Oh come on, Clinton faced impeachment for lying about a *** but Bush can lie about the war in Irag and spend 1 billion a week on it while millions of Americans go without food and medical care, and our homeless population continues to increase. This is where the real terrorism exists, when someone cannot go to a doctor or a hospital because we have no uninveral health care coverage. While the Bush administration still talks about those imaginary weapons of mass destruction Americans are dying for lack of medical care. And Bush's father had ample opportunity to replace the regime in Irag and did not to do.

well so instead we have a president who believes lying about weapons of mass destruction and has us on war on 4 fronts as a good thing kinda reminds me on what the russians did when the communists were in power

Excuse my ignorance, but isn't assassination against the law? So you're suggesting ole Bill break the law while you right wingers were keeping his hands tied with your inane investigations into all the laws he supposedly had already broken. While we're pointing fingers, where was the CIA when they were training the madman to fight the Russians? How many chances did they pass up to off OBL?

And as for treason, we have a bona-fide deserter in office right now, who has lied to his country and the entire world, taken his boys and girls to war for no other reason than Saddam embarrassed his father. He blusters about in the uniforms of the armed forces he deserted, rubbing it in the faces of those brave men and women who have answered the call. To top it off, his administration is actively cutting their pay and benefits. SHAMEFUL!

Joel, people with opinions like yours have damaged my hope for this country to be the leaders of the world. Apparently, it is good enough for you that we be the rulers of the world.

I am conservative by nature having been extremely liberal in my youth. It's sad that we often snipe at each other over internet exchanges and don't really come to common ground because of extreme views. It seems that all of our presidents have had some successes and some failures. I do agree that Bill Clinton had to be one of the very worst (after all, the nick name "slick willie" is a cartoon penis in the British paparrazi papers) and brought an enormous amount of shame on the office of the president. Mr. Bush has definitely erred as well, probably focusing on the wrong things in Iraq. My guard unit was called up to attend that little party, but I fortunately did not have to go. On the other hand, Mr. Bush was being quite successful in the anti terrorist role until he got sidetracked by Iraq.

Socialism is alive and well in the US. As a young adult, I was very much in the mode of "tax the rich, feed the poor, 'til there are no rich no more" as the old song goes. I, too, found the liberal approach of throwing money at things instead of actually fixing the problems. But the things that people have come to see as "entitlements" are just ways of taking money from those that have and giving them to those that have not, but can vote to make sure that they keep getting those "entitlements." The politicians make promises and the constituents give them the power with their votes. Unfortunately, "entitlements" like welfare and others simply relegate those people taking them to poverty, with few escaping. What was a well-intentioned experiment in social democracy had turned out to be next to a failure as black/white/and hispanic families are destroyed and more people are on the doll than ever before.
Unfortunately, once started, they never seem to end and continue to be a leach at the lifeblood of society as a whole.

Having been stationed in England for several years with the U.S. Armed Forces, I had a chance to see socialized medicine at work first hand. Everyone could have care, but that care was strictly rationed. Once you turned 55, you no longer had a "heart attack"... it was just "angina." You were given nitroglycerin tablets and sent home because you were no longer statistically worth trying to save. My friend had a 70 year old gardener who was sent home with so-called angina, when it was plain to any of us that he was having a heart attack by his symptoms. Needless to say, he didn't even last the night. A couple of ladies at the church we attended there had terrible hip problems and needed replacements. They were not eligible to be on the waiting list for a hip replacement until they couldn't even take one unaided step. All three of them spent more that three years essentially confined to wheelchairs and unable to function before they finally met the criteria for what amounted to a 2 1/2 year list. Two of the three died before their names came up due to the complications of their ongoing disabilities. Here in the US, these ladies would probably still be living productive lives and enjoying their grandchildren and great grandchildren. Unfortunately, there continue to be those in the US who think that a nationalized heathcare system or something similar would be a good thing. I've seen it both ways and cannot support it, despite my strong feelings about it as a youth. Probably the biggest problem is that once it is done, we will never be able to go back to what we have now. For all of its successes (and failures), we still have the best healthcare system in the world and literally everyone would come here to utilize it if they could. Please don't let the liberals force us into a nationalized health care system. With the health care crisis that is now looming and the democrats unwillingness to solve the problem in a timely fashion, we may not have a choice but to do so at some time in the next few years. You only have to look at Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada, Texas, Utah and other states to see the handwriting on the wall. Remember, once it happens, we will never be able to go back, and you young people will some day be the old people that will pay the price.

