Quality of Life in Cuba ROCKS!?

Adrian Martinez once played basketball on rundown playground courts in Cuba. At times the backboards were made of rotting wood and bicycle tire rims doubled as basketball rims.

The Northeastern University senior describes the condition of his boarding school, a sports academy for Cuba's rising athletes, as deplorable, with leaking plumbing, cracked playing surfaces and moldy hallways.

The memories are 10 years old, but they remain vivid, a stark contrast to his life as a Division I player in the USA.

"Life was so hard in Cuba," Martinez, 22, says. "The quality of life was so low."

So you mean to tell me that the building was basically falling apart?
In Cuba? No way!

The 6-2, 200-pound point guard averages 10.8 points for a Northeastern team that is 7-15 (5-6 in the Colonial Athletic Association), but Martinez doesn't measure success with his scoring. He's in a position to move forward, with a bachelor's degree earned in criminal justice and work toward a master's in sports leadership.

The opportunities ahead are numerous, a contradiction to life in Cuba.

"They really don't have a chance of improving themselves," he says of the aunts, uncles and cousins left behind. "It's like you're stuck and you'll be there forever."

Wait a minute. I thought opportunity was PLENTY in Cuba under the guise of socialism! Its supposed to be the Socialist Utopia! Yet for some reason they all live in the US? Hmmmmm...

His father, Onelio, figured the family had nothing to lose by uprooting. Among other things, he was angry and frustrated about lining up for food, which the family had to ration further to make it last. "There was no way we could make it," he says.

Economic advancement is impossible for most Cubans. Martinez's father had a physical education degree and coached youth basketball teams, a job he eventually gave up for a slightly higher paying position as a gas station manager.

So the only way to get by was by working at a gas station.
Ohhh man where do I sign up for the revolucion?


The thing that kills me about liberals and Marxist lovers is that they fail to see how if a system like this was in place in the US they would be SCREAMING how it is totally against the Constitution!

Morons!

Bidden Interview showing Fruedian Slip?

Posted on Drudge this afternoon:

Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

But—and the “but” was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect “a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,” and added: “I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”

Wait I thought the Democratic party was the party on inclusion?
I thought a well dressed African American man with character was the norm in those circles? Its not? Hmmmmm....

Sounds similar to Howard Deans racist comment that came up during his speech at a hotel in the North East:

During a meeting Friday with the Democratic black caucus, Dean praised black Democrats for their work for the party, then questioned Republicans’ ability to rally support from minorities.

“You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room?,” Dean asked to laughter. “Only if they had the hotel staff in here.”

Within that one quote also highlights something that I and many other conservatives have actually said about him. That he has NO EXPERIENCE at all. Nothing as a basis on to which to vote for him. I don't have a CLUE what he has done. And the few thing he has done have been rather insignificant.

Read the rest of his "solution" as well on Iraq.
Its laughable at best.
Sure sounds like he is calling for Jim Crow laws and Segregation in the country. Hmmmmm.... Anyone do a background check on Bidden yet and see if he has a KKK background like Robert Byrd? Or maybe a Skin head with a suit? Hmmmmm...

Kyoto a Socialist Scheme?

NO WAY? Not possible!
Its all to save the planet? No?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals.

The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party.

Sucking money out of rich countries?
NO WAY? That isn't possible?
They are all for capitalism aren't they?
After all they sell Che Shirts for a profit no?

He writes that it's based on "tentative and contradictory scientific evidence" and it focuses on carbon dioxide, which is "essential to life."

He says Kyoto requires that Canada make significant cuts in emissions, while countries like Russia, India and China face less of a burden.

Under Kyoto, Canada was required to reduce emissions by six per cent by 2012, while economies in transition, like Russia, were allowed to choose different base years.

"Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations," Harper's letter reads.

He said the accord would cripple the oil and gas industries, which are essential to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

Seems like in 2002 Harper was let in on information that we are just getting wind of but even then is STILL BEING SUPPRESSED!

