Texsox

So basically Oregon is requiring private crews have an English speaking chief, plus Spanish speaking, if that private company employs any Spanish speaking employees. Seems like a fair provision to write into the contract. Far different than if they were state employees.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 21, 2008 -> 12:39 PM) Most overrated hottie of my life time. 2 out of 3 celebs disagree

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ May 21, 2008 -> 11:56 AM) The original story I heard was on the radio and from what I gathered it sounded like it was a state job, not temporary. Really? All the dates on the stories seem to be from 2006?

Pretty solid list so far. I at least considered most of these players. I considered Halas, but more for coaching and owning. If we had a Chicago Sports legend list, I'd consider him for the top spot. I thinkn Big Ed was too low, but he's usually forgotten anyways.

QUOTE (rangercal @ May 21, 2008 -> 12:31 PM) Trust me. This is not the year of the #3 Pick. There is no consensus #1 either. Always better to have a higher pick, but choosing #1 isn't fool proof. Plus, if the #1 consensus player does not fill a need, it becomes even more over valued. The Bulls got lucky the year they picked #3 and took MJ. They were hoping for a big man, and settled for the guy on the Olympic team who was flashy and would sell some tickets.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ May 21, 2008 -> 12:41 PM) Gagne is as qualified as anybody. He was an undrafted nobody in the Dodgers system, suddenly and randomly gained 7 MPH on his fastball and a biting slider, missed almost two full seasons (2005 and 2006) to injury after three dominant seasons, and now has not been able to get people out since he came back despite only being 31 and now 32 years old. We have a closer. If the team stays healthy, do we have a WS team?

#1 picks are nice and all, but MJ was available at #3.

I just had a telemarketer hang up on me! They called and wanted to send me a $25 gas card. I was asking bizarre questions, and in general poking holes in their $2.95 shipping charge. Of course these are scams, I'm certain.

Let me toss another reason why each firefighter should have a rudimentary knowledge of English, protecting the public. There should be a presumption that the public speaks the majority language, English. I understand these are forest firemen, not house firemen, but we do see these fires encroaching on homes.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 21, 2008 -> 11:09 AM) Palmeiro won a gold glove at 1b and you've got him @ DH and McGwire @ 1b? Gagne closes and that shouldn't even be close. Could really use a CF upgrade. They could platoon Is Gagne tainted enough? I was just tossing out a name, I prefer Gagne if he "qualifies".

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2008 -> 10:46 AM) Does it work both ways? Actually in my mind it should work 1.5 ways. At some point every firefighter should be speaking firefighter's English. At least enough to maintain safety on the job. Like any other job skill used in evaluating employees for promotion, being bilingual should be viewed as a positive attribute and added to reasons to promote someone. Not speaking Spanish should not be used as a reason to demote someone.

At the root seems to be this Oregon law that requires the supervisor to speak the language of all the Crew members. I wonder if this was to encourage the hiring of more English speaking firefighters, or more bilingual supervisors? Either way, it seems to have backfired on them (no pun intended).

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ May 21, 2008 -> 09:40 AM) Tell that to the millions of people around the world who go hungry. Or the people in this country who go hungry. If we're going to be paying farmers, might as well pay them to grow something and give it away to countries in need. That has been discussed. The difference comes down to money. Estimates run as high as 80X more to have them plant, maintain, and harvest. The cheapest route is this. Plus some of the crops that fall under this are used to feed live stock, not direct consumption by humans. Which in and of itself is amazing. How many crops we raise just to feed live stock which we slaughter and eat. Far more efficient if we raise grains and vegetables for humans to eat. But as long as Americans love our meat, we perpetuate an inefficient system. I'm not saying I agree, just offering some of the rational as I know it, to these bills.

BTW, this is a two year old story

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ May 21, 2008 -> 10:09 AM) If the firefighters cannot speak English, they should have never been hired to begin with. The report opens with "There is an urgent need for firefighters in the west to fight two dozen wild fires" Are you suggesting let the fires burn until enough English speaking firefighters are hired?

I wasn't clear based on the report if these were temporary workers fulfilling an urgent need, or they are being hired as permanent employees. If they are temps, segregating like NSS suggests would seem a better solution. At the minimum, how many words are really necessary to know? They probably do not need to be 100% fluent, but should know specific commands concerning firefighting. And that challenge would face native speakers as well. Every job has specific jargon and terms that a lay person would not know. Private companies down here would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did not have Spanish speaking employees. The best customers are our Mexican nationals that visit and shop. Likewise, we appreciate government employees who are bilingual and can efficiently service everyone. It is like the Visa check card commercial. A non Spanish speaker would just grind everything to a halt. Bottom line, I just cannot agree with laying off any worker for not speaking Spanish. Border Patrol trains all their employees in Spanish or French, depending on where they will be stationed. Seems if this is that big of an issue in Oregon, they could offer a similar training.

Probably more so than any election in the past 40 years, the VP picks will be crucial. The Dem candidate will need balance. (i.e. 60ish white guy) and McCain has to run with a "co-President" type. A poor choice here will doom their campaign, even worse than Bush the elder keeping DQ.

LOL, I'd have to have Bonds leading off. I couldn't even imagine any semblance of a batting order.

Where are the conspiracy buffs? Wasn't it Ewing to the NY Knickerbockers against similar odds that brought out howls of protest

I think you can guess the qualifier for this team. Of course it is mostly based on speculation. But how about trotting out this line up? You would need a really big weight room as much as these guys work out. C Ivan Rodriguez 1B Mark McGwire 2B Bret Boone SS ?? 3B Ken Camineti LF Barry Bonds CF Sammy Sosa RF Jose Canseco DH Rafael Palmeira I need a SS. Of course Clemens will be on the mound for the first day. And perhaps I would have Billy Botch as closer.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2008 -> 09:08 AM) As are Bush and McCain. McCain has a history of working bipartisianly, much more so than Bush, or even Clinton and Obama. He has bucked his party on issues where he feels they are wrong, again, have you heard that from either of those three? That was the first thing that attracted me to McCain. I just hope he hasn't had to sell his bipartisan soul to get the nomination.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 21, 2008 -> 09:01 AM) That logic could be applied to the oil industry too... By keeping prices higher, they are assuring that more oil will be in the ground, because people can't afford. (should we need it in an emergency) Lower prices would put all of the people who work in the energy industry out of jobs (like they did in the 80's and 90's in Texas for example) The open land is better for the enviornment Should we be shutting down more refinaries and oil wells? I think the key difference here is we would burn all the oil we would produce, we could not use all the grain we could produce. We would be using cheaper imported grain and the more expensive US grain would be rotting in silos.

There are two distinct populations of farmers in this country. One are the mega-corporations who farm and ranch for their own needs. (What-a-burger and their giant herd for burgers) Two are the smaller entrepreneurs who have a very tough time of it. As we buy more and more farm goods from outside the US, we raise our dependence on an extremely important commodity, our food. A good friend of mine, Member of Bush's Farm-Ranch Team, and a staunch Rush believing GOPerhead, is getting paid not to plant grain, specifically sorghum. His justification regarding the payments is multifaceted. He'd make more money "planting" houses and removing the land from potential agriculture, should we need it in an emergency. The lower prices from over planting would hurt everyone, and put more farmers out of business. The open land is better for the environment.