noemij

Is there another SSA office where you can go?

Hi guys im in italy again...My mom died 2days ago (the day before my bday ) so i had to come back. I didnt even make it for the funeral! I feel so guilty that i moved to the states and she was already sick...

I feel so bad

Paola, I'm so sorry for your loss

How horrible I hope that they are tried as adults...

I have a couple of friends who work for the Foreign Service and it's not all about processing visa applications, work varies depending on their sector or "cone." The pay is really not that bad if you have a masters degree. The pay is also not bad if you consider that these people get free housing plus extra money if they go to harship posts...

1. Buy, buy, buy. Make your regular purchases for the week or month, but make them all on May 1. Nobody needs to go broke, just to buy on one particular day. If you’ve been putting off a purchase, put it off no more. Besides, you know the clerks will all speak English if you shop on May 1. No more painful pantomime just to find out where the paper towels are.

As if we needed another excuse to buy, buy, buy!

Good luck

Congratulations

paula just needs to get some. She is one crazy lady!!!

She'll be with Tom Cruise in no time

Going a Short Way to Make a Point

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

Gas prices have gone above $3 a gallon again, and that means it's time for another round of congressional finger-pointing.

"Since George Bush and ####### Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!" charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. "They are too cozy with the oil industry."

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) -- even though her Senate office was only a block away.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) used a Hyundai Elantra to take the one-block journey to and from the gas-station news conference. He posed in front of the fuel prices and gave them a thumbs-down. "Get tough on big oil!" he demanded of the Bush administration.

By comparison, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) was a model of conservation. She told a staffer idling in a Jetta to leave without her, then ducked into a sushi restaurant for lunch before making the journey back to work.

At about the same time, House Republicans were meeting in the Capitol for their weekly caucus (Topic A: gas). The House driveway was jammed with cars, many idling, including eight Chevrolet Suburbans (14 mpg).

America may be addicted to oil, as President Bush puts it. But America is in the denial phase of this addiction -- as evidenced by the behavior of its lawmakers. They have proposed all kinds of solutions to high gas prices: taxes on oil companies, domestic oil drilling and releasing petroleum reserves. But they ignore the obvious: that Americans drive too much in too-big cars.

Senators were debating a war spending bill yesterday, but the subject invariably turned to gas prices. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) engaged his deputy, ####### Durbin (Ill.), in a riveting colloquy. "Is the senator aware that the L.A. Times headline reads today, 'Bush's Proposals Viewed as a Drop in the Bucket'?"

"I'm aware of that," Durbin replied.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) responded with an economics lesson. "Oil is worth what people pay for it," he argued.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) sounded the alarms. "We are one accident or one terrorist attack away from oil at $100 a barrel!"

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) made a plea for conservation. "We have to move quickly to increase our fuel efficiency," she urged.

But not too quickly. After lunchtime votes, senators emerged from the Capitol for the drive across the street to their offices.

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) hopped in a GMC Yukon (14 mpg). Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) climbed aboard a Nissan Pathfinder (15). Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) stepped into an eight-cylinder Ford Explorer (14). Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) disappeared into a Lincoln Town Car (17). Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) met up with an idling Chrysler minivan (18).

Next came Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), greeted by a Ford Explorer XLT. On the Senate floor Tuesday, Menendez had complained that Bush "remains opposed to higher fuel-efficiency standards."

Also waiting: three Suburbans, a Nissan Armada V8, two Cadillacs and a Lexus. The greenest senator was Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who was picked up by his hybrid Toyota Prius (60 mpg), at quadruple the fuel efficiency of his Indiana counterpart Evan Bayh (D), who was met by a Dodge Durango V8 (14).

As a political matter, Democrats clearly sense that they have the advantage on the high gas prices, judging from the number of speeches and news conferences. "The cost of Republican corruption when it comes to energy is hitting home very clearly for America's middle class," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) exulted yesterday morning.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced an amendment to repeal oil-company tax breaks and distribute $500 tax rebates to consumers. It was quickly ruled out of order.

But Republicans were clearly feeling defensive. "We passed an energy bill last year, last July," House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) pleaded at a morning news conference. "It changes CAFE [corporate average fuel economy] standards. It changes some of the things that we can do -- I'm sorry, changes not the CAFE standards, but changes some of the supply issues, boutique fuels, all these things."

Only Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who can speak freely because he is retiring, was willing to note the disconnect between rhetoric and action. "People say, understandably, 'Solve our energy problems right now, but don't make us do anything differently,' " he said on the Senate floor.

If the politics of gasoline favor Democrats at the moment, the insincerity is universal. A surreptitious look at the cars in the senators-only spots inside and outside the Senate office buildings found an Escort and a Sentra (super-rich Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl's spot had a Chevy Lumina), but far more Jaguars, Cadillacs and Lexuses and a fleet of SUVs made by Ford, Honda, BMW and Lexus.

