Texsox

The longest for me was on the Edens heading to a Bulls game, which I missed. Some idiot was being chased by FBI, and local cops. He was finally stopped, center lane, about 10 miles south of the 94 merge. He threatened with a gun to kill his dog and himself :rolly The standoff lasted to the wee hours of the morning. Someone cut a hole in the fence and we exited after a couple hours stuck in our cars. I remember listening to Eddie Schwartz on WGN who assumed the guy was listening to WGN. Eddie was offering advice and his usual stuff. Turns out the gunman was listening to WBBM

That guy's vote was affected by his lunch

The second longest traffic jam of my life was on that damn road.

I cannot remember Frank being good with the media. Perhaps the media was less critical when he was the most feared batter in baseball. It seems like Frank has always been Frank.

I'd be afraid of an eleven-year old campaigning against me. It would be helpful to know who picks the neighborhoods. I would have a hard time believing that the 6-graders were being bused out of their areas. In this election, about half of Americans will bother to vote. In a non-Presidential race, the numbers really plummet. I would encourage all efforts to bring kids into the process when they are young. Create a desire to vote. It's a disgrace that we have American's dying in Iraq to give Iraqi's the freedom to vote, and almost half our population is too damn lazy to be bothered. Both parties have get out the vote programs. I was asked by the local GOP if I would volunteer last week to drive people to the polls. (Texas has early voting). I also had a local campaign volunteer offer to help me with an absentee ballot. I guess the Bush yard sign is a magnet.

Didn't someone auction off some chewing gum that an athlete threw into the crowd? Possibly Dikta?

Looking at the poll, I would agree that the Astros, Cubs, and Giants were all closer than us this year to the WS. We failed, in large part because of injuries to Maggs and Frank. Maggs probably will not sign, and Frank is still healing. How could anyone place one of those teams behind us? I would have listed it as Astros, Cubs, Giants, Sox, Indians. With the Astros falling if Clemens retires and stays retired.

$$$$$$$ :puke it's always the $$$$$$$ How's Koch doing in Florida? One tiny of defenses, that trade didn't look too bad at the time. We picked up a hot closer and had some extra money to "fill some holes".

What I am having trouble with is the Mayor's comments that repealing the Bush tax break would destroy those businesses. I believe he is overplaying that portion of the debate. There are far better arguments against our graduated tax rates and the burden that higher income individuals are paying then destroying business. I wonder how many business owners hired someone with their personal Bush tax break? Is the reverse true? How many full-time people would someone hire if they received a $10,000 tax break?

So if your take home went from $140,000 to $130,000 you would start working both jobs?! In effect you would do all that additional work for an 8% pay raise and give up on hiring a part timer. Then I assume out of that $140,000 you would be spending almost all of that for living expenses. I know the cost of living is expensive up north, but I have a hard time understanding that a drop from $140,000 to $130,000 in take home, causes you to work a second job and give up on your dream to expand with a part time employee.

Have them hold the 2oz* of brown patty (before cooking)

I am surprised the Judge didn't reverse the sentence and give him death. We like the death penalty in Texas. That's why we have so few murders compared to whimpy states without concealed carry laws and the death penalty

I don't think business are that fat to be able to cut 25% of their workforce. If they have that many unskilled workers extra, then they are running a charity, not a money making business. Down here letting go that many would cause the call centers have to close, the fast food places would close, the convienent stores, etc. I would see more outsourcing. The extra janitor gets let go. An extra QC operator. Companies get tighter on who they hire. They may not be able to lay off 15% of the minimum, but they may lay off a manager. The middle management gets squeezed. Everytime discussion in minimum wage comes up, there are all these dire predictions on one side and all the rosey predections on the other. Imagine if all those minimum wage people now had an extra $500 annually to spend. Wouldn't that grow the economy? The very companies that are employing minimum wage people would see a big increase in business with all this extra business. Both sides are overselling their hands. I believe there are some jobs that are not meant to support a family. They are excellent starting out, extra income, types of positions. I feel bad for the so called working poor who are working 3 of these jobs to support their family. I know of a couple where both parents work full time and the father works an extra job.

