This conversation seems to be spiraling down hill.
#1. Don't listen to the home depot guys. Some times you can get lucky (the Home Depot paint girl here is very knowledgeable, for example), but more often than not you get know nothings. [ As an aside, my brother gave a nice explanation after working for a few years in a department about which he knew nothing: if a customer asks a Home Depot employee ANYTHING, then the customer is obviously even more clueless than the employee, so the employee might as well just make something up
-- don't want to seem ignorant, after all -- since the customer would't know the difference anyway. ]
#2. Don't listen to people who are "guessing" and "wondering", and who don't think twice about advocating doing things that "aren't completely kosher".
#3. Usenet can be helpful sometimes. Look for the consensus answer from people that seem cautious, reasonable, and knowledgeable. The consensus here (which I would agree with), is to install a switched receptacle, put a plug on the lamp cord, then just plug them in. Many under-counter lights these days are designed for exactly this case. I just installed some a few weeks ago, and this was exactly the manufactures instructions -- it even came with the plug for the cord, which could be cut to length. If you can put the outlet somewhere reasonable, it looks fine. For example, my (already existing) outlets where right up underneath the cabinets anyway, so you can't see the cord at all. I just had to rewire (half) the outlet to make it switched.
And, lastly, since no one else has mentioned it yet -- a 20A circuit requires 12 guage wire, not 14ga, to the receptacle.