Wal-Mart Still Aiming At D.C. Area

“Earlier this year, we read that Wal-Mart had designated the Washington area as a “Jobs and Opportunity Zone” (JOZ). Basically, the JOZ program is a way for Wal-Mart to spread some money around large urban centers and buy the love of a few small businesses that threaten to block future Wal-Mart stores who fear they would squash local business and drive down wages and benefits. A little money now, a few supercenters later - at least that’s the idea.”

Here are some urban results from the Bush/WalMart economy and the aggregating effects…

L.A. seeing more people living out of their cars

By CHRISTINA HOAG, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 23, 2:48 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Having lost her job and her three-bedroom house, Darlene Knoll has joined the legions of downwardly mobile who are four wheels away from homelessness.

She is living out of her shabby 1978 RV, and every night she has to look for a place to park where she won’t get hassled by the cops or insulted by residents.

“I’m not a piece of trash,” the former home health-care aide said as she stroked one of five dogs in her cramped quarters parked in the waterfront community of Marina del Rey.

Amid the foreclosure crisis and the shaky economy, some California cities are seeing an increase in the number of people living out of their cars, vans or RVs.

Acting on complaints from homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council got tough earlier this year by forbidding nearly all overnight parking in residential neighborhoods such as South Brentwood.

But some people are just crowding into other parts of the city, including the seaside community of Venice, where dozens of rusty, dilapidated campers can be seen lined up outside neat single-family homes. The stench of urine emanates from a few of the vehicles, and some residents say they have seen human waste left behind.

“They’re nasty and gnarly,” said Venice resident Jeff Scharlin. “We’ve heard about drug dealing and prostitution in them. I’ve never seen it, but visually they’re a blight and they take up parking space.”

In Los Angeles, as in many other cities, it is illegal to live in vehicles on public streets. But the law is not easy to enforce. Police have to enter a vehicle to find signs that people are living there, such as cooking or sleeping, and occupants often refuse to answer when cops knock.

An easier way is to restrict overnight parking. In L.A., a first offense carries a $50 fine, and subsequent violations can cost as much as $100.

Parking-enforcement officers often give vehicle owners a warning and tell them to move on before issuing a ticket, and that usually solves the problem, said Alan Willis, a city transportation engineer. But other cities in the area are not as lenient.

“I had my motor home towed in Culver City. It cost me $500 to get it out,” said Desiri Hawkins, who lives in a small RV in Venice. “I got ticketed in Santa Monica and had to go to court.”

Tourist states with temperate climates, such as California and Florida, have long been magnets for the homeless. Los Angeles is the nation’s homelessness capital, with an estimated 73,000 people on the streets. A survey of 3,230 homeless people last year in Los Angeles County found nearly 7 percent living in vehicles, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

“It’s trending toward an increase,” said Michael Stoop, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. “People would rather live in a vehicle than wind up in a shelter, and you can’t stay on a friend’s couch forever.”

People living out of their cars or campers tend to be more well-off than the homeless on the street. They usually have jobs or disability checks that enable them to maintain an old camper but do not allow them to afford rent.

continued…

“For more working-class and lower-middle-class people, the car is the first stop of being homeless, and sometimes it turns out to be a long stop,” said Gary Blasi, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor and activist on homeless issues.

Some Venice residents are clamoring for overnight parking restrictions. But parking limits in oceanfront neighborhoods are problematic because the California Coastal Commission requires communities to accommodate surfers, fishermen and other early-morning beach goers.

“The complaints are getting louder and louder,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

For years, some cities such as Santa Barbara, Calif., and Eugene, Ore., have accommodated people who live out of their vehicles. Activists in Venice are looking at some of those ideas. Santa Barbara, for example, allows vehicles to stay from 7 p.m to 7 a.m. in church and city parking lots.

Knoll said she can barely afford to drive around with the rising price of gasoline eating away at the $950 monthly disability check she receives because of mental illness.

