LOTTOMIKE's Blog

where could the next quad fall?

oregon or indiana are my picks......

well tonight the tennessee cash 4 results were 8655 and i had 8654.down to my last few weeks of play money and then i'll be done for the year until tax time.made a few mistakes where i could've had hits but dropped a number too soon.had strange luck lately.i could almost guarantee that as soon as i quit the next week my numbers will start sprouting like crazy.can't seem to shake the curse.......

So the political question is, how will each side of the aisle conduct business in the short time left in this legislative session and what issues would each like voters to think about when they vote in the midterm elections? The Senate agenda is scheduled to focus immediately on H.R. 5631, the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2007 Appropriations Bill and, depending on the number of amendments considered, that should take at least a week -- and maybe two -- of the remainder of the session.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) made it clear before the August recess that he intends to also pursue confirmation for more of George W. Bush's judicial nominees and a full Senate vote on John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. (Bolton was slipped in the back door by Bush via a recess appointment last year when it was clear to the White House that Bolton would not be confirmed by the Senate.) Frist has further declared his desire to work on small-business health plans and, if time remains, to go after what truly keeps most Americans awake at night -- the scourge of Internet gambling.

"As it is now, this industry threatens to undermine the quality of life of millions of Americans by bringing an addictive behavior right into our living rooms," said Frist in an August 3 statement. "It's got to stop."

Wow. I'm sure our troops stuck in a civil war in Iraq will be glad Frist and the Republicans are all over that one.

Democrats need to jump on this typically-goofy priority on the Republicans' part and immediately bring the issue of the minimum wage right back to the Senate floor and into Frist's face. If you remember, the GOP pulled one of the most cynical legislative stunts in recent memory before the August recess, when it attached a phony minimum wage hike to their attempt to repeal the Estate Tax -- also known as the "Paris Hilton tax" -- in the hope that Senate Democrats would be forced to give another tax cut to the rich or appear to vote against the first minimum wage increase in a decade. The bill had passed the House of Representatives a week earlier but died in the Senate on August 3 without even making it to a full vote.

So now's the time for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to invoke the same minimum wage increase that Democrats have been trying to pass for the entire 109th Congress, and get it right back on the Senate agenda in the time remaining this year. Reid should bring it as a standalone bill or as an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill -- whatever it takes.

I understand this is easier said than done as Frist -- or is it Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove? -- ultimately decides what comes to the Senate floor and not the Minority Leader.

But this should be very easy for Frist to agree to at this point. After all, Republicans spent a lot of time in late July and early August trying to convince working families that they care about them and that they suddenly give a damn about the lot of low-income Americans.

"The current Federal minimum wage just isn't sufficient," said Pete Domenici (R-NM) on the Senate floor on August 3, in arguing for a repeal of the Estate Tax and presumably, truly supporting a minimum wage hike. "Now is the time to raise the minimum wage. It's time to give low-wage workers a raise."

Domenici's colleague, Norm Coleman (R-MN), agreed saying in an August 3 statement, "It has been far too long since the last increase in the minimum wage, which is why I strongly support an increase to help raise the living standard of America's hardworking families."

And on and on it went...

So Harry Reid needs to take them at their word, reintroduce the standalone, Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage and do it as soon as the Senate goes back into session tomorrow.

This would be the same legislation that has been pushed so hard by Ted Kennedy (D-MA) for the last 18 months, only to see it shot down by Senate Republicans on three straight roll call votes. Bills to raise the minimum wage, S.Amdt. 44, S.Amdt. 2063 and S.Amdt. 4322 were all killed by Senate Republicans by yea-nay votes of 46-49 (March, 2005), 47-51 (October, 2005) and 46-52 (June, 2006), respectively.

Of course, those bills were just straight increases in the minimum wage and not a huge gift to the National Restaurant Association like the latest GOP sham. The Republicans' wage "increase" that was tossed in with the Paris-Hilton tax cut, contained a provision that would have forced seven states that allow tipped workers to receive the full minimum wage before tips to revert to a $2.13 per hour wage and then count workers' tips toward their employer's full minimum wage requirement.

