Cknolls

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 23, 2011 -> 10:33 AM) Does the Ivory Coast provide the world with a much demanded commodity? If not I don't think it's very comparable. I've stayed away from this thread because I noticed it got a little ridiculous. IMO comparing wars or reasons for those wars is dumb. Iraq and Libya are two completely different situations brought about by different acts, in different time periods, for different reasons (also, the revisionist history being retold was pretty hilarious). I see no reason why we're assisting (leading) the fight in Libya, regardless of the actions going on there. It's a waste of military resources. It's more money/time/manpower being spent on a part of the world that needs to be left alone. I don't care that the Arab countries (i.e., the rich ruling Arabs that benefit from their ties to the west, but not necessarily the citizens of those countries who probably continue to see us as the aggressor bringing the holy war against them) are supposedly for it. I'm all about us getting involved in situations in order to protect our assets/friends. Here we have none of that. I say again, wtf can't we let someone else play the worlds police if that's what the majority of the UN wants? We dabble too much in the world and it nearly always comes back to bite us in the ass. And shockingly, the coalition is already starting to fall apart, meaning we either pick up and leave (won't happen) or we decide to continue taking action on our own (which will). Edit: forgot to add the link about the coalition. Number one coca bean producer in the world by a large margin.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Mar 21, 2011 -> 06:17 PM) Actually its entirely unproven. Until Obama asks Congress for additional funds to cover the cost of Libya, wouldnt the expenditures be entirely within the already established budget? You may be right that we will have to spend more money, but it hasnt happened yet, and may never happen. When did Congress pass a budget?

Don't know which headline I like better: "I can't eat an ipad" or "Nobel Peace Prize Winner Enters Third War"

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/union...thouse-and.html Ah the civility post Arizona is very comforting.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 10, 2011 -> 09:34 AM) Well, at the very least, it appears the legislature specifically and clearly broke a rule about 24 hour notification. So I'm guessing it goes back for another vote if contested in the courts. Senate Rule 93. Special or extraordinary sessions. Unless otherwise provided by the senate for a specific special or extraordinary session , the rules of the senate adopted for the biennial session , with the following modifications, apply to each special session called by the governor and to each extraordinary session called by the senate and assembly organization committees or called by a joint resolution approved by both houses: Senate Rule 93 (2) (2) A notice of a committee meeting is not required other than posting on the legislative bulletin board, and a bulletin of committee hearings may not be published. So not even the 2 hour notice was required but as a courtesy.

Don't you dare take away our collective bargaining rights. f***ing disgusting. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archiv...epresent/72468/ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/nyregion...;pagewanted=all

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 11, 2011 -> 08:22 AM) Cutting off every cent in energy company subsidies would require a new agency? If not a new agency, definitely a new Czar or Czarina.

Quick. Someone let Procter and Gamble know that one of their largest products, in sales that is, will be in great need in Madison. Word is Repubs will strip out collective bargaining from budget bill and pass as stand alone bill......Wonder if the Dems still hold their word on the health and pension contributions they agreed to earlier in the month.

Every last one of these subhuman deviants should either fry or be in solitary for the rest of their lives. http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/08/texas....dex.html?hpt=T2

Is this still the financial news board or the eco hybrid car board?

Why is Greenspan still given a forum to babble? He said things are good if you don't count the Euro Zone weaknesses, the gas/oil spikes, and the massive budget deficits. WTF.....

2.7 million people marginally attached and not counted as unemployed. Labor Force Participation unchanged at 64.2% Emp. Pop. ratio unchanged at 58.4% Avg Workweek unchanged at 34.2 Birth/Death Adj. 112,000 This is hardly any improvement. But everyone knows this number is fiction, and has been for quite some time.

http://akaka.senate.gov/press-releases.cfm...87-16a85af18ed7

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 1, 2011 -> 11:53 AM) Well, if Gingrich tries to claim moral authority or go on about the "sanctity of marriage," it's a legitimate argument to point out that he's on his third marriage and treated his previous wives pretty poorly. It's not flip-flopping because Clinton and Clinton backers aren't typically making "sanctity of marriage" or socially conservative arguments. It's not that Gingrich's personal marriage life really has any impact on his ability to govern, it's that it runs in direct contradiction to arguments for social policies he supports. Didn't Clinton sign DOMA? .

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 25, 2011 -> 04:07 PM) Interesting article in Forbes: http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/02/...loyee-pensions/ The Wisconsin Retirement System and deferred compensation are two completely separate things. Full-time state- and local-government employees are participants in the Wisconsin Retirement System, which uses taxpayer money to fund both the state (around 5 percent of salary) and employee (another 5 percent) contributions to their pensions. On top of that, if they choose, state employees can participate in the deferred-comp plan, where they decide how much of their money to set aside, pre-tax, and a portion is matched by the state. That is in addition to their traditional pension contribution. All this can be found in Chapter 40 of the Wisconsin State Statutes, which clearly demarcates each program in separate subchapters. Further, the Wisconsin Retirement System is explained in detail in this paper from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau Will try to post link... http://legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/Stat0040.pdf http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/Information...nt%20System.pdf

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 25, 2011 -> 12:40 PM) This Sunday on the networks: Meet the Press: Govs. Walker, Barbour; Sen. McCain, Richard Trumka, Rep. Cleaver Fox News Sunday: Gov. Daniels, Mike Huckabee Face the Nation: Gov. Christie Liberal media bias!!! So opinion shows= news? Got it..

