Rex Kickass

Nuke: You're right. We could have won this war pretty easily, and we could have even made the right case to get into Iraq in the first place. But as the execution of this war shows, priorities have been in wrong places since day one of planning.

Yeah, one would get a lot more access to kids.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ May 25, 2007 -> 05:58 PM) Huh? How about the non-Senators running - Romney, Richardson, Giuliani... and how about the few Senators with some balls? Like Kucinich (who, again, while not electable, is at least principled). Kucinich is a Congressman, but you're otherwise right. Richardson is IMHO the only person with real foreign policy experience worth having in this race.

I would argue that most of them do work, and most of them aren't on the dole - because for an undocumented resident, the dole is somewhat hard to get on.

I'm glad to Kickass together with Soxy! Happy Birthday!

They didn't need to release a statement. They could cast a vote. And they voted no.

He hasn't cast a vote in about 6 weeks IIRC.

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ May 25, 2007 -> 10:19 AM) See this is where I'm glad Congress and Bush 'compromised.' I think a hard date would have been terrible. As the great mind, Elizabeth Hassleback, said the other day (no i don't watch the show, just happened to see the clip of her and the fat one fighting), if you give the other team information, such the exact play you're about to call, that changes the game entirely. They can sit back and wait for it. That's exactly what will happen. They set a date, everyone will calm down until that date and then major planned attacks will occur and someone will try and take control of the country, sorta like Saddam did. I liked the compromise because we dropped the date and instituted benchmarks that the Iraqi government has to meet. We're finally kicking them in their ass and saying look, we helped you out, its time for you to take control of your people. And I think those polls are also crap. Who wants war? Shouldn't that be like 95% are opposed to war? Who likes the fact that Americans are dying? Benchmarks without a timetable are meaningless. The only reason the Senate dems caved was so they could get their minimum wage bill passed, and that pisses me off quite a bit.

Because I think its a straw man argument. I don't see how adding 12 million people to legal placement within our system will suddenly break SSI.

Yeah. I'm not impressed with Harry Reid's handling of the Senate. Nancy Pelosi has done a decent job with the House, I think, she's tried to hold the line. I think a big part of Harry Reid's problem is a lack of a functioning majority - and it's a fault of his own doing. He made a deal with Lieberman to get him to agree to stay on the Dem side of the aisle if he won, and let Lamont twist in the wind. I think had that race been different in CT, you'd see a vastly tougher Senate.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ May 23, 2007 -> 08:21 AM) That's the plug-in car, yes? Cars that just pull a charge from elsewhere and use it up aren't really doing much to help either the environment or your gas bills. It just shifts the energy demand from the road to the power plant. It's a plug in hybrid, and will enable to this car to get up to 750 miles on a 12 gallon tank IIRC.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 22, 2007 -> 09:34 PM) So they pay into the system for a couple of years, and then they spend their golden years drawing out. Its just like any of the progressive taxes, they will take out of it much more than they pay into it based on their expected income levels. I'm 29. I have paid into SSI for 13 years now. I don't yet qualify for full benefits. And honestly, how many of these people are 65?

You don't receive SSI benefits unless you pay into the system. So 12 million workers who are now legal, do not qualify for social security benefits. Not until they work into the system.

I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.... but John McCain, has been so busy campaigning for an election in 2008 that he hasn't cast a vote in the Senate since the beginning of April... 2007.

With the exception of Unemployment Insurance, and WIC/foodstamps/welfare, exactly what do they not use? Again, the alternative is that we pay for it anyway. Either by spending the resources to round up these people and send them home, OR by doing nothing and further exacerbating the situation that everyone seems to need to be fixed. I don't know that this particular bill is a good fit - I know little about it, but I'm not a big fan of the Dobbs school of immigration reform either.

Giuliani is going to be Edwards 2004. The more the American public sees him, the less they're going to like him.

Amnesty may be bad, but the alternative is worse IMO. We have 12 million illegal residents in this country. The vast majority are here to live peacefully and within the law once they get here. If we don't do something to legalize their status, we're left with two alternatives. We can kick out 12 million people - provided we can find them, at an enormous cost and energy to our country. Or we can do nothing, which is what we're doing now. This allows us to maintain an underclass of workers without protection, without decent pay, and that are going to need to suckle on the teat of our social services because of their workplace situation.

Hey, I maybe French - but I ain't surrendering. At least not til we play Greenpeace.

According to Bloomberg's proposal, driving your car south of 86th Street, and you'll pay $8. $27 if you are a truck.

Big controversy in NYC this past month as Bloomberg proposed Congestion Pricing tolls. I legitimately don't think Bloomberg is running for President next year. Like I said, the local rumors are about governor - not President.

And we're closed. Congrats! Record time!

That's fine, but just as we don't allow gloating over those about to be executed, we also don't allow gloating over the death of anyone else either

No, it's not. He may not have been whose views were worthy of your respect - but he's worthy of your respect as a human.

There are no legal hash bars in Vancouver, however marijuana is readily available and decriminalized IIRC.

He's said repeatedly that he isn't interested in running for President. At least not next year. He is, however, apparently considering running for governor in 2010.