Greiving for the Future

November 2, 2010 may become a memorial of shame for all the people in the United States that do not vote. When I think of the people who suffered, fought and died young and/or reprehensible deaths so that everyone in this nation could vote I cry. But I wail when I hear people say "I don't vote". Especially when it is a person of color. I don't see how they dare to sleep, how in the world do you justify this stance? Even if you don't think your voice counts, not to say anything is a sure way not to have it count. Do you think the world or your neck of the woods will change if you don't try? The only way the politicians will know what you are thinking is if you say something and one sure way to get their attention is to vote, write letters and make phone calls. Telling your friends or family (unless they are in the government) won't change anything.
Vote for heaven's sake!

New in 2008

MCE now has a GSA Schedule, 899-1 and 899-2.

Tips for the boot strapping entrepreneur.
- Do your own website using Site builder from yahoo. Get the small business account, the price is very reasonable and you can make changes you want anytime you want, you are in control.
- try factoring invoices
- try Caine & Weiner for your debt collector, the fees are reasonable, also try them for doing background checks on people--very reasonable cost.

Gasoline Prices

AAA says:
"The problem this year is our continuing and increasing inability to refine enough gasoline to meet growing demand," said Geoff Sundstrom of AAA. "I think it is very possible that we will set a new record high price this month."

I have trouble understanding the inability to refine gasoline with oil companies posting record multi-billion dollar profits. Help me understand this!!

Schork Group:
"U.S gasoline stocks have dropped by 15 percent in three months, with refineries now running at around 88 percent of capacity, well below the 92 percent analysts say is normal this time of year to build up summer gasoline stocks.
By this point in the season, nationwide gasoline inventories should be building, or at a minimum plateauing," Stephen Schork of the Schork Group said in a report.

If you have history, you have prior knowledge, why is this happening, why are they running at a lower capacity??

Their apparent issues:
New lower sulfur fuel specifications have forced refiners to increase the complexity of their equipment, making them more prone to outages.

The requirement has been known for years, the oil companies have been making record profits for years..... Why didn't they use some of these billions to make the necessary changes??

Who Helps the Small Consulting Business?

Not MoDOT!!! I went to the report on the Disparity Study completed (by an firm from outside MO). There were only a handful of attendees. The conclusions were those that I would have expected. Mustardseed Cultural and Environmental Services, LLC is registered on the MoDOT vendor list as a DBE and our State M/WBE is also in their file. But, when we go to the districts to try and find out who we can speak to for small - less then $25,000 SERVICE/Consulting jobs we get the run around. All of the lists appear to be for contractors and suppliers. We know that environmental impact studies and assessments are done prior to highway construction jobs, but we never hear about them. I would imagine that it is the same for small design/engineering firms. What do we do?

Mustardseed Cultural & Environmental Services

• Material culture and ethnographic field research;
• Thorough environmental compliance audits;
• Tailored environmental and safety management programs;
• Environmental Management Plan Development;
• Comprehensive phase I environmental site assessments;
• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessments; and
• Owner construction project management services.