This was ugly stuff that would have resulted in a pay cut for millions of tip-earning workers -- but , hey, that's all in the past.

Effective early August, we know we're all finally on the same page. The vast majority of the American people believe it's way past time for an increase in the minimum wage and, based on the newfound heart and enthusiasm of Senate Republicans, this should be a vote that takes no more than a few hours off the Senate clock.

So Minority Leader Reid and Kennedy need to march right in to Bill Frist's office first thing tomorrow morning, celebrate this rare instance of total agreement between the two parties and get a no-strings-attached minimum wage bill passed before the Senate closes for business in a month.

Moving swiftly on this would make voters happy with both political parties, amount to a big win for working families and should now be incredibly easy -- unless, of course, the GOP's gesture of goodwill to American workers in August was just a cynical political ploy.

But that couldn't be the case -- could it?

The Senate majority leader said most people don't know that online gambling is illegal.

Which makes it our responsibility to act," Frist said Thursday at a hearing at Coe College.

The House approved a bill in July that would ban the use of credit cards, checks or electronic fund transfers to pay online gambling debts.

People attending the hearing, chaired by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, the sponsor of the House bill, urged Frist to push the Senate version of the bill.

Former University of Iowa and NFL football player Merton Hanks said he tried to avoid gamblers during his career, but that the popularity of online gambling is making it more difficult for current players.

"I also hear from them that they are receiving increased pressure from another group of so-called supporters," said Hanks, now the NFL's senior manager of football operations. "While it remains a minority of the fans, today's players perceive it to be a growing threat.

"I do not think that this increased betting is healthy for the sport I love, nor is it good for the players who are playing as hard as they can to win games, not to cover bets," Hanks said.

A letter from Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., was the only opposition expressed at the hearing.

In the letter, which was read by a Leach aide, Porter said a ban wouldn't be effective. He said a bipartisan committee should study the problem before Congress acts.

Sue Schneider, past chairwoman of the Interactive Gaming Council, said in a telephone interview with The Gazette that the online gaming industry is "crying out for regulation and is resigned to taxation."

She said the industry is regulated and taxed in 88 countries, and regulating online gaming in the U.S. would help ban underage and problem gamblers.

Deputy Iowa Attorney General Mark Vander Linden said online gambling gets the smallest share of the overall gambling market.

But, "the most serious problems related to gambling come from those who are gambling on the Internet," he said.

Senator Frist won't be getting my vote.......

5846, 5648, 4658, 4856 ,4865, 4568 ,5486, 7486, 5684, 7684, 7864, 5864, 5468, 7468, 7856, 7846, 7648, 7658, 8658, 8458, 8456, 5487, 5784, 7854, 5478, 7458, 7858, 5878, 5876, 5674, 5476, 5647, 5746, 5847, 5748, 4657, 4756, 4857, 4758, 7876, 7678, 5658, 5856, 4846, 4648, 5946, 5649, 4956, 4659, 5947, 5749, 4957, 4759, 5849, 5948 ,4958 , 4859, 5448, 5446, 4654, 4854, 7584, 6584, 6485, 7485, 5826, 5628, 4826, 4628, 8647, 8657, 7657, 7647, 8946, 8956 ,7956, 7946, 8659 ,7659 ,8649 , 7649, 4986, 5986, 4976 , 5976,  8957, 8947 ,6957, 6947,  8759, 8749, 6749, 6759, 8644, 7644, 5644, 8466, 7466, 5466, 5886, 7886, 5884, 7884,  5688 ,7688, 8654, 7654, 8456, 7456,  8465, 7465, 6856, 6876, 6756, 6746,8746 ,8756  8758, 5845, 5485 ,7845 , 6845 , 6854 , 6458 ,7866 , 5866 ,5747 ,4757 ,5848 ,4858, 4656 ,5646, 4647 ,4746 , 5756 ,5657

Aug. 30) - The Census Bureau -- which deals in big numbers, like the total number of Americans (299,599,204 as of 7 p.m. yesterday) and the percentage of households with incomes above $100,000 (17.2% last year) -- is taking a magnifying glass to the economy and offering fresh details about American communities and disparities among them.

