Card Making Enthusiasts Develop Cards for Kids Program Benefiting the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Dallas, TX, May 9, 2008 - St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility anywhere. Discoveries made here have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. In an effort to add a little sunshine to the lives of St. Jude patients, the members of the Cricut user community are collecting donations of handmade cards. Some of the cards will be given to the children and others will be donated to the hospital gift shop to help raise additional research dollars.

There are currently over 300 members involved, with more signing up every day. As a way to encourage participation, the group is offering four grand prize ‘thank you’ drawings, sponsored in part by Scrapbooking Supplies Etc. by CropJunkie.com. Card makers will receive one entry in the drawing for each card donated. The prize package consists of hundreds and hundreds of scrapbooking, card making and other crafting supplies donated by members of the Cricut message board and online scrapbooking supplies retailers including Scrapbooking Supplies Etc.by CropJunkie.com, Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps and ScrapYourTrip.com

“It is not too late to join in this project. Each card sent in equals one ticket in the drawing. You can also donate prize items and those will each get you one ticket in the drawing as well,” said project co-developer Marcia Fix.

The group expects to deliver more than 5,000 hand made cards to St. Jude Hospital in Memphis on July 12, 2008. The grand prize drawing will also be held on July 12.

“St. Jude’s does so much to help children and their families from all over the world regardless of their personal, financial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds,” said project co-developer Carol Gough Lust “This is our opportunity to help them in their efforts.”

If you would like to participate in the Cards for Kids project benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by either creating and donating hand made cards or by donating thank you prizes for the participants, please contact Carol Gough Lust at CarolDGough@aol.com. The donation deadline is June 20. 2008.

About St Jude Children’s Research Hospital:
St. Jude Hospital is where some of today’s most gifted researchers are able to do more science, more quickly. Where doctors across the world send their toughest cases and most vulnerable patients. Where no one pays for treatment beyond what is covered by insurance, and those without insurance are never asked to pay. We’ve built America’s 3rd-largest health-care charity, with a model that keeps the costs down and the funds flowing, so the science never stops.

About Scrapbooking Supplies, Etc. by CropJunkie.com:
CropJunkie.com was founded by Angela Vader. Angela is a work at home mom (WAHM) with a passion for preserving her family memories - and sharing the tools and techniques she has learned. This is how CropJunkie.com was born. Through a love of decorative scrapbooking paper, embellishments, stamping and all number of very cool scrapbooking tools, Angela founded CropJunkie.com as a way to share her love of the scrapbooking hobby with others.

About Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps:
After many hours spent searching for just the right “knight” stamp set to make her son’s 5th birthday invitations - with no luck, Korin Sutherland decided to try her hand at drawing one. The rest is history. After much nudging from her many friends, Korin decided to pursue creating her own line of stamps and Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps came to life.

About ScrapYourTrip.com: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/
Scrap Your Trip™ has all of your hard-to-find, themed scrapbook supplies right here in one convenient location. The world’s largest selection of scrapbooking papers, embellishments, & die cuts (stock and custom), for travel, military, sports, pets, holidays, wedding, and more!

CONTACT:
Darren Vader
Scrapbooking Supplies, Etc.
940-453-4701 ph
775-367-6741 fx
darrenv@cropjunkie.com
http://www.scrapbookingsuppliesetc.com

What Recession?

For every negative in this economy, there’s a positive, offsetting or at least tempering the downside. The result is a precarious balance — an economy highly vulnerable to any shock: weather or war induced, energy related, financial or other. But barring such a blow, the U.S. economy in 2008 should limp along, with little or no growth in some quarters and a lousy feeling to many businesses and consumers, but avoiding outright recession.

Here’s how we size up the ledger, headed into the new year.

First, take a look at the liabilities — challenges that must be met.

