Rex Kickass

It was 70%. Although Marginal Tax Rates are misleading, because actual income isn't necessarily taxable income and prior to the 198os tax code reforms, there were a lot more loopholes to reduce taxable income IIRC. It was 35% at the end of Reagan's term.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 13, 2006 -> 11:39 AM) And that is my problem with this whole thing in a nutshell. Kim Jong Il sets off what he calls a nuclear device, and we are the ones who have to do something about it, without further antagonizing the situation. That is just insane. The guy threatens the his neighbors, shoots missles over other countries, and then threatens war when that same country doesn't want to trade with him anymore... Yet we are the ones who have to not make it any worse. Geesh. The alternative is Seoul on fire and 35,000 US troops stationed in South Korea dead. Yeah, we HAVE to do something. Get us out of South Korea is the other alternative.

I gotta say, from what Ive read, Im pretty impressed with Boltons ability to work with other security council members on this issue to develop a sanction plan that might have some effect without further antagonizing the situation.

I'm sorry Kap, but John McCain said that Bill Clinton had a completely failed policy. Clinton was a few days away from going to WAR with North Korea. Al Gore didn't blame George Bush for the Embassy Bombings in 1998 when he was on the campaign trail. John McCain blamed Bill Clinton for North Korea going nuclear in 2006. This column is a response to those comments. And the truth is that Clinton did something real - and in the end pretty successful, and some people just don't want to admit it.

In the 1970's, India was seen as allying with the Soviet Union generally. Pakistan was vascillating between east and west, depending on who was in power.

My bet is that's why he caved on Habeus Corpus/torture.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 12, 2006 -> 03:29 PM) If you want to say that the NK test is a failure on Bush's part, that is fine. John McCain is saying there is plenty of history to go around, along with plenty of blame. If you are going to blame the Bush administration for that, I guess you are willing to call Clinton's policies a failure because both Pakistan and India managed to go nuclear on his watch, right? No a nuclear NK isn't in our, nor anyone elses, interests. But neither is propping up a murderous regime, which you can damned well bet that Bush would get blamed for if he built them a light water reactor, that was converted under the next President's administration and used to go nuclear at that time instead. It would be his fault for appeasement is exactly what we would hear. I happen to believe this history in NK of not negotiating in good faith is a pretty damned good thing to remember when people are wanting us to give them stuff in exchange for not blowing up the world. I truely believe even if we had bribed them, they would have still found a reason to go nuclear. They have a history of trying to join the nuclear club, why would we believe them now, or ever, when they say otherwise? I think Clinton should take responsibility for allowing Pakistan to go nuclear. It's a horrible development and we're damn lucky that we haven't taken a serious toll for doing so yet. It's also forced us to prop up Musharraf who is a dictator, not a nice guy, and plays both sides of the terror game. I'll go so far as to say that Clinton's South Asia policy as it applied to the Pakistan/India policy was a massive failure until Pakistan went nuclear. Fortunately, the tenets of MAD with India has allowed this problem to stabilize, provided that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal remains secure. A nuclear North Korea forces us to do the same. Now, for our own protection, we are forced to make sure that any North Korean government disintegration is done as responsibly as possible for fear of a nuclear arsenal being put in the wrong hands in the last, desperate moment of a regime fighting for survival. Might North Korea get a few extra million dollars for wheat, power or steaks and big sunglasses for Kim Jong Il? Yes, but the alternative to nuclear blackmail is a nuclear North Korea. I'll take the blackmail anyday.

How awesome would it be for the chance to plant my seeds across Australia?

Ummm, in this case - failure of US aims absolutely are the President's fault. His foreign policy led us to this moment in time. He has had six years to try to correct the situation in North Korea and has done nothing. I was in Europe in the summer of 1994 and when Jimmy Carter went to North Korea, there was a palpable sense that we were days away from war on the Korean peninsula if North Korea crossed the red line. He didn't and we didn't go to war. The Bush administration didn't act on North Korea in 2002 when they tried the same gambit. The Bush administration rejected the same offer they made to Iran a few months ago when it was presented to them as a Clinton-era agreement in 2001. Of course, I'm sure you'd love to blame Clinton or the media for this too - because their your bogeymen of choice. And that's fine. But a North Korean nuke test is not in our best interest. And our policy to prevent it sure didn't work. So that would be a failure. And there's only been one President's watch since the Agreed Framework was declared dead. And he's the one who declared it dead. So you be the judge about who's fault it is.