I would recommend that RNR, Joel, notMYprez, and David take a hard look at all the issues involved and maybe not be quite so radical in their outlooks in life. We have enough devisiveness in our country, fed as much by the news media and our self-serving politicians, without adding to the problem or being a part of it ourselves. I wish the best to all of you, and pray that you will each develop wisdom and not extremism as you age.

JRN

I am tired of the Democrats and Republicans arguing over who is right and wrong. Their only agenda is to prove who is right or wrong, The american people are the ones who are paying with their lives, jobs, etc etc. This country needs someone in office who cares about the people....not big business and people in other lands.....We have enough of our own problems here to take care of...we should not have went to War..it was a mistake ..two wrongs do not make a right, and the 9/11 tradgedy was a way to open a door for us to go to war in the mid east.....Sure Saddam is and was a very evil man...but remember there are and have been other men who are just as evil...This war has done nothing but brought more heartaches to the people in the world...The rest of the world hates us now....We were not in danger of saddam aiming a missle at us and starting a war here.Who do we think we are..the world police, that we can go and do what ever we want and talk over anywhere we think we need to be in control just for our own interests(oil)....this war has escalated and more men and women are being killed.
I for one voted for Bush, and I am now sorry I did....I feel he is not doing his job when he gives tax breaks to the rich, sends our men to war die, when he himself was a draft dodger, a coke head in a college his daddy paid his way in, he had bad grades, and he is an alcoholic...so before people start bashing the former presidents, look at this one..he is worthless...we are involved in a war we have no business fighting ....I pay Bushes wages, as well as every other American does who pays taxes...When I go to work, My boss tells me what to do, and If I dont do what is expected of me, I will be fired....well, I did not give Bush permission to Go to war, give tax breaks to the wealthy, and now take away OT pay from american workers.......I will not vote for him again...I was fooled once, but never again...I am not the only american who sees it this way........As for Clinton...he was a good president except for having affairs...well guess what...show me someone in office who hasnt....Look at John Kennedy, how well he was loved, and he was probably the most womanizing pres. we ever had in office...I could care less what a president does as far as his sexual desires, as long as he runs the country.
I have heard Bush compare this war to WW11..How dare he...there is no comparison at all, and to do so, is like a slap in the face to all the veterans who fought in WW11....Those Men and women in that era had no choice but to fight and die...we had a choice here and now...I say Bush is a fake, a phoney ..he is a puppet for the right wing republicans and the big business who paid to have him elected..They totaly run him, he wouldnt know what to do, or how to make any decisions on his own without them all telling him what to do and say...Voting for him was the biggest mistake I have ever made, and it wil not happen again...I learned my lesson, a hard lesson it was....

Gee, while I was typing Jeff, er I mean "Al" must have called his buddy "Bill C" er... I mean Mike and told him to take a piece of the action.

Well we can certainly say that birds of a feather do still Flouck together!

True to the Prophet,

The writing is on the wall, the seasons are changing rapidly. When you look out at night and see the sky is red you know that tomorrow will bring a nice day, and when you see the red sky in the morning you know well that stormy weather is on the way. The leaves are falling off the tree. I am ready, I welcome my Lord, Yes I will PRAY for this nation and world, I will PRAY that so many will give up their foolish ways and find Jesus Christ before he returns and finds us in the state of un-preparedness. Tis better to prepare the soul which has eternal life than to satisfy our carnal bodies which will soon rot and decay back to ashes. Please visit my web-site, nothing much about end-times but much to be said about salvation and living a Christ like life...
www.xavierpublishing.com

More of Bushes helping the poor in this country, or should I say the Rich?.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — Patients could soon find it more difficult to get certain types of emergency medical care. The Bush administration is easing rules that say hospitals must examine and treat people who require emergency care, even if they’re unable to pay, according to a published report.THE NEW RULE says hospitals need not have specialists “on call” around the clock, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The new rule takes effect Nov. 10. The newspaper says hospitals and doctors have complained that the old standards exposed them to lawsuits and encouraged people to seek free care in the emergency room.
Courts have often ruled against hospitals sued by patients who alleged they were denied care.
Patients who are turned away or refused care can still sue, but the new rule will provide a stronger defense for hospitals. One ER doctor says the new rule could make it tougher for patients to get timely access to specialists.

