Mass Hypnosis?

[Guest 2smart4u]

When I watch Obama speaking and see hundreds of banner waving, glassy-eyed Loonys lined up behind him, it reminds me of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple in Guyana. Whatever Jones said was accepted as gospel by his rabid followers, eerily similar to the Loonys behavior listening to Obama. Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% of the country and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises almost a trillion dollars in new entitlement programs and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises free health care and welfare for 40% of the population and the Loonys cheer.

The big question here is, are there enough Kool-Aiders to elect the reincarnated Jim Jones? America is at a crossroads on Tuesday, will we either go the way of the Peoples Temple or we will remain a strong nation where clear-thinking Americans set the course for an economic recovery and strong national defense.

[Manscape]

When I watch Obama speaking and see hundreds of banner waving, glassy-eyed Loonys lined up behind him, it reminds me of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple in Guyana. Whatever Jones said was accepted as gospel by his rabid followers, eerily similar to the Loonys behavior listening to Obama. Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% of the country and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises almost a trillion dollars in new entitlement programs and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises free health care and welfare for 40% of the population and the Loonys cheer.

The big question here is, are there enough Kool-Aiders to elect the reincarnated Jim Jones? America is at a crossroads on Tuesday, will we either go the way of the Peoples Temple or we will remain a strong nation where clear-thinking Americans set the course for an economic recovery and strong national defense.

JIM JONES HE IS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TOOBY..........please don't do something rash on Tuesday night, ok?

[Guest Guest]

When I watch Obama speaking and see hundreds of banner waving, glassy-eyed Loonys lined up behind him, it reminds me of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple in Guyana. Whatever Jones said was accepted as gospel by his rabid followers, eerily similar to the Loonys behavior listening to Obama. Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% of the country and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises almost a trillion dollars in new entitlement programs and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises free health care and welfare for 40% of the population and the Loonys cheer.

The big question here is, are there enough Kool-Aiders to elect the reincarnated Jim Jones? America is at a crossroads on Tuesday, will we either go the way of the Peoples Temple or we will remain a strong nation where clear-thinking Americans set the course for an economic recovery and strong national defense.

Excellent essay. However, those afflicted with BDS are beyond reasonable thought and will not understand your statement. All we can do is hope and pray that the Kool-Aiders do not outnumber the sober Americans.

[Guest Guest]

When I watch Obama speaking and see hundreds of banner waving, glassy-eyed Loonys lined up behind him, it reminds me of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple in Guyana. Whatever Jones said was accepted as gospel by his rabid followers, eerily similar to the Loonys behavior listening to Obama. Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% of the country and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises almost a trillion dollars in new entitlement programs and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises free health care and welfare for 40% of the population and the Loonys cheer.

The big question here is, are there enough Kool-Aiders to elect the reincarnated Jim Jones? America is at a crossroads on Tuesday, will we either go the way of the Peoples Temple or we will remain a strong nation where clear-thinking Americans set the course for an economic recovery and strong national defense.

Yeah, right. And I suppose when you see nitwits shouting "drill, baby, drill" or cheering at every idiotic thing McCain and Palin say, those are clear-thinking Americans.

They call you ditto-heads for a reason.

[Guest Guest]

When I watch Obama speaking and see hundreds of banner waving, glassy-eyed Loonys lined up behind him, it reminds me of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple in Guyana. Whatever Jones said was accepted as gospel by his rabid followers, eerily similar to the Loonys behavior listening to Obama. Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% of the country and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises almost a trillion dollars in new entitlement programs and the Loonys cheer, Obama promises free health care and welfare for 40% of the population and the Loonys cheer.

The big question here is, are there enough Kool-Aiders to elect the reincarnated Jim Jones? America is at a crossroads on Tuesday, will we either go the way of the Peoples Temple or we will remain a strong nation where clear-thinking Americans set the course for an economic recovery and strong national defense.

When we as a country start handing out checks to people that don't pay taxes, that will mark the beginning of the decline of the US. The work ethic that has made us strong will be gone. We will become more like North Korea where initiative is non-existent.

It appears Obama will win the election, but if the US survives the next 4 years I think Obama will have destroyed the Democratic party with his Socialist nanny state policies. There may never be another Democrat elected after an Obama presidency. Sadly, we may be a third-world country by the time the next 4 years are over.

