The media tells us that our issues are

-Abortion
-Immigration
-Iraq
-Same-sex marriage
-Social Security
-Taxes
-Health care


Which ones are most important to you? Would you add any additional ones to the list?


Kristin

I haven't heard too many candidates address the issue of Crime. It's getting so bad in some areas (Philadelphia for one). Something needs to get done. This slap on the wrist punishment is just NOT cutting it for me.

I'd like to see someone stand up and expand our military, too.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Not only expand our military but provide better pay for them also. I agree with AIA about crime. Our jails and prisons are full and there are too many criminals running around. I think we sould go back to public humiliation. Flogging works in other country's, why not here.

I am always interested to hear how the Candidates feel about our military. Crime, Health Care, and the economy are also important to me.....

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

The war is the single most important issue to me. The endless squander of lives and resources must stop.

Winning the war and keeping us safe --- including supporting our brave men and women in our armed forces. All of the other issues just don't matter if we are not safe. There are people in this world that want us dead. I'd much prefer that we kill them first. I realize that some folks don't think we are in danger. They are wrong. There are thousands of dead Americans that prove this point.

Next, an aggressive plan to get us out of our addiction to foreign oil. This plan should include both more domestic drilling (short term) and a "Manhattan" / "man on the moon" type project to use our American genius to come up with a viable alternative.

As long as we are dependent upon oil provided by countries that hate us we are screwed. Our energy dependence on people like Chavez must end. We have oil here in our country and we have the brains to come up with an alternative. This helps both our economic security and will have a long term positive environmental impact. I'd love to let them choke on their oil. We can't let them control our economy and our lives. This is just insane. We need nuclear power plants, we need more alternatives. Not because of Al Gore's fantasy but for our security.

Next is immigration. I fully appreciate the desire of people to come to our country. We are the land of opportunity. We are the most free country in the history of mankind. However, as a nation state, we have the right and the duty to defend our borders and we have the right control who gets in. Given the current threats to our national security this issue is even more important. We must know who is here. A rational approach to immigration will include some sort of a guest worker program. The goal is to know who is here and the way to do that is to provide a legal way for people to cross the border for work.

Finally our tax structure must change. We have to have a tax structure that provides incentives for investment and does not punish success. The way to pay our bills is via growth, growth comes from investment by business and by risk taking entrepreneurs. We have to have a business and growth friendly tax approach. I know, I know, trickle down economics blah blah blah, whatever, it is business and risk takers that make our economy strong -- they create the jobs and fuel growth -- growth leads to increased tax revenues. Our tax system is freaking crazy and it must be scrapped. I'd love to see our "representatives" do their own darn taxes.

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After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.

Mark Twain

Internet Straw Poll

Here is a test you can take and to see who your ideal candidate is.

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"Madison AnnMarie " 6/13/2008

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I don't look at what's going in Iraq as a war. It's a highly resented occupation. I want an immediate withdrawal. I also believe that we owe the Iraqis reparations for the damage we have caused. This is my most important issue. Also, we cannot afford to maintain a presence any longer. I saw an interesting statistic the other day. Of the active duty military personnel who donate to political campaigns, it's gone from 14% in 2004 to 44% at present who are donating to Democratic candidates. Of those who donate to Republican campaigns, 50% are donating to Ron Paul, the only anti war Republican candidate.

Second, we have to address global warming. From just this country's perspective, the effects will be devastating. We cannot afford to wait.

Third, we are definitely on the brink of a recession with the potential for it to be a lot more serious than anything that I've lived through. Trickle down economics have served to widen the income gap. America is the land of opportunity for less than 1% of its people. Bush's tax cuts should be allowed to expire. The AMT should be reformed this year.

As far as the global market goes, I want a fair trade policy. A fair trade policy would also eliminate the immigration policy.

Since I don't think you can ever trust your representatives 100%. I think that we need some assurance that there will always be oversight and accountabilty in our government. I don't ever want our government to cavalierly hand out taxpayer dollars in the form of no bid contracts again.

I want us to approach foreign policy with an eye for developing allies and stop treating other countries with arrogance and ineptitude.

