This conservative argument sounds eerily similiar to one I had online with a woman from Texas-whom I blame for inflicting GW on the rest of us. It got overheated-I was accused of overgeneralizing-off it went.

I'm not going to apologize for being right. Many many years ago people should have seen this man for what little he was-conservative wise, Governor-wise,...Just becasue folks couldn't see because of the massive amounts of egoistic "what- can-I-get-out- of-him"is par for the course of skewed American values. These values are projected in Texan values, in Christian values, in Conservative values, in Jewish values. Those doing the projecting are a bunch of selfish, white, male, egoistic, materialistic CEO elitist jerks.

This is GW truly represents people-it was never ABOUT you conservatives! It was about using you so that a core group of men can make money off of you.

Hey GOPers do these values represent you?

Money makes the world go around. Money solves all.

Are these really Christian values? Money over family? Money over morals?

So for those of you who still have that gold "W" that you thought was so cool to put on your car-like sitting at the cool-kids table in high school huh?

Too bad you've never grown up prioritywise to see that you just had your lunchmoney, your letter jacket, and your cheerleader trophy GF stolen right out from you. All becasue you were so consumed with "image" and materialism over any real moral beliefs.

You and the entire conservative movement got hoodwinked by the "nerdy" Neocon crowd right under your own nose.

You have no one to blame but yourseves-not GW. that's called projection)

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

It's a learning process I'm going through myself.

I think this "growing up" is really just learning to communicate with your heart.

It's realizing all the silly competitive, materialist, selfish, self-effacing things we do to ourselves are us being conformists to society.

Once we break these chains and stop letting them guide our decisions-we are free to be who we really are and are meant to be. It's sad to me to think that many people older than I have still not made this discovery-how unhappy they must be.

Once I started "living in the moment" I was much happier about life-becasue I actually took the time to let myself experience emotion-good and bad. Many people don't want to do this-are afraid of pain. The pain goes away though, and makes the joy that much better. Realizing paradox and irony in ourselves and others is another lesson.

The biggest change in my own attitude is about getting old-as you've said I no longer fight it-I accept it. But now realizing my own conectedness to nature-I feel it everywhere-I'm not afraid of death. Becasue I think my existence is constantly changing and evolving-yearly, monthly, daily, minutae, secondly...I don't view death as anything finite or ending.

rather than try to correct the course their GOP leader has wrought-with much bloodshed and chaos throughout the world. They want to say "look over there" to the rest of us-trying to point thier fingers at Iran, Russia, China....or whomever else they fancy collecting resouces from.OOH-look over there americans-TERRORISTS. As if the rest of us are dumb enough to buy any of thier reasons for war anymore.I know longer see terrorism as my enemy-but the GOP warmongering platform.

For the GOP to continue to separate themselves from GW is laughable. John McCain helped the Pres. tear apart Habeus C and continues to hide many emails from the Abramoff scandal.

Guiliani is a carboncopy ego-driven nutjob. all of them have flipped more times on every issue, it's ridiculous.

To continue to even link Al Queda with 911 is insulting. When is last time we got any updates on Bin Laden? Also, why aren't the GOP wanting Cheney to release his secret energy meetings? Why aren't the GOP and the Dems working together to get a fair oil deal for Iraq-instead of Cheney illegally taking it upon himself to do. If the GOP is so concerned about distancing themselves from GW-maybe they should first ackknowledge and force GW/Cheney to have some transparency about the above mentioned items. Until they do-all candidates just look like more of the same.

and I think we all are just beginning to realize it.

Thanks, Gary, for your responsible approach to the comparisons of Rome and the US-but as guidelines only. I agree there are things that are different in this day and age.

though Calligula and Cheney have more things in common than I care to think of.

I feel that the slow drip drip of corruption, only to be knocked off the air by a terror plots, is catching them and the publics' on to thier tactics. the scandasl are coming fast and furious-the msm just isn't covering it. The public knows this also. I feel an anxious "shoe about to drop"emotion.. But I also feel it's close to the beginning of the end for them. There are too many lies to cover, too many scandals-it's just a matter of time before it's all linked. Will it be a sex scandal that finally tips it in the Christian Conservatives eyes?

Just reading some news on blogs which was very interesting to me. I only just yesterday read about the kids of detainees being held. I'm horrified-but nothing about this Administration suprises me anymore.

One of the more interesting thing I'd read today is how the WH is lawyering up with guys from Fieldings office. Reckon it's finally seeping in that this unitary exeutive thing is gonna fall flat on it's ass.?

Also very telling that they knew from it's inception how illegal-the wirteapping program, the DOJ scandal, the torture and detainment was. With all of the scrubbed articles I've seen this week about Dick Cheney and his part in the DOJ/Ashcroft meeting-I'm finally smelling some fear in the WH.