Rex Kickass

Paul Volcker was really the one who fixed the problems from the late 70's, no?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 28, 2008 -> 11:14 AM) A Walmart employee in New York was killed and four others injured during the 5am crush to get into a store this morning. WTF is wrong with people. I mean, I don't even understand the desire to do this sort of thing to begin with. And get this... one of the injured people was a pregnant woman. What woman in her right mind does something like this while pregnant? How stupid can you possibly be? And how embarrassing for yourself to be one of these zombies mad-rushing a friggin Walmart at 5am to save a few bucks on something? Someone needs to explain this to me. What a nightmare scenario.

False. The person below me underappreciates the brilliance of Yoko Ono.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Nov 27, 2008 -> 05:06 PM) True. The person below me will be drinking hot chocolate tonight. False. The person below me will agree with me about the comic genius of Bea Arthur.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Nov 24, 2008 -> 01:11 AM) But why would would you want to register on a site that's not targeted to your preferences? Most people don't and won't, but by not allowing people who aren't part of the target (wrong color, religion, etc.) it is a violation of the law.

It's funny, the government doesn't seem to bat an eye at propping up massive banks that made really bad choices these days. But automakers ask for less money than Citibank just got this weekend to keep over 300,000 blue collar workers in jobs, and its a hand-out too far. I know the argument is that if GM/Ford/Chrysler can't survive on its own, any bail-out is going to forestall an inevitable death. If that's true, wouldn't it also make sense to spend some money now to spread the shock and pain around over time so that we don't suffer a 4% drop in GDP immediately with relatively little to absorb it?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 23, 2008 -> 10:52 AM) it's not really the same situation as forced segregation. it is basically (from what i can tell) a dating service geared towards evangelical straight couples. this whole case is fairly suspect. the fact is that dating services that cater to certain ethnic groups is not anything hateful, illegal, or out of the ordinary. jewish americans, hispanics, and african-americans have similar services. But the difference is, if youre a white guy, you can still register on the African American dating site. If you're a gay guy, you couldn't register on eHarmony.

Coleman has challenged a number of ballots where people have voted for McCain and then Franken because of "voter intent" They have also challenged a number of ballots where people just voted for McCain but for no other state or local race. They are challenging that these voters intended to vote for Norm Coleman in each of these incidents.

Given that I think Citi could be at 0 within the day at this rate, I think below 6000 is looking more and more likely.

There are fantastic bargains for condos in Chicago.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 20, 2008 -> 01:34 PM) GMAB. You dont need any more of the ballot to know what the intent was. Theres no indication of a cross out anywhere. If they meant to cross it out, they would have gotten a new ballot. Thats a quick scribble fill in of a bubble. Unless the rest of the ballot was simply Xs.

This was a bulls*** case.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 19, 2008 -> 08:50 PM) http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/whistl...ar-in-plymouth/ One of the ballots that Frankin is contesting. Given that the photo doesn't show any of the rest of the ballot, I can't say that there is clear intent or not. If the rest of the ballot has properly filled in holes or has simple X's marked, its rightly challengeable as the intent is unclear. Did he mean to emphatically vote for Coleman? Did he accidentally vote for Coleman and try to cross it out? We don't have enough information available to us to decide if it is indeed a legitimate challenge.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Nov 15, 2008 -> 08:56 PM) Well said, but culture clash definitely played a role. Those on the inside agree that these companies never worked well together. However, your analysis is also right on the money. I think that had a lot to do with Daimler's attitude on the merger. From what I've read, Daimler said merger of equals and meant, our American subsidiary. Chrysler said merger of equals and meant merger of equals. Chrysler had some issues when DCX formed, but they were by no means in serious trouble at the time. General inability to work well together comes more from above than below.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 17, 2008 -> 11:34 AM) That's just it. That track record is bogus. It's like taking a click at Russian Roulet and thinking you are invincible because you didn't get the bullet. I think Rubin was warning against the housing bubble on public radio several years ago though on Marketplace. I think that's him. He's the really short guy right?

