Rex Kickass

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 27, 2009 -> 08:05 AM) For all the talk of tort reform, I just need to keep pointing to study after study by places like the CBO that shows it is, at most, only a couple of percentage points of total spending. That includes payments, insurance and defensive medicine. Or just look at McAllen, Texas where they have tort reform in place and the highest health costs in the country.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 06:53 PM) Bull, Rex. Bull. The FIRST priority is to defeat this crap legislation. Which, candidly, I hope leads to Obama getting slowed down because he's done a lot of disruptive crap (my kids will be paying for Obama's "plans" and probably my grandchildren at this point). The focus has to be getting this gone. Obama cannot abandon the public option, because he doesn't get what he wants. It's all or nothing, baby. And he knows it. With that said, reform COULD BE fixing what's wrong, but they don't want any part of that, they want "government option" on the table because they know damn well that in 5 years that means the end of the "private option". I heard it said today that the legacy of Kennedy should be to pass health care legislation - the same health care he got. Amen. Senator Jim DeMint - July 2009 Look no further than the stimulus package to prove my point Kap. The President filled half of the stimulus with tax cuts and handed the vast majority of what the Republicans wanted in a package to the Republicans. For all that effort, he got a total of three bipartisan votes. The GOP views its path out of the wilderness by being a loud and shrill opposition, and to continue to use a fear playbook. (Death Panels, for example) This is a wider, general strategy of refusing to give any part of the Democrat's agenda any legitimacy whatsoever. Calling Sotomayor a racist. Calling health care reform a "government takeover." Even debating whether the President is even eligible to be President. The Republican party has no goal currently other than to make Obama and the Democratic congress look as bad and ineffectual as possible. That means getting nothing passed. Not a budget, and certainly nothing with the word "reform" attached to it. Obama could push Bush's agenda item for item and the GOP leadership would still try to block it.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 01:51 PM) I think we all agree with this. Except the problem is that the GOP leadership doesn't. The political reality of this is anything passes that has "health care reform" attached to it will be a big victory for Obama. If Obama was really all about being a hack, he'd have well abandoned the public option - knowing that liberals won't stray in big enough numbers and 18 months won't be a long enough time to realize a real benefit or problem from any legislation for major reform. The GOP leadership is full of hacks. They know that any reform is a bad thing for their chances in 2010 which, despite an incredibly steep road in the senate does historically signify a moderate gain in the house next year. Blocking health care reform makes Obama less effective. The GOP has to be the party of no in order to foment enough anger to win an election in the midterm or have a shot with the extremely shallow primary field that you see for 2012 at the moment. There's no Obamas, Clintons or even Edwards's there. Just Romney, Santorum and other people who haven't won anything at all recently.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 03:41 PM) Cindy Sheehan got into the news at a time when I was the most pissed off at Bush and I was on her side at first, but after a while she got embarrassing. She got full of herself and went whackjob pretty quickly IMO. She's been roundly ignored and marginalized for quite a while. Couple years or so I think.

QUOTE (Tex @ Aug 26, 2009 -> 09:09 AM) Amazing life. Ring side seat to some of the most dramatic times in our history. I had the pleasure of seeing him in person last year when he was campaigning for Obama. I've seen him in person and I think I shook his hand in 2005 when he was out campaigning for my governor.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 25, 2009 -> 10:16 PM) EOY 2009... that's right, I forgot about that. The Chrysler dealers are closed, many of the GM closings are actually going to happen in 2010, not 2009 - because it was contract non-renewal rather than immediate franchise removal.

RIP to someone who really was an excellent senator for his own constituency.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Aug 23, 2009 -> 09:58 PM) Where do you teach? Currently in school, getting a B.S. in business. Not entirely sure what I want to do with that -- thinking about something in the merchandishing/planning/buying area, though I'm strongly considering law school. I never considered broadcasting, but it's always in the back of my mind, because I'm always told I have a great deep radio voice. Silly question, to those who work in that field -- how much of a selling point is having a voice like that good for getting a job as on-air talent? I'm not even thinking about it seriously, just curious. Having a voice is everything in radio. Your voice is your livelihood. But you also can't just play randy radio all the time. You need to be yourself when you're on air and not put on an air of having a "radio voice" when you talk. That's very 1975 top 40 radio, and its not authentic enough to work these days.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Aug 21, 2009 -> 05:39 PM) thanks for the tip, how do you get your foot in the door though? Call your local station and offer to work for free. There's always room for interns - be it in promotions, or programming. If you do well and they like you, they might hire you on. If not, you can take the experience and the skills and move over somewhere else that will pay you. What kind of broadcasting are you looking to get into?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 24, 2009 -> 08:47 AM) I would have been good with that, but it would never have passed. It would also not help Chrysler whatsoever, and barely help GM or Ford. Actually, Ford's hybrid program is growing to be pretty robust - withe Escape doing pretty well in sales.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Aug 21, 2009 -> 05:23 PM) Attorney, trying to figure out how I can finance broadcasting school Depending on what you want to broadcast, probably not worth the expense honestly. Once you start working somewhere, they just train it all out of you. Former broadcaster, now work in business development in the travel industry.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 21, 2009 -> 03:09 PM) So? Where do the PROFITS go? In the US case, except Ford now, they go to the US government. How nice! Wouldn't that just be a way to reduce the deficit you're so concerned about? If bailing out the industry was a waste of taxpayer money, how is the government seeing some payback a bad thing too?

