Rex Kickass

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 12, 2008 -> 06:08 PM) I grew up in that area, and I think it's a bad idea. I posted a study in another thread showing how it actually has helped increase power consumption/CO2 emission around the country, using Indiana as its guide. And since half of my clocks automatically switched to DST on their own before the change, now all my clocks screw up an extra 2 times per year. They did a study on any additional cost to taxpayers about having Indiana move to honoring DST and I think it cost the state's residents 8 million dollars in additional electricity/energy costs.

Amtrak requires a budget appropriation of somewhere between 1.4 to 2 billion in order to maintain its rolling stock, pay track rental fees, maintain its track that it owns, and fund some limited infrastructure improvement projects, in addition to continuing its normal passenger service - much of which is unprofitable but is mandated to operate by various state and federal government laws. The Bush administration appropriated 900 million dollars in its current budget.

GM does have a few automotive assembly plants in Mexico.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 12, 2008 -> 01:02 PM) I'm not just talking about that kind of system. Amtrak is a friggin joke - it could be used so much better all over the country. Also, mass transit includes bus service in towns that range down to pretty small. Not like 500 people small, but a few thousand small. It also includes commercial intercity bus service. Unlike every other national rail service, Amtrak doesn't own the rails it uses with the exception of the Northeast Corridor (Washington D.C. - Boston) and a portion of track running from Chicago to Detroit, and I believe some of the Caltrain lines that it runs in Northern California. On the tracks that it runs trains on for intercity service outside of the Northeast, it has the lowest priority in traffic dispatching, because of the bizarre track ownership situation. Although it is a quasi-public company and has requirements to run routes that are unprofitable, it has never been fully funded. It has been unable to maintain its rolling stock in a way to maximize the speeds that the current trains could acheive. It has been unable to improve much of the track it does own to eliminate grade crossings that would allow the train to increase its speeds on intercity routes.

I think racism is just as pervasive in the North as in the South. It just manifests itself differently in different places.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 03:59 PM) They could actually use it towards purchase an American car, and support one of the last remaining industries that provides things like heath insurance and a pension to its workers... Just make sure the car isn't made in Mexico then.

By the way, by resigning, Spitzer insured that the prostitution story will die faster than the wide-stanced airport sex scandal.

I would call a 21 point margin a blowout. Enough to make the delegate spread 20-13 actually.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 03:55 PM) Quote of the Day Saying that Hillary Clinton has White House experience is like saying Yoko Ono was a Beatle. That gives Hillary a lot of credit. Yoko Ono actually appeared on a fair amount of Beatles tracks.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 12:46 PM) That would have been really funny if the New York Times ignored a huge scandal involving the Governor of New York. But you're right, it proves they aren't biased. FOX news covered the Larry Craig scandal, so that proves they are totally down the middle, not biased. There's a difference between covering and breaking the story. Drudge, AP, CNN, Fox News all listed the story initially as the New York Times reports that.

Til the Trib endorses McCain, because they always endorse the GOP candidate :-)

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 10:29 AM) I'd suggest the dollar is only one factor in the meteoric rise in prices. All the other things SS2K5 and I brought up - weak equities markets, speculation and fear, non-commodity-like product flow, and the fact that its not a renewable resource - all play in. I guess what I'm curious about is why we would allow something that is required for our society to function be subject to enormous price shocks that are not related to supply? Isn't this as foolish as what California let Enron do to it five or six years ago in regards to electricity? If it doesn't have a product flow like a commodity, why would you trade it like one?

So would changing the currency of trade of oil to the Euro stop the rapid increase in oil cost?

The reason this is and should be a big story and for quite some time is this is exactly what he did to people. Jackass is reaping what he sewn.

So there doesn't seem to be any legitimate reason why oil is this high. Inventories are at a relatively historical high and there's no real distribution shortage. This is pure speculation. Was it a mistake to allow the free trade of oil as a commodity given its absolute need in society?

By the way, this story broke on the New York Times website. Damn liberal media. Oh wait.

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 08:49 AM) Well I think it's pretty obvious that the GOP in New York and their hate for Spitzer is one of the biggest reasons he got caught. However, it also seems pretty obvious he did it, and to think there is anymore to this than that would be a bit silly. It took five years and Larry Flynt to leak that David Vitter used a prostitution ring that got nailed in 2002. The customers generally aren't named or leaked unless someone had an axe to grind. I'm not saying he didn't do it, or doesn't deserve what he gets. The jackass made a name for himself busting prostitution rings as Attorney General. But I am saying that the reason it came out like this and now probably has a lot to do with the enemies that he made in Albany over the last 14 months.

I have a feeling Franken the candidate probably comes off differently than Franken the pundit, who was an arrogant bore.

I don't think he was framed. Or set up. I think that since Spitzer tried to end Bruno's political career last year over the use of State vehicles (which backfired miserably for Spitzer), Bruno took a chance on something that could have been a home run. Both men are bullies. And this has been a pissing match for a year.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Mar 11, 2008 -> 12:05 AM) OK,. check this out. ABC has a slide show of 13 political sex scandals. Guess how many of them who are Dems actually are named as Dems? And then guess how many who are Repubs are named as repubs? No cheating, guess before you look. If I counted right, they picked 5 Dems and 7 Repubs. How many of each were named as such? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Blotter/pop...x=1&page=13 And for all those liberal who claim that there is no bias, the old media can put a stop to this any time they want by instituting a style guideline, that says something like a politician's party affiliation must be mentioned inthe first paragraph or when their name is first mentioned. But they don't, so they can just move that little D or R around to wherever it seems to fit best for them in the story, paragraph 1 or 15. Actually, the style is consistent. If they are elected Senator or Congressman, the party is mentioned immediately after the first mention of their name. However, some people including Bush cabinet members, President Clinton and Spokane's mayor had no party mention at all. Edit: Actually the style is not consistent, one Congressman of each party did not have their party explicitly revealed in the photo essay.

Hmmm... the GOP in New York State really really hates Spitzer. Mike Bloomberg gives a large donation to Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno in Albany. The Feds leak that Spitzer is implicated in a prostitution ring investigation within a week of initial arrests. There's more to this than just prostitution me thinks. This is Joe Bruno being better at Spitzer's game than the Governor ever was.

Sitting Dem Governors are super delegates in the Presidential race. Spitzer supports Clinton, as does Paterson, the NY Lt Governor. However, Paterson already has a vote as a member of the DNC and can't receive a second superdelegate vote. So a Spitzer resignation results in a net loss of one delegate for Clinton come convention time.

PA: You can change your registration through March 24 to vote in the Democratic Primary, if you'd like.

Only if Spitzer is as big an idiot as Larry Craig and doesn't let the story die. But with enemies like Joe Bruno in the GOP controlled NY Senate, the story will be there for a while. BTW: the prostitution ring was based out of NYC. If I was the Guv and intent on saving my skin I'd definitely hype that.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Mar 10, 2008 -> 02:56 PM) My only question on battery powered cars is how they will work in the winter here. Leaving a car out all day in sub zero temperatures might limit that milage a bit here. Down in the south it should work fine all year long. Why would that hurt battery life? If I'm out of AA batteries and a set dies, sometime in the freezer gets a little more juice out of em.