Texsox

Still the recently employed aren't typically the highest earners because John Q. Public has an extra $400 to spend. Plus the biggest growth area for jobs have been lower paying service sector jobs. Anyone want to comment on what the reaction would be if we all received bills for rebuilding Iraq? Hey we need $100 to rebuild schools? Pay up. We need $50 to rebuild bridges? Pay up. Better yet, we just dropped a bomb that will be $5 for the bomb, $8 for the pilot and crew, $2 for the plane, $10 to rebuild what we hit . . .

How about not cutting taxes, reduce the waste, eventually have a surplus, get the country out of debt? BTW, a lot of what we think of as waste, is the grease that runs our government. You want my vote for that, I need this to get re-elected. The party wants to get their guy elected in a certain district, they make him a hero with a nice building or some jobs training bill. They need regulations changed, fund this over here. They need your congressman's vote then your district gets something. My district thinks its waste, your district thinks its jobs creation. It's the game of politics, it's all about compromise. When one party has total control the "waste" increases because they can really fund stuff in their key districts.

Happy Birthday Does he even know where the SL&P forum is?

Thank you Nuke, well said. I believe we both stated things clearly and no need to toss stuff back and forth. I will clarify why I said Bush was asking for less money. Bush called for a tax cut. So overall he is asking for less money. I wasn't speaking directly to just military spending. I have a problem with our government runnign a deficit and here's why. We are spending more than we are taking in. This is suppose to stimulate the economy. What our government is doing for us is taking out a loan to give ua $400 or whatever our tax cut was. They borrow money to finance the deficit. They try and convince us that we will not have to pay it back because of some growth. If we aren't going to be paying this back, then someone else has to. The US population is currently at just under 300,000,000 people. Based on the 2000 census, about 60% of Americans are between 21 and 65, the working years. So we have 180,000,000 potential tax payers. Using 5% unemployment rate about 9,000,000 Americans are unemployed. Assuming that 50% of thsoe can find jobs, and that is huge and would set an all-time low for unemplyment, we will have 4,000,000 new tax payers. That sounds great. However, y'all have schooled me that the top 5% of earners pay well over 80% of the taxes in this country. I believe these newly employed people are not taking jobs paying over $200,000 per year so they will not be paying all that much in taxes. So who is paying for the deficits? Eventually we will have to. Plus interest. No wonder politicians love this plan. Cut income, increase spending. What's not to like. I want elected officials that have the intestinal fortitude to tell me we need to fund XY and Z and I'm taking your tax cut back to fund it. Then if we disagree we can vote the bums out of office. I'd be out campaigning for Bush tomorrow if he repealed the tax cut to better fund out intelligence community, defense, and anything else he comes up with. How about a special tax to fund the rebuilding of Iraq? How popular would the war be if we all received an itemized bill?

Would one of the graphics pros please build a sig step by step on-line? Kind of a workshop in graphic design. Show the original artwork, photos etc. and each step aong teh way? I think it would be really kewl

Cool effect from the original. Back to the original question. You have a couple options, post here and one of the great posters will come through with a design. Thanks to knightni I have a very cool avatar. Or use a graphics program like PhotoShop and learn to edit photgraphs.

You mentioned the weapons systems, I was just clarifying. So it wasn't decreased military spending but decreased FBI, CIA, NSC spending that may have hindered our ability to stop the terrorists. Does the military waste money? Should the military budget be approved without debate and voting? Whatever they ask for, we give them? What are some of the stupid regulations? Ask for more money? Bush is asking for less money. Does that make sense? Finally, by funding and recruiting and training these guys we are also funding, recruiting, and training terorrists. Shouldn't we be concerned about who we provide help to? Are we training the next Bin Laden? Remember all these guys were are buddies at one time and we helped them.

Actually we do need the internet today. Our banking system for one relies hevily on it. So if you mean society, I disagree. Individuals do not need the internet, but then again they do not need electricity and that was the argument against stringing electricity to rural areas a hundred years ago. It was dangerous work that could not have been completed with today's safety regulations for anywhere near the same cost. The internet will be a neccessity in our lifetime. We will need it for work, for communication, to receive some services, etc. As an economic stimulus, it could energize sections of the city and bring people back from the suburbs. It's little things like services that help to grow cities. I'm using that as a generic example, not specific to Philly. Twenty years agothe first cities with cable TV saw an increase in population while those without saw declines. If you were deciding between Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg today, free high speed access could be the final selling point, just like cable tv was twenty years ago.

