BJean

P.S. The real issue about Joe the Plumber? I have to giggle again. Please don't tell me that McCain isn't terribly embarrassed about the whole fiasco. If he isn't, aren't you a little worried? Ciao for real.

Heh, heh, heh. I shouldn't use any "Democratic rehtoric"? Read your sister's last post. Now tell me how she has no credibility and her views have no validity. I have to check out. This has been fun. Not productive, really, but fun. Ciao. Hope you all have a good weekend, whatever your politics!

I never said McCain is another George W. Bush. But you can't argue with the fact that McCain is a Republican, like George Bush is a Republican. There are certain Republican ideology that don't change with the man - only with the party. You want more of what we've had, vote for McCain. The two men's political affiliations and goals are rigidly the same in the big picture. That's why Obama keeps mentioning that McCain voted for Bush's policies 90% of the time and that he endorsed Bush's budgets four times. It is definitely something we should consider when we vote.

I have no doubt that both McCain's and Obama's little speeches last night were written by others. But McCain and Obama are the only ones who are responsible for their content. Am I the only one who is beginning to wonder if McCain doesn't have a bad apple in his campaign? (I mean other than Karl Rove) I mean I am amazed and mystified at some of the subversive and contradictory things that McCain has said and done lately. I mean have you all heard about Joe the Plumber's background on all things political? He's been a very vocal participant on a conservative radio talk show. Why didn't McCain's people figure that out before John McCain used him during something as important as the national debate? I'm actually beginning to feel sorry for McCain.

We had a Democratically dominated Congress for the past 2 years only. And that was with a Republican President in the mix. The previous Republican controlled congress for 6 years (+ more from the previous administration) will be difficult to fix. But I'll admit, they're trying. You can't blame the growth of the government during the majority of Bush's tenure on Democrats. You can't blame the war on them either. Even the ones from both parties who voted for the war. Bush misled Congress about his motives and about the intelligence that was used for committing us to that war. So if you're basing your vote on anything that Bush has promised or that the Republicans say they are for - like no taxes, etc., I feel sorry for you because you must feel very conflicted right now what with their record staring us squarely in the face. MissyG: McCain is hilarious! I'm surprised you didn't know that. To criticize Obama's jokes about housing and financial topics is laughable for sure. Where were you when McCain was downright hateful with his humor? Or did you just forget to mention your distain for that? Or maybe once again, we'll have to admit that all have our own ways of looking at and interpreting things.

John McCain was abolutely hilarious at the dinner. And crass and tasteless. Senator Obama was very funny too. But as usual, did not stoop to McCain's level. He was intelligent in his wit and gave a meaningful little tribute to the occasion. I'd trust international negotiations being led by a man like Obama. Hmmm, McCain? Not so much. He reminds me more of George W. Bush. Wonder if he'll use the "S" word when talking with his mouth full.

Guess we see what we want to see - and that is what makes our eyes become "lyin' eyes" Luckyami.

I certainly never said that any one person could solve all of the problems that you and others want to go away and seem to want to take no responsibility for (tax wise). I would suggest that some dents could be made if we throw the current bums out. With the Republicans calling the shots there's no chance whatsoever. This is not something I'm making up. This is something they have proven. If we impeach for misrepresentation, why are we so behind on getting the job done on George W. Bush? Can we do post-term impeachments? That way we could get Dubya's father, Bill Clinton (who promised work on our medical insurance problems), Ronald Reagan for hundreds of silly things he misrepresented, and oh gosh, where would it end? *blink, blink*

You're the one who doesn't know the facts. Check a little further about what Barney Franks tried to do and eventually was able to do. Senator Obama tried to ring the alarm long ago. Some Democrats have been very vocal in trying to cut out all the deregulation. You are only seeing what the Republicans are wanting you to see. When you say that there's enough blame to go around, tell me in what ways you believe that the Republicans share the blame. I don't care for kool-aid. I drink organically grown fruit juices when I'm not drinking water from our purified public water supply.

