Respectfully, John Edwards practically bankrupt his state with malpractice lawsuits. SM
Posted By: MT on 2005-09-26
In Reply to: Thanks for posting and for being so respectful. - Libby
He didn't even carry his own state in the election. That should tell you something.
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John Edwards as VP?
thoughts?
Add John Edwards to the list...
he voted to send the troops too. But let's be honest about this...Bush in and of himself did not send troops. Congress did. Did Clinton have blood on his hands for the American soldiers who died in Kosovo or died in Somalia? How about the one they dragged bhind a jeep in Somalia? Is his blood on Clinton's hands? Clinton was in office when my husband was sent to Somalia. What was that blood for? Where were you when that was happening? Were you on this board panning Clinton? Or do you have to have a certain number of bodies before you get angry? When I saw that man being dragged behind a Jeep while people cheered, you bet your life I got angry!! I got mad as he**. But I didn't get mad at Bill Clinton...I got mad at the AL Qaeda funded terrorists who were doing it. I was not then and am not now a fan of Bill Clinton's, but I did have the objectivity to see that Bill Clinton was not directly responsible for what was happening. However, his decision to pull out of Somalia pre-emptively is one of the reasons we are having to fight Al Qaeda yet again in Iraq...we should have crushed them there when we had the chance. Just like he should have taken bin Laden when the Sudan offered him...before 9-11. But, we cannot turn back time. Although the ability of liberals to erase/ignore certain things from one person and highlight them in another boggles my mind!
And...where may I ask is all that oil that we went to war for? Sorry, but that is a goofy statement. If we had gone after oil we would be protecting the oil fields and trying to get them producing oil again...RIGHT? I don't see how anyone, no matter how much they hate George Bush...can buy that theory. I mean no offense by that. I do not agree with a lot of things George Bush is for; however, I do agree with taking the fight to them to discourage them from bringing the fight to us. I would prefer not to see a car bombing or suicide bombing on the evening news somewhere in the US every day. I would prefer not to see school bombings. I would prefer not to see a dirty bomb exploded in NY or LA. And taking the fight to them, I believe, is what is helping keep them from doing those very things. I don't know why it is so hard for some people to understand that there are people out there who hate us and our way of life and have made it their goal in life to turn us to their way or destroy us. Either or. No in between. And even 9-11 cannot convince some of you. What will take..? I shudder to think.
If John Edwards was not important...
The Clintonites are now saying that John Edwards nomination is not that important. (what???)
If that is true then why did she campaign so hard to try to get him to endorse her? Why did she immediately after he dropped out of the race change her tone and try to mimick him. You know for a fact if he endorsed her she would be making this out to be the greatest victory in America.
The fact is this IS an important endorsement. As important as AL Gore's will be and as important as Bush's endorsement to the republicans.
She's just upset that it took away the limelight of her win in W.Virginia, which I believe was not as big as a win in Iowa, Washington State, Maine and other bigger states. Now they said that because Obama didn't win WV there is no way he'll win the election in November?....yeah right. Funny how they are completely missing all his big wins. Of course they are trying to spin it as if all of his wins are not important...only the ones she won. Brother give me a break!
The sooner she is out of the race the more I can breath a sigh of relief!
one word John Edwards
touche.
If you mean John Edwards....the affair and a child that has just come to light. nm
nm
Media Malpractice...
Video Exclusive: A Revealing Morning With Sarah Palinby John Ziegler
If someone told me five months ago that in early January I would pay over $1,400 for an incredibly inconvenient plane ticket and $120 for a 3 a.m. cab fare to get from sunny Los Angeles to Wasilla, Alaska, I would have told them there was a better chance the Dow Jones would be below 9,000 and a gallon of gas less than two dollars.
If they would have told me I’d be glad to have made the journey (even with a seven-hour, weather-aided stop in Seattle), I would have told them Sarah Palin had a better chance to be John McCain’s running-mate. Of course, as we all now know this turned out to be true. And even though I still have the flu I got just before the trip, I’m thrilled to have experienced minus-eleven degrees in Alaska.
Obviously, I was there to interview Governor Palin for my forthcoming documentary about the media coverage of election 2008. My understanding is that the only reason Governor Palin did this interview (while rejecting hundreds of other requests) is because of her sincere devotion to setting the record straight on what really happened during the campaign and to determine why the news coverage was as dangerously slanted as it so clearly was.
