Briefly on the Cheneys. There is a difference between loving and supporting your children and supporting an agenda that and a lifestyle that you find morally wrong. I hope that if one of my children present me with this kind of challenge, I respond the same way they have. They seem to have a solid relationship. I believe giving special rights to people based on a lifestyle choice is wrong…and in this case would cripple an entire industry. Imagine the price of your health care if suddenly men and their “dependent” husbands/wives/whatevers(?) when health insurance companies consider the risk factor? There’s both moral issue and a financial issue here.

To the school issue. Erin, you seem very appreciative of the educational opportunities given you….so I assume you visit your high school from time to time. Check out your administrative office next time you go….The two words you’ll hear over and over again is “excuse me”. Public schools are so bloated administratively that there is no money to pay the teachers. (I agree with you on the teacher’s pay…and their impact on young people at the K-12 level.) When my county was trying to pass what seemed like the zillionth bond issue to complement the zillionth levy, etc etc on behalf of the local schools, I decided to investigate based on the administrative issue. I took the published non-teachers salaries and divided them by the number of students….have a guess of what the percentage of the gross dollars allowed by the state per student was?? How about 39.7%? In the last 20 years we have “discovered” ADHD, the most fraudulently “diagnosed” “condition” in the history of medicine and the industry has completely corrupted the public school system. The high school I graduated from 25 years ago (enrollment 2025) had one part-time special-ed teacher who oversaw two students. My sister runs the special-ed department in the same school today…She has a staff of 27 teachers and 24% of the student body is in some capacity “special education”…Well Erin, it takes extra nurses to administer the zombie medication….additional “councelors” to help keep kids with this “condition” in line…and administrators to keep track of all the BS paperwork….What does that leave for teachers?? I could go on forever here….

On McCain, I respect his military service. I don’t respect the fact that like Chuck Hagel, he will always take a position opposite his party to get in front of a camera…only to see the errors of his ways after he gets his obligatory face time.

Lastly, the issue of giving to those who do and taking from those who don’t. Your example is one which both sides would agree on. We are a compassionate nation. We have always helped people in need. What the Great society has done is created a sub-culture of able-bodied government dependents. They are stuck in the cycle because in most cases (as an employer of upstart people I can verify) it is way more profitable for them to be un or underemployed than it is for them to strive in the free market…because if they make X amount of money their handouts stops. It’s nuts. Every day I get asked by able-bodied skilled people on disability (another issue) for work under-the-table. When I saw the title of this thread it made me angry because the party in charge was yours when all of this legislation came down. As a percentage of who this type of thing affects, it is disproportionately race-related. I am not blind to racism..(affirmative action).but assuming that someone, because of their color is too dumb to compete in the United States based on their skin color or their sex, is hideous…and wrong. As an employer, I can attest to that. It, like the principles of the Great Society, undermine both the person receiving the freebies and the person getting their money confiscated to support them. The pompous Kennedy principle that government could replace the father in the American household led to that pathetic sight we all got to see in New Orleans last year. Again, disproportionately racial, and wrong.

First, please do not tell me that you are implying anyting bad about McCain. I like him. If another Republican has to take the Presidency, I hope it is him.

Second, I can understandI will make a few more comments on this post and then I am done for good. I need to spend more time on more important things like studying for organic chemistry.

First, please do not tell me that you are implying anything bad about McCain. I like him. If another Republican has to take the Presidency, I hope it is him. He is the media’s darling for a reason.

Second, I can understand why you would think that the liberal democrats are “stealing from the achievers and giving to the non-achievers.” People have and will always exploit something that is not well regulated. In my short experience on this earth, I have seen the benefits of social programs. For example, I help a girl on campus who is in a wheelchair and has limited use of her hands. Without the help of the League of Human Dignity and the NHHS, she would probably not have been able to go to college. Her parents certainly can’t help her. Her father is in Iraq and her mother babysits her granddaughter and works. And think of it this way, she won’t be a “burden” on society when she qualifies for a job to sustain her later. In fact, she may very well one day make great contributions to the medical field. I have also seen the benefits of social programs through the various community service projects I have done. Some of these programs would probably not have been possible without government subsidies. I am willing to take out a third of my paycheck for social programs, but taxes of course pay for so much more.

