kapkomet

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 10:19 PM) How many people making minimum wage or around it live in section 8 housing or use link cards? They shouldn't get COLA if they're getting a price break on rent and food. That's a thought I hadn't even gone down... a lot of people CHOOSE to stay where they are in wage brackets, etc. so they can get handouts.

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 09:56 PM) Lets get this straight. This is an escalation because of all the words that could have been used to describe Bush's plan it's the one that's viewed most negatively by focus groups and Cindy Sheehan used it in a protest last week. Fixed that for you.

One of the things that's being forgotten is Iraq has to step up as well...

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 08:53 PM) One of my favorite all time trading sayings... "People who pick bottoms, get s*** on their fingers." In other words you are much safer with the momemtum, then you are against the tide. Let the market turn before you make your move. It's the wrong way to say it, but the market will recover and go up from here, even if it goes lower before coming back up. It's just a matter of time.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 08:05 PM) I have been playing around with stocks, ETFs and funds for years. And I work closely with the futures industry. So its been very tempting to open a futures trading account. Then again, being close to that crowd, I am very aware of the virtually infinite level of risk involved. If anyone here has ever done it, and if you know a good firm to work with for a very small-time trader, let me know. You and I certainly agree on the aspects of the oil price. I think we're near a bottom and I would go long if I had some money to invest. But I don't.

Lieberman wasn't the only one saying that we would be drawing down by this time.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 07:55 PM) If I had a futures account, I'd be going long LSC in the later months of 2007. Big time. It only takes one bomb or hurricane.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 07:53 PM) A poll asking "do you want to win the war in Iraq"? No one has had that poll because the answer is patently obvious. If the options are YES or NO, the answer will overwhelmingly be YES. Unfortunately, that would say nothing at all about the reality of the situation, or the reality that other more logical polls have shown - that people are tired of the direction of the war and of being lied to about everything about it by our government. If a mistake was made, (which there was, duh), IMO this speech should have been January 10, 2006 instead of last night. The cards needed to be played long before now. Having said that, a lot of Democrats and Republicans were saying as late as August that we would be drawing down troops, because even according to Congressional visits this time last year, "it was getting better".

Yea, I agree, again only to a point. To me, there should be incentive to better yourself from shoveling elephant dung. There's always room to improve, if you have the heart to do so.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 07:00 PM) I would counter that raising the minimum wage certainly does effect the bucket 20% above the minimum wage, because if you increase the minimum wage by 20%, either those workers are now sitting at the minimum wage (and therefore have every reason to consider finding another job at 20% above the new minimum wage) or their employer will consider giving them a raise so that the position stays competitive with the people on minimum wage. I see your point, but disagree. So now, people making $10 will get a 20% raise, only because the floor was lifted? I doubt it. If that's the case, me at $100 an hour, should now get paid $120 an hour.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 05:07 PM) I will call it a surge when I have some indication as to exactly when it will end. Doesn't even need to be a date, just a benchmark would do fine. Some suggestion that it might actually not be a permanent troop increase other than saying it won't be. Congress may well be able to attach enough strings to the funding to turn this into a surge rather than an escalation, but from having read the speech last night, thus far, there is nothing that makes it temporary other than Mr. Bush saying that it is. And considering that last night he also openly threatened Iran and Syria, with no suggestion of any diplomacy at all any more, he's also threatening even further escalation. So Balta, let me get this accurate. Let's "talk" to Iran and Syria, both of whom want to destroy everything we stand for. Let's "talk" to Iran, who openly says they want nuclear weapons. Let's "talk" to all these people who don't give a rat's ass about how we live in a free society when they oppress and kill their own people who dare have disagreements with their philosophical points of view. Let's "talk" to people who say the holocaust never existed. YEA! Let's BE NICE! :) Please. Let's also ask the question another way. Semantics aside, how come we never see a poll from CBS asking "do you want to win the war in Iraq"? I bet that answer is a resounding yes. But we can't show THAT in the arena of public opinion, now can we? It IS a surge, because as the president said, none of this is a blank check for an unlimited period of time. Somehow, you don't want to ever listen to that, do you? So, do YOU want to win the war in Iraq? (waiting for the quibble of "what's winning"?) - and yes, I have an answer, and so did the president last night, if you wanted to listen to it. Most of you do not want to listen to it, because you don't agree with what "winning" is.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 05:47 PM) If you make the COLA a hard 3%, you have the same problem. Any COLA needs to be pegged to a dynamic, realistic market basket measure that closely mirrors inflation. That way, increases are market-natural, and is a real minimum wage. Actually an index is a better way to say it then COLA. Rex, I agree with your point - to tell you the truth, that's where a lot of people get stuck is in that bucket 20% above the minimum, and that's where the stagnation occurs. It's darn hard to live off of $400 a week, especially with health care costs going like they are. But in no way does it effect the minimums - which was more my point - whatever my point was, hell I don't know anymore what I was trying to say.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 02:30 AM) Sam Brownback comes out against Bush's escalation plans. Brownback is in the 08 running for the Republicans, so it might be worth asking which way he thinks the winds are blowing. Seriously, Congress has to be able to do something to at least force Mr. Bush to show some progress rather than just dumping people in. Sen. Kennedy's proposal to prevent more forces from being moved to Iraq without Congressional approval ought to have a veto-proof majority given how many Republicans have given opinions in the negative on this. fixed that for you. "ESCALATION". Nice buzzword of the day.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 04:33 PM) It's not just the Republicans fault. And for the record, over 80 Republicans supported the measure. If we locked a COLA into minimum wage, you'd hear the same complaints from the same people but since the increase would happen every year, the lobbying money is probably too strong to keep it from happening. The bill is scheduling three phase increase in three 70 cent increments. If a 3% COLA had been included in the Minimum wage the last time the hike happened, our current minimum wage for 2007 would be 6.92, 2008 would be 7.13, 2009 would be 7.35 Under the current bill, in April (assuming making it law), the min wage increases to 5.85, in 2008 to 6.55, around 1/1/2009 it would get up to 7.25 I don't think most people are against raising the minimum wage... but I do think that COLA adjustments (or even a separate index for minimum wages) would be best. BTW, I didn't mean to pick on Balta specifically, but the whole "these people haven't gotten increases in years" argument is balderdash. When people work hard (for the most part), they won't be making minimum wage for long.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 02:26 AM) I bet you also hope you don't have to go 8 years without a single raise, which is what has also happened with the minimum wage. And just because someone isn't working in the highest tech of job, or is a teenager slaving away over a vat of grease, is that a reason why they don't deserve to make $10,000 a year working full time? QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 11, 2007 -> 02:30 AM) If you worked at one job, for 8 years, at minimum wage, and didn't get a raise, you are an idiot. EXACTLY!!! I'm so sick of seeing Balta's argument. If you start at minimum wage, you will NOT stay there if you keep working at the same job. PERIOD. Therefore, the whole argument is a fallacy. However, I just wish they would do a COLA on the minimum wage so we wouldn't have to debate how cruel the EVVVVIIIIIIIIIL Republicans are for not passing wage hikes "for the poorest of the poor".