Largely because of absurd claims by Democrats that she was violating ethics rules by answering campaign questions on state grounds (one of several ways in which the Democrats in Alaska, who used to love her, are now fully invested in the “take Sarah Palin down” industry), we did the interview at the Palin home. At 9 a.m., without a security guard or handler in sight, Bristol Palin, eight days removed from giving birth, politely answered the door and Governor Palin, not yet fully put together, rushed out to tell myself and my crew to make ourselves at home.
One of the things you quickly learn when you visit the Palins is that the legend created around who they are and how they live is no myth. It appears to be absolutely real and everything about them seems 100% sincere. From the stuffed hunting trophies on the wall, to Track’s military photo by the TV set, to Piper’s crayon school projects on the refrigerator door - everything is exactly as you imagined.
What’s particularly valuable about my perspective is that I am not Charlie Gibson, Matt Lauer or Greta Van Susteren (who I understand now gets her mail delivered to the Palin home) — the conductors of the three most prominent interviews done in this Wasilla home on a frozen lake at the end of a drive with the sign “Palins” posted on a tree. I am virtually unknown nationally and there was absolutely no reason for anything to be done differently as “show” for us. We saw the genuine Sarah Palin and it is patently obvious this is the only one who exists.
She is the real deal.
As a former TV sportscaster and radio talk show host I’ve interviewed a lot big-time “celebrities,” and can honestly say that even though you could argue Sarah Palin was the most prominent, she is also by far the nicest, most sincere and seemingly honest subject I’ve ever questioned.
For context, I admit to being a Sarah Palin fan even before she was named John McCain’s VP candidate. I attended her convention speech and consider it by far to be the finest I have ever personally witnessed. But being a world-class cynic I also wondered if maybe there was at least some truth to the negative media narrative created about her. Maybe she really wasn’t that smart, maybe she was indeed a “diva” or a “wack job.” Well, if any of those smears are remotely true, Palin should move to LA permanently because she’s a far better actor (not to mention better looking) than the vast majority of actresses in Hollywood.
Our interview started early and ended late (ask Barbara Walters how often that happens at this level). The Governor fully answered every question, even though some of them brought up media episodes which clearly upset her. When the subject turned to her kids being targeted, she was even a little emotional. She then posed for pictures and signed autographs for the entire crew, and casually discussed all sorts of topics, including how the local newspaper is absurdly still trailing the “story” that her youngest son is not really hers (this, while Todd walked around with Trig on his back and Bristol cared for Trip, her newborn, in a nearby bedroom; even Trig conspiracy theorist Andrew Sullivan would have had a hard time not seeing the insanity in his own delusion).
The madness of the local paper’s efforts to prove Trig is really not Sarah’s baby is not all we learned in post interview conversations. Conservatives will be thrilled to know she immediately “got” and seemed to fully appreciate my joke that Pete Wilson (and not Arnold Schwarzenegger) would go down as the last Republican Governor in the history of California. If that wasn’t enough, when she looked at the back cover of my first film (“Blocking the Path to 9/11” www.blockingthepath.com) and saw the photo of one of the film’s targets, Keith Olbermann, she literally let out a shriek and, pointing to his photograph, declared, “THAT guy is EVIL!”
Beyond the great interview for the film (from which there is still plenty of tremendous stuff yet to come), the most important part of my visit to the Palin home was learning there’s a big difference between thinking something is true and knowing for sure it is. I now know Sarah Palin is exactly who I thought she was.
I also know, with moral certitude, that the media assassination of her, her character and family, was one of the greatest public injustices of our time and that I’m totally justified in devoting my life to correcting the historical record in my forthcoming film, “Media Malpractice… How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Smeared.”
I found the PETA ad with mostly naked woman practically copulating with vegetables....sm
to be so much more offensive......kids are around watching the game with their family, at least my kids do, and this was so objectionable on so many layers. First, I am sick of having to have naked women salaciously performing for the camera (a LA Paris Hilton in the burgery commercial) for marketing purposes, when do we stop objectifying women and show some respect. PETA says they were being humerous and trying to get people "to live a healthier life", but showing woman practically having sex with vegetables, looking more like a porn show, THAT makes me sick, such bad judgement, freedom is great, pollution of the young impressionable minds is not, and I think women in particular should be angry for the portrayal. Please, this is just my humble opinion, wondering if anyone else is so offended by this? 
Media Malpractice...How Obama got elected....sm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8
http://howobamagotelected.com/
"Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."