She said she is also sick of police waking her up in the wee hours by pounding on her vehicle with their nightsticks, and she is tired of fighting with residents who call her “lowlife scum” and hurl other insults.

“We need somewhere we can have a safe haven, where we won’t be harassed,” Knoll said as the wind from a passing car rocked her RV. “I never thought I’d be living like this, but I’m stuck. This is it for me.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_re_us/mobile_homeless

Where are the WalMart parking lot/vomit garden invitations for campers and RV folks when you really need them?

...the entire budget for the program is five hundred thousand dollars over two years.

Chump change.

Where are the WalMart parking lot/vomit garden invitations for campers and RV folks when you really need them?

I can see it now, Wal-Mart parking lots across the country full of people living in their burned out cars. Of course, we won’t be “safe”, the crime in Wal-Mart parking lots is worse than average.

Signs and placards everywhere:

Wal-Mart did this to us! and…

What’s good for Wal-Mart is BAD for America

Ken V: Coming home to roost?

SDV,

“designated the Washington area”

What does what’s happening in LA, have to do with Washinton?

“accommodated people who live out of their vehicles.”

I believe that the reason these people are living out of their cars, has to do with the ‘sub-prime’ problem, which Wal-Mart had nothing to do with, remember, they weren’t allowed in banking!!

Ken V,

“full of people living in their burned out cars.”

Wow, not only are they living out of cars, but, BURNED OUT CARS, nice ‘scare tactic’!!

How LOW will you people sink with your hate for Wal-Mart?  How are you going to tie high oil prices to Wal-Mart, because that will probably be next?  It’s hard to believe, that you can blame Wal-Mart for ALL of the world’s ills!!  How about the China earthquake, was that Wal-Mart’s fault too?

Through its “Jobs and Opportunity Zones” (JOZ) program, Wal-Mart works with local businesses and suppliers to spur job creation and economic development in the community. Wal-Mart has partnered with local chambers of commerce, business groups, minority chambers of commerce and minority and women-owned businesses within 10 designated zones – each anchored by a Wal-Mart store – to direct hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to these communities. The JOZs are: Chicago; Cleveland; Decatur, Ga.; East Hills, Pa.; El Mirage, Ariz.; Indianapolis; Landover Hills, Md.; Portsmouth, Va.; Richmond, Calif.; and Sanger, Calif. Nine of the 10 JOZ anchor stores have opened. The remaining zone is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2009 in East Hills, Pa.• ~~~~~~~~~~~~WalMart Corporate media facts~~~~~Note: How much tax write off does WalMart get for any new jobs created in these zones?Would WalMart receive this benefit? I know that Enterprise Zone benefits garner at least $2500 per new job created.Interestingly,and coincidentally, both Chicago AND D.C. City Councils have introduced guidelines for “living wage” requirements for “Big Box” stores(.Also, I’d like to add that Illinois is the state that has the WalMart REIT in Italy. )

I believe that the reason these people are living out of their cars, has to do with the ‘sub-prime’ problem, which Wal-Mart had nothing to do with, remember, they weren’t allowed in banking!!

I’ll one-up that one for you, RDS - the subject of the article was living in Southern Califonia - one of the most expensive areas in the U.S. to call “home”.

To blame the subprime mess on Wal-Mart is just plain stupid…

WEEKEND EDITION
Brokers threatened by run on shadow bank system
Regulators eye $10 trillion market that boomed outside traditional banking
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
Last update: 2:37 p.m. EDT June 20, 2008SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—A network of lenders, brokers and opaque financing vehicles outside traditional banking that ballooned during the bull market now is under siege as regulators threaten a crackdown on the so-called shadow banking system.
Big brokerage firms like Goldman Sachs (GS:Goldman Sachs Group, Lehman Brothers , Morgan Stanleyand Merrill Lynch (MER:Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc

