I like her when she had her hair braided down the side. She looked polished. I sure hope she has done something with her hair since I last saw her as it looked unkept, which doesn't look very professional at all!! Atleast she should try to look the part; even if she's not.

"You must be a racist" McKinney with the strong right hook and who's partial to green dresses

"Representative Awful" who has a tradition out of staking out an aisle seat at the presidential the State of the Union address

"Cynthia McKinney has returned, I’m ecstatic"

"I have missed her like a possum misses rotten squash."

None other than the queen of bad hair herself.
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Do you seriously believe anyone is actually PRO- Abortion........he's Pro- CHOICE a huge difference in thinking there. If you are so ANTI- choice why not do as Coulter would like in her "personal fantasy" scenario and take back a woman's right to vote along with her right to do what she feels is right for her own self and body. As far as Rudy's pro- gun control stance..... HalleFrigginlujah........maybe we can do a little bit to get the automatic machine guns/assault weapons/and the like out of the hands of gangs,drug pushers,street thugs etc. who are creeping in and taking over..........that's what it's all about........not your precious right to go dove hunting. (literally). It's common sense not some ideological jargon that's gonna change things for the better....not pandering to the NRA or religious radical right. Let's not be loco lodo.......besides if he's been married 50 years he must be (hopefully) at least 80 unless he was married wayyyyy too young in which case he's already lost favor with me....... no real experience is how you put it I believe.

Ann Coulter is for Rudy because he, in Ann's words: "...also he seems sort of crazy enough that he’d nuke Iran and that warms our hearts."

Jeff.....Rudy Guili is the only Republican out there so far who I've really looked at who appears somewhat worthy of the vote. On the other side it would be difficult more difficult to find someone worthy at this time. Ya know what, I don't mind that Rudy seems "crazy enough to bomb Iran" not that he or anyone would do it or would want to but at least he's gort the "cajones" to even say so. And, if that small c stands for what I think it might, you've really got no leg to stand on based on the c patriarchs rantings and ravings. 'Nuff said.

Welcome to the blog! I think you will find that rarely, if ever, is there "Nuff said" here. Marshal your Rudy arguments and, again, welcome!

Common sense and value for human life are more important than "cajones". Bombing Iran would cause countless deaths on both sides. It would bankrupt this country. There is no present threat from Iran right now. They are co-operating and we should be PEACEFUL.
War does not solve problems or make countries better. Dont make the same mistake with Iran that was made in Iraq. Use diplomacy NOT war.
It worked for Gahndi, MLK, Rosa Parks, and countless others.

You can't change the world through the barrel of a gun.

No one is going to start bombing Iran....as soon as we get that Bushie and his cronies far away from D.C. But seriously, do you REALLY believe that there is no threat from Iran......right now, maybe........tomorrow, not so sure. Like I said at least Giuliani will stand up and stand strong.....like he did after 9/11 and how he brought the greatest city on Earth back to its rightful place after Dinkins and the rest almost ruined it......he'll do it again.

Isnt it funny how when asked if the troops will still be in Iraq 2012 at the end of the first term of our new president. The major democratic candidates said no.

Huckabee 08'

I give you Neville Chamberlain - Peace in our time. '38.
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During the early start of these campaigns, I agreed with you. I think Guliani is a good candidate. My question though, is have you considered or looked into Huckabee. When I started listening to Mike, well I have not found one issue Mike stands for that I don't like (i'm sure there is at least one). I'd like to know how you feel about Mike Huckabee.

Thanks, for a response.
After all anything is better the HILLARY

Huckabee 08'

Shelby,
haven't looked into him as of yet, but I will. Thanks

I agree with you about Ron Paul. The soldiers' honor is not at stake. They're not the ones who decided to go to Iraq and Ron Paul is the only candidate talking about the most important issue, which is the National Debt. Bush talks about balancing the yearly budget. That's just the first step. What about the 9 Trillion Dollar National Debt. The Federal Reserve keeps printing electronic dollars which causes the value of the dollar to go down and puts valueless paper money in circulation. Too much money chasing too few goods and services causes prices to rise. Just look at what's happened to everyday costs of groceries, home prices and every other item. Ron Paul is an advocate of a gold - backed dollar which would require security for every dollar printed. This in turn would keep our governments from over-spending creating a surplus to pay off the national debt. Without the unrestricted ability of the government to spend, the US could not have afforded to go to war or spend so much on Social Security, Medicare and other Pork.

Ron Paul is the people's candidate. He wins every poll of these Republican debates with over 30% of the poll votes. The nearest candidate only gets 16-18%. Yet the Commentators always put Paul down and push a few of their favorites.

That's easy!
So we owe trillions beyond a balanced budget, so what?
Most companies and citizens are in the same shape.
They don't want to hear about that.
When the interest on the debt equals the defense budget, then we might slow down a little---not until then though.
Republicans are gone (can't call them "conservative any more).

