EL-DUDERINO

[quote]because no one contests their seats, for reasons I've never fully understood[/quote] That's simply not true. There are plenty of times when seats are challenged but the incumbent wins. In general it is because of campaign financing (the incumbent undoubtedly gets more cash) but sometimes it is about name recognition, etc. We have a 90-95% incumbency rate in this country. It's absurd. That alone is reason enough to keep term limits around. P

[quote]The republican campaign, and the arguments they're putting forward that clearly the election was stolen[/quote] I'm not saying that this isn't happening as I haven't been following that election very closely but just because the republicans are claiming discrepencies doesn't mean they are fear mongering or demonizing Franken. If they have real evidence that there has been some fraud then they have every right, if not a duty, to report that to ensure that the people have t

[quote]Well, yes I have. And, if there were lies in them, then why didn't FOX sue him for libel? If they could have, they sure would have and that's a sure thing. But why didn't they? Because he was telling the truth![/quote] Because Libel can be a difficult case to prove. You can take direct quotes from someone and completely misconstrue the original meaning. Some may call that lieing, others may just call it editorializing or satire. The Daily Show does it all the

[quote]And yes of course, there you have it. Instead of admitting defeat, the cherry on the top of the cake is that now the republicans are claiming a rigged election (making a mr. grumpy pants persona look like mr sore looser pants too) Again, they are trying to paint a comedian as a demon, which in this case has backfired on them so many times and they just can't learn from it.[/quote] Who here is trying to make Fraken out to be a demon? The comments I have read, plus the one

[quote]So let me ask the obvious question here, do you support all this government spending?[/quote] Hell no. Just once I would like to see congress get together and actually consider what they can afford with the money that they are taking in rather than just spending money that they don't have. I would really like to see someone come in and make the case that X number of programs need to be shut down completely before any more spending packages can even be voted on.&nbsp

[quote]Yep, they kept "finding" votes until he was declared the winner. I'm sure lots of lawyers will be happily employed with the matter for some time to come.[/quote] I actually heard that when all was said and done there were more votes counted than registered voters in the state. I'm not sure where I heard that so take it with a grain of salt but if it were true shouldn't that trigger an automatic re-election or something like that?

[quote]Term limits aren't that important - people get bored of leaders eventually[/quote] Is that why so many congressmen and senators end up serving until they retire? Imagine that happening with a President. If you're a Republican imagine someone like Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter serving in the office until they decided they had served long enough, if your a Democrat imagine if Bush decided to continue serving in the office until he wanted to retire. The term limit

[quote]You can have as narrow or as broad a patent example as you want, but whatever happens, the person with the patent has a monopoly over what's been patented. Other people can't compete by using the idea but not copying the product it's used in directly (although the specifics will depend on the terms of the patent). The alternatives are also likely to be more expensive, and in some cases significantly more expensive, which can then allow you to have an effective monopoly of an entire mar

[quote]skyrocketed is the wrong term I think, 10 to 15% annual growth is nothing too spectacular for a 3rd world country. They were smart enough to improve their educational system in the recent years a lot but it will take 30 to 50 years before that pays of on a large scale and there is only so far you can get without a high skilled population, even with abundant resources and shamelessly infringing patent laws and copyright.[/quote] I am merely reminded of our own industrial revolut

[quote]ironically china is a socialist country though, a totalitarian one but nonetheless socialist. And apart from the fact that China can blow the whole world up with their nukes, they aren't going to be a a superpower anytime soon, neither economically nor politically.[/quote] Don't be so quick to dismiss China. Their economic development has skyrocketed in recent years and they are really starting to be quite an economic powerhouse. It may be awhile before they even at

[quote]This is scary, But I predict a major attack with in one year of Obama taking office. remember you heard it here first.[/quote] Didn't Biden predict the same thing sometime last year?