, which some say are the biggest players in this non-bank financial network, may have the most to lose from stricter regulation.
The shadow banking system grew rapidly during the past decade, accumulating more than $10 trillion in assets by early 2007. That made it roughly the same size as the traditional banking system, according to the Federal Reserve.
While this system became a huge and vital source of money to fuel the U.S. economy, the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing credit crunch exposed a major flaw. Unlike regulated banks, which can borrow directly from the government and have federally insured customer deposits, the shadow system didn’t have reliable access to short-term borrowing during times of stress.
Unless radical changes are made to bring this shadow network under an updated regulatory umbrella, the current crisis may be just a gust compared to the storm that would follow a collapse of the global financial system, experts warn.
Such vulnerability helped transform what may have been an uncomfortable correction in credit markets into the worst global credit crunch in more than a decade as monetary policymakers and regulators struggled to contain the damage.
Unless radical changes are made to bring this shadow network under an updated regulatory umbrella, the current crisis may be just a gust compared to the storm that would follow a collapse of the global financial system, experts warn.
“The shadow banking system model as practiced in recent years has been discredited,” Ramin Toloui, executive vice president at bond investment giant Pimco, said.
Toloui expects greater regulation of big brokerage firms which may face stricter capital requirements and requirements to hold more liquid, or easily sellable, assets.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Note: The Walton Family and Goldman Sachs recently invested $1 Billion dollars in the Pritzker family’s hotel chain,Hyatt.(Commentary on earlier threads re:Greg Penner.

To blame the subprime mess on Wal-Mart is just plain stupid…

Sure it is. Besides, I didn’t blame the sub-prime mess on Wal-Mart. I blamed Wal-Mart for the global race to the bottom. The sub-prime crash is merely a reflection of that over-all downward spiral.

...nice ‘scare tactic’!!

Thanks, RDS, but when it comes to scare tactics you Republicans are masters.

A fresh terrorist attack “certainly would be a big advantage to him (McCain).” ~ Charlie Black

“How LOW will you people sink with your hate for Wal-Mart? RDS

There’s one thing you can count on RDS… our opinions of Wal-Mart will be low--- Always!

Ken V,

“Thanks, RDS, but when it comes to scare tactics you Republicans are masters.

A fresh terrorist attack “certainly would be a big advantage to him (McCain).” ~ Charlie Black”

So, are you saying that all of the terrorist plots that have been uncovered around the world, since 9/11, were all just Republican ‘scare tactics”?  Is Osama Bin Laden, and Al Quada, a Republican myth?

The biggest problem the Bush administration has, is, if we have another attack, he will be blamed for NOT keeping America safe, but, if we don’t have an attack, the Democrats will blame him for ‘scaring’ people with a non-existent threat!!  Catch-22!!

What’s the old saying, “Better safe than sorry”?

“The biggest problem the Bush administration has, is...”

George Bush!

You don’t get it RDS...you probably never did! MOST people are saying that this “war on terrorism” in Iraq, and the “search for WMD” there, was a fabrication by George “W” and his side-kick Dick Chaney.  Or is George Bush Dick Chaney’s side kick?

The truth is, al Qaeda was never that viable in Iraq before the United States went in there and stirred things up.  Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden didn’t care for each other too much.

Flash forward to today.  It’s almost common knowledge that Osama bin Laden is hiding out just across the Afghanistan border, somewhere in northern Pakistan, due to the help of local tribes, the Taliban, or perhaps even the Pakistani military.  Yet, you can go into any Wal-Mart and find shirts and other apparel that is made in Pakistan.  What’s wrong with that picture?

Why are you defending trade with a country that is more than likely harboring the world’s most wanted fugitive? 

“Better safe than sorry”?  Indeed!

RDS and matt bbrd , do yalllllll have recipes for crow?

What condiments go with foot? Any tasty Combos.?

funny you folks favorite stores like costco,target,k-mart and etc have just as much crime and people camping in their parking lots too and we never hear the same bitching and whining about that from you so shut up and get a life and quit blaming one company for all of societies problems.

