President Obama, in Los Angeles for a fundraiser, offered this observation on his wife's exercise routine, via the pool report:
“Michelle outdoes me in pushups as well,” he said, after saying that she’s taken some criticism on her technique “because she doesn’t go all the way down” – a line that he let hang, naughtily...
kamalktk said: ganda said: Jasmine rice doesn't Support Our Troops. I hear she's working on a new pole dance routine for the democratic national convention though.
turtlebug said: President Obama, in Los Angeles for a fundraiser, offered this observation on his wife's exercise routine, via the pool report:
“Michelle outdoes me in pushups as well,” he said, after saying that she’s taken some criticism on her technique “because she doesn’t go all the way down” – a line that he let hang, naughtily...He may have been referencing Ellen's "complaint" when Michelle and she competed on the show.
Moderator Comment: Reference to deleted post removed. — Jun. 8, 2012 @ 7:56am
JorgeBurrito
Category IV Economic Depression
rated:
posted: Jun. 15, 2012 @ 11:09p
Since the other thread was deleted I thought I would bring up the tough issue of immigration. I'll be honest, I have yet to hear a really great solution to this issue. Here is part of what the president had to say:
"Illegal immigrants will avoid deportation and be eligible for work permits if they arrived in the U.S. before age 16, are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED, or served in the military."
On one hand I think any policy that encourages illegal immigration is a bad one on the other hand I have a real hard time punishing kids/young adults for the decisions of their parents.
I think ultimately we need to make it much easier for immigrants to get work visas or otherwise enter the country legally and make the path for legal immigrants to get citizenship much quicker. Building a fence is not a good option nor is full amnesty for current/future immigrants. Amnesty for some of the current immigrants that meet certain restrictions may be viable, but I am not totally convinced yet. I don't know, this is a really tough issue for me as it weighs two different morals, that of believing that our law of the land should be upheld versus compassion and sympathy for my fellow man.
Look at our economy. We can't afford too much compassion. If they don't help our economy, send them home. We have enough unemployed as is, send the illegals away and put our unemployed to work
Would you go pick crops for minimum wage (or in the case of illegal immigrants less than minimum wage)? I wouldn't, even if unemployed. Expect our food prices and many other services to go up as low cost labor is removed from the country. Is that going to help our economy? I am not saying yes or no, just bringing up some questions.
Somehow we can get people to work at mcdonalds for minimum wage, but we can't get anyone in this country to pick grapes?
Who said they were making min wage either? This study (http://www.ccis-ucsd.org/PUBLICATIONS/wrkg22.PDF)) done in 2000 calculated the wage floor that day laborers would take was $1.75 over min wage. $2.50 over if you consider they're not paying taxes.
Your links don't work but I think any study is somewhat suspect considering the statistic we are talking about. Lets assume they are correct though for arguments sake, it still seems clear to me that Americans aren't willing to work these jobs. Based on your studies, even with taxes it sounds like a Farmer could pay minimum wage or more to an American and avoid hiring legals so why don't they? Americans don't want to go pick crops and I don't blame them, it is a tough, crappy, extremely labor intensive job. In trying to corroborate your statistics I found an article from a farmer saying he was offering $17/hour for workers, illegal or not, to come pick strawberries in his field. He said the only ones that stayed for more than a day or two were the illegals, all the rest quit almost immediately. I guess my point is there seems to be jobs out there that Americans don't want, and perhaps we need a shift in society to make people appreciate these jobs and the hard work involved in them but as it is right now I don't know what would happen to certain industries if we overnight booted all illegals out.
Links fixed Not sure why FW includes the closing ) in the links.
I'll take a study produced by collegiate (assumedly non-biased) sources over "some farmer said"
The argument that americans are too lazy to do manual labor speaks to your own biases and preconceived notions of americans. Maybe you wouldn't, but I've known people that put themselves through college doing manual labor over summer breaks, white collar turned blue collar when he needed to provide for his family. Brick laying, picking grapes, ditch digging. I think you discredit the tenacity, the willingness to work and the work ethic of americans. We didn't build this great country camping in a park in manhattan whining about how they're no jobs for art history degree holders.
