Franklin

I don''t understand why some people want to build a 13 billion dollar pipeline to move crude oil from Canada to Texas oil refinaries.

Every day, I have to sign into yahoo again to get my yahoo mail, and it hasn't been easy. First I sign in with my correct password. I then am immediately told to sign in again with the requirement that I also type the hard to read distorted numbers and letters. It usually takes me 2 or 3 tries before I get it right. I am then transferred to a page that says the page I am trying to get to no longer exists. I have checked the box that says "keep me signed in" but it doesn't appear to do anything. This problem started happening about a month ago.

Everybody doesn't have cable TV service. Now that U.S. television is all digital, you would think that somebody would be selling tape VCRs with a digital (ATSC) tuner that could be used to record over the air broadcasts with the built in timer. - But it is impossible to find such a machine. There are a few DVD recorders with tuners but they are a lot more trouble to use. Walmart and Target on line sell a combination Hard drive DVD recorder with a tuner made by Magnavox which requires no monthly fee like Tivo - but nobody else does - So I am wondering if the absence of new VCRs with tuners is because of pressure from Cable TV industry in order to get as may people as possible subscribing to cable. Is there a law that says VCRs can't have a tuner.?

(By the way there are two kinds of digital tuners - ATSC for recording over the air - and QAM for recording unencrypted cable channels - It is impossible to find a VCR with either kind of digital tuner - The Magnavox hard drive recorder has both kinds of digital tuners, but I have heard that it will no longer be available to US customers after 2009.)

Almost every time I log on to my yahoo mail, I get a message saying that somebody not on my contact list wants to chat with me. I then have to block that person to get rid of the message. I have no contact list. - I want to block all chat - I am not interested in chat or any type of instant messaging function. However, I don't want to block any body's regular Email - subject to the standard filtering done by the yahoo spam filter.

I could tell that there was a wheel within a wheel, but I couldn't figure out how it was connected to the pedals and stay stable. The big wheel didn't seem to have an axle.

After the primaries, the candidates devote their attention to the swing states. The remaining "spectator" states are ignored.

There is a plan to make the Electoral College irrelevant and in effect go to a popular vote system, without a constitutional amendment. Information about it is available here: http://www.everyvoteequal.com/ and http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

The plan has been enacted by both houses of the legislatures in 7 states: Maryland, New Jersey, Illinios, Hawaii, California, Vermont, Rhode Island. - Under this plan, states would agree to give all of their Electoral Votes to the winner of the National Popular Vote - but the plan would not go into effect until states having a majority (270) of the Electoral votes have enacted the bill into law.

The bill has been vetoed by the Governors of California, Vermont, Rhode Island and Hawaii, all of whom are Republicans. (In Hawaii, a 2/3 majority of both houses of the legislature, overturned the governor's veto.)

The 150 billion dollars that the rebate is going to cost has to come from somewhere. - Will it to borrowed from the Chinese or from some other country with a big trade surplus and money to lend ? If so, what would the lender have done with the money if it was not loaned to the U.S. government to pay the rebate? - Would the lender have invested it in a way that would stimulate the U.S. economy, or perhaps purchased more U.S. products? And who will be responsible for paying the money back?

Or will the money just be printed? - If so, wouldn't this cause the same low interest rate- inflation in housing prices problem that resulted in the sub-prime mortgage mess?

Sincere U.S. consumers have more debt than consumers in other industrialized countries, is it really a good idea to encourage them to spend more?

The war has already cost over 400 billion dollars, all paid for with borrowed money. Suppose instead of a timetable to end the war, the Democrats took the position that it was time to put the war on a pay as you go basis, rather than passing the entire cost on to the next generation through deficit spending.

So if Bush wants a 100 billion dollars to fund his war over the next year, suppose the Democrats included a provision in the funding bill to temporarily roll back enough of the Bush tax cuts to raise 100 billion dollars during the same period. A true conservative would support putting a spending program with no fixed end on a pay as you go basis. What would happen? - Would Bush veto such a bill? How would the Republicans attack the Democrats? Maybe the Democrats idea a timetable for withdrawal would start to look better to the Republicans.

I would particularly like to hear predictions from people who voted for George Bush in both 2000 and 2004. Please help the blue state people understand your thinking. This is a serious question, but the following may give you people something to think about: http://tinyurl.com/3a4uba

Currently gasoline in the U.S. costs less than $3.00 per gallon. In Europe, $6.00 to $7.00 per gallon gas is common. Why can't we have it here?

If we were to add a 25 cent per gallon tax to the price of gasoline, and increase it by 25 cents each year until the price hit $6.00, people would buy smaller cars; we would contribute less to global warming; we would reduce our dependence on foreign oil; our government would have money to pay for the Iraq war (which many people think had something to do with oil); and there would renewed interest in using and improving public transportation. On the other, hand there would be a lot of complaining about pain at the pump. What do you think? - Are there more pro or con reasons for increasing the price of gasoline?