...if we have another attack...

Forget another attack, history will show that the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor took place during the Bush/Cheney administration.

Taking all things into consideration I guess we should be grateful we were only attacked once.

So, are you saying that all of the terrorist plots that have been uncovered around the world, since 9/11, were all just Republican ‘scare tactics”?

Let’s not forget about the events which happened before 9/11…

It’s funny those who bash tend to have selective memory about terrorism when it comes to things like:

- The Air Force barracks in Khobar, Saudi Arabia
- The U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
- The U.S.S. Cole in Yemen

And the funny thing is Bush was still a governor when that stuff happened…

Screwedby,

“MOST people are saying that this “war on terrorism” in Iraq, and the “search for WMD” there, was a fabrication by George “W” and his side-kick Dick Chaney.  Or is George Bush Dick Chaney’s side kick?”

It may have slipped your mind, but the majority of Democrats voted to go to war as well!!  Are you saying they weren’t Smart enough to see through the Bush/Chaney conspiracy?  As for WMD’s, ask the Kurds about that!!

“It’s almost common knowledge that Osama bin Laden is hiding out just across the Afghanistan border, somewhere in northern Pakistan”

So, it’s ALMOST common knowledge, then why don’t YOU tell the government where he is?  Would you advocate we go after him into Pakistan, like we did in Afganistan?

“Yet, you can go into any Wal-Mart and find shirts and other apparel that is made in Pakistan.  What’s wrong with that picture?”

Are you advocating that we stop trading with ANY country that MIGHT MAYBE be harboring a criminal?  Sorry, but, we have a kind of strange way of looking at things, we demand proof and not some wacko conspiracy theory!!

This lady has a point. 

Obama’s 143 Days of Senate Experience
Posted by Cheri Jacobus
May 5, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama have in terms of actual work days? Not much.

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That’s how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.

After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.

143 days—I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that.

In contrast, John McCain’s 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi now seem more impressive than ever. At 71, John McCain may just be hitting his stride.

Think about IT!!!

Are you saying they weren’t Smart enough to see through the Bush/Chaney conspiracy?

Yup, except for a select few. Come on, RDS, they pulled the wool over your eyes and the eyes of all your ‘right choice right-wingers’. Why should you expect the Democrats to do any better? At least they didn’t elect him.

At 71, John McCain may just be hitting his stride.

Just what stride is that? How about it everyone? Do you really want an old man with three bouts of melanoma under his belt as your next president?

John McCain went through school placing his hand over his hear and pledging allegiance to a country he didn’t love. He graduated from the Naval Academy and tossed his hat in the air to celebrate upcoming service to a country he didn’t love.

As a pilot he was shot down. As a prisoner of war he suffered both physically and mentally and exhibited classic Stockholm Syndrome symptoms when he declined to be released.

Back home he married a beer distributor heiress with a drug problem, fortunately by this time he loved this country.

I always admired John McCain for his service to this country but when he sold his soul following the South Carolina primary of 2000, I lost that respect.

Perhaps a little inexperience is just what we need right now. Who knows? But one thing is sure, zero experience would be preferable to what we’ve had the past seven years.

Great idea Ken.  I guess my 4 year old, with as much presidential experience as Obama, would be a great president.  This country better watch out what they wish for in “change”, because “change” sounds good until you find out what that “change” is all about.... and we’re still waiting on more specifics from Obama who is cool to answering those questions and with very little experience and voting record history.

Just ask the people of Maryland what they think of the governor they elected 2 years ago.  He has some of the worst poll ratings of any Maryland governor in history, and this state is 100% Democratic controlled and has been for decades.  The game is all about what can be taxed next in this state.

Ponder on this:

I also heard our Muslim Presidential candidate state that he wanted to raise inheritance taxes to 46%.  ??????

