EvilMonkey

The whole country is a cesspool of corruption that makes our congress look like saints. Somehow the culture needs to change, and not sure our military is going to do that. They need their own 'mexican spring' to get rid of corrupt politicians, cops and soldiers, and find some good people willing to risk their lives to fight for their country. With the oil and tourism there, Mexico should be a thriving economy. Guess someone missed that memo.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 2, 2012 -> 07:10 PM) And a small tax increase is clearly off the table. Because you know, salaries don't affect performance at all. That's why wall street constantly lays off their highly paid employees. You don't have any need to retain top talent by paying good wages. Hey, you man Obama says everyone needs some skins in the game, and the top people should contribute more. Turns out Wisconsin teachers make mroe than the average Wisconsin resident. Average resident pay is $37,398. Average teacher salary is in the mid $40's. Not including benefits. http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/dataondemand/33534649.html http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/21/wisconsi...yre-letting-on/

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 2, 2012 -> 04:32 PM) Because you know what has zero impact on the quality of life and education in a state? Teachers. Would you rather they lay off 20-30% of the teachers, or less than 1% with all taking a small pay cut? If you were in the 70% that had a job afterwards, you might say 'screw the others'. But all working is better than up to a third on unemployment. And don't cry poor for Wisconsin teachers. All you heard was that if Walker got his way, schools would be even deeper in the red and half the teachers would lose their jobs. How wrong those accusations were because the opposite happened. barely anyone lost a job and most have balanced budgets now. i have two college friends teaching up there, they are far from poor. The one teachers at UM-Madison and makes over 200k a year when you figure in his benefits. He is complaining that he has to now pay 4% for his insurance. Yeah, he's hurting. Not.

QUOTE (Brian @ Feb 2, 2012 -> 07:36 AM) Won't matter if Obama is re-elected if Congress has Republican majority. It's my opinion that the voters panicked two years ago and some states are paying for it (Wisconsin). And just how is Wisconsin 'paying for it'? They laid off less than 1% of teachers, had most school budget shortfalls turned around and are on the right path fiscally. They also rid the school boards of the previous requirement o purchase insurance ONLY from a UNION OWNED INSURANCE COMPANY. The moment they actually had to bid their services, they dropped the rates by over 50%. So that means that previously they were sucking off 50% extra from each and every Wisconsin taxpayer that went to a union owned company that had a contractual monopoly with zero incentive to provide value for its services. The state is better off now, with the exception of 1% of the teachers and some union bank accounts.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 31, 2012 -> 05:19 PM) Clearly, the solution is Voter ID laws. Oh wait, it's another case of absentee ballots, which would have not been caught by any Voter ID law out there. Oops, forgot. Again. If anyone actually cared one iota about preventing voter fraud, eliminating mail in/absentee ballots would be number 1 on the list. But then, that doesn't explicitly prevent Democrats from voting. I seem to recall you saying vote fraud didn't exist. Not voter ID fraud. I readily admit this had nothing to do with requiring an ID. But is IS vote fraud.

http://hosted2.ap.org/ALDEC/TDNational/Art...c4903ba1abc5f19 I assume you will now next say that since it was caught it doesn't' matter, or some such drivel.

So if they shot and killed her, should we replace her, or would that be a 'win' for the terrorists? Perhaps it is time to have some kind of stand-in for when someone can't do the job due to an illness or injury. A person absent form congress for an extended period of time is simply NOT doing the job they were elected to do, which is represent. Not saying it is their fault, but still if you can't do the job, why should the voters get shorted because you can't vote?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 25, 2012 -> 05:24 PM) Also worth pointing out that when you give several million dollars to the Mormon Church, it winds up buying "the Gays are coming for your kids!" commercials (with taxpayer help, of course). http://swampland.time.com/2012/01/24/tax-r...-of-his-income/

