Rex Kickass

They may not be able to legally. And frankly, if this guy isnt one of the prospective candidates named in the investigation, they shouldnt stop it. Illinois should have full Senate representation.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 30, 2008 -> 10:15 AM) You do this to your friends? What do you do to your enemies? I actually don't get many solicitor calls normally, I'm on the do-not-call list, and that mostly works (except non-profit, surveys and the like). I'm on the "you pissed off a friend" train myself. However, did you sign up for something newish online recently? It's possible that they are selling your information to these things.

Don't absentee ballots usually have a postmark dictating that it was sent in on time?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 27, 2008 -> 07:28 PM) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472304,00.html of course The UAW has made bad decisions for a long time, and are indicative of the problems that the labor movement needs to walk away from. But if I understand it, labor leaders are elected by their rank and file, and you tend to get the governance that voters deserve.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 27, 2008 -> 10:13 PM) This song was played back way before the Democrat nomination was settled. This whole thing is kinda silly. I know the "magic negro" thing has been around for quite a while. And I think, but am not sure, that the phrase has been around a lot longer than that column too, although it didnt refer to Obama at the time. For real, whatever it says, it doesn't make the GOP look good by any means. Was it a dumb move for this guy to put it on a gift intended to get him the the RNC chair? Hell yeah, it was. But if this is how they look to repeat 1994 in 2010, good luck.

I'm actually excited about a couple cars in the GM lineup for 2010 - The Chevy Volt, which is the next new car I plan to purchase, and I think the upcoming Camaro is hot hot hot. For all the people that want to place the blame solely on the UAW. Without the UAW giving certain benefits to its workers, how do you think things got as tolerable for non-union plant workers for foreign makes? If the UAW goes, working conditions across all US auto manufacturers will begin to disintegrate.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 12, 2008 -> 09:56 PM) It's as simple as this... The legacy car company business model is dead. Until they recognize that and MORE IMPORTANTLY do something about it, they will not make money. The bailout is not the point, other then we're on the hook for their stupidity (oh, wait, just like everything else now). What I can't believe is what so many people here are advocating, essentially going back on the word of a company who expected and received decades of loyalty from their employees in exchange for health benefits and a pension. It's sad that this is seen as unacceptable by so many here. Toyota/Honda/Nissan's advantage? They don't have nearly a century of history behind them of building cars in the US and don't have those legacy costs. In 15 years, they will. Chrysler got a bailout loan thirty years ago and it worked for them for quite some time.

I think if Treasury announces some of these TARP funds for GM by the end of the trading day, we'll see GM back over 5.

Watching a couple things from the UAW presser right now. Gettelfinger makes a huge great point here. VW is getting 500 million in subsidies to build a plant in Tennessee. VW is seeking its own bailout from the German government and will probably get it. When Toyota looks to fight its workers' own efforts to unionize, they argue that the wage and benefits package offered to current Toyota workers exceeds that of the average UAW worker for the big 3. Beyond that, this dispute is solely on the backs of the manufacturing workers who actually produce the cars. There was no same effort to normalize dealership costs, supplier costs, management costs at a parity to Toyota/Nissan/Honda, etc. in this negotiation. The UAW has offered huge concessions over the last 18 months, including taking on the bulk of pension costs, elimination of the job bank etc. To sit there and put the entire weight of the bailout on the people who actually build the cars is unfair. Mark my words, Gettelfinger is right here. This is all about EFCA and card check on the GOP side. The truth is that the bridge loans need to come from Treasury until the new Congress convenes next year and that kind of obstructionism can be more easily overcome. On CNBC just now, one of the analysts just said that the assembly line labor costs per car amount to just $800.

The Cubs are not included in the bankruptcy filing. This seems like a preemptive strike - enabling them to sell with less pressure, I'd imagine. I'm guessing we'll see WGN America spin off to someone else, the Cubs sale will help a ton and probably a few other papers as well.

Happy Birthday!