It is very easy to say that we work for our money and nobody should have the right to take it from us. It is easy to say that we shouldn't have to kick in any of our income for the things needed to run America. It is easy to say that everybody is on the dole and that you should not have to put food on anybody else's table unless you choose to. It is easy to say that government is run by incompetents. It is easy to say that the government doesn't employ anything but incompetents. It is easy to say that there are some really lousy govenment programs and therefore all government programs are lousy. It is easy to disagree with how our public education system is run, and how our public utilities, our roads, our medical, our military and every other system in our fabulous country is run. All of that is easy to say and very difficult to disprove because there is an element of truth in each and every statement. But it is not the whole truth and it doesn't solve a damn thing to state those things loudly with our hands on our hips, acting all wounded and feeling taken advantage of. Spouting those partial truths only serve to criticize. It only serves to instill fear. It only serves to make us all feel cheated by our government and to disrespect the very things that make this country strong. It does absolutely nothing to solve the real problems in our government. What have you done to change the things that you believe are weak and unjust in our country? Do you think that by electing another Republican there is a snow ball's chance in hell of making things better than they are? Where've you been for the past 8 years? (For Jack, what I mean is where have you been looking with your lying eyes?) Is your life better than it was, has it improved that much? In what ways has your life improved during the past 8 years that relate to any of those things you're complaining about? Has our economy improved? Has our government become smaller? Have you been given any kind of significant tax relief? Have there been more jobs created? Have there been lots of poorly run government programs abolished? Has the educational system improved? Has our environment improved? Has the government purged itself of incompetent employees? Has our infrastructure that is falling apart improved? Have we begun to provide more benefits for our military returning from Iraq? Have we begun to invent ways of becoming independent on Middle Eastern Oil? Have our gas prices gone down or even stayed the same? Having a hard time thinking of the government, our Repunlican political leaders, in the same context as improving all those things? Well, that's what I mean by your lying eyes. It's all right in front of us and yet we deny it. We continue to repeat all the politically driven claims that have an element of truth, but which are in the big picture, nothing but lies and ways to manipulate the voters. The Republican rehtoric stinks to high heaven. This has been a very, very open campaign and I believe it has served us all well. We know for sure who these candidates are and we know for sure what they plan to do. I believe that the Sarah and Todd Palin approach to government, the extreme right wing approach to government, is a threat to our Constitutional rights and our beloved American way of life. We've had quite enough of it from the current Republican administration and let's hope that the door is closing on that horrible, horrible chapter in our American History book.

I find it a little amusing and even more irritating that the Republicans have the gall to make such offensive remarks about our "Democratic controlled" congress. You do understand that most of what has caused our current situation has been created during a significant period of Republican controlled Congress AND White House! For years they had carte blanche - and now for the past 2 years where there has been a shift in congress, we still have had a Republican president with his trusty veto stamp. I cannot believe that people have the nerve to make the disengenous claims suggesting that the Democrats are the people who are wholly responsible for this mess. What are you smoking?

