[For Dems only.]

Franken is a very intelligent guy. The race between him and Coleman should be quite fun. In a land of shameless opportunists, Norm is Emperor.

 

I call Franken an early 6-5 favorite.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

Well, that's because people in Philly are just generally nasty anyway, so they're used to it.

My theory that people in Philly are so nasty because they had to watch the Athletics and Phillies for so many years.

 

Their combined records of futility would make anyone grouchy.

[Gov. Spitzer (NY - Dem) netted in prostitution ring]

Like he's not having a bad enough day, the NYTimes has to pile on.

 

[Gov. Spitzer (NY - Dem) netted in prostitution ring]

Don't they have interns in Albany?

 

 

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

Mine is very appropo for Sox fans as well.

Agreed. But I didn't wish to copy you.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

Mps, I almost took that palehose for my sig too... I LOVE IT.

Carl is a very clever man.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

Yes it would. The 2025 to win number is definately without MI and FL.

It would increase to 2207, I believe.

[Border Fence Update.]

Here's a letter we recently received at my workplace.

 

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey recently announced higher civil fines against employers who violate federal immigration laws. The announcement was made in a joint briefing with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff about newly enacted border security reforms put in place by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Under the new rule, which was approved by Attorney General Mukasey and Secretary Chertoff, civil fines will increase by as much as $5,000. The new rule will take effect on March 27, 2008.

 

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, employers who violate employment eligibility requirements are subject to civil monetary penalties. Employers may be fined under the Act for knowingly employing unauthorized aliens or for other violations, including failure to comply with the requirements relating to employment eligibility verification forms, wrongful discrimination against job applicants or employees on the basis of nationality or citizenship, and immigration-related document fraud. For each of these violations, the employer has the right to a hearing before an administrative law judge in the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

 

Under the new rule and applicable law, civil penalties for violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act are adjusted for inflation. Because these penalties were last adjusted in 1999, the average adjustment is approximately 25 percent. Under the specific rounding mechanism of the law, the minimum penalty for knowing employment of an unauthorized alien increases by $100, from $275 to $375. Some of the higher civil penalties are increased by $1,000; for example, the maximum penalty for a first violation increases from $2,200 to $3,200. The biggest increase under the rounding mechanism raises the maximum civil penalty for multiple violations from the current $11,000 to $16,000. These penalties are assessed on a per-alien basis; thus, if an employer knowingly employed, or continued to employ, five unauthorized aliens, that could result in five fines.

 

Just FYI.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

All I know is that Obama might of had a slight chance before he had his campaign contact Canada. Now that it's a proven fact he'll be lucky if he only loses both by 20 points.

I do not think this word means what you think it means.

[Has the Internet taken some fun out of baseball?]

Fantastic post, CC, and a pretty good discussion, too. I'm now thinking about going to some games with fun in mind -- not Sox games, mind you, but some other games. Just watch baseball for the sake of watching baseball.

[Diablo Cody]

She's a talented writer, if a little shallow. Which of course makes her perfect to write film comedies.

[Diablo Cody]

IIRC, Diablo has a couple of projects in the pipeline. I'll try to get more info, if anyone cares.

[Cubs may play at The Cell?]

Of course, there's a park in the far northern suburbs where they could play for a year. Trying to remember...

 

Oh, yeah. Miller Park.

[Bloomberg: "I'm not running for President"]

I really believe he was planning on running for President if the nominees ended up being Hillary and more conservative republican. I think with a moderate repub, and Obama running, there really isn't as big of a niche for Bloomberg as he expected there to be.

Bingo. If this race were Clinton-Romney, I think he'd be in.

[Diablo Cody]

Some of my friends know her and say she's great to hang out with -- a lot of fun.

 

Juddling, trust me, in some of the places she danced in, she was far from the worst-looking one there. She wasn't exactly working at the high-end joints in town.

[For Dems only.]

Sorry about yesterday folks. I had listened to 3 hours of Rush on my drive back from Texas and was feeling unusually snarky.

No worries. If we had to apologize for every time we were snarky, we'd have to open a separate thread. It'd be 200 pages long, too. Hell, kap would be doing nothing but apologizing most of the time.

[Ralph Nader running again for President]

How dare he run. This attention whore. Dosen't he know that if your not a democrat or republican you are just in it for the fame.

What does he think this is a democracy!

Okay, I'll take the bait. There are other minor candidates in this election, but none of them are going to be interviewed on "Meet the Press". Nader got 2.7% of the popular vote in 2000; I believe he got over 5% in Minnesota. His campaign almost certainly cost Gore Florida and it probably cost Gore New Hampshire as well. So, Go Sox, if you're as progressive as you claim to be you should be putting the Iraq War at the feet of Nader.

 

In 2004, Nader received .38% of the popular vote nationwide. So why the heck is Tim Russert interviewing him? If we all ignore him, maybe he'll just go away to whatever place he comes from every four years.

[Healthcare]

You forgot to mention their income tax refund. How big would that be? Anyone making the salary you quoted would not pay ANY taxes.

I think he included that fact in his analysis, except for any tax credits they would be getting. They wouldn't pay any income tax, but they'd sure be paying FICA tax.

 

If someone is working for $7 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, after FICA and Medicare taxes are taken out and before any credits like EITC (which, for a single person, would be zero), gross income would be $13,134.16, which is $1000 higher that Tex stated.

[Terrorists in Damascus have 'rights'?]

Damn liberal Washington Times.

[Ralph Nader running again for President]

Nader has become a parody of himself.

[Palehose 8 starting up]

This makes me happy. Thanks Carl.

[I AM STUMPING FOR VOTES!]

Thanks to anyone who voted, but Lilly did not win her round. I must say that the dog that did win must have got alot of votes. I don't know how many people voted from here, but my corporate intranet has a message board where I also posted and got about 50 people saying they voted, several saying they used multiple emails. I emailed my whole addrsss list, and about 40 of my customers as well, most of whom said they voted, and every piece of junkmail that came to me got put in as a vote also. Oh well. Thanks again to any and all who voted.

Damn! I'm quitting the party!

[Chalk one up for Wikipedia.....]

If you post an image that is deemed offensive by the moderators, it gets taken down. That is the point I was making.

NUKE had one of the Danish Muhammad cartoons as his avatar for a while, and it wasn't taken down. Not that it should have been, of course.

 

[Pizza, have you tried every style]

White Castle tastes good after a long night at the bar, but that does not mean it belongs in a discussion about good eats.

You go too far, sir!

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

I finally found a reason to vote for Hillary. Sorry Barack.

Wow. That was so bad, I don't have the proper reply for it. Boggles the mind.