The 'fatal conceit' of Kyoto

A suppressed report by the federal government {Canada} evaluating the effectiveness of spending $500 million since the year 2000 to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases has shown - surprise! --- that the spending was largely wasted, producing neither a reduction in gas emissions, nor the development of new "cleaner" technologies.

An anonymous source that participated in the mid-term review is quoted in the Star, saying, "We seriously underestimated the difficulty of getting reductions and overestimated the payoff from new technologies."

How did the government manage to blow $500 million of taxpayer money?

It put it into "Action Plan 2000," which committed $210 million to promote technologies that reduced greenhouse gas emissions in industry and transportation; it gave $125 million to cities to encourage them to use the non-existent new technologies. And another $100 million was spent on promoting foreign demand for the non-existent new technologies.

The lack of value Canadians received for their half-a-billion dollars should come as a surprise to ... well, nobody. Governments are notoriously bad at "inspiring" development of new technologies and encouraging their adoption.

The idea that government can inspire the development of new, beneficial technologies is an example of "industrial policy," a type of governmental steering of industrial development thoroughly discredited outside the halls of Ottawa. Industrial policy relies on what the Nobel Prize-winning economist Frederick Hayek called "the fatal conceit," that somehow, government planners have special knowledge that markets, investors, and industry lack.

Examples from abroad are even more spectacular.

For decades, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) was responsible for industrial policy in Japan's high-tech sector. Analyses of MITI's performance showed a dismal failure to usher in new technologies or to create new industrial sectors in electronics, aircraft, aerospace, and biotechnology. Worse yet, MITI was shown to have slowed the free-market development of these sectors when their activities were found to be at odds with planners' desires. In 1953, for instance, MITI tried to block Sony from getting into the transistor business. Fortunately, for those of us who watch television, Sony managed to get MITI to back off.

I just find it funny how a nice power point presentation and a block buster movie in the theaters creates such mass hysteria with people when 10 years ago it was talked about as well. LOL.. NOW its a concern? Why because the OZONE layer isn't under attack any more?

HA!

Castro on Aritficial Life Support?

I usually don't want Jon Stewart but this was way to funny to pass up on.


The Daily Show - 01.17.07 - Castro's Artificial Anus


It speaks for itself.

Straight out of I Robot

Damn we don't even want to park our cars anymore.

A humanoid robot valet won't be stepping into your car to drive it.

Rather, the garage itself does the parking. The driver stops the car on a pallet and gets out. The pallet is then lowered into the innards of the garage, and transported to a vacant parking space by a computer-controlled contraption similar to an elevator that also runs sideways.

There is no human supervision, but an attendant will be on hand to accept cash and explain the system to baffled humans.

This does sound really cool.

Dennis Clarke, the chief operating officer at Robotic Parking, acknowledged the operational problems, but said the garage has operated with "99.99 percent efficiency." He called the 26-hour outage a freak incident, where two redundant sensors failed at the same time and a maintenance crew failed to follow company policy in not repairing them right away.

But that .001% might concern me.
LOL..

I wouldn't expect this in neighborhoods nation wide any time soon.
But I would not doubt them coming to cities like Boston and LA soon.

Fatah vs Hamas

They keep telling me this is the Religion of Peace!

Gaza was turning into a battlefield early Monday with armed clashes between the ruling Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah in Gaza City and the south. Four people were killed in the latest day of battles.

A Hamas supporter another gunman and a civilian were killed in clashes in southern Gaza on Sunday.

Early Monday Fatah gunmen killed a member of the Hamas security force in Gaza City, bringing the death toll in four days of Hamas-Fatah fighting to 29.

Early Monday, Hamas fighters mobilized around the main Fatah stronghold, the Preventive Security headquarters, and threatened to attack the compound -- a move that could set off a full-scale civil war.

I really want to believe it but GIVE ME A BREAK HERE!