Why are all the people picking crops appear Hispanic anytime I drive through Central California? You seem to claim that farmers are paying these illegals well above minimum wage, why aren't American working these jobs? Even with added taxes and paperwork at the rates you are claiming they are paying they could at least offer minimum wage and likely quite a bit more. You can't have this argument both ways like you are trying to do. Americans don't want to do these jobs, that is why. At least not at the pay that is being offered, which brings me back to the point that you can expect quite an increase in a variety of service industry and manual labor. Maybe that is a good thing, I for one would love to see more Americans making a living wage, even if it means I have to pay a little more at the store for my fruit.
"Like a good Tea Partier, Wagner voted against every single appropriation of money put forward by the legislature, including a bill that arrived on Governor Brian Schweitzer’s desk last April which contained grant money for local communities (including Wagner's district), for things like sewer upgrades, fire department repairs, and the like.
Schweitzer--who is known to enjoy mixing it up with right-wingers--saw an angle. He noticed that Wagner had voted against the bill. So, Schweitzer used his “line item veto” power and selectively crossed out the funds that would have gone to Wagner’s district. Schweitzer did this to several legislators who voted against the grant billl. Schweitzer said that it was logical to assume that if Wagner and others voted against the bill, then their constituents must not have expressed much interest in getting the money.
But as you might expect, community leaders in Wagner’s district hadn’t even been aware that Wagner had voted against it. For when he voted against the bill, Wagner had been on a frolic of his own, and not representing the interests of his district. Wagner figured that the bill would pass anyway, and so he could flex his Tea Party biceps while knowing that Democrats and moderate Republicans would turn in sufficient votes so that the grant bill would pass anyway.
But he hadn’t counted on Schweitzer calling out his bullshit.
When the folks in Wagner’s district learned of Wagner’s vote and of the line item veto, there was an outcry. Wagner then tried to save face by suing Schweitzer, claiming that the item veto had been illegal. Well, that didn’t go over very well with the Tea Partiers who reside in Wagner’s district, because they don’t think Government should ever spend money at all.
So Wagner ended up in the headlines, first proudly decrying government spending, then being revealed as having denied his district important funds, and finally suing the Governor to try to get more government spending for his district."
One hypocrite got called out; there are still armies of them in the governments. The clever ones take the pork but vote against raising the debt ceiling. They could care less of our losing AAA rating as long as they get political brownie points.
JorgeBurrito said: The Democratic Party badly needs more people like this that are willing to call out Republican BS when they see it. I love this story:
"Like a good Tea Partier, Wagner voted against every single appropriation of money put forward by the legislature, including a bill that arrived on Governor Brian Schweitzer’s desk last April which contained grant money for local communities (including Wagner's district), for things like sewer upgrades, fire department repairs, and the like.
Schweitzer--who is known to enjoy mixing it up with right-wingers--saw an angle. He noticed that Wagner had voted against the bill. So, Schweitzer used his “line item veto” power and selectively crossed out the funds that would have gone to Wagner’s district. Schweitzer did this to several legislators who voted against the grant billl. Schweitzer said that it was logical to assume that if Wagner and others voted against the bill, then their constituents must not have expressed much interest in getting the money.
But as you might expect, community leaders in Wagner’s district hadn’t even been aware that Wagner had voted against it. For when he voted against the bill, Wagner had been on a frolic of his own, and not representing the interests of his district. Wagner figured that the bill would pass anyway, and so he could flex his Tea Party biceps while knowing that Democrats and moderate Republicans would turn in sufficient votes so that the grant bill would pass anyway.
But he hadn’t counted on Schweitzer calling out his bullshit.
When the folks in Wagner’s district learned of Wagner’s vote and of the line item veto, there was an outcry. Wagner then tried to save face by suing Schweitzer, claiming that the item veto had been illegal. Well, that didn’t go over very well with the Tea Partiers who reside in Wagner’s district, because they don’t think Government should ever spend money at all.
