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Like all incumbents, the bum should be voted out of office just to get rid of him. You know if todays leadership were our leadership in 1776. we'd still be British subjects.

My associate, JC. Forget about being an"incumbent". He is anti-American and a one-world-socialist.
Let us remember what Samuel Adams said to the Tories:
"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen."

Hey Jim, maybe still being a subject of her Majesty might not be such a bad thing. At least in the UK when you get sick you don't have to be afraid of going bankrupt because you can't afford health care.
I know their system is far from perfect, but how much worse could be to be a subject of Elizabeth II than it is to be a subject of bonny Prince George the Dubyah and Darth Cheney?

Don't have brain fart, my tongue is deeply, well, partially, implanted in my cheek

Hey Jim, at least in the UK nobody has to live in fear of getting sick and going bankrupt because of it. Maybe being a subject of Queen Lizzie wouldn't be such a bad thing, LOL.
It might be better than being subjects of the likes of bonny Prince George the Dubyah and Darth Cheney, the two of whom have led us to the brink of absolute ruin, both literally and figuratively!

sorry about that, I clicked twice after editing a bit.

Mike:

Your absolutely right about the UK and your statement: "at least in the UK nobody has to live in fear of getting sick and going bankrupt because of it." Because by the time you receive the nanny state health care, you'll be dead.

In regard to your statement about tongue-in-cheek, did you mean "cheeks?"

Why do you right wingers always have to hurl insults?
You really, increasingly, are looking like a pretty pathetic, frightened, and desperate lot.

Mr Cook, I understand your confusion because you and your liberal cohorts throw so many barbs its hard when some get thrown back at you. You are right we are frightened, frightened of a presidency and congress made up primarily of liberal democrats who started this mess in about 1936. God help us with Nancy Pelozi being third in line for the Presidency, I am strongly rooting for the good health and welfare of our next President and Vice President no matter who they may be.
Most of the time you confuse the United States with being a Democracy, but now you apparently think its a monarchy.

So, Mr. Carlson, do you believe the GI Bill should never have been passed? Do you believe it would have been better to allow hundreds of thousands of American elders to continue to fall into poverty the way too many often did prior to the establishment of Social Security?
Do you believe that veterans returning home from Iraq or Afghanistan today, many of whom will need care for the rest of their lives, should just suck it up and not expect the government to help them out?
I understand there are some aspects of the government's role in society that are over the top, but I also firmly believe there is a role for a partnership between the public and privates sectors that, if managed effectively, works to the benefit of all.
It appears, however, that you are just blindly stuck in Ronald Reagan's misguided assertion that government is never part of a solution, just always a part of the problem.
Ironically, had the "mess" you say started in 1936 had not come about, the very communist ideology you correctly repudiate might well have taken hold in the country.

For gosh sakes man, where did i say that? Stop all this motherhood and apple pie crap. Can't one be appalled by what government in general has done to this country? If it were a partnership, maybe you would be right but somehow it seems government swallows its so called partner and guess what-its run amok again. do you know what the so called public sector has for employees vs what the private sector has . Watch out the baby has eaten the mother. Yes i've spent a good deal of time thinking about Ronald Reagan's theory on government and in my view he was 90% right.
Maybe if we had had the government envisioned by our founding fathers, we would still have the good things government has done but not the 90% overgrowth.

I notice you did not respond to my comment about the stinker err speaker of the house. You see no problem if she were to become president. I'll tell you, we would yearn for Hillary Clinton if it should happen.

I don't anticipate Nancy Pelosi becoming president of the United States, although I fully understand it's theoretically possible. But I'll tell you this, I am far less fearful of her becoming president than I was of Newt Gingrich ascending to the office during his tenure as speaker.

God bless us all, everyone

Mile:

An insult? Heavens no! Do you object to the term "cheeks?"

