SCOTT M

that we will not buy any more of its products unless it indemnifies American buyers if the products they buy from Chinese manufacturers do not meet all standards for safety?

We have been buying wooden toys from China for years, only to find the manufacturers had used lead-based paints. Lead can cause permanent brain damage in children; it can even be lethal to them. Lead is an additive that makes the paint easier to spread. It does not occur naturally in any of the components used to make paint.

Last year, several of our pet food manufacturers bought wheat that was contaminated by rodenticides that killed many dogs and cats.

Recently, we found that Chinese-made drywall emits toxic sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes. It has reportedly made many people sick and rendered their homes uninsurable and unsalable.

In some cases, our buyers permit the Chinese manufacturers of various products to perform the inspections on the products they make and sell to us! That is insane!

In a recent interview, the president was asked about the prospects for health care reform. His response was, “We’re going to get this done one way or another.”

A recent poll showed that 55 percent of Americans oppose his undefined health care initiative. Obama apparently doesn’t care what the people, including those who elected him, want. He will decide what they should have and shove it down their throats if necessary.

During their August break, many of our elected officials held town hall meetings that degenerated into shouting matches when health care came up. One third of the senate seats and all of the house seats will be on the line next year, and many of those who want to side with Obama but keep their seats in Congress are shaking in their boots. If they defy the president, he will no doubt make them pay a price. If they defy their constituents, they will have to leave Washington and go home.

Obama seems to have no concern about the separation of powers in our government. He does not seem to want to work with legislators; he seems to want to direct their activities. Before the August break, he said, “I want a [health care] bill on my desk by the end of the week.”

Joe Lieberman of Connecticut seems unmoved by Obama’s dictatorial attitude. He has said we can’t afford to do a complete overhaul of our health care system right now, but need to take it one step at a time. I think Lieberman’s position will gain a lot of traction as voters become increasingly concerned about our huge deficits and skyrocketing national debt.

Obama seems to have more in common with Venezuela’s soon-to-be dictator Hugo Chavez than with any president in the history of the United States. He should go back home, wherever that may be.

If we are planning to run a trillion dollar deficit this year (and for years to come), where are we going to get the money to pay for our excess spending?

Will investors want to buy them in the future?

If not, how can the mortgage markets recover?

Let’s say you make $30,000 a year and Obama doesn’t raise your taxes. But let’s say he imposes a new tax on your employer: 50 percent of what he pays YOU, even if you are self-employed.

Is your employer still going to pay YOU $30,000 a year?

Nope! Even if you get a tax RATE cut, you will get one hell of a wage cut.

That’s Socialism 101. Your Instructor is Barack Obama.

Whether you support Obama or McCain, ask yourself this question: How can Obama cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people when 45 percent don't pay any taxes at all? Is his calculator misfunctioning or is mine?

Will we be able to develop technology to use hydrogen (not hydrogen fuel cells) as a fuel for cars or does the storage space required to use it make it impractical?

Are there any good articles that a layman can read to see what we are doing in the development of hydrogen technology?

Would a massive Manhattan Project for Hydrogen be worthwhile or would it be a waste of money?

Thanks.

Our politicians blame our corporations. But our corporations did not approve NAFTA or our membership in the WTO. Our corporations did not allow China to join the WTO and they did not open our markets to slave wage countries (including China).

I spent over 30 years working with small businesses in a variety of industries. When I started, most of them were manufacturers. By the time I retired, almost all of those who were still in business had become importers. But most of them had gone out of business because they could not produce goods here and compete with foreign manufactures whose labor costs were 80% to 95% lower than theirs.

When it costs a domestic manufacturer more to make a product than an importer is selling the same product for, the domestic company cannot continue to manufacture its products here. That guarantees bankruptcy, and many of our companies that could not or would not adapt to the change in the rules of “competition” did go bankrupt.

Our corporations may not be perfect, but they did not create or promote the idea that “free” trade was and is “good for everybody,” and they did not hang their workers out to dry as they rushed to buy goods from foreign suppliers.