IF it was that simple for an employer to just reduce everyone's pay, what are they waiting on? Folks have their pay adjusted up/down ALL the time.

The current system stinks, I'll say that. It's far from equitable, in my opinion.

with a lot of what you say but it really would not be easy for my employer to reduce paychecks by 23%. Nevertheless, Shelby Barker promises to further explain Huckabee's plans further in a later post. Want to take bets on whether or not Barker will address Huckabee's position on this? I'm betting: NO. Has anybody anywhere ever heard a FairTax proponent address this?

It would not be easy for an employer to reduce pay by 23%. It would also be hard for an employer to just pocket all the Federal withholdings without causing a stink amongst his employees. That is my only point.

Let me get this straight:
If you made take home of $1000 a week now--which would be about $1300 after the immediate introduction of the fair tax, then you would be happy to have a take home of $700 then? Or would the take home be $1300, instead of $1000? Sure it would, the employer would just come up with $300 more dollars for everyone!
Of course your groceries would go up about 30%, your car would cost you 6-7 thousand more, houses would go up in PTC about 10,000, and Lord knows what medicine and medical services would cost.

Lets don't assume all of us are stupid!
Just keep paying your 25-30% IRS tax and your 3.5% SS until you retire rich, or do the Import tax thing.

ASSUME the fair tax passed. Then yes, your pay would be your gross instead of your NET. I have no idea where you came up the $700 figure. The $300 you speak of the employer "just coming up with for everyone" is already there, it's just not sent in to the Feds, it's given to the employee.

That being said, my point was that employers can monkey with your pay at most anytime, unless you are under contract.

I'm not arguing for/against the fairtax.

Economists could talk their eyebrows off with this one and still just have everyone confused, just as they are!
Anyone with any sense knows that this so-called fair tax is a ploy to reduce taxes for high wage earners, and increase taxes for medium wage earners. They do stipulate that the low wage earners can have a few thousand discount.
It is also another place to throw in the Mexicans who they say would then have to pay tax on what they eat. Of course they already pay sales taxes but some do not pay taxes on wages and neither do their employers.
Why would the Mexicans pay more taxes under that "plan," they are low wage earners!!
It is purely a confidence plan by big wage earners.
The simple plan to replace the IRS is to charge an import fee on all of the foreign goods we buy. They might stop shipping some of it, or make it cost some more, but then we could make it here!
When and if they stopped shipping the goods or we stopped buying them from foreigners, we would need to nationalize energy, transportation, and medicine with which to make money.
It is simple. Fair tax is not.
This IS NOT total socialism!

If you could read, I didn't argue for/against the Fairtax.

Illegal immigration is an issue Republicans use to scare each other. When you get past the talk radio miasma and look at the facts the scare tactics don’t hold up.

Study after study shows that illegals pay more than they cost and they are paying.

Here is a report on a controversial IRS program whereby illegals are paying taxes and the right-wingers are trying to shut it down:

Illegal immigrants filing taxes more than ever

Here is a recent study by the CATO institute, no left wing group they, which finds: “… that 81 percent of the economists surveyed felt that 20th century immigration had very favorable effects, and 74 percent felt that illigal immigration had positive effects, with 76 percent feeling that recent immigration has "about the same effect" as immigrants from past years.”

Immigration: The Demographic and Economic Facts

Another study by the RAND institute shows illegals pay more than they cost. I don’t have an on-line reference (sorry) but here is the citation:

McCarthy, Kevin F., Vernez, Georges, Immigration in a Changing Economy, Rand Corporation (1997),

Economist Francine Libman in a recent Harvard Law Review article says:

“Americans believe that undocumented immigrants are exploiting the United States' economy. The widespread belief is that illegal aliens cost more in government services than they contribute to the economy. This belief is undeniably false. [E]very empirical study of illegals' economic impact demonstrates the opposite . . .: undocumenteds actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in social services.”

It can be found here:

Taxing Undocumented Immigrants: Separate, Unequal and Without Representation

The claim that most or even a large portion of illegals get paid in undocumented cash is not true. Most companies pay them just like they pay me and probably you, with a check taking into account all of the deductions. The vast majority are paying Social Security, which as you know at their income level is the biggest tax, and if they have a fake SSN number they have no way to ever collect it back.

Lots of heat was stoked by what was misrepresented by talk radio and right-wing nut publications like WorldNetDaily that recent legislation would allow illegals to receive Social Security. The fact that the legislation was proposed by Republican John Ensign of Nevada should have tipped them off that something wasn’t right with the claim but it was nevertheless spread far and wide. No such legislation was introduced by Senator Ensign (needless to say) or by anyone else and illegals with fake SSN numbers cannot collect Social Security.

