cabiness42

Qualified so far: UEFA: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland CONMEBOL: Brazil, Argentina, Columbia AFC: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia CONCACAF: USA, Costa Rica CAF home-and-home playoffs start today Jordan will play home-and-home vs CONMEBOL 5th place New Zealand will play home-and-home vs CONCACAF 4th place Ecuador and Chile both need just a draw in their final game and play each other. They could just sit down together and have a picnic for 90 minutes.

Mexico could very easily lose at CR and the goal differential is only 2 right now, so the US should still do this.

Three had connections that I knew of, and if I was the one doing the hiring and wasn't aware of their connections, then it doesn't really matter that they were connected, does it? I've been a Federal employee for 14 years, with 8 of those as a direct supervisor and 3 as a manager of a 400+ person operation, so why is it unrealistic that I've hired hundreds of people, especially in an agency that hires half a million temps every 10 years? I'm sure that high level hires in politically-sensitive positions probably work like you think they do, but out here where we have thousands of workers making $25K/year and supervisors making $35K/year it operates much more like a regular business.

I got my job with no connections at all, and all but 3 of the hundreds of people I've ever hired had no connections I was aware of.

I haven't seen any of that down here. I know in Indy (where I am this weekend) there are a lot of businesses giving freebies or discounts to Federal employees but I haven't seen anything about banks.

http://www.tmz.com/2013/10/11/adrian-peter...ce-child-abuse/

Yeah, the Tigers and Red Sox both date to the 1900 origin of the AL. The Dodgers date to 1890 and the Cardinals to 1892.

Well, it looks like that might be a while, plus, when it comes in a lump like that it may not end up going the same place it would otherwise. If the shutdown lasts long enough, my lump sum back pay will be enough to pay off our car. That does nothing for the restaurants, gas stations, and movie theaters that would normally have gotten the money.

Just did a quick calculation: If there are 800K employees furloughed, their average take home pay is $1500, and they are missing just over half their paycheck, that's about $700 million that is not getting put out into the economy this weekend.

A budget is very detailed and specifies specific funding for each agency and in some cases even directs how money is to be spent within each agency. A continuing resolution simply establishes a temporary funding level that is based on some percentage of the previous year's funding level. It is essentially continuing the previous budget in lieu of writing a new one.

These guys are just as bad as the guys who do the ND games on NBC.

No, professional level Federal employees like myself won't be losing their houses. However, I had to dip into my retirement account and I'll never get back the $3K or so in penalties. It doesn't have to hurt a lot to piss people off. Also, the lady who empties my trash and vacuums my floor everyday is contracted and not a Federal employee. She won't get back pay when the shutdown is over, and I imagine the $10/hour or whatever she makes is going to be dearly missed. She's the kind of person who's really getting screwed over by this.

If the A's win tonight I'm 0-for-4 on the Division Series.

I'm starting to get really down about this. I never thought this had the possibility of lasting this long.

All the idiots posting on my Congressman's Facebook page beg to differ.

Supposedly there are enough votes to pass a clean CR in the house, yet the vote isn't happening. That, more than anything else, sums up why American politics sucks so bad.

I remember before Republicans were adamant he wasn't born in America, when Hillary's campaign was adamant he wasn't born in America.

If you advertise it, people will start showing up at least an hour before the advertised start time. If your stuff isn't all out yet, they will get indignant. Nobody will ever offer the price on the item, no matter how reasonable that price is. Mark everything up at least 50% above the lowest price you're willing to take. Get a lot of quarters and small bills. People will negotiate you down from $3 to $1 on an item, and then pay with a $20. If you have kids, have them make lemonade and sell it. You may make more from that than from the yard sale.

The definition of 'unemployed' has been the same for a long time. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labor force who are not emplolyed. The labor force includes everybody who is working or is actively looking for work. People who are retired, children, students, or anybody else who does not want to work for whatever reason are not a part of the labor force. Please don't try to tell me you know more about me than the unemployment rate. I've spent nearly 15 years working on it in some capacity.

The unemployment rate isn't a lie, it's just not exactly what people expect it to be.

That would increase the unemployment rate--if the people calculating the unemployment rate weren't also furloughed.

Florida State shouldn't have been ranked #1 going into the bowl games. There were two undefeated teams plus a one-loss team that had beaten them. They should have been ranked #4 at best.

Any any system in any North American sport, head-to-head is the first tiebreaker when teams are tied for something. Teams had the same record and ND won head-to-head, which was the exact rationale everybody used in 1989 when Miami and ND finished the season with the same record.

The problem with DeAza is that he doesn't quite hit well enough to be a good corner outfielder and he doesn't quite field well enough to be a good center fielder. No matter which place you put him, you are going to sacrifice either offense or defense. Now, if your roster is such that you have a RH corner outfielder you can platoon him with, that's the ideal situation.

Yeah, I seem to remember FSU getting handed a National Championship in the early 90s that they didn't deserve.