use of the word "fairy tale," while everyone knows that the misrepresentation was real and he not disavowing himself from that characterization made me upset. I'm looking for "honesty" where Bush has been dishonest. The bar is set high here. And for African American leaders to say that Hillary should not be lecturing "blacks" on Dr. King when she was not doing that at all, is the height of duplicity. Since we all know that he did not legislate any law affording minorities equal rights nor sign anything into law. He was an activist, albeit important and heroical and essential, to the cause. And, Obama did nothing to correct the accusation. And, not a single one of you in Obama's camp admitted to the misrepresentation. He let it ride for political gain - showing his immaturity like a child who will do anything to get the candy. It was then that I decided that I could not vote for Obama but had not choice but to vote for his opponent.

Republican party. I believe the in the GE whomever is our candidate, the DNC, will offer American Voters the option of choosing respect for every American Citizen and those in our country seeking citizenship, instead of choosing the Republican "Culture of Hatred." Needless to say, there are so many videos of Rush, Boortz, Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc., etc., etc., flaming this culture of hatred. I believe its a good strategy.

managers and advisors want the candidates to differentiate themselves from the other candidates by 1. putting the opponent in a negative light (personal, professional, religious, ethnic, voting record, etc.,) and 2. extolling their own virtues as the superior person and candidate and thus best choice for the voter. We here on the DU have been caught up in the campaign managers and advisors game. The MSM has been eating all of this up and fomenting strong emotional responses among us to advance their own agendas. I want to hear the candidates plans for dealing with the War in Iraq and Afghanistan, the "War on Terror", care for our Veterans and restructuring the dept. of Homeland Security, health care and medicare part D (a sham), social security, jobs and the economy, the path to citizenship for the 12 million illegal workers we depend on, the idiotic "no child left behind" education program, monitoring the oil industry and developing alternative fuels, global warming, updating our bridges and infrastructure and levies, etc., etc., etc. Dammit, so much that needs to be addressed and all we hear from our candidates are negative attacks to put each other in a negative light. And the MSM making race and gender the main issues while deverting attention from the real concerns of our beloved country. Enough already. I'll vote for the candidate strong enough to addresses the issues while attempts are being made to divert their attention to the absurd.

Nicaragua, El Salvador and Chile by supporting right wing death squads like those he called "freedom fighters". Oliver North is as evil and complicit in the deaths of so many innocent people who struggled for justice. Reaganomics didn't work then and will not work now. It is beyond me why anyone would hold him up as an american hero! He was monster as is GW Bush. I know that in the future his name will be invoked as a great leader. But it's mythological, made up, opinion contrary to fact, a "fairy tale".

DU people are less informed than most. It has been proven that the Clinton's comments have been taken out of context. Bill Clinton did not call Obama's bid for the presidency a "fairy tale." The comment was made about Obama's record supporting the war in Iraq as defense/comparison/contrast/stone throwing/accusations of Hillary's votes in the Senate concerning the war as well. To say that Bill was calling Obama's bid for the presidency a "fairy tale" is a flat out lie and that he is disrespecting Obama is a major deception by the MSM and prominent African Americans. That Hillary disrespected the role that Martin Luther King Jr played in winning civil rights for African Americans and other minorities and somehow lectured Blacks on Martin Luther King is just untrue. Her remarks were made about the importance of the role of the President of the United States. It was President Johnson who signed into law the civil rights act. Dr. King was an activisit as was I but without the support and will of the President such a law would never have seen the light of day. GW Bush is an obstructionist and leader of the obstructionist Republicans in congress. He calls himself fiscally responsible but what he is actually doing is taking all our tax money and pouring it into his military complex and his wars. So to say that the Clinton's have disrespected Obama and themselves and the American voters makes Frenchiecat a cat that needs to read more on the DU to discover the truth.

rican Americans. Last night on Keith Olbermann the African American columnist that frequents the show said that Hillary made a mistake by lecturing Blacks on Martin Luther King. However she spoke the truth. Johnson with the pressure of King and so many others in the entire U.S. not only in the South did the right thing. It takes a President to make such changes and it will take a Dem. president to resolve the illegal immigrant issue.

Not to give undocumented workers the legal right to work is shooting ourselves in our own foot. Not to give undocumented workers the path to citizenship or amnesty after having been here for 10, 20, 30 years in many cases is inhumane. "U.S. northern european cultural nationalism" as espoused by Lou Dobbs and such rely on the mantra of "WHAT ABOUT THE RULE OF LAW?" Well does the rule of law allow parents to be forceably separated from their U.S. born children thus making those children orphans? NO!!! Does the rule of law allow American born children and citizens to be expatriated because their parents were working in the U.S. without documents? NO!!! I've had to choose between White Nationalism and Human Decency on this issue and have decided not to support Lou Dobbs, Tom Tancrado and Michelle Malkin's (who as a self hating ethnic Filipino is an anchor baby) indecent and ethnic fear mongering point of view.

