kapkomet

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Mar 9, 2006 -> 04:26 AM) Sing like a guy, damnit! Now Rex... come on now...

QUOTE(Soxy @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 11:22 PM) My grandma had a massive stroke, is brain dead and against her wishes my uncle had her put on life support. I then got a ticket for allegedly running a stop sign. Worst 24 hours ever. Soxy hang in there.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 06:06 PM) The Abramoff interview in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair is going to be a hoot. The guy is going down smiling and singing away. One of my favorite excerpts on one of the many members of what Abramoff is calling the "chorus of amnesiacs": These guys had better stop lying through their teeth, say they were involved with him, and move the hell on, or they ALL are going down, and down HARD.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 06:05 PM) Wow! 7 pages in an hour and a half. Either this is the biggest steal in the history of baseball or we are running out of s*** to talk about. The latter.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 05:56 PM) Is it right or wrong that my date and I were watching Citizen Kane tonight and both started thinking and singing the same Rick Astley song at the same time? What the hell is wrong with us? I could answer that question, but you really don't want me to. But what the hell. You both like Rick Astley.

I'm sad to see Baj go. But it's a good trade for both parties, because now Baj gets a chance to stay up in the big show. Good for him!

http://plasticassets.com

BTW, Flaxx, that is a hysterical avatar.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 8, 2006 -> 02:43 AM) Trying soooo hard not to be cynical about all of this. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060308/pl_nm/...avesdropping_dc Kap and others repeatedly said, 'let's wait and see after we get to the bottom of all of this.' Reasonable enough advice, if Congress ever had any inclination to actually get to the bottom of any of it. happy thoughts. . . happy thoughts. . . Congress needs to ask the right questions. For sure. But, Congress doesn't set the policy for these items in wartime. That's the only thing. So where's the balance?

So many things to say, and I just can't say them.

What a thread.

Yea, except I haven't watched this season. Our @#%#$^ DVR screwed up on the first two nights, and I just made up my mind I will wait for the DVD's to come out.

Well, it's officially spring. Our first round of "damaging and severe thunderstorms" is to be tomorrow. The trees are all coming out, etc. Our bradford pear in the back yard has its leaves and flowers all out. Very nice.

Interesting. But, at least with this current administration, it will never happen. There would be too much pride to swallow.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 08:01 PM) Look on the right of his page. Every link is to a right wing blog. The NY Post also carried the story today or yesterday. There is a possibility that ICBC has decided not to renew the long term brokerage lease with WLIB which will put Air America in a difficult spot to be sure. But its definitely too soon to tell. I've never listened, but if they have good program that can get advertising, they should have a go just like the "right wing hacks".

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 07:49 PM) For me, Blue Cross just decided to revisit what procedures are allowable claims, and they decided the procedures my daughter requires are not allowable anymore. The bean counters, rather than the doctors, are deciding what is a necessary procedure. But when you see my daughter struggling to read because she has one eye not playing nice with the other and inverting letters, etc., you know damn well that she has a medical need. So we're shelling out about half my wife's takehome pay for 14 weeks to get her the treatment she needs because Blue Cross considers it elective therapy now. The reason I asked is because sometimes you can get them to review based on medical necessity if they changed the policy during/before the end of the treatments. And Balta, sorry dude. Hope things get better.

Wow. Now that's funny!

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 07:03 PM) I'd just like to say...anyone who ever says that America has the greatest health care system in the world has never dealt with America's health care system. That is all. QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 07:43 PM) Ach, try staring at $5,000 worth of pediatric vision therapy that would have been covered by Blue Cross a year ago but isn't now. Tht's the bloated bill I'm trying to contend with. Why, what happened?

QUOTE(Soxy @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 06:25 PM) I think debate is sort of a too nice word for what goes on a lot of the time here. Debate to me entails actually being receptive and listening to the other side. That doesn't really happen much around here. I think a lot of time instead of listening to the message behind someone's belief it's usually dismissed before any actual discussion can take place. I wouldn't say this whole forum has made me more liberal or more likely to vote straight ticket, really it's just left me with changed opinions about some posters who are just really rude and disrespectful. But you know what? I think that's my entire point. I'll speak for myself, I know I've come out swinging a few times at least in appearance with my posts, when in "real life" I don't care. So, in appearance, as a poster I appear rude and disrespectful, when I really didn't mean it that way in the first place. I think that most get so wrapped up in "defending a viewpoint" that oftentimes we forget that there's a real person on the other side of the screen, who a lot of times we would all probably really respect, but disagree with on viewpoints. I feel like we've lost that here, and if we don't return to that, we will lose this forum.