George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796
On November 4th, 2008 millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama's limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States. For many of these Americans, the explanation was rather simple... the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job.
On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not.
All of this was conducted for a forthcoming documentary on how the news media impacted the 2008 election. Please get on our mailing list and return to this website in the coming months for more information on the film, "Media Malpractice... How Obama Got Elected"
Because obviously interviewing a relative handful of Obama voters, while interesting, is hardly scientific proof of anything, we also commissioned a Zogby telephone poll which asked the very same questions (as well as a few others) with similarly amazing results.
Zogby Poll
512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points
97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates
Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions
57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)
82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)
88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)
56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).
And yet.....
Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes
Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter
And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!
Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.
Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)
There are still several other lawsuits ongoing.
nm
Yes. There are a number of other lawsuits.
the only place this can play out now could be in the Congress in impeachment proceedings. My HYPOTHETICAL question would be what would the republican party have to gain by pushing this already dead issue forward when clearly the priority is the very REAL issue of the economy? How well do you think that would play out for the pub party if they promote impeachment in the middle of it all. What would be the end result? Biden as president? A supermajority still seated? Call for another election after popular mandate has put the democratic party in the White House, the Senate and the Congress? It is a lose/lose proposition coming out of the party that claims to put country first.
John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly....
improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment." Interesting that 4 of the 5 were Democrats. Still..John McCain has publically said he was sorry for his part in it, that he was wrong in what he did and has apologized for it. Like I said before, I respect that. Everyone makes mistakes. No everyone is man enough to own up to them and not hide behind Nancy Pelosi and the DNC like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are doing. Now THERE is a pair to draw to.
Here's a fact just for you. Pubs keep filing lawsuits to nowhere
Gee willikers.
How we became bankrupt
I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the readers gets sick of reading them. I also have included the URL's for verification of all of the following facts.
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/ TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare and Social Services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSC RI PTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US .
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana,
crossed into the U. S. from the Southern border.
Verify at: Homeland Security Report: h ttp:// tinyurl..com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'
Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.
Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ..'
Verify at: http: // www.drdsk.com/articleshtml <http://ww w.drdsk.com/articleshtml >
The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND IF YOU'RE HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY; IT IS $338,300,000,000.00 WHICH WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY......... .
Are we that stupid? YES, FOR LETTING THOSE IN THE U.S. CONGRESS GET AWAY WITH LETTING THIS HAPPEN YEAR AFTER YEAR!!!!!
If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message. If, on the other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the country including every elected representative in Washington , D.C. - five times a weekfor as long as it takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our government policies and enforcements....
Two Border State Governors Declare Illegal Immigration State of Emergency
Two Border State Governors Declare Illegal Immigration State of Emergency
SIGN THE PETITION!
CLICK HERE!
THANK YOU!
You can have our federal money along with a new state motto: "Michigan - The Slave State". n
NM
your ignorance is amazing -and O will bankrupt the
nm
The coal fields are already bankrupt
There aren't many going today thanks to the Miner's Safety Board. Small mines are being shut down every day because the MSB thinks anthracite coal is the same as bituminous coal, but they are 2 different mining techniques.Yet, anthracite miners have to follow the regulations of bituminous mining.
What will happen if the car companies bankrupt.
Duh, I know there will be job loss along with lawyers, computer companies who do business with auto dealers, human resources and so on. Job loss will not just be car company manufactures. Motorola supplies car companies with their technology and so many other companies. Would it be the Great Depression? What about all the people who lease cars with these companies or who make payments to these companies? What if you own American made cars and where do you get the parts to repair your american made cars? Geesh I could go on and on. Sounds like a horror flick.
Bin Laden wanted to bankrupt the US. sm
Supporters of the Bush administration like to say that there have been no terrorist attacks on US soil since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, suggesting that President Bush has kept the country safe from terrorism. What they forget is that Osama Bin Laden clearly outlined his strategy for battling America, not by flying more planes into new buildings, but by driving the US into bankruptcy.
When they have to cough up "we are bankrupt."
Nobody has the balls to say the word. We print Monopoly money because we don't have anything else. Try spending that before long.
Enough is enough already!
We were bankrupt in September ང
nm
I think they should go bankrupt. Unions didn't cause it -
respectfully
let's keep away from the "I heard" stuff. There is enough misinformation already without adding to it with stuff that can't be verified. Let's stick to the facts.
What, may I respectfully ask, does this prove?