[Guest Paul]

When we as a country start handing out checks to people that don't pay taxes, that will mark the beginning of the decline of the US. The work ethic that has made us strong will be gone. We will become more like North Korea where initiative is non-existent.

It appears Obama will win the election, but if the US survives the next 4 years I think Obama will have destroyed the Democratic party with his Socialist nanny state policies. There may never be another Democrat elected after an Obama presidency. Sadly, we may be a third-world country by the time the next 4 years are over.

There's something in the psychology of the right that makes them think like this. Maybe they're afraid of people whom they see as different, or maybe they're jealous of someone like them getting a break they didn't get. Probably both of those things, and more, but whatever it is, it leads to irrational comments like Guest's, above. Obama is not looking to create a socialist nanny state. On the contrary, he wants our country to develop new technologies, mainly in energy. This will be a boon to business and will free us from dependence on foreign oil. When Obama talks about solving problems we've been ignoring for years, this is what he's talking about. It makes perfect sense, but you have to be willing to look at the facts and think things through.

Let's discuss the possible decline of the U.S. I've written about it many times, but for some reason none of the right wingers ever want to address the real problems.

1. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 promising to balance the federal budget. He did exactly the opposite. Here are the facts: http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm The national debt has exploded during the Reagan era, as a direct result of the Reagan/Republican philosophy, which is both anti-government and anti-tax. Democrats have run deficits, but never anything that resulted a $10 trillion debt such as we have now; and what's worse, the Republicans deficits of the past 28 years have been run to fuel current consumption. Everybody who manages a family budget knows that you can't do that for very long. It's completely irresponsible, has weakened the dollar and made our economy vulnerable to challenges from China, India and other countries that would like to replace us as the world's dominant economic power. They are going to succeed if we don't change these policies. That's one way in which irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies have set us up for decline.

2. We have refused to invest in R&D for alternative energy sources. Nixon and Carter both told us this was essential, both for our economy and for our national security. Again, Reagan came into office opposing all new government programs. The country has stayed on that course, and here we are nearly thirty years later, borrowing $700 billion a year from the Chinese and shipping it to the Saudis because we were too short-sighted to look for an alternative, even after OPEC was controlling our oil. That's a second way in which irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies have set us up for decline.

3. Our politics has become polarized, and arguments are made to justify political positions and voting behavior, even though those arguments sidestep the real issues or, in many cases, are demonstrably false. So we see people like our "Guest" playing out, in his mind, this fantasy nightmare of a nation of welfare queens, like a child looking for the bogey-man under the bed every night before going to sleep. That's just not what's happening in this country. Clinton ended the old welfare program. Obama is proposing plans that will create more jobs, not plans to dole out money to people who don't work. We've lost jobs under the Bush administration, and again it is a direct result of irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies. And nothing has redistributed more wealth than Bush's anti-middle class tax cuts. People loved getting that little rebate check, but they ignore the fact that they're paying far more than that to service the debt Bush ran up so he could give trillions of dollars to people who didn't need it!

Yet we have low-information voters (people who know next to nothing and think they know a lot) continuing to vote for Republicans even though it's obvious how radical the Republican party has become and how destructive their ideas have been. Predictably, when someone makes a few simple points like the ones I'm making here, these modern know-nothings, the "I'm ignorant and proud of it" types have no response to anything that's actually said. You can tell Joe the Plumber that his taxes will go down under Obama, and he will still insist that Obama is going to raise his taxes. This is complete madness, a complete disconnect from reality. A democracy cannot survive that way. That's a third way in which irresponsible Republican policies and ideology have set us up for decline.

The typical response from the usual cast of right wingers here will be some inane, juvenile remark. Come on, guys. You can do better than that. Think these things through and address the issues intelligently. There's still time to vote for the right candidate on election day.

[Guest *Autonomous*]

When we as a country start handing out checks to people that don't pay taxes, that will mark the beginning of the decline of the US. The work ethic that has made us strong will be gone. We will become more like North Korea where initiative is non-existent.

It appears Obama will win the election, but if the US survives the next 4 years I think Obama will have destroyed the Democratic party with his Socialist nanny state policies. There may never be another Democrat elected after an Obama presidency. Sadly, we may be a third-world country by the time the next 4 years are over.

Go cry, emo boy.

The US is hardly weak enough to be destroyed in 4 years. Not to mention the socialist nanny-state policies the Republicans have been using to keep their corrupt corporate backers afloat have cost us far more than Obama's proposed plans.

