USVI-On-Line

Dear Linne-

Thanks for asking your questions. I don't think anyone has responded fully as yet. If it is OK, I will give my opinions most of which are conservative.

The War in Iraq-This war actually started in 1991 in my opinion, when the US(Geo. Bush 41) and a large coalition pushed the Iraqi invaders out of Kuwait but due to pressure from the Saudis did not carry through and remove Saddam Hussein. I personally was very upset when it started (I did not want war) but even more upset when our forces were withdrawn, because I saw a return engagement as inevitable.
When the present conflict began, most of Congress authorized it and they believed the intelligence. I am against complete withdrawal because of the threat from Iran, but would support a drawdown at the proper time. Most of all I would like to see more support of our all volunteer military forces. Democrats are already proposing a 25% reduction in defense spending. I think this is a terrible idea. Back in 1961 my husband was drafted right after we were married. Young people could not get jobs without getting their military obligation out of the way first. My husband chose to become an officer and make it a career, but it is not for everybody. I admire and respect our military and their families.

Tax-I am OK with the taxes we pay, but against the proposed global poverty tax paid to the UN. I am against taxing small business because of the loss of jobs involved. By the way, the definition of "rich" has shrunk from $250K to $150K according to Biden. Either amount we are not in danger of being "rich".

Health Care-We have always qualified for military health care even after my husband retired. At age 65 we went on Medicare so I guess we have always had a form of socialized medicine. We have had no complaints. However, we have heard alot about the problems with the socialized health care system in Canada. I am very concerned about making quality health care affordable.

Abortion and the Death Penalty-There is a fundamental difference. Unborn children are innocent. Death Row inhabitants have been found guilty by a jury of their peers. Do juries make mistakes? Yes, but with DNA they are becoming more rare. The SO of a member of my extended family suffered the loss of his daughter and 2 grandchildren in a brutal murder. I believe the perpetrators deserve the death penalty. This was not a gun crime-they were drowned.

Gun Control-You didn't exactly ask this, but it is a big issue here. People are very protective of their second amendment rights.

Leaving the country if other party is elected-I haven't seen this on this thread, but I guess I might have missed it. I hope no one threatens this. We will all survive no matter who is elected. I know we all love this country, although some want to fundamentally change it.

For myself, I don't think this thread has been especially divisive or nasty. I have learned from it. Even though it has gotten a little heated, I think it has been a good discussion of the issues. I do appreciate Vicky's refereeing though.

OK, I'm going to duck now, flame away.

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If y'all haven't read about the 95-10 initiative, you might be interested in it. Like I said, I don't think anyone is against life, we just want all the babies to have good lives. This plan, if implemented would reduce the number of abortions by 95 percent over 10 years.

http://www.democratsforlife.org/index.p ... &Itemid=45

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Good information Lulu.

Decreasing abortion is a wonderful goal and one that we can work toward without criminalizing it.

Sex ed, including information about abstinence, STDs and contraception.

Readily available, easily accessible contraception.

Until people stop being naive and thinking that their kids aren't engaging in sexual activity before marriage, we have a long row to ho. Even kids raised in those homes with good Christian values sometimes find themselves 16 and pregnant.

My hope is that my children - both my son and daughter - will be able to talk to me about anything including sex and contraception. Sure, it might be uncomfortable but I want this information coming from me. If they can't talk to me about it I sure hope that there is SOMEONE educated and informed that they can talk to. Information is power. I want my kids to be as informed as possible.

SJfromNJ wrote:Verjoy - I think you answer to Linne is great. I would add that most of the intelligence comming from our Europian allies were confirming our intelligence of WMD's in Iraq. Our intelligence was budget was drastically reduced under President Clinton.

verjoy, i would like to second sjfromnj-- i thought you gave a very thoughtful response--i don;t necessarily agree with all of it, but that's fine with me.

sjfromnj, in terms of defense spending--all of these talking points and soundbites that we are ALL throwing around could bear some more vetting. the truth of the defense budget isn't that black and white;
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... bers-game/
i suspect that we could find (and have found) the same about how intelligence was spun to sell this war. While we should have been in Afganistan finishing what Bin Laden and the Taliban started. we got ourselves into one heck of a mess--not that the world isn't a better place without Hussein--but he wasn't in cahoots with al qaeda (bin laden hated him, he was a secularist) --and i think they knew that before they went in.
in terms of bad getting out the bad guys--, the same could be said about Than Shwe and his cronies, Mugabe and his and a whole other laundry list of bad guys in other places.... but they don't have the oil or strategic importance to the US that Iraq has.

I will admit that I have not read pages 16-22 of this thread. It took me two hours last night to read the first 15 pages. Having said that I have a question for anyone on the Board, but in particular those of you who are concerned about "spreading the wealth around." The question is:

Which candidate has had personal experience in "spreading the wealth around"?

I will check in later to see how well you answered that question.

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Checking back in. I see that several posters actually have spent the entire day here posting and responding to posts. I would really love to know what kind of jobs people have that allow for that. I'd be quite happy to be able to spend my day poking around online and getting paid for it. I'd probably be willing to take a cut in salary for a job like that.

Technically you have a point
'Bin Laden also explored possible cooperation with Iraq during his time in Sudan, despite his opposition to Hussein's secular regime. Bin Laden had in fact at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Sudanese, to protect their own ties with Iraq, reportedly persuaded Bin Laden to cease this support and arranged for contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda. A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly made three visits to Sudan, finally meeting Bin Laden in 1994. Bin Laden is said to have requested space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded. There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after Bin Laden returned to Afghanistan, but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship. Two senior Bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq. We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.'

But hussein had no role in 9/11 (bin ladens was with the Kurds--the enemy of my enemy, etc...)--i am sure that both sides have spun this as well.-
I basically live 9/11 everyday at work--so my bad for pursuing the subject here

in any event,
whoever wins the election, it is sure to have entertaining effects--

In response to the adoption question - from personal experience adopting in the US is really not difficult if you are not limiting the process to a caucasian, healthy infant. We adopted our daughter 8 years ago. We were open to anything racially and wound up with a beautiful African-American/Thai daughter. The entire process from homestudy to having our daughter from the hospital was 9 months. A true blessing came when 6 years later we were contacted through the adoption agency. The birthparents, still together, had another unplanned pregnancy, did we want to adopt this baby? We had that baby two months later! The only difficulty was my husband's employer. Since we had to stay out of state for one month until the interstate compact agreement was signed, they continually threatened to fire him. (This was a very large firm) The point of this story is that unfortunately AA children are being adopted by Canadian families because they are not being adopted domestically! Many American companies are not family and/or adoption friendly. Something for our next administration should correct, whichever candidate wins!

arroba--that is a lovely story! i am just sorry that your husbands company was not more understanding. if the family med leave act doesn't cover this then it certainly should!

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Timing is everything. He had been with a new employer less than one year so technically the family leave act didn't apply.

Arooba-your story made me smile. I'm so happy for you and what a gift for the siblings to be able to be together.

I worked with unwed mothers and adoption when I was first out of school. Those young women didn't consider abortion an option and it was actually heartbreaking to watch them struggle with the decision to parent or place their children for adoption. I admired every single one regardless of their situation.

Teresa-your family sounds amazing! They have truly blessed many people.

It's so interesting how our own personal experiences shape our beliefs. I think that's been shown a lot throughout these threads.