Who do you think will be the first t o report this, Sawyer,Williams, Couric,....: http://michellemalkin.com/2011/02/24/video...ass-you-f**got/ Very constructive.. How about this one; http://michellemalkin.com/2011/02/23/video...works-activist/

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 10:01 AM) The 2009 U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending and is over six times larger than the military budget of China (compared at the nominal US dollar / Renminbi rate, not the PPP rate). The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's military spending (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority). How convenient that you left out medicare, medicaid, and SS.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 10:01 AM) The 2009 U.S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of global arms spending and is over six times larger than the military budget of China (compared at the nominal US dollar / Renminbi rate, not the PPP rate). The United States and its close allies are responsible for two-thirds to three-quarters of the world's military spending (of which, in turn, the U.S. is responsible for the majority). And your point is what? End defense spending and we solve problem? Again LMFAO!!! You people are killing me. Continue circle jerk...

I'll say it again, link the retirement benefits of public sector unions to the retirement benefits of the everyday joe, i.e. social security, and problem disappears. Want to retire, go ahead, but you get reduced benefitss at 62, and receive full benefis at what is now, nearly 67 yrs? You do not have to change anything.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 09:24 AM) Defense spending LMFAO!!!! Yeah that's it!!!!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 22, 2011 -> 09:14 AM) The issue is pretty one-sided. Despite being a bogey-man for some, unions do not have nearly as much power as the billionaires who oppose them. Individual workers, even less so. The idea that unions been "raping states" is just laughable, especially when it's contrasted against who's opposing unions and the power they possess (especially after Citizens United). Should they pay for their own retirements? Healthcare?

This is absolutely disgusting behavior: Wounded Iraq vet jeered at Columbia By ANNIE KARNI Last Updated: 9:06 AM, February 20, 2011 Posted: 12:10 AM, February 20, 2011 Comments: 93 More Print Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus. "Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran. Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military. "It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you." MATTHEW MCDERMOTT CLASH: Veteran Anthony Maschek (above, with fiancée Angela O'Neill) faced heckling from fellow Columbia students over ROTC (below). J.C. RICE Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds. Maschek, who is studying economics, miraculously survived the insurgent attack in Kirkuk. In the hail of gunfire, he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest. He enrolled last August at the Ivy League school, where an increasingly ugly battle is unfolding over the 42-year military ban there. More than half of the students who spoke at the meeting -- the second of three hearings on the subject -- expressed opposition to ROTC's return. Many of the 200 students in the audience held anti-military placards with slogans such as, "1 in 3 female soldiers experiences sexual assault in the military." The university has created a task force polling 10,000 students on the issue, but would not release the vote tally of the 1,300 who have already responded. In 2005, when the university last voted to reject ROTC's return, it cited the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. That policy was overturned in December, but resistance remains. "Transpeople are part of the Columbia community," said senior Sean Udell at the meeting, referring to the military's current ban on transgender soldiers. Faculty members are divided. "Universities should not be involved in military activities," Sociology Professor Emeritus Herbert Gans told The Post. "Columbia should come out against spending $300 billion a year on unnecessary wars." A group of 34 faculty colleagues, including historian Kenneth Jackson and former Bloomberg adviser Esther Fuchs, plan to announce their support of ROTC tomorrow. José Robledo, 30, a Columbia student who commutes to Fordham University for ROTC coursework, said he found the treatment of Maschek abhorrent. "The anti-ROTC side has been disrespectful and loud. They hiss and they jeer," he said. "It's been to the detriment of the argument." [email protected] Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhatt...N#ixzz1EWx9Igqu