Look in your closets, your kitchens, your bedrooms and your cars. Look for country of origin labels or stickers. You will see who else is responsible for “exporting" our jobs.

No! Yahoo! is BLOCKING certain posts. If you mention "Democrat" or "Obama," you should be prepared to get blocked.

I have been on many boards that are much more active than this one and have never experienced so many "breathers" and "coffee breaks."

What's going on with the Yahoo! software?

to solve our energy crisis and nearly FIVE TIME that amount each year for 12 years to fight extreme poverty throughout the world?

If we don’t start making significant progress in solving our energy problem, and soon, WE are going to join the list of nation’s suffering from extreme poverty.

My system is clean and defragged with no viruses, adware or other gremlins (at least none that can be detected by my Norton anti-everything). I have plenty of RAM and hard memory.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp! I'm fully backed up on an external hard drive but am worried about a possible crash.

Thanks.

I see Zab is scheduled to fight Joseph Clottey in August.

This makes me woner if Zab's arm injury was for real or if it was self-inflicted to enable him to get out of his scheduled fight with Shane Mosley.

for the presidency, would Obama focus on the issues or would he and his followers label Powell as “too white and an Uncle Tom” and let that be the “theme” of his campaign?

Constructive Capitalism would enable the federal government to treat subsidies (grants and tax credits) as investments, not donations. Why doesn’t the government set up an investment corporation that would make decisions on grants and subsidies and take equity positions when it makes them available to entities engaged in potentially profitable research and development projects? If there is a payoff, the taxpayers would share in it.

One of the first HIV/AIDS drug was developed by Yale University researchers whose work was supported by a federal grant. When the drug worked and was taken to market, the University and/or the scientists got the patents and all the royalties. The government got $-0-.

I’m not talking about confiscatory participation, but if the government funds 20% of the cost of a project, whether it’s in pharmaceuticals or energy (or anything else), why shouldn’t taxpayers share in the rewards if the project works out well?

Sometimes a poster puts up a question and closes it out within a few hours. This means a lot of us don't get to see it or answer it, particularly if the question is posted in the morning on a work day and closed out the same afternoon.

It would be great if we would all leave our questions open for at least 24 hours.

Thanks.

Why do they tolerate “liberal” zealots who shout down and even threaten speakers with whom they disagree? How can they say they support our First Amendment right to free speech while they ignore the actions of those who deny that “right” to others? How can they say terrorists have both free speech and privacy rights when using their phones to discuss acts of terrorism but certain conservatives do not even have the right to speak freely when invited to express their views at university forums?

What is wrong with this picture?

Although liberals claim to cherish our First Amendment rights, their most radical members seem to believe the “right” to free speech is theirs alone. In recent years, certain self-proclaimed “liberals” have attended scheduled speeches to be delivered by conservative “opponents” and have disrupted the speakers’ presentations by shouting them down. In some cases they have even charged the podiums and attempted to physically attack those speakers.

Liberalism is increasingly viewed as the refuge of those who prefer an argument over a discussion -- as elitists who cannot tolerate opposing points of view and will use harassment and physical violence to prevent the free expression of such views.

Are liberal leaders going to reign in their self-appointed “Brown Shirts” or are they going to allow their goons to destroy the progressive image their movement has achieved?

I'm running XP and have a high speed processor and tons of memory (including RAM), but my computer is sometimes slow to boot and my system rsources screen says I'm using more than 50% of my CPU capacity.

Help!

Thanks.

AOL, IE and Firefox often hang on me when I try to close them. Is there a quick way to shut them down without rebotting my computer?

the media stopped referring to him as a “terrorist” or “former terrorist” and started calling him what he actually is: an unrepentant, self-confessed killer?

What's a "former terrorist"? Is it something like a "former murderer"?

Let’s remember that O.J. couldn’t get a job today as a Pop Warner football coach, much less as a professor at a respected university -- and O.J. didn’t even confess and say he wished he had murdered more people.

Are we seeing a double standard here? Or is there a new statute of limitations on murder now?