You all seem to be buying into the "trickle down" theory of economics. Keep the rich wealthy and provide as many ways as possible for them to expand their bank accounts. Of course the "trickle down" theory (the Republican proponents of it) doesn't say exactly that. What they say it represents is that the wealthy folks will allow their huge profits trickle down to us little guys. They say it will provide more jobs and more opportunities across the board for people to also become better off financially. That's their reasoning behind why the rich folks and corporations should not have to pay their fair share in taxes. We all know that if you are wealthy or even upper middle class, there's a very good chance that you are taking advantage of many ways to avoid paying your "fair share." Trust me, everyone I know who has money (if you'll pardon the expression) does not pay a whole lot of what they earn in income taxes. Everyone has shelters and we use them. On the other hand, we all use our roads, we enjoy having an election board that takes care of the elections, we reap the rewards of a public education school system (except those of us who home school or send our kids to private school). We want a government run military, fire prevention and police system. We want decent roads. We want a competent penal system and a honest and competent court system. We want public utilities (in some cases) and we want some oversight into things like our telephone companies and other necessary but privately owned companies. The list could go on and on. We not only want all these things, we demand them. It is what makes us such a strong and wonderful nation. How do you expect to pay for everything that the government provides, donations? What we need is a congress with a backbone and a president to ride rough shod over them. What we've had for 12 of the past 14 years is a Republican congress and a Republican president for 8 of those years who believes in rewarding big business; banks, the stock market and wealthy individuals. THAT is what is not fair. Paying taxes is a necessity. Being someone who is middle class in America means that you have been bogged down with a huge burden (the amazing deficit) that your president, G.W. Bush, has given you and who has done a really stupid thing by fooling you into thinking he was doing you a service by giving you a tax cut, what? a check for $600? Think what he's done with the rest of the money you sent in. He is costing us billions - BILLIONS - every week with the war in Iraq. He's put the oil companies in the position of being so greedy that we can hardly afford to drive to work. He's supported sticking it to 95% of Americans while being more than generous to the fat cats and making them nearly invisible and mostly unaccountable to us. Now it is time for the very wealthy to pay their fair share. They've gotten away with murder for the past 8 or so years and now it has come home to roost right on their doorsteps. If you are a middle class individual and you think what you've been getting from your government in the past 8 years has been fair to you, I don't think you understand the big picture. Don't listen to the Republicans mantra of "no more taxes" because it is complete and utter B.S. They will raise your taxes and they will continue to fight for the greedy folks who know how to avoid taxes and they will continue to tell you that it is because these businesses are keeping Americans employed. Yeah, sure. That's why they have sent jobs overseas and why they've cut jobs in America to such a point that many people are doing the work of 2 or 3 people. Not to cut the price of their commodity or to pay their workers more - nope it is to make the individuals at the very top of the heap bigger salaries, more bonuses (obscene bonuses) and better returns on wall street. Wake up folks. Stop believing what the Republicans have sold you to scare you into thinking you're going to be financially hurt by a Democratic president. Our very intelligent Democratic presidential candidate gives us some hope that we can get back to having some kind of fairness in government. What we've had with the Republicans is obscene and in many practical ways, dishonest. And if you don't believe me, geez, believe your lying eyes.

Hey what if you went to Harlem (or anywhere) and did the same thing only using Obama policies with McCain supporters. Do you really think that there would be any obvious differences in them? Ever watched "Jay Walking" on the Tonight Show? Anyway, you certainly have no right dissing me for what I posted.

To set the record straight, I did not author that post. It was something that a friend from another country sent me. I thought people might find it entertaining. Obviously some did and some didn't. I certainly did. And on the up side for you Howluck..., it gave you a perfect opportunity to vent your spleen. Now don't you feel better? I guess I don't have to ask which channel you'll watch the debates on tonight.

Interesting. That guy is a vocal opponent for the very thing that he used to believe in. Guess that would make a guy pretty passionate on the topic. But we also know and understand that there are hundreds, if not thousands of doctors who may or may not choose to perform abortions on women who need them, but who absolutely support a woman's right to choose and do believe that the Constitution of the United States of America applies to women as well as men.

Honestly I only post stuff like that to counteract, just a little, some of the ridiculous links that get posted. I like your open-minded assessment, Steve.

THE JUXTAPOSITION OF FACTS....A USEFUL PERSPECTIVE....... ----- A question of perspective : Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?..... think about it. Would the country's collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit? Ponder the following: What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter? What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee? What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards? What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married? What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.) What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker? What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter? What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem? What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution? What if the Obamas had adopted a white child? You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference. Educational Background: Barack Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude Joseph Biden: University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.) vs. John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899 Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call. ------

