SuperJerk

For this I'll use some of my college textbooks. Here we go... The effects of Reagan's taxes and spending credit: Macroeconomics, 5th edition, by Byrns and Stone (1993), page 331. More on Reagan's taxes and spending credit: The American Past, Part 2: A Survey of American History Since 1865, 4th Edition, by Joseph R. Conlin (1993), page 835. Apparently, my dreams so POWERFUL that I can bring back BOOKS from them and scan them into my computer!

Care to provide a link to this info? I didn't use the internet as a source. I used several books. Proof of Reagan's tax hike credit: The Almanac of American History, edited by A.M. Schleshinger, Jr. (1992), page 614. Proof of Dole's involvement credit: The Congressional Quarterly's Annual Politics in America: Members of Congress in Washington and at Home, 1986, edited by Alan Ehrenhalt (1985), pages 561-562. I'm remembering the "the largest tax increase in American history" stuff from old newsclips that ran during the 1996 election. Steve Forbes was also really taking Dole to town on this issue. I'm sure if I searched the CNN archives long enough, I might be able to find some reference to it.

You gotta admit, the Bruce Prichard joke is pretty funny, too.

Lita's not that bad looking. True, her jaws a little too square and her eyes are really beady, but she's got an awesome body.

Here's how I'd fix Smackdown, starting with tonight's tapings: The police will come to the arena to arrest the Undertaker for murdering Paul Bearer. He is shot to death while attempting to resist arrest, possibly setting up another return at Summerslam. (Hey, that's not as crazy as other shit they've done lately.) Paul Heyman and the Dudley Boyz are arrested for criminal conspiracy just moments after dropping the Tag Team titles to Akio and Sakoda. The plan is for the charges to be dropped after a few weeks, as Bearer's only living relative (Kane) refuses to press charges. (Yeah, I know that's not how it works, but its the only way I could think of to keep them on TV.) Kurt Angle gets fired as general manager by Linda McMahon for allowing the criminal events at "The Great American Bash" to occur. Eddie Guerrero wins his rematch against JBL, and regains the WWE Title. JBL is named new GM by Linda McMahon, but JBL will not be allowed to wrestle as long as he is GM. GM JBL will name Kurt Angle number one contender on next week's show.

They did manage to postpone Smackdown and do a live Thursday show once before, but that was because of a huge, life-altering national emergency and all.