[Guest 2smart4u]

There's something in the psychology of the right that makes them think like this. Maybe they're afraid of people whom they see as different, or maybe they're jealous of someone like them getting a break they didn't get. Probably both of those things, and more, but whatever it is, it leads to irrational comments like Guest's, above. Obama is not looking to create a socialist nanny state. On the contrary, he wants our country to develop new technologies, mainly in energy. This will be a boon to business and will free us from dependence on foreign oil. When Obama talks about solving problems we've been ignoring for years, this is what he's talking about. It makes perfect sense, but you have to be willing to look at the facts and think things through.

Let's discuss the possible decline of the U.S. I've written about it many times, but for some reason none of the right wingers ever want to address the real problems.

1. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 promising to balance the federal budget. He did exactly the opposite. Here are the facts: http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm The national debt has exploded during the Reagan era, as a direct result of the Reagan/Republican philosophy, which is both anti-government and anti-tax. Democrats have run deficits, but never anything that resulted a $10 trillion debt such as we have now; and what's worse, the Republicans deficits of the past 28 years have been run to fuel current consumption. Everybody who manages a family budget knows that you can't do that for very long. It's completely irresponsible, has weakened the dollar and made our economy vulnerable to challenges from China, India and other countries that would like to replace us as the world's dominant economic power. They are going to succeed if we don't change these policies. That's one way in which irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies have set us up for decline.

2. We have refused to invest in R&D for alternative energy sources. Nixon and Carter both told us this was essential, both for our economy and for our national security. Again, Reagan came into office opposing all new government programs. The country has stayed on that course, and here we are nearly thirty years later, borrowing $700 billion a year from the Chinese and shipping it to the Saudis because we were too short-sighted to look for an alternative, even after OPEC was controlling our oil. That's a second way in which irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies have set us up for decline.

3. Our politics has become polarized, and arguments are made to justify political positions and voting behavior, even though those arguments sidestep the real issues or, in many cases, are demonstrably false. So we see people like our "Guest" playing out, in his mind, this fantasy nightmare of a nation of welfare queens, like a child looking for the bogey-man under the bed every night before going to sleep. That's just not what's happening in this country. Clinton ended the old welfare program. Obama is proposing plans that will create more jobs, not plans to dole out money to people who don't work. We've lost jobs under the Bush administration, and again it is a direct result of irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies. And nothing has redistributed more wealth than Bush's anti-middle class tax cuts. People loved getting that little rebate check, but they ignore the fact that they're paying far more than that to service the debt Bush ran up so he could give trillions of dollars to people who didn't need it!

Yet we have low-information voters (people who know next to nothing and think they know a lot) continuing to vote for Republicans even though it's obvious how radical the Republican party has become and how destructive their ideas have been. Predictably, when someone makes a few simple points like the ones I'm making here, these modern know-nothings, the "I'm ignorant and proud of it" types have no response to anything that's actually said. You can tell Joe the Plumber that his taxes will go down under Obama, and he will still insist that Obama is going to raise his taxes. This is complete madness, a complete disconnect from reality. A democracy cannot survive that way. That's a third way in which irresponsible Republican policies and ideology have set us up for decline.

The typical response from the usual cast of right wingers here will be some inane, juvenile remark. Come on, guys. You can do better than that. Think these things through and address the issues intelligently. There's still time to vote for the right candidate on election day.

Paul, In your weekly diatribes against Reagan, you always omit the most important aspect of the Reagan presidency. Reagan literally saved the world from a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.

Reagan confronted the Soviets with a massive investment in the military and forced the Soviet Union to try to keep up with us. They couldn't and were forced into bankruptcy which led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Understandably the US spent a lot of money doing it, but the outcome was well worth the investment. I understand your hatred for Reagan: he was a Republican and was one of our greatest Presidents, a little too much for you to swallow.

So please, spare us your loony left spin of the Reagan presidency, we've heard it a hundred times and it's getting old.

So please, spare us your loony left spin of the Reagan presidency, we've all heard it a hundred times , it's false and it's getting old.

[Guest Paul]

Paul, In your weekly diatribes against Reagan, you always omit the most important aspect of the Reagan presidency. Reagan literally saved the world from a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.

