Texsox

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 15, 2006 -> 11:41 AM) The US is the biggest EXPORTER of food in the world. If there were really a problem, we would quit selling to other countries. As I mentioned, if you get a chance, pick up Spoiled : The Dangerous Truth about a Food Chain Gone Haywire it is an excellent synopsis on where our agriculture programs are heading. As our population is rising, our agriculture acreage is decreasing. At some point, the author theorizes, our increases in yields will no longer offset those decreases and we will become more dependent on foreign foods. We don't think of Ag as an important part of national security, but it is almost as vital as safe drinking water.

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 15, 2006 -> 11:38 AM) We are importing food because it is profitable to do so, not because we need to. The USA can feed itself in a crisis situation. Exactly. And as more and more capability gets plowed under, and more and more farms close, it becomes more and more difficult. It is in our nation's security interest to maintain a healthy agriculture industry. In a crisis we will be able to feed ourselves, but it will take time to plant those crops and have them grow.

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 15, 2006 -> 10:27 AM) Oh brother. We'll never be dependant on foriegn food. If we need it we'll grow it. It's not like oil where there is a finite amount. The rhetoric is getting ridiculous. We already are. We import an insane amount of food. Those strawberries in January? They weren't grown in Missouri. Your McBurgers? South American cattle. The only large burger chain that uses American beef is What-a-burger. It takes time to grow crops and the land is being used for shopping malls, not agriculture. Check out this UK article I also suggest this book if you care about the food you eat. Great read.

I assume he knew they were off on the pitch. Usually the reflex is to look to get the lead runner, not the trailing runner.

They should be next door neighbors to Moussaoui If it is true, I hope there is an extra special place in hell for them.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ May 15, 2006 -> 10:12 AM) That's because you are LAME. The song is, of course, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. Friday evening. Sunday in teh afternoon. What have you got to lose? Tuesday morning. Please be gone I'm tired of you. What have you got to lose? ... Will you come see me Thursdays and Saturdays? What have you got to lose? damn, I am sooo embarassed. But that is so obscure.

^^^^^^ Amen

One of the areas that always attracted me to the GOP was fiscal. With their "we pay taxes to stimulate the economy and it has nothing to do with expenses" philosophy, I've lost that. There are still some social issues I am morre comfy in the GOP camp, but even those are becoming fewer and fewer as the GOP moves even further right. I'd be comfortable with a shift to the right for both parties. There are few ultra-liberal ideals I believe in.

Most guys would have been pulled and their team would have given up. I know I gave the standard oh s***, I get to see a game on "real tv" and they suck tonight. I didn't realize I was in for a very entertaining game.

Just wondering, but when Kong went to first first, wasn't the correct play to get the lead runner at second? I thought it should have been a 3-6-4 not a 3-4-6.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ May 15, 2006 -> 08:47 AM) I was somewhat questioning it at first. I was looking for the 5-4-3 triple play. When he called the 3-4-6, I definitely had my doubts. I'm glad it all worked out though and I'm enjoying my crow. Nice Job Coop!!

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 15, 2006 -> 05:07 AM) Strange game. Amen to that, and one we could actually watch on "real tv".

He's getting there. He's got the tools to be a very solid player. Being a MLBer isn't easy, even with the ability.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 15, 2006 -> 08:57 AM) Yeah an ace would have gone out there, not given up anymore runs, given his team a chance to win, and pitched into the seventh saving the bullpen from being blown up with a low pitch count fifth starter coming up in two days. But if he did that, he would be the first pitcher in over 100 years to give up 7 first inning runs and earn a win.

QUOTE(JimH @ May 15, 2006 -> 08:51 AM) There's a song by CS+N that mentions the following days of the week: Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday in that order. Anyone know the song? Not without researching

Sorry, I wasn't writing clearly. I don't believe the jobs should pay sub-minimum. I believe we should have a guest worker program, much likeBush proposed, that matches workers with employers, at or above minimum wage. I also believe we are not producing enough citizens to fill these jobs, which is a good thing. I also believe that these jobs are undesirable, not only for the wages,. but the nature of the work. If any of our kids came home and said they wanted he life of a migrant farm worker, bus boy, we'd be aghast. We do not value unskilled jobs in this country. We haven't in a long time. We want to pay to sweat, not get paid to sweat. From a job perspective, we need someone to fill these less desirable jobs, We have a large group of people who wish to live in the US. We then use these jobs as a entry for citizenship. Two needs are filled for everyone's benefit. Make it easy for employers to hire people througth the program and make it very bad for employers who are caught with illegal workers. Once a guest worker program is functioning, I don't have a problem with coming down with the full force of the government on employer's asses for paying people cash (from illegals to grandpa avoiding hurting his pension). I am most concerned about our already vulnerable agriculture industry. By raising wages, more producers will be forced to grow our crops overseas. Dependency on foreign oil is a problem, we are also dependent on foreign food. I can go without driving for a long time, I can't go more than 3 weeks without food.