Our country is in bad shape, and all the Bush administration cares about is HIS WAR and how he can help his rich buddies.

It amazes me that the people of the United States just do not get it! Our politicians are not about helping anyone but themselves to a high office, high paying jobs and a great expense account. We as voting taxpayers in this country need to stand up and insist that they must answer to what they do the same as the head of a corporation. I am sick of the Democrats whining that it is someone else's fault all the time that Bill Clinton was such an embarrassment and failure as a President. Does anyone really believe he told the truth about anything he did in office. This man has a history of lying and womanizing. Yes I do believe the womanizing is his own personal business when he is a private citizen, but not when he is the President of the United States and not in the White House that is paid for by the taxpayers! If you owned a house and you found out someone was having sex parties there or doing drugs, etc wouldn't you want to evict them from the property! We all knew before George Bush ever took office that no matter what he did the Democrats would put it down or find some reason to point a finger and say, "Oh look at the wrong he is doing!" They were so embarrassed by the stuff Bill Clinton pulled behind their backs they had to get the focus on someone else, namely the next person in office no matter who it would have been. It seems the only thing I hear from the Democrats is how terrible every Republican is and could this be to divert our attention from the fact that they only want to win the elections and don't have a clue about how to fix the problems? We live in California. Our state is all but bankrupt. Our schools are terrible. Kids are housed in unsafe trailers and buildings in a state that sees earthquake activity on a daily basis while the education administrater take taxpayer paid for vacations to Cancun and other vacation spots, robbing from the very funds that should be educating our future generations. We are overrun with illegal aliens who move here and have children that we then support and give health care, food stamps and welfare to. The Mexican population has tripled in the last two years. Our clinics are overrun with teenage girls who have baby after baby the taxpayers support. Our highways are a disgrace, as well as transportation. The smog from the coastal cities is killing our trees in the mountains. In fact the air in our inland towns and cites and our mountain towns and cities is not fit to breath. Our water is contaminated and people are dying of cancer from drinking it. Bill Clinton came to California recently to support Gray Davis. One liar supporting another. In fact he is using the same lies as "Slick Willy" did! It is a great conspiracy that is trying to put him out of office! Please! It is his incompetence, lies and stealing! We can all continue to bicker in this country and point fingers at this political party and that. It will get us no place. When we stop allowing our leaders to play politics and force them to stand up and do the job they are in office for then maybe, just maybe there is some home for the USA. In a debate televised here yesterday one of the candidates for Governor, Arianna Huffington did not answer one question that was ask of her directly but rather answered by always pointing a finger at another candidate on the panel and quickly using her time to mud sling. This from a woman who owns a 7 million dollar house and last year paid 7 Hundred in taxes???? We all need to do our own research into the candidates no matter if they are running for county, state or federal office. I say they should all submit public resumes and we should all be able to check their references ourselves before we vote. After all they are applying for the job!

I am neither a republican or Democrat.
I do however pay close attention to what is going on in the senate and congress. I listen to what both sides have to say, and I dont take sides. I only know in my heart what is right and what is wrong.
I know when the Democrats are wrong as well as the Republicans.
Clinton was morally wrong in what he did while in office. I did not pay tax dollars to have him have an affair in the oval office.
Also
What is wrong, is to take the American Peoples taxes and send it to Iraq to rebuild when we have our own country to rebuild. I for one want my tax dollars to remain in the United states to clean up the mess here. I work for my money and since this is suppose to be a free country, I have the right to say where my hard earned dollars are spent. But I do believe I am losing that fredom more and more each day.
Today, I watched the Senate at work on C-Span, It is hard to believe the Bush Administration is hell bent on taking away the overtime pay of the American people. I listened to the debate, and after hearing from many many senators on this sugject, it is appareant that the American people are out of touch with what is really going on in the White house, and this current administration.
If you want your overtime pay taken away, then you suppport the Bush administration.
The people in this country need jobs, and when they work over 40 hours a week, they deserve to be paid for that. If Bushes plan passes the senate, people will not only lose their overtime pay, but also be made to work more hours for less pay. Jobs will be reclassified, and if you fall under that classification, you will work as many hours as your employer asks without extra pay...as the bill is written, it will be easy for employers to reclassify all employees.
The american people need to take a stand against this before it is passed into law, and if we as Americans do nothing, we will all be paying a very grim price down the road, as if we arent already.
The senate has been debating this since returning from their august break. Bush sent a message that if the senate does not pass his new OT wage bill, he will Veto other programs that is so much needed for schools...what kind of a man would do such a thing..take away wages from Americans, and then threaten to Veto other programs for schools, and then steel our tax dollars to send to Iraq to rebuild.
Wake up people, you are being robbed, and are too blind to see that.
About Bushes threat to Veto, you can find that in rueters...for your information. 93.000 more Americans lost jobs in August.