1. Flat or falling U.S. housing prices, which will act as a drag on consumer spending. We expect home prices to slip an average of 5% in the coming year, with declines of up to 20% over two years in formerly red-hot regions. That’ll weigh on consumer spending as cash-out refinancings continue to dwindle and loss of equity makes consumers feel poorer.
2. More-costly borrowing, despite cuts by the Federal Reserve. Spreads are widening to reflect a better appreciation of risks. Junk bond yields, now running at four percentage points over Treasuries, will climb to six points above. Plus the LIBOR, the global benchmark for bank loans and adjustable mortgages, is already 150 basis points over the federal funds rate, more than 10 times the spread of a year ago.
3. High energy prices, crimping consumers’ disposable income and draining business revenues, particularly for manufacturers and retailers paying fuel surcharges to transport goods and raw materials.
4. Sluggish growth in business profits, due to all of the above. Plus write-downs on mortgage-backed securities will hurt financial firms.
5. Cutbacks by state and local governments as tax receipts shrink.
6. More global competition for investment funds. Saudi Arabia, China and others with scads of dollars are seeking greater diversity in their investments, turning more to euro-denominated stocks and bonds.
7. Stirring inflation. Food prices, as well as energy prices, remain high. And whenever possible, companies are passing along cost hikes to buyers. The Consumer Price Index from Dec. 2006 to Dec. 2007 will come in at about 4%, the biggest one-year hike since 1990, when it rose 6.1%, Dec. to Dec.
8. Some big industries that are clearly in pain. Among them: Home building and anything related to it — appliances, carpeting, furniture and so on. After falling 25% in 2007, housing starts will slip an additional 15% in 2008. Autos and, of course, financial services are also ailing.

Now count down the other side of the ledger — offsetting assets, many of which have gone largely ignored.

1. Three buoys for consumer spending. Per capita personal income, from wages, salaries, bonuses, dividends, interest and rental income, remains a strong positive. This past year, for example, it racked up gains at an annual rate of 2.5% in each quarter, after taxes and inflation. Employment continues to gain, albeit more slowly than earlier…about 118,000 net new jobs a month, compared with 188,000 a year in 2006. Moreover, the national unemployment rate remains at a modest 4.7%. And productivity growth persists. Though it’s decelerating to nearer 2% than the 2.5% annual pace it achieved during the 1990s, U.S. businesses are still getting more output from an input hour of labor.
2. A Federal Reserve determined to keep economic growth going, having already trimmed the fed funds rate by one percentage point and cut a full point from the discount rate. Chairman Ben Bernanke and company will take whatever steps are needed to keep the credit pump primed.
3. Energy conservation and technology advances, blunting the force of high oil and gas prices. Businesses use just half as much energy today as they did three decades ago to produce the same amount of output.
4. Strong corporate balance sheets, cushioning skimpier profits. Before this year’s big write-downs, banks enjoyed years of record profits and remain largely in good fiscal condition. S&P 500 industrial firms hold $623 billion in cash — 40% of long-term debt, twice the 1997 ratio.
5. Uncle Sam’s open hand. Federal spending will keep climbing. Increases in defense and entitlement programs, such as Social Security, will more than make up for restraint elsewhere in the federal budget as well as for budget cutbacks by state and local governments.
6. Foreign investment in the U.S. that remains strong and steady, despite competition. More foreigners are taking stakes in U.S. companies, notably banks and financial firms, which are fundamentally sound, though struggling with setbacks caused by the subprime lending crisis.
7. A tame core inflation rate, which omits energy and food. Tough global competition is keeping a lid on prices. Many foreign firms that sell in the U.S. are absorbing additional costs to maintain share. Plus a run-up in oil prices equivalent to the 2007 hike isn’t likely.
8. And a slew of industries enjoying robust growth — health care, IT, defense, aerospace, electronics, heavy machinery, food and agriculture. Exports in particular are thriving. They’ll increase 9% in 2008 after a nearly 12% growth spurt in 2007. What’s more, demand from abroad is boosting sales not only of goods, such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, IT gear, aircraft and auto parts, but also of services, such as law, engineering, insurance, education, transportation and logistics. Plus the soft dollar will continue to spell boom times for restaurants, hotels and shops drawing in foreigners eager to snatch up bargains.

The bottom line: We see an economy that could easily tip into recession, but that, if dealt with confidently and aided by good fortune, won’t.

The Lights of Vaderville Extreme Holiday Display Now Open for 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Darren Vader
darren@vaderfamily.info
940-453-4701

The Lights of Vaderville Extreme Holiday Display Now Open for 2007
Expanded Multi-Home Display Includes Over 30,000 Lights, a Virtual Santa and More

Holiday cheer is what keeps us going throughout the year and the hard work we put into bringing the community our Christmas display is our ode to the joys that come with the holiday season.