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 15, 2006 -> 08:39 AM) How anyone could reasonably expect the privacy of having the calls placed from their phone not to be accessible by the government is beyond me. Did you people ever watch Law & Order? They are always checking phone records and not needing any warrants to do so. It seems to me they are getting warrants. It's just so routine it is hardly mentioned. Anyway, they are investigating a specific person. I don't think it's the expectation of privacy, it's the government now starting off with the notion that we are all guilty until proven innocent. If we have to give up freedom of speech, search and seizure laws, maybe torture a few people, to keep giant sharks from invading Utah, I think we should do it. If we try and save our freedoms and rights, the terrorists will take them away. I don't know where the balance is, perhaps we are too free. Perhaps innocent until proven guilty is a quaint notion from a long gone era and we should just turn our lives over the to government for scrutiny. Last someone from a terrorist task force know our every move, perhaps tell them before it happens. After all, if it saves just one life, it's worth it, isn't it? I'll bet terrorists will have guns, why don't we start by having police track everyone with a gun in this country? Perhaps, for the privilege of owning a gun, and being a part of a well armed militia, the government should be allowed to enter your home, anytime, and check on them. After all if it stops one terrorist attack. I have nothing to hide, I'll be the first one. I'm innocent, and anyone who doesn't agree with this, must have something to hide.

Some days just don't inspire good music. My list. Sunday - What I Love About Sundays - Craig Morgan Monday - I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats Tuesday - Ruby Tuesday - Duh Wednesday Thursday Friday - Black Friday - Steely Dan Saturday - Saturday in the Park - Chicago Monday was the toughest, great Monday songs. Saturday was a toughie also. Friday? I was kind of stuck.

When a player leaves on his own, for whatever reason, and the fans start screaming, what about us, what about the faaaaaaans. I remember threads like this. The fans only give a s*** as long as you are wearing that jersey. There is no loyalty in baseball. This is why I will never criticize a player for leaving.