Reagan confronted the Soviets with a massive investment in the military and forced the Soviet Union to try to keep up with us. They couldn't and were forced into bankruptcy which led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Understandably the US spent a lot of money doing it, but the outcome was well worth the investment. I understand your hatred for Reagan: he was a Republican and was one of our greatest Presidents, a little too much for you to swallow.

So please, spare us your loony left spin of the Reagan presidency, we've heard it a hundred times and it's getting old.

Your post is a perfect example of a non-scientific, non-evolutionary worldview. You’re apparently not thinking things through or considering how the parts of the world interrelate.

Think about the relationship of your argument to the issue at hand, which is the election. The purpose of elections in the Untied States is not to anoint political gods, but to elect the best leaders for our time. The Cold war is over. So even if your argument about Reagan dismantling the Soviet Union was true (at best, his policies merely hastened the demise of a system that was already morbidly sick), it would have little or no relevance to the issues we face today. What is relevant today is the continued influence of the military-industrial complex, a point I’ve made before and you’ve completely ignored. It makes no sense to criticize me for ignoring points I’ve addressed with you many times before. It’s not even honest.

And as usual, you completely ignore everything you don’t want to talk about. Apparently you don’t care that we’re shipping $700 billion a year overseas to feed our addiction to oil. You must enjoy paying $4 a gallon for gas. You must enjoy our being under the thumb and at the mercy of OPEC. Yes, I know gas prices have gone down, but as soon as this crisis passes, they’re going right back up. If we had started Obama’s Apollo project for energy development thirty years ago, we wouldn’t be having these problems, and we wouldn’t be in Iraq because oil wouldn’t matter so much. You see, that’s how to think things through. You have to account for how the parts fit together. You make no apparent attempt to do that.

Apparently you don’t care that we’ve run up a ten-trillion dollar national debt, borrowing against the future to support current consumption. Maybe you think we can just borrow indefinitely. No way to tell, because you completely ignore the problem since your political god Reagan’s governing philosophy is what has created it. It’s very simple. Tax and spend isn’t great. Borrow and spend is worse, especially if you’re spending but not investing.

Apparently you don’t care that Americans are at each other’s throats, or that our country is divided between groups of people who aren’t listening to each other, won’t even try to understand each other and can barely stand each other. This is no small point. We’re dangerously close to a civil war from within, right versus left. The radical right insists that all Americans must agree with the President when he’s their guy, yet they spent Clinton’s entire administration trying to take him out by any means, fair or foul. The Bush administration has already seized power to imprison political “enemies.” If people don’t start thinking more clearly, we’re at risk of losing our democracy and our freedom. The countries in which this has happened were not fundamentally different from us. Yet you completely ignore it.

This is a consistent pattern with you, my fellow American. Most of the time you make juvenile and disparaging remarks about other people, most of whom are considerably smarter and better informed than you are, by all appearances. When are you going to stop? You're hardly the one to criticize anyone else for making the same old tired remarks. I'll keep making mine because they're important and yet very few seem to want to talk about them. We're ignoring our worst problems, so I'm going to keep writing about them. See, there's another example of fitting the pieces together. There's a good reason for making this case over and over. If you don't like it, don't read it.

When you do try to post seriously, you just ignore everything you don’t want to talk about. When are you going to grow up and act like a responsible citizen?

We treat every person’s vote as sacred in this country, as we must, but frankly if you’re going to make political decisions like that, you’re doing more damage to our form of government than good. If the founding fathers had thought citizens would act the way you’re acting, they probably would not have given ordinary citizens so much responsibility under the Constitution. I say this most sincerely because contrary to all the evidence from your many posts, I still have Faith that you are capable of thinking intelligently if you want to.

[Guest *Autonomous*]

Paul, In your weekly diatribes against Reagan, you always omit the most important aspect of the Reagan presidency. Reagan literally saved the world from a nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.

Reagan confronted the Soviets with a massive investment in the military and forced the Soviet Union to try to keep up with us. They couldn't and were forced into bankruptcy which led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Understandably the US spent a lot of money doing it, but the outcome was well worth the investment. I understand your hatred for Reagan: he was a Republican and was one of our greatest Presidents, a little too much for you to swallow.

So please, spare us your loony left spin of the Reagan presidency, we've heard it a hundred times and it's getting old.

So please, spare us your loony left spin of the Reagan presidency, we've all heard it a hundred times , it's false and it's getting old.

