EvilMonkey

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 13, 2008 -> 01:46 AM) I have disagreed vehemently with Northside with this sentiment. I just totally disagree. Is anyone to run for president then without disavowing to their job. I'm sure people of Arizona, Illinois, Delaware and Alaska pride themselves more that the potential leader of the free world is from their state than is hypothetically stonewalling action in there's. Research has shown that it doesn't matter. In Congress, the President is in his lame duck year with nothing legislatively to be done. In statewides, I'm sure they are taking it easy waiting for the results, and I'm sure Alaskans will tell you there is no pressing measure. Meanwhile, we are in the most important election of my lifetime, so some things just deserve the attention. If you were to start doing phone interviews with a potential new employer and taking days and weeks off at a time to go interview and audition for a new job, while still working at your present job, you would probably be fired. I can understand not having them quit or resign, but there has to be a way to have them not get paid. I know that its a tiny drop in the bucket compared to everything else they spend, but its the principle. There are some states where you are not allowed to run for office if you are currently in one (except for reelection to your current office).

QUOTE (Texsox @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 09:52 PM) Just keep in mind, how well does your employer investigate employee paperwork for working? Now imagine if your employer is tricked and they have to pay a huge fine, will that seem fair? Not every company who has an illegal on their payroll is aware they are employing illegals. Is it really in our national's best interest to cripple our agriculture industry? It might be one thing if a small business of 25 employees had one illegal working for them, but for a plant with 1100 employees to be 40% illegal, someone dropped the ball. plants like that have people whose only job is HR, these are things they need to find out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 8, 2008 -> 01:37 PM) Plus it is worth mentioning that Freddie and Fannie have spent something like $200 million in lobby money over the years, including people working on both campaigns and people who were on both candidates VP vetting groups. "Working on both campaigns"? How about Obama the #3 beneficiary over the last decade. Kerry even more so than Obama, and Hillary right behind him. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/to...s-of-fanni.html

QUOTE (Texsox @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 10:26 PM) Hmm, so many ways to go with this Alpha . . . I said the same thing when Bush and Clinton ran for reelection. Amazing the POTUS has that much time to run for office. I believe the Presidential position is important enough to have people with jobs running, not just the unemployed who have the time off to run. Hell, simply, that's the way I've always heard it should be . . . we just accept it as a necessary evil of our system. I don't like the fact that any of the 4 of them are getting paid for jobs that they are not doing. Why can't they take an UNPAID leave while they run? Or at least refund portions of their pay for the campaigning they do. Voters In Illinois and Arizona elected their respective Senators to represent them in the Senate. If they are not there representing, they are not doing their jobs. It shouldn't matter if their vote 'would have made a difference' or not. In fact, all this non-voting is what hurts each guy, by "McCain voting with Bush 90% of the time" because he has only made like 10 votes all year, and Obama toeing the Dem party line 100% of the time because he has probably made just as few votes, if not less.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/us/polit...amp;oref=slogin "Hanging on Biden's every word"

First, 'elite' was a racist code word for 'black'. Then 'community organizer' became code for 'black'. Now, the new code word of the day for black is 'disrespectful'. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/216121.php

Poor record keeping in Mexico?

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 01:10 PM) That's what I keep hearing but I'm just not seeing it. My parents have been in a league since before I was born. They used to have 10-14 teams. Now my wife and I bowl with them and they've dwindled down to about 6 teams. When I was growing up I bowled every saturday and we filled up all 32 lanes. Last year I took my kids to the same alley and they literally had to combine all the kids into one league and they only filled up about half the lanes. There were 7-year-olds bowling against 17-year-olds. This year my youngest is bowling on Saturday mornings and we are seeing almost the same thing. They have two times 9:30 and 11:30 and they are talking about combining everyone into a 10:00 league. I think bowling is becoming more popular as something to go out with your friends and do on some random night but I don't think people are commiting to leagues as much as they used to. I think you have it, as far as the leagues are concerned. Bowling does seem to be gaining some in general popularity, but not many seem to want to make that weekly committment. Or in my leagues case, every other week committment. Our league had been steady at 16 teams for the last 20 years or so, but only this last year had it been tough to fill. We had 2 new teams last year, and one just quit as a team about half way thru. The other one is coming back, but we also had a couple where the husband died! So that's why we are donw a team and a half.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 01:25 PM) Considering Mrs. Palin would probably condemn them for being lesbians in the first place... Well, the Log Cabin Republicans have endorse McCain/Palin, which is important because they did NOT endorse Bush, so I guess she wouldn't be that bad towards lesbians. Sorry that she doesn't fit into your stereotype.