Lebanon and Israel have a long and colourful history of conflict. I am not quite sure what this letter is meant to prove. Hezbollah has used Lebanese residential areas to set up their missles and attack bases. Israel retaliates for the abduction of their people. But first, they drop leaflets, warning civilians to leave. Really, quite a first for this sort of thing. I'm very sorry, but I, for one, am bloody tired of Israel being made the aggressor here. Hamas and Hezbollah have pounded them nearly to oblivion and all you can worry about is a letter from the Lebanese?! I am astounded.
Respectfully....I don't agree...
A radical socialist (Obama) and a majority democratic congress who leans socialist are a mixture that does not bode well for the country. Add to that money men behind him who are radical socialists...now there is change I am not the least bit interested in. Not getting worked up...but definitely concerned.
I would respectfully ask for the same consideration.
nm
I respectfully disagree s/m
and I say respectfully because apparently you are a sister TTer (I'm an ex TTer). I think McCain will win by hook or crook. Anyway, the rabid Republicans outnumber the rabid Democrats on the forums in which I participate so if I'm correct, McCain won't have to restort to "crook."
Respectfully to Kaydie
I think you have already decided for whom you are going to vote. Otherwise why keep posting internet gossip about Obama. I've already posted my objections to him and that can be summed up in 1 word, preacher WRIGHT. I struggled with that for a very long time and finally decided I would take a chance on that, a KNOWN fact, enough to make me afraid of where we're headed under his administration without adding anything to it.
As for the place of Obama's birth and his birth certificate....do you REALLY believe if he wasn't eligible to run for the presidency the McCain campaign would not have obtained absolute proof of that??? Get real, of course they would. So as for me...no problem with his birth certificate.
As for his past associations...of course he has associated with shady characters as has McCain. McCain's Keating 5 was one. Do you realize he is the ONLY senator who has been rebuked by the Senate Ethic Committee??? That's quite a record.
Obama commercials...I don't know where you are but the one that plays over and over here in Arkansas is HILARIOUS. I can't tell you the content of the ad because both my husband and I are laughing so hard. It plays often and we welcome the comedy. It shows McCain and his expressions during the debate. At the end is McCain speaking by himself FOR Obama when he says, "I've voted with the president over 90% of the time, more than even some of my party colleagues." That in MCCAIN's own words tells me all I need to know about him. I haven't agreed with Bush on anything since 9/11 when he stood up and made his speech....I became a Republican that day but it sure didn't last long. McCain will bring us more of the same, maybe even worse. So if you've done well the past 8 years and want to continue on that downhill path, by all means vote for McCain. I'm not sure at all that we will like Obama's "change" but I'll take a chance on him before I'll vote FOR McCain.
Funny I have watched all of the debates and speeches and parts of speeches until I'm sick of it. I have yet to hear Obama come close to what I would consider "playing the race card." What I did hear was Palin "he isn't like the rest of us." If that wasn't the race card I don't know what it was. How could Obama possibly play the race card when he is half and half and raised by his WHITE grandmother, the one he says shaped him and I believe him on that.
Nov. 4 can't come fast enough to suit me. Then I guess we can start blaming Democrats/Republicans for our continued downhill course. What we lazy Americans, ALL of us, need to do is get off our lazy butts and do something that will effectively change the course of our country.
I respectfully request
that you not infer that I am not a Christian. I am certainly aware of David and the many other Biblical people. If memory serves me correctly Saul (Paul) was on his way down to Damascus breathing fire in order that he might persecute some more Christians.
Respectfully this is the difference between sm
CChristianity and other religions. If you go to the graves of other religious "leaders" the grave will hold bones and dust. The tomb for Jesus is empty because he has arose and is alive forever more. There is a difference between religion and salvation and even some Christian denominations are nothing more than religion and there is no salvation or rerepentence to it. Not all those professing to be Christians are going to be in heaven either. Only those washed in the blood of Jesus Christ with their sins forgiven will be there.
Yes, it is from 2007 and says the same as those from 2008 - where is a link showing bankrupt?
I cannot find anything like that.
Edwards on TV
Unfortunately, I tuned in at the very end. I did like his answer about gay marriage (probably because it reflects mine). He said he was raised Southern Baptist and so was I. I want equality for all but I get a little twinge about marriage. In any event, I can overcome that twinge and be pro-gay rights.
Edwards
Like him, think he has great ideas, attracts those rural voters, but Obama needs someone with a lot of experience to balance him out.