Kerry at it again!

Where is this on the front page of CNN or the NY TIMES?

You would think it would be their mission statement if anything!

“When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don’t advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy,” Kerry said.


“So we have a crisis of confidence in the Middle East — in the world, really. I’ve never seen our country as isolated, as much as a sort of international pariah for a number of reasons as it is today.”…

After all that is what the NY Times, LA TIMES etc think that the US is, an international pariah.



There are still those that will come to the defense of this MORON even after his past US pot shots and shots at our military. All I can say is THANK GOD this man did not win!

Side note. Following the elections Terza Heinz changed her name back to remove KERRY from her last name. LOL... Maybe she knows more then we do about the man!

Wait a minute here?

Here is another one of those things you just WON'T SEE on the Democratic Congressional News Network (CNN).

"In our discussions, President Karzai stressed the crucial importance of reconstruction. The delegation commended him for his leadership and discussed additional steps that would enhance the authority of the central government and improve the security situation in the country," the statement said.

The U.S. lawmakers said they would quickly consider a Bush administration proposal to increase aid to Afghanistan to help Karzai's government combat the renewed Taliban insurgency.

So WTF?
You are telling me that Pelosi and the rest of the anti war left want to INCREASE US presence in Afghanistan? WTF? Wait a minute. Are they not in a struggle there as well? Increasing violence there daily from the Taliban? WTF?

This is what I mean about the left. They don't have a fucking CLUE!

Last year was the bloodiest since the hardline Islamist Taliban government was ousted in 2001 -- more than 4,000 people died -- and U.S., NATO and Taliban commanders say the coming spring will see a bloody and dangerous offensive within months.

This is not Iraq they are talking about but AFGHANISTAN!

Are they this stupid? Ok maybe they are.

Hiillary FLAT OUT LYING in Iowa!!

So this weekend Hillary was in Iowa talking about how she was LIED to in going into Iraq and voting for the war. Now this is what the liberals like Hillary seem to always forget.

THIS IS THE INFORMATION AGE and you will be busted on your BS.

Below is a video from Code Pink. If you don't know about Code Pink. I'll just say that they are the super left that I often talk about. That AMERICA is to blame for everything wrong in this world. BLAH BLAH BLAH.


But first Check this link:
Hilary in Iowa

This was not something easy to find either.
There are many omissions my the media.

But here is what she said:

“I have said clearly and consistently for quite some time that I regret the way the president misused the authority,” Clinton said. “He misled Congress and the country on what he was seeking and what he intended to do.”

Now this video CLEARLY shows the opposite of this position.



She is CLEARLY lying.
Let the Video Spool up a bit passed the singing which I just couldn't bear it.

But Get up to about 2 minutes in the video.
It talks about the basic question Code Pink is asking. We believe the war is wrong etc etc.
THEN listen to her answer at about 8 minutes.

Hilary in it says this:

"I ended up voting for the resolution after carefully reviewing the information with the information I had available. Talking with people that I trusted. Trying to discount political or other factors that I didn't think in any way should be a part of this decision. "

In other words she did her own research on the situation giving she knew much of the same information her husband did not 2 years before!

She goes on to say something along the lines of:
If we had a willingness from Saddam Hussein to account for his weapons and chemical weapons then we would be in a different situation.

She tells code pink: (exact words)

"I would love to agree with you BUT I can't because of my own understanding and assessment of the situation."

Which would OBVIOUSLY suggest that she did her own research on this situation and came to the same conclusion at the time as the president. NOT that BUSH persuaded her to this decision but that she MADE this decision on her own with her own COUNCIL!


One thing I would also like to point out is that at about 10 minutes into the video. You will hear the response from one of the Pinko's about how this war will bankrupt our economy etc. But the talk about: "most of the people in the trenches will be people of color"

Is straight up BULLSHIT!

Most in Iraq according to recent numbers are white males.
White makes actually make up most of the military as well.

