brands that are projected to hold their value the best during the next five years:

• Lexus
• Toyota (Remember, this list was compiled before the recall.)
• Honda
• BMW
• Subaru
• Jeep
• Acura
• Infiniti
• Audi
• Nissan

Kelley Blue Book goes on to say that half of all 2010 model year vehicles are expected to maintain less than 20 percent of their initial value after five years. So consider that before buying a fancy new car. Buy a not-so-fancy used car instead and let somebody else handle the depreciation!

If you must buy new, plan on holding a car for 10 years or longer to absorb all the depreciation. As an alternative, buy a two-year-old car and hold it for three years or a three-year-old car and hold it for two years.

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Our thanks to consumer advocate Clark Howard:

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Third wave of credit card reform rules coming in August

As you know, the credit card market is going through a dramatic change. This is one of those cases when the free market failed. The banks engaged in dishonest practices that led to a very politically popular interference in the free market.

As a result of the credit card reform law, there will be three phases of changes. The lion’s share of changes have already happened. The last phase will take place in August, and it tentatively looks like there will be more protections for customers.

Under the Federal Reserve’s proposed reform rules, banks will no longer be allowed to charge you $35 or $39 for that $2 coffee that took you over your limit. The issue of banks approving charges they shouldn’t just for an excuse to fee you to death has really been a lightning rod.

Going forward, the punishment has to fit the crime. So that $2 overage will have to come with something more like a $2 penalty fee. In addition, there will be no more stacking penalties one atop another.

The new proposed rules do have some “half loaf” provisions for consumers. For example, banks will be free to raise interest on future balances — provided they offer sufficient notice — on a whim; no valid reason will be necessary.

In addition, when you miss a bill and get hit with a higher penalty interest rate period, the bank is not required to take you back to your normal interest rate after you make a number of timely payments.

In related news, the Federal Reserve has been contacted to ask if Chase bank’s latest ploy is a violation of the credit card reform rules. The Fed’s reply? Deafening silence, so far.

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Author and attorney Ellen Hodgson Brown talks about her book, how money is created by the banks using an illusion and how we can fix the economic meltdown. Click here to watch the very informative 10 minute Youtube video.

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Pandora Radio

Jango (Internet radio)

Live365.com

GrooveShark.com
(BeFree’s note: EMI Records has filed suit against Grooveshark over the issue of licensing agreements for the use of EMI’s catalog. We’ll keep you updated on this pending litigation.)

QTrax.com

Slacker.com

NoiseTrade.com

Imeem.com

TheRadio.com

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Our thanks to consumer advocate Clark Howard

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As of today, the new kredit card rules have been almost completely implemented. There is a third and final phase of the roll-out later this year that you’ll be hearing more about. But this is the biggie we’ve all been waiting for.

The nation’s five largest credit card issuers — American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank and Chase — have been dreading this day because now they have to honest!

It used to be that the credit card companies would play a con game by sending you a glossy brochure and pages of mice type that explained how they’d rip you relentlessly. Some call this a “triumph of capitalism,” as they maintain that the nation’s banks did more to undermine capitalism than Karl Marx ever did because they continually undermined people’s faith in the system.

The new credit card rules have changes that are very favorable if you choose to act on them.

• Your next credit card statement will clearly disclose how long you’ll be in debt if only making minimum payments. A reporter for The Financial Times of London crunched some numbers and found that the typical American with an average balance and interest rate making only minimum payments won’t be out of debt until 2058! And that’s never charging another penny again to that card!

• If you have multiple interest rates on your account, anything you pay over the minimum balance will be applied to the highest rate first. But beware, if you only pay the minimum, the money will still be applied to the lowest balance first.

• Banks must give 45 days notice before raising the interest rate on future purchases. Use this as a chance to leapfrog to get a new card elsewhere. Notify your issuer that you’re rejecting their new terms. You’ll won’t be able to make any new charges, but you’ll get to pay off your balance under the old agreement.

• Your interest rate on existing balances can’t be raised until you’re in default for 60 days.

• Any annual fees must be capped at 25 percent of your card’s limit.

• Teaser rates on new cards must be honored for one year.

• Two-cycle billing will no longer be allowed. This was a sneaky way that banks would charge massive interest if one month you paid in full and the next month you didn’t.

• Adults under age 21 will need parental consent to get a new credit card. The sole exception is for legally emancipated minors.

• Bills must mail to you no later than 21 days before the due date.

• The new daily cutoff for a lender to receive payments via the mail is 5 p.m.

• It will be illegal for a bank to let a transaction run when they know you’ll go over your limit — unless you give them written permission to do so.

• Sellers of debit gift cards must clearly disclose the rip-off fees that are passed on to the user. Such cards will now have a 5-year lifespan.

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BeFree suggests that we all pay off our kredit cards ASAP

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Our thanks to Seth Feigerman and MainStreet.com. Click here to link directly to a short slide show describing the Best Stuff To Buy In February.

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Our thanks to Wendy Boswell and About.com

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Did you know that you can watch watch free TV online? Here are over 30 sites where you can watch free TV online, including news broadcasts, sports events, and thousands of your favorite TV shows – all for free.

