...is paved with the best of intentions. I believe that Bush believes everything he has done is for the right reasons, he just doesn't see that his 'solution' is worse than the problem. However, just because you take up the role of a tyrant by accident or to prevent some catastrophe doesn't make you any less of a tyrant.
People who liken Bush to being a tyrant so cheapen what the word means that it looses any real meaning. I would be willing to bet that someone living in a real tyranny would find it offensive.
I saw a reporter once go through water boarding on camera. I saw another article where protesters were water boarding each other to protest water barding.
They won't be holding the vote in a few weeks. Pelosi doesn't intend to ever have the vote.
She has to at some point because the off shore oil drilling ban will expire Sept. 30. My understanding is that every year it is extended by one year in a budget bill which has to be passed every year or the government shuts down.
Pelosi wants to pass a "continuing resolution" to keep the ban and the budget going as it is now so she can get this nasty issue out of the way until after the election then she can get more people to vote for the drilling ban again since they won't have to worry about an election for another two years.
Elected representatives are supposed to remain in touch with the districts they represent. Having them remain in Washington, D.C. 11 and 1/2 months a year makes it difficult to do that.
Not, of course, that every representative uses his or her vacation time to keep in touch with his or her constituents, mind you. But that's part of the point, at least.
Going to Congress isn't like going away to college where you don't come home until the next break, they essentially commute to Washington.
Most weeks they show up Monday night or Tuesday and the last vote will be on Thursday morning or early afternoon. Then everyone will fly home until Monday or Tuesday the next week.
for families with more than 2 children, SUVs are more economical than buying a minivan.
This isn't the 70's anymore. You can't just put 5 kids into a station wagon with 2 sitting in the cargo area. A family with four kids has two options: a 7 seat SUV, or a minivan. The SUV actually gets marginally better mileage. And some SUVs - like my Honda - have more cargo room than a minivan when filled to capacity with passengers.
Sure, Dad might have aspirations of going offroading, but most of the utility of an SUV comes from the increased passenger and cargo space.
I disagree. I owned a Toyota Sienna minivan with a family of 5. It could haul 8 people and a good amount of stuff in the back. I now have a Toyota Sequoia(tows 6500 lbs.), biggest SUV Toyota has, which can also haul 8 people and about as much stuff in the back. If I didn't need the towing, I would never have given up my minivan. I would also note that I could take all the seats out of the Sienna and drop a 8x12 sheet of plywood flat in the back but the Sequoia only lets you remove the rear seats and flip up the middle row so I have to kinda wedge em in.
Now I would agree that the Full size Suburban or Excursion is bigger than a minivan but the biggest SUV Honda Makes is the Pilot and it has nowhere near as much room behind the third row as a Honda Odyssey. (been in both)
The only real practical reasons for going SUV over Minivan are for towing capacity or specific driving conditions that will require the clearance or 4x4.
It was set up to fail from the very beginning. Its no secret that every power in the American government wants more illegals. The republicans want more cheap labor. The democrats want more poor voters. This fence was never more than distraction. Just a way for government to pretend they are doing something, while actually doing nothing.
In a closely divided electorate, one demographic can make the difference between being in power or being turned out so both sides would rather foot drag then actually do anything. If you do something about the problem you might tick off the Hispanic demographic. If you come out in favor of amnesty and other benefits for illegals then you run the risk of ticking off an even larger number of people who normally won't have any unity because they are more interested in other issues.
So the safe bet for all the pols is to punt and just talk in generalities about illegal immigration but not really doing anything too substantive since that might either piss off a significant political segment or unite several other segments against them.
"Pesach involves at least 4 cups of wine, generally more. They were drunk unless they could hold their liquour quite well. Maybe not very drunk, but drunk enough."
In those days people probably had a good tolerance for alcohol. It's not like they had lots of alternatives available.
I have a relative who is a CSI guy and I get the impression that they just collect the evidence and move on to the next scene. It also seems that 95% of their time is dealing with crap (dust for fingerprints at some car or house break in). TV shows make it seem like it's all glory.
What is more to the point is that this was a school and a majority of students carried. I guess the 'Gun Free Zone' hadn't been introduced at that point.
"Gun Free" areas usually don't apply to Law Enforcement officers weather they are on duty or not and weather they are in their home jurisdiction or not. Also, most states (might even be a federal law) grant off duty law enforcement officers carry without any CCW permit.
poorly thought out political move to cater to the corporate farm lobby.
OR, it could be a poorly thought out political move to cater to Iowa which produces a lot of corn and just happens to be the first US state vote for Presidential Nominations. No candidate for President wants to piss them off. If the first state were Florida then we would be pouring Orange juice into our cars.
To be impeached you have to break the law. Being a liar is perfectly legal, as long as you don't lie under oath. Clinton was impeached because he lied under oath, that's called perjury and it's illegal.