"Grappling with his future" By Wayne Drehs ESPN.com MINNEAPOLIS -- The cute and curvy blonde 20-something had no idea what she was getting herself into. In her barely-there halter-top and her glossy red lipstick, she slithered into the giant's arms, set her chin on his chest, looked up into his eyes and delivered the message she had been sent to ask. "My friend Shawn thinks you're kinda cute," she said. Brock Lesnar was a bigger-than-life star of professional wrestling, ... Not Shawna. Not Shana. Shawn. The 6-foot-3, 290-pound Goliath, the guy who benches 475 pounds, squats 695 pounds, steamed. "Yeah?" the former pro wrestler said, his voice growing louder, his eyes getting bigger. "Well you tell that ..." To print what Brock Lesnar said might make even John Rocker blush. But after his curse-laden outburst, he turned to a nearby reporter and explained, "I don't like gays. Write that down in your little notebook. I don't like gays." Offended? Too bad. He doesn't care what you think. What your mom thinks. Or what that guy at the end of the bar thinks, his sexual orientation not withstanding. Lesnar is a self-described "blue-collar redneck" who owns a 47-acre ranch and spends his free time jumping up and down on beds -- sometimes breaking them -- with his 2-year-old daughter, Mya. If he could choose only three television channels to watch, it'd be a 24-hour hunting and fishing network, The Weather Channel and The Penthouse Channel. "I'd be a happy man," he said. Instead, he's his own man. A man who loves contact. Aggression. And people telling him he can't do something. It's the reason he can walk away from a lucrative pro wrestling contract and not think twice. It's the reason he can stand in front of the world, tell everyone he's going to play in the NFL and not hear the critics that tell him he's nuts. While Steve McMichael (a former Chicago Bear), Bill Goldberg (the one-time Atlanta Falcon) and even Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (who played at the University of Miami) used successful football careers to catapult them onto the professional wrestling stage, Lesnar is trying to do just the opposite. Lesnar, the former NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion and the World Wrestling Entertainment's youngest champion ever, walked away from a seven-year, $45-million contract in March. In part because he was fed up with his wrestling persona, "The Next Big Thing." In part because he was sick of the travel. But mostly because of his lifelong dream to play professional football. Though an April motorcycle accident slowed his progress, Lesnar has spent the majority of the past three months training in Arizona, hoping to latch on with a team during summer camp, then spend a year or two on the practice squad on his way to becoming an NFL star. Think this is like Michael Jordan trying to hit a minor league curveball? Or Terrell Owens trying to prove that he's got the moves to play hoops in the United States Basketball League? "I'm not stupid. I know the NFL is a difficult world to crack," he says. "But I'll play defensive line to left out. I'm fighting every f------ play. I can fight for real. "If it was legal and I wouldn't get in trouble, I'd pick a fight on every street. If I wouldn't lose any money or nothing, I would fight. I'd fight every day." The Next Big Thing Nobody questions his tenacity. His strength. His pure athletic ability. A few weeks after his wrestling career came to an end with a Wrestlemania loss to Goldberg, Lesnar ran the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds, a blistering time for a man his size. He has a 10-foot standing broad jump. A 35-inch vertical leap, not to mention the bench and squat numbers. It's the tools of an NFL running back power packed into a gladiator's frame. ... who dreams of making it big in the NFL. "He's a pitbull," said Luke Richesson, Lesnar's trainer at the International Performance Institute in Phoenix. "The guy is going to turn every single practice into a damn dog fight. They say take it easy? That ain't going to be happening. When you think long term, I would never bet against him." Not everybody is sold. Lesnar last played football in 1995, as a high school lineman, running back and linebacker in South Dakota's small-school division, and received a handful of Division II scholarship offers. Eight years later, his football knowledge is raw. He's worked with former All-Pro Seth Joyner and Ty Parten, a former defensive lineman with the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals, to learn everything from the proper way to get into a three-point stance to how a defensive lineman drops back into pass coverage. "He probably knows less than a high school player because he hasn't played in so long," Parten said. "But he wants to learn more." Still, not many NFL teams have the time to teach him. Working in Lesnar's favor is the expansion of NFL practice squads from five to eight this season. Both the Indianapolis Colts and the Minnesota Vikings worked out Lesnar this month, though neither team has signed him. "He's a project. Big time," Vikings player personnel director Scott Studwell said. "As much as you'd like to take a shot on a guy like him because of his athletic history, do you do it at the expense of cutting another player? Probably not. At the expense of taking reps away from a promising young player? Probably not. With Brock, it's like you're starting from scratch." Football vs. Wrestling, Round 1 But Lesnar didn't turn his back on wrestling to fail at football. It was a redo. Five years ago, when he left the University of Minnesota as the NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion, the same two options were put in front of him: Football or wrestling. “As much as you'd like to take a shot on a guy like him because of his athletic history, do you do it at the expense of cutting another player? Probably not. At the expense of taking reps away from a promising young player? Probably