Big Ol' Smitty

Numerous studies show that minorities who land their jobs through affirmative action are not less qualified than their colleagues.

But discrimination is still very widespread according to social science data.

White males do not lose the right to be hired for high-paying jobs; qualified women and minorities gain that right. True, awarding these rights will deprive some white males of their unfair chance to gain a high-paying job. But they should have never had such undue privilege in the first place, and taking it from them is not a violation of their rights.

Affirmative Action is not meant to help blacks because of the color of their skin, but because they deserve compensation for past and continuing injustices.

^^^directed to 2Gold

You make very good points and I pretty much agree with everything you said. I just don't know if the country is really enlightened enough to hire fairly without affirmative action.

Affirmative action works by determining what percentage of qualified women and minorities are available to a company, and then setting a goal for hiring that percentage. For example, suppose a minority makes up 30 percent of the local population, but only 15 percent are qualified for the company's jobs. The goal for the company is 15 percent, not 30 percent. And if the company makes a good-faith effort to reach this goal but fails, then it incurs no legal penalty -- the goal is simply reset for the next year, and the next, and the next, if need be. The courts step in with quotas only in the case of blatant discrimination against clearly qualified minorities.

My friend and I almost got into a fistfight over the game. It's great though.

Hey I have a question. How do you get progress up with your girlfriends quickly? I am at a point in the game where I can't progress with the storyline until I score with this chick. Whenever I do a date it just barely takes my progress up. What gives?

Tom Coburn - Oklahoma The former doctor and three-term Congressman elected during the "Gingrich Revolution" of 1994 is undoubtedly the most right-wing member of his new Senate class. Coburn called his campaign against conservative Democrat Brad Carson "a battle of good vs. evil," suggested blacks have a genetic disposition toward a shorter life expectancy, and said "lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom." Most noteworthy, Coburn favors "the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life," explaining his ardent opposition by noting how his great-grandmother was raped by a territorial sheriff. Not surprisingly, he earned a 97 percent lifetime approval rating from the American Conservative Union (ACU). Jim DeMint - South Carolina A fellow three-term fundamentalist Christian Congressman, DeMint caused an uproar in his race against Democrat Inez Tenenbaum by saying that homosexuals and pregnant women with live-in boyfriends should be forbidden to teach in public schools. He opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest and doesn't think gays should be able to adopt. A virulent supporter of strong national defense and unfettered free trade, DeMint told his opponents in a Republican primary debate to "stop whining about job losses." He advocates a flat federal income tax and co- sponsored a bill in the House to raise the national sales tax to a whopping 23 percent. DeMint matched Coburn's 97 percent lifetime rating from the ACU. Mel Martinez - Florida President Bush's former Housing Secretary earned rebukes from the state press for his dirty campaigning in the GOP primary and general election. The St. Petersburg Times took the unprecedented step of revoking its endorsement of Martinez after he ran ads calling his opponent--conservative Republican Bill McCollum--"the new darling of homosexual extremists" and "antifamily" for supporting bipartisan federal hate crime legislation and expanded stem cell research. Martinez accused his opponent in the general election--former state superintendent Betty Castor-- of allowing a "terrorist cell" at the University of South Florida, allegedly run by professor Sami Al-Arian. John Thune - South Dakota In his successful bid to knock off Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, the three- term Congressman pulled out every dirty trick in the book. In addition to illegally intimidating Native American voters, his campaign employed the "Southern Strategy" by sending out mailings reading "The dogs are lining up to vote for Tom Daschle,"--a reference to old racist store signs that used to say "No Dogs or Indians Allowed." As if blatant racism wasn't enough, Republicans sent out "Vote for Daschle and Vote for Sodomy" stickers to churches across the state. Finally, six South Dakota Republican campaign workers, including Thune's nephew, were forced to resign after forging absentee ballots, but later dispatched to help run ground operations for the GOP in Ohio. Thune would make Tony Soprano proud. David Vitter - Louisiana This far-right, family-values, three-term Congressman becomes the first Republican Senator elected in Louisiana since Reconstruction. As Vitter prepared to run for governor in 2002, the secretary of the Jefferson Parish Republican Party accused him of an 11-month affair with a prostitute. He denied the allegations but withdrew from the governor's race due to marital problems. Two years later Vitter--whom Charles Pierce calls "a polite David Duke"--ran for the Senate opposing all forms of abortion, gun control and affirmative action, prompting cries of racism in the heavily-African American state. He also ran possibly the most ludicrous ad of the political season, showing UN troops from Libya, North Korea and Cuba taking over Louisiana elections and lowering the American flag. Vitter even outdid his formidable arch-conservative colleagues by scoring a perfect 100 from the ACU in 2002, for a lifetime average of 93. Here they are folks. Your crazy new leaders. Get used to them. Source: The Nation

...I actually didn't think older people becoming Republicans had anything to do with getting jobs. I thought it was just kind of giving up on life and getting fat and complacent.

^^^^^^^ Proving his point

This may be a dumb question but... What if the people of Iraq elect an Islamic fundamentalist regime?