Respectfully....I don't know the time frame in which...
these children died. Yes, it is horrible, and yes, the parents responsible for the deaths should be held accountable. But I don't think the answer to that is the murder of 1.2 million babies a year because one of them might be abused. Who are we to make that decision? Why not leave THAT choice up to God?
And I beg to differ...there is absolutely nothing humane about abortion.
May I politely and respectfully direct you
back to God's word? Obviously a little more study and maturing will do you no harm.
I respectfully suggest to you that McCain
Your mistrust is based on the "Who is the REAL Obama" smear campaign. My mistrust of McCain is based on the very fact that I DO know McCain...his record and his campaign have clearly demonstrated he cannot be trust with MY country.
may I refresh your memory... respectfully...
George Bush had the same absence of checks and balances in his favor.
Didn't really work for us, right? Let's see how it works swingin' this way.
Or those Edwards bloggers...
you talk about mean and hateful. And he supported them. They eventually quit because the complaining got so loud, but Edwards was not going to fire them. That tells me a lot about the content of HIS character..not that I did not already know.
Nah, it's Edwards fault cuz
they was havin' illicit sex, too! Can you imagine big oil and the dept of interior in bed together!!!!!!! Boggles the mind!!!!!
Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards is "not that fond" of Obama's health care plan.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2117818/posts
Then Obama says at one of his speeches that going to be partnering up with her and they're going to be "figuring all this out". I thought he already had a plan? Now he's got to figure it out? - Go figure!
Clinton, Edwards......
actually I think it has more to do with their being men than their political affiliation. lol.
I respectfully disagree on one point you made:
*...most of us on the liberal board do not buy *impending doom* theory that you live by.*
I personally will be fearful of *impending doom* for the next 3 years. If I/we can get through that, then I'll be able to relax (a little) as hopefully more Americans will come to their senses.
Nobody wants to listen to liberal talk radio..look at bankrupt Air America. No demand for it...
//
Obama, Richardson, Edwards...nm
nm
hillary got pwnd by Edwards
her dignity!!!! 
What's holding Edwards back?
Laws vary state-to-state
Many people were confined against their will just because someone wanted them "out of the way." These were normal people with no mental illness - that is why it is so difficult - don't blame the liberals. Blame your state.
CONFINING THE MENTALLY ILL
In the legal space between what a society should and should not do, taking action to restrict the liberty of people who are mentally ill sits in the grayest of gray areas.
Our notions about civil and constitutional rights flow from an assumption of "normalcy." Step beyond the boundaries and arrest and prison may legally follow. Short of that, government's ability to hold people against their will is severely and properly limited. Unusual behavior on the part of someone who is mentally ill is not illegal behavior. Freedom can't be snatched away on a whim, or on the thought that a person is hard to look at, hard to hear, hard to smell.
It was only a few decades ago that the promise of new medications and a change in attitude opened the doors of the mental hospitals and sent many patients into society. There, they would somehow "normalize" and join everyone else, supported by networks of out-patient facilities, job training, special living arrangements and regular, appropriate medication. But the transition has been imperfect, long and difficult.
In some parts of urban America there is little professional support for those with mental health problems. A new generation of drug and alcohol-fueled mental illness has come on the scene. People frequently end up on the street, un-medicated and exhibiting a full range of behaviors that are discomforting at the very least and threatening at their worst.
Edwards today said "not interested"
Found the story on the front of www.cnn.com but can't get the link to translate here. Anyway, Edwards said flat out that he wasn't interested in being VP but kind of beat around the bush when they asked him about being attorney general.
Red state, blue state?
Written last Thanksgiving: "Some would argue that two different nations actually celebrated: upright, moral, traditional red America and the dissolute, liberal blue states clustered on the periphery of the heartland. The truth, however, is much more complicated and interesting than that.
Take two iconic states: Texas and Massachusetts. In some ways, they were the two states competing in the last election. In the world's imagination, you couldn't have two starker opposites. One is the homeplace of Harvard, gay marriage, high taxes, and social permissiveness. The other is Bush country, solidly Republican, traditional, and gun-toting. Massachusetts voted for Kerry over Bush 62 to 37 percent; Texas voted for Bush over Kerry 61 to 38 percent.