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 25, 2012 -> 12:08 AM) Yeah that's kinda the point actually Go check out his returns and see what percentage he donated to charity. And then compare that to Obama's percentage donated to charity. Or to any other Democratic politician that wants to be generous with other people's money, but not their own.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 02:58 PM) Present for you. I think both her and Warren need to release their taxes or STFU.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 12:09 PM) You can bet on the first cliche delivered during the state of the union. In the high odds I'd go with "Overcome the adversity". In the under 50/1 category I would go with "Reduce the deficit". http://www.paddypower.com/bet/politics/oth..._grp_ids=596542 25/1 We’ll have to make hard choices. That's my guess. And then he goes golfing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 09:40 AM) Anyway, the real issue we should be asking is "Does having Mitt Romney pay $6 MILLION in taxes make this a more effective economy or society". That's why this would matter in the first place. I feel like I've failed to stress that. $6 MILLION. Do you think he gets $6 million in benefit for his tax dollars? $6 million bucks he paid. That's a lot, no matter who you are. But everyone glosses over that because the percentage isn't high enough. but when it comes to the lower 45%, percentage doesn't seem to matter.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jan 24, 2012 -> 03:11 AM) 6.2M tax on a 40M Income. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01...66A1A44686C08C9 That's more in taxes than the entire OWS movement probably EARNED, combined.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2012 -> 04:02 PM) Who gets to decide what an appropriate return on investment is when the retailer is protected from competition by copyright law? If you go buy a car, the profit the car dealer is making is determined by the balance between supply and demand. This is not the case in intellecutal property cases. Seems the Obama admin wants to do just that in regards to oil companies.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2012 -> 04:01 PM) Most people give somewhere on the order of 5-10 years. Obama did 6. The problem here is that it's completely tone-deaf. His own father was the guy who set the decade standard and publicly came out and said that he was releasing that many because he wanted to prove he had nothing to hide. The reality here is that it looks like he has something he's trying to hide. If he doesn't have anything to hide, then he could have ended any controversy before it started by releasing something similar to what every candidate does. Instead he's given every one of his opponents a huge opening, and there's really no defense other than "I'm trying to hide something for God's sake!". His own father explained it perfectly. Soooooooo by that logic Obama had something to hide when he refused to release his transcripts or birth certificate?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2012 -> 03:18 PM) Mittens will release 1-2 years of tax returns this week. Does his campaign seriously not get how tone-deaf that is, or does he actually have something from 2005-ish that really needs to be hidden? WHy do you, or anyone else, care? You know he is rich already. How far back do you want him to go?

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 22, 2012 -> 03:21 PM) http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/politics/gif....html?hpt=hp_t1 Classy move but I would have respected her hanging onto her office as well. Even if she can't do the job anymore (thru no fault of hers)? How would ineffective representation of her district be worthy of respect?

He stole the ID in an attempt to frame the sec of state with 'unethical behavior'. And all he gets is a misdemeanor? He better get the full 2 years attached to it at least. That's slimy.

I see dead people...................voting. http://www.drudge.com/news/152326/900-dead...-sc-voter-fraud 900 Dead People Voted In SC. Voter Fraud Suspected

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 16, 2012 -> 10:06 AM) Rubio. That would be the smart choice, if he would accept.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 03:24 PM) Then again, maybe the reason the soliders pissed on the bodies was because of 9/11... Touche'!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 01:29 PM) I want to highlight something from that CNAS paper that highlights just how important local relations are: And are those same farmers going to stop chasing the Taliban away now because 4 soldiers pissed on a Taliban corpse? Hell, they might even join the soldiers in pissing on the bodies.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 11:07 AM) I don't get the logic behind (1) US bombing/killing Taliban soldiers =/= more terrorists and increased risk but (2) US bombing/killing Taliban soldiers and then pissing on their remains = more terrorists and increased risk Is the extremist on the edge of joining the fight really going to be pushed over the edge by this? "I'm acceptable of Americans killing these soldiers, but pissing on them? THIS WILL NOT STAND!" GMAB. It's a terrible thing they did. It should not be condoned. They should be punished. But it'll have ZERO increase in harm to US soldiers. Ordering another Big Mac and allowing your wife to show her face in public will have more of an effect. The big question is what will the punishment be? You can bet it will be a way over the top reaction to unsuccessfully try and placate the savages.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 10:56 AM) If it wasn't the US giving them the excuse you're looking for, it would be someone else. This is no different than me saying, because 1 black guy murdered someone, that it's ok if I blame all blacks for murder, because they're all the same!@#$!@ Because a few IDIOT soldiers did something stupid, that means these would be terrorists should blame the whole of the US, and other countries...and other soldiers for that matter?! How's it different? It's equally ignorant of them... Hateful people don't NEED an excuse to hate. They're going to do it anyway. That's my point...and it's been my point from the start. So maybe we should hate all Muslims every time they cut off someone's head, or beat a woman, or marry a 12 year old. That seems to fit the logic.

When these appointed positions can be ran as fiefdoms with no oversight except by the President and have the effect of making 'rules' that are de facto laws without congressional approval, you will never get it streamlined.