With the UofI trustees I would first vote for any females in an obvious student party. Then I would start splitting. Birch Society here, Communist there. I just know at some point in the future I'm going to be asked if I ever voted for a Commie or Socialist and I must have at least once. I was picturing a Board meeting riot

Exactly. The push down here among the churces is the so called "Liveable Wage". They are lobbying large employers to set a minimum wage at the poverty level which is a couple dollars above minimum wage. Which is an interesting comment on the minimum wage. Should it be almost 25% below the poverty level?

I pass two voting places to get to mine. Another tip. Get a sample ballot and study everything that is on it. You may be surprised at the offices or referendums you will be asked to vote on. Be prepared. In Illinois, I always enjoyed voting on the UofI trustees. Hell, I'd vote the yellow banana ticket, a couple Birch society types, right wing nut jobs and liberal nut cases. I figured, why the hell am I voting for UofI trustees? I may as well make it entertaining.

Then it takes away voting for it. The Dems like to use it as a campaign issue (Look what we are doing for the poor !) and the GOP already thinks it is too high. So both parties would like some control over it.

So if a business owners personal tax bite is going to increase by $10,000 per year, instead of increasing sales, the let someone go. They tell one of their kids they can't go to college. Interesting, so if $10,000 per kid stops parents from sending their kids to college then someone who makes $90,000 cannot afford to send any of their kids to school. $130,000 4 kids go $120,000 3 kids go $110,000 2 kids go $100,000 1 kid goes $90,000 sorry kids, here's a job in the coal mine If that designer isn't going to increase your business and make you a profit, hiring him is just a charity effort on your part. So charitible gifts go down. Any thought on that guy taking advantage of the tax breaks to locate there? In order to give himself a raise to cover his projected loss in take home pay of $10,000, he will have to fire workers. How many companies have "extra" employees around? With all the hurdles to starting a business, I find it interesting that the guy is going to cave in because his personal taxes go up.

[/cleaning coffee off screen]

npr story Obama is a big celebrity in Kenyan. A brewery has named a beer in his honor, The Senator.

One of the keys to successful interviews is checking out the companies you would be working for. Before you even go on the interview, find out everything you can. This is one area that blogs may pan out. Don't believe everything, but you should be able to find out a little something about the business on the net. You may also wish to start at the top and work your way back. Pick your dream job, something you would want to be doing when you are an old man of 45 , find out whose doing that job, and pick up the phone and call the person. You would be amazed how willing old people are to share what they learned the hard way. Pick there brains about entry level positions. Find out who is regarded as excellent trainers. I remember a few friends who went into insurance sales. They all went to the big life insurance companies for training. They knew they would be quiting and starting their own firms, but they received excellent support and training while starting out. You have a lot of time, effort, and money invested in yourself. Take the time to really plan your career. Have a 5, 10, and 25 year plan layed out. You will instantly vault yourself past 98% of your competition.

Pahds, that's all hat and no cattle to y'all . . .

I was listening to a three hour GOP campaign speech disguised as a talk show. The Democratic major of Youngstown was speaking out how Kerry's Tax plan would destroy their local economy. I am trying to connect the dots here. What he outlined was Youngstown was in dire times and these brave business startups arrived in part to aggressive tax plans that Youngstown was offering. These zones, dubbed brownfields, offered tax breaks and other incentives for business to move to. Fast forward a number of years and he claims to know all of these owners, and they all are earning over $200,000 in personal income. He claims if their personal federal income tax increased, it would destroy all those jobs and future growth. We've heard this before. Tax the business owner and you lose jobs. Here's what I don't understand. If one of those owners was paying $60,000 in annual taxes and now he is going to pay $70,000 in personal taxes, exactly what does he do that eliminates jobs? Does he close down his company? Does he fire 15 workers? Does he stop the $2,000,000 expansion? Connect the dots, what does the business owner whose take home income drops from $140,000 annual to $130,000 do to cripple the economy?

Couple of Food Stops #1 on the list is Texas BBQ Rudy's in Brownsville #2 is tacos nortenos at Taqeria el Zarape or El Pato bistek with onions and cilantro with plenty of salsa #3 Whataburger. Best fast food buger in the world. #4 If you go to the island either Blackbeards or Sea Ranch for dinner. I prefer Blackbeards but Sea Ranch has the bigger reputation and is one of America's Top 50. #5 Party at Louie's Backyard fun club on the island.