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 10:24 PM) the dems think we're all so stupid we won't realize that saying "rollbacks of evil tax cuts for the wealthy" is the exact same thing as "raising taxes". if you make over 50,000 a year the dems will consider you "wealthy". might take em a couple of years to get to that tax bracket, but they will raise taxes substantially on many people who are not really wealthy. I'm shocked.

QUOTE(Soxy @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) SMU faculty not sure they want the Bush library there. Oh, I'm pretty sure they will want it there when they figure out how much $$$$ will come in as a result of having it there. It's a done deal anyway. SMU has already bought all the land they need for the library. Where I go to grad school now (University of Dallas) would have been a good choice too, but it was SMU all the way because Laura is an alumni (among other reasons).

QUOTE(shoota @ Jan 10, 2007 -> 04:43 AM) Now that the season is over and Ozzie failed to reach the playoffs, you can admit that he's a bad manager. Nice memory. What the hell do you do with your time?

That was the issue, the guests could post was turned on. Oops.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 5, 2007 -> 01:57 PM) Big, BIG, huge key number right now is $55 a barrel. $55 is an old low from June of 05, and there is some solid resistance there, but if it can go through that number, there might not be much stopping it until $50. Also worth noting is that commodities in general are in a huge retreat across the board this week. Energies, softs, metals, and grains have all taken big losses. Now translated to everyday life, this could have a couple of effects. The first is that lots of everyday stuff should be cheaper. The second is that if this trend continues, it will take a lot of the inflationary pressures out of the general marketplace, and it might keep the fed on the sidelines for a while longer. The pressure to raise rates to contain inflation would be gone. This could also serve to stabilize the housing market through stopping the interest rate increases. Have you seen 30-year mortgage rates lately? They're a little up over the last week of December, but most of them are right around 5.6%. Maybe I should re-fi. Of course, I can't get a much better rate then what I have, but hey, that's a shade lower then I got when I re-fied the last time.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Jan 6, 2007 -> 04:23 PM) Who the hell would send virus's/hack into a Blackhawks site of any kind? Since no one gives a crap, not sure.

I didn't put any filter on registration (guests or otherwise) when I first opened it back up. I haven't looked - did it really mess things up?

Good grief. What a trashy thread.

QUOTE(LVSoxFan @ Dec 27, 2006 -> 10:28 PM) So they groom him for years and then sour on him just because he sucked at middle relief? That seems a bit... narrow-minded. Or were there other reasons? Uh huh... probably.