Republicans engage in economic brinkmanship with country's health and future.

I'm utterly dumbfounded and disturbed by the Republicans' obstructionism on the stimulus.

In the face of a declining economic picture, they continue to push an agenda that has done nothing but worsen the jobs picture and the overall economic health and future of our nation.

The Republicans are like Nero fiddling while Rome burns; they fiddle around by playing economic brinkmanship with our nation's economy.

And for what? Short-term political advantage.

Shameful.

I'm afraid Obama will be forced to fight back publicly by calling them out. He's already starting to.

No one wants to spend all that money, but what's the alternative? Tax cuts?

That's been tried along with rebate checks and neither of them have worked.

The tax cut agenda is like drinking more alcohol to cure alcoholism: It only makes things worse and provides no incentive to recover.

The federal government is the only one capable of spending in the amounts necessary to affect the economy as a whole. Giving tax cuts to businesses and wealthy individuals encourages savings because of the bad economy.

We need spending, not savings so we are thus left with stimulus spending.

Bank bailout is nothing more than a large wealth transfer to the already wealthy

Here's the problem with the first bailout of the banks.

If you'll recall, I opposed the first bailout because banks were the primary benefactor.

My opposition stemmed from the fact that taxpayer provided cash was going to banks who had made poor decisions. Additionally, the targeted banks were investment banks that dealt primarily with wealthy investors and institutions.

My concerns were twfold: 1) Banks were rewarded for bad decisions and prevented from suffering the fate of businesses in the market who fail because of those decisions. 2) The wealthy investors were getting a handout from the government while the rest of us footed the bill.

Well, it seems my fears are being borne out.

The banks used the TARP money to prop themselves up and secure their viability at the taxpayer's expense.

This is yet another reason why Bush was wrong for America: He rewarded the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

Thanks.

Illegal drugs only responsible for 10% of drug-related fatalities.

Here's yet another reason why the so-called War on Drugs is irresponsible and wrong-headed.

To hear the press and law enforcement talk about it, you'd think illegal drugs are killing vast numbers of our youth.

But you'd be wrong. That's merely the propaganda.

The reality: Over 90% of drug related fatalities are caused by alcohol.

Alcohol is a legal drug.

This begs the question: Should we spend the money we currently allocate to fighting what is essentially a War on Americans when the greatest threat to our youth is from readily available and legal substances?

Can we, as a nation afford such a boondoggle? Even if it sends to wrong message?

Hardly.

It's time for fiscal discipline in law enforcement. Who came up with the notion that law enforcement is outside budgetary constraints?

ALL publicly-funded entities must be measured by the same economic benchmarks or else we've lost our economic sanity.

Tragic story of police stupidity and Constitutional violations.

This is a tragic story of law enforcement gone wrong.

The police botched a search and raided a mayor's house, terrorizing the mayor, his mother-in-law, and shooting both his dogs in the process.

The police lied about the raid in an effort to shift the blame to the innocent victims of their stupidity.

The founding fathers turn over in their graves when the government does things like this. The Constitution was designed to protect citizens from the government.

The 4th Amendment has been eroded over the years by the right-wing appointees to the court, who operate under the assumption that law enforcement should be protected from the rights of citizens. This is contrary to the Original Intent of the founders so it should be repudiated by the proto-fascists on the bench.

I would like to point out that the Constitution makes the people sovereign. What does that mean?

It says that when government goes too far the citizens have a right to defend themselves and shoot back. The Cato Institute offers up a good example of botched raids resulting in tragic loss of life.

Law enforcement has no room to complain about lack of respect when they do things like this and then lie to cover their asses. Basic police work would have prevented this, but they were more concerned about getting their adrenalin rush than in protecting the Constitution.

So much for their oaths.