Eric_and_Corinna

Sarah is absolutely clueless and has gotten by with her looks and no real substance.

This is truly scary.

Hey it worked for Quayle!

LOL...I've been thinking the same thing!

Very nervous. After watching her govern the state that I have lived in nearly my entire life, the thought of her taking over should something happen to McCain is terrifying.

Gary , I have no clue who this woman is or has done. Would you take a minute to expand on this?

I think you were asking me, as I was answering another post.

Sarah Palin has been around Alaska politics since the 1990's. She started out as a small town council member, then moved up to the mayor's position. She won a lot of us over during the previous governor's campaign when she exposed some very corrupt good old boys who were doing GOP business on State of Alaska time. She parlayed this into a successful run for the Alaska governorship on a platform of "open and transparent government" and her campaign slogan was to "Take a Stand."

However, during her campaign, she was frequently grilled during debates with her opponents, who tried unsuccessfully to get her to actually take a stand on anything. She fell back on her one goal of exposing corruption (which the FBI had already been steaming full speed ahead on). Over and over again, local media outlets fawned over her and she got a lot of undecided voters who were just sick of politics as usual to vote for her. Also a lot of people who voted on her looks and aww-shucks demeanor.

I'll be the first one to say she's a very nice woman who seems to have her heart in the right place. I've talked with her numerous times during campaigns, in Juneau, and during the off-season. I didn't think she was ready to lead the state during her campaign, and I'm still unconvinced of her ability to manage anything at all. And lately she's done some things that have disenchanted a lot of people here in Alaska, one being her increase on the oil company royalty tax (I was in favor of that, but I'm not a conservative), her handling of the natural gas pipeline project, and most recently a nasty family squabble that has boiled over to her possibly using her position as Governor to push for her ex-brother in law's firing as a State Trooper.

My feeling is that she is totally unexperienced in economic matters and foreign policy. The operating budget in Alaska continues to skyrocket, which is fine when you have a billion dollar surplus because of oil prices, but what happens when oil finally tanks?

Anyway, I'm sure the GOP could have done worse, but I'm really scratching my head over this pick.

I think the cons on this choice might outweigh the pros.

Pros

She is a woman, which will appeal to the identity supporters for HRC.

She is conservative, which will help placate the strong conservatives in the party.

Despite what national pundits say, she is much more fiscally liberal then many hard core right wingers would like. Many older GOPers here consider her to be a RINO.

She will probably guarantee that Alaska 3 Electoral Votes will go to McCain. Which wasnt really much in question anyway.

You're right, Obama campaign workers had been up here in great numbers, but this is traditionally a red state, and this guarantees all 3 votes for McCain

Cons

Kills any experience argument that McCain tries to make. Palin has only been in office for 2 years.

Questions McCains judgment, Palin is currently involved in a nepotism scandal.

She will be too conservative to attract HRC supporters that supported HRC on issues.

In addtion, comments from Republican supporters on the sexual attractiveness of Palin will only serve to turn off potentional women supporters. If Palin is going to be effective, Rush, and other supporters will need to keep thier pants on, and shut up.

Don't discount the looks factor too much, it got her elected here.

Alaska...where you can't be too fat or too drunk!

Homer Simpson, 2007

Sorry Gary I think you missed my point ! I confirmed the point that McCains "experience" does not equal good judgement. I called this decision of his the double whammy of bad judgement coupled with negligible experience. I do believe the Obama /Biden ticket wins this hands down in all departments. I am pleased with his pick as an independant Obama just got a bigger boost than he had from the last four days wooohoooo

McCains choice shows me he has very good judgment. Palin is a great conservative. Obama's choice shows me he knows he has no experience and needs Biden to shore him up. The candidate of "change" picked a Washington insider because he knows that his resume is very thin. So much for "change".

Gary

With all due respect, being a US Senator is an entirely different ballgame then being a mayor of a small town in Alaska (population approximately 7,000) and a first term governor of the second smallest state in the union (approximately 700,000). Further, Mrs. Palin has had unprecedented budget surplus' to work with during her two years. Anyone can govern with an extra billion in the bank.

She was elected on a campaign platform preaching open and transparent government, and little else. She got hammered in debates because she was evasive and uninformed, yet kept preaching that she was for open government. She never answered important policy questions, yet rode her looks and charm into office. And I'm not sure to this day, what she stands for. Especially after her mishandling of her firing the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

She's a very nice woman, don't get me wrong. But I'm not sure what McCain was thinking with this pick when, if he just wanted a woman, could have went with someone like Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas.

Why are some liberals so pissed about McCain's VP selection? Nervous, maybe?

