Azalin

or even one that's not balanced.

why not? everything else is, right?

I thought this might be interesting for comparison's sake: CNN's timeline of the 1995 government shutdown, beginning in August of 1995. http://www.cnn.com/US/9512/budget/budget_battle/index.html I don't remember that one as being anywhere near as nasty as the current shutdown has become.

sage advice. I am purged.

I'm truly troubled with the concept of 'chewy cattle sperm'. E-I-E-I-Oh yeah, baby.....

I was apparently blind to how badly I was being victimized. at the time, it just seemed like hard work that anyone was capable of doing.

not necessarily.....don't overlook the entertainment factor.

if you think so then you are infinitely more mentally bereft than I had presumed you to be.

you sound like one of those same weirdos that I was who actually liked reading books and learning things.

and thus we have McDonald's, Burger King, landscaping, retail sales, etc. as long as you approach it intelligently, it's much easier nowadays to become skilled and get a start in a decent career than it's been at other times in the past. I used to be a cook with only a high school diploma and I went to tech school when I was 32 because I was sick of not earning a decent living. there were guaranteed student loans available (of which I am a big proponent), so I took advantage of them, working full time and going to school full time at night. it was hard work, but unless you're born into a wealthy family, it's going to require hard work to succeed no matter what you do.

that analogy is false. congress uses baseline budgeting every year when passing a budget, which automatically adds around 7% (currently) to the annual budget to account for inflation and other factors. and the senate hasn't even passed a budget for over 4 years, because that would force them to actually enumerate their proposed expenditures for the rest of the nation to see. instead they hide behind continued resolutions to fund their agenda. pathetic.

that's absolutely correct, especially with regard to unskilled labor, such as working an assembly line or call-in customer support. those jobs that have moved overseas aren't coming back, and more will continue to leave the US as long as foreign labor markets remain inexpensive.

I'd been away from here for a long time, and I was a bit shocked at the degree of rudeness with which people address eachother here nowadays. it didn't take me long to appreciate it, though....both for the humor of it as well as for the freedom to vent.

hell, I've seen some posts here where it would be considered a kindness to call the authors 'fools'

I'm tempted, but I'm not very good at arguing a point I don't believe in. then again, insults are allowed......

I understand that. what I'm asking, in as non-partisan a way as I know how to do, is how they can legally get away with it, and who, if anyone, has the authority to take action against them? if they take an oath swearing to uphold & defend the constitution and then ignore it whan it's politically convenient for them to do so, aren't they in violation of their oath of office?

these battles over continuing resolutions & shutting down the government are obviously used as a way for one party to gain political 'one-upsmanship' over the other, but what I'd like to know is this: if the senate is constitutionally required to pass an anual budget, how can they legally get away with not doing so? I realize that there would be the same kind of battles over passing a budget as there is with passing a continuing resolution, but at least with a budget they would be providing an enumeration of their proposed expenditures (which I imagine is why they're going with continuing resolutions) for everyone to see. if not passing an annual budget is unconstitutional, how can they keep doing it?

my friend was telling me last night that once the ACA went into effect, he lost his health insurace coverage with HAAM (the health alliance for Austin musicians) since he earns more than 11K per year.

I only read the first set of reader comments, but not a single one of them felt any sympathy at all for the greenies. this may provide a valuable life lesson for them. "They had never expected that they would face such consequences for their peaceful protest in a democratic state."

give them a little time....sooner or later they'll try blaming the access issues on sabotage by right wing extremists.

I couldn't possibly agree with you more. electrolytes!!!

I can't help but wonder if they thought that the whole incident would just blow over, or if they figured that their parents would take care of it for them? they were given a chance to come back and help repair the damage they'd done (and have a barbecue too) and only one kid showed up? I hope that one kid is at least partially exempted from retribution, and that all the rest get the book thrown at them.

why do some people throw rocks at cars? why do they make whoopie cushions and remote control fart machines? the answer is basically the same. it's purely to get a rise out of us and to have fun at our expense. there are some striking similarities between gatorboy and someone else who used to post here. the last few replies of mine to him were intended to gague his response, and he behaved very much as I would have expected him to. whether or not my suspicions are correct, he is obviously trying to bait as many of us as he can into ridiculous or futile arguements, purely for his own entertainment. personally, I don't think he even makes a good cat toy, and I don't think he believes a tenth of what he says.

'I think you're an idiot, therefore you are'. Descartes, paraphrased

no, the obvious solution is to take even more money out of a struggling economy via taxation in order to create even more paper-pushing bureaucrats. you can apparently never have too many bureaucrats. just ask any democrat....they'll tell you.