Windfall Tax on Retirement Income

Adding a tax to your retirement is simply another way of saying to the American people, you’re so stupid that we’re going to keep doing this until we drain every cent from you. That’s what the Speaker of the House is saying. Read below...............

Nancy Pelosi wants a Windfall Tax on Retirement Income.  In other words tax what you have made by investing toward your retirement. This woman is a nut case!  You aren’t going to believe this.

Madam speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to put a Windfall Tax on all stock market profits (including Retirement fund, 401K and Mutual Funds! Alas , it is true all to help the 12 Million Illegal Immigrants and other unemployed Minorities!

This woman is frightening. She quotes...” We need to work toward the goal of equalizing income, (didn’t Marx say something like this), in our country
and at the same time limiting the amount the rich can invest.” ( I am not rich, are you?)

When asked how these new tax dollars would be spent, she replied:  “We need to raise the standard of living of our poor, unemployed and minorities. For
example, we have an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our country who need our help along with millions of unemployed minorities. Stock market windfall profits taxes could go a long way to guarantee these people the standard of living they would like to have as ‘Americans’.” (Read that quote again and again and let it sink in.  “Lower your retirement, give it to others who have not worked as you have for it”. 

Send it on to your friends. I just did!! This lady is out of her mind and she is the speaker of the house!

And then try this:

Wal-Mart Goes After Estate Tax

Although much has been made of Wal-Mart’s new PR offensive to fluff up its public image, relatively little attention has been given to Wal-Mart’s new bid to be a political player. USA Today’s “Money” section has the story today:

In a little-noticed move, the company’s founding family has plunged into a fight to pass income tax changes and other legislation that could preserve its grip on the USA’s biggest business and the family’s $84 billion fortune.

Led by Sam Walton’s only daughter, Alice, the family spent $3.2 million on lobbying, conservative causes and candidates for last year’s federal elections. That’s more than double what it spent in the previous two elections combined, public documents show.

Although the family billionaires deny it, the Wal-Mart clan’s biggest interest seems to be in ditching the estate tax—an issue near and dear to their hearts (and wallets):

The Walton support for Bush and other fiscal conservatives assumed new urgency last month when Wal-Mart sweetened its dividend — boosting Walton dividend income above $1 billion a year. Bush’s dividend tax cut, enacted two years ago and set to expire in 2009, will save the family as much as $51 million this year.

It is in the bitter fight over federal estate taxes that the family and Wal-Mart have the most at stake. The tax, now collected on estates worth more than $1.5 million, could force the Waltons to sell a chunk of Wal-Mart to pay billions in taxes when family members die. The top tax rate this year is 47%.

Wal-Mart’s massive infusion of money into the campaign to kill the estate tax just might tip the balance:

The clock is ticking louder in the estate tax battle, with attention focused on Jan. 1, 2011, when the tax reverts to higher levels in place before Bush won approval of a gradual reduction, culminating in its repeal entirely for 2010.

The Waltons and a coalition including the influential National Federation of Independent Business support Bush’s push for the tax’s permanent repeal, government watchdogs say.

“We think we’re closer than we’ve ever been,” says lobbyist Dena Battle at NFIB, the small-business trade group that’s tried for years to kill the tax.

Question: if we get rid of the estate tax, how will government pay for the public assistance programs Wal-Mart employees are forced to use because of the company’s lack of benefits and low wages?

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2005/04/wal-mart-goes-after-estate-tax.asp

Try this on for size:

WAL-MART FORCES WORKERS

TO REMOVE AMERICAN FLAG STICKERS

Las Vegas, September 17, 2001: While Wal-Mart boasted record sales of American flags from its stores, workers at Sam’s Club 6382 (a Division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) in Las Vegas, Nevada were forced by managers to remove American flag stickers from their name badges because the stickers were given to the associates by a Union.