QUOTE(Wong & Owens @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 06:27 PM) Well, i'm officially confused. Why yes, yes you are. Thanks for playing! This is a spin off of another thread. That's probably what makes it confusing. Sorry about that.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 06:23 PM) the respect is mutual, which is what makes the fighting and flaming so frustrating for all. Ditto with SS2k6. And though he's not in this current discussion, dittto with YAS. There are a lot of things we all don't see eye to eye on, but disagreement shouldn't be construed as a lack of respect for the individuals involved. We're living in really divisive times, that is certainly true. The whole country is edgy, and we reflect that here. I agree sometimes "my side" looks like it's got nothing but "beat down after beat down after beat down" to offer. But honsetly, with revelation after revelation about the way things are done and how the public has been intentionally misinformed about so much, it's hard not to sound like a broken record. Then if you continue to post new verses of the broken record you get slammed. If you don't post you run the risk of looking like you are past the point of caring when really you are just tired of the :banghead and the and the . Really, most times I'd be better off concentrating on the and the and especially the It is the offseason you know.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 05:58 PM) I guess the answer is to reply to actual responses and ignore the sniping. At least not unless the sniping is really funny. I guess. The "race to outrace the opposition" is what fuels a lot of this. The blogs and instant information really just bombards us with useless, and often not factual, information. And it plays on all of our emotions, no matter what your political take is.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 7, 2006 -> 05:31 PM) Lack of response? Isn't Rex' response a response? He addressed SS specifically, it indeed seems like a response. I think he spoke in very straightforward terms and echoed a lot of the sentiments I feel. As far as a response from me, I thought I'd try the "if you can't say something nice. . . " approach. Not that I can't say all kinds of genuinely nice things about SS, yourself, ar anybody else. I've enjoyed way more of the interactions between all of us than not. But, I will say I agree with Rex that if sparring on the board here is the deciding factor in turning anybody into a straight-ticket [insert party ailiation here] then that's not a particularly rational response. SS talks about how the administration-critical posts here attack the things he holds dear, but I quite honestly have the exact opposite opinion. THIS ADMINISTRATION has attacked the values we hold dear, and it deserves to be called out on it. The Adminsitration, in its push for its Unitary Executive, has tossed aside the idea that governmental checks and balances are by necessity at the heart of our system of government. But to post something saying as much here makes the poster the bad guy, and not the Neocon powermongers who look upon congressional oversight and judicial review with such disdain. You attack the messenger, and pay no attention to the message. Sure, posts from "our side" sound like a broken record at times, but again that is the fault of the pathological power abusers and not the people expressing their concerns over the abuse of executive power. I don't envy you your chosen task of continually trying to defend the indefensible, but attacking the messengers is not truly a defense. It is a way to derail the chance for meaningful dialog, though. You don't like the message so you snipe and snipe and snipe. Pretty soon it becomes plain that "preaching to the choir" is the best that can be hoped for here anymore so anything we previously hoped would foster meaningful discussion out in Filibuster at large gets put into the clubhouse threads instead. If the clubhouse thread is going to devolve into s***storm threads because you think it needs an alternative viewpoint' then that is unfortunate. But this is all a grand experiment anyway. It's going to become what it's going to become. That is my response. I guess what my point of contention is, instead of debate, it's "let's post it in the clubghouse so we don't have a bunch of whiney ass opposition posts"... that's the difficulty in all of this. I agree when Rex said ... there's been some really good debate. Flaxx, you're the ultimate gentleman and a beer connseiuer (sp) that we'd all be glad to kick back a few with I'm sure, if the opportunity presented itself. It's just so trying - when you read nothing but beat down after beat down after beat down of things - and I'm not talking about just a Dem response to a Bush thing but also a Repub response to a Clinton thing. These are certainly trying times we live in. I'm going to split this out of the thread.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 6, 2006 -> 05:45 PM) You can have the Filibuster whole board, I sure don't want it. With the amount of problems and fights that come out of here, it is a complete waste of time. There is absolutely no decent discussion that goes on in the Filibuster at all. Pretty much I have realized that I have become as guilty as anyone else of posting only completely partisian stuff just like everyone else here, because I had gotten so sick of only seeing one side of the arguements, and the completely slander of basically everything I believe in. It has gotten to the point where I am sick of people basically posting how stupid I am for seeing something differently than they do, and being generically labeld as this, that and the other, that it isn't even worth it anymore. To be honest, this board has done more to make me start voting as a straight ticket Republician than I ever thought was possible. I have voted for Dems all of the way up to senators, and contemplated it during the last Presidential cycle, but much of the same reasons, I did not. For a party that is supposed to be the one of inclusion, I have sure never felt anything that would make me feel wanted as a Democrat by Democrats, with this board being the microcausm of what I see nationally. And to be honest, with the behavior of some of the people on my "own side" its more made me think of just doing the American thing and just quit voting in general and just start complaining more. We talk about the system being bad, but we are the ones who let this system exsist. If we wouldn't let attack ads and hate determine who we vote for, we'd have positive campaigns and decent canditates. Instead all play lowest common denominator politics and we end up with people like the Bush's and the Clinton's, and still have the audacity to act like our side is somehow better. Maybe I just need to move to Montana now, get my shack, and start my manifesto, but I swear talking politics here has done more to burn me out of caring than just about anything else. I don't see us as being any better than the people we critisize, and I have realized today, that I don't want any part of it anymore. *crickets* And it's because it's in the Dem only thread. This post is exactly what I was getting at earlier, and I got the usual gauntlet throwdown of "this is MY thread"... and that is so not the point. It's easier to talk about how wrong the other side is, but there is virtually no talk of how the other side is better. And I say that from both sides of the spectrum on this site. Time and time again, this has been proven here, and the lack of a response to this proves it yet again. I'm really disappointed in this.

I saw something else from earlier in teh game and was only half paying attention. He rammed him pretty good.