You obviously have learned well at the feet of Rush. The fact is that the Soviet economy was in decline throughout the 70s and 80s and they did not in fact try to keep up with us in the slightest. All you have to do is look at the numbers to disprove your fairy tale history. What killed them was the weakness of communism coupled by dramatically falling oil prices as the Saudis amped up production. Reagan's military expenditures were a political ploy to build the corporate/military alliance that has kept the Republicans in power for all these years (the third group being the Religious Right, of course).

Face it-George Bush was right when he called Reagan's plan 'voodoo economics' in the 1980 debates. So please, spare us your retard right spin of the Reagan presidency, we've all heard it a hundred times , it's false and it's getting old.

[Guest Patriot]

You obviously have learned well at the feet of Rush. The fact is that the Soviet economy was in decline throughout the 70s and 80s and they did not in fact try to keep up with us in the slightest. All you have to do is look at the numbers to disprove your fairy tale history. What killed them was the weakness of communism coupled by dramatically falling oil prices as the Saudis amped up production. Reagan's military expenditures were a political ploy to build the corporate/military alliance that has kept the Republicans in power for all these years (the third group being the Religious Right, of course).

Face it-George Bush was right when he called Reagan's plan 'voodoo economics' in the 1980 debates. So please, spare us your retard right spin of the Reagan presidency, we've all heard it a hundred times , it's false and it's getting old.

Here's the motor pool guy again, going where he shouldn't, taking his talking points from a Loony Socialist. You must have gotten a BCD from the army with that leftist mantra you spout.

[Guest Lincoln Logger]

There's something in the psychology of the right that makes them think like this. Maybe they're afraid of people whom they see as different, or maybe they're jealous of someone like them getting a break they didn't get. Probably both of those things, and more, but whatever it is, it leads to irrational comments like Guest's, above. Obama is not looking to create a socialist nanny state. On the contrary, he wants our country to develop new technologies, mainly in energy. This will be a boon to business and will free us from dependence on foreign oil. When Obama talks about solving problems we've been ignoring for years, this is what he's talking about. It makes perfect sense, but you have to be willing to look at the facts and think things through.

Let's discuss the possible decline of the U.S. I've written about it many times, but for some reason none of the right wingers ever want to address the real problems.

1. Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 promising to balance the federal budget. He did exactly the opposite. Here are the facts: http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm The national debt has exploded during the Reagan era, as a direct result of the Reagan/Republican philosophy, which is both anti-government and anti-tax. Democrats have run deficits, but never anything that resulted a $10 trillion debt such as we have now; and what's worse, the Republicans deficits of the past 28 years have been run to fuel current consumption. Everybody who manages a family budget knows that you can't do that for very long. It's completely irresponsible, has weakened the dollar and made our economy vulnerable to challenges from China, India and other countries that would like to replace us as the world's dominant economic power. They are going to succeed if we don't change these policies. That's one way in which irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies have set us up for decline.

2. We have refused to invest in R&D for alternative energy sources. Nixon and Carter both told us this was essential, both for our economy and for our national security. Again, Reagan came into office opposing all new government programs. The country has stayed on that course, and here we are nearly thirty years later, borrowing $700 billion a year from the Chinese and shipping it to the Saudis because we were too short-sighted to look for an alternative, even after OPEC was controlling our oil. That's a second way in which irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies have set us up for decline.

3. Our politics has become polarized, and arguments are made to justify political positions and voting behavior, even though those arguments sidestep the real issues or, in many cases, are demonstrably false. So we see people like our "Guest" playing out, in his mind, this fantasy nightmare of a nation of welfare queens, like a child looking for the bogey-man under the bed every night before going to sleep. That's just not what's happening in this country. Clinton ended the old welfare program. Obama is proposing plans that will create more jobs, not plans to dole out money to people who don't work. We've lost jobs under the Bush administration, and again it is a direct result of irresponsible, ideologically driven Republican policies. And nothing has redistributed more wealth than Bush's anti-middle class tax cuts. People loved getting that little rebate check, but they ignore the fact that they're paying far more than that to service the debt Bush ran up so he could give trillions of dollars to people who didn't need it!

Yet we have low-information voters (people who know next to nothing and think they know a lot) continuing to vote for Republicans even though it's obvious how radical the Republican party has become and how destructive their ideas have been. Predictably, when someone makes a few simple points like the ones I'm making here, these modern know-nothings, the "I'm ignorant and proud of it" types have no response to anything that's actually said. You can tell Joe the Plumber that his taxes will go down under Obama, and he will still insist that Obama is going to raise his taxes. This is complete madness, a complete disconnect from reality. A democracy cannot survive that way. That's a third way in which irresponsible Republican policies and ideology have set us up for decline.