The Dems in congress sold out our service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan by giving the Decider his war funding because, I believe, that Pelosi, et. al., were going to get the Immigration Reform (including amnesty or path to citizenship) in return. But she was betrayed no matter what public drama the dry Bush attempted to feign. Pelosi needs to get tough and tougher and treat the Repugs in congress the same way the Dems were isolated from making laws in favor of the working poor (legal and illegal) and middle class of our country. Her idealism got the best of her and I quote: “I accept this gavel in the spirit of partnership, not partisanship, and look forward to working with you on behalf of the American people,” Pelosi said in a speech to colleagues and the nation. “In this House, we may belong to different parties, but we serve one country.” In the interest of the country over-criminalizing undocumented workers; separating parents from their U.S. born children; goes beyond human decency. Further, putting so-called sanctuary cities in danger by not giving them the funds they need to protect themselves against terrorist attacks is criminal - even if it was a symbolic act. I say, Pelosi take the gloves off and fight for human decency!

"Husak and Solum, legal theorists and philosophers, argue that laws on immigration are part of a broad pattern. In recent decades, they say, Congress has passed innumerable laws that no one seriously expects will be enforced. Such laws largely seem to serve symbolic purposes and are often designed to placate some powerful constituency -- conservatives in the case of immigration, or the entertainment industry in the case of laws that seek to deter people from swapping copyrighted music and movies.

The yawning divide between reality and what such laws say should happen is what produces the dilemmas that lead to amnesties. Immigration law has produced a situation where an estimated 12 million people in the country -- most of whom look, sound and act like law-abiding citizens -- are supposed to be apprehended, prosecuted and deported, a job that is not only well beyond the capacity of the police and courts, but would wreck substantial parts of the economy were it attempted.

"No one is so stupid as to think police are going to go out and round up 12 million illegal immigrants," said Husak, at Rutgers University. "Ninety million living Americans have used illegal drugs. It is inconceivable you can punish them. Downloading copyrighted music -- half or more of all teenagers are guilty. No one is going to enforce such laws."

The consequence of symbolic lawmaking is over-criminalization, which turns out to be as difficult a problem to deal with in the long run as crime itself. It might sound good for a politician to sternly declare that draft dodgers are in violation of the law and at risk for prosecution, but how do you deal with thousands of Americans who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War -- after the country had concluded the war was lost and a ghastly mistake? You offer them amnesty, of course."

June 4, 2007 - Washington Post (DC)
Department Of Human Behavior:
Out Of Unenforceable Laws, Amnesties Are Born
By Shankar Vedantam

The president's plan will unravel over the next three years but as you Ms. Sheehan (and I grieve with you and every parent who has lost a child) have pointed out to us: AT WHAT COST TO OUR SOLDIERS LIVES AND THE IRAQI WOMEN, CHILDREN AND MEN! Can anyone post what was the pork in the bill? I would like to know for what the lives of our sevice men and women were sacrificed!!!

of the School District. For example: "See you at the pole" is an annual meeting for public prayer, generally organized by conservative Protestant public school students. As with the National Day of Prayer, Roman Catholics, liberal Christians, non-Christians, who may wish to create an inter-faith event at which all theists can participate, are generally excluded from the organizing committee. Students gather at their school's flagpole, outside of regular classroom hours, usually at 7:00 hours local time. Starting in the year 2006, this observance will be held on the fourth Wednesday in September." High School students can use space at the public school to have a bible study. It has to be lead by a student. There is prayer in schools, but according to the law is has to be initiated and lead by students and it is!!!! But, as we Roman Catholics teach, prayer is first and foremost taught by the parents. It is the responsibility of the parents to pray with and bless their children before they go to school. It's not the schools responsiblity. The problem is not with "taking prayer out of schools" as now defunct Mr. Falwell would have you believe, it's with mom and dad not praying with their children to bless, begin and protect them throughout the day. Faith is nourished in the FAMILY and at HOME and we will not relinquish this responsiblity to public schools.

I know a family who left Mexico city because they were targeted by kidnappers. They came to this country as illegals but now have obtained visas as investors because they were able to open a restaurant. They live in a home valued at $250,000. Many U.S. citizens are complaining because of federal, state and local taxes. However, their personal debt is their personal fault. Don't blame the recent immigrants.