Outside-Election Politics

Like McCain, you don't get it. What's wrong with peolple telling high school students that thee are alternative ways to earn money for college than simply joinoing the military. Many people who are unsure of their future join the Peace Corp or other alternatives to the military which are not presented to them by the recruiters. If the so-called counter recruiters provide these alternatives, how can that be bad. The ACLU should sue on their behalf to protect the rights of those to equal access and free speech. Remember that 1st amendment thing?

With regard to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you have it backwards. These entities were making incredible amounts of money giving people loans that Fannie and Freddie knew people couldn't afford. The bail out is not for the people who bought houses they couldn't afford, but for the tax payers who will have to pay for this disaster because Fannie and Freddie won't be able to meet their obligations because of the defaults. But either way we suffer because our friends in Congress over the last eigt years fiddled while Rome burned.

With regard to Russia and Georgia, Make no mistake that this has Putin written all over it. I would suggest to study up on Ivan the Terrible. He has been reincarnated in Putin. Unfortunately, there is little we can say about the invasion of Georgia. It is similar to Germany into Poland, Iraq into Kuwait and U.S. into Iraq. Whenever one sovereign natin invades another without the predicate of protecting itself or another from iminent danger, others willfeel as if they can do likewise. Thats the scary thing about following up Bush with the hawkish McCain. We are in for more of the same; more fightimg, more killing and bigger problems on the homefront

You are grossly misrepresenting the counter-recruiters that the ACLU is defending. These are not people seeking to "educate high school students to alternatives," rather, they are hate mongers who live to try to verbally assault the military. Free speech is one thing, painting the United States military as murderers and spewing hate against them is something else all together. These people do not serve to highlight alternatives, but rather to simply disparage the military itself.

No, my friend. YOU have it backwards on Fannie and Freddie. This bailout was an irresponsible move that will, indeed, cost taxpayers billions. And these companies were not making any money, at all. THAT'S why they needed the bail-out. They were giving loans, hoping that people would pay them back... but people couldn't afford to pay back the loans on time. Now, the government has spent more of our tax dollars to compensate for this gross irresponsibility. I'll agree that Congress has been very inactive (over the last TWO years, the six before it were actually quite productive), but it's not their fault that people took out loans that they couldn't afford. And it's not their place now to interfere with private enterprise.

You're off the mark on the Russia situation, as well. Since the fall of the Soviet empire, Russia has been sliding--ever so slowly--back towards communism. Now, it's just approaching its head. Putin is a factor, but so it Medvedev, and so are the complacent members of the Russian parliamentary system. And HOW DARE YOU compare America's mission of peace into Iraq with the conflict between Russia and Georgia? I may have opposed our initial entry into Iraq, but we kept uranium out of the hands of terrorists, we toppled one of the world's worst dictators, we've given the Iraqi people a voice in the form of their own democratic state, and the list goes on. Russia was oppressing Georgia, Georgia retaliated in an effort to finally end that oppression, and Russia got pissy and tried to take over its old property.
You're also making a big mistake comparing McCain to Bush. Let's not forget that the two were rivals in the 2000 Republican primary. These are two very different men, and you do not get to simply paint everyone with an (R) next to his or her name with the same brush. And the war is almost over. No more "killing," (which is an abhorrent oversimplification, by the way--our soldiers are HEROES not killers). We'll be out of Iraq when it's fully secure, and it almost is. McCain is a bold patriot who understands that if Iraq falls, the terrorists will take it over, and America will be their first target.

"Problems on the homefront?" I don't even know what that means. Maybe you're referring to the "problem" of about 40 thwarted terrorist attacks on US soil, including one thwarted attack on Chicago's own Sears Tower--Thank you, Homeland Security. Or Maybe you mean 95% job growth in the six years before the Democrats took over congress? Or maybe you mean the meager 3% unemployment rate in those same six years? Or maybe you mean a "problem" like the Republican congress and Republican president saving America from the Clinton recession? Oh, wait! I've got it! You mean the only actual problem that I'll have listed in this paragraph: the recession and astronomical gas prices that the Democratic Congress has left us over the last two years.

Thank you for your comments, Michael. Now, please get some real facts from someplace other than the DailyKos and MoveOn.org. Have a great day!

Even President Bush's press secreatry indicated that he had been urging Congress to take action to protect the taxpayers from the Fannie Mae and Freddie disaster as far back as 2003. Oh, by the way, it was a decidedly Republicsn Congress at that time. But had they taken the appropriate action, their fat cat friends wouldn't have been able to make the enormous personal profit that they were making. The bail out happened because investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were finally scared that they couldn't make the enormous profit anymore beacuse of the housing market being brought down by other fiscal concerns like our out of control debt. Its a huge snowball effect that should have been dealt with years ago by a lackadaisical and sometimes non-existent Congress when it came to dealing with economic issues that would have hurt their friends.

If toppling the world's worst dictators is our goal, brace yourself for wars in Africa, Asia, and around the globe. The point that you hawkish people don't understand is that international law requires us, whether we like it or not, to honor the government of a sovereign nation. We don't have to like them or deal with them in any way, but we have to recognize their sovereignty. By the way, under whose authority do you get to declare the war is over. Besides, I thought Bush declared mission accomplished a couple of years ago.