Abortion should be kept both safe and legal.

I agree with Truble. George W. Bush is the worst president that we have ever had. As a bonus, I would like to see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield et al tried for treason.

I agree with every word you said, but especially this!

Crime should definitely be on the list. I think the only way to tackle it is to work on some of the other items.
I would also like to see the plan for this war to be resolved while keeping us safe.

Oh yeah! I agree with it all as well. I can't believe there is no talk of impeachment. Can you impeach someone who is out of office? It annoys me that he is going to leave office without any kind of investigation.

I think 'the media' missed one --- how about the Economy?

And WHY should President Bush, VP Cheney be tried for treason????

Treason, don't ya think that is a little harsh?

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"Madison AnnMarie " 6/13/2008

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Well said! I couldn't agree more with what you said. I would put illegal immigration along with winning the war on top of my list!

Not for three men who have committed treason, no. And I absolutely believe all three are guilty as sin of it.

Here, in random order, are some reasons that it's not harsh.

The use of "secret" prisons, the use of torture, the shipping to other countries of people to be tortured. The holding of people without access to lawyers or any legal recourse.

Lying about the need to go into Iraq, not to mention the actual start of a war against a nation that we had no reason to attack.

The outing of one of our covert agents, Valerie Plame.

Possible election tampering in Ohio.

Electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens without legal warrants.

The use of the Florida felons list, which was never sufficiently investegated.

And I'm sure I have missed a few possibilities in this list. And to share the blame, the only reason this is not happening is because the Dems aided and abetted several of these acts and are in a bind if they try to impeach. Any one of the above could prove to be treason and/or an impeachable offense.

[quote=kvmj;2920184]I don't look at what's going in Iraq as a war. It's a highly resented occupation. I want an immediate withdrawal. I also believe that we owe the Iraqis reparations for the damage we have caused.
QUOTE]


You've got to be kidding me. IMMEDIATE withdrawal? Okay, Lets have the terrorists come here and start killing us in OUR OWN streets. Makes perfect sense! Iraqis should be thanking us for getting rid of SADAM, remember him, the tyrant who RAPED and MURDERED so many of his own citizens??? And we should pay reparations... That's just like asking the US to pay reparations to the Germans for getting rid of Hitler... AND 59 MILLION perple were killed in that war.

[quote=beckyandplacido;2920727]I know that it's not possible to literally leave tomorrow but we could be out in a matter of months.

I hate to remind you that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 nor did they pose any threat whatsoever to this country. There was one whole terrorist in Iraq before we attacked, Abu Abbas. He didn't have anything to do with 9/11 either. Saddam had no WMD, had no nuclear program and was certainly not an ally of Osama Bin Ladin. This administration lied to you. Unlike Hitler, Saddam was no threat. (Google the Marshall Plan. We did pay to rebuild both Germany and Japan.)

I hesitate to point this out, but you must surely be aware that our soldiers have done some horrible things. The gang rape and murder of a 13 year old girl, along with her entire family, comes to mind. The torture and murder of detainees comes to mind.

Saddam is said to have taken one million Iraqi lives during his 20 years in power. we accomplished the same thing in only four years.

About those "terrorists" coming over here. Did you know that Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq are two entirely different entities? Here's another thing you probably don't know, at most, there have been 3,000 foreign fighters in Iraq (excluding the coalition). They came to fight alongside the Sunni Baathists. These foreign fighters are largely Sunni fundamentalists who ended up over playing their hand. Bush calls this the "Anbar Awakening." In other words, these foreign fighters, and these are the ones that I assume you think of as terrorists, ceased to be useful and are being driven out. There was never any danger of Iraq becoming a terrorist haven. Guess who lied to you again? There may be as many as 500 of these so called terrorists left in Iraq. If they did manage to land on our shores, I believe we could promptly neutralize the threat as easily as swatting a fly.

The above reasons are why I think we owe reparations. We attacked a country without justification or provocation. We have taken a million a lives and left an entire country with no infrastructure. Money cannot possibly make up for what we have taken away.