In New Jersey, the private sector grew by 13,000 jobs in July. The state government actually shrank by 7,000 as a Democratic governor shrank the state payrolls for the first time in twenty plus years.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 20, 2009 -> 12:27 PM) None of that addresses MSNBC deliberately ignoring the black guy to make a "Racism!" point. Sorta like confusing party identification for every single republican embroiled in a scandal. MSNBC is a polemic network. It shouldn't be that surprising.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 05:51 PM) Um, that wasn't what I said at all... But between you and Balta, the circular logic to justify the loss of another freedom is scary. Your point is what Reagan said about Medicare, you know. Do you support eliminating Medicare as well?

Hey hey, don't harsh my mellow.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 11:58 AM) The proposal is that you are fined if you do not opt for care of some kind, and you will be paying into the system. Tell me again how that isn't being proposed. The truth is you are fined now if you do not opt for care of some kind - every time you get sick.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 12:00 PM) Excuse me, but that wasn't in alphabetical order Forgive me, I got confused.

QUOTE (son of a rude @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 07:03 PM) New Weezer album release date is October 27. Lets hope they can recreate the genius that their first two albums possessed. I believe that much like Bob Dylan, Rivers Cuomo died in a motorcycle accident after Pinkerton and was replaced by a less talented replicant thereafter.

Sadly, so does my face.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 11:30 AM) Well that "point" is asinine. So should everyone complain about their 401K also and ask that that get taken over too? It's still your choice to pay into it or not. No one is forcing you to do so. If you don't like it go look for another job. What happens when you get fed up with your supervisor? Or your hours? Or your salary? You deal with it. How you deal with it is up to each individual. I wanted to go on a cruise with some friends again this summer but I deemed it too expensive this year since I am moving into a house and had a bunch of other stuff I had to get done. It was my decision to forgo the cruise. It wasn't fiscally smart this year. People always have choices and more often than not they can work things out if they truly wanted to. But, it's much easier to cry about it being impossible and looking for a handout rather than doing something to change your situation, whatever it may be. I wouldn't call treatment for illness the equivalent to a cruise, or even a 401k. At some point, every one is going to need treatment for something. And there should be a way to make that happen without bankrupting the patient - either before or after the case. In the last four years, I have been able to afford health insurance for just 18 months in the last four years. When I lived in New York state, I was unable to find a plan to accept me for any health insurance whatsoever for less than $450 a month. I just didn't have that flexibility in my paycheck. For whatever you may think about a public option (personally I prefer a parallel single payer system, similar to what France has) I think we do need to see a few changes to health insurance regulations to make it easier for the consumer and also more useful for them. I think the idea of insisting on covering pre-existing conditions is important, as is banning retroactively dropping coverage or not covering treatment that doctors view to be necessary. Also, coverage portability is important too. You shouldn't have your coverage prove to be unusable because you move from New Jersey to New York. (Not because of doctors in the system, but because certain kinds of plans aren't operable in certain states.) There should be a uniform standard of what kinds of medical insurance can be sold federally.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 18, 2009 -> 11:21 AM) What a terrific "choice"! Hey, freedom isn't free!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 10:48 PM) Even funnier when you realize that the only things that could have affected the economy at this point are the tax cuts as the vast majority of the pure spending plans are still on the sideline. Actually, there were a number of specific things that were not tax cuts that would have had a real effect on second quarter results. Among other things was a federal subsidy to increase food stamp and unemployment allotments. Also, there was a lot of direct state aid in that package - which helped temporarily shore up a lot of ledger sheets and put states into positions where they could actually spend money again.

Woman takes a poster of Rosa Parks into a town hall meeting and displays it. After she puts it away, a journalist asks her to show the poster. A protestor than comes and snatches it out of the lady's hand. The lady chases and goes after the protestor for snatching out of her hands and ripping up a picture of Rosa Parks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7zfawMm-So...player_embedded

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 12:17 AM) So how is being forced to have government health care, being taxed to pay for it, and being penalized if you don't particpate not losing freedoms? Right now you have the freedom to choose who you want to be covered through, whether it is a company that your employer picks, or someone you pick on your own. You also have the option of not having any insurance at all. I don't have kids, yet my tax dollars pay for other kids schools. Since I'm not in school, I'm being penalized. When I didn't own a car, my tax dollars paid for roads I didn't drive on. Since I'm not driving, I'm being penalized. Your tax dollars currently fund several single payer health programs that you do not participate in. Yet you pay for them and are therefore being penalized for not using them. All this proposal does is level the playing field. Giving you access to health coverage if you can't afford a private plan. I don't understand the "taking away your freedom" argument. It seems rather tenuous at best.