So Wagner ended up in the headlines, first proudly decrying government spending, then being revealed as having denied his district important funds, and finally suing the Governor to try to get more government spending for his district." Do you know which presidential candidate does the same thing, putting appropriations in bills he knows are going to pass, then voting against the bill, allowing him to claim being anti-spending while getting spending for his district? Ron Paul.
JorgeBurrito said: Your links don't work but I think any study is somewhat suspect considering the statistic we are talking about. Lets assume they are correct though for arguments sake, it still seems clear to me that Americans aren't willing to work these jobs.
I think it's some Americans, who need menial jobs, aren't willing to work them for the tiny wages paid, PLUS the rest of America likes $2/lb chicken breasts and 99 cents/lb grapes. If farmers paid what would be required to have Americans work in fields, food prices was increase substantially. We piss and moan about illegals, then buy $2/lb chicken that is only $2/lb because Guatemalans processed it.
If you paid me $200/hr I'd pick fruit. If you pay $6/hr you get illegals doing it. Somewhere between those two is a wage that would attract enough Americans that we wouldn't need illegals any more.
(complaining about Pick-Your-Own fruit) "So I have to pay someone to let ME pick fruit, and THEN I have to EAT fruit?" - Homer Simpson.
ETA - $200/hr is only for certain fruit. Raspberries, cherries, grapes. Not strawberries - picking strawberries SUCKS.
If I remember right, the tough immigration laws in farming states like Georgia almost ruined the farmers. Immigrants got scared and left the state and when harvest time came, no one was left to pick the crops. Like JorgeBurrito said, "who's gonna' do it..". Not any of today's young US citizens, or very, very few.
You and horhey here have a defeatist attitude wrapped around an excuse and are using it play the pity party game for immigrants.
Farmers can't find non-illegal labor because they're not looking. Then they turn around and bitch that they need the illegals.
Now we've covered a lot, I'm not going to rehash it, but another point to consider, if americans do the work, the money stays in america. When the illegals do the work, they send the money home to family, less ramshackle rent cash and their hooker fund. If they have their wife and kids with them, they still send money home to family. It helps their home economy, drains ours.
I hate picking strawberries. My 3 year old loves picking strawberries. Illegals pick our strawberries.
Solution? Some Gingrich meets Heinlein policy, where whoever is 3 that summer, is required to pick the strawberries before they're granted citizenship.
scrouds said: Look at our economy. We can't afford too much compassion. If they don't help our economy, send them home. We have enough unemployed as is, send the illegals away and put our unemployed to workActually we can afford some types of compassion (food stamps, unemployment insurance, subsidies to states to maintain public employees) a lot more than we can afford austerity measures, the latter expanding deficits rather than reducing them.
As for illegal aliens, I don't know if they're a net cost or net benefit, but I doubt the ones who stay here permanently are a net cost because they pay taxes like everybody else ('cept you ) and keep most of the money in the US, rather than send it home to Mexico to support their family and pay for their maid, and nanny (really -- some immigrant workers are that well off in Mexico). And they tend to commit crimes at lower rates than American citizens do, although that could just be cultural because American hispanics also average lower crime rates.
The simplest solution to illegal immigration is to make it against the law to hire undocumented workers, regardless of excuse, unlike current laws that make such hirings illegal only when they're done unknowingly or ID wasn't checked. Former AZ governor Janet Napolitano showed that such a law against all illegal hirings worked well, even with just light fines and sanctions, i.e., suspending a businesss' licenses for two weeks.
scrouds said: I'll take a study produced by collegiate (assumedly non-biased) sources over "some farmer said"Why do you hate farmers? I'm guessing farmers know the employment field better than collegiates know how to grow food.
scrouds said: The argument that americans are too lazy to do manual labor speaks to your own biases and preconceived notions of americans. Maybe you wouldn't, but I've known people that put themselves through college doing manual labor over summer breaks, white collar turned blue collar when he needed to provide for his family.I've known employers who wouldn't even consider hiring Americans or sometimes even legal aliens. They assume illegals will work harder and never complain.
larrymoencurly said: I've known employers who wouldn't even consider hiring Americans or sometimes even legal aliens. They assume illegals will work harder and never complain.
