We know that business pays taxes from profits and individuals pay taxes from the wages earned by working for business.

We know that for a country, state or local community or household to grow they need more cash. More cash has to come in than goes out or that entity is going broke. Small town America, with fewer jobs, is spending more beyond its borders than taking in and is shrinking at 1% per year. States and Cities without a vibrant business community are doing poorly. Hence the ads on TV asking "build your business here".

What are earmarks? Instead of deciding and voting individually on what money government will send back to which state or organizaion or buy, our representatives in congress and senate, have got stuck with lumping a lot of spending proposals together allowing "small" unpopular spending projects to attached to large popular spending projects. Voting for one, votes for all. Thus using fear as a tactic to garner votes, voting no because of an earmark or two can be sold in elections like this as voting against the main and popular title.

Small projects, like small town America, when added together represents a huge number coming from our tax dollars.

US government is intended to fund projects that are in the interest of most of the people in the US. Earmarks are a way to circumvent that intention. Some would say introducing an earmark is of questionable integrity because the earmark can be in other than our national interest. The persons introducing these earmarks are hoping to be hidden behind an important project. Major projects are often laced with earmark projects because of that feature. Wouldn't it be news worthy to know who introduces which earmark and their individual running total?

So when we say this state or that received earmarks we need to look at how that state used the funds to be sure that funding was used as an earmark of less than national interest. Bring up, of course, accountability issues.

Where there is money, there is corruption. City after city in the United States have in their history stories of corruption, using public money for non-public benefit.

Corruption exists primarily because of mob mentality, that is going with the crowd and not investigating for yourself. We vote and we need to use that vote wisely. We need to do our own research. If corruption exists it exists because we the people have not kept our eye on the ball, instead went with the mob mentalitiy.

Recent events, admitted bias, in a our news industry have made it very difficult to use output of the news industry as an information gathering resource. In my opinion the news industry is gracefully moving towards mob mentality in search of increasing profits. When there are as many news outlets as we have today there is extreme competition for our attention and thus advertising dollars. Good news has a history of not selling to the public. When good news does not sell the news business, to survive by attracting advertising, needs bad news to sell its products and the news industry has the resources to find bad news. In the end the good news for the news industry is when advertiser pay them for time or space which is a direct result of how their news sells.

Now read this article or any other and ask yourself is the information intended to attract readers? In that vain does this article feed the mob mentality?

Jim

Peace and Justice.

Obama 08'

he really should run as an independant!

Well that's something! He is a hero!

Whatever.

Obama/Biden 08

The job of the Commander in Chief is a Civilian job. We have had good CinC's that did not serve in uniform and we have had terrible CinC's that did serve in uniform. Judgment is key. I believe Senator Obama has a big reserve of this trait.

To any moron who somehow thinks that his statement now makes Obama more patriotic, and there must be some people out there who believe so, I suggest that he try flying without the aid of his star-crossed airplane (great carbon signature, that). Just jump off a tall building, like Superman. "Yes, he can." So could der Führer.

Bottom line: this is lame and denigrating to voters. When will CNN and its flaks like Alma Brown (a.k.a. "Campbell" to be androgynously pretentious, I guess) start investigating Bill Ayers, Rev. Moore and the other loonies that surround this guy?

Regarding Ms. Alma Mae Campbell Brown — youth need to know how many children she has birthed, if she has bred at all, and is she qualified to report only on "certain days of the month" as is alleged by opponents of Alaska's governor like the notorious Washington courtesan, Sally Quinn? I see you rewarded Quinn's bad behavior by pretending that she was a "journalist" on one of your morning shows today, Sunday 9/7/08.

Is it any wonder CNN has dropped so far behind Fox that it is losing commercial sponsors? What has happened to your journalistic standards?

Are you reporting income from the DNC and the Section 527 groups like Soros? – including in-kind partisan communications you are making without observing the "equal time" doctrine? Call the lawyers!

AND he was the only one running in this election that voted NO to Bush's trillion $ a day war! Please remember that when Bush and his cronnies were beating that war drum, it was considered political sucide to make such a stand!

Mr. Obama has earned my respect and my vote.

Palin makes me glad that I am an ex-republician!!!

When McCain was slightly younger than Obama, he was very promiscuous and finally divorced his wife for a much younger woman – McCain a "good" man.
Obama has been a faithful husband and great father – Obama a "bad" man.

Palin's family sounds like a soap opera – messy divorces, pregnant teenagers – Palin is "good" woman.
Biden has been a faithful husband, and wonderful father- Biden a "bad" man.

Can you say "hypocrisy"?

When American asks you about the economy and Iraq.....don't start out with your Biography.......that's a distraction......"Put your country first".....not your biography....that's lame.....

If you don't have a good answer to the questions of the present....then it makes sense....Put your BIOGRAPHY FIRST.

For us.....

Country first NOW!

I would like to ask CNN and other Media stations, when are they going to find out WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OF THE VOTES FROM NEW YORK (HARLEM) WHERE THEY SAID THAT THERE WERE NO VOTES FOR SENATOR OBAMA? What happened to them? Noone is talking about that!

Former Harlemite

Rochelle

Registration for selective service was not reinstated until 1980.

On March 25, 1975, Pres. Gerald Ford signed Proclamation 4360, Terminating Registration Procedures Under Military Selective Service Act, eliminating the registration requirement for all 18-25 year old male citizens. Then on July 2, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771, Registration Under the Military Selective Service Act, retroactively re-establishing the Selective Service registration requirement for all 18-26 year old male citizens born on or after January 1, 1960. Only men born between March 29, 1957, and December 31, 1959, were completely exempt from Selective Service registration. The first registrations after Proclamation 4771 took place on Monday, July 21, 1980, for those men born in January, February and March 1960 at U.S. Post Offices.

Now, tell me, HONESTLY, how many recent high school graduates in the 1970's/early 1980's were lining up to join the military so they could go fight in an armed conflict? What a crock from the "wanted to be a soldier but only if I could fight a war" politician.

He discredits those who are willing to serve their country in both peace and war. I served 23+ years during both environments as a pilot and every day was an honor, whether shooting /being shot at or pulling a quiet day of air defense alert.

Nice try, Obama, but us yokels are indeed smarter than you.