Yes, I would not likely be in college right now if it were not for the scholarships (I worked my butt off in high school to earn) and my student loan. My parents certainly cannot pay for four kids to go to college. Paying for college is near impossible without financial help and tuition is constantly rising. Your notion that everything is given to me is untrue. I have been working since I was 14 and I have had up to four part-time jobs to pay for living expenses. Sorry your college experience was terrible. I have great professors in the biology dept and they are the reason I will be going to professional/ grad school.

I am not sure why you think schools are grossly overfunded. If that is the case then why are teachers underpaid? With the “one school, one district” debate in Omaha (not one of our shining moments) it does not appear that way. I also don’t watch Meet the Press so no response there.

Okay, so the Cheney comment. Let me explain myself and then you can correct my ignorance. (Your upsetting remark about teachers may have put me in the mood to write nasty things). I believe in family values, just as Republicans do, except I may see things differently. In my eyes, the Cheney’s are turning their backs on a loved one by not supporting gay rights. I don’t respect anyone who doesn’t put family first. Plus, I haven’t seen anything substantial she has done for this country, which I find extremely disappointing with the PR power she has. Laura Bush informs us on Heart Disease, for example, which is respectable. Lynne certainly is not the first lady. She is not an elected representative. She does not speak for my party. She is simply married to the Vice President. So why again should I care to listen to her? Until she says or does something worth my attention, I choose not to acknowledge her plain and simple. Kind of like how I could care less what the Dixie Chicks or anything other Hollywood celebrity has to say about politics or the President. They certainly are not experts and most of them probably don’t even vote.

Lastly, plowboy, you sound a little bitter about life. Try to lighten up and enjoy life. Peace and take care.

Incidentally, how do you feel about your last Presidential candidate’s “botched joke” about the military whom he feels such disgust for?? Do you agree with him? As another of your spokespeople believe, (Charlie Rangel) that we should institute the draft because the military is in his “mind”, disproportionately black. I would think that even though Kerry is one of yours, wouldn’t be a reach at all to call him racist….Especially when he stands arm-in-arm with Robert KKK Byrd, and poverty pimps like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

It’s real easy for you all to have your entitlement mentality (liberal Democrat mentality) when FAFSAs, grants, scholarships and/or your parents are paying your way….When you get in the real world…have to actually pay for things (other than incidentals) with your own money…and see 30-40% being confiscated and given to able-bodied people who do nothing….to grossly overfund public schools (follow the money, Erin/Dave as you try to analyze the fact that we are spending at a rate about 10 times greater than we did 20 years ago and the dropout rate is triple.)

Dave, I could learn more from talking to myself than I have from your Democrat talking points.

If you ignore him, he will go away. Or simply talk to himself.

A botched joke? Was what Lurch said in 1972 another botched joke? Was Lurch standing arm-in-arm with Jane Fonda a botched joke? Was Kerry saying American soldiers are terrorizing Iraqi women and children in the dead of night a botched joke? Turban’s comments were a botched joke, too??? Kucinich’s? Murtha’s? Your impartial leftist press consider these people their darlings…Kerry was your Presidential nominee, Erin….Who speaks for you? Even your leftist media’s darling, John McCain is apalled by this sick “botched joke”.

Since this is a forum about racism and Republicans….I’ll talk about “debate” on Meet the Press last Sunday. While Mr Steele cleaned Cardin’s clock, what was very telling was the softball way the leftist Russert handled Steele (who waffled on the abortion question) compared to the ridiculously overt way he has been a tag-team partners with Democrats against white Republican candidates.

Your Lynne Cheney comment speaks volumes, Erin about your ignorance.