The robot comment was unfair....

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I don't hide behind God, by the way. He lights the way, so therefore He has to be in front.

You seem to be an intelligent person so would you please explain to me why my opinion is unfair? She never removed her Hollywood, or beauty queen might be a better description, smile. I do not think this is the time or place for the "oh gee, oh gosh, doggone it" folksiness. Give me at least one good point that she made about specifically what she and McCain would do if elected. Oh yeah, I know, she's a soccer mom and she has a handicapped child. Well, Bidin had a more compelling story on that, at least for me! Sheesh? You have your opinion, I have mine. Doesn't matter if we happen to agree or not. I'm not going to "sheesh" you. I DO NOT want to see Palin in the position of Vice-President nor do I want to see McCain in the White House. If picking her as his running mate, after meeting her only briefly, is an example (and it is) of his judgment capabilities then again, in my opinioin, we can expect more bad judgment on crucial issues from him.

I have serious issues with Obama. Again, with his radical, racist church affilitation and there is no doubt in my mind about that. I DO NOT believe he is muslim or has leanings toward muslimism. Then there is the issue of his wife, who is for the first time proud of her country. There is no doubt in my mind that she said what she meant and meant what she said. That ought to tell us something. I am not concerned whether he wears a flag lapel pin or not. That's nothing more than show and tell anyway, a terrorist could wear a lapel pin.

What does concern me is that it is my belief that this Wall Street failure was orchestrated, probably by the Democrats, to give them an advantage. Furthermore, I fully expect the Republicans to retaliate. What will it be? Another terrorist attack or maybe just a video released at an opportune time to remind us that bin Laden may rear his ugly head at any moments and McCain is just the person who could deal with him?

After the debate I feel comfortable with Joe Biden. Perhaps I am wrong. Time will tell. Either Obama will win and, like John Kerry, we'll never know what kind of president John McCain would have been or McCain will win and there'll be no doubt. The last 2 elections I voted AGAINST George W. Bush. Seems I was right but then again, we don't know what kind of pres. John Kerry would have been. I don't see how he could possibly have been worse than G. W. Bush.

Folks, we need to get over the Republican/Democrat thing and realize our country is in SERIOUS trouble. Personally I don't think it will make much difference which of them is elected. We need to write letters, make phone calls or do whatever is necessary to tell these politicians they WILL do their job and pay attention to the WILL OF THE PEOPLE. I talked yesterday with a lady in my representative's office locally. I told her that I was outraged about the Wall Street bail-out. She said they had had very few calls that were in favor of it but the representative (Republican) voted for it because he was worried about people on fixed incomes. HA! I told her I am such a person. We risk losing our secure retirement but a bail out is not going to help us...the little people on fixed incomes. It will make the rich richer and destroy our children and grandchildren's future. Next will be another conglomerate that absolutely requires bail-out. Maybe it will be Wal-Mart, the retail giant that we just couldn't live without?

Sorry for the rant but IMHO we have gotten in this mess because the majority of voters can't see past the Democrat/Republican affilitation!!!!

Commentary: Larger-Than-Life Corporate Salaries are Unfair to Average American Workers

Despite slower-than-anticipated growth and lower-than-expected profits, many corporations have generously rewarded their leaders, while simultaneously reducing lower-level staff salaries and benefits in an attempt to control costs. This disturbing practice only serves to further widen the gap between America�s wealthy few and its working class and clearly demonstrates just how little this country values its workforce.

At a time when most American workers are struggling to make basic ends meet and worrying how they�ll manage to save enough for retirement, many of this country�s corporate chief executives are stuffing their pockets with larger-than-life compensation packages that include high base salaries, stock options and ample pension plans. In 2004, the average chief executive�s salary at a large company was more than 170 times that of the average worker�s pay. Last year, executive salaries grew 25 percent, while that of the average American worker grew only 3.1 percent.

Even when a company struggles, their CEOs are still rewarded. For example, the current CEO of a global manufacturing firm received over $11 million in compensation last year, despite the company�s $3.4 billion revenue loss, an 11-percent drop in stock value and a staff reduction of 17,000 workers. There are similar stories at corporations across the country. While worker pensions are frozen and many are asked to do without raises, CEOs manage to earn their multi-million dollar bonuses.

It�s no surprise that CEOs are cleaning up. Consider this: Corporations often use compensation committees to set their executive salaries. Many of these committees use outside consultants to help guide the process. These consultants are often already contracted to do other work for the company. The conflict of interest here is obvious: The consultant won�t upset the CEO -- and risk losing other contracts -- by setting a more realistic, performance based pay model.

Many corporate CEOs are, in short, getting over, and it is a slap in the face of every American worker. While it is understood that executive salaries would greatly exceed that of the average worker�s, there is no logical argument to explain why the growth rate between the two is so dramatically different. To protect its workforce, corporate America must ensure worker�s salaries grow at rates that keep pace with the cost of living, while slowing the rate of growth of CEO salaries. Corporate boards must stop rewarding CEOs with multi-million dollar bonuses. It is unacceptable for a company to lay off thousands of workers and then turn around and pay an executive for a job well done.

As a country, we often ask our government to think about the needs of the average American, and rightly so. However, if America is to truly prosper, the corporations that feed our local economy must also consider and respect the well-being of average worker.