Very nervous. After watching her govern the state that I have lived in nearly my entire life, the thought of her taking over should something happen to McCain is terrifying.

That fear you have....is very real to me (& I am not the only one). I am THAT afraid of Obama & he is #1, not #2.

Well, I guess we all have our fears. Like I said before though, if McCain/Palin wins, it's not all bad for Alaska. She won't be leading (and that's a huge leap of faith to say that) our state anymore, and maybe we can finally drill everything in sight.

Sorry Gary I think you missed my point ! I confirmed the point that McCains "experience" does not equal good judgement. I called this decision of his the double whammy of bad judgement coupled with negligible experience. I do believe the Obama /Biden ticket wins this hands down in all departments. I am pleased with his pick as an independant Obama just got a bigger boost than he had from the last four days wooohoooo

McCains choice shows me he has very good judgment. Palin is a great conservative. Obama's choice shows me he knows he has no experience and needs Biden to shore him up. The candidate of "change" picked a Washington insider because he knows that his resume is very thin. So much for "change".

Gary

With all due respect, being a US Senator is an entirely different ballgame then being a mayor of a small town in Alaska (population approximately 7,000) and a first term governor of the second smallest state in the union (approximately 700,000). Further, Mrs. Palin has had unprecedented budget surplus' to work with during her two years. Anyone can govern with an extra billion in the bank.

She was elected on a campaign platform preaching open and transparent government, and little else. She got hammered in debates because she was evasive and uninformed, yet kept preaching that she was for open government. She never answered important policy questions, yet rode her looks and charm into office. And I'm not sure to this day, what she stands for. Especially after her mishandling of her firing the Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

She's a very nice woman, don't get me wrong. But I'm not sure what McCain was thinking with this pick when, if he just wanted a woman, could have went with someone like Kay Bailey Hutchison from Texas.

Why are some liberals so pissed about McCain's VP selection? Nervous, maybe?

Very nervous. After watching her govern the state that I have lived in nearly my entire life, the thought of her taking over should something happen to McCain is terrifying.

Even if it were true, what relevance does that have politically, or any other way?

I am sure some people do base all their decisions on the relative 'hotness' of everyone they meet, but I will be darned if I am going to start doing that.

The relevance is that her hottness got her elected once, why not try it twice? We had stateswomen who were 10x the leader Palin was run before, yet they got nothing because their looks weren't Prom Queen enough...

This is the first year I'll be voting Republican. After watching Obama's speech last night and feeling like I was in church and seeing the hero worship from before like he's JC I'm a bit put off. At least McCain is a moderate republican. I agree with his foreign policy and his VP choice is a University of Idaho alumni plus a woman. I already know all about her from articles done on her at my University. She was a journalism and mass media major like me. That snags my vote. I don't even know Obama's running mate and I don't agree with some of his policy's.

I'm a little puzzled at how I can make this choice when I don't agree with McCain's policy on pro-life but I feel that McCain and Palin are an overall better match than their competitors.

How did I go from being a liberal Democrat to a moderate Republican in 10 years?

Wow. If you think McCain is pro-life, and that you felt you were in church listening to Obama, wait until you listen to Palin.

This woman ran on a campaign of open and transparent government, yet less then two years into the job she's embroiled in a messy firing of her Director of Public Safety that appears to be over a nasty family feud.

Oh well, if they get elected, at least the economy up here will be booming, as we finally drill, mine, and log everything

Where on the Peninsula? I lived out there for a bit and worked commercial fishing in Bristol Bay during my youth.

Wow. We've been hearing the rumors here for a long time. I never would have thought this would happen.

Sarah is absolutely clueless and has gotten by with her looks and no real substance. She is going to get torn apart by Senator Biden. I watched her debate numerous times during her race for Governor and she had no idea what was going on.

This is truly scary.

Im working my butt off right now trying to get all that stuff together, hoping I can get an interview date for early Oct... My application is on the way to NVC or the embassy right now so I think I should get package three here in a week or two... Im not sure if im being relistic with planning a moving date for NOv 2nd, but trying to pin point some kinda date down, cause with two kids I need some kinda plan.... Im interviewing at VAncouver cause Im in Winnipeg, people tell me thats a good thing so we will see..

I think you'll be allowed to move much faster then that...Vancouver interviews seem to get scheduled way faster then Montreal. It wouldn't surprise me to see you have an interview mid-end of September!

Even with insurance in the US, it'll still cost more to have the baby here than it would in Canada. Plus, while you're on Canadian maternity leave, you can move to the US on your K1 and still collect EI benefits.

No, the baby would not need a visa, they would need to register his/her birth abroad at the US consulate, and it would have US citizenship.

