Smurf said:
ok, we became a country in 1960-something, i was only off by a century.
I made a typo; It was 1867.
I'm not trying to be a dick. I just want the world to know a little more about Canada
The link to that forum is here
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t123077.html
Smurf said:
Cheney major stock holder in Halliburton, who was clinton's vice? If halliburton did as bad a job in yugo as they are doing in Iraq I'll give him this one.
Cheney being a big stock holder isn't the point. The point is that both administrations wanted quick results (bidding can take weeks), but only one administration got bad pres over it.
Smurf said:
The main argument is bush's reasons for going to Iraq, he misused information and lied to the world, went against the UN and now the US has already broken many articles in the geneva convention, and no one is being held responsible! except for that one thing at abu ghrave or something prison where a few lowly officers got minor sentences.
I'm not too sure he lied to the world. He used information that the CIA discovered during Clinton's reign.
He had to go against the UN if he wanted results because Iraq had France (a country with veto power) in its pocket.
About the Geneva convention, which articles were broken exactly? That prison scandal was one thing that was managed very poorly, but what else has gone against the convention?
Smurf said:
Clinton was first president in like 7 consecutive presidents to leave office without a deficit, Bush went throught this and into deficit in his first term, and then achieved the largest deficit in American history.
As for Clinton being the first in 7 to leave without a deficit, it depends on how you see it. If you
compare the debt with the GDP, you'll see that Clinton isn't really a first over any extended period. He certainly did do a good job of the budget; there's just no disputing that.
Bush's deficit isn't entirely his fault. The war spending is definitely his fault, but the bear market was inherited from Clinton, and a bum economy always follows a bear market.
Smurf said:
*cough* this one is completely unparallelled
The point is that Bush is getting criticized for absolutely everything he does, but Clinton is still infallible. Whenever something goes wrong, people are immediately blaming Bush.
Smurf said:
I don't know much about this but didn't you find mass graves in Serbia? I'm pretty sure this is flat out not true.
I believe they did; I think it's why Milosevic is on trial.
Smurf said:
See #2 but add 'Massive Outsourcing' to Bush.
No arguments here. Bush really is screwing that one up.
Smurf said:
America had the means of stopping WTC, when bush was warned by the CIA some time (several months i believe) before it he took no action and the air force was completely unprepared for WTC.
Bush incapable of taking Bin Laden into custody?
The main point was that Sudan actually offered to give Bin Laden to the US, but Clinton's administration didn't want Bin Laden. They could have had him right then and there, but they didn't take him. Bush basically inherited another one of Clinton's screw ups, and now it's suddenly Bush's fault that Bin Laden is still on the run.
Smurf said:
Clinton was wrong, realized it, didn't go to war.
Bush was wrong, didn't care, lied, went to war.
Clinton actually supports the war.
CNN link
Ivan Seeking said:
What is the price of milk, gas, coffee, a dinner at a decent restaurant, and a good steak from the grocery store?
What do you consider to be a high, moderate, and cheap price for a home?
How much of your income goes to taxes?
milk: $5 for 4L.
gas: $0.80 per litre in Edmonton
coffee: $1 from vending machines, a little more than $1 at dohnut shops, and up to $4 at coffee shops like Second Cup and Starbucks.
Prices at restaurants are about the same when you factor in the exchange rate. For example, a $0.99 burger in the US will cost $1.29 or $1.39 around here.
steak: T-bone steak is about $6 per pound.
homes: You can probably get a used house in Edmonton for about 100k-150k. A nice new one will cost about 200k. Houses near the river cost a hell of a lot more.
Taxes:
Highest tax bracket starts at something like 60k, and you pay around 29% on a federal level. Alberta has a flat rate income tax that doesn't change depending on how much money you make. In 2001, the flat tax in Alberta was 11%; I'm not sure what it is right now. I have no idea how Edmonton's taxes work.
Split between federal and provincial income taxes, 40% of your money is gone right off the top. After that you add in all the other BS stuff like UI, union dues, etc. Basically you can expect 50% of your money to be taken from you before you even get a chance to spend it.
After income taxes there are the sales taxes. Canada has a 7% national sales tax called GST. Alberta and the 3 territories have no provincial taxes. The provincial sales taxes get insanely high as you head farther east peaking at 15% in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. So sum it all up, Alberta and the territories have the lowest sales taxes at 7%. NB, NS, and Newfoundland have the highest sales taxes at 22%.
Provincial Sales Taxes
