I'm sure this question has been asked before, but I need to do my time in the newbie section anyways.  Plus it might save me a lot of time.

So I used the complete guide to mine bitcoin on xubuntu 12.04 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gw7YPYgMgNNU42skibULbJJUx_suP_CpjSEdSi8_z9U

I got everything setup and I'm at the part where you start mining in a pool, but now I have to choose a pool.  So then I looked up Comparison of mining pools https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Comparison_of_mining_pools.  There is a lot of information to go through there, and at some point I'm going to read through it all, but I have other things to do right now.  Like mining, and I have LiteCoin rig to build.

So whats a decent fairly easy to use mining pool that I can join to get started?  I was thinking BitMinter since their fees are low.  I'm in the US, should I pick something closer, or does that even matter? 

What do you guys think?  Please let me know.