Bug

"Go out and get informed" Joe the Plumber Good advice for Joe.

To argue with that would be picking nits. I am just not on board with personally dissing the people who serve. While some are clearly dorks, the reason(s) most serve is honorable. AK makes some statements here that I strongly disagree with but I will not dis him for being in the military. Especially while he is in a combat zone or about to enter one. I am not saying that you do attack AK for being a soldier. Just that your posts could be perceived as such. Sorry if I misunderstood.

It is nice work. I just want to rub it till it goes off.

This hasn't been the case since the War of 1812. So you are for completely dissolving the US military?

I am not particularly enamoured of military solutions but if we, the US, did not have a strong military the world would be way worse off than it is now. The current administration has forsaken diplomacy and uses the military like a school yard bully. This is wrong. But to disrespect those who have joined the military for the nessessary defense of our country and it's national security is just as wrong.

I'm dressing up as a republican . I'll wear a suit, steal candy from the littlest kids in the central district and give it to the teenagers on the Sammamish platue. After all, that candy was probably bought with food stamps so it really is my money.

Cool. But I could do that in my 16' Spindthrift.

Put em back in your pants boys.

That's more palatable than Lars pooping on his own face with this tired thread.

Nicely put.

Wow, that's a whole lotta taxes! And all that profit for those evil shareholders? Take a look at your 401k--it's probably one of the only bright spots. Don't know what 2008 looks like for the taxes v profits picture, but feel free to research. Obama wants to impose a 'windfall profits' tax? All he'll be doing is stealing from investors like you and me and forcing still more companies to move offshore. Cute picture there FW. Too bad it is sooo inaccurate. See, if you are going to compare profits to taxes the economic value has to be calculated which you did not do. That leaves out the impact of the multiplier effect of removing that kind of money directly out of the economy. As usual, you are taking for granted that a gang of eletist oil barons are going to paint an honest picture for you. To be clear, that blue bar should be higher by 28 billion and the brown bar higher by 30 billion. And no that is not a lot of taxes for the military protections and government leases they get with no price tag. Do you understand economics at all FW? Do you know what the multiplier effect is? That is when you put $1 dollar into the general economy and it generates a multiple of transactions. That is called "volume of transactions". The lower the volume of transactions, the fewer oportunities for profit there are. The fewer profits there are, the less disposable income there is and the tailspin starts. So you might ask why oil profits do not count in this effect. It is because most oil stocks are held by an elite few who will not buy more or fewer consumable goods realative to their annual income. The net effect is that the money is removed from circulation in the overall economy and the volume of transactions deminishes by a mutliple of that amount. To sum it up, my entire 401k would be healthier if it were not for the huge gouge oil and gas prices are taking out of the economy. Combined with the deregulation of lending and the SEC oversight slacking off and you come up with economic suicide. You and your ilk are sure to find a way to blame this whole mess on the liberals. You poor, poor, mistreated republicans. You have control of all three branches of government for 6 years and two branches for the remaining 2 and you still get out-smarted by the democrats who foil you plans that otherwise would have worked just fine. I'll bet you don't take responsibility for anthing. You got your pipe dream for the last eight years and it failed. It failed miserably. Man up you fool.

Ak, you are getting wrapped up in a small fraction of the gist of this thread. The arguement is not whether or not YOU are a competent soldier (correct me if I am wrong Tvash). It is about the proper or improper application of military force. Regardless of whether or not Saddam was a bad man, invading a sovereign state without provocation is illegal. President George Bush broke with what most of the rest of the free world considers a fundamental building block for global peace. What's more, there are better ways to get rid of a dictator. Undermining the hard fought infrastructure of the intelligence community the way Cheney did (and GW backed him up 110%) was Treason. I am sure that is why Cheney now has a new home in Dubai. My guess is he will reside there until he dies. May it be a long and painful death. Bone Cancer perhaps. Or something undignified like bowel twitches.

There is also North Face of N Trapper. Long day. 5.9 slab near the top but the rest is a real cruise. Just be ready for a long cruise. The approach and raoute start are a little hard to describe and I have not been up there for over 20 years so I will not even try. Basically, look at the map, figure out how to get to the base of the NF, and go to a section just left of middle.