not. With Brock, it's like you're starting from scratch. ” — Scott Studwell, Vikings player personnel director Gopher alumn Tony Dungy, then the head coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wanted him to try out for the NFL. At the same time, Vince McMahon, who owns what has since become known as WWE, saw Lesnar as the future of pro wrestling. He offered him guaranteed money. And career stability. "As a starving college kid, what are you going to do?" Lesnar said. "Money on the table, a sure thing, versus a wild card. Are you kidding me? It was a no-brainer." Lesnar became the quickest champion in WWE history, and soon had all the fame and fortune any kid from Webster, S.D., could ever want. But the unexpected birth of his daughter to a girlfriend he's no longer dating, combined with the 280-plus days a year on the road -- often in a different city every night -- wore on him. He looked at the older wrestlers, guys like Ric Flair and the Undertaker, and saw how much they missed their families. He didn't like the direction of his wrestling persona, and he couldn't get any straight answers out of McMahon. So after a South African tour in which he spent 50 hours on a plane to wrestle four different nights, he blew up and quit. "I think Vince thought I'd change my mind and come back," Lesnar said. "But it wasn't going to happen. "I was at the top of my game in wrestling, I was a three-time champion, I had pretty good coin in my pocket. What was stopping me? A set of nuts. You either nut up or you don't. So I did." Against the odds Now comes the challenge of making it pay off. Studwell puts the odds of Lesnar making an NFL team and having a successful pro career at "less than 50 percent." Complicating matters was an April motorcycle accident in which Lesnar broke his jaw, fractured his left hand, severely pulled his groin and suffered tissue damage in his lower abdomen. His testicles were swollen and bruised for weeks. "Any other sorry sucker who went through that," Lesnar said, "his carcass would still be laying there. He'd be six feet under pushing daisies up. I'm still here." After the accident, Lesnar's hard-nosed, gotta-play-hurt mentality kept his body from healing. On two separate occasions, NFL workouts had to be postponed because of complications following the accident. "My mentality was to push through, but nothing could have been worse," Lesnar said. "Now, the main goal is just to get healthy. To get my body back to 100 percent so I can sign with a team, get into camp and show what I can do." One of the biggest concerns is Lesnar's age. At 26, he's a good five years older than most NFL rookies. If it takes Lesnar two years on the practice squad and spending the offseason playing in NFL Europe to learn the game -- a conservative estimate by most scouts -- he won't be ready to contribute until he's 28. "At that point, you have to ask yourself if he's past his prime," Studwell said. "Because you've lost some critical years in a football career." But the transition has been done before. Stephen Neal, who beat Lesnar for the 1999 NCAA heavyweight title as a senior at Cal-State Bakersfield, is a reserve offensive lineman with the New England Patriots. Without any college football experience, he was signed as a non-drafted free agent at the age of 24. If not for a shoulder injury suffered during the preseason, he would have started last year. "The one thing that blows coaches away is every single time he does a drill, he'll get better," Neal said. "If Brock goes in there with the approach that he knows nothing and can soak everything up like a sponge, it's just a matter of time." The big question Heads turn when Lesnar walks into a trendy downtown Minneapolis restaurant, his tight blue T-shirt and baggy khakis clinging to him with his every stride. “ All that talk is jealousy. I don't need anything to get me up at the gym other than Metallica and AC/DC. When it comes down to it, bring your little piss cup and I will fill it for you. ” — Brock Lesnar But the question is nothing new. Neither are the looks. He says they've been there since high school. Yet Lesnar insists he's never used steroids. He points to the fact that he started working out when he was 6 years old, enduring three hernias as a child after trying to replicate his older brother's workouts, as the reason his body developed as it has. He says he was tested for steroids by his college coach, J Robinson, by the NCAA at the national championships and by the WWE. Not once, he says, did he test positive. Because of the stigma that comes along with professional wrestlers, Lesnar said he plans to submit himself for drug testing as part of the NFL's pre-employment screening process. "All that talk is jealousy. I don't need anything to get me up at the gym other than Metallica and AC/DC," Lesnar said. "When it comes down to it, bring your little piss cup and I will fill it for you." A summer of change The next month is critical for Lesnar's dream. NFL camps open in July, meaning he has less than a month to impress a team, sign a free-agent contract and get ready for camp. Once there, the biggest challenge begins -- learning the playbook. He'll be stereotyped as the physical freak that talks lots of trash but isn't quite sure how to get into his three-point stance. He'll have gone from one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling, the center of the spotlight, to a nobody. Once the guy everybody knows, he'll become the guy that wears a piece of masking tape across his helmet to identify who he is. The odds are against him. His road is long. But just like that night in the club, when he not-so-politely told the 20-something girl he wasn't interested in her male friend, he doesn't care. He's doing this his way. "This is not some half-assed shot to see what I can do and try to make the NFL," Lesnar said. "For me, this is balls out, 100 percent. "And I plan on knocking the snot out of somebody." credit: ESPN.com