Common misconception. To be impeached you just have to get a majority of the House to pass articles of impeachment. There isn't any judicial review, in fact the only review is by the Senate which only votes to remove the president from office which requires 2/3 majority at which point it is over and done with no judicial review. Someone once said "high crimes is whatever congress says it is" because impeachment is a political process. It is part of the "checks and balances" we hear about all the time.
Congress' approval rating is a meaningless metric. The approval rating of congress is almost always bad. It is rarely (if ever) higher than the president's. However, if you ask people about their particular senators and representatives, their ratings are generally much better. Remember, it is not my representative that is the problem -- just everyone else's.
That is in part because of gerrymandering of house districts. Out of 435 seats in the House less than 15% are anywhere near competitive.
It's a little better in the Senate since you can't gerrymander a state so more than a third are competitive but since only one third of the senate is up for reelection it means only a dozen seats or so are in jeopardy.
Timothy McVeigh had to be happy with militia membership in his day...now he'd be on the streets of Baghdad.
McVeigh served in the US Military and was awarded the the Bronze Star during his service in the Gulf War. He went wacko after he left the Military.
Let's not forget what the US military DID in the 1990s. Despite commentators on Fox News (and members of the Republican Party) surrendering to Milosevic and wondering how many body-bags there'd be in the former Yogoslavia, there were no combat deaths at all in Kosovo for the US. None. Nada. Zip. You get the idea. A country with multiple warring factions and we got the job done with no losses.
The US should increase Military spending and should concentrate on bulking up air power because after all the caterwauling over Iraq, the next war will be a bomb fest.
Have you been to china? I don't think you have. I have.
They allow a certain level of dissent as long as that dissent doesn't interfere with the status quo. A bit like the USA. It gives the illusion of free will.
A bit like the USA???!!!
In the USA you can have a rally about anything you want. A student newspaper in Colorado just recently ran an editorial that read, "Taser This...FUCK BUSH." Can you do the same thing in China using their head of states name and not fear getting called by the police?
Can you organize a rally in Tiananmen Square in China to protest against their government? I doubt it but in the USA you can protest the USA government on the Washington Mall and say whatever you want.
Hell! There are people in the USA that protest the government and TRY to get arrested!
Honestly, while this is bad, and the nuclear debris from the missles would have been a pain had the plane crashed, it's not what I would call a royal fuckup. You are more likely to win the lottery twice in a row than it would be for those bombs to go off if the plane crashed (nuclear warheads, are delicate, even if made from plutonium, and if those are uranium warheads, they are even more so).
I read that the fact they didn't think Nukes were on board would have come into play if there had been a crash. A crash of an airplane that has Nukes is handled differently then a run of the mill aircraft crash.
As such at a presidential level, it's extremely stacked for a two party system. On other levels where it's a pure popular, who ever gets the most gets the job system, it is easier and indeed third party candidates to win from time to time. But it's a real problem in the presidential election. I mean look at how wound up people got about a president winning the electoral vote without winning the popular vote (also has happened before).
Both of Bill Clinton's victories were like this. Ross Perrot won enough of the popular vote to keep Clinton from winning a popular majority but Clinton still won a very decisive electoral majority. I think this helped add more legitimacy to his win.
All you need is a Presidential appointment and you are in. And since Bush can recess appoint anyone he wants at this point he doesn't need Congress to approve.
I guess Congress could impeach and remove someone that was too objectionable.
When Clinton was asked whether he had sexual relations with Lewinski, he should have answered "I don't recall." Sure, it would have been a lie, but as has been demonstrated by Bush cabinet officials over and over again, it's one you can get away with because nobody can prove you're not on the edge of dementia.
I think only Reagen could have pulled that one off.
I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the occasional taxi driver making a tourist's trip 10x longer than it's supposed to be...
I had a taxi in Denver once give me a choice of the cheapest or the fastest from the airport to my destination. I took the cheapest so I could go through town and see the place. He said he asked so people wouldn't accuse him of ripping them off if he took the much faster but longer expressway around town.
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People who liken Bush to being a tyrant so cheapen what the word means that it looses any real meaning. I would be willing to bet that someone living in a real tyranny would find it offensive.
I saw a reporter once go through water boarding on camera. I saw another article where protesters were water boarding each other to protest water barding.
Must not be that bad.
She has to at some point because the off shore oil drilling ban will expire Sept. 30. My understanding is that every year it is extended by one year in a budget bill which has to be passed every year or the government shuts down.
Pelosi wants to pass a "continuing resolution" to keep the ban and the budget going as it is now so she can get this nasty issue out of the way until after the election then she can get more people to vote for the drilling ban again since they won't have to worry about an election for another two years.
Going to Congress isn't like going away to college where you don't come home until the next break, they essentially commute to Washington.
Most weeks they show up Monday night or Tuesday and the last vote will be on Thursday morning or early afternoon. Then everyone will fly home until Monday or Tuesday the next week.
You must be new here.