So ask yourself a simple question: which state has the highest divorce rate? Marriage was a key issue in the last election, with Massachusetts' gay marriages becoming a symbol of alleged blue state decadence and moral decay. But in actual fact, Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country at 2.4 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants. Texas - which until recently made private gay sex a criminal offence - has a divorce rate of 4.1. A fluke? Not at all. The states with the highest divorce rates in the U.S. are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. And the states with the lowest divorce rates are: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Every single one of the high divorce rate states went for Bush. Every single one of the low divorce rate states went for Kerry. The Bible Belt divorce rate, in fact, is roughly 50 percent higher than the national average.
Some of this discrepancy can be accounted for by the fact that couples tend to marry younger in the Bible Belt - and many clearly don't have the maturity to know what they're getting into. There's some correlation too between rates of college education and stable marriages, with the Bible Belt lagging a highly educated state like Massachusetts. But the irony still holds. Those parts of America that most fiercely uphold what they believe are traditional values are not those parts where traditional values are healthiest. Hypocrisy? Perhaps. A more insightful explanation is that these socially troubled communities cling onto absolutes in the abstract because they cannot live up to them in practice.
But doesn't being born again help bring down divorce rates? Jesus, after all, was mum on the subject of homosexuality, but was very clear about divorce, declaring it a sin unless adultery was involved. A recent study, however, found no measurable difference in divorce rates between those who are "born again" and those who are not. 29 percent of Baptists have been divorced, compared to 21 percent of Catholics. Moreover, a staggering 23 percent of married born-agains have been divorced twice or more. Teen births? Again, the contrast is striking. In a state like Texas, where the religious right is extremely strong and the rhetoric against teenage sex is gale-force strong, the teen births as a percentage of all births is 16.1 percent. In liberal, secular, gay-friendly Massachusetts, it's 7.4, almost half. Marriage itself is less popular in Texas than in Massachusetts. In Texas, the percent of people unmarried is 32.4 percent; in Massachusetts, it's 26.8 percent. So even with a higher marriage rate, Massachusetts manages a divorce rate almost half of its "conservative" rival.
Or take abortion. America is one of the few Western countries where the legality of abortion is still ferociously disputed. It's a country where the religious right is arguably the strongest single voting bloc, and in which abortion is a constant feature of cultural politics. Compare it to a country like Holland, perhaps the epitome of socially liberal, relativist liberalism. So which country has the highest rate of abortion? It's not even close. America has an abortion rate of 21 abortions per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44. Holland has a rate of 6.8. Americans, in other words, have three times as many abortions as the Dutch. Remind me again: which country is the most socially conservative?
Even a cursory look at the leading members of the forces of social conservatism in America reveals the same pattern. The top conservative talk-radio host, Rush Limbaugh, has had three divorces and an addiction to pain-killers. The most popular conservative television personality, Bill O'Reilly, just settled a sex harassment suit that indicated a highly active adulterous sex life. Bill Bennett, the guru of the social right, was for many years a gambling addict. Karl Rove's chief outreach manager to conservative Catholics for the last four years, Deal Hudson, also turned out to be a man with a history of sexual harassment. Bob Barr, the conservative Georgian congressman who wrote the "Defense of Marriage Act," has had three wives so far. The states which register the highest ratings for the hot new television show, "Desperate Housewives," are all Bush-states.
The complicated truth is that America truly is a divided and conflicted country. But it's a grotesque exaggeration to say that the split is geographical, or correlated with blue and red states. Many of America's biggest "sinners" are those most intent on upholding virtue. In fact, it may be partly because they know sin so close-up that they want to prevent its occurrence among others. And some of those states which have the most liberal legal climate - the Northeast and parts of the upper MidWest - are also, in practice, among the most socially conservative. To ascribe all this to "hypocrisy" seems to me too crude an explanation. America is simply a far more complicated and diverse place than crude red and blue divisions can explain.
I don't know what state you live in but in my state
they are adding police and only in the big cities do they have paid firemen. The rest are volunteers.
I look at it this way: If a state can't stay in the black, then they have to cut spending some place that wouldn't jeopardize the safety of the citizens. Threats of cutting essential services like Barney Fife stated today are unjustified. Cut the non-essential services first.
Our governor talks about cutting back on services, laying off government workers, which I think is a good idea because government is too big anyway, but then he turns around and spends more money on non-essential items. Doesn't make sense.
Really..John Roberts?
Roberts Disparaged States' Sex-Bias Fight
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 27 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee John Roberts disparaged state efforts to combat discrimination against women in Reagan-era documents made public Thursday, and wondered whether "encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050818/ap_on_go_su_co/roberts
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