Forget that the US spends $8 billion a year (50% of the RoK total defense budget) defending South Korea. That's a country that hasn't seen war since 1953. Spends something like 18 billion a year 'occupying' Germany, again not exactly a war torn country, recently. And the massive US naval presence separating Taiwan from China, an entire carrier force at the minimum. When the topic of reducing or eliminating this presence has ever come up both the host countries and the Congressional representatives of the districts that provide that capability scream bloody murder.

In fact the US has some military presence in 130 countries except Israel. But of course the conspiracy you can't see is the one that must be true, no?

In the meantime total aid to Israel is on a declining schedule. About 1.9 billion a year of which about 900 million is now military aid (all spent in the US providing US jobs) and about 1 billion in civilian aid in such evil zionist projects like water reclamation, agriculture and such. Moreover the US buys several hundred million dollars in military gear from Israel developed by Israel with Israeli funds. Such as antitank missiles, heads up avionics systems and landmine countermeasures and all but the largest and most complex UAV's in service today.

US aid to Egypt is actually larger than that now. Egypt, the liberals' dream of an open and free society. Ah I can just smell it. Come for the Pharaohs, stay for the 20,000 disappeared people each year. 2.3 billion dollars worth of military gear (not money, but actual equipment, personnel & training) buys you an awful lot of civil order nowadays.

So while you beat the tocsin about withdrawing aid, a) at least get your numbers right and b) include everyone. I for one don't lose any sleep about the security of Germans, South Koreans, Taiwanese and others apparently sucking the teat of American military aid.

If you're in the 98% majority of opinion you have to cry

"I'm being OPPRESSED!! OPPRESSION !!!"

Ding ding ding! And the winner is! James K. Polk. Dems need to quickly disabuse themselves of this happening this time or any time soon. Anything else would be self destructive at worst or political dilettante-ism at best. You need to stop looking at 'perfect' ideological candidates and stick to what you can do. And if that is too distasteful for you then you need to leave off politics altogether.

You haven't the balls to shout down President Monkey on 'supporting the troops'? What on God's Grey Earth will it take?

Bush's goal hasn't been to specifically politicize the Court. It's to neuter the court. Render it largely irrelevant consigned to deciding trivial pre-John Marshall era contract issues and issues of interstate commerce. With Bush's current crop of useless empty heads lead by Chief Justice Blank Nobody, Scalia, the ever useless Thomas and Alito-Who? it's clear that the SC's purpose for the right wingers is to be essentially out of play. To serve no useful purpose at all. That way they can re erect their dreams of Confederacy and leave everything at the state level.

That's how long the British army was in Iraq; 1919-56

Population 353,000 land area ~120 sq miles but the way its grown by annexation its 30 miles end to end. And because there's so much undeveloped/under developed land there's no incentive to build UP. Only out. There's always another plot land to clear cut and build on in lieu of trying to get the city's permission to build anything more than a few floors in height. So here we have endless professional office space and strip malls most of which are never occupied (and never will be occupied) before the next one goes up next door or down the street.

If you look at the Triangle region it's even worse. Total population 1.4 million, total area 4,600 sq miles. 4 cities, 9 suburbs of 10,000 people each or more and 55 suburbs of less than 10,000 people each. Now at 340 people/sq mile that might sound like a lot but the Triangle is considered a single metropolitan area. You come to expect roads and services spread out over the large area and for all those services to work and to be affordable, which they don't and they're not.

This is one reason why we've always been in the top 10 worst air quality regions in the country for years. Nothing but roads, cars, red lights and congestion as far as the eye can see. You need a car to buy milk.

The only people who say Israel is a victim are the haters who prop that up only to knock it down. What they intentionally fail to acknowledge is that there's a difference between 'victim' and a legitimate target of terrorism and the unfocused rage of radicals in the west who support terrorism.

aVulcan's 'essays' are generally in the vein of the kind of stuff in the arab press that imagines a global Jewish conspiracy and then purports to be the only righteous bulwark that a) discovered it and b) is in a unique position to fight it.

Make no mistake Israel isn't a victim. It's simply a matter of fighting the point of view that not committing suicide renders one a world pariah. Would that we could believe the aVulcans of the world who assert that but for the existence of Israel and Jews generally, the world would see a new era of global peace and prosperity. Which of course is nonsense to the rest of the world that isn't insane.

Everybody said AFL was doomed but it's actually found quite a niche following. NFL inc. might find itself bloated and ninny nanner micromanaged into irrelevance. I mean how long will fining players as entertainment still be entertaining no matter how loud the suits at ESPN scream about it?

When you're a Jet.

Such as the tilt multimedia function that reads the directional orientation of the screen and turns it on and off and changes functions based on that. It's the kind of bleeding edge 'interface' stuff that many people have been clamoring for years for.