(How do you make some text bold? Didn't see that in "Tips and Tricks.)

T. B. - "Given the standard liberal premise that unlimited power is just fine as long as it's your guys with the power"

Please. You don't do yourself any favors with rhetoric like that. It's just like my snottiness - turns people away from your point and gets you so worked up your point is lost in the ridiculousness of the overstatements.

I'm almost as liberal as anyone these boards, and I'm in favor of the Bill of Rights, not "unlimited power". Liberals are NOT the people championing the "Patriot Act", it's conservatives.

I firmly believe in keeping our country safe, and balancing that need with a firm belief in keeping our country great. And that means no one having "unlimited power".

T. B. - "Jumping Jiminy Christmas, do you actually BUY this crap? "Imperialist aristocracy?" Have you actually LOOKED at the people in power in the Democratic Party?"

(Aristocracy - Prior to 9-11, GWB managed a publically funded fireworks show for the wealthy - kept the people paying for it away, "security".)

There seems to be a big difference in the way the parties operate. I am no fan of Bill Clinton. For what he did while on-the-job with a subordinate he should have been fired. On the spot. (You don't hear much from NOW any more, do you. No credibility left.)

For slandering and smearing the women he approached he should have been imprisoned. For a long, long time.

For lying about a matter of no national security importance the way he did, I truly believe he should have been shot. A President needs credibility in order to lead, and to throw it away to avoid personal embarrassment is inexcusable. A president needs credibility with his nation, and other nations. Ebay could have auctioned the places on the firing squad, and then sold the bullets, rifles, post, blindfold, and so on. Turned the experience into an asset.

I did like his politics, even though Clinton as a person is absolutely irrelevant. There are many, many Democrats who could have done a better job. Why some of those people think THEY are important is beyond me.

Having said that, not excusing Clinton selling the Lincoln Bedroom, etc., Clinton's faults were basically personal faults. He did not sell out the country the way the Rs do. He was interested in people receiving health care, not receiving arsenic, and keeping the place liveable, etc. He knew the country is profits AND people, dividends AND people, corporations AND people.

Clinton wasn't actively engaged in robbing from the poor and giving to the rich, he believed that a healthy economy could benefit all.

He worked to get long-term interest rates low, and the economy boomed. Period. Deal with that, or don't. There is a reality there which can be seen. To disagree is irrelevant.

A lot of Democrats aren't pretty people. Jesse Jackson is another that has betrayed his following. I think his constituency deserves better, much better, far better.

And, the agenda is pretty good.

When the conservatives have finally purchased the country, when there is nothing left but super-rich and poor, it's like a lot of other things. They won't have much.

Arf