Now here is the kicker and here is the part that really flies in the face of the left in this country and how Hillary is trying to REDEFINE herself.

Her response to this lady was this: (found at 12 minutes in the video)

"I just do not believe that given the attitudes of many people in the world community today that there would be a willingness to take on very difficult problem were it not for the United States leadership. And I am talking about specifically about what happened in Bosnia and Kosovo (which by the way was OK by the Bill to go and spend billions on and KBR contracts on but whatever right?) Where my husband could not get a security council agreement to go in and save the Albanians from ethnic cleansing and we had to do it alone"

She goes on to talk about the "disasterous economic policies which this administration is pursuing"

Fast forward 3 years later and this economy has been BOOMING at record numbers in unemployment in the 4-5% ranges as well as low interest rates, a BOOMING stock market, tax receipts at all time highs and business flourishing both small and mid sized!

Not to mention the 17 million jobs created!

And those tax cuts she talks about are what stimulated that 100%!

This will be a very interesting election season! I can't wait!

The Democratic Strategy for Iraq has been leaked to the press!

It hasn't changed much but its their winning strategy.

File this under the NO SHIT SHERLOCK file...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that a congressional resolution opposing President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq amounts to undercutting U.S. commanders in a way that "emboldens the enemy."

Didn't take long for Gates to get it huh?

At his first Pentagon news conference since taking office Dec. 18, Gates was asked his reaction to the debate in Congress over the effect of such a nonbinding resolution. "It's pretty clear that a resolution that in effect says that the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn't have the resources he thinks he needs to be successful certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries," he said.

Isn't that what many have been saying. Including myself.
You cannot have our military trying to do a job with arms tied and expect resounding results.

This below has been the moto of the Democrats since 2004.

Chavisimo must LOVE the attention

That has to be the reason for this crap over and over again from this bafoon.

I love it when people like Cindy Sheehan say that he "loves the american people".

Chavez defended his government's effort to establish a socialist model and rejected U.S. concerns over a measure to grant him broad lawmaking powers, saying: "Go to hell, gringos! Go home!"

The National Assembly, controlled by the president's political allies, is expected to give final approval this week to what it calls the "enabling law," which would grant Chavez authority to pass a series of laws by decree during an 18-month period.

In other words he is using the recent elections as his launching platform for total and complete domination of the nation through a law he wants to enact that puts him into power uncontested for the next 40 years. Hmmmm, sound familiar to anyone? How about Castro and his legendary rule over the people of Cuba? A legend that will soon die! And not too soon either!

Chavez, who this month announced plans to nationalize Venezuela's main telecommunications company and the electricity and natural gas sectors, says the law will permit profound changes in areas ranging from the economy to defense.

Again what cracks me up about the super left in this country is that if a sitting president would do that in this country they would be up in arms. Yet they embrace and in many cases like Sheehan SUPPORT this moron.

I was at a recent business trip in Ft. Lauderdale. Where I get the pleasure to speak to hundreds of folks from all over the nation as well as all over the world. I somehow bumped into a man from Venezuela and we somehow turned business into politics. And his contempt for Chavez was very clear. He said what he is doing is the same thing that I and many conservatives have been saying here in the US. Converting the nation to a complete dictatorship and doing little to FIX the country.

There were months where he would leave his place of business and head straight home from all the violence on the streets. He is even considering moving to the US and selling off everything before Castro style dictatorship really takes hold over even smaller companies. That is one of the reasons he was here in the states.

In any case.
Chavez is moving steadily towards socialism/communism/marxism at a nice brisk pace. And the liberal retards here in the US seem to love it. Idiots.

Oh get the hell over it!

It didn't take long before "CAIR" started bitching like a little girl about the latest 24 episode.

24 has hit on all ethnicities and all regions.
This is no different.
From Germans to Russians. From British to Mexican!
Where were the protest from those groups?

But you know what. IF THE SHOE FITS!

So who do you trust?