Sounds like a good incentive to lie about attracting legal labor.
larrymoencurly said: scrouds said: I'll take a study produced by collegiate (assumedly non-biased) sources over "some farmer said"Why do you hate farmers? I'm guessing farmers know the employment field better than collegiates know how to grow food.
scrouds said: The argument that americans are too lazy to do manual labor speaks to your own biases and preconceived notions of americans. Maybe you wouldn't, but I've known people that put themselves through college doing manual labor over summer breaks, white collar turned blue collar when he needed to provide for his family.I've known employers who wouldn't even consider hiring Americans or sometimes even legal aliens. They assume illegals will work harder and never complain.
I'm a building contractor with 20+ years in the business, and the hardest working employees I have are immigrants. They are not here illegally now, but they were at one time. I've hired "experienced" US workers, kids out of technical school, and union tradesmen. None of them work as hard or produce as much as the guys I have that came from poverty in another country. Most of the native kids I have hired last about 3 months or want twice as much money as they are worth. This is not about any bias or preconceived notions of Americans or anyone else. It is about facts and reality based on years of experience. If you(scrouds) believe you live in a world where Americans will work as hard as immigrants, that is your right. Many of us who have experienced the reality of hiring trade labor know differently. I don't make these comments with any sense of glee or satisfaction. It is very, very sad what the US labor market has become. I would love to hire nothing but born and raised American help, but I would not be very competitive in my business if I did.
HumDoHamaraDo said: So the choice is Kenyan Christian/Muslim Guy OR Mexican Mormon Guy controlled by Jewish Casino Owner. But there's also Ron Paul, government-hating Social Security recipient: LA Times article
My parents believe in Social Security and don't want it privatized, but they don't take payments, despite being worth a lot less than Dr. Paul.
Of course Ancestry.com was founded by Mormons, so if the GOP want people to poke fun at Mormonism, Mitt Romney's belief in his magic underpants and all, I'm fine with that
My opinion on this election has come down to three states, Ohio, Iowa and Virginia. If Obama wins any of these three, he will be re-elected. When Obama wins PA and Wisconsin, he should be at 247, needing 23 more. New Hampshire is polling solidly in his favor, giving him 251. Nevada and Colorado are both polling in his favor, giving him another 15, to put him at 266. He needs either Iowa or Virginia to get to 270. Virginia is obviously more important than Iowa, he could win Virginia, lose Iowa or Colorado, and still be re-elected.
Romney's campaign will have to spend big bucks in Ohio, Florida and Virginia, they must have these states to win. Ohio is very, very close in polling right now. Obama can win without Ohio or Florida, Romney cannot.
Romney's campaign will have to spend big bucks in Ohio
As esteemed Republican war hero John McCain rightly pointed out, Willard Mitt Romney being bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson's communist Chinese gambling profits means Romney is using foreign money to try to win an American election.
I wonder what Sheldon Adelson will expect our current military heroes to do in return for his $100,000,000 investment in President Romney?
Romney's campaign will have to spend big bucks in Ohio
As esteemed Republican war hero John McCain rightly pointed out, Willard Mitt Romney being bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson's communist Chinese gambling profits means Romney is using foreign money to try to win an American election.
I wonder what Sheldon Adelson will expect our current military heroes to do in return for his $100,000,000 investment in President Romney?
I'm still trying to figure out how we went from campaign reform to Super PACS.
Romney's campaign will have to spend big bucks in Ohio
As esteemed Republican war hero John McCain rightly pointed out, Willard Mitt Romney being bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson's communist Chinese gambling profits means Romney is using foreign money to try to win an American election.
I wonder what Sheldon Adelson will expect our current military heroes to do in return for his $100,000,000 investment in President Romney?
