Hunting: Its called bow hunting and IF that's not fair i don't know what is ( 40-50 yards max)...it's all i do...it takes skill...and i eat the trout & deer i take....Bears go on the wall( but thats a little scary!)
Palin: I don't know about hot(CUTE) but i think she did a great job on her speech....from where JOHN McCAIN sits,the view must be enjoyable ( at home & at work!)
I've been watching a little (lot!) more CNN and BBC World lately, the Democratic and Republican conventions.
Almost surreal and more than a little scary to see how again, apparently Americans and Europeans have a completely different viewpoint when it comes to international politics, or even typical "moral" or political hot button issues.
Topics like religion, guns, hunting (?!?),...would more often than not get you a sincere "huh? whàt?" over here than anything else I think, they're so far removed from "our world". Not saying either "side" is "right", just getting a little frustrated we're apparently still fairly far removed from really understanding each other.
It's great to see some stereotypes finally biting the dust in these elections, not so great to see people freaking out over that. ("A WOMAN!!" "A BL..K GUY!!")
And even though her speech last night made me cringe more than once, I think the lady being discussed here is very attractive, but that's hardly the issue, is it?
DangerousMan, Thank you very much. Sometimes these threads get a little heavy and someone needs to lighten things up. I don't believe everyone out there appreciates my humor though. (Proteus cursed at me the other day but I forgive him)
Hoosiers for hot chick campaign in Indiana.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2008/sep/03/report-republican-national-convention/
Being eaten by a predator is an unpleasant enough way to go; starving because the habitat has reached carrying capacity due to a lack of natural predators is decidedly worse.
GentlBen - Nice! 
I for one always recycle my brass, it's the responsible thing to do.
I will be serious for one minute.
Can anyone out there give me even one example of an accomplishment, major or minor, by Barack Hussein Obama? Major would be nice but I would settle for even the most miniscule!
The Norm said: Conventions are circle jerks and the speeches soon forgotten... The actual race starts now.No truer words were stated.
GentlBen said: Can anyone out there give me even one example of an accomplishment, major or minor, by Barack Hussein Obama? Major would be nice but I would settle for even the most miniscule!
The following excerpt is taken from Obama's senatorial website:
In the first two weeks of the 110th Congress, Senator Obama helped lead the Senate to pass the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, a comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform bill, by a 96-2 vote. This landmark bill was signed into law by the President in September 2007.
The final bill that the Congress passed closely mirrored and drew key provisions in a bill (S. 230) that Senators Obama and Feingold introduced in January 2007 to establish a “gold standard” for reform. Among the provisions in the Obama-Feingold bill that were adopted by the Senate and the House were: strict bans on receiving gifts and meals from lobbyists; new rules to slow the revolving door between public and private sector service; and an end to the subsidized use of corporate jets.
Most importantly, the final reform bill contained a provision pushed by Senator Obama to require the disclosure of contributions that registered lobbyists “bundle” – that is, collect or arrange – for candidates, leadership PACs, and party committees. The New York Times called this provision “the most sweeping” in the bill, and the Washington Post said: “No single change would add more to public understanding of how money really operates in Washington.”
Does this qualify as one, GentlBen?
How about this:
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Coburn–Obama Transparency Act).
How about the Patriot Employer Act of 2007
There's plenty more...
Not sure what to think about the US election candidates and I'm glad I don't have to choose (it's hard enough here in the UK )
But I do know that when GWB leaves office it will be the end of an error. 
stuartm said: But I do know that when GWB leaves office it will be the end of an errorHahahahahaha! Now THAT was funny. +1
According to sourcewatch.org, re Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act:
The Act was co-sponsored at the beginning of the 110th Congress by 17 senators:
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) - 1/4/2007 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) - 1/8/2007 Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) - 1/9/2007
I looked twice and didn't find Sen Obama's name. Further down in the article "Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), another major champion of lobbying reform, may be included in the conference committee,". I think the key word there is "may;" because apparently he wasn't.
