On 9/11 over 2,900 Americans lost their lives, a tragedy on every level imaginable.

Our response was to invade Afghanistan. Nearly 600 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan. Instead of ending that conflict quickly and decisively, Bush chose to invade Iraq. As a result, the Taliban and Bin Laden still maintain power and our soldiers are still in harms way.

Since then, over 4,100 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq, with over 30,000 wounded. Estimates put the loss of life of Iraqis, citizens not insurgents, at over 100,000. Saddam Hussein is out of power, dead. Five years later, the country is in tatters, no end in sight. "Victory" is a word our own military commander feels won't be appropriate for whatever final outcome is found.

Do you believe those 2,900 people who perished on 9/11 would feel their deaths have been honored? They had no choice, of course, but what do you think?

John McCain has flip-flopped and flopped back and flipped again on many of the important issues in which he's involved himself over the past 8 years. All in a desperate ploy to be palatable enough with the right-wing of his party to get the nomination. He derided the Rovian tactics that unfairly smeared him in South Carolina in 2000, even going so far as to demand an apology from GW, calling him shameless. Now he embraces these tactics and lies about it repeatedly. John McCain is a cynical opportunist.

John McCain believes he is most qualified to lead our nation by virtue of his experience and years in Washington. He blasts Obama as a pretender, an amateur. Yet it is Obama who has been right on nearly every major decision of the past 8 years, while McCain has voted again and again to back the failed policies and lack of a plan to win in any war he's help lead us into. His domestic policies will be a continuation of the same policies that have left most Americans poorer and worse off than they were 8 years ago. John McCain has poor judgment.

John McCain claims a desire to help the burdened middle class of America. Yet when GOP policies helped make possible the setting for the mortgage crisis and left hundreds of thousands of Americans in foreclosure and even more with upside-down loans, he supported bailouts for the big money industry and offered nothing for Americans, while his primary economic advisor called us all whiners. He has demonstrated a dangerous lack of understanding of what the average American faces everyday as he loses count of the homes he owns and believes $5MM is the low threshold to be counted among the rich. By his own admission, he knows very little about economics. John McCain is out of touch.

John McCain feels hurt by the press' treatment of him. After years of getting a free ride, it troubles his vanity to have to share the spotlight or answer for his actions. He truly believes his POW experience should be a 'free pass' for every scandal, lie and misstep he's taken, invoking it so often that he's had to get it laminated for fear it might shred through wear'n'tear. He pathetically brings it up every time he has to defend himself. John McCain is a whiner.

John McCain has nominated a VP who he barely knows and has met in person just once. He did this because he felt she could help get him some votes and win the election, while shamelessly putting the phrase "Country First" on his bumper stickers. John McCain is a cynical opportunist.

John McCain has called national security, defense and the war on terror the vital questions of this election. His choice for VP has no qualifications in any of this. She has no experience in foreign relations and apparently does not know what the VP actually does. He has chosen a running mate who probably would be laughed about if she were selected to a Cabinet position. John McCain has poor judgment.

John McCain doesn't want you to think about any of this. That's why he uses the Rovian tactics, to distract and appeal to emotions, at a serious time when deep reflection and an intelligent approach to governing is most sorely needed. So when John McCain talks about his POW experiences, ad nauseum, ask yourself how it's relevant to the topic at hand, and why he feels the need to fall back on that when the truth should do just fine. When John McCain tells you Sarah Palin is the right woman for the job, ask yourself why he'd nominate a neophyte to a position a breath away from the White House, if it's not a cynical political gambit. When John McCain hammers away over and over at how urgent the times are, ask yourself why he'd nominate a VP who can offer him nothing from their own well of experience, if he's really serious about the urgency of our nation's problems. When John McCain tells you he understands the plight of the American worker, remind yourself that he chose the easy life and lives it to the fullest. When John McCain asks you to vote for him, think hard about whether it's right to support a whining, cynical opportunist with poor judgment who is out of touch with the average American.

I have a hard time believing that this scandal will amount to anything beyond some old headlines. Investigations have a way of disappearing when the GOP feels threatened under the Bush Administration.

I hope those Dems with clout and in a position to influence this election don't count on it.

Following the right-wingers belief that God uses nature to punish the wicked & the sinners, I wonder why none have made the obvious connection that these hurricanes are meant to be a sign from The Almighty that the GOP is wicked and must be punished?

Katrina wasn't meant to be a punishment for the Gay Pride Parade, that was coincidental. It was meant to provide a large stage for the GOP to fail in a large way. Gustav coming right as their convention is to begin is just a reminder of this, and a thumb in their eye.

I don't really believe this because I'm an atheist and believe the weather can be explained most truthfully and effectively through science.  But since the religious right does believe, it's curious why they're silent on it. Even Karl Rove seems to be wise to it. I just don't get it.