This is our second year of running a computer controlled light show; we’ve added a good bit of growth for 2007. This year our display will include over 30,000 lights, 30 strobe lights, a virtual snow machine made out of a rotating disco ball, a virtual Santa Claus, red and green flood backdrops, a new ‘mini-mega tree’ and a fancy new sign announcing the radio signal at 107.3fm!

We’ve also added another whole house to the display! Our neighbor has joined the fun by installing a computer animated display of his own and we’ve synced the two of them to the same fantastic musical play list. It is a fun and unique experience that the entire family will enjoy!

The show is synchronized to a variety of unique holiday tunes and can be heard by tuning your car stereo to 107.3 FM.

The show runs from 7pm-9pm Sunday-Thurs nights and 7pm-10pm on Fri and Sat nights. Please come by and see us!

Please see www.vaderfamily.info for show times, maps and complete details.

Conservative vs. Conservative

That’s where semantics goes to war with politics. Many assume Conservative means “traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness.”  It does if you’re dressing for a job interview.  Conservative has a different meaning when discussing politics.

Nobody tells the voters that, because the Religious Right (as in wing, not as in correct…more semantics…) wants voters voting on single issues:  abortion, drugs, gay marriage.  They desire to control the citizenry by making these things illegal.  So a voter goes in, ignores all other issues, and votes for the candidate who promises to make abortion illegal.

Ironically, enforcing such beliefs on the citizenry is quite the opposite of conservative politics.  It is made even more ironic by the obvious integration of church and state, and it is made thrice ironic by infringing on the rights for which our forefathers fought and on which the constitution is based.

I still argue with people who want us somewhere shooting up someone who lives differently than we do.  They have no concern for the cost, the economy, the environment, their rights or anything.  They refuse to acknowledge the rights our own government has violated “for our protection” while speaking of those over seas “who threaten our way of life.”  I recognize it is very easy to get caught up in that, because I also bought into it once upon a time.  It’s time for a proverbial splash of cold water in our collective faces.

For me, the question of my family’s safety and national security boils down to this:  Were those UA and AA planes flown by bad people to New York and Arlington from Baghdad or Tehran?  Nope.  They were boarded by bad people right here inside our own unprotected borders.

The economy, environment, education, mail, taxes, gun control, sovereignty and my individual rights…let’s not forget those either…

Also that George W. guy..

I’d like to be the fist to congratulate George Washington on becoming the President of the United States. I predict that he and his friend Abraham Lincoln will bring integrity and honesty to that position that will be carried forth by all the leaders of the United States of America.

On a related note, I would like to be the first to congratulate said United States of America on winning her freedom from the evil British Empire. I doubt we’ll ever have good relations with England, but that’s ok. America has shown the world how fighting for, and winning your own independence helps you truly understand freedom. I’m sure other countries will follow her example in the future and perhaps even before the future.

I Was Anti-Iraq War When Anti-Iraq War Wasn’t Cool

Ron Paul’s case for minding our own business back in October 4, 2002.

Some E Cards

www.someecards.com

Too much funny to me Davis!

The Price is Right…Just Not Right Enough

Hola, Amigos y Amigas. 

We’ve got plenty of time to worry about picking our replacement for President Horhay Boosh. We’ve still got 504 days before the election, so let’s not worry about that right now.

What we need to be concerned right now with a replacement for Bob Barker  

 

And since you know I’m right about everything, you know I know who should replace Mr. Barker.  The answer is so simple, it’s almost too difficult to see.  It’s like the giant war-loving, Morman elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about.  Because, you know, who wants an elephant in your room?  Especially if that elephant loves war!

   

And who is America’s favorite Morman elephant?  That’s right, none other than former Massachusetts Governor and current Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. 

Just look at this smooth, handsome fellow. 

Is there a better candidate for Host of America’s favorite game show? 

No. 

Write CBS with your support of Governor Romney.  Do it for yourself.  Do it for your country.  I can assure you of one thing, inhabitant of universe. 

If Mr. Romney is selected as the Republican Presidential candidate, the Price will be WRONG!

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

For those of you whom I have encouraged to pick a chartity and start donating regularly, this is my favorite. 

 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Become a partner in hope. 

How can we not support Ron Paul?