“I can’t believe Wal-Mart would be so insensitive and unpatriotic during this crisis” said Linda Gruen, a six-year employee with Wal-Mart and store 6382, “ it made me sick to my stomach when they were telling people to take their flags off”

The actions of the managers on September 17 th not only made the employees deeply upset but also angered customers in the store who were shocked and appalled to see employees being forced to peel off American flags.

“We wouldn’t have had to remove our flags if Sam Walton was around” said Alan T. Peto a seven-year Wal-Mart employee.

The Wal-Mart Workers Las Vegas campaign was founded in October of 2000 by Las Vegas Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club associates to seek Union representation.  Its website can be found at www.walmartworkerslv.com. 

The stickers were passed out by representatives of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union.  Sam’s Club employees had asked the Union for assistance in helping co-workers demonstrate solidarity with the victims of the terrorist bombings, especially the hundreds of union firefighters, police officers, construction and hotel workers injured, missing and dead at the World Trade Center disaster, and the unionized pilots and flight crews of the four downed jetliners.

The Union has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging management ordered the removal of stickers because the Union had provided them to any employee who requested one.

Previously, the store had confiscated ballpoint pens that the Union had provided employees after Sam’s Club began charging workers for the pens they use in their work, and had ordered employees not to wear union-provided lanyards for their identification badges.

http://www.ksworkbeat.org/Issues/Attack_on_America/Walmart_Bans_American_Flags/walmart_bans_american_flags.html

I guess my 4 year old, with as much presidential experience as Obama, would be a great president.

Any four-year-old would be a better president than what we have now. Even your offspring, Mary.

Since you are pasting your post all over the place, CONSTITUTIONALIST, I’ll paste my reply.

You Swift Boaters have me a little confused. Are we supposed to hate Barack Obama because he’s a Muslim, or because he was a member of Rev. Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ?

Fight the Smears

“You Swift Boaters have me a little confused. Are we supposed to hate Barack Obama because he’s a Muslim, or because he was a member of Rev. Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ?”

Ken isn’t that an “oxymoron” thought pattern, or would it just be MORONIC?

“Just ask the people of Maryland what they think of the governor they elected 2 years ago.  He has some of the worst poll ratings of any Maryland governor in history, and this state is 100% Democratic controlled and has been for decades.  The game is all about what can be taxed next in this state.”

mary in selective memory lapses again…
Wednesday, June 25 at 04:15 PM

Let us accept that ‘mary’ wants to go back to the good old Republican days in Maryland…

During his fifth year as Vice President, in the late summer of 1973, Agnew was under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Baltimore, Maryland, on charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy. In October, he was formally charged with having accepted bribes totaling more than $100,000, while holding office as Baltimore County Executive, governor of Maryland, and Vice President of the United States. On October 10, Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967, with the condition that he resign the office of Vice President.

Agnew was the first Vice President in U.S. history to resign because of criminal charges. Ten years after leaving office, in January 1983, Agnew paid the state of Maryland nearly $270,000 as a result of a civil suit that stemmed from the bribery allegations.

WalMart/Bush- We make Spiro Agnew look good.

In reference to Marxist’s remark about “actual” work days -here’s a bit of info on John McCain:Recommend Speak To Power
John McCain doesn’t work weekends
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 6/26/08 4:47 AM EST Text Size: 

McCain has done little to capture media attention on weekends for nearly five months. 

Since effectively capturing the Republican nomination when Mitt Romney dropped out of the race on Feb. 7, John McCain has held just one public campaign event on a weekend.

Instead, after workweeks full of fundraisers, town hall meetings and interviews, McCain has been, in campaign parlance, “down” on nearly every Saturday or Sunday for 20 weeks, largely sequestered away from the news media.

He’s usually spending time with family, friends and campaign advisers at residences in Arlington, Va., and Phoenix or vacation homes near Sedona, Ariz., and San Diego.

That isn’t to say McCain is kicking back and relaxing every weekend.

