professional vs. amateur swimming.

You have got to be kidding. The poverty rate at the end of the Clinton administration was 11.3%. In 2004 under W's "leadership," up to 12.7% (as reported by Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post on Sept. 21). Under Clinton, huge annual budget surpluses to work down the debt. Under W, record breaking deficits by increasing spending while cutting taxes for the wealthy. What happened to tight fisted republicans? Spend within your means republicans? Fiscally responsible republicans? Oh yes, glad we got rid of all of those WMD's in Iraq. (oops) War came to us? Iraq had NOTHING to do w/ 9/11. W makes Warren G. Harding look like an angel. He is an embarrasement and has done unspeakable damage to this country that my six year old will be paying for long after I've returned to the earth. I'll take Clinton (Bill or Hillary), Barack Obama, John McCain or Bob Dole any day.

As usual.....extremists getting emotional and not ready carefully!! 1) I did not vote for Bush in the last election, I'm a registerd Indepenent and can't fathom voting by party, I vote for the individual based on who I hope will do the least harm. 2) Fact......like it or note the tax cuts did help our economy recover 3) No Child left behind? All programs should be evaluated carefully and dropped if not effective. Maybe this program was, show me the stats? - The bigger point is some many people who don't pay attention to detials lash out at a President without knowing the facts, in this case Bush has allocated record spending on two major programs. The bigger point being ignored is spending more IS NOT the answer! - Never once "linked" 9/11 specifically to Iraq.....a war I opposed. My point is that hatred for the US has been growing long before Bush came into office. PS: I recycle, use biodiesel, follow Buddism more than christianity....so not the closet conservative you may think!

My bad........once again lured to the dark side by evil-goodsmith who had to steer us off track. Maybe he was snoozing and missed this one?! Either that or glued to the TI thread! By the way.........I do think the NCAA needs to examine these guidelines.......the Olympics already dissed the entire concept of amateur so why not college? Heck, get the NFL to use the colleges as farm teams and pay for 150 athletes.....then we can take their buget and invest in swimming, water polo, etc.!

That is OK Paul you're from Colo.....so you get a bye due to that....~....

Oooh! A political discussion. Last time I engaged in one of those on this forum I got emails from the moderator.

Originally posted by PeirsolFan It's a courtesy. There are very few spots available in any competition. As with most sports, only the top few advance. So since Aaron Peirsol has already won several Olympic medals should he recuse himself from competing from now on? Explain to me how Kwan's situation is any different. The Scott Hamilton example makes no sense. Scott Hamilton is 47. I know it seems like Michelle's been around forever, but she's still only 25 (and only turned 25 in July). Not only that, there's no way Hamilton could compete against the top male skaters. He's still a good skater, but you don't see skaters attempting a whole lot of quads at Stars on Ice.

Paul, Face it.... you are a closet Republican. You are a Republican in Independent sheeps clothing. No ! .... actually..... you are a scared Republican, one who would like to be a Republican, but is too embarassed about where the party has gone in recent years so you hide in Independent purgatory Dude.... as liberal and annoying as I am, I can honestly say that I would gladly take old school Republican style Bob Dole over George Bush any day of the week. As for your strange and made up facts below... 1. Tax Cuts..... oohhh yes... that extra $1600/yr tax cut I received really pumped up my spending and helped the economy..... NOT. 2. Bush's "No child left behind"...... full of sweeping promises, irresponsible authority, more expensive than many school systems can afford. 3. Linking 9/11 to the war on Iraq.... nice job ..... I can see you've been living in your Republican closet the last 5 years. Goofball.... the two are unrelated. In addition, most of Europe is pissed as sh*t at Bush and his so called foreign policy. Are you trying to tell me that you think Americans are more welcome now abroad than 10 years ago? Unless your traveling to Australia or Canada you'd best keep your nationality to yourself. Hell the only reason Canada puts up with us half the time is that they're stuck with the apartment next door. Dude.... let's not even talk about the deficit. You will get ground into a fine powder if you try and defend Bush. John Smith

originally posted by 330 man Oooh! A political discussion. Last time I engaged in one of those on this forum I got emails from the moderator. What if I start by chiming on on the main topic thread and then afterwards slip in my political agenda message as a p.s. afterthought?.....Is that legal or will the moderator's see through my little gimmick?....I promise the political slant will be brief!! About the Amatuer vs Proffesional debate.....I wholeheartedly agree with evil good on this one (and many others) that if the relevant Olympic Committees will allow professional swimmers to compete than the prude and currently "conservative slanted" NCAA's should cut these pro swimmer the same slack.....Who knows....Now that the dividing line that we once called "Seperation of Church and State" is diminishing into nothingness; The religious right wing may eventually take hold of the NCAA and require that only self proclaimed Christian fundamentalists can compete in NCAA competition??.......See....I claim this thread topic has some natural overlap with politics ...hence making politics a somewhat (if only remote) relevant topic here (on some level perhaps??) Newmastersswimmer p.s. Oh yeah....My Anti-Bush remark......Read the article in the following link below....Nothing new....but it is ironic that Bush's stance on the basic environmental policies associated to the Kyoto Accords seems to be so intimately connected to these recent Hurricane fiascos via the Global Warming Factor that his oil infested soul has helped to perpetuate and ignore beyond all other major industrialized nations of the world....you know the old saying about reaping what you sow!! www.workers.org/.../co20329.php

Kwan is evil because she supports Bush, she drives an SUV and owns stock in Halliburton. I read it in the Washington Post which we all know as the bastion of truth and unbiased views in news reporting... (I couldn't resist)

The article I posted makes those solution so clear that only a severly mentally handicaped individual or a very young child couldn't understand them Again, from the Left, attacks on intellect. Paul said it best, but let's ASSUME you are right and in 5 years since Bush was put into the White House, the globe has warmed and he is "reaping what he sewed" as you so eloquently put it. This is not the first year we've had active hurricanes. 1992 Andrew practically destroyed lower Florida, oh yeah blame Bush 41 for that one, he had been in office for four years. Last time Galveston was demolished in 1961 with Camille, you know Kennedy was an awful president he was heating up the Earth then, but Eisenhower was the real culprit because he was Republican. Galveston was completely destroyed in 1900 by the most deadly natural disaster in US History over 6,000 people killed. That darn William McKinley should be to blame, he loved horse drawn carriages and those horses had masses amounts of methane gas they produced that warmed the earth up so much. The less horses the better. Hurricanes are cyclical! We are in a bad cycle now similar to cycles in the past. The left takes short term cycles and goes on to extrapolate that in the long term this will continue to get useless (i.e. Kyoto Accords) and unreasonable agreements in place. I know I said I would stop, but when someone comes at me with a quote like the one above I feel I need to speak up.