No..well i call him my hubby now..but we are only engaged

Thank you for all the helpful info...we have decided it would be best for me to have the baby here, and he will come up for the birth. But I have another question...if he is here fo the birth, how will he let his US consolute now about the babies birth, so that they baby has a US passport?or will it be a US citizen..this confuses me also.

Thanks a bunch guys...u rock!!

Your child will be a dual US-Canadian citizen if you aply for the Consular Birth Abroad. This is a good place to start:

http://toronto.usconsulate.gov/content/con...t=births_abroad

I'm just assuming you would be near Toronto. The paperwork is kind of a pain in the ####### and kind of confusing, but the process at the Consulate itself is very painless. The biggest pain is getting an expedited Ontario birth certificate-normally they take something like 4 months. If you get your local MP involved, they can get the birth certificate to you pretty quickly.

wow guys...

thanks for the responses. Jedi and Deadpool, you were way over my head, but it sounds like a Mac is a solid machine and we'll go test drive one today. You may be getting a PM from us if we get lost

Thanks again

Thanks for all your replies. My wife won't be doing any actual work on it, just using it for internet access, and storing lots of pictures and music files. Can you use MSN messenger or Skype on a Mac?

Our one year old son decided he would celebrate moving to the US by dousing Corinna's laptop with lemonade, so we need to get a replacement laptop. It's the only way she stays in touch with all of her friends back in Canada, so time is of the essence

We're thinking of crossing over to a Mac...anyone have any suggestions on the model or bad experiences to share?

Our K-3 took almost a year. We go home, as a family, on Thursday after 14 months. Keep with it, it's worth so much more in the end

Ya location location location. VA average for a firefighter is freaking high. I know guys making 90k for my rank.

It was cheaper. My insurance from work is everything covered style so its awesome. No waits for anything because they love my insurance.

Our step 1 FF/PMs make about $50k during their their first year, but that goes up to about 75k after year 1 and by year 4 are making about 100k. No sales tax or state income tax in Anchorage, only city property tax which is about $1,300 per $100,000 of property assessed. Unfortunately, they just changed our pension system for new hires into a 401k, not a true pension. Insurance is still pretty good...we pay 10% of the increase in the premium costs from base year 2002, which currently is like $20 a month for us.

The US has...the colbert report.

Which has a lot of CDN writers writing for it

Yep! Hence the big story line with the Oshawa Generals last year Which was great!

The OHL coverage came from the Saginaw Spirit naming their Eagle mascot "Steven Cobeagle the Eagle," or something like that. I was dying every time Colbert would call Coach Mancini and act like he had any clue about hockey. One time Mancini said something about the Pyatt line, naming all three players by last name, and Colbert was like "how would you even stop that guy?", to which Mancini gently informed him that it was actually three players, not one guy with three names.

Good (and free) coverage for the OHL. But the WHL is still the best

Through my travels across the US and Canada, I found that the folks from the Eastern US had a more biting type of humor that was more at the expense of others, rather then most other place's sarcastic self deprecating humor. I know when I played hockey the guys from New England were always the ones hammering on other guys in the locker room, and it wasn't in as much fun as everyone else. Especially those guys from Boston.

During my time in Canada, I've really come to enoy Corner Gas, which probably has most of you rolling your eyes. I'm a huge Daily Show and Cobert Report fan, so I've really enjoyed "This Hour has 22 Minutes" too. But is there a Canadian version of "The Onion?"

For us sarcasm fans, this month will only get better...Democratic and Republican National Conventions usually serve up tons of soundbites and bizarre stories (remember this?

)

Have a great day everyone. Seriously.

I hate to reply to my own post, but the damn edit button wouldn't work

Here's a link to the Colbert Report's naming of the Saginaw Spirit mascot, for anyone interested...

The US has...the colbert report.

Which has a lot of CDN writers writing for it

Yep! Hence the big story line with the Oshawa Generals last year Which was great!

The OHL coverage came from the Saginaw Spirit naming their Eagle mascot "Steven Cobeagle the Eagle," or something like that. I was dying every time Colbert would call Coach Mancini and act like he had any clue about hockey. One time Mancini said something about the Pyatt line, naming all three players by last name, and Colbert was like "how would you even stop that guy?", to which Mancini gently informed him that it was actually three players, not one guy with three names.

Good (and free) coverage for the OHL. But the WHL is still the best

Through my travels across the US and Canada, I found that the folks from the Eastern US had a more biting type of humor that was more at the expense of others, rather then most other place's sarcastic self deprecating humor. I know when I played hockey the guys from New England were always the ones hammering on other guys in the locker room, and it wasn't in as much fun as everyone else. Especially those guys from Boston.

