Texsox

Would this be a good time for a Republican President to hand out gifts to the tax payers? When is the next election?

I retract the remark about Kentucky kids, I believe I misread your comments. I thought you were saying that the children of illegals are the poorly performing kids. Now that I slowed down and reread, I understand I made a terrible assumption. Sorry.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 02:45 PM) Damn. I could like McCain, if not for his amnesty views and campaign finance reform. Oh well, at least Fred seems to be beating SOMEBODY. McCain seems like such an easy choice on that side, I can't believe he isn't just crushing everyone.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 09:28 PM) Well, we wouldn't need the illegal migrant workers any more. Interesting that many studies and practical experience here, shows that immigrant kids perform far better in science and math then the native population.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 03:39 PM) Perhaps he didn't pass enough. Sliders were not his problem

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/17/border.fe...ref=mpstoryview Richard Cortez is my major. Very decent and nice man. Great volunteer resume working with youth.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 03:22 PM) So far, an apple and a diet Dr. Pepper. And all this time I thought you were a guy. Sorry.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 03:28 PM) I think he was a catcher. Too many passed balls ruined his career

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 03:26 PM) If they could go home to vote, they would! I don't think so. More will vote at a location they are already at, like work. People find all sorts of excuses, and not knowing where to go is one of them. Not being able to get off work is another.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 03:19 PM) See, and that is a HUGE issue I have with caucuses. I realize a caucuses probably favor Obama (whom I support). but Americans should be able to vote in secret. The one thing great about America is that we cant be influenced to vote when in the booth. It's what makes us different than supposed "democracy dictatorships" where you can vote, but if you dont vote for who we tell you to vote for... we kill you. THat is a bit drastic of a comparison, but who is to say someones JOB isnt in jeopardy for voting for Hillary and Not Obama? It's just not right. But what we have in a primary is two clubs picking who will represent them and run in the general. Each party has some flexibility in how they pick "their" candidate. Primaries as we know them, have only been around for about 50 years. At least with having a majority of states holding primaries. Prior to that, delegates were sent to a national convention to pick the candidate. At the most, you would have a voice in which delegate went.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 02:45 PM) I thought that too. My guess is it's "fuzzy math" or a distortion of reality. Someone needs to call him out on this. People need to read the quote

great point.

Oops, Balta posted as I was ^^^ Clinton and experience ^^^ Such is politics. Both sides are a little right and a little wrong. About the same when the Dems and GOP reversed about serving in the military.

Knowing you, find one where they use lots of pictures and speak slowly using small words

check your PMs

One of the issues I have with any of the proposals is it makes individual businesses the tax collectors, in an even bigger way. The differences in what we can spend, is based, to the greatest degree, on what we earn. Taxing earnings is the simplest and fairest process. Perhaps we could focus attention on making that system fairer. We could reduce the size of the IRS by reducing deductions. I would be interested in the pros and cons of going the other way. Stop all use and sales taxes and just tax income. I dislike all the hidden little taxes that are included in everything. For example, an extra tax on hotel rooms and rental cars to fund a town's promotion department.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:50 PM) FYI, I was, and still am, for that. However I also want to get rid of those who have broken the law. Even if we come up with a workable plan, how many people who disregard the law now will start following the new one? Get the worker program, then make it next to impossible for someone to get the work unless they follow the program. And bust the companies that DO hire them (knowingly) off program. Bust them hard. Put it all together and you have a package I could live with. Exactly. We're not that far apart. I doubt we can find and deport everyone who broke this law, and I also doubt it would be worth it. I would like to see anyone who came here, worked, took care of themselves, and did not break any other laws, an opportunity to stay. I think we have to look carefully at the employers, and again do what makes sense for everyone. Putting a few thousand legal Americans out of work because of a crappy HR manager who didn't do his/her job may not be in our best interest. I'd hate to be paying unemployment, etc. But there are cases where they blatantly looked the other way, or even actually encouraged illegals to apply, and I have little sympathy for those companies. But these workers have been here for generations and we need to keep the baby while throwing out the bathwater.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:30 PM) *bark bark* ... ... ... SMACK! ... ... ... *sizzle* Yeah, that imitation stuff is made with beef and chicken . . .

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:52 PM) I have put a few AC/DC CD's on my iTunes with no problem. Maybe your CD drive is just a little touchy and some scratches are messing it up? He's just laying the groundwork when the RIAA comes a calling for that illegal download . . .

Money talks, but perhaps you could find them elsewhere? You would be on a Highway to Hell for downloading though. Keep a stiuff upper lip and don't get in a ball breaker . . .

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 01:28 PM) Green Bamboo in Keller, Texas. Authentic Vietnamese food. That's not my favorite, but I lived to tell about it, I think. Nothing worse than *imitation* Vietnamese food . . .

What seems silly to me is the attitude of "we have to get rid of these workers, no matter what the cost, no matter how it will impact America". Last I looked, we had over 300,000,000 Americans. The unemployment rate is about 5%, which would be 15,000,000 unemployed. If there are 20,000,000 illegals, we'd be at 102% employment, if an unemployed computer programmer will go work at the car wash, or an unemployed school teacher will come work a shrimp boat for a couple months. It just makes more sense to me to keep these workers under a workable program that allows for temporary workers, without Social Security benefits, etc.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Jan 17, 2008 -> 12:23 PM) But how many is it now, Tex? You make is sound like this huge number of people. Are there really 500,000 people moving from town to town every month or so? I would think that could cause quite the problem for some towns with this huge influx of temporary residents every month. And as for your factory comment, why not? You have a huge 'factory' of illegals now being 'set up and taken down' every month or so, according to what you said. At least this way they don't have to feed and house the machine the other 10 months of the year (other than in a barn somewhere). Packing can be automated. if they have conveyor lines that can scan out wrong sized potato chips on a belt moving 20 miles an hour, they can devise one that can determine the right size/color/shape fruit to package. Picking may be another story, I don't know what's out there. Most estimates I've read fix the number around 2.5 million workers in agriculture alone. And you don;t see it because it may only be a few hundred in this town, a few hundred in that town. Farms are usually outside large metro areas, and they will stay in the area around the farm. Sleeping either in supplied housing, their vehicles, or whatever. All of the fruit packing sheds I've visited have automatic graders, but they still employ hundreds of people to move the fruit from the trucks that need to be unloaded, the fruit that grades poorly needs to be packed for the juice factories. Etc. Boxes need to be moved from the lines to the trucks. Orders need to be picked and packed into the outgoing trucks. So we could spend billions of dollars to eliminate temporary farm workers, raising our food costs, or we could continue to employ them, as we have for generations, and come up with a decent guest workers program that offers legal work, tracks the workers, etc. Doesn't that seem like a better solution?

A story about a confused Florida voter, where have I heard that before . . .

I'm just heating up some tomato soup. Campbells. From concentrate. Added milk. Will consume from a mug. I also snacked a bit leading up to this, some carrots and a banana. I love working from home.