I thought Chris Benoit was God I stand corrected.

Thank God for Chris Benoit.

How is that worse? I could actually buy those guys as champs (or, at least, they look life they could be champs), whereas Bradshaw brings nothing to the table except an uncanny ability to sound like a jerk (i.e. play himself).

Good point.

Thursday's show needs to open with Undertaker (as a biker) waking up and finding Paul Bearer in his shower. It was all a dream.

Yeah, but even under those circumstances, he's more deserving than Bradshaw. No, he's not. But at one point, Edge was being groomed for a top spot, but those plans were shelved. Vince had the good sense to put the brakes on that, but lacked the good sense to put the brakes on Bradshaw. That's why I included him. With the right gimmick, I could've seen him at least as a transitional champion. He was 45 in 2001. My understanding was that Vince had a chance to grab him when WCW folded, but wasn't interested, so Steiner was good enough to drop the strap to Booker on the last Nitro. His look and mic skills could've been enough to get him over as champ, like they did in WCW. While not the best champion, he's at least a beleivable World champion. JJ > JBL. Someone took their cranky pills.

News about the PPV: Great American Bash Booking Mix-Up It seems as the though the storyline notes used to book tonight's "Great American Bash" pay-per-view were not, in fact, storyline notes. They were actually pages from a journal that Bruce Prichard writes all of his dreams down in. Fortunately the audience was spared having the top babyface show up to school to take a test he hadn't studied for, while being naked the entire time. Plans are for the entire PPV, as well as the last year of storylines, to be undone with Thursday's show opening with Undertaker (as a biker) waking up and finding Paul Bearer in his shower. It had also been confirmed that, despite the use of cowbell at the GAB PPV, Christopher Walken is not working for WWE at this time. credit: ifuckinghatesmackdown.gov Okay, not really...

The WWE Title, with all of its lineage, has been handed to someone with no talent, past their prime, and will not draw. Let's consider, momentarily, all of the deserving men who were denied the WWWFE Title over the years, all of whom would have been more deserving than Bradshaw. Sure, there have been some flukes before, but with those I could at least understand why they were given the chance. I just don't see that with Bradshaw. In no particular order: Roddy Piper Davey Boy Smith Chris Benoit Vader Rob Van Dam Booker T Edge Scott Hall Tito Santana Mr. Perfect Ted DiBiase Jeff Jarrett Scott Steiner Terry Funk Diamond Dallas Page Pat Patterson Jimmy Snuka Jesse Ventura The Dynamite Kid Owen Hart Ricky Fucking Steamboat I'm sure I'll think of about ten other guys who've worked for McMahon that'd were found "not worthy" for whatever bullshit reason.

So, of course, the answer is to push more big slugs with borderline talent, rather than a faster, more athletic product. The next WWE Champion.

I think its conceivable that Lesnar made $10 million during the entire time he was working for WWE, but not $10 million a year (as someone cited earlier). Various media outlets have reported different figures.

The point was that Meltzer doesn't really "know" what Lesnar made, just what his guarantee was.

^It is a cop-out to pass the buck to someone else.^ Thankfully, our good friend A MikeSC did manage to step up to the plate and attempt to prove his points, despite the earlier attempts to pass the buck to Stephen Joseph. You are correct, but they support the conservative economic agenda. They are conservative in that regard. The tax cuts of 1981 and 2001 failed to do so. Actually, I just wanted an excuse to show off that neat chart. Reagan proposed a cumulative total of $7.3576 trillion dollars. The Congress passed $7.5549 trillion dollars. If the budgets that were passed were so against what Reagan wanted WHY DID HE SIGN THEM INTO LAW? The budgets that were passed were the result of Reagan compromising with the House of Representatives (controlled by the Democrats) and the Senate (controlled by Republicans!!!!). Reagan proposed a cumulative total of $7.3576 trillion dollars. The Congress passed $7.5549 trillion dollars. Thats a 2.6% difference. 2.6%!!!! WOW. That'd have really put a dent in the national debt!!!! [/sarcasm] Besides, if the budgets that were passed were so against what Reagan wanted WHY DID HE SIGN THEM INTO LAW? Why did he sign them into law EIGHT TIMES? There wasn't that much difference between what Reagan signed and what he proposed. Social spending was cut, while revenue going to the military increased, just like he wanted. Are those in inflation adjusted dollars? If revenue goes up, but the value of the currency goes porportionally down, then no real increase has occurred. I have already shown, though, that revenue did not double because of a tax cut. In terms of inflation adjusted dollars, revenues didn't match what they had before the tax cut until two years after Reagan's tax increase. Did I mention that Reagan raised taxes in 1982? At the time it was called "the largest tax increase in American history," and was sponsored by Bob Dole. His policies created them, therefore it is his fault. Reagan agreed to and signed every single budget he was sent during that time. But, you're right, we can't just blame the tax cuts. The spending increases Reagan proposed must also be blamed. Social spending was cut, while revenue going to the military increased, just like he wanted. Reagan got what he wanted in the 1980s, not the Democrats.