I am sorry that you and others were so scared by 9/11 but it just doesn't justify what we have done. Perhaps we might address our open borders unmanned borders. Perhaps we could address the actual threat, Osama Bin Ladin and Al Qaeda.

By the way, the administration is lying to you about Iran.

[quote=beckyandplacido;2920727]
What makes you think that terrorists can't exist here and there at the same time? It isn't like terrorism can't occur in two places at one time. Furthermore, from all the evidence that has presented Iraq occupation itself has made us less safe and actually aided Al Qaueda recruitment. As for Saddam, part of the reason they might not thank us for getting rid of him is because a large portion of how he came to power is us. It always amuses me that people are so shocked that the guy we were good friends with because he was willing to gas and fight the Iranians for us would use the same techniques to stifle dissent within his own country. We seem to make the same stupid foreign policy mistakes over and over and over and over.(See Castro, Osama Bin Laden, Chalabi......)

The administration is lying about Iran? Hm... so is the UN as well? Because they seem to think the same thing as the current administration, but are totally unwilling to do anything. My brother in law is Iranian, he came here to the US BECAUSE of his country. He is not muslim, he's Baha'i(one of the reasons for leaving) and he doesn't seem to think our government is lying and I'd trust him over some one who just hates Bush...
Also, just because of the amount of deaths in Iraq doesn't mean the US is responsible... We are NOT responsible for their OWN citizens blowing each other up.

I disagree. Bush was warned about sectarian violence before he invaded Iraq. The blood of a million people is on his hands.

I completely agree. Iraqi and American blood.

And now he's telling the same kinds of lies about Iran that he told about Iraq.

Yes, you can impeach someone after they leave office. There are many investigations underway at the moment. The White House has not exactly been co-operative. We may have to wait until after the 2008 election to get the facts and bring charges.

Issues

North American Union (foundation already started with the SPP and NorthCommand)

National Debt ( $9.13 trillion debt that is growning by about $1.4 billion a day or nearly $1 million a minute.)

Dollar should be backed by gold (or silver) instead fiat currency that we have now.

Fixing the Social Security mess,

Bring our troops home.

Hi, Wildwood here. My husband read your remarks and wanted me to post his response to your comments, not necessarily in the order of your post.

I agree with much that you say but I have some issues:

.Taxes - Winston Churchill once said that "democracy is the worst form of government except all those other
forms that have been tried from time to time.".I kind of look at our tax code the same way. It is far superior to fair tax, flat tax and all the rest. I think our congress persons could make the tax code a lot better with minimal effort if they worked for us rather than the special interests that elected them. The real issue is public financing of elections and again let Mr Churchill have the floor. “Public financing is the worst form of financing elections except all those other forms that have been tried.”

Immigration - Since the children of immigrants born in this country are US citizens, this is a self
correcting problem [admittedly over a very long time].

I think it would be very unwise to change this as some would do. Keep in mind that we lived with racial
terrorism for a hundred years after slaves were "freed". Certainly we should do whatever is necessary
to stop illegal immigration. But I come down on the side of compassion and not just the guest worker
program. Maybe we should look the other way rather than deport unless criminal activity is involved.
Several things tilt me toward compassion: 1. our immigration quotas were based on who was already here
(i.e. white Europeans) 2. We stole California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas from Mexico.

Oil - Back in the fifties I remember those democratic congressmen from Texas telling us that we had to pump
as much oil as possible so we would have a "strong national defense". It wasn't that we needed it, most
was exported. I thought a better idea was to save the oil until we needed it. Today I feel the same, we
ought to save that Alaska oil until we need it. Only a small minority think Al Gore is pushing fantasy. Nuclear waste is a problem that needs a place in your Manhattan project. Jimmy Carter (our Rodney Dangerfield president) put in
place a program such as you suggest and I second so maybe a little credit is due the much maligned Mr Carter.