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 11:36 AM) I think MGMT was the year before but I could be wrong. First single came out in 2007, but the album dropped in January IIRC.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 09:41 AM) Is this a disappointment because of lofty expectations(which to me means you thought it would be really good, and it ended up being just OK by the bands standards), or because it was just a bad record? It took 15 years to make the record. Overproduced? I can understand. But this just feels dated and bad. GnR needs Slash to make its traditional bloat work.

Am I the only one who thinks that if we are looking at the total and final collapse of the US Auto Industry, it makes sense for the US Government to provide some capital to the Big 3 in order to allow the bleed to slow down, rather than a shock of a GM - as its currently held - to just completely collapse?

But he meant to go to Fargo.

Albums I love for 2008 - Q-Tip - The Renaissance Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun dEUS - Vantage Point Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple Portishead - Third Nada Surf - Lucky Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree The Breeders - Mountain Battles Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend MGMT - Oracular Spectacular Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalust Disappointments - Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak Cold War Kids - Loyalty to Loyalty CSS - Donkey Zita Swoon - Big Blueville Peter Bjorn and John - Seaside Rock Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Dec 4, 2008 -> 02:14 AM) Duke, that last Portishead album is easily the most dissapointed I've ever been in a record. Maybe it was the long anticipation, maybe it's because their previous two are classics. Really? I thought it was a great distillation of what made the first two albums great. Just a stark, loud sadness. I got my first taste of what they were up to, with the Serge Gainsbourg mashup that they did on a Gainsbourg tribute album last year and easily thought it to be among the best things I'd heard that year.

False. I'm letting my haters be my motivators on Bravo. The person below me watches more reality television than they would like to admit.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Nov 30, 2008 -> 01:31 AM) This is such a goofy little song. That whole album is goofy. Its hard to imagine that the guy behind it is only like 21.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 10:14 PM) Um, i'd say if they're chewing on anyone's jock it would be Roger Troutman who was using the Vocoder in the early 80's. I believe T-Pain even mentions this in a recent song. Maybe I just like the image of T-Pain getting his creative cues from Cher. Because they're both generally awful.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Nov 28, 2008 -> 04:13 PM) i vote bald. Hell yeah, bald. Sinead O'Connor, Grace Jones, Tina Turner....

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 03:56 PM) Ok, I finally heard the Kanye and I don't like it one bit. It's a pop/R&B album and since I don't really listen to that music much it makes sense. There are a lot of people who like it though and that's because they do like that type of music. The best songs are Love Lockdown and Robocop. Like someone said the lyrics to robocop are not good at all. "You spoiled little L.A. girl...." ugh. Anyway, whose heard the new Q-Tip? A very solid album. The new Q-Tip album is very very good. I love how you can never really tell when he records his stuff. There's no autotune phase with what he does. He just does what he's good at. Sorta like the AC-DC of Hip Hop (except with much better lyrics). I actually think Paranoid of the 808s album is the only real jam on the record.

The new Kanye album is crap. 808s can make a good record, just ask M.I.A. but his album is missing a lot. The lyrics are generally lame, the songs feel unfinished and it sounds like he recorded it in his basement on his old Jambox. And the Autotune thing is way overdone. Everyone credits T-Pain, but you know that they're all just really chewing on Cher's worn out autotune jock from 1998. Has anyone heard the new GNR album?

Ten songs in your iTunes/iPod/Zune Shuffle. If you love the song, please share why. Beck - Walls Gomez - How We Operate Jens Lekman - Kaenske Aer Jag Kaer I Dig I really really love Jens Lekman. Just really really weird stories. He's like the Swedish Jonathan Richman with a fuller sound. Otis Redding - Just One More Day (From the greatest soul album ever made - "The Soul Album" by Otis Redding) Hard-Fi - Move On Now Beirut - Scenic World Kasabian - By My Side Chiodos - One Day Women Will All Become Monsters Datarock - I Used To Dance With My Daddy LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

QUOTE (LosMediasBlancas @ Nov 29, 2008 -> 02:26 PM) FALSE. The person below me wears shorts and flip flops along with a thick sweater and a heavy jacket in the middle of winter. False, I totally wear linen pants and jesus sandals. The person below me uses last.fm