All I can say is that its about damn time.

Mick Foley was actually friendly with Sting and sports figures tend to make the numbers known themselves for bragging purposes. If Meltzer says one number, and Brock's agent says another number, I'd tend to believe the guy who actually knows and represents Brock, rather than the reporter.

All this time I thought she was in the Terri Runnels "employed for life" category. We're officially calling her "LeVesque" now? Any clue on pronunciation? Times like these make me glad I have the internet. God bless the IWC. God bless Dave Meltzer.

That was such a cop-out. Hardly a cop-out. You feel that you can prove lower tax rates DON'T lead to higher revenues. knock yourself out. I have, you know, the 1980's to disprove it. -=Mike Republicans like to claim that Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue to the government in the 80s, but the reality is that revenue only increased after Reagan raised taxes in 1983. Yup. The only person I've read who discussed this tax hike is Paul Krugman, who I couldn't conceivably trust less. I'll go with the Cato Institute's study of his record, which tends to contradict Krugman's nicely. -=Mike No "anaylsis" is necessary. The tax increase is a matter of public record. The Cato Institute is a conservative propaganda machine. If you want to trust their "analysis" of Reagan's tax policy, then you're guilty of only listening to sources that confirm what you want to hear. Now, onto the matter at hand... The supply-side argument that tax cuts can increase additional government revenue is based on the Laffer Curve theory, proposed by economist Arthur Laffer. Even the Laffer Curve acknowledges that tax cuts do not increase revenue all of the time (hence the name "Laffer Curve" rather than "Laffer Slope"). credit: Macroeconomics (5th edition) by Byrnes and Stone. See? If the tax base were unaffected by the tax rate, tax revenue would be exactly porportional to tax rates, as demonstrated by figure T0. By moving "x" too far to the right on the graph (no pun intended), revenues will drop. Admittedly, this idea is usually lost on most liberals. The point lost on most conservatives is that by shifting "x" too far to the left and decreasing rates too much, revenue will also decrease. Therefore, theory does not support the idea that EVERY TIME taxes are cut, revenue increases. I actually beleive that the Laffer Curve is a good economic theory, but it is abuse of the theory to suggest that EVERY TIME taxes are cut, revenue is increased (as you said in your post). For example, the top tax rate in 1964 was 91%. When it was lowered to 70%, revenue did grow. When Reagan had taxes cut in 1981 and 2001, revenues decreased. However in 1982, 1990 and 1993, the government raised taxes and revenues also grew. Therefore, it is logical to deduce that there is a perfect point at which government can set tax rates and get the maximum amount of revenue. However, as I said before, it is abuse of the Laffer Curve theory to suggest that EVERY TIME taxes are cut, revenue is increased. Clinton's 1993 tax increase did lead to increased government revenue. Just to drive my point home further... Red = deficit Black = surplus Notice how the red bars are always get bigger when Republicans are in charge? COINCIDENCE?

That was such a cop-out. Hardly a cop-out. You feel that you can prove lower tax rates DON'T lead to higher revenues. knock yourself out. I have, you know, the 1980's to disprove it. -=Mike Republicans like to claim that Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue to the government in the 80s, but the reality is that revenue only increased after Reagan raised taxes in 1982. Look it up.

That was such a cop-out. Back on topic: there was no reason for the laywers for Jones to ask so many questions about Lewinski except to entrap him in future perjury charges.