Diane B

I want to draft a state initiative that forbids the police from interrogating children under 18 without the parent present. Are there any states that have such a law?

I'm looking for numbers and web sites to back up the numbers, please.

I'm 80 pounds overweight and have been unable to lose weight on the weight watchers diet. I'm beginning to wonder if my body chemistry was changed because I went through a period of starvation when I was 11/12. It was for three months when we had no money for food and ate very little, mostly macaroni with nothing on them. Can that affect your body chemistry so that you cannot maintain a healthy weight when you are older?

And Reagan expanded this program? When I see complaints about wealth redistribution, some people are bringing up the earned income tax credit. That was put into place by Republicans. The idea was that people who are in the category of the working poor need help to make ends meet. The only other thing to do would be to increase the minimum wage to force employers to pay a living wage to people. So if Republicans are now against the earned income tax, then they should be for increasing the minimum wage. But they aren't for that either. They seem to be advocating people working for wages that don't pay enough to cover food, housing, healthcare, and daycare. So what are people supposed to do? If your job doesn't pay enough to cover these basic expenses, then what's the point of working at all?

This news just broke and it may affect the markets again because it looks like this ruling was illegal because it bypassed Congress. Wells Fargo is going to be forgiven $20 billion in taxes because of this ruling!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27635885/

The Repubs apparently have been trying to get these tax breaks for years.

Personally, I feel that Obama is a moderate but throughout the election, the right insisted that Obama was the most liberal Senator in Congress. So if he is actually a liberal rather than a moderate, then does that show that most of America is liberal because they voted for him?

I had to listen to the Rush Limbaugh show on Wednesday to see how he was spinning the election and he said that Obama ran his campaign like a Conservative because he promised tax cuts and that's why he won. Then this morning I heard a right-wing talk show guy say that McCain was too moderate and that's why he lost. But I seem to recall that a week ago, Obama was a Marxist when I listened to right-wing radio. Hmmm. People on the right seem to be pretty bipolar. What's the funniest thing you've heard from the right-wing noise machine since election day?

I was out all day walking door-to-door to get out the vote for Obama and when I finally sat down to look at my e-mails tonight, there was an e-mail from Townhall that stated it was a message directly from Sarah Palin. The message said that the reason that Obama was ahead of McCain was because his campaign was *paying* volunteers to go door-to-door!!! Can you believe it? What kind of idiot would read that message and think that it was true? A volunteer is NOT paid. That would be called an employee!!

There are three states in which early voting has already exceeded its totals from 2004. These are Georgia, where early voting is already at 180 percent of its 2004 total, Louisiana (169 percent), and North Carolina (129 percent).

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

There are companies that are threatening to leave our country if the tax rate is increased because the CEOs want to continue to make 1000% more than their workers instead of only 250% more than their workers that we had during the Reagan years. To make up for lost tax revenue and to reward companies that continue to operate in the United States should we add an import tax on products that brings the cost of the products up to the same cost as American made products? Should we limit imports?

Um. China is a communist country. I think there's some confusion on the part of conservatives.

To participate in the stoning?

Would you bring a security person over and identify the culprit?

I'm a bit worried about one of my family members who is saying he will kill himself if McCain loses.

McCain Voted for Bush’s 2006 Social Security Privatization Plan. In 2006, McCain voted for the Social Security Reserve Fund. The proposal would shift Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account that would be converted into risky private accounts. [SCR 83, Vote #68, 3/16/06; SCR 83, Vote #68, 3/16/06]

In 2000 McCain Wanted to Divert Social Security Money to Private Accounts. The Wall Street Journal reported that “[a] centerpiece of a McCain presidential bid in 2000 was a plan to divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund private accounts, much as President Bush proposed unsuccessfully.” The plan would put workers’ retirement money into the risky market and reduce the amount of Social Security payments they would receive from the government. The plan would undermine the Social Security system. [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08]

McCain STILL Proposes Privatizing Social Security—Despite What His Website Says. McCain told the Wall Street Journal he still backs a system of private retirement accounts that he supported in 2000 and President Bush pushed unsuccessfully. The Journal reported he “disowned” details of a proposal on his 2008 campaign website that says he would “supplement” the existing Social Security system with personally managed accounts. But when asked about the position change he denied it and promised to change the website to reflect his true position. “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts… As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it—along the lines that President Bush proposed,” McCain told the Journal.[Wall Street Journal, 3/3/08; Campaign Website, accessed 3/3/08]

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/mccain_retir...

Now that the Repubs have caused the deepest stock market crash in history, how are Repubs feeling about the idea of getting rid of social security and using the stock market for all retirement accounts?

From day one, in Obama's speeches he has been saying that this campaign is not about him, it's about us. We Americans have to work together to accomplish change in this country. We can't look to one person to do it for us. So we all came together across the country in people's houses to make phone calls, go door-to-door, send in money, register voters, and drink wine together. We've laughed together, cried together, gotten frustrated and mad at each other, but we all continued to work on this campaign. And now we're going to win together. I've sat in people's living rooms who were amazed that they had gathered together 25 people they've never met before into their own homes. This has been the most amazing thing that we have ever done before. And it was all inspired by the speech we all heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk