Taro T

Heading into this weekend NE* had beat SF and Carolina beat SD, all the other East teams flying West had lost.

So, I guess you've answered your own question, eh? If they're not allowed to do it now, they wouldn't under the next admin w/ or w/out "check card."

I hope you're right on that one if we see the fillibuster-proof majority but I don't see how they don't bring that one up and get it passed.

It would be an absolutely horrible idea to reintroduce the "fairness doctrine", but it would probably have far more and different consequences than simply taking Rush Limbaugh off the air. That's assuming whatever Pelosi's crew dreamed up actually was deemed Constitutional by the 9 guys and gal in black robes.

If the Dems have the House (which they do), a fillibuster proof majority in the Senate (which they might), and the White House (which is probable right now); how does a bill (which proposes exactly that) that passed the House already not get reintroduced in January '09 and fly through both houses? That is one very plausible circumstance where there is no "major battle."

Actually I was going more for 10th amendment "(t)he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." But, yeah, you can look at it from an A1S8 point of view as well.

Let me preface this comment by saying I am absolutely not in favor of this idea, but... One thing they could do, which likely in the long run would lead to less discrepancy in state/local taxes levies across states but in the short run would put a world of hurt on people like us living in high tax states, is to eliminate the deductibility of state / local taxes. They would have just made low tax states that much more attractive to do business in by doing that. They also could probably force tax rates lower by withholding federal $'s for road improvements / other infrastructure similar to how they forced all the states to go to a 21 year old drinking age. (You can have whatever drinking age you want, but if you want all the money we were going to allot you, you'd better make sure that age is at least 21.) I'm sure there are several tools available to them if they chose to do that, but I don't see what benefit a particular congresscritter would gain from it. Personally, I'd prefer them to get out of the business of regulating things they are not Constitutionally mandated to regulate, taking less tax money in the 1st place and then letting individual states decide how (or whether) to provide those formerly federal services to their citizens. I don't see that one happening in my lifetime.

If you are making $50k/year in a relatively stable job, you make $50k/year. (Not including benefits which typically add another 40% to the total; so when you think about starting up your own business you are looking at foregoing $70k.) When you decide to forego that $50k ($70k) to take a flyer on a new business, you are assuming a LOT of risk. The odds are very high that you won't come close to getting that $50k ($70k) in the 1st year; much less netting $150-200k/year. You probably won't get that $50k ($70k) back in the 2nd year either. By the 5th year, you will either be grossing that $150-200k/year or you will be looking for another $50k/year job. Having additional taxes to pay and/or additional regulatory hurdles you have to jump over will not make it easier to get to that profitable 5th year. A rational person, thinking about starting a business, will see the additional costs and those costs may end up the deal breaker that makes it too risky to try. Additional expenses will push the breakeven point out further into the future. Even if the rational person thinks the business can overcome those additional burdens, it doesn't mean it can. You state that "if you want to be a business owner, you will be." So, are you a business owner or do you have absolutely no desire to own a business? I know very few people that don't "want" to own a business. I do know very many that don't have the means to go out on their own (whether that being due to capital, desire, foresight, capability, personal situation, or a combination) but would like to. You comments lead me to believe you don't own a business. Why don't you go out and run your own business when it is so easy to "at least double or triple your income and are now your own boss?" Fine, the guy you describe makes it. 2 questions: how long did it take him to do it and how many others ended up failing? The person that successfully starts a small business is in the vast minority of those that try to make a go of it. Your increasing the expenses he faces puts that successful business in an even greater minority. Again, why don't you go out and "make an omlette" and start your own business? Your comments imply that you believe it isn't very hard to do.

Well, everyone can't be that lucky. Just sayin' that although the feeds weren't flagged as being [HD] they were. I'd be surprised that the local stations in a bigger market than Ra-cha-cha such as Seattle decided to only show the feed in standard def. It might be worth checking for the final debate so you don't have to be annoyed by the CNN meters.

Which is why the absolute best advice you can give someone entering the workforce is to put at least the minimum to get full company match in their 401k, and everytime they get a raise they should put part of that into their 401k as well until it is maxed out. If you never see the money in your pocket and never get used to spending it, it is a lot easier to keep yourself living w/in your means, and setting yourself up to actually be able to afford to retire in 40 years.

It was in Hi-def on the Ra-cha-cha locals. NBC had some graphic in the lower middle of the screen that was easy enough to ignore.

Where did I apologize for McCain? You asked how I interpreted his comment, and I told you. The Obama camp appears to be pushing the issue hard to make it racial. You seem to be pushing that interpretation as well. We'll see who's interpretation is correct soon enough.

EII, do you expect SS to exist in its present form when you and I are old enough to partake? I remember hearing the stat many times back in the '80's that more college age people believed in UFO's than believed that they'd be able to collect SS. It's 20 years further along, I haven't seen anything to make me believe that it can or should exist as it currently does. Our kids won't be able to pay for it the way it currently is set up when we hit 65/67. Means testing and a decrease in cost of living increases is almost inevitable.

I would assume he meant either "that Senator" or more likely "that politician". Based on your earlier posts, you don't agree w/ me on this. The Obama campaign is clearly trying to imply that the phrase was racial. One of the post-debate shows (IIRC it was CNN, but I was flipping through 3 different ones, so I might be off on that) said the Obama camp had sent 6 e-mails about "that one" w/in 20 minutes of the debate ending. It'll be interesting to see who is correct on the interpretation, and we'll see in a few days whether it shows up in the polls.

Actually, that makes perfect sense. Unfortunately.

I'd agree that everyone should have access to primary care. The questions become "what is defined as primary care", "who are primary care givers", "how do you entice primary care givers to be primary care givers", and "what level of emergency and chronic care should additionally be covered and who those care givers are and how do you stock that system", and "who pays for it and how." There definitely are issues w/ the current system. I don't see how the government stepping in and providing rationed "universal health care" doesn't create more problems than it solves. I'd actually expect that our government running the program to actually increase the inequities in the system.

He wasn't down by contact because he was on top of Brees. In order to be down by contact, one has to actually be down (a part of his body other than his foot or a hand must be touching the turf). I only saw it once, but it didn't look like he had a knee or elbow on the turf. Now, had Brees been touching the sideline instead of in the pocket, I'm not sure if Winfield would have been down or not. Because if Brees is touching the sideline, he's part of the sideline, so Winfield would have been on the sideline so he would have been down I guess. Right? But then NO would have still had the ball as a player on the sideline can't recover a fumble.

(Where is the wtf smiley when you need it?) Are you flippin' serious? Talk about "name calling, fear/smear, tactics." All I can say is "wow."

Mass murderers, probably none. (Note: I'm not including people like Idi Amin as they weren't / aren't Americans (the 2nd A in your AA).) Serial killers, at least 2: John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

It obviously is more of a longshot than Chaney becoming President, and much less of one than Byrd becoming President; but should the President go down, the new President and VP are not sworn in on the same day. To go through the procedure of the new President picking a VP will take a couple of weeks to a month; if something happens to the (new) President in the interim then it's (God forbid) "hello Madam President". That we haven't had any House Majority Leader sworn in as President due to incapacitation of the top 2 men is proof that it doesn't happen often and is a "huge longshot." That the majority party in the House chose her as their leader is amazingly sad regardless of whether she will ever hear the band play "Hail to the Chief."

Which is what makes Madam Speaker's comment all the more galling.

It'd be easy enough for you to do a search on it if it's that important to you.

I haven't seen what Biden professes, but how is claiming that Pelosi misrepresents Catholic doctrine anything but fact? The woman was on MtP and flat out stated that the Catholic church is undecided on when life begins and has been for hundreds of years. If she truly believes that, the San Francisco Diocese is further out than I'd have imagined. Of course, in fairness to her, in that same interview she stated that natural gas was neither a fossil fuel nor did it need to be obtained by drilling. I assume she plans on catalyzing a whole lot of cows in the near future to obtain the increased natural gas production she favors because that's the only other way I can think of to obtain it w/out drilling for the fossil fuel version of it. People worry about Palin potentially being 1 heartbeat shy of the Presidency. I can't honestly say I'm impressed that Pelosi IS 2 heartbeats away from it.

Yeah, that was a kind of interesting split screen. I was impressed that he kept the Ted Bundy moments completely in check. Of course, I'm also wondering if I'm impressed w/ her performance tonight because my expectations were rock bottom, or if she actually appeared only as ignorant as Biden appeared. I only got to watch the 1st 50 minutes, but I am still not certain how they BOTH managed to keep from just crushing their opponent's candidate.

Yep, the Republicans have stacked ALL the voting machines against the Democrats. That's why they still control both houses of Congress.