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Coburn–Obama Transparency Act) was actually introduced by Sen Tom Coburn of Oklahoma for himself and Sen Obama, Tom Carper and John McCain. Sen Coburn's (not Sen Obama's) bill was unanimously passed by the entire senate.
Patriot Employer Act of 2007 was actually introduced by Sen Richard Durbin. Co sponsors were Sen's Sherrod Brown, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This bill has not made it to the Senate floor for a vote. Still in comittee.
So, his accomplishments are what????
I wonder what the big deal is about the guy's middle name. This is often stressed as if it actually means something.
It's a name. Period.
I think if if it weren't for the acrid taint of religion this election wouldn't even be close.
stuartm said: Not sure what to think about the US election candidates and I'm glad I don't have to choose (it's hard enough here in the UK
Politics in the US would be even more fun if we had the "Official Monster Raving Loony Party" as you have in the UK.
Screaming Lord Sutch for President!
sourcewatch.org, is that an official source? No, I thought not... It's basically wikipedia. For example, I did a search on "Obama". It said that page didn't exist, but I could create it. Hmmmmm.
The original co-sponsors of the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act were Tom Carper and guess who, John McCain! Osamabama in fact co-sponsored 364 bills of which 5 were passed giving him a .013 batting average, hardly major league. This particular controversial bill was particularly challenging to ramrod through as revealed by the almost unanimous vote.
Barack Hussein Obama has to be the first political candidate where the use of his entire name is considered to be mud-slinging!
The following excerpt was taken from an Associated Press fact checking article distributed through Yahoo at this site. The article states:
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
I'm actually comforted by the small amount of legislative activity (if you compare him to the Senate fossil who is now the GOP nominee).
In a time where folks are losing their houses, we've got a Presidential candidate who doesn't even know how many houses/properties he owns
(boy, he's really in touch with the middle class, huh?)
Why does that not outrage you people?
It's things like that, things that seem so downright obvious that worry me.
It's been said that one definition of insanity is to do the same thing, over and over, yet expect different results. That's what I see in McCain and his puppet.
Thanks bonedaddy.
Another source for you. Library of Congress work OK? http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00001:@@@P
Although I can read some of your political biases in your posts, do all of you guys (Americans) already know who you're going to vote for? I still have not made up my mind. For the first time in my voting career, I just can't bring myself to say I am leaning toward one or the other. I'm hoping it will become more clear to me after the debates. I think they are both critically lacking albeit for difference reasons.
For all of the USAs technological advances and long climb to superpower status, some things remain much the same as they were in the old west. It's a time when tempers flare, harse words are exchanged and emotions boil over, yet nothing is getting accomplished. Things are at an impasse. What do you do? "BRING IN THE DANCIN' GIRLS!"
I'm not going to get into some nitpicky he did or didn't do this, she did or didn't do this argument.
Google is your friend. Look it up. There's plenty to see. Looks like there was a fair amount of activity in his time in the Illinois State Govt.
As I've stated (maybe in another thread?) I'm a registered INDEPENDENT. I feel no allegiance to either party.
I look at it this way; if you're doing something wrong, you change the behavior, right? What exactly about putting the US economy in the toilet is right? What exactly is it about being in a protracted, expensive war, that is right? What is it about off-shoring US jobs and manufacturing that is right? Maybe that stuff is right to you, but it's not right to me.
If 'experienced' politicians have brought us the great state of our current affairs, I'll take a "done nothing" rookie with a different perspective any day.
As I view it, the job for McCain this evening is to demonstrate through concrete details how he differs from George Bush. With job approval ratings in the past month ranging from mid-20% to low 30%, I think that it is fair to say that most people would like a "change" from the current Bush administration.
McCain has voted with Bush 90% of the time. He needs to offer us a reason to believe that he sees the world differently than Bush does. Otherwise, it is simply "four more years," this time with a different face.
Hey Richard, it's kind of cool actually, that they named the part of the LOC "Thomas" that deals with legislative activity. (It's named after Thomas Jefferson). A brief perusal shows a lot information.