A sampling of senators' and staff cars parked along Delaware Avenue NE found that those displaying Democratic campaign bumper stickers had a somewhat higher average fuel economy (23 mpg) than those displaying GOP stickers (18 mpg). A fuel-efficiency rating could not be found for the 1970s-era Volkswagen "Thing" owned by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Maybe, lawmakers are starting to learn. When GOP senators had a lunch Tuesday a couple of blocks from the Capitol, many took cars. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) emerged from the lunch looking for his ride when he spied The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray. Reconsidering, he set out on foot. "I need the exercise," he reasoned.

Yes Pickler is gone

I really hope that the stylist puts something more age-appropriate on Paris (and that she picks a song that is also age-appropriate), because otherwise she's going home next week....and that would be a shame because she has a beautiful voice. I think that because of the way she looks, people are interpreting her confidence on the stage with her being showy or pretentious

Congrats

All this drama for $97....lazy and cheap

I don't see a reason why DHS would care if that happens, considering the time between one marriage and petition and another. It would probably raise alarm bells is less than 2 years pass between both petitions.....my two cents....

My advice...get a good immigration lawyer!

Dont get me started on the Virgina DMV.. they are the bigest RETARDS!!!

we go into the DMV..i tell them I want my wife to get her learners permit, then they ask for ID i give her passport they look at the I-94 and they said it is expried. I gave the NOA1 form and they said her visa is still expired and they can't take it, I told them, her visa is good cause it is in processing..she went back and asked someone, she then comes back and tells us it will exprie on the date of the NOA 1 yr from now. Ok I give proof that she is a resedent of Virgina..

Mind you about 90% are not from this country and they give someone in the same boat as them a hard time..

mind you that Virgina gave 2 or 3 of the 9-11 highjackers a DL and they had expired student visas or were technicly overstay and their visa was expried..

Then they told her name on the SSN is differnt then the name on the Form and we had to change her name.. SO much running around this week

Yogi

Wow. We never had a problem with the VA DMV....my husband was upset because he needed to take the driving test, but people from Germany or France don't.

Those are spa prices around here....you can get them at nail places for $15-$20

Ok...somebody please check Paula's cup because that isn't Coke that she's drinking!!!!!!

I have to say that I'm really rooting for Chris....he's proved to be the most versatile singer. That was a great performance last night.

My guess for bottom three are Pickler (surprise, surprise), Taylor and Paris. My husband and I were talking about Paris last night and we came to the conclusion that they need to change her style (hair, clothes, etc) because they are making her look a lot older than she is, she's also picking songs that are not right for her. I think she should've picked something from a contemporary artist last night...would like to hear her sing something from Mariah Carey or Alicia Keys....

Pickler's getting the boot tonight.......sorry Reinhard..

Think its thursday we get it in UK - and Chris and Kat are stil my faves - I just can't get into Taylor at all.

Perhaps its cos when i think 'idol' I think 'pop star' and Taylor just doesn't FIT into that category. Yes he's entertaining and he has a decent voice but he just doesn't strike me as 'star' material.

Last night they really made him look like Jay Leno

One is crazy to buy gas in DC anyways!! Here in Arlington VA it varies, lowest i saw today was 2.97. I work out in bethesda a bit, and the price was around 3.30

My husband works in Alexandria and he fills up over there....I think he told me it was 2.90. We live close to Gaithersburg and it's about 3.30....

6. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government

assistance programs.

Not even Mexican citizens have these!

...the teenage kid from down the street couldn't (and doesn't want to) hack it.

Time for a little regional perspective, Melissa.

I live in the New Jersey 'burbs and it is my unscientific opinion that we don't have as many illegal immigrants out here as they do in, say, SoCal.

I eat out a lot. Most servers I ever run into have American accents. White, black..mostly. Some Latino. But almost all young and almost always with a clear, crisp, intelligible American accent. Most likely NOT someone who ran/swam/flew/crawled across the border a few years ago.

ALL of those kids qualify, in my mind, as the teenage kid down the street.

So don't tell me they can't hack it. I know they can. It's in regions where the labor market has been flooded with illegals that teenage American kids no longer participate in the market.

Most servers you come across probably don't work 10-12 hour days and have to carry 5 drinks in one hand without a tray or 7 SCORCHING plates on their outstretched arm and endure burn after burn on a daily basis. Trust me, they can't hack it.

I think that anyone who wants to keep his/her job is going to "hack it"...

I'd take the money...

And that's cheap here in DC!!!!

Well what I've heard (from e-mails, talking with friends, etc) is that there is a call for all immigrants (Latino/Hispanic in particular) to observe the May 1 boycot, regardless of legal status....

My wife and I, both legal immigrants, will not participate in this nonsense. None of the legal immigrants that I know will do so. Why would a legal immigrant want to be lumped in with the illegal crowd?

We're going to our favorite Mexican restaurant for some Fajitas and Margaritas instead.

Oh you're bad

I am both Hispanic and a legal immigrant and I will not participate in this either.....but you know, a lot of legal immigrants did participate in the protests...