During my time in Canada, I've really come to enoy Corner Gas, which probably has most of you rolling your eyes. I'm a huge Daily Show and Cobert Report fan, so I've really enjoyed "This Hour has 22 Minutes" too. But is there a Canadian version of "The Onion?"

For us sarcasm fans, this month will only get better...Democratic and Republican National Conventions usually serve up tons of soundbites and bizarre stories (remember this?

Have a great day everyone. Seriously.

We did ours at Medisys too. It wasn't a great experience, but not nearly as bad as yours.

But I think the x-ray place is open past 4 for immigration stuff, at least that's what I seem to remember. I know that we got there around then and didn't leave until right around 5pm.

They just don't take any non-immigration patients in the late afternoon...

ah ok i see, well we aren't near poverty, he makes more then enough to cover what we need, im just wondering what the best things to take are, do we need the letter or should i just take tax forms and pay stubs? or is the letter really required

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I believe the letter is required, but I doubt that they will do any more then glance at it unless the rest of your I-134 raises some questions. If I were you, I would do everything I could to get an accurate letter from his employer, but I wouldn't lose sleep over it if it was less then perfect.

Things I would include are date of hire, rank or position, if his work has health insurance, if he belongs to a pension or retirement plan, etc.

We took as much as we could gather, and probably went overboard. They only asked for the letter from the employer, pay stubs, and copies of the W-2s. Everything else (pension and SS statements, mortgage balances, investment holdings, bank statements) wasn't even asked for.

would it be a good idea then to just have him write the letter and have a manager sign it and also go ahead and have all his pay stubs with me too? do they usually call the work to check? or if i took the pay stubs would that be enough so they dont need to call?

It would appear to me that the closer you are to the poverty threshold, the more scrutiny they give your entire affadavite of support package. They seemed more interested in the tax returns/W-2s/paystubs then anything else. I would imagine if your husband hasn't been with his company for a significant time period that may present some more questioning...

So on my way back from BC, I did not pre-clear US Customs/ Immigration flying from Victoria to Seattle. Which was strange thought I.

Plus, the officer in Seattle looking at my paperwork saw my K-1 visa still in my passport and said "What are you still doing with this in there"? to which I responded "well no one has ever taken it from me!" and with that he dramatically tore it out of my passport. Hope i don't need that to adjust my status

What a nightmare. We flew from Vic to Seattle in April and I was surprised at how far behind Seattle is in comparison to other US airports in their Immigration area.

sooo not gonna say anything about all the lying think everyone covered that hehe, but i do have a question now that i read all this, i visited my fiance for 5 months had no problem getting through, didn't have a job at the time but still they did not question anything, well, i came back for 3 months, and and we decided i would come visit for a month or so, i had a job, but no letter from them, well, i get to the airport, 6 in the morning, and of course, i got denied, i hadn't bought my return ticket yet because we weren't sure of the date i would return exactly, and of course that looked suspicious, on top of the fact that he bought the ticket, they didn't like that much, so i got to go to the little room, fun, and i sat there, they left me for last, everyone else was gone and 2 hours later they tell me im not going through because i dont have ties to canada, well, its 8 in the morning, they called my work, not open yet of course so that didn't help me, tried calling my landlord, no answer, so again, everything against me there lol sooooo my question now, when i do my packet 3 forms i see where it says have you ever been denied entry blah blah blah, ok, so is this incident going to be a problem, i mean, i had ties, but couldn't prove them cause it was so early noone would answer their phones and i didn't think to get letters cause i had no problems before going back and forth, and i wasn't at vj yet so is this going to be a problem if i just explain i didn't know i needed documentation with me of ties to canada and it was so early that the POE guys couldn't get ahold of anyone to prove my story so they thought i was lying?

i doubt it will be a problem. We were denied entry and the officer who interviewed us for our K-3 in Montreal simply asked us about it, basically told us that things like that happen, and then told us it was expunged as he waved his golden scepter of forgiveness.

Yeah, being a "suitcase" hockey player will get you to a lot of places for short periods of time. I liked most places I was at, but Bakersfield California would be one place I wouldn't recommend!

But... another great place is Boise, Idaho. I know Idaho is the last place anyone would expect, but I was there for a week in 2000, and the place was like Pleasantville! Everyone said hi on the street, no one littered, or crossed against the lights, or swore in public...it was crazy!

They have nice weather since they're kind of in the desert, lakes and mountains nearby, lots of IT and financial businesses are putting roots there. You could fish the streams right in the middle of town. Airport connections to Salt Lake and Seattle.

They have winters too...

Wow...all the choices...

RBC charged us a flat $35 fee to send a wire transfer. All I needed was the swift (routing) number and my account number in the States. I had the money in less than an hour.