Here is something that I think is of great interest to me and one of the reasons that I consider myself a conservative. I get asked this often. Who do you trust, republican or democrats?

I don't consider myself a democrat and I don't consider myself a republican either. There are many things I don't hold very highly as much of the republican stances. But I do trust one a bit more than another.

Here is why:

Following the 2000 elections and 2004 elections where democrats lost the very first thing that liberals and democrats did was look for outside reasons as to why they lost. First thing they all started to say was how the "election was stolen" - how "its a conspiracy" pushing all the reasons for failure on externalities instead of looking within.

Instead of pushing aside the ultra liberal views and become more main stream the democrats EMBRACED the ultra liberal views. The moveon.orgs the global warming freaks, the peta's, the most left leaning organization out there.

Then in the 2006 elections republicans lost heavily.
And the first thing they did was look INTERNALLY at what they can do to get back to the conservative values that got them to where they were.

Not looking to blame someone else for their failures but looking to blame themselves and correcting the failure. Such is the case with the summit planned for Washington this weekend. Looking to get back to the conservative core. Not embracing the power hungry mentality that plagued them in 2000-2006.

That is why I would trust republicans a bit more than democrats.

At least they take responsibility for losses.
Look for solutions and move with those solutions.
Not go off and blame your loss on "Ohio ballots" or "Florida fraud" or some other wacked out conspiracy theory.
Especially where there are cases in other states where there was CLEAR fraud where rigging of the machines was done in the democrats favor.

Would this be over the top if I were to buy one of these?

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- When it comes to flat-screen televisions, size matters.

At this week's International Consumer Electronics Show, Sharp Electronics Corp. took the crown for introducing the world's largest, a behemoth 108-inch liquid-crystal display that most people probably couldn't fit through their front door.

You know... Cause the 55 inch Wega just ISN'T enough for me any more.
I need to look at the screen one section at a time. LOL..

Chavisimo wants to regin on Venezuela like his daddy!

Emboldened by his landslide re-election win, the typically combative anti-U.S. leader has gone on the attack, deciding to strip a private opposition TV channel of its license and take over some major companies owned by foreign investors.

"Fatherland, socialism or death -- I take the oath," Chavez said.

The man who calls Cuban President
Fidel Castro his mentor changed tradition by draping the presidential sash from his left shoulder instead of his right in what he says is a symbol of his socialist credentials.

Legislators at the ceremony in Congress chanted "Long live socialism."

Investors took fright this week at the leftist drive that further consolidates power in the hands of a former coup leader who already controls Congress, the courts and says he has total support in the army and the giant state oil company.

As the United States criticized Chavez's moves against private property, the stock market lost almost a fifth of its value on Tuesday, debt prices tumbled to a six-week low and the currency changed hands at nearly twice the official rate

So what the economy is crumbling around him.
He loves that crap.
That way he can blame the US for the economy in HIS COUNTRY collapsing.
Cause you know the CIA were the ones that collapsed the stock market there.
Not his Socialist dream!


In his political career, the former army officer has survived jail, a coup and a recall referendum.

A leading anti-U.S. voice in the world and in the vanguard of a shift to the left in Latin America, Chavez now wants to scrap presidential term limits and lead the
OPEC nation for decades.

So where are the leftist freaks that just ADORE Chavez and Castro right now?
Hmmm.. Something tells me that they are all comfy in the US praising him and his new actions mean while enjoying the FREEDOMS of the United States of America.

Liberals of this nature are the MOST hypocritical of them all. They are perhaps the most retarded of the bunch.

On many sites you will see morons talking about "GO CHAVEX GO" Or "Down with the US" Mean while living in States like NYC and California.

Asinine doesn't even begin to describe these folks.

Chavez insists he needs more power to save Venezuela from exploitation and even attack by capitalist countries, particularly the United States, whose
President George W. Bush he has labeled "the devil."