Acorn is trying to get people who have not participated in the voting process in America to get registered and vote. There is nothing harmful in that. In fact, it is admirable. The fact that one of their workers filled out a form and used "Mickey Mouse" doesn't indict the entire organization. The inciteful crap that Fox "News" reports notwithstanding. If you wanted a fair and democratic election, you would welcome an organization that was trying to help people get registered. I don't know why you accpeted the results of the 2004 election, Steve G., but there was a problem with electronic voting machines that were skewed to give Republicans more votes than they actually got. It was not a true and honest election - nor was the 2000 election. There has been lots of research released on the subject, and election fraud in the U.S. has been a very real problem. Now as for Acorn, they do not count votes. They do not even have the authority to allow someone to vote or to forbid them to. If someone lies on a voter registeration APPLICATION, it is not their fault. However, they have been very good at finding APPLICATIONS that their people have turned in that are fraudulent. Once they discover those fraudulent APPLICATIONS, they bring them to the attention of the Election Board. And by the way, the employees who took the fraudulent APPLICATIONS are assessed to see if they are intentionally taking fraudulent APPLICATIONS or if they have done it without the intention of defrauding the Election Board. Once they determine that, they either fire the worker or they retrain them. If you cared to know the truth, you could have tuned into the real news and learned all of this in the press conference that revealed this information and much more. If you wonder why I have put the word "application" in all caps, above, it is because Acorn only has the authority or power to take voter registration APPLICATIONS. They do not have the power to actually log a voter's registration into the Election Board's records. The Election Boards are supposed to be doing the verifying and actual placing voters on the election rolls. So as Steve suggested, this is a red herring and something brought about to divert the attention away from the real issues. I imagine more of these types of things will continue to be brought into the election since the Republicans have become so desperate. We can all listen to Fox "News" and learn of them first. Now as for an honest and fair election process, I just hope that when I go to the polls, that if I am presented with an opportunity to vote using an electronic machine, I will be given the alternative to use a paper ballot that can be there for the re-count, if a re-count becomes necessary. Which right now, looks very likely. And somehow I'll bet the fact that some boards are trying to once again disenfranchise certain voters in certain swing state areas, will only disturb you based on with whether you're a Democrat or a Republican.

What some of you don't understand is that the question is not about whether the fertilized egg is an individual life, or there's just a blob of tissue present, or call it a clump of cells that will soon look like a fish, a zygote in waiting, or any other label you want to pin on it. That is not the issue. The issue regarding Roe v. Wade, that you want to overturn, is about a woman's Constitutional rights. You place your beliefs above those of every woman in our country. You insist that your beliefs are not only correct, but that they are more important than each and every other American woman's Constitutional rights. I understand why you believe what you believe. But you may never understand why you are so completely and utterly wrong to insist on taking a woman's Constitutional rights away. You cannot pass laws that govern the fetus when it affects the life of its' host. That you can call it a conflict of interests may be correct in your mind, but the life of a blob of tissue (by whatever name you wish to call it) does not have any constitutional rights. It is not an independent human being and that blob of tissue cannot be ruled to be more important than the woman who is carrying it, i.e., give it Constitutional rights that are deemed to be more important than the woman's. Again if you believe that once a sperm has swum its' way up the tube, seeks out an egg and penetrates it, that it is instantly a baby, then by all means do your best to help the woman who is that fertilized egg's host bring that baby to term. However, you must stop short of physical intrusion and governmental control of that woman. You can't force the woman to adopt, you can't force her to have the fertilized egg extracted and given to another woman, or other physically intrusive actions. And you must stop short of taking away that woman-host's basic American provided Constitutional rights! No fair, no way, no how.

P.S. Watcher, neither can I understand how people can vote the same party back in that put us in such a precarious position internationally and that spent us into the ground so bad we have no idea how we're ever going to get out. The same party that insists on the "trickle down" theory of economics when we have lived it and know that it does not work! If you all don't know, by the way, what John McCain plans for Social Security and don't understand exactly how his medical plan would work, I highly suggest you research and understand them before it's too late and you are blindsided.