The typical response from the usual cast of right wingers here will be some inane, juvenile remark. Come on, guys. You can do better than that. Think these things through and address the issues intelligently. There's still time to vote for the right candidate on election day.

Look at the Howard Stern interview to see what type of voters we are dealing with. And I dont even like that man. When you and your family are standing on a soup kitchen line, dont say "I didn't tell you so!" So get out and vote Democrat!". Your talk is all so long winded and water under the bridge anyway. Just once I want to hear Obama's ideas backed with fact and not empty promises.

[Guest Guest]

You obviously have learned well at the feet of Rush. The fact is that the Soviet economy was in decline throughout the 70s and 80s and they did not in fact try to keep up with us in the slightest. All you have to do is look at the numbers to disprove your fairy tale history. What killed them was the weakness of communism coupled by dramatically falling oil prices as the Saudis amped up production. Reagan's military expenditures were a political ploy to build the corporate/military alliance that has kept the Republicans in power for all these years (the third group being the Religious Right, of course).

Face it-George Bush was right when he called Reagan's plan 'voodoo economics' in the 1980 debates. So please, spare us your retard right spin of the Reagan presidency, we've all heard it a hundred times , it's false and it's getting old.

Well put and absolutely true.

[Guest Lincoln Logger]

Your post is a perfect example of a non-scientific, non-evolutionary worldview. You’re apparently not thinking things through or considering how the parts of the world interrelate.

Think about the relationship of your argument to the issue at hand, which is the election. The purpose of elections in the Untied States is not to anoint political gods, but to elect the best leaders for our time. The Cold war is over. So even if your argument about Reagan dismantling the Soviet Union was true (at best, his policies merely hastened the demise of a system that was already morbidly sick), it would have little or no relevance to the issues we face today. What is relevant today is the continued influence of the military-industrial complex, a point I’ve made before and you’ve completely ignored. It makes no sense to criticize me for ignoring points I’ve addressed with you many times before. It’s not even honest.

And as usual, you completely ignore everything you don’t want to talk about. Apparently you don’t care that we’re shipping $700 billion a year overseas to feed our addiction to oil. You must enjoy paying $4 a gallon for gas. You must enjoy our being under the thumb and at the mercy of OPEC. Yes, I know gas prices have gone down, but as soon as this crisis passes, they’re going right back up. If we had started Obama’s Apollo project for energy development thirty years ago, we wouldn’t be having these problems, and we wouldn’t be in Iraq because oil wouldn’t matter so much. You see, that’s how to think things through. You have to account for how the parts fit together. You make no apparent attempt to do that.

Apparently you don’t care that we’ve run up a ten-trillion dollar national debt, borrowing against the future to support current consumption. Maybe you think we can just borrow indefinitely. No way to tell, because you completely ignore the problem since your political god Reagan’s governing philosophy is what has created it. It’s very simple. Tax and spend isn’t great. Borrow and spend is worse, especially if you’re spending but not investing.

Apparently you don’t care that Americans are at each other’s throats, or that our country is divided between groups of people who aren’t listening to each other, won’t even try to understand each other and can barely stand each other. This is no small point. We’re dangerously close to a civil war from within, right versus left. The radical right insists that all Americans must agree with the President when he’s their guy, yet they spent Clinton’s entire administration trying to take him out by any means, fair or foul. The Bush administration has already seized power to imprison political “enemies.” If people don’t start thinking more clearly, we’re at risk of losing our democracy and our freedom. The countries in which this has happened were not fundamentally different from us. Yet you completely ignore it.

This is a consistent pattern with you, my fellow American. Most of the time you make juvenile and disparaging remarks about other people, most of whom are considerably smarter and better informed than you are, by all appearances. When are you going to stop? You're hardly the one to criticize anyone else for making the same old tired remarks. I'll keep making mine because they're important and yet very few seem to want to talk about them. We're ignoring our worst problems, so I'm going to keep writing about them. See, there's another example of fitting the pieces together. There's a good reason for making this case over and over. If you don't like it, don't read it.

When you do try to post seriously, you just ignore everything you don’t want to talk about. When are you going to grow up and act like a responsible citizen?