LMFAO... See already blaming the US for what is all in his own head.
And of course the poor of the country will follow him lock step.
Why you ask? Because they are blind I guess. Who knows. Or because dictators in the past have screwed them over. One of the many problems that plague our Latin American countries. CORRUPTION!

This man will be no different. Only think his goal is a war with the US.
How far he will go to get that war is something different all together.

I guess I will be the first to say it.
It would not shock me if within the next 10 years IF CHAVEZ stays in power, that they develop a Nuclear weapon. From technology he buys from Iran and North Korea.
You watch and see.

Another one bites the dust.....

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in East Africa was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a Somali official said Wednesday, a report that if confirmed would mean the end of an eight-year hunt for a top target of Washington's war on terrorism.

There was no immediate confirmation from the United States. In Washington, an intelligence official said the U.S. killed five to 10 people in an attack on an al-Qaida target in southern Somalia but did not say who was killed. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said perhaps four or five others were wounded.

While this is a good thing that another terrorist has been killed/captured.
It still leaves the Big Dog out there:



I want that mother-----s Head on a stick!

So you speak english huh?

.....Well got off the School Bus.

Imagine sending your kids off to school, but when they get to the bus they are told they can't get on because they speak English.

That's right, English.

It happened to a few children in St. Paul and now the school district is apologizing.

Rachel Armstrong sent her kids to pick up the bus as usual Monday, but after the driver let the kids on, he told them he would not pick them up again. He even said he wouldn't take them home that afternoon.

The slow degeneration of America.

I am a Latino American.
And I will teach my kids both Spanish and English.

But this is getting ridiculous!
When does this utter insanity END!

Torn a bit on this one.

Bush Plans Iraq Troop Surge

President Bush will call for sending more American troops to Iraq to calm two troubled areas - Baghdad, where sectarian violence flares daily, and the western Anbar Province, a base of the most Sunni insurgency, a Republican senator said Monday.

Now why exactly are we sending more troops there?
I can understand the need to win the fight. But as I see it we have about 147 Thousand US troops there. Another 10 thousand British Troops. Another 200 thousand Iraqi troops. Against what is estimated to be about 25 thousand insurgents IF THAT. In the country and for some reason we think that adding another 10-20 thousand troops will make that big a difference?

Ok so most of the troops that are there aren't all in combat. Some are repair techs, etc etc. So lets say there are 60 thousand combat troops in Iraq. Unless the new increase will be all combat troops battle hardened I really don't see how this will help.

more..

According to Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Bush told the senators that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki presented him with the plan for a U.S. troop increase several weeks ago when they met in Jordan. Bush indicated to the lawmakers he was willing to send more troops because the Iraqis were willing to meet certain criteria.

How about this for a thought.
How about we let Maliki run his own troops.
As it stands now he can only command 20 troops to operate in the country. WTF are 20 troops going to do?

We need to slowly let go of the handle bars on the bike here and see how well the guy does. Come on now!

Again am I for pulling all the troops out like the dems want. HELL NO.
That is only the left wing nut jobs that want that.
But we need to start giving the Iraqi government more leeway in what they do in their own affairs.

Lets see how this speech goes tonight.

File this one under WTF???

Posted without comment:

Dallas-based food chain to accept Mexican pesos

10:11 AM CST on Saturday, January 6, 2007

By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News

Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.

Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service.

"We're trying to reach out to our core customer," Antonio Swad, president of Pizza Patrón Inc., said Friday.

"We know they come back [from Mexico] and have pesos left over. We want to be a convenient place for them to spend their pesos."

While U.S. restaurant chains have stepped up their marketing to Latino consumers and incorporated Latin flavors in the menu, it's unusual to see that outreach extend to the cash register.

"I think it's a very interesting idea," said Ron Paul, president of Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based restaurant market research firm. "They are catering to that audience."