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 17, 2011 -> 04:08 PM) I think this is a worth-while editorial with an additional note on how the WI situation came about... The programs he established through votes in January were some corporate tax cuts and additional money for Health-Savings accounts. The Governor actually generated his own fiscal imbalance to start this. HMMM. Rachel Maddow says Wisconsin is on track to have a budget surplus this year Share this story: It has taken hold with conviction: the idea that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ginned up a phony budget crisis to justify his bold bid to strip state employees of most bargaining rights and cut their benefits. A volley of e-mails, blog posts and inquiries to reporters followed a Madison Capital Times editorial on Feb. 16, 2011, that said no state budget deficit exists for 2010-’11 -- or if it does, it’s the fault of Walker and the Republicans in the Legislature. Liberal MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow joined in Feb. 17, accusing Walker of manipulating the situation for political gain. "Despite what you may have heard about Wisconsin’s finances, the state is on track to have a budget surplus this year," she said. "I am not kidding." She added a kicker that is also making the rounds: Walker and fellow Republicans in the Legislature this year gave away $140 million in business tax breaks -- so if there is a deficit projected of $137 million, they created it. Maddow and others making the claim all cite the same source for their information -- a Jan. 31, 2011 memo prepared by Robert Lang, the director of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. It includes this line: "Our analysis indicates a general fund gross balance of $121.4 million and a net balance of $56.4 million." We were curious about claims of a surplus based on the fiscal bureau memo. In writing it when it was released, reporters from the Journal Sentinel and Associated Press had put the shortfall at between $78 million and $340 million. That’s the projection for the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 2011. Walker himself has settled on $137 million as the deficit figure, a number reporters have adopted as shorthand. We re-read the fiscal bureau memo, talked to Lang, consulted reporter Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel’s Madison Bureau, read various news accounts and examined the issue in detail. Our conclusion: Maddow and the others are wrong. There is, indeed, a projected deficit that required attention, and Walker and GOP lawmakers did not create it. More on that second point in a bit. The confusion, it appears, stems from a section in Lang’s memo that -- read on its own -- does project a $121 million surplus in the state’s general fund as of June 30, 2011. But the remainder of the routine memo -- consider it the fine print -- outlines $258 million in unpaid bills or expected shortfalls in programs such as Medicaid services for the needy ($174 million alone), the public defender’s office and corrections. Additionally, the state owes Minnesota $58.7 million under a discontinued tax reciprocity deal. The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall. It would be closer to the $340 million figure if the figure included the $200 million owed to the state’s patient compensation fund, a debt courts have declared resulted from an illegal raid on the fund under former Gov. Jim Doyle. A court ruling is pending in that matter, so the money might not have to be transferred until next budget year. To be sure, the projected shortfall is a modest one by the standards of the last decade, which saw a $600 million repair bill one year as the economy and national tax collections slumped. But ignoring it would have meant turning away eligible Medicaid clients, which was not an option, Lang said. This same situation has happened in the past, including during the tenure of Doyle, a Democrat. In January 2005, a fiscal bureau memo showed a similar surplus, but lawmakers approved a major fix of a Medicaid shortfall that would have eaten up that projected surplus. Reporters who cover the Capitol are used to doing the math to come up with the bottom-line surplus or deficit, but average readers are not. (The Journal Sentinel’s Stein addressed these and other budget questions in a follow-up story.) So why does Lang write his biennial memo in a way that invites confusion? Lang, a veteran and respected civil servant working in a nonpartisan job, told us he does not want to presume what legislative or other action will be taken to address the potential shortfalls he lists. Admittedly, the approach this time created the opportunity for a snappy -- and powerful -- political attack. But it is an inaccurate one. Meanwhile, what about Maddow’s claim -- also repeated across the liberal blogosphere -- that Walker’s tax-cut bills approved in January are responsible for the $137 million deficit? Lang’s fiscal bureau report and news accounts addressed that issue as well. The tax cuts will cost the state a projected $140 million in tax revenue -- but not until the next two-year budget, from July 2011 to June 2013. The cuts are not even in effect yet, so they cannot be part of the current problem. Here’s the bottom line: There is fierce debate over the approach Walker took to address the short-term budget deficit. But there should be no debate on whether or not there is a shortfall. While not historically large, the shortfall in the current budget needed to be addressed in some fashion. Walker’s tax cuts will boost the size of the projected deficit in the next budget, but they’re not part of this problem and did not create it. We rate Maddow’s take False. ADVERTISEMENT About this statement: Published: Friday, February 18th, 2011 at 5:56 p.m. Subjects: Labor, State Budget Sources: Interview with Robert Lang, director, Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Feb. 18, 2011 Legislative Fiscal Bureau, general fund projection (page 2), Jan. 31, 2011 Legislative Fiscal Bureau, impact of special session tax cuts (page 11), Jan. 31, 2011 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel archives Written by: Dave Umhoefer Researched by: Dave Umhoefer Edited by: Greg Borowski How to contact us: We want to hear your suggestions and comments. Email the Wisconsin Truth-O-Meter with feedback and with claims you'd like to see checked. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise. Browse the The Wisconsin Truth-O-Meter: See all rulings in the campaign for governor See all rulings in the campaign for U.S. Senate Subscribe: Keep up to date with Politifact Wisconsin: Via RSS On Twitter On Facebook To the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Waits for the MSM to comment on why the Wisconsin crowds are overwhelmingly white...............Hears the crickets......SHHHH....nothing to see here...... But he WEAC publishing the home addresses of the legislators will not cause confrontations or disruptions in their neighborhoods... Union goons at their finest..... If this was put to a vote up there I have to believe Walker would win with a 60% majority at least.