I didn't claim anything...it just looks bad. Also, I would like an explanation of why the results are so much higher for Bush than exit polling ONLY in states with electronic voting with no paper trails.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/ballotsohiosmall.jpg?CLICK ^^^^ those are votes from a primarily democratic district in Ohio being loaded by that person into that truck with that Bush/Cheney sticker

*braces for flaming* Prior to the election, Bush criticized exit polling in swing states. In every state that uses non-electronic voting or e-voting with paper trails, the exit polls match up with the official results pretty evenly. In states that use e-voting with no paper trails, Bush is doing significantly better than what the exit polls indicate. Plus it appears as if CNN has changed their exit polling numbers to better coincide with the official results. I'll throw out this article as well: Published on Thursday, August 28, 2003 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer Voting Machine Controversy by Julie Carr Smyth COLUMBUS - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election. O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington. The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election. Blackwell's announcement is still in limbo because of a court challenge over the fairness of the selection process by a disqualified bidder, Sequoia Voting Systems. In his invitation letter, O'Dell asked guests to consider donating or raising up to $10,000 each for the federal account that the state GOP will use to help Bush and other federal candidates - money that legislative Democratic leaders charged could come back to benefit Blackwell. They urged Blackwell to remove Diebold from the field of voting-machine companies eligible to sell to Ohio counties. This is the second such request in as many months. State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, a Dayton-area Republican, asked Blackwell in July to disqualify Diebold after security concerns arose over its equipment. "Ordinary Ohioans may infer that Blackwell's office is looking past Diebold's security issues because its CEO is seeking $10,000 donations for Blackwell's party - donations that could be made with statewide elected officials right there in the same room," said Senate Democratic Leader Greg DiDonato. Diebold spokeswoman Michelle Griggy said O'Dell - who was unavailable to comment personally - has held fund-raisers in his home for many causes, including the Columbus Zoo, Op era Columbus, Catholic Social Services and Ohio State University. Ohio GOP spokesman Jason Mauk said the party approached O'Dell about hosting the event at his home, the historic Cotswold Manor, and not the other way around. Mauk said that under federal campaign finance rules, the party cannot use any money from its federal account for state- level candidates. "To think that Diebold is somehow tainted because they have a couple folks on their board who support the president is just unfair," Mauk said. Griggy said in an e-mail statement that Diebold could not comment on the political contributions of individual company employees. Blackwell said Diebold is not the only company with political connections - noting that lobbyists for voting-machine makers read like a who's who of Columbus' powerful and politically connected. "Let me put it to you this way: If there was one person uniquely involved in the political process, that might be troubling," he said. "But there's no one that hasn't used every legitimate avenue and bit of leverage that they could legally use to get their product looked at. Believe me, if there is a political lever to be pulled, all of them have pulled it." Blackwell said he stands by the process used for selecting voting machine vendors as fair, thorough and impartial. As of yesterday, however, that determination lay with Ohio Court of Claims Judge Fred Shoemaker. He heard closing arguments yesterday over whether Sequoia was unfairly eliminated by Blackwell midway through the final phase of negotiations. Shoemaker extended a temporary restraining order in the case for 14 days, but said he hopes to issue his opinion sooner than that. © 2003 The Plain Dealer I'm just sayin' is all... (removes tin foil hat)

More brilliance.

Lovely. You are one sick partisan fuck.

I feel that. I need to start stocking up on sweaters and learnin' me some hockey.

Dude, Bunning is beating himself. He has done so much dumb shit during this campaign that he has made almost impossible to vote for him. Saying his opponent looks like Saddam's sons? Not showing up for a debate at the last minute and then reading off a teleprompter as he debated via sattelite? Come on, man. Even a diehard partisan can see that the blown lead is his fault.

I don't think that is the goal of most of the Islamist terrorists--at least they don't want to "convert" the US. Muslim society has historically been more tolerant of minority religions than Christian society.

Wait a minute...I thought the root cause of terrorism was the terrorists' hatred of our freedom?!?! So...confused...

In 1996, Harvard and Berkeley published separate studies that examined income inequality in all 50 states. According to Bruce Kennedy, the lead researcher of the Harvard study, "The size of the gap between the wealthy and less well-off, as distinct from the absolute standard of living enjoyed by the poor, appears to be related to mortality." Both studies found that states with higher income inequality have all the following social problems: Higher death rates for all age groups. Higher rates of homicide. Higher rates of violent crime. Higher costs per person for police protection. Higher rates of incarceration. Higher rates of unemployment. A higher percentage of people receiving income assistance and food stamps. More high-school dropouts. Less state funds spent per person on education. Fewer books per person in the schools. Poorer educational performance, including worse reading skills, worse math skills. Higher infant mortality rates. Higher heart disease. Higher cancer rates. A greater percentage of people without medical insurance. A greater proportion of babies born with low birth weight. A greater proportion of the population unable to work because of disabilities. A higher proportion of the population using tobacco. A higher proportion of the population being sedentary (inactive). Higher costs per-person for medical care.

^^^ I meant tone, not "tome".

So you're not even going to address the content of the articles, then? And I assume the tome of the above would be characterized as "dismissive," perhaps "disdainful"?