We treat every person’s vote as sacred in this country, as we must, but frankly if you’re going to make political decisions like that, you’re doing more damage to our form of government than good. If the founding fathers had thought citizens would act the way you’re acting, they probably would not have given ordinary citizens so much responsibility under the Constitution. I say this most sincerely because contrary to all the evidence from your many posts, I still have Faith that you are capable of thinking intelligently if you want to.

Again, another typical example of how you can't possible be thinking rational if you are agreeing with the ideas of Paul Laclair. None of the posts here are grown up or responsible except his. Remember that. If we treated every vote as sacred then Al Gore would be president and not Bush, therefore individual votes mean crap and its only the Electoral votes that count. You have flaws just as our Constitution does. And we again must plead to the people of this forum as "my fellow Americans." What a bunch of bull testicles. All your arguments here are in direct opposition to all your arguments against when it was your son involved. How hypocritical can one be?

[wu-su]

I was thinking more along the lines of the Rev. Moon; demonic nonetheless. But before someone pounces on me for my statement, please consider this an opinion, and please respect it as such, given the fact that certain constitutional rights still exist. I know it is difficult for many to positively or constructively respond to others comments and opinions, and I know it is hard to refrain from trying to insist to others that it is "I can only be right and you wrong", but at least until such time as the Democrats take full control of country, freedom of speech still exists.

[Guest *Autonomous*]

Here's the motor pool guy again, going where he shouldn't, taking his talking points from a Loony Socialist. You must have gotten a BCD from the army with that leftist mantra you spout.

Here's the guy who hates our troops again. The fact is that I'm taking my points from actual data-the Soviet economy peaked around 1970, and their production fell throughout the 80s when the Repub talking point says that we were bankrupting them with our own escalation. The facts don't support you at all.

[Guest *Autonomous*]

I was thinking more along the lines of the Rev. Moon; demonic nonetheless.

Huzzah for superstitious nonsense!

But before someone pounces on me for my statement, please consider this an opinion, and please respect it as such, given the fact that certain constitutional rights still exist.

You have every right to be racsist, sexist, homophobic, superstitious or whatever you want. I have every right to consider you an idiot for doing so.

I know it is difficult for many to positively or constructively respond to others comments and opinions,

You just called Obama supporters demonic! That isn't positive or constructive and doesn't deserve such a response. Give me a reason to support McCain and we can converse. Call me demonic and I'll call you a moron.

and I know it is hard to refrain from trying to insist to others that it is "I can only be right and you wrong",

When it comes to Obama supporters being demonic I can in fact say that I am right and you are wrong. I would know, being a mildly pro-Obama person.

but at least until such time as the Democrats take full control of country, freedom of speech still exists.

It still will after Tuesday. The difference between us is that I realize what freedom of speech is. You can say whatever you want. So can I to respond to it. Freedom of speech does not mean you get to say whatever you want without me responding.

[WilliamK]

None of the posts here are grown up or responsible except his.

You obviously meant that as sarcasm, but it doesn't work for you. It contains a large nugget of truth, and your own posts illustrate that nugget.

[Guest Guest]

Again, another typical example of how you can't possible be thinking rational if you are agreeing with the ideas of Paul Laclair. None of the posts here are grown up or responsible except his.

No, some of them are. If you pay attention to what he writes, you'll see that he only goes ballistic over a certain kind of post.

[Guest Extinguisher]

I was thinking more along the lines of the Rev. Moon; demonic nonetheless. But before someone pounces on me for my statement, please consider this an opinion, and please respect it as such, given the fact that certain constitutional rights still exist. I know it is difficult for many to positively or constructively respond to others comments and opinions, and I know it is hard to refrain from trying to insist to others that it is "I can only be right and you wrong", but at least until such time as the Democrats take full control of country, freedom of speech still exists.

You have the right to your opinion, wu-su. And so do I. My opinion is that your statements are a bunch of sour grapes. Barack Obama has a run a much better campaign than McCain. Obama has had a focused campaign message when McCain has not (remember McCain's 'I'm suspending my campaign' stunt?); Obama has a much deeper and better get out the vote operation, and Obama has out-fundraised the Republican party by a huge margin (that one in particular gives me major Schadenfreude) .

My further opinion is that the more sour grapes and name calling the right wing does, the less acceptable conservatives will be to centrist Americans. So, please, do exercise your First Amendment rights and keep repeating your opinion over and over, wu-su, it only weakens what's left of the political right in America.