---

Judge Greg Mathis is national vice president of Rainbow PUSH and a national board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

I heard Bush this morning saying that no one predicted or knew that the New Orleans levees would give way. Well, that is not true. This was widely predicted by engineers and meteologists. The engineers predicted it for years if/when a major hurricaine hit, as well as engineers and meteorologists predicting this 1-2 days before Katrina. I even told my boyfriend last Sunday night that they were predicting some levees would break, that New Orleans would be in water the same depth as Lake Pontchartrain and that thousands could die. Gee, guess I should be a White House advisor.

My other gripe is that this federal response seems a bit slow. Like maybe Monday afternoon things should have been put into motion instead of......Thursday? But then, I'm sure not an expert.

2. Skillful use of the propaganda of hate to unite a nation and incite a lust for war. Blaming of select ethnic group for Germany's woes -- yes, I see some similarity there, but Bush seems more like "oops, sorry I accidentlly killed you" to the Iraquis (Islam nations) rather than "I will place you in concentration camps until you are all exterminated."

3. Hitler was mentally ill but still capable of great, inspirational speeches and inspiring confidence in the masses -- Bush is kind of dopey and I'm not sure who he inspires, really, if much of anyone.

4. Hitler seemed to have an agenda to exterminate -- as mentioned, I don't see that in Bush.

Did gt actually say there were NO socialist Jews? I took her to mean that Jews in general should not be categorized as socialists. There are probably socialist Irish, socialist Catholics, socialist African-Americans....but that doesn't mean you label the entire ethnic group as such. Common sense would dictate this. Just as I keep saying, you cannot label all liberals or all democrats as having the same ideals and belief systems. You seem to keep trying to put square pegs in round holes here....or, as also has been mentioned...thinking only in black and white when the world and all its people are shades of gray. It makes me very sad to see this and I end up feeling hopeless about the future of our country and of the world.

As far as Chomsky, I haven't read tons of his writing but what I did read a few years ago I very much liked. Could it be a case of you taking some things he wrote out of context? Or perhaps some things he wrote were more fiery or radical than you were comfortable with? Perhaps you didn't survey his writings as a whole and only picked out a few you didn't like. When you make an accusation as you did, please provide examples to back up your comments.

I think I do your understand your point....basically you are saying his comment was taken out of context? It did seem that what I read of this quote was more that he was careless in his comments - they touched a nerve, as I said. It seemed he was looking at a cultural problem from a tongue-in-cheek statistical line of reasoning, and perhaps spoke before thinking. At least, I HOPE that's all it was. I have not read this all that carefully, I must admit. I also admit I know NOTHING about him personally or his past.

Obviously your beliefs bring you solace and comfort and that is a benefit that religion offers, in my opinion, and that is very good if it helps you.

However, perhaps you should not generalize. I was a hospice worker as well as watching my mother die from cancer. She was a life-long agnostic and I don't believe it ever even crossed her mind to call out to Jesus or Zeus or any other deity. She made the most graceful exit from this world I have ever seen and was at peace with that process.

I do agree though that in times of extreme stress many folks may want to enlist the aid of a higher power, but please don't assume that we all turn to Jesus.

(Basically, Russia wants to be able to trust the USA again but is deploying "short-range missiles near Poland to counter U.S. military plans in Eastern Europe" in response to Bush's missile placement in Poland and the Czech Republic.)

After the speech, the Kremlin announced Medvedev had congratulated Obama for winning the U.S. presidency, saying in a telegram he was "counting on a constructive dialogue with you on the basis of trust and taking each other's interests into account."

1. I have been banned at times from the Conservative board for comments I've made which seemed pretty tame in retrospect. How many of you conservatives have been banned on the liberal board? I'll bet none, but hope I'm wrong.

2. The conservative board have reminded the liberals posting on it REPEATEDLY that it is their board, no bashing allowed and to go back to their own board - often in a very nasty fashion. Fair enough, but the same rules are NOT followed by the conservatives posting on the liberal board and that is definitely not playing fair and creates a double-standard.

3. It does make me happy to see conservatives posting on this board but I do not enjoy the bashing and the double-standard (see point #2) that I see going on. Worst of all, it turns me into a basher at times, too, out of frustration!!

I have learned SO much from both conservative and liberal posts and hope it continues.

Open the website listed and take a look at ALL THE OFFERS. It is WONDERFUL. Some groups are accepting over 1000 people. It will make you feel like people really do CARE and they are all over the country.

Thought you didn't smoke pot gt? You were all up in arms about that last week So which is it, you do or you don't?

Nuevo California state motto---what grows in Nuevo California stays in California!

was that now McCain has nothing to say about Obama's lack of experience because Palin doesn't have much either. I didn't take it necessarily as a bash.

How can someone be pro-life and pro-death penalty? A life is a life right? Most of the pro-lifers I know, have listened to have made comments about God's the only one who can take a life, well if that is someone's stand how can you be pro-death penalty. I'm not saying that that is her reasoning, God, but just a question.

I'm all for cleaning up gov't too, including your party, but isn't what she is under investigation for a bit of gov't corruption too with the whole ex-BIL incident. I read that somewhere too about firing the guy because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex.

He was asked about press inquiries into candidate's pasts. He chuckled and said that this has been happening to him over 18 months and repubs are complaining after only 4 days.