Get you facts straight. Robert Bork, a conservative, was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987. It was liberal extremists who got hold of Judge Bork's video rental history, in the hopes that there would be a history of the rental of "dirty" movies. There was nothing unusual in Judge Bork's video rental history....he rented movies such as "Ruthless People," "A Day at the Races," "The Man Who Knew Too Much," etc. No porn! He would have made a fine Supreme Court justice, one who would have upheld the constitution, unlike some of the current members.

The leaking of Judge Bork's video rental records to the press lead to the 1988 Video Privacy Proctection Act.

Of course, folks on your side of the aisle had no problem when Billy and Hillary had the FBI files of over 400 Republicans in their possession. During
the Watergate era, Charles Colson went to federal prison for having one FBI file in his possession, of a democrat.

Sadly, Blockbuster does not offer porn.

Thanks for taking the bait. My point, which you were kind enough to assist in making, is that it was the fear that something might turn up combined with the completely justified belief that it was no ones GD business what someone someone watched in the privacy of their own home that gave video rentals the most stringent privacy protections we have on anything in this country. I would argue that there are many, many other things that are no ones business.

As an aside, I am not on any 'side of the aisle' buy standing firmly in the aisle. I'd be fine with a Republican in the White House. Unfortunately, the last one left office in January of 1993.

^

Ron Paul (R) or Russ Feingold (D ) would both be fine choices to replace the current individual calling himself a Republican.

I would argue for January of 1989. I voted for Reagan twice but never voted for a Bush.

Bruce

My good Sen. Russ Feingold. ^^ Now only if we can get the State's senior Senator to lake lessons from the junior Senator. In 2004, it wasn't too hard to observe that a principled vote against unAmerican acts -- like the so-called USA PATRIOT Act, and more recently the so-called USA PATRIOT Improvement & Reauthorization Act -- don't get you voted out of office in Wisconsin. Sen. Kohl could have taken a few lessons and done the right thing too. Sadly, it's not happening in his re-election campaign year either.

Do Senators feel less secure when their ID is not checked on a domestic flight? I certainly am no less secure whether their or my ID is checked or not checked.

OK. I'm neither a Republican nor am I a Democrat....I'm a conservative.
I agree with Bruce's post down below....about the last Republican
leaving office in 1989. George H. Bush ran as a Reagan conservative,
and as soon as he was elected, he tossed out all the Reaganites who
helped get him, George H., elected. He was, on many issues, a
RINO....Republican in Name Only. I'm not surprised he wasn't
re-elected, not that Bill Clinton was any great improvement.
As for George W., some times I swear by him, some times I swear
at him. I still prefer him over Gore or Kerry.

I'd like to see more than two candidates in the Presidental debates
in 2008 (fat chance!). Two choices is one choice more than no
choice at all.

Believe it or not, there's alot of conservatives who were, and are,
opposed to the creation of the TSA, the Patriot Act, the Department
of Homeland Security, and the like. Unfortunately, few, if any of
them, are members of Congress. I'm all for going after the terrorists
and the countries that support them, but I'm NOT in favor of
tossing out our freedoms and civil liberties here at home, nor am I
in favor of treating people like criminal suspects at the airport.


I half agree with Spiff....Ron Paul is one of my favorites,
Russ Feingold is not.


Cheers

I have no use for George W. at all but was twice amazed at the weak candidates that the Democrats ran against him. Gore was more or less a logical choice, being a sitting VP, but Kerry was just a loser from the very beginning. At a minimum, he was far from the Democrats' strongest potential candidate. Personally, I believe that John Edwards would have done better at the top of the ticket.

As a final thought, if the Democrats run Hillary Clinton as their candidate in 2008, they deserve to disappear from the U.S. political map, in the same way as the Whigs did years ago. I can think of no other candidate who is guaranteed to lose the general election. It almost doesn't matter who the Republicans run. By the way, this is not a comment on Hillary's abilities in general, just on her ability to get elected president!

Bruce

I feel the same way. After and leading up to that healthcare reform initiative she had during her husband's administration, she was the most hated woman in America.

How could the democrats not learn from that?

Money talks louder than it can walk sometimes. See Sen. Kerry.

And the primary process does what it does. Even Sen. McCain who is one of the most nationally electable individuals would have trouble winning the Republican primaries for the 2008 Presidential race. That's the flipside of Sen. Rodham-Clinton.

That's what I have tried to do. Sometimes, I must admit, I have been weak. At Arby's, I was asked to show my ID when I used a credit card. The manager said the credit card compmany asked him to do that when he swiped my card. I was hungry, nothing else was open. The gulf coast is still not normal after Katrina. I came back and called the customer service with address and phone number of the merchant. The credit card compmay agreed with me that I didn't have to show my ID and told me they put the merchant on probabtion, whatever that means.

A bank in northern Thailand wanted to keep a copy of my passport when I was cashing an Amex traveller's cheque in 1999. I refused. In some countries that have controls on foregin currency, pasport is required when tendering foreign currency. I was OK with showing them my passport and letting them enter passport number on the form, but I demanded that they hand me the photocopy of my passport that they had made without my permission. The manager was brought in. After some discussion, he complied with my request.

Scalpers do it for concerts, sports event, why shouldn't one be able to do it for air travel? Is scalping illegal?

It varies by the state/municipality. In Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and the District of Coulmbia you can only sell for a certain amount above the printed price. Usually $1 but rarely more than $3.

Other restrictions can apply, such as location of the sale, distance from the event, permission from the producer/management, etc.

Isn't there some MC or VISA Merchant Agreement that one could print out and show vendors who insist on ID for credit card transactions? My understanding is that demanding ID violates the Merchant Agreements, but not having seen one, I don't know.