Nice that Coop is starting to get some attention. I don't know what his career goals are, but I hope he has the opportunity to pursue them at some point.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 15, 2006 -> 07:05 AM) Except that these illegal aliens are BECOMING our own poor people... Is it the person that is doing the job that creates poor people, or the wages that these jobs pay? Would American bus boys not be poor? Unemployment is, and has been, very low. It seems our economy needs these jobs filled. If we do not allow for immigrant labor, who is going to do these jobs? Will Americans pick up the slack and work two jobs? Will college students take a couple years off their studies and become migrant workers? Should we raise the retirement age and have grandpa working in a slaughter house? I keep hearing about the poverty problem, but the solution isn't someone else working the job, anyone else working the job would be poor. The solution is either raising the wages, (which is usually against conservative business philosophy), and getting Americans to accept careers as manual laborors, or building a guest worker program where immigrants use these jobs as their ticket to citizenship. Why are we not embracing the fact that the American education system produces children that offer more potential than manual labor? Our children do not have to toil at these jobs, and I for one am glad.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ May 14, 2006 -> 07:41 PM) lol you might be the biggest apologist for mexico i have ever met. no offense. oh, and i agree with you on the drug issue. prohibition doesn't work. No offense taken. I'm the only one here who has worked in Mexico, lives on the border, has friends on both sides of the border. I see firsthand the good, not just the bad, in immigration and tourism. I know first hand the destruction that will occur along the border without a free flow back and forth between the interior borders.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ May 14, 2006 -> 06:04 PM) Mexico has 2 main exports to the United States. Drugs and poor people. They are not going to do anything concrete to improve the situation on the border no matter how much money we give them. They simply wish to export their poverty problem to this country instead of doing something on their own to solve the problem. Its the same deal with narcotics. Their government is an order of magnitude more corrupt than even the Daley administration is in Chicago. Its way past time they were punished for their misconduct. If America didn't have a drug usage problem, Mexico wouldn't have to spend so much of the GNP on keeping Columbians and other SA drug cartels from terrorizing Mexico and shipping drugs to the US. Most of those drugs are coming through Mexico, no originating in Mexico. Mexico, in cooperation with US DEA, has irradicated most crops. Of course your plan to cut aid to Mexico would cause them to cut back on drug enforcement, worsening the problem. Mexico is fighting, and making great strides in dealing with the drug cartels. Of course they are using resources they could be using to help their poor. Americans stop using illegal drugs, there is no market, no smuggling, and Mexico wins. It is way past the time for America to recognize the problems that America's illegal drug usage problem has around the world. When feeding drugs to Americans, who are willing to spend huge amounts of money for them, is more lucrative than selling legitimate crops, you have to stop the demand. BTW, natural gas and oil are big sellers also. Mexico is also a huge producer of food crops to the US. US aid has gone to improving the conditions in the fields, which results in better produce for us. Vincente Fox is working hard to produce a middle class in Mexico. You are correct, corruption is screwing the average Mexican. But abandoning Mexico and letting them fall farther behind, undermines out security and hurts all of North America. QUOTE(samclemens @ May 14, 2006 -> 06:54 PM) come on, man, be realistic. you really think that any money we give that country doesnt go directly into corrupt officials' pockets? and by the way, mexico is not part of the US; it's THEIR responsibility to fix their own damn economy (this is the same general arguement that libs on here oppose iraq- yes, i selectively reason on different issues). it's our job to keep out illegals. the real solution is to very strictly enforce the laws. if the gov't would actually crack down and simply enforce the immigration laws to a T, making harsh examples out of a few businesses, you would see a hell of a change in a short amount of time. Sam, I see the projects. I've worked with Mexico officials are Director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association. I read in the papers the drug busts. I talk to people who live there. I worked for years in Mexico. Sure Mexico has some corrupt officials, so do American charities. A prosperous Mexico helps us. It offers markets for our exports, for one.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ May 14, 2006 -> 11:57 AM) Ok. The NUKE_CLEVELAND immigration reform plan. -Guest worker program. That fills the need for migrant labor picking fruit or whatever it is they're needed for and if they want to become full citizens then let them stand in line like everybody else. -Border fence all along the Mexican frontier save for places where it isn't practical like over mountains. Those regions can be covered by UAV's and if anyone makes it all the way across they would be snatched up by heli-borne teams of BP agents. Have the fence guarded by Border Patrol and National Guard troops until the BP can be fully staffed and funded. -Take away all social services from illegal aliens save for emergency medical care. We can recoup funds spent on that by cutting off foregin aid to Mexico and re-directing that money to paying back the states who are forced to deal with these people. -Its also time to seriously crack down on business who hire illegals. Give business a 6 month grace period to purge their rolls of undocumented workers and replace them with new hires from the guest worker program. After that........ICE comes in and starts randomly checking records to ensure things are on the up and up. If caught in violation levy massive fines. Fines that would eliminate the incentive to exploit migrant labor. The only way to change bad business behavior is to hit them in the pocketbook. Additionally, ensure that these people are being paid at least the federal minimum wage. -Make English the official language of this country. When my ancestors came to this country they had a choice. They could either work hard and assimilate or they would fall by the wayside. It should be no different for immigrants today. I don't see any reason why this country, or any other for that matter, should bend into 5 different contorted positions to accomodate these people. Before you go on about too much stick and not enough carrot, remember that illegal aliens are just that. Illegal. They are criminals from the moment they set foot on U.S. soil and the Mexican government and U.S businesses are complicit in all of it. Im in favor of immigration but it has to be done in a controlled and orderly fashion. This business of people running across the border in the dead of the night has got to stop. Point one, I agree, except if they are here working, they are ahead of someone who isn't here. We have history in our country and know if they can be good citizens or not. Fence, worthless when illegals are trucked in, come in along the frontiera on temp visas etc. holes can get cut, better to make legal easy enough that there is no incentive to hire illegals or be an illegal. Cutting off aid to Mexico makes the problem worse. We want them to help keep drugs from getting to our users, we want them to cut pollution that reaches the US, we want them to upgrade their border crossing to help our businesses. We do not want them to have a big military, so we offer protection, etc. We want to keep them an ally. Bottom line, cutting aid to Mexico then adds a carrot to come to the US. That would not help. The better Mexico is doing, the less of an incentive there is for their population to leave. I like the proposal for handling businesses. Exactly what I would recommend. I don't know if 6-months is too much or two little time. I also think there should be some sanity based on what paperwork was turned in to the employer. I find it difficult to blame a business if they are fooled by a good forgery. I'm not certain what making English the official language would do. Would you fine businesses for speaking Spanish? We want our tourisim offices to speak as many different languages as possible. Down here, most of the population is bi-lingual, why force two people to speak English when they can just as easily speak Spanish? I don't want to wait in line while someone takes five minutes struggling with English when it would take 30 seconds in Spanish. I believe government should service the population, not vice versa. Assimilate? By having someone translate a government form for them? Unless you require businesses to only speak English, and what do multi-national companies do, this will only effect how the government works. Our economy is global in nature, why we would encourage isolationism, is beyond me.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ May 14, 2006 -> 10:59 AM) That would be a valid argument if myself and the others on this board were on record back in 1994 as opposing these types of measures. I am pointing out the post that because Clinton first authorized it, any Dem against it is a hypocrit is wrong. Liberals do not march in lockstep with everything Clinton, or any Dem did. So now saying because it was created during Clinton's term, all Dems must support it is silly. Also, we've seen many times when a law is created and sold to the American public to do "A" and then it is applied to "B". Maybe conservatives a prepared to defend anything Bush does, and y'all think that is what Americans are suppose to do.