You know what... yes, I know that I sound rabid and passionate. But it is not without very good reason! If you don't understand or want to understand what happened in the past two elections, you can't understand my concern and fear about the upcoming election. I get that. At this point, I believe that we need to stop worrying about the political rehtoric being passed back and forth and worry about exactly how we're going to be assured of having a legal, honest election. They're telling us that if we go to our polling place and find electronic voting machines, we should demand a paper ballot. I wish it were that simple.

Unplanned pregnancies and remedies cannot to be classified in a 1, 2, 3, 4 grocery list of reasonsing. There are some usual reasons; some that could be classified together, like due to a grisley rape, for instance. But people are all different with different problems, physical limitations, mental limitations, religious beliefs, scientific beliefs and social beliefs. To try to lump everyone who might consider abortion into a group you've decided is relevant, is blindlingly ridiculous. The whole point is: you have no right to intervene in another woman's bodily processes, nor do you have a right to judge her and choose her course of action about an unwanted, unplanned pregnancy. Just because you believe that abortion is nothing more than killing, doesn't mean that everyone views it in those terms. Not everyone takes the Bible literally, and not every Christian agrees with a singular assessment of what constitutes life. People often sound like they are so endoctrinated in one narrow way of thinking that they have no capacity to understand that things are not simple, and that there are valid physiological and psychological reasons why abortion should be an option for women. Once again, I know I sound like a broken record, but you have every right to not have an abortion. You have every right to speak your mind and try to convince people that abortion is wrong in your belief system. But what you're wanting to do is to take away my rights. YOU want to tell me that what you believe is the only truth. YOU want to tell me that I have no right to control my own body and my own medical treatment. YOU insist that if I chose to have an abortion, I am nothing but a murderer. YOU have no right to call anyone who chooses abortion that. YOU are not the decider. YOU are not God. What a woman chooses to do when she finds that her birth control method failed, or she finds that she may die if she bears a child, or that her child doesn't have a brain or doesn't have a healthy heart or lungs and will be severely handicapped, or that she has been raped and brutalized and has become impregnanted by someone who is insane and that the insanity can be part of the genetic makeup of the fertilized egg she has inside her body, or millions of other reasons that cause a woman to consider abortion, is wholly within her rights and not a decision for you or the government. Take a woman's right to choose away? No fair. No way. No how.

Well said, Kat! To answer the question though, you are darned right that I am pro-choice and anti-spanking. I honestly believe that I value life more than most people. I believe that babies are far too important than to treat them like a commodity, passed from one parent to another. I am not anti-adoption, but I sure wouldn't encourage anyone to give their child up. I believe adoption can be a wonderful thing and I also believe that it can turn out quite badly. It should not be treated as a basis for a law that requires every woman to bear every child in each and every case without exception. As for how it relates to spanking - it goes hand in hand as far as I'm concerned. The more informed and experienced I become in my life, the easier it is for me to understand these things.

Kids do not grow up to be unruly, disrespectful or truant because they haven't been physically spanked! And God would never want us to hit our children, no matter what we call it. If corporal punishment is the only way a person knows to keep their children from growing up to be delinquents, they need to get into some serious parenting classes.

I am certainly no medical expert - just a banded patient with an incredible doctor and his staff. Not too long ago they put out the word that due to recent studies, LB patients should not be taking pills - of any kind. They insist that we use Centrum chewable viamins. And as for any other usual meds that you need that cannot be crushed, they told us that we need to consult our physicians to get something that doesn't have to swallowed whole. I asked if I never had a problem taking pills (as of the 2nd year after banding) do I need to heed that advice? I was told that it is extremely risky for many reasons and that I am taking my life into my own hands if I continue to take pills - especially large ones. Upon further probing, I was told that one of the reasons is that LB patients have been known to choke and aspirate medications - which they said can be lethal. I'm taking my life into my own hands because I do continue to take small pills. I am very careful and take my time and pay a lot of attention when I take them though. Just wanted to share, for what it's worth.