I disagree. I owned a Toyota Sienna minivan with a family of 5. It could haul 8 people and a good amount of stuff in the back. I now have a Toyota Sequoia(tows 6500 lbs.), biggest SUV Toyota has, which can also haul 8 people and about as much stuff in the back. If I didn't need the towing, I would never have given up my minivan. I would also note that I could take all the seats out of the Sienna and drop a 8x12 sheet of plywood flat in the back but the Sequoia only lets you remove the rear seats and flip up the middle row so I have to kinda wedge em in.
Now I would agree that the Full size Suburban or Excursion is bigger than a minivan but the biggest SUV Honda Makes is the Pilot and it has nowhere near as much room behind the third row as a Honda Odyssey. (been in both)
The only real practical reasons for going SUV over Minivan are for towing capacity or specific driving conditions that will require the clearance or 4x4.
In California they regulate electricity prices for homes then call it "deregulation" so they can bitch that deregulation doesn't work.
In a closely divided electorate, one demographic can make the difference between being in power or being turned out so both sides would rather foot drag then actually do anything. If you do something about the problem you might tick off the Hispanic demographic. If you come out in favor of amnesty and other benefits for illegals then you run the risk of ticking off an even larger number of people who normally won't have any unity because they are more interested in other issues.
So the safe bet for all the pols is to punt and just talk in generalities about illegal immigration but not really doing anything too substantive since that might either piss off a significant political segment or unite several other segments against them.
"Pesach involves at least 4 cups of wine, generally more. They were drunk unless they could hold their liquour quite well. Maybe not very drunk, but drunk enough."
In those days people probably had a good tolerance for alcohol. It's not like they had lots of alternatives available.
Your right. In the USA, Judges can not over rule an Innocent verdict by a jury in a criminal case and the State can't appeal. The case is over.
I have a relative who is a CSI guy and I get the impression that they just collect the evidence and move on to the next scene. It also seems that 95% of their time is dealing with crap (dust for fingerprints at some car or house break in). TV shows make it seem like it's all glory.
"Gun Free" areas usually don't apply to Law Enforcement officers weather they are on duty or not and weather they are in their home jurisdiction or not. Also, most states (might even be a federal law) grant off duty law enforcement officers carry without any CCW permit.
OR, it could be a poorly thought out political move to cater to Iowa which produces a lot of corn and just happens to be the first US state vote for Presidential Nominations. No candidate for President wants to piss them off. If the first state were Florida then we would be pouring Orange juice into our cars.
Common misconception. To be impeached you just have to get a majority of the House to pass articles of impeachment. There isn't any judicial review, in fact the only review is by the Senate which only votes to remove the president from office which requires 2/3 majority at which point it is over and done with no judicial review. Someone once said "high crimes is whatever congress says it is" because impeachment is a political process. It is part of the "checks and balances" we hear about all the time.
That is in part because of gerrymandering of house districts. Out of 435 seats in the House less than 15% are anywhere near competitive.
It's a little better in the Senate since you can't gerrymander a state so more than a third are competitive but since only one third of the senate is up for reelection it means only a dozen seats or so are in jeopardy.
McVeigh served in the US Military and was awarded the the Bronze Star during his service in the Gulf War. He went wacko after he left the Military.
The US should increase Military spending and should concentrate on bulking up air power because after all the caterwauling over Iraq, the next war will be a bomb fest.
A bit like the USA???!!!
In the USA you can have a rally about anything you want. A student newspaper in Colorado just recently ran an editorial that read, "Taser This...FUCK BUSH." Can you do the same thing in China using their head of states name and not fear getting called by the police?
Can you organize a rally in Tiananmen Square in China to protest against their government? I doubt it but in the USA you can protest the USA government on the Washington Mall and say whatever you want.
Hell! There are people in the USA that protest the government and TRY to get arrested!
I don't think it's a bit like the USA
The bigger question is will it coexist with my cordless phone or will I have to upgrade to 5GHz?
I read that the fact they didn't think Nukes were on board would have come into play if there had been a crash. A crash of an airplane that has Nukes is handled differently then a run of the mill aircraft crash.
Both of Bill Clinton's victories were like this. Ross Perrot won enough of the popular vote to keep Clinton from winning a popular majority but Clinton still won a very decisive electoral majority. I think this helped add more legitimacy to his win.
"MythSwiper, no MythSwiping!
Oh man..."
Awsome!
Too bad nerds don't usually breed so nobody here will get it.
All you need is a Presidential appointment and you are in. And since Bush can recess appoint anyone he wants at this point he doesn't need Congress to approve.
I guess Congress could impeach and remove someone that was too objectionable.
I think only Reagen could have pulled that one off.
I had a taxi in Denver once give me a choice of the cheapest or the fastest from the airport to my destination. I took the cheapest so I could go through town and see the place. He said he asked so people wouldn't accuse him of ripping them off if he took the much faster but longer expressway around town.