I'm still trying to figure out how we went from campaign reform to Super PACS. It's easy, politicians got the reform they wanted.
Tried to post this in hotdeals, but not allowed. Since there is a shipping fee, it is not allowed in free stuff.
IF anybody HERE is interested, there is a bumper sticker deal at cafe press. ($1.25 shipping) for your choice of : Obama, Paul, Romney or an anti-Obama bumper sticker.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> cafepress > Bumper Sticker Giveaway Yes, that's right, America: We're giving away up to 1,000,000 FREE* bumper stickers, so you can voice your choice in the 2012 Presidential Election.
Why? Because we're big fans of freedom, democracy, and the right to speak your mind. (We also like stars and stripes, baseball, and Mom's apple pie.)
And that means a bumper sticker for you, so choose wisely and get your vote in gear! (JUST PAY $1.25 SHIPPING)*No purchase necessary. Limit one free bumper sticker, per order, while supplies last. Please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery of free sticker. Free bumper sticker will have a shipping fee of $1.25 for U.S. shipping destinations. Promotion starts on March 6, 2012, at 12:00 a.m. (PST) and ends on July 15, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. (PST) unless one million maximum is reached sooner.
Some Romney email spam offered me a half-zip Romney 2012 fleece if I called/disturbed/annoyed 1,500 people to spread The Word. Not even a full-zip, Willard?!
Romney's campaign will have to spend big bucks in Ohio
As esteemed Republican war hero John McCain rightly pointed out, Willard Mitt Romney being bankrolled by Sheldon Adelson's communist Chinese gambling profits means Romney is using foreign money to try to win an American election.
I wonder what Sheldon Adelson will expect our current military heroes to do in return for his $100,000,000 investment in President Romney? He probably expects unconditional support of Israel, continued billions in aid to Israel and military intervention in case Iran goes after Israel. I am sure he is not expecting Romney to allow Casinos around the US, since those are state issues.
ganda said: ^^^ where's the anti-Romney sticker, cafepress?
Some Romney email spam offered me a half-zip Romney 2012 fleece if I called/disturbed/annoyed 1,500 people to spread The Word. Not even a full-zip, Willard?!
If the police think you are here illegally, the Surpreme Court has ruled they can ask you for your papers. If you are a citizen, you would not have these papers. Catch-22. Thanks Supreme Court.
^^^ well the obvious solution is everyone carries papers at all times and when ordered to "Show Me Your Papers" by the Gesta er Police, they comply. Unless you've got something to hide of course.
Disclaimer: By providing links to other sites, FatWallet.com does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to FatWallet.com.
Members of our community may attach files to a post in accordance with the User Agreement. FatWallet is not responsible for the content, accuracy, completeness or validity of any information contained in any attached file. Files have *not* been scanned for viruses. Be especially wary of Excel files which may contain malicious content.
One-time set up
Avoid the hassle of entering your information every time you buy.
•
Instant Cash Back tracking
Since we complete the purchase, we can credit your Cash Back immediately.
•
Buy with just two clicks
One click begins checkout and another confirms your purchase.
Once set up, making a purchase with FW checkout is a breeze. FatWallet Checkout confirms the after-tax
price plus shipping and, after you confirm, completes your purchase for you.
Shopping
Earn Cash Back while you shop - just 3 simple steps.
1. Sign Up so we know who to pay! (It's FREE.)
2. Shop through FatWallet for deals from your favorite stores. Your online purchases earn Cash Back that builds in your FatWallet account.
3. Get Paid by requesting a payment via check or PayPal.
FatWallet coupons help you save more when shopping online. Use our Coupons Search to browse coupons and offers from thousands of stores, gathered into one convenient location.
Forums
As part of our FatWallet Community, you can share deals with almost a million shoppers in our forums. Forum content is generated by consumers for consumers. Share deals, money-saving tips, and more. It's FREE, fun, and addicting.
Support
Our customer experience team is here around the clock - real people ready to assist.