An extra week in my emergency savings.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Nov 15, 2008 -> 10:29 AM) You are assuming the Japanese companies would want them. The Daimler-Chrystler merger was a disaster (I know, that was a German company), but it showed that clashes in corporate culture, business practices (e.g., the relationship with suppliers mentioned earlier in this thread), and national cultures can create an unworkable situation. DCX failed for a number of reasons that had more to do with the reality of what they were doing not matching up with what they were saying. Poor choices in US marketing didn't help. Trying to make Mercedes a more mid-scale product just damaged the brand and the designs felt without any passion whatsoever. Failure to invest in Chrysler's lines and create a real identity for the companies have hurt them significantly. Beyond that, Daimler had its own major problems in the European market and for a while in the mid 2000's, Chrysler was the main financial engine of DCX. Benz didn't have its own house in order when it tried to merge things together. Impatient shareholders and poor upfront leadership doomed DCX, not culture.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:37 PM) I'd probably prefer Kerry to Hillary there, honestly. I hope that's not sexist. Mainly I'm thinking strategically...I'd rather get Kerry out of the Senate and moved on to a position that would be his final spot before retirement, thus allowing some new blood to enter the Senate from MA for the first time in 25 years. Hillary has a strong position in the NY senate and she's still only the Junior senator from that state. Not to sound crass or callous, but there probably will be a new face in the Senate delegation before too long, given Kennedy's brain cancer. Personally, I would prefer to see Hillary become the Majority Leader of the Senate.

So what do you get when a credit crunch + bad economy meets a poorly run business? Said marginal business tanks spectacularly. And when its a large (70-100 million dollar revenue company) services company? Four million dollars of payments to travel providers disappear, tens of thousands of passengers in the lurch and Rex Kickass on the street with no place to sell cruises.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:46 AM) Even 1 vote is treachery enough, if it changes the outcome of the election. The statistical anomoly that every recording error just happens to benefit Frankin, and that in cases where those 'errors' occured, they ONLY occured with the Frankin/Coleman vote and Obama vote, but not any of the other votes on the ballot, are very damning. But Franken is suing about 400+ absentee ballots that have not been counted. Those 400+ ballots haven't been just passed along... and in an election this tight, in a deeply blue county, there could very well be the margin that Franken would be looking for if shenanigans were in place. Again, I'm not saying that there isn't something funny going on, but the signs here point to more transparency and error and less to any concerted effort.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:52 AM) CNN says Begich now up 814 votes, with 40,000 remaining to be counted, mostly from the Anchorage area (which is seen as heavily Begich favored). Looks like Stevens will in fact probably lose. Good. And by a margin that exceeds the recount window.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 08:51 AM) Yeah, I had the same reaction when I saw that. You were carrying around ballots in your car for 72 hours? You should not work in elections ever again. Period. Why were they in there in the first place? Because if the state is having people move ballots around in their private cars, then that rule needs to change too. Here's why I don't think there's really any kind of treachery going on in Minnesota. There probably aren't enough corrections to matter. I would be very surprised to see the votes change in the recount by between 200-300 votes. We'll either see a larger change, or a smaller change, I would wager. Small vote changes of 500 or so are fairly common in larger races between unofficial results and certification, because errors are made. Is there a chance of shenanigans here? Sure there is. However, if these were real shenanigans, I think you'd have seen votes change by about 1000, not 500.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 07:58 AM) Once this program gets established in whatever final configuration it does, how long until it gets somehow transformed into Obama's National Civilian Security Force that he has previously talked about? You would have a structure in place of people registered with the government for their community service, and this could just be another one of those things to meet those obligations. http://bulletin.aarp.org/states/il/article...al_service.html programs like this exist all over the place. in more Marist type regimes like Cuba. And the people's republic of Switzerland. And those commies in Germany require military or civil service from all their youth citizenry as well (Or at least did until budget constraints led them to a great reduction IIRC). There are very positive ways to accomplish what's envisioned here. We had one Presidential campaign that talked about Country First a lot, I seem to recall. His nomination speech talked a lot about providing service. Now the other candidate, who won, is talking about providing an avenue for this service in exchange for some financial aid to go to college. I just don't see why this is so controversial. This just seems like a lot of panic or fake outrage. If you're against national service, I guess I can understand... but I fail to see the problem of a country asking something in return for its own largesse in programs that people choose to be a part of.

For layoff day: bis - The End Starts Today. So I'm finding out how much volume my agency actually provided. Travel providers are staffing separate desks and hotlines to deal my agency's failure. Wow.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Nov 11, 2008 -> 12:30 PM) I thought you also Dj'd, wino. I left that four years ago. Funny story about how that ended. But that's for another thread and another time.