OccumsRevelation

Since two members of the Israeli cabinet donated a large amount of money to his campaign, how can we trust his motivation with regards to Israel. Should foreign nations be allowed to contribute to American politicians?

Ok, here's your chance. If you could make one law in the U.S. to improve our society, or repeal one law to improve our society, what would it be? If you're a Conservative, tell us what you think we need. If you're a Liberal, here's your chance to showcase a plan. Remember, only -one- law, so make it your best possible.

Ok, now that I've made my screaming subject, let me ask this intelligently (and thereby limit my responders to maybe four or five brave souls)... we suffer from an energy crisis in our nation's power grid, weakened infrastructure, insufficient highways, limited mass transit, and a lessening of basic public services (when was the last time you saw a new library open?). These aren't 'hot' issues, but they're serious and not being addressed. These problems have been growing for decades, so please keep the "I hate Bush" comments out of this. The real problem is, politicians don't seem to care because they're only worried about immediate results for their constituents. My question is, how do we get them to care? Does anyone know a way to bring these problems to a national level and make them part of the debate? Are there lobbyists or other groups who work to fix this? I'd really like to know.

Joe drives Bob and Sue to McDonald's. They walk in and Sue buys them each a cheeseburger. They all eat their cheeseburger, then head to a train station. At the train station, the conductor looks at Joe, Bob and Sue and says, "That will be two tickets please." What is Bob's relationship to Sue?

This has no bearing on the other Joe, Bob and Sue riddle, just thought you might have fun with this one, too.

Bob was staying with Joe and Sue. Bob typically was the repairman of the group, constantly fixing anything that went wrong. Susan and Joe tended to work from their place.

Eventually, the strain of living together with nobody leaving very often started to get to them. Bob was definitely getting on both Joe and Sue's nerves. Sue started hiding his tools on him. Then she took out her frustration on Bob by cutting a frown-face into the back of his work uniform. It made her smile and she stopped worrying about Bob. Joe, on the other hand, adjusted several of Bob's tools. Then Joe started waking Bob up periodically just to annoy him.

One day, Bob planned to go for a walk and died while walking despite being in perfect health. He was not poisoned, nor was he struck by anything or attacked by anyone. Shortly afterward, Sue walked to the exact same spot and was unharmed, although conditions had not changed. What killed Bob? Who killed him?

Bob was staying with Joe and Sue. Bob typically was the repairman of the group, constantly fixing anything that went wrong. Susan and Joe tended to work from their place.

Eventually, the strain of living together with nobody leaving very often started to get to them. Bob was definitely getting on both Joe and Sue's nerves. Sue started hiding his tools on him. Then she took out her frustration on Bob by cutting a frown-face into the back of his work uniform. It made her smile and she stopped worrying about Bob. Joe, on the other hand, adjusted several of Bob's tools. Then Joe started waking Bob up periodically just to annoy him.

One day, Bob planned to go for a walk and died while walking despite being in perfect health. He was not poisoned, nor was he struck by anything or attacked by anyone. Shortly afterward, Susan walked by the same spot and was unharmed, although conditions had not changed. What killed Bob? Who killed him?

Transportation in major American cities is deplorable (it takes me an hour to go less than 20 miles on highways every morning).

Why don't we have more / faster trains? Better cargo shipping inland? An updated phone system? A national broadband internet system for all Americans to use? An improved national energy grid? To name just a few of the issues facing our aging infrastructure.

Once upon a time the infrastructure was one of the top issues for legislators and was one of their primary responsibilities. Why don't they do a better job with this now instead of just handing out pork contracts to companies and handouts to various special interest groups?

I'd really like to hear from an actual legislator why this is no longer an issue.

I'm a religious conservative. How can the Republicans ever think they represent me if they believe in the death penalty? They always say things like "we respect the sanctity of human life" when talking about abortion, then turn around and rally behind executing some helpless prisoner.

I am deeply opposed to needless, brutal executions. War is different - I will make that distinction right now. But executing a helpless prisoner, while viscerally satisfying, doesn't actually accomplish anything. I've read literally hundreds of articles, publications, and studies on the subject and the justifications just don't hold up to scrutiny.

The need for one person to have revenge on another cannot be justification in this matter. If it was, then we are teaching that vengeance is the proper response to being wronged. Which doesn't seem like a lesson I want to teach my children. For that matter, isn't that mentality of cyclical vengeance exactly what is causing problems in Lebanon?