If anyone is interested in the contrast, here is Gibson's interview with The Messiah back in June. The hardest question he got was somethign abotu Hillary. No asking about rumors or smears, no asking him about foreign leaders, all softball. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=5000184&page=1

A short while ago I heard something on CNN as my wife had it on in the background. I rewound it on Tivo, and it was John Roberts interviewing Paul Begala He just said 'How should "we" respond to Republican attacks on Democrats'. So either he was asking as a concerned Democrat asking what he personally could do, or was just soliciting the media's marching orders from the DNC right on television now, without the discretion and pretense of doing it via email or at a bar. Somehow I think it is a combination of both.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 09:52 AM) Yet, employers keep employing illegals and do so, knowingly. If you don't punish the employers, you can't solve the problem. I don't disagree with deporting undocumented residents, however I do disagree with letting the people who provided them the work that brought them here get off scot-free. And, when you think about it, the fall of labor unions in the workforce have a lot to do with illegal employment in this country, especially in the meatpacking plants. I have been and still am 100% in favor of punishing business that knowingly hire illegals.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Sep 12, 2008 -> 08:04 AM) The Border Fence is behind schedule and current projections have this boondoggle at $400,000,000 over budget. And it will not solve the biggest problem, American businesses need workers willing to do some pretty crappy jobs in agriculture. Migrant work just sucks, but we have hundreds of thousands of people willing to do that work, just to the south of us. During war time we were quick to implement the Bracero Program when we did not have enough young men to sustain our ag industry. Too bad the current political climate calls for US educated kids to work these jobs. Tex, your migrant farm workers are not the ones people tend to worry about. How about those they keep arresting and deporting from meat packing plants? Yes, the work is dirty, but it does pay well, and there are plenty of Americans who want those jobs. And if I recall right, the last raid that was conducted had a bunch of workers cheering when INS showed up. You are correct, the border fence appears to be a boondoggle. .I will AGREE with you that we need a worker program of some kind. I will DISAGREE with you if you think that means amnesty for all those that broke the law and are here now. Especially for any that have used someone else's identity.

QUOTE (almagest @ Sep 11, 2008 -> 10:22 PM) My girlfriend loves to bowl, and I used to bowl in a league in grammar school, but this Saturday is her father's birthday party, so no go that day. Is it possible to join late? Sure, we have had people do that before. In fact, if you want to join, and would miss the first week, i would recommend doing just that, otherwise they charge for the missed week. Send me a PM later and I will forward you the info.

Mine is fairly spread out all over the world, but I had checked out my grandmothers name, a very german sounding name, and it came up in Germany and Poland, and then no where else except New Zealand. That was interesting.

Looks like "the One" gets some more free Tv time on SNL this week. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20...ss-topheadlines

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 11, 2008 -> 08:05 PM) He asked her a question and she gave what appears to be a satisfactory answer. Obama and McCain get it all the time in every interview. Seems plenty fair to me. So when he says "You said ABC.". She said 'I don't believe that's what i said", and he says" Exact quote". It wasn't an exact quote. So, maybe super-intellectual Biden has a complete recall memory, but most people don't, regardless of what position they are runing for. There is no excuse for him to not have had the exact quote, unless he was either purposly trying to make it sound bad, or he was getting his info from the AP story that also truncated what she said. I think she still answered it ok, but the question itself was just wrong. Going by the standards put forth on here by ahb and others, Gibson was lying!

I need to post something non-political, and since nobody wants to join my bowling league, how about this? Enter your name, and it shows you where folks live that share your name. http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Default.aspx

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 11, 2008 -> 07:13 PM) oh, right, this complete puff piece interview by Gibson was UNFAIR to Palin. Give me a break. Keep your blinders on to the words i wrote, that's fine. Do you deny that he misstated what she actually said there?

GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war? PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote. GIBSON: Exact words. PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side. That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie. GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.” Ok, her exact quote was this: “Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [u.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.” Nice of him to truncate what she said so that it sounds really bad. Maybe this should have been in the media bias theread? "

GIBSON: Do you agree with the Bush doctrine? PALIN: In what respect, Charlie? That is wha you say when you have NO idea what they are talking about. Make them give you something to work with. If Gibson had shut up, she'd have had no answer. No, that's what you say when you want the questioneer to be a bit more specific so you don't get caught up in a gotcha moment.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 11, 2008 -> 04:29 PM) Al-Qaida doesn't really work like that... they aren't really as concerned with dates as some people think they are, they do things when they're ready, and when they'll have the maximum effect. Whenever that might be. That effect won't happen if they know we're paying attention. I don't necessarily mean them. Being a nutjob isn't just milited to Muslim terrorists, although they do seem to have a good head start. There are enough home grown idiots like ALF and possibly some of the Anarchists. Maybe Chavez down in South America gets tired of his tinhat visions of black helecopters and does something really stupid. Maybe a Mexican street gang really takes the message of La raza to heart and decides to bomb a few border crossings. I mean anything.

Anyone else? Only 16 weeks of fun! Not too hard to fit into almost any schedule!

I admit that I was up every 9/11 wondering what nut has decided that he wants to make his mark today by doing something stupid. And I end each one thankfull that the answer (so far) was 'none'.

QUOTE (Steff @ Sep 11, 2008 -> 03:54 PM) Wow bowling sure has gotten crazy popular over the past several years. We had to struggle to fill the leagues we are in just a few years ago now there's a line. We bowl at Stardust in Addison and St. Charles bowl and it's an awesome time. And tell those kids to bring the babies with! Bri slept in her travel swing or car seat when she was a baby and now she sits in her booster and loves all the attention. We tried. Most of the people there have brought their kids throughout. I have seen several of them 'grow up' while I was bowling. My kids come as well most nights. Wanna bowl here as well? You know you want to.........