I really don't know at this time and perhaps you can advise.
Jim Carlson said in his last post "God bless us all, everyone."
To this I can only say: "GOD BLESS ALL WHO WEAR THE UNIFORM."
You have been given the GOD-given right, that's "unalienable" right to post on this site whatever you please. To say that I have denigrated you is absured. "Veritas vos liberatis." "The truth shall set you free."
Having served during the Vietnam War, I was given two choices, ask for government largess or bill the company that I worked for. Knowing that if I took option one, the taxpayers would be responsible. Therefore, I took option two, let private corporations share the burden. Guess this doesn't fit in with your description of "oovernment largess."
Would appreciate knowing where you served and what branch of serive you were in.

Michael,
I know we have respectfully disagreed on many issues in the past, but I do feel you lose your credibility each and every time you refer to George Bush and Dick Cheney as "bonny Prince George the Dubyah and Darth Cheney".

Let's take a closer look at what the democratically controlled House was voting on each time the gas prices spiked significantly since 2007:
1/29/2007: Price per gallon (PPG) $2.22
Congratulating the UC Santa Barbara soccer team
9/5/07: PPG $2.84
National Passport Month
2/6/08: PPG $3.03
Commending the Houston Dynamo soccer team
5/14/08: PPG $3.77
National Train Day
5/20/08: PPG $3.84
Great Cats Act
6/10/08: PPG $4.09
International Year of Sanitation
6/17/08: PPG $4.14
Monkey Safety Act

Also, no one is saying that either side, dems or republicans, can do no wrong, Michael. However, the majority of failed policies have been generated by the democrats, without question. Clinton had 8 years in office to explore alternative energies and did nothing. Clinton also refused incarcerate Bin Laden when he was going to be handed to the U.S. on the literal silver platter, and look where we are now.
And don't even get me started on immigration...Yeah, I know, Reagan granted amnesty, but it was supposed to be a one time thing only, not a recurring theme.
BTW, Obama has now decided drilling for our own oil may not be such a bad idea....hmmmm....
can you say flip-flop?????

Sorry to go somewhat OT above (and now here), but here's an interesting tidbit....and a good laugh....

Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado, when asked to comment about being on the short list of possible Obama VP picks, said the following:

Ritter:
"Well, just because, I think there are a lot of things that he has to take into consideration. I’ve been governor for 18 months. My experience before that was as a district attorney. I loved being a district attorney…but I don’t think that’s what Barack Obama’s looking for in a vice president. I’ve been governor for 18 months. It’s been a great experience. But it’s just 18 months…Obama has to think about experience…levels of experience…”

Now, here's the best part...
Caller Richard from Windsor: “Governor, you said 18 months’ experience wasn’t enough experience as governor to be the vice president. Would you want to contrast that with the 143 days’ experience Obama as senator before he decided he had enough experience to be president.”
Ritter: All I can tell ya is I am a fan of Barack Obama’s. Met him in 2004 during his campaign for Senate…You meet him and discover there’s something very different about him. That’s all I’ll say."

LOL

(transcript of radio interview available at www.850koa.com/main.html)

Hey Bilge Rat,
I had step back and think before responding to your recent posts.

For some reason, conservatives still insist on blaming Democrats and liberals for all the country's ills, but when you look at history, the conservatives have held much more power in this country over the last forty years than liberals.

With the exception of the 4 years of the Carter administration and the 8 of Clinton, the conservatives have controlled the White House for 36 years.

They dominated the legislative branch from 1994 until 2006.

Reagan conned the American people into believing you could cut revenue (taxes) and go on a military spending binge with no means to pay for the binge.

Ironically, George Herbert Walker Bush, the man who called Reagan's supply economics "Voodoo" economics, committed political suicide as president when he, seeing the fiscal mess the country was in, broke his "read my lips" pledge and raised taxes.

Even more ironic, that act of self destructive political courage set the stage for the economic resurgence many of my fellow liberals like to accredit to Bill Clinton.

