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The choices suck. But I think Obama could do the least harm, begin facing the pay off of debt to china and rebuild the military, bring the kids home and let them get on with their lives before they are jaded.

Sam, honestly, I want this country to thrive and I mean you too as I am guessing you are a middle income American.

You are not going to find the perfect president. Lower your expectations and focus on your wallet. Remember how good you feel with a huge savings? And remember how you feel (most can) when the CCs are maxed? Well, the credit cards are maxed.

The young people want Obama. We already blew it for them. Give them what they want since they will suffer the most from the events during the course of the last 8 years. If you are over 45, your have reached your peak. They deserve a life equal to ours. We owe that to them and we cannot let policiticians and wealthy delusional people take the country out from under them. They deserve that much. Don't you realize the children know what is going on? The felonious activity, the sexual indiscriminations, the lies, the deviousness - all by paid elected public officials who are already paid decent wages.

Now the country is a mess and the leaders are to blame. If you want to give up your quality of life so the Iraqi people have the ability to vote ::rolls eyes:: they most probably ended up dead or refugees in a long line of them, heading for Syria.

Something stinks in the republican party. I cannot put my finger on it but my best guess is that it has been hijacked by ruthless businessmen. My thought is, get the party straightened out and then return to the race in 2012, repubos. You religious folks surely see the lies and feel the disappoint. Along with the insecure feeling just knowing that your leaders have their own agenda and making the country stronger (and not AL queda weaker) was not on their list of things to do. A heist of historic proportions have taken place and you repubos need to face up to it and find better leadership in your communities. Democrats are pretty solid from what I am seeing. They keep each other in check along with the media with the exception of Fox news, of course, the GOP propaganda machine. This isn't about you people, this is about the kids.

http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Articles.Detail&Article_id=573a46c4-822c-435c-8405-8b4c93516b52&Month=12&Year=2008

Former 9/11 Commissioners: U.S. at Risk

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press WriterSun Dec 4, 6:28 PM ET

The U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday.

It's not a priority for the government right now, said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the group's release of a report Monday assessing how well its recommendations have been followed.

More than four years after 9/11 ... people are not paying attention, the former Republican governor of New Jersey said. God help us if we have another attack.

Added Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic vice chairman of the commission: We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be.

The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission, whose recommendations are now promoted through a privately funded group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, conclude that the government deserves more Fs than As in responding to their 41 suggested changes.

Since the commission's final report in July 2004, the government has enacted the centerpiece proposal to create a national intelligence director. But the government has stalled on other ideas, including improving communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level.

There is a lack of a sense of urgency, Hamilton said. There are so many competing priorities. We've got three wars going on: one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq and the war against terror. And it's awfully hard to keep people focused on something like this.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday that President Bush is committed to putting in place most of the commission's recommendations.

Obviously, as we've said all along, we are safer, but not yet safe. There is more to do, Hadley said on Fox News Sunday.

Ex-commissioners contended the government has been remiss by failing to act more quickly.

Kean said the Transportation Security Administration was wrong to announce changes last week that will allow airline passengers to carry small scissors and some sharp tools. He also said the agency, by now, should have consolidated databases of passenger information into a single terror watch list to aid screening.

I don't think we have to go backward here, said Kean, who appeared with Hamilton on NBC's Meet the Press.

They're talking about using more money for random checks. Terrorists coming through the airport may still not be spotted, Kean said.

Kean and Hamilton urged Congress to pass spending bills that would allow police and fire to communicate across radio spectrums and to reallocate money so that Washington and New York, which have more people and symbolic landmarks, could receive more for terrorism defense.

Both bills have stalled in Congress, in part over the level of spending and turf fights over which states should get the most dollars.

This is a no-brainer, said Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman.

From the standpoint of responding to a disaster, the key responders must be able to talk with one another. They could not do it on 9/11, and as a result of that, lives were lost. They could not do it at (Hurricane) Katrina. They still cannot do it.

As for the dollar dispute, Hamilton said, We know what terrorists want to do: they want to kill as many Americans as possible. That means you protect the Washington monument and United States Capitol, and not other places.

Congress established the commission in 2002 to investigate government missteps that led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Its 567-page final report, which became a national best seller, does not blame Bush or former President Clinton for missteps contributing to the attacks but did say they failed to make anti-terrorism a higher priority.

The commission also concluded that the Sept. 11 attack would not be the nation's last, noting that al-Qaida had tried for at least 10 years to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Calling the country less safe than we were 18 months ago, former Democratic commissioner Jamie Gorelick said Sunday the government's failure to move forward on the recommendations makes the U.S. more vulnerable.

She cited the failure to ensure that foreign nations are upgrading security measures to stop proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical materials, as well as the FBI's resistance to overhauling its anti-terror programs.

You remember the sense of urgency that we all felt in the summer of 2004. The interest has faded, the Washington lawyer said on ABC's Good Morning America. You could see that in the aftermath of Katrina. We assumed that our government would be able to do what it needed to do and it didn't do it.

___

On the Net:

9/11 Public Discourse Project: http://www.9-11pdp.org/

Copyright � 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

"The California Democrat is pushing the president-elect to make good on a campaign promise that attracted some of the harshest criticism during the election -- that Mr. Obama is a typical tax-and-spend Democrat who would raise taxes once in office.

Mr. Obama has fought that label, emphasizing that any tax increase would be directed at those making more than $250,000. However, since the election, Mr. Obama has been reluctant even to raise taxes on people making that much.

Lawrence Summers, Mr. Obama's choice for director of the National Economic Council, signaled again Sunday that repealing the Bush tax cuts would not be a priority.

"Our overall focus is going to be on increasing spending," Mr. Summers said in a broadcast interview. "Beyond that, there's going to be a substantial tax cut for the American people."

you're a blind dem. The aboe poster stated his/her thoughts and most of them are true to form. If you don't belive in your country, you are not patriotic. Just because some of us don't believe O is going to do a good job is not a reason to call someone a loon.

I decided, after he was elected, to give him a chance, bvut all I can see is that he is digging us deeper in the hole. I though the bill passed the other day would help some people who were in deep trouble even though they did everything right, would get help...but, again, O is just helping the people who really didn't deserve help. I think you should wake up and start reading a bit more and/or listening a bit more to those who know what is really going on in this country.

A bit of advice... if you have any money in your bank over $100K, you best get it out of there. Although the FDIC is promising a guarantee up to $250K temporarily, the money will not be guaranteed if the country goes broke IMHO.

a needless war and trying to drag Europe into it? Showing pics of soldiers graves does nothing but bring to mind the effects of waging this unjust war. How about apologizing for not doing something about our economy until it was too late (which affected the whole world)?

So, you are defending what? Bush's war on terror/axis of evil? Torture? Lying to the American public as well as the UN? Or perhaps our inadequacy in successfully handling our economy since the start of the Reagan era?

And then saying they can only talk about pets they don't have any more, not their current ones! Or a car enthusiasts forum where people can only speak of vehicles they used to own, not what they currently drive.

What's the point in this forum, then, to only talk about the future or the past, not the present? How ridiculous!

Okay, well at the risk of starting a world war, that link does not work.

Former 9/11 Commissioners: U.S. at Risk