Initially, President Bush (your guy?) proposed a plan to allow illegals access to the Social Security system but it was not implemented:

Bush Plan: Social Security for 'Legalized' Illegal Aliens

In fact, Steinberg calculates that illegals are contributing 10% of the Social Security funds without any hope of claiming benefits:

Illegal Immigrants Are Contributing Billions to Social Security with no Resultant Benefits

So, while we may be on the same page concerning the side issue of illegal immigration, to answer your specific question, “So JEff, dont you think the fairtax would be the only way to get all the little illegals paying something to live here seeing as they dont pay income taxes and our government wont enforce immigration laws and keep them out.?”

No, I do not believe so.

Sorry for posting such a long screed.

And still another Rand report acknowledges that immigrates do place a strain on local and state budgets - at least for California:

Finally, the costs of providing services to immigrants and their children have added appreciably to the state's fiscal burden. The large scale of immigration flows, bigger families, and the concentration of low-income, low-taxpaying immigrants making heavy use of public services are straining state and local budgets. The greatest burden falls on the schools, where immigrants currently account for half of the recent substantial growth in K­12 enrollment. Immigration's effect on the state's community colleges and universities has yet to be fully felt.

Rand Report

The link works now!!!!!
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Interesting report and I see no reason why it should not be considered accurate. Immigration should be a very hot topic. I believe that the right will not accept anything short of deportation and Republicans cannot stand up against the talk radio and conservative think-tanks which denounce any compromise. Rightly or wrongly, this has stymied the debate and virtually killed any legislation. My hope is that the topic will receive widespread discussion during the upcoming election. We deserve to know beforehand where the candidates stand and what their proposals are. I sincerely hope neither side is allowed to sidestep this issue.

Here’s one link that I found most interesting. It was written by William A. Eddy, Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps. Colonel Eddy acted as the interpreter. The actual conference between FDR and Ibn Saud starts on page 31.

I’m curious if you believe that FDR was truly sincere about pursuing a Palestinian plan by consulting all parties? Would FDR, if he had lived longer, be forced by political pressures to take the same road that Truman followed?

FDR and Ibn Saud Meeting

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I wish I had an answer. This problem has been growing for a very long time and now it's so large it's difficult to stop.

BTW, I'll get you those links to the Great Bitter Lake meeting between FDR and Ibn Saud.
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Who is this fellow, Rand?
He seems to be confused!
Those ingrates (or did he say immigrates) no, it was immigrants, I think, just need to go home. Now that we have the fence built and the tunnels stopped up, and the helicopters stopped, and the swimmers drowned, and the box trucks stopped, we won't get anymore, will we? Maybe just a few who walk across. A bunch have gone to Canada for the winter I saw, but they won't have any trouble next spring walking in from Canada.
Who is Rand?

Just "Google" it.
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Mike Huckabee is absolutely the kind of leader this country needs. We need someone who inspires and unites; who makes all Americans feel like part of America. He has lived a personal success story and is inspiring. I flew into Fort Smith Regional last week and his pictures are everywhere; even at the front counter of the BBQ joint we ate at.
I think it is unfortunate that being a nice person is a weakness these days. Ann Coulter's latest column shreds Mike aas she calls him Huckabee Finn. She feels he is not a true conservative because he, gasp, has worked with Bill Clinton on children's initiatives. I feel Ann's worth as a human being is diminishing, because I feel Mike Huckabee is beyond reproach. I won't vote for him due to our differences on fiscal policy and foreign policy, but I will be a proud American and happy just the same if he wins.

ps: Ann likes Rudy Giuliani. If he can be that cold to his kids and their mother, imagine how ruthless he'll be with the democraticly controlled house and senate.

Kevin "Hack" King

Who he?
Personal success story? Inspiring? Sounds like Cheney to me.
Now, what would Coulter care about Rudy being cold and trophy wifing?
He and Bernie Kerker, or whatever, were crooks of a kind in NYC, and he brought his girlfriends to a hut at the 911 site with money he stole from NYC. Rudy recommended him for Sec. Homeland Security, whatever that is. Rudy made him come from personal bankruptcy to multi-millionaire status after they both left NYC. Bernie also taught the current Iraqi police force how to operate also! Great bunch.

Thanks for crossing the line with the kind and reasonable words regarding Mike.

Quick question. Are those flights to Fort Smith packed? It might be tempting to fly there on a pass if the flights are somewhat open. It's near impossible to fly into OKC or TUL these days without buying an extremely overprice fare.

Are you taking you son to the air show?

**** GIT REAL TOUGH ON CRIME ****

"That man was Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard".

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Git, it was 100% of capacity. We went in with two T-38s. They are so awesome at TacAir, the FBO, they gave us a card that said "Fort Smith Thanks you for your service to our nation." That stuff hits you in the heart! OKC is a shoe-in if you fly in Tue,wed, or thur, and leave before the last flight on tue-thur or saturday. Our little RJs haven't made travel easy, that's for sure.

Kevin "Hack" King

That in addition to driving a bus, that your second job is shuttling Harleys.

Thanks for the other info. It sounds like T to T to me.

**** GIT REAL TOUGH ON CRIME ****

"That man was Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard".

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Now I know how to do this.

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