Poppy Bush's "doing the right thing at the right time" was a big factor in the boom of the 1990's.

But, conservatives today, perhaps not you specifically, are almost pathologically incapable of admitting that the neo-cons who came to dominate the GOP, and, sorry, bonny Prince George the Dubya's administration in particular, have wreaked a level of havoc on this country domestically and internationally that is going to cost us dearly in the years ahead.

My math was wrong, I meant to say the past 28 years!
I am a victim of the Andover public School's "modern math" agenda of the 1960's. I hate math as a result!! LOL

Mr. Cook: Now that you have corrected your math, I can help you with your misconception. You have confused conservatives with republicans. Any similarity was dissolved years ago. You need to take out 8 years of Nixon/Ford, 4 years of George H. W. Bush, and 8 years of the current President George W. Bush and you are left with the only conservative administration this country has had in 72 years, that of Ronald Reagan. The republicans and democrats are now both so liberal, economically, they are indistinguishable. There has NEVER BEEN a tax increase that ever contributed to an economic resurgence here or anywhere else in the world. The "boom that Clinton was given credit for started just before Bush left office. You need to separate the recovery that always follows recession from the "Boom" that was created by the internet/technology balloon that burst and took all of the temporararily created jobs and surpluses with it. Oh yes, and the military spending splurge that you talk about was the result of 40+ years of liberal decimation of our military which was again instituted by Clinton, Bush 1 and Bush 2 until September 11 forced some revitilization but we are still in a bind because of liberal malfeasance. We cannot afford, militarily another war now which means the Russians can again exert their will or try to.

Mr. Carlson, the military has been, for a very long time, under both Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses, a recipient of far too much of the nation's wealth.

Some senior military personnel have actually complained that they don't need all the money being thrown at them, they need a civilian leadership, from either party, that truly understands the military's role in a small "d", small "r" democratic/republican society.

We are powerless now to counter Putin's naked aggresion against Georgia because this Bush administration has so bankrupted the country and damaged our reputation abroad that no one takes us seriously.
We have been reduced, thanks to the neo-cons and all their bluster, to little more than a paper tiger.

No one knows that better than Vladimir Putin, and he is running with that reality all the way to the top of the heap.

Mr. Cook, with this post I retire. Your comments about military spending deserve the historical revisionist award of the the year. Your comments about what has put us where we are deserve nothing but my utmost contempt.

This blog has become a hopeless bore. Taylor and Ken don't really seem interested in keeping it fresh. When a blog becomes stale like this, it's time to delete it from the bookmark. Guys: You need to update a blog more than once or twice a month -- especially a news-based blog.

Did I read this right 23 debates!! does this guy know by having 23 debates you have just bored the people of Massachusetts asleep 2-3 debate would be the most but not 23. Anyone who wants 23 debates is just blowing hot air and I don't want anyone who wants to blow hot air. This guy should use the K.I.S.S. factor "Keep it Simple Stupid". This is why politicians are so stupid they want to talk and then do no action. Democrats and republicans alike.

mike cook said:
"Mr. Carlson, the military has been, for a very long time, under both Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses, a recipient of far too much of the nation’s wealth." Let's examine this statement....

GDP is the standard measure of the size of the economy. It is the total production of goods and services within the United States.

US Military Spending as a Percentage of GDP, 1990--2003
Fiscal Year %
1990 5.2
1991 4.6
1992 4.8
1993 4.4
1994 4.0
1995 3.7
1996 3.5
1997 3.3
1998 3.1
1999 3.0
2000 3.0
2001 3.0
2002 3.4
2003 3.7
Source: Historical Tables, Budget of the US Government, Fiscal Year 2005 (2004), Washington, pp. 45--52

Maybe I'm just not getting it, but I have NO problem spending a few percentage points to protect our country and our freedoms that members of my family and my friends have fought and died for.
Guess I'm just a knuckle dragging, typical white person clinging to my guns and my bible....

'nuff said....