But Mr. Paul said he did not see other chains rushing to emulate the program, in part because of bookkeeping headaches.
Usefulness

Others mentioned that the growing use of credit cards and the desire to hang on to the pesos for a return trip to Mexico would dilute the usefulness of the program.

"If you're not in a border town, I don't see the functional benefit," said Juan Faura, president and chief executive of Cultura, a Dallas-based marketing and advertising firm.

He and others saw the program more as a marketing effort than a badly needed service.

"I would see it as a move by the chain to communicate unequivocally to the Hispanic market that they are for them," Mr. Faura said.

"I don't see any other reason for it."

But Andrew Gamm, Pizza Patrón's director of brand development, said the company tested the idea in a Mesquite store recently and had customers spend "a couple hundred pesos," without any advertisement of the service.
Bills only

Under the program – which is set to end in late February but may be extended – the chain's 59 stores will take peso bills only, not coins.

Using cards listing the conversion calculations, cashiers will enter the figure in U.S. dollars into the cash register and give the change in U.S. currency.

Mr. Swad said some franchisees have made arrangements with their banks to handle the currency.

All other franchisees can send the pesos to the corporate headquarters, which will go to a third party to handle the conversion.

Mr. Gamm said the company set its exchange rate at 12 pesos per dollar for the duration of the program. As of Friday's trading, 10.94 pesos were worth $1, according to Bloomberg News.

Mr. Gamm said the difference would cover the cost of getting the pesos converted to dollars.

Mr. Swad said he's prepared to take heat from American consumers who might be offended by the bypassing of greenbacks.

"We're not really interested in finding the safest spot on the board," Mr. Swad said.

About 60 percent of Pizza Patrón customers and 45 percent of the franchisees are Latino.

"We know the purity of our intention, and we're willing to take the heat when there is heat."

Dumbest Shit of the day...

Kolkata, India - A 15-year-old girl from eastern India hanged herself in response to the execution of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, police and family members said on Thursday.

"She said they had hanged a patriot. We didn't take her seriously when she told us that she wanted to feel the pain Saddam did during the execution," the girl's father, Manmohan Karmakar, told AFP by phone from the town of Kharda.

He said his daughter, called Moon Moon, had become extremely depressed after watching Saddam's execution on television.

"She kept watching the scene over and again and didn't take food on Saturday and Sunday to protest the hanging," he said.

Police superintendent Pravin Kumar confirmed the suicide, saying the girl had strung herself up from a ceiling fan and was found dead early on Wednesday.

The communist-ruled state of West Bengal has condemned Saturday's execution of Saddam, with thousands of people taking to the streets.

What a complete and utter moron. Hanging yourself in protest of Saddam's Hanging.

Fastest execution ever!

Now imagine if executions were this fast in the US.
OMG the back log would be clear quick.
I wonder if murders would be down since you would know that if you do it you die in 30 days?

Think of the money saved on taxes from this.
No more life time 20 million dollar lives!
We are spending more on some of these guys keeping them in then they would have ever made alive.

But I digress.

Saddam is now dead and sure enough even the left can't realize that this is a good thing. I would venture to say that some are sad to see him go.


But lets go to the Video Tape!

WELCOME TO 2007!

Yes another year has come and gone.
Being the first post of the Year I will talk about why New Years is so significant to us.

Now this is just my take on New Years but I think it's because of the representation of a fresh start. Although its kinda silly to take it that way because after all the same mistakes you made last year aren't going away this year?

But its a bit more symbolic then literal I think.

Its the thought of looking at a brand new calendar, ripping off the old one and planning out the next year that holds its luster year after year I guess.

I mean sure its just another day but stepping back a bit you get to see that its loosely tied to our capitalistic system here in the US.

Think about it. The markets all run in a sort of annual pattern. A quarterly pattern. The Job market runs high from February-Spring lulls a bit for the summer and picks back up in the winter. Flowing sort of on the calendar. Our tax season has begun now in January and ends in April.

Hopefully this turns out to be a great New Year.

Happy 07 all!