2008 US Election

Anyone watching McCain tonight??? This biographical video is the cheesiest thing I've ever seen. I'm sorry but it was bad.

Ryan

Honestly Kathleen, where do the Democrats pour money into education? They put it all towards the poorer districts. My district didn't receive any benefits under Clinton or Bush. Walk into my classroom and it is from the stone ages. Go to Elizabeth and they have a TV and computers in every single room. All the technology you could ask for is at their fingertips. Don't get me wrong, I think that is great for them, but we didn't see any significant changes in schooling under Clinton or Bush. No Child Left Behind is a joke, but did it change things? Not really. Administrators find ways around it and it is business as usual. Politicians, all of them, focus on the districts in need, not realizing we are ALL in need and all could use some improvement.

Anti-Choice, I am totally against that. Abortion has been legal since 1973. I honestly don't think that will change.

It is funny you should pose these questions to me as a teacher. A colleague discussed the election with me yesterday. She asked if I was a Republican. My response is that I am Independent, but tend to sway towards the right. She told me not to mention that at school because most teachers, like herself, are Democrats. I suppose in her mind we aren't allowed to have differing opinions without being persecuted for them. I would never criticize or think less of a colleague due to what party they vote for. Honestly, I wanted to tell her that a great deal of my colleagues are also voting Republican this election, but after her comment, I realized there would be no point.

This year I have received the most substantial raise in my ten years of teaching along with more supplies and materials than prior years. Could things be better? They always can as I have stated in the first paragraph, but we, meaning my students and self, are not suffering.

Perhaps because you are male the abortion issue simply doesn't hit home with you the way it does a female. Any male politician (or female politician for that matter) that supposes to tell me what I may do with my own body hits a very basic survival nerve (my survival). I make my choices - no one else has the right to.

The same goes for the birth control issue. You males simply never had to worry about it historically speaking. So now the Republican party tries to stop teenagers from using birth control by cutting funding to schools that teach sex ed and not abstinence - who does that hurt more? The male partner or the teenage girl that winds up pregnant. And then she can't get an abortion. Who do these laws serve - certainly not us females.

And if any one of them read any history they would realize that teaching abstinence has been going on for centuries - taught by the churches mostly. It hasn't worked in the past and it doesn't work now. Witness Palin's 17 year old daughter. Human nature (both male and female) is simply not made that way.

I see what you are saying. I still can't fathom it simply for the fact that a candidate could fall in line with everything she believes or thinks is best for the country with the exception of being pro-choice, but she won't vote for them. Does that not bug anyone else?

Ryan

It bothers me. I am a Democrat, pro-choice, pro gay marriage, pro stem cell research. However, I would have a hard time voting for anyone who is anti stem cell research. I have Cerebral Palsy so that issue hits home for me. I am not a religious person and I am aganist any canaidate that wants to govern this country by the Bible. I really am not sure sometimes what decade we are living in when there are people out there that do not grasp that idea.

Sadly, we still have nine weeks left of this constant mud slinging. The name calling will only get worse. My current girlfriend is a very religious person, pro-life and is the daughter of a Priest. Go figure. I figure I may just go into hiding for these final nine weeks as I'm tired of all the negativity.

It's weird because my fiance thinks I'm the most liberal person on the planet for some reason. Yet, I'm against gay marriages and am mixed on abortion. This isn't stopping me from voting for Barack Obama. I just can't take another 8 years of Bush policy.

Ryan

Don't get me wrong Ryan, I am mixed on abortion as well.

I do not support killing babies but I also realize outlawing abortion will only cause bigger problems. My girlfriend has made the comment about being pro-choice that girls make the "choice" when they decide to have unprotected sex. What she and others often fail to realize however is that it is possible to have protected sex and still become pregnant, or god forbid, a woman is raped. THAT is why outlawing abortion is a terrible, terrible idea.

I'm almost opposite. If you make the choice to have sex then you should have to pay for the consequences. Now, there are some instances such as incest and rape where I believe there can be exceptions, as long as they aren't late-term abortions or partial birth abortions. Outlawing it completely is very improbabale. I can see what you are saying though.

Ryan

It may very well be.

However, I am extremely offended by many comments made by Bush, McCain and Palin and feel they insult my intelligence with 90% of their comments. Therefore, we're even

I am told that I abort babies that are inconvenient to me. I am told to be anti-american. I am told to have no family values ..... it's insulting and actually worse to me than if someone would say "I just don't get it".

It is unfathomable to me how someone could think it was ok to invade another country for personal reasons and unfathomable how it was not clear to people from day one what the real reasons were. It is unfathomable how someone would support someone who wants to take my personal rights away - whether or not it will actually happen or not is irrelevant. I it unfathomable how someone wants me to support nuclear energy and more drilling instead of using alternative energy like the rest of the world. It is unfathomable to me how someone would think that questioning the decisions of government make someone un-american. To think that somone agrees with those statements is something I dont understand. To think that people don't hear these things when listening to McCain and Bush make think they are lacking comprehension skills.

I do know people that voted for Bush and may support McCain and I consider them intelligent and respect them in every other way. I'll never understand why and will always wonder .... but that doesn't mean I truly believe that all McCain supporters are not intelligent.

Though it feels like it to me.

Yes he did. What he effectively was saying was that we need to keep the military personnel uneducated without future job prospects so we can wage more war and keep them 'in the system'.

What gets me most is that people were cheering. Apparently not getting the connection. (apologies if that is an inference on someones intelligence).