With all the new electronic voting machines that don't offer a way to double check with paper, I don't think it really matters how I vote anyway. Either Venezuela will double check for us or we will just let the Supreme Court annoint all our "elected" officials. It's just "too hard" to count all the votes. Kind of scarey, right? The truth.

I don't know how many others there are there out there like me but... Christopher Shays (R-4) is head and shoulders above any Democrat who goes up against him - personally, politically and otherwise but I am going to vote for Diane Farrell, his opponent. I have no choice. The Republican leadership is toxic - toxic to gays and lesbians, toxic to poor women, toxic to the environment, the list goes on. There is nothing Chris can do about it.

If we did have to fight a war on terror, or the aftermath from Hurricane Katrina, the Bush Administration would be operating on a budget surplus. This president bent over backwards to cut red tape to help those hurt by Katrina and how was he thanked? Some of those very people are now accused of illegally receiving federal aid because of false and bogus claims. (That's why there is red tape) I guess President Bush is everyones punching bag without the public knowing all of the details.

There is a LOT of liberal talk here. No one liked Ronald Reagan when he was our leader. It makes me sick to read most of these post. No one has stated what the Dems offer. I don't see that the Dems offer anything except finger pointing. Your tired of the war, gas prices ect. What do the Dems offer? I voted for Jimmy Carter, and regreted it. "I asked my daughter Amy---", there is a leader for you! Kerry stated that this middle east problem would not have happened if he were President. What would he have done to stop it? TALK! I retired after 20 years of service to include Bosnia, Iraq, Korea, and Honduras. I know a leader when I see one. I don't see one anywhere in the Dems. I Know this won't make your news cast. Way too conservative, or as I like to say patriotic.

I just posted and think my contact info didn't show: ok for it to show

I just posted and think my contact info didn't show: ok for it to show

Oregon is once again leading the national trend. Considering that 84% of Americans feel that extreme partisanship is keeping us from solving our problems, a strong centrist independent candidate here is an example of what is to come in the next few years. Ben Westlund put aside his party because he felt it was keeping him from working with both sides to find solutions, we think many Oreegonians will agree it's time to put ideas before ideology and people before politics.

We have all heard the proverb, "May you live in interesting times." It also helps to live in an intersting place--and politically speaking, there may be no more interesting place than Ohio.
The Governor's race may be the great litmus test on the Bush Presidency. Will the state elect the 2004 Chairman of the Bush campaign as its next Governor? Will Congressman Sherrod Brown be able to unseat a moderate Republican incumbent Senator--because he is a Republican incumbent Senator?
Both sides are already up on TV, accusing the other of being either unpatriotic or a bobblehead for Bush. Right now, recent polling suggests that the Democrats have the edge, but the "down and dirty" has only just begun. Stay tuned.

The President is out of touch with the American people, and nothing demonstrated that more than did last weeks veto of a bill that 72% percent of the American people supported. In response to questions from reporters the best answer Tony Snow could come up with was "the President does not believe in murder." I suspect more than 28% percent of Americans don't either. Because the administration has to focus on Iraq, it must put on the back-burner issues that better resonate with the American electorate like rising gas prices. This is the challenge for Republicans this fall. If they have any chance of winning in November they must distinguish themselves from the Administration. The best way to do that is to abandon the "stay-the-course" attitude and find a concrete solution for Iraq. Easier said than done.

First off the whole war agenda is such a crock, I like everyone else was pissed off about what happen on Sep.11 an wanted some heads served up. I believe in the whole plot or plotting as more of a power play dealt with great planning an preperation by & for the Republican party. If you read this post please try to find a movie intitled "Loose Change" it's hard to get but sit back a enjoy it as it will fill out all your doubt's about Bush, Cheney, Rice,Etc. There is all to many point's that lead to your lovely pres & his crownies(?) There's one piont will you will actually about throw up & be very displeased with all the bullshit i.e. Fox News, CNN, CNBC. It's really a shame about where our country is headed with no one standing up for us the people, we gotta take back our lovely nation before it's to late. Act Now before it's too late, & please vote everyone, even know that it will go unoticed. Thanks for your time.

Chris R. California-(Los Angeles)

It is my opinion that Republican support for the Bush Administration has wanned due to a never-ending saga of miscalculations, most of which are the stuborn results of "stay the course" and never admit a mistake.

Rewinding the tape a bit, a couple of the bigger themes that stand out are the war in Iraq - what a success that's turned out to be. Energy prices - here's a guy who touted 0% financing for SUVs as an economic incentive. Sadly, auto companies can hardly give one of those away today.

Illegal immigration is another hot one. The federal government remains unmotivated about this one - no wonder why, contrary to popular belief many illegal immigrants do pay taxes whether they'd like to or not - it's deducted right off payroll. The kicker is most don't file returns leaving the federal government with a lot of unclaimed funds to make use of.

Oregon governor's race:

Ted Kulongoski (Incumbent democrat) and Ron Saxton are battling it out, but a third-party hopeful named Ben Westlund isn't even on the ballot and may already have 10% of polls before he gets enough signatures.

The reason? He's fiscally republican but is socially liberal. An environmentalist who knows how to deal with politics in the cities vs. the vast amount of rural area in Oregon.

Keep up the good work.

I guess anyone with an agenda could go out and find people to confirm one's viewpoint.

George W. Bush will go down in history as the Great Contrarian, an unlikely appellation to the more aggrevating Great Liar. Unlike his previous officeholders of Bill Clinton, the Great Balancer, or Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator, W. will be looked at as the duplicitous president that he is. The problem is that Americans do not wish to think of their leaders in this light, which requires time for most of them to assuage this final outcome. Brazen American patriotic inclinations always come to the fore to try and make sense of a man's apparent desire to pull his fellow Americans' feet out from under them. This time has finally come that Americans are finally assessing that this president is not for them, that W. is brazenly for the Elite, that he employs tricks to appeal to the average citizen that undermines them at all costs, that he employs tactics of ultra-patriotism only to his own ends. Americans are finally getting it that the republican stance has not been in their own interests, which is why republicans are losing favor. Even the followers of Moses found it difficult to believe that God postured for them which required Moses to go up Mt. Sinai twice. If a divine motive was second guessed, surely the American people must take pause in finding that their president is far more duplicitous than these could possibly have ever thought possible. Afterall, the most difficult thing to come to terms with is that the American voter has been conned.

The President has lost the support of many Republicans due to the fact that he is not a leader he is a Dictator. He doesn't do what is best for the American public, Bush does what Bush wants and doesn't think about consequences. You can write to your party and tell them what you think, and all you get back is "well, President Bush thinks..." You know this is America where the people have the voice and the people that we elect should stand by what the people want and need, but since Bush has been in office that has gone out the window. The Republicans we have in office now are a bunch of "YES" men that have lost their back bone. Bush needs to reevaluate what he has done to America, but wait he doesn't care, and he has never care about the people, he is not for the people and he has never stood by the people.

It's looking like we're going to have a six-way race for governor here in Oregon. We've got incumbent democrat Ted Kulongoski, Republican Ron Saxton, Mary Starett, a Constitution party candidate who used to host a local morning news program, a libertarian, a green, and Ben Westlund, a republican State Senator who left the party to run as an independent. He technically isn't on the ballot, yet, but he has enough signatures, and Zogby put him at 10% this week. We are going to have a crazy gubernatorial race this time.