Because his ignorance knows no bounds. Tax Table

These ratings are a little low. They would be accurate if you are honed and blazing. But if you have not been ticking off multi pitch climbs willy-nilly you might get spanked. NW Butt Flathead goes at 5.8 if you find the right line. Otherwise expect some 10a here and there. South Face rt on Flathead (Ballard-Evringham rt) goes at 10b but the days are getting short. That would be 10 pitches in 12 hours if you are at the base at first light. The Afterburner is a really sweet variation of the SF route. Instead of traversing up and left to Guano ledge continue straight up to the right (east) facing corner and top out on that (10a)take small wires, pink and red tri-cams, and 2 camelots gold or bigger. The route tops out on the summit if you lead 5.11b. You will see the 3/8 bolts. Shoshone is a good warmer-upper for Blodgett. More like 5.9 at the crux (first pitch above the huge ledge)but that is short. There are two routes to the right that go at 10c and 11a. You will see the 3/8 bolts but take a full trad rack to 3". The NW butt of Nez Pierce is sweet 5.9 (Index 5.9). Another long one but a shorter approach. Make sure you don't get into the hand crack on the right side of the main corner. It has a refrigerator size loose block in it in the gray band. No one has been brave enough to go up and trundle it in the last 20 years. We wanted to but there was a party on the start of Modern Home Environment (5.10b to the ledge at the top of the splitter, 5.11b above) full trad rack. There are three other routes started on NP but they either finish as aid or stop nowhere. Downstream are more buttresses with more classics. But I have to get lunch and then work.

Why is this in spray?

Guess again. Look at your W4. See the Tax withheld? Right now, even if that is zero, the other box FICA has a dollar amount in it that was taken from you by the government. That would be given back by the Obama plan. So it is not taking from one person and giving to another. It is taking from one person and giving it back to that same person. See the whole idea from "the liberal side" is that you can't have a healthy economy without having a healthy middle class to buy things. The whole idea from "the Republican side" is that you need to give huge corporations lots of money in tax breaks so their stock holders can invest in other companies and keep the whole investment thing going while cutting jobs, wages, and benefits so that the stockholders can profit more and invest more. As we have seen in the last several months, this Republican plan falls on its face when the balance is lost and there is no longer enough money in the middle class to buy or continue paying for the products the stockholders' companies need to sell. That is the flaw in pure supply-side economics. As in your example it "involves the federal government taking money from those who do pay taxes (middle class in the last eight years), and writing checks to those who don't (Big oil, AIG, Goldman Sachs, etc). Yes, yes, in the real world this is known as 'welfare'." Corporate welfare would be a better term in your world. We had a republican president and a congress dominated by republicans for 6 years and then split evenly for two. The republicans had their pipe dream and at the end of it we are all going through the biggest financial crisis since 1929. And I might add, the republicans are still in control of the presidency and have a 49-51 split in congress. They control the Treasury, the FDIC, the Justice dept and the SEC. But you don't want to change that? What would it take for you to be willing to change course? Do we all have to be eating out of the gutter? My God man. Wake up.

In order: It does. It does not address payroll taxes for lower income Americans. Yes. As usual. The Messiah would be most unhappy that you sprayed on the internets during his tri-network call to prayer. Exxon reported record profits over last year's record profits. $43 billion. That is profits not gross revenue. So I guess you think that the stockholders of Exxon should get that tax break money instead of the hard working family that could not afford a decent eduaction? FW, you are cold hearted. Maybe even fascist.

Hey FW, who do you think was the BEST ex-president and why?

I saw the speech. It was a politicians wet dream to have this much money to spend this late in the election. I heard on the news that the air time alone cost $3mil. Probably another $300k to produce it under time contraints. But at least it is paid for by people who volunteered their money to to this specific cause. Bush has been using all our taxes to build bigger government and prop up oil company profits. Exxon reported record profits yesterday. $43 billion in profits this year. That is up 58% from last year which was another record profit year. McCain would cut taxes on the stockholders or anyone who makes over $2mil a year. Hope that puts it in perspective for you Bill. Good luck with that vote for McCain. Swallow hard cause that is exactly what it was.

Must be NY

...but Biden said it was $150 K. But then again, Obama said $42k not too long ago. We'll see what the actual numbers are I guess. can you point out your sources, besides your ass? i don't see how returning to tax brackets from Reagan's era is such a bad thing? Look it up We did. You were WRONG AGAIN

So you are for educating the public about guns but not about birth control? Now that is a good republican. But wait. Isn't using taxes to educate people called socialism? You have been exposed! AKHALTEKE IS A SOCIALIST!!!!!!!!

6 months in a spa and she'll be ready to go home to John.

While you sophisticated urbanites mire yourselves in self pity because you have no ambition and are too busy blaming other people on your own shortcommings. You haven't met Marylou. Typical akhl research.