I've thought about Wwoofing for quite some time, but never got the nerve to do it.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Oct 12, 2006 -> 09:31 AM) LOL!!! Please do video tape it if you do!!! LOL!!! I also live near Sebastian Bach. Why do I picture that they'd both stomp it out with stiletto heels?

John McCain is dead wrong about North Korea.

He's guilty of possibly paying only 74% of the property taxes on the property rather than the 75% of the property taxes he should have been according to the office. But investigate it! Absolutely, and if something is really there, punish his ass.

He had a lot of the right people behind him to win the nomination. It's a shame, I think he would have been a great candidate.

Working Class Hero is an amazing amazing amazing song. Quite possibly the best thing he's ever written in my opinion.

book: Jack Kerouac - "Lonesome Traveler" album: Blur - Parklife movie: Polyester TV series: Arrested Development person: my guy!

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 09:05 AM) Debbie Harry was hot, it ends there for Blondie. Talking Heads. Pass. I love Television for the fact that Captain Sensible wrote the tune "Idiot Box" because he hated them so much. Not one of the best Damned tunes, but still cool. Debbie Harry lives ten miles from me. I have been so tempted to leave a flaming bag of poo on her door just to see her stomp it out. I think it would be HI-larious!

Instapundit is a Republican blog.

QUOTE(Steff @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 06:36 PM) If that is true, whomever comfirmed he was the pilot is a total asshole. Would that be Joe Torre? No, Torre said he owned the plane. It was the passport found on the ground at the crash scene that leaked he was in the plane.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 02:10 PM) #1 They discuss how to save. Not well can your family afford that, what does your dad make etc, that would be creepy. Instead they break down the cost and look at the interest rates of CDs, simple savings accounts, and the difference between investing and saving. If you put away this amount for X months you would have this much. If you change the principle, the interest, etc. this is the result. If you borrow the money, via credit cards, etc, the item will now cost this. Never personal family finances. There is no point in that. #2 is the kids allowance and how to budget it. Not the families. So the kid learns how to work with his $5 a week. He learns to keep "books" and track income and expenses. All very good skills. I doubt the counselor really cares about Juan and his weekly allowance, the skills to manage it is what is being taught. They never discuss actual family finances. That would be creepy. I'll move on. Actually the kids to enjoy this merit badge. The counselor takes them (along with a buddy or parent, never one on one) to the executive board room at the bank. Way up at the top. Private elevator. Makes them feel like a big shot. He's very entertaining. Of course YMMV, not every merit badge conselor is that good. Just a great resource I developed. I got that merit badge. And although the information may not necessarily have stayed with me all the time, I did learn stuff from it. And there was nothing creepy about that merit badge.

CNN reports Lidle's passport found on the street at the scene of the plane crash.

QUOTE(mreye @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 09:40 AM) I must have misunderstood something when I read "GOP Only - Sink or swim together" Hmmmmmm???? I have worked for Republican campaigns ya know....

Except since the Clinton policy was never actually funded, it was really a "no carrot policy" either. In 2001, after administrative transition in the US, the policy changed again by removing the word carrot.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 11, 2006 -> 11:04 AM) I couldn't find a more recent Iraq thread, so... Update: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061011/ts_nm/iraq_deaths_dc_2 Total deaths in Iraq pegged at 655,000 since the start of the war. That is 2.3% of the country's entire population. I realize that some of those deaths were probably deserved. Many, however, were not. Let's not forget that it isn't just American soldiers and Islamic extremists/terrorists/insurgents dying over there. And before you say it Nuke... yeah, that is the toll of war. Innocent lives. But that is exactly my point. Was Saddam worth this? Did Saddam kill even a small fraction of that number? And is BushCo's real mission, to set up an anchorhead (military, political and economic) in the Middle East, really worth this much death? Will the American public think so in 5 years, when Iraq still isn't stable? Because rebuilding and stabilizing Iraq is at least a 10 year effort. I hope everyone realizes that, and realizes the continuing cost in lives and money and political capital that we face. Its a shame we were dragged into this nightmare - and sadly, we still need to see it through. We cannot leave now. I heard something the other day that more Iraqis are being killed per day now than under the Saddam Hussein regime when you average the estimates of deaths at his hand over the course of his rule or something like that. This is a messy situation. Messy enough that Rice actually basically told the Iraqi government to get it together or we're out of here this week.

It gets more traffic than myspace. That's a huge set of eyeballs.