He’s hosted reporters and donors on separate occasions at his Arizona cabin, done a guest turn on “Saturday Night Live” and visited troops in both Iraq and at Walter Reed hospital.

Yet aside from an April rally on the steps of the courthouse in Prescott, Ariz., McCain has done little to capture media attention on weekends for nearly five months.

McCain aides say that they made a conscious decision after it became clear that they had won the nomination to use weekends primarily to return their candidate to his preferred surroundings in Arizona and to have him rest, bone up on policy, and meet privately with aides, advisers, contributors and other prominent officials.
Another McCain aide dismissed the weekend downtime decision as “an insider thing.”

“I don’t think [voters] are going to be logging the hours,” the aide said.

McCain’s habit of weekends off is recognized by his small band of beat reporters, who are pleased by their good fortune but nevertheless find it puzzling.

Yet for insiders who follow the campaign closely, his streak has become increasingly tough to overlook.

As with so many issues surrounding his bid, McCain’s schedule is a sensitive topic because it is unavoidably suffused with the looming question of his age.

In trying to answer skeptics who ask whether a 72-year-old has the vigor to hold the presidency, McCain points to his indisputably packed calendar — on weekdays, that is~~~~~~~~~~~Evidently,Marxist DOES log hours,contrary to what this article asserts,that -"I don’t think [voters] are going to be logging the hours,” the aide said. “ Gee, one can only hope that if the 3:00 A.M. call did come, (God forbid),it wouldn’t be on the weekend .

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices’ first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court’s 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

The court had not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since its ratification in 1791. The amendment reads: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Ken,

Are you really a Texan?

THE CONSTITUTIONALIST in

That’s great.

But where’s your outrage at the REPLIPUKES in the White House? Where’s your disgust and anger at the dismantling of the constitution through the use of the un-PATRIOT ACT?

Face it, you’re a FRAUD!

Are you really a Texan?

I have a gun rack in my pick-up to prove it!

P.S. Good work, dd. I think this ‘weekend’ story will have legs.

There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man’s lawful prey. ~ John Ruskin

“Sorry, but, we have a kind of strange way of looking at things...” ~RDS

“We” knew that a long time ago, RDS!  Who do you pretend to speak for besides yourself?

Screwedby,

“Who do you pretend to speak for besides yourself?”

I speak for all the people who don’t believe in ‘flying saucers’, that Elvis is still ‘alive’, and the conspiracies promoted by people, for people who are dumb enough to believe them!!  And, for those people who believe in the “Innocent until PROVEN guilty’ concept!!  And, lastly, people who believe that people are responsible for their own lives, not the government or their employer!!

I got all misty reading that, RDS. ((choke)) You are a true patriot....NOT!

Do you also speak for all the buffoons that believe Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11? Or that he had WMDs? Or that Barrack Obama is muslim? Do you speak for them as well?

Handguns in the nation’s capital! It reminds me of the Claire Wolfe quote:

“America is at that awkward stage; it’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.”

I guess we’ll see if it’s “too early” or not.

Metal detectors to enter WalMart? I predict a rise in gun fights from employees first and then customers. WalMart has the vicious culture of stress combined with abuse. In addition to that people really don’t want to be there. They all go out of desperation.

SDV: And the PTSD troops who will be returning from duty in Iraq.....God bless ‘em.....What might that not add to the equation?

What might that not add to the equation?

Or this....

Meanwhile, The U.S. has anywhere from 3 million to 4 million ex-convicts, a number that is also growing rapidly. As Wal-Mart provides hundreds of thousands of low-wage, low-skill jobs, the two populations--ex-convicts and prospective Wal-Mart employees--will inevitably intersect in large numbers.

Ought to make for a pleasant shopping experience.

Since they won’t have the personnel to properly cover sporting goods, Rosio from Cuernavaca will have to do…

“Tres mil vatios laser pulso pistola por favor”

Que senor?