Diane needs to stop making assumptions. This writer has worked in Social Services for over 17 years and I am a former recipient of Medicaid and Food Stamps. I am now the associate director of client services where I work. When we make assumptions and form stereotypes about classes of people, I think it is called bigotry. Yes, there are some who can be self sufficient who do not want to be, but in NYS we have a lifetime limit on welfare for adults. Unfortunately many of those who make the effort to work live without health insurance and medical care. The American dream? I don't think so. Reality is when it happens to you!

And dear Joel needs to listen to the American public. Over fifty percent believe the war in Iraq will increase terrorism in America. They also wonder where the money will come from and why domestic programs are being cut, why federal employees raises were cut to a pitiful one and one-half percent, why the deficit increases daily with no end in sight.

Terroist attacks in Iraq did not happen until the American occupation. Yes, Saddam was a horrible tyrant but do we invade all countries led by tyrants. When 500,000 Rwandans were slaughtered it barely got a comment. But then there is no oil in Rwanda. It had less do with who is in office and which end justifies the means.

Afganistan housed terroists responsible for the 9/11 attacks. But if Bush had any intelligence advisors who did their work they would have realized Iraq was all bluff and no substance.

Fight terrorism at home and where it is actually housed. And most of all guarantee quality of life for all Americans.

Not all Iranians or Rwandans are alike, some like America, some hate it. I lived in Rwanda so I know. I have also traveled in Europe and some Europeans love us and some hate us. Generalizations are just that. And we have interfered with civil wars and genocide. Do you watch the news?? What about Bosnia, Serbia--no oil or diamonds there! To my knowledge Iraq has never tried to blow the US.A. up. They invaded Kuwait and shot missles at Israel, and tried to commit genocide with the Kurds.

North Korea is developing nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. Are we going to invade them? I don't think so and why is that? And if you watch the news you would know the people of Iraq do not hate us. They may be frustrated with the lack of electricity and water, lack of food and commerce, but I don't see any on the news praising the terroist attacks. Iraquis are being killed in these attacks too!

Correction Jeff.. the Bible says that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Money is amoral and can not be evil in itself. It is the attitude of the hearts of people and what they choose to do with money that determines whether its use is for good or for evil.

Joel

Wait a minute...it's legal for Bush to go after his foes, but illegal for Clinton to do the same, even upon evidence that Bin Laden had planned attacks on the U.S.? I don't get it - the Republican watchdogs can never find any fault in someone who, by many reputable sources, made it his top priority upon taking office to concentrate on getting rid of his personal nemesis (Hussein), rather than concentrate on things that really mattered, but they can fault Clinton for doing what Shrub is claiming to do now.

Under Clinton's watch, the WTC was bombed the first time. We had the perps behind bars in a matter of months. The millennium bomb plot was stopped at the Canadian border (you remember, they were going to blow up LAX) because of the Administration's attention to terrorism. And Shrub? Well, that just wasn't important, now, was it, not when his daddy left old Saddam running around to be taken care of.