• LinkTV:Global news, documentaries, TV shows, and movies.
• YouTube: YouTube is a great way to catch up on TV shows that you might’ve missed or find obscure clips and outtakes from your favorites.
• CurrentTV: not a traditional TV network; this is mostly user-created and submitted free online TV.
• Angry Alien Productions: silly, crazy bunnies re-enact movies and TV shows.
• PBS: PBS features many of their programs online in a free streaming format; just use this Google query: site:www.pbs.org pbs watch online, and you should be able to find quite a few.
• ABC TV: download and watch free Web TV at Abc.com.
• ChannelChooser: ChannelChooser is a good place to find many different free web TV channels, all streaming.
• BBC:the BBC’s most popular stories; not all the top stories are linked to video, but quite a few are.
• wwITv.com: You can find free web TV channels from all over the world here; a great selection.
• StewieLive: Not quite free web TV, but close – you can make Stewie from Family Guy do (almost) anything you want.
• Democracy Internet TV: Over 600 different free web TV channels are available here at the Democracy Internet TV platform.
• Veoh.comp: Watch all kinds of free web TV and more videos at Veoh.com.
• Jeff’s Guide to “TV Shows Only Available on the Internet”: This free web TV fan has put together a great list of all the shows he could find that are ONLY available on the Web – you’d be surprised.
• Blip.tv: Watch the most popular TV shows over at Blip.tv; lots of free web TV here.
• Yahoo TV: Yahoo TV is still really getting going, but you can find a lot of good stuff here, especially trailers and pilots from upcoming TV shows.
• TV.com: Not necessarily complete TV shows, but this is a great place to get previews and snippets.
• AOL in2tv: AOL’s in2tv is one of the best places on the Web to find classic TV shows.
• Vanderbilt Television Archive: What a treasure: “The collection holds more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including ABC’s Nightline since 1989.”
• BBC: The BBC has generously placed its news programs online in a free, streaming format.
• Newsfilm Library: From the University of South Carolina; this collection hosts a part of the Fox MovieTone collection.
• Choose and Watch: Choose and Watch is a free web TV site with literally hundreds of channels to choose from.
• BaseballRace.com:Watch live streaming MLB baseball pennant games and more.
• Live Online TV: Live Online TV is a good site with many free channel offerings to choose from.
• Zap2it.com: You can watch all sorts of free web TV at Zap2it, also includes news and reviews.
• Streamick: Streamick has many, many free web TV channels to choose from, but I especially appreciate that it’s so nicely organized into categories.
• TVLand: Watch old and new TV shows here at TVLand; I got sucked into an old episode of Little House on the Prairie.
• NASA TV: Instantly get space updates and news from NASA’s free web TV channel.
• SingingFish: SingingFish is a good place to find all kinds of multimedia. Make sure you take advantage of the advanced search filters.
• FoodNetwork: Don’t have cable, but you need that recipe? No problem – you can watch free web TV demonstrations.
• Google Video: Google Video is a good place to find free web TV, however, many of the shows are pay-per-view (you can just go over to YouTube and find them there!).
• BeelineTV: Free web TV channels from all around the world.
• Yahoo Video Search: Yahoo Video Search is a good place to find music videos, TV show snippets, and more.
• RadioFreeWorld: Find free web TV here, as well as free online radio stations.

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If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?”  The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.  Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it.  I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head.  Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy.  Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all.  We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers.  Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”.  I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood.  These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind.  Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.

Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours?  Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies.  Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”.  It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.

And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!

How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system?  Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand.  Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand.  The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is.  If this is not the measure of atotalitarian regime, nothing is.

How did I get here?

My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s.  Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English.  Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions.  In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.  We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God).  We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.

The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living.  However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.

That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie.  It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.

Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.

On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father.  I realized this at a very young age.

The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker.  Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement.  Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement.  All she had was social security to live on.

In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me).  I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread.  I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made.  I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.

Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.

For you who are unfamiliar, here is the core text of the IRS Section 1706, defining the treatment of workers (such as contract engineers) for tax purposes. Visit this link for a conference committee report(http://www.synergistech.com/1706.shtml#ConferenceCommitteeReport) regarding the intended interpretation of Section 1706 and the relevant parts of Section 530, as amended. For information on how these laws affect technical services workers and their clients, read our discussion here(http://www.synergistech.com/ic-taxlaw.shtml).

SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.

(a) IN GENERAL – Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:

(d) EXCEPTION. – This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. – The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.

Note:

• “another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
• “taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
• “individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.

Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated.  The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave.  Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.

During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time.  I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity.  This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.

After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise.  The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists).  This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.

Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle.  If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.

Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks.  Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s.  Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that.  The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco.  However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall.  Again, I lost my retirement.

Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed.  Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare.  Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months.  This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive.  Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!  After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.

By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change.  Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while.  So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done.  I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work.  The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.

To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA.  This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income.  I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out.  Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.

So now we come to the present.  After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle.  After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.

When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order.  I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting.  Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit.  By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.

This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented).  Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone.  The end result is… well, just look around.

I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything.  Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”.  Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.

As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone.  The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government.  Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough).  In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand.  It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants.  I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after.  But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change.  I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.  I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.  Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.  The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different.  I am finally ready to stop this insanity.  Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

02/18/2010

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Our thanks to Anne Marie Chaker and The Wall Street Journal for this brief informational article about the health, and investment advantages of buying rare heirloom garden seeds. Click here to read article.

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Our thanks to Granny in the Woods and SurvivalBlog.com

Cloth diapers — they are easy to make and cheaper than bought ones. There was an article in Backwoods Home Magazine about making them.

Last year we had two grand babies born and I made 3 dozen of each size for each baby. Cutting that much terry cloth was messy and the project time consuming, but well worth the effort. Their mothers used them and were glad to save money on disposable diapers. I suggest getting the snap machine and snaps to close the diapers, I never was successful sewing on the velcro.

Also, for the ladies, there are patterns on the Internet for making [washable] ladies menstrual pads. The same materials for babies diapers can be used to make these pads. Here is one of the web sites for patterns for making these.

- A Granny in the Woods

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Our thanks to GiannyL for this short, instructional, and entertaining 2 minute 10 second Youtube video demonstrating how to recycle and transform our old jeans into earth friendly sandals. Click here to watch video.