[quote who="Nitro Cruiser" reply="4" id="2013082"]I though Obama was going to "cut out" the fat? Change you can believe in.... in one hand and crap in the other to see which will fill first. [/quote] He will cut the "fat", it just depends on your definition of fat. He will work towards cutting whatever republican programs he can get his hands on and then start "necessary" programs like universal healthcare in their place. This is one of the dangers of people v

[quote]we are a democracy, we should pick our prisident not members of the goverment.[/quote] Sorry but you need to retake your civics class. The United States of America is a Republic, not a Democracy. A true democracy is mob rule meaning as long as you can get 51% of the people on your side you win (think about slavery, civil rights, etc. if we had lived in a democracy it is possible that segregation and maybe even slavery would still be around today). And

[quote]a tax on how many times you flush your toilet tax[/quote] Don't be surprised if something like this actually starts happening. I read an article not too long ago that was talking about how we are actually running out of drinkable water because we have unchecked population growth. Kinda odd that a planet that is 70% water is running out of drinkable water. btw I have absolutely no idea how credible the article was since I can't even remember where I read it.<

[quote]Why do Hospitals have sick beds?[/quote] How exactly does a bed get sick? And if a bed truly were sick wouldn't you take it to a carpenter or the manufacturer to get it repaired? Sorry I couldn't resist.

[quote]How is it nonsense when the only other religion represented was either humanism or satanism depending apon what Ben Franklin really believed in? How would the laws not be based apon Christian values then?[/quote] A number of the founding fathers were more Diests than they were Christian or they believed that religion was a very private matter that belonged in their private lives rather than in government. And Ben Franklin was an Athiest. Not to mention that just b

[quote]Our God-given unalienable right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness spoken about in the Declaration of Independence are foundational to our constitional government and proof of our Judeo-Christian heritage. The origin of our law is based upon the unchanging moral or natural law as written on the heart of every one of us by the one Creator ALmighty God.[/quote] I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you here. Remember that a number of the founding father

[quote]Ah, so Obama has to rely on the media to protect him from criticism, how nice. Well it appears Ann will appear on the Today Show after all, it seems all the bad press they were getting made them reverse their decision. [/quote] I actually watched the "interview" as I was eating breakfast this morning and it was awful. Rather than talk about her new book Lauer spent the time talking about how she was never banned for life and how all that talk was absurd, then he mentioned

Does the song make any of the referenced people racists, no, it was meant as a joke and nothing more. And honestly it wouldn't really matter if any of them were racists, that is their right in our society as long as they aren't inciting violence. As much as I dispise the KKK and everything they stand for I will still defend their right to exist in our country as long as they do so peacefully. That said it was an ill-advised gift for someone hoping to become the chairman of

[quote]To give you an example from distant memory, with asprin/paracetemols(/drugs generally), they used to cost a fortune. Suddenly their price dropped to next to nothing. The reason is that for a long time they enjoyed a patent meaning only the developer could sell them. When that expired, competitors could come in, take the product and sell it on at a fraction of the price. Until that time though, the drug developer had a monopoly over the product. If they hadn't been given such a monopoly

[quote]well im sure the few that are gonna be left out will not be happy... after all its thier money...[/quote] These are Democrats were talking about here, they don't see it as your money or my money, they see it all as the governments money. And who better than the government to tell us what to do with the money. All hail lords Pelosi and Reid.

[quote]A keg or 2. [/quote] Man you're demanding Doc. I mean they sent you a check for $600 last year and this year they look to spend at least $700 billion on "us" and you still want more?

ah who needs a second party anyway. We have already essentially shut out any third parties from the process, what's one more party between "friends"?

[quote]Right, so everyone else should suffer because you decided to buy a house miles away from your job without any decent public transport links, and then decided to buy a polluting vehicle. I mean it couldn't possibly be your own fault for forcing yourself into that method of transportation now, could it? When I'm looking for a house, the distance of it to my work is a significant factor. If I go for one further away it's cheaper, but it also limits my transport options. So if I

[quote]I wonder about that as well. I know that it serves no purpose in the grand scheme of things to count absentee and other non-standard votes if the election is not close. But do they? If the guy is going to win by a million, or 900,000, he still wins. It is one of the reasons I have not voted absentee yet. I want to keep the illusion my vote is being counted.[/quote] What I meant by e-voting was that I used the electronic voting booth at my precinct instead of the scantron-like p