The Census Bureau yesterday released its annual snapshot of America, as it always does at this time of year. But with more speed than in the past, it also provided details about individual communities, with populations as small as 65,000, in 2005.

The result is a wealth of new information and surprising facts about states and localities. A few samples:

Camden, N.J., a city struggling with crime, had a poverty rate of 44% in 2005 -- the highest number among small-to-midsize cities -- but so, too, did College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University. "That's very surprising," said Jim Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M.

Among counties with populations of more than 250,000, the three where the households had the highest median incomes (the point at which half the households earn more, and half less) were in suburban Washington, D.C. -- Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia and Howard County in Maryland.

Government contracting continues to create high-paying jobs in the area. "It's always been our anchor," said Gerald Gordon, president and chief executive of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

The ratio of single men to single women between ages 15 and 44 last year was highest in Nevada (120.2 per 100 women), North Dakota (120.1) and Alaska (118.9). It was lowest in the District of Columbia (93.4).

Commuters in New York state had the longest average daily trip to work last year at 31.2 minutes, followed closely by commuters in Maryland and New Jersey. Those in the Dakotas had the easiest trip on average: only 16 minutes.

The new Census figures also shone statistical flashlights into the workplace. Women earned less than men in every state and region last year, the bureau said, but the gap was at its narrowest in Washington, D.C., where women earned 91 cents for every dollar that men earned.

Women working in finance and insurance earned about 55% of what men in that industry earned last year, the widest gap of any sector.

The earnings data were broken out not only among 20 broad industry sectors but also among 22 major occupational groups. Within "legal occupations," men had a median income of $102,272, but women earned slightly less than half that amount, making law the field with the widest income disparity between men and women.

"As with so many other fields, support staff in law tend to be more populated by women than by men, and those numbers bring down the statistical information on women's earnings," said Karen Mathis, president of the American Bar Association, in a statement. "That said, the ABA is aware that there are discrepancies between the earnings of women and men functioning at the same level in the legal profession." Ms. Mathis pointed out that full-time male lawyers were paid a median weekly salary of $1,748 last year, according to the Labor Department. Their female counterparts made $1,354.

Overall, men had inflation-adjusted median earnings of $41,400 last year, while the typical woman earned $31,900. That put the female-to-male earnings ratio at 77%, flat compared with a few years ago but up from 60% or so in 1980.

In ranking larger American cities, the Census Bureau found San Jose, Calif., and Plano, Texas, had the highest median incomes, at around $71,000, while Miami and Cleveland had the lowest, with median incomes below $25,000.

Cleveland also had the highest poverty rate for big cities at 32.4%, followed closely by Detroit, two cities suffering from the downturn in the American automobile industry and manufacturing. "We've been heavily reliant on the auto industry, and the Big Three are really struggling these days," said N. Charles Anderson, president and chief executive of the Detroit Urban League.

look for these soon....

5846,4657,5749

imagine you work a regular job and do overtime just to make ends meet.think of that burden being lightened and things being easier because you have serious gambling skills.i dropped some of those overtime hours and get to spend more time with my family because i'm good with the horses,dogs and the lottery.i'm able to wager on all these without ever leaving the house.yesterday my family sat with me as we were able to watch live greyhound races and wager on them.we sat,cheered and screamed for our dogs to come in on the three dollar exacta and ours came in a winner for a hundred bucks.now knock off a whole extra day i don't have to work next week due to this win.now imagine next month what happens if they pass this idiotic gambling bill.if it passes that means no more wagering for me and more days i have to work and less time with my kids.i try not to think about it because its out of my control.if i want to be monitored i'll go live in china.in the end this bill crosses the line......

my game of course is the pick 4.i keep debating on if i should go back to playing pick 3 sometimes.the reason i dropped pick 3 to begin with is i started dropping my pick 4 numbers to play pick 3 and i wouldn't hit on pick 3 but my pick 4 numbers that i dropped would end up hitting.

baby sky and her lil brother

there has never been a quad in the years south carolina has had a pick 4.tennessee has also never had a quad.who do you think will get the first quad?