"Winning The War" - More accurately “Successful nation building”. We won the war when Mr. Bush
declared mission accomplished. Things went a bit awry when we entered the nation building phase. To say the
least our leaders made a few mistakes. I kinda like the way the US did it. Thirteen states all with
different views got together, kept their state governments, formed a weird national government which
made it really hard to do anything without a consensus, and compromised, compromised, compromised.
Mr Bush bypassed all that messy stuff and went right to one man one vote. Iraq is a country with a large
Shiih majority many of whom hate the minority Sunnis and Kurds. Much to Mr Bush’s surprise they started
killing each other while Bin Laden’s crazys started killing everybody. It took Mr Bush only three years
to realize that maybe he ought to protect the minorities from the majority and from the Bin Laden bunch. That’s what the surge is really about and it is reducing the violence. Now theres just all that messy stuff Mr Bush bypassed and I don’t think the surge is going to fix that..What to do now? Well they took a non binding vote in congress and a 78% majority thought dividing the country into three or more pieces was a good idea. Wonder what “The Decider” will decide.

I don't really see them impeaching him after leaving office. A Democrat will more than likely be elected, but they will still have to play politics and if you impeach a past president of the opposite party they might lose the majority of congress again, and I don't think they will want to risk that.

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

Democrats will more than likely take the presidency and pick up veto-proof majorities in both the house and senate. Bill Clinton was impeached over one of his wife's business deals where she lost money. Even though the GOP set the bar pretty low for impeachment, I don't believe in the principal of tit for tat, the crimes committed by the Bush administration are far more grevious than anything Richard Nixon even thought about doing.

Not impeaching Nixon may have been the very reason Bush felt free to violate the constitution and hold himself above the law. Bear in mind the fact the Cheney has been a member of both cabinets and is very influential within this administration. Nixon once said, "If the president does it, it isn't illegal." Cheney has publicly supported Nixon's position.

The question needs to be settled. Do we remain a democratic republic or do we vest the powers of a dictator in our president. An awful lot of thought and consideration went into the constitution. It amazes me to see how well the constitution has stood the test of time and how farsighted and circumspect our founding fathers were.

I agree that they won't impeach, but shouldn't they? I don't see how we can let the abuses of power by the current president go unquestioned and unchecked. It certainly gets harder to change if we let it go now. It's very likely that presidents that follow will take even more liberties than have been taken in the last few years.

You can't impeach someone after they leave office. Impeachment is the means by which to remove the person from office! However, you can certainly indict them for crimes committed while in office after they leave.

Do you even know the definition of Treason?

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Treason : the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of one's country or of assisting its enemies in war; specifically : the act of levying war against the United States or adhering to or giving aid and comfort to its enemies by one who owes it allegiance.

I'm sorry, I must have missed the news report of the attempted overthrow of the government.

Oh my gosh...you have got to be kidding me!!!!! How dare you ! You sound like those people from the 70's who called every returning Viet Nam Vet a "Baby Killer". My brother is in Iraq, my nephew is there for the 4th time, not to mention numerous friends and they are no rapists or torturers! With your next breath you should have told of the all the great kindnesses and sacrafices our soldiers have made to help the people of Iraq.

When I'm asked to send things, they are for the children! Toys, cookies, clothes. So when you start dumping our military members in a group, maybe you should think again.

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Mary

[quote=dnj51;2925043]Do you even know the definition of Treason?

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Treason : the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of one's country or of assisting its enemies in war; specifically : the act of levying war against the United States or adhering to or giving aid and comfort to its enemies by one who owes it allegiance.

I'm sorry, I must have missed the news report of the attempted overthrow of the government.


And you must have missed the number one definition of treason. This is from Merriam-Webser OnLine.

1 : the betrayal of a trust : treachery

But that aside, I think an argument could be made for both definitions. He certainly has betrayed the trust of the people of this nation. He lied to take us into an unnecessary war. He has taken away rights that are the cornerstones of this nation.

In your definition, the second one listed in Merriam-Webster OnLine, just the part about attempting to overthrow the government of one's country also applies. His disregard for the law, his putting himself above the law, his executive orders defying or replacing laws, any of these could fit that definition.

Would you cut and run people want to be wearing the burka? Have you ever had a son in harms way?

Question 1. What on earth does wearing a burqa have to do with getting our troups out of a country we should never have invaded in the first place?

Question 2. Yes. Does that answer allow me an opinion? Because I get the feeling that if I had answered no, that anything I said would be discounted.