Clinton was dogged for eight years over Whitewater (a private venture in one state), and though there was surely something there, nothing was ever uncovered. This kept half the country riveted all that time, and over something that happened years before he took office. Now we have a Vice President who was once an executive at a company that just happens to get a major cleanup contract in Iraq, which then just happens to bilk us for hundreds of millions of dollars (according to the Pentagon), and Shrub's response is, and I quote (with only a hint of paraphrasing), "Well, I told them if it was true, they had better stop doing it." Oh, well, I'm sure they were impressed and cleaned up their own act immediately. But, somehow, this doesn't matter to my Republican friends. To tell the truth, the only thing that has seemed to matter to most of them is a "payback for Nixon" mentality. Oh, they would never admit it; after all, even they can't avoid his guilt. But why else this preoccupation with trying to hang a Democrat all this time, while ignoring so much graft and ineptness in the GOP, it boggles the mind?

Yeah, Clinton was an embarrassment for the way he conducted his personal life, to be discovered by all. But are any of you GOP saints really going to tell me the majority of our beloved leaders of both parties don't engage in the same things? I do seem to remember a few scandals all around... Anyway, the only reason that episode ever caused such as stir was because the Republicans had already spent millions trying to get him on something else and failed to do so (and I'm not saying he doesn't have skeletons in his closet, because I'm convinced most politicians and big business leaders do). Okay, he lied about it - hardly a national security issue. Who among you knows a single man who would publicly admit to cheating on his wife? And virtually every legal expert said afterward, that such a question would never have been allowed in a normal hearing, and no one would ever have been tried for perjury over it. But, we have to get Willie on something, now don't we? And let us not forget two other leaders (yes, both Democrats) who are known to have had their own little secret lives.

Can anyone really imagine what crispy critters we would all be if Nixon had won in 1960 (oh, those pesky electoral votes!), when that little showdown over Cuba happened? Is anyone upset Kennedy was there to handle it? And, the history books, as well as the leaders (then and now) of the ENTIRE FREE WORLD, as well as our WWII enemies, are unanimous in their belief the Allied victory in that war was in no small way due to Roosevelt's leadership.

And speaking of lies, yes, I do believe it possible the Administration (like all Administrations, in fact) is capable of telling us what they think we need to hear, whether it be true or not. I will say Bush probably ASSUMED they would find WMDs, whether he really had proof then or not (of course there's still a couple of months to go before election).

Let's not forget the report by head of the International Atomic Energy Commission, which stated to the U.N. Security Council on July 11, 2003, that he had not seen evidence that Iraq is building nuclear bombs. ElBaradei stated, "We have to date found no evidence that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapons program since the elimination of the program in the 1990s," Remember, this was based on inspections dating prior to the U.S. invadion of Iraq. Of course, there are those bio weapons aren't there? Where? I'm not saying they're not there, mind you, just that a certain other President would have been before congress explaining himself, had he made similar claims and lost so many American lives trying to back them up, but with nothing more to show for it.

Now let's look at economic issues (the very topic Republicans like to avoid). In the twentieth century, there were two major stock market crashes (loss of 20 percent or more in a single day). During both, a Republican was sitting in the Oval Office. The first crash lead to the worse global depression of all time. A Democrat (again, Roosevelt) got us out of that mess.

According the official U.S. census website, http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/recessn.html, there have been ten major recessions since 1948. Of these, NINE occurred while a Republican was in office. Hmm....

Let's go further. Lately, I have been receiving numerous messages from my Republican friends regarding how the Democrats have supposedly done so many things to screw up social security. Unfortunately, not one bothered to go to the official Social Security website to learn the truth (its that hated concept again). There, they would likely have found the http://www.ssa.gov/history/InternetMyths.html, where, coincidentally, the specific myth to which I am referring is discussed.

My point in bringing these things up? Simply that Republicans seem to be stuck on "Clinton was the worse" while all the time ignoring the culpability of their own favored officials in far worse deeds against the American people than getting caught with their pants down.

I'll close with one final thought. If you really want someone to take you seriously as a thinking, intelligent person, then please, when you post a message anywhere, try at least to make an effort to spell correctly, use reasonably decent grammar, and, for crying out loud, check your history books before you go mouthing off about something you obviously know nothing about!

You know what you remind me of? Ol' Shrub, himself, who can't string more than three words together without an interminable pause, and of whom his own staffers said during his first campaign "well, he isn't what would be considered highly intelligent..."

'nuff said.