It's part of a vast fem nazi conspiracy to attack anything that looks like a penis Be safe

I go to soxtalk.com dosn't everyone? I flip between them all depending on what's happening and what their coverage looks like. I detest the scrolling on the bottom of the screen and a split screen so we can see the talking head is even worse. I am probably on Fox the most with CNN a close second. Oops I forgot about C-Span. Actually that may be #1 overall.

Reagan was the one that promised a peace dividend, I guess he was wrong. I like the sound bite about the pared down militery leaving us open for terrorist attacks. Just help me to understand something. Which of those weapons systems you isted would have stopped the terrorists from purchasing a ticket on a commercial jet, holding a box cutter to the throat of a flight attendant, taking over the jet and crashing it? Which of those weapons systems is good at stopping a terorrist from releasing sarin gas on a NY subway? And again, why doesn't Bush have the balls to raise our taxes to pay for an increased military. And if we do not pay for it now, who is going to pay for it later? Recruiting foreign assets is an area that I still havenot formed an opinion on. It is embarrassing later to find out we found Bin Laden, Hussein, Noreiga, etc. while they were committing human rights violations. So we set some standards before they are on the payroll. Then we cannot find operatives that can infiltrate those organizations. I'm not sure which is the lesser of two evils.

I'll bet the players will be really excited, maybe they will come and post.

If the US had all of those weapons, would we have been able to stop the terrorists from slamming into the WTC? If all this military spending is such a great thing, why doesn't Bush have the balls to increase our taxes to pay for it? If we don't pay for it today, who is going to pay for it later? Plus interest. And what happened to the Peace Dividend that Reagan promised would be available after the USSR was dismantled? Was Reagan wrong? Where there no defense savings to be had?

Nuke, this was well documented back in the late 1980s when the US was trying to sell arms to the Contras and getting in bed with some pretty shady individuals. Do a google search and wade through the wackos for the more legit sources. The CIA also did extensive experiments with hallucinagenics (SP?). Remember this is the same government that unknowingly exposed civilians and military personel to atomic blast radiation to study the effects. You will probably like this link

I've been on both sites and sent for more info. I was very disappointed that Dubya's autobot didn't even kick out a thank you for contacting us. Maybe it's the 20+% point lead in Texas that has him ignoring me or I'm on his "S-list" for my most recent letter. I saved one of his campaign speeches regarding things he wanted to do for the border region. Mailed it back to him a year ago with many ??? Mostly regarding Mexico's water debt to the US that has increased to over a trillion acre feet of water. On the other hand my mailbox overflows with IMHO spam from the Kerry campaign. The guy makes a speech and :30 later it's emailed to me. And of course the subtle and no so subtle appeals for money and to be a volunteer. I've also seen where both campaign have started a "volunteer in a swing state and we'll make all the arrangements" plan. The DNC and RNC want to move volunteers from solid wins and losses to swing states and will make all the arrangements for you. If I was single and with no responsibilities and I was solidily supporting one of these guys, I'd take a couple weeks and learn something.

Gracias.

I have a special program that reads them to me. If not I have my grandchildren tell me what they mean. I hear I'm suppose to say shazzile oir something like that sonny.

Hey buddy nice dog. Yes, I'm lucky to have her. Really, why? Well my ex-wife really fought me and fought me, especially after she spent so much time training the dog, but all of a sudden she said fine, it's yours. or OK buddy tell us again what happened. Ok at first the dog started sniffing me and I thought Then it was kind of "interesting" and I thought :rolly Then the dog started nuzzling me and I thought So I pulled down my pants and next thing :fyou And I know you're sitting there thinking But when I find that dog Now have you found my balls :banghead

:dips*** :headshake Ok, have them back.

Sure no problem at all, and throw in an earthquake. Of course I'll pray for y'all from deep south Texas.

:sleep Of course one of the greatest debate lines of the previous century was made by a gentleman that was born in the great state of Texas, just miles from where I am sitting. Lloyd Bentsen totally schooled Dan Quayle when Quayle tried to compare himself to John F. Kenedy. "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Priceless.

Remember I agree 100% with your sig.

I consider this to be a new basic infrastructure like electricity, water, sewer, and natural gas was in the previous century. Do you use your local library? Public School? Parks? This would have a user base bigger than most city parks and make internet access available to a wider number of users. My guess is businesses will be stuck paying and free to citizens.

Next February my Boy Scouts will be getting a taste of being a foreign exchange student. They will be travelling to Monterrey, Mexico and be hosted by different families for the weekend while attending a huge Scouting event. I am nervous about it but excited all at once.