"THEY" WANT OUR MONEY - STOP GIVING IT TO THEM!

"They", in this case, being the liberal-progressive socialist-Marxists who presently control the White House, the DOJ, and the House and Senate.

If we fail to unseat this destructive liberal-progressive, socialist-Marxist, tax-and-spend government on November 2nd, our nation is doomed to enjoy the status of a 3rd world nation... like Zimbabwe, which has a history of inflation in the hundreds of percents daily!

DO NOT BELIEVE THE LIES FROM THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION! Those lies are what put us in this position. They would love to be able to blame George Bush, and their believers still do. They conveniently forget to mention the fact that during the last 2 years of the Bush administration, the Congressional purse strings were controlled by the liberal, tax-and-spend Democratic Party!
REPLACE ALL THOSE FROM EITHER PARTY WHO VOTED TO SUPPORT OUR IMPENDING BANKRUPTCY. Perhaps you can't FIX stupid, but you can vote it out of office!
The citizenry must remember the intent of our Constitution, for the Congress has surely forgotten what it means. Demand adherence to the Constitution - VOTE CONSERVATIVE this November!

Are We As DUMB As Our Elected Representatives THINK We Are?

Hav yu goten thee impreshun that hour politishuns thenk We the People ar stoopid? We seem to provide genuine proof of that opinion by our voting records. We repeatedly put the same worthless people back into office, even after they have shown their disdain for what the people who put them into office really want.

If our politicians were half as smart as they think they are, they would be serving their constituency rather than "servicing" them. Obama just finished his "Health Care Summit", loaded of course, to his advantage - 20 Democraps and 17 mostly RINOs (Republican In Name Only). There was no discussion... simply a lecture by The Chosen One, laying the blame for his failure to move Obamacare through the House and Senate at the feet of the Republican party. That's politics for you! The Republicans are reflecting the true desires of the majority of Americans - we do not want or need a socialist takeover of health care by the Government. It is not cost effective, it will increase taxes. It will result in longer waits for treatment and, in some cases, the wait will be too long. It will cover those who are not citizens of this country, most of whom - if working at all - are working for "cash under the table", and are therefore not paying into the system. It will overtax our existing medical workforce, resulting in qualified medical personnel leaving the field, placing an increasing burden on those who remain, resulting in even longer waits for medical treatment.
Many doctors have said they would give up the practice of medicine should Obamacare become law. More government interference is not the answer to our health care issues. Tort reform is a partial answer. Severe reductions in the cost of medical training is another partial answer. Reasonable (40% - standard retail markup) profit margins on medical supplies and equipment would reduce expenses, which should reduce patient costs. Allowing the sale and purchase of health insurance across state lines would increase competition, and should therefore reduce premium costs. Including small businesses in large "Group Plans" thereby reducing premium costs. Insurance companies should be responsible for covering preventive care - which may cost them only a small fraction of what corrective treatment would cost.

I am a recipient of Medicare now, having paid into it almost all my working life, and continuing to do so in retirement. My personal physician recently put a letter out to all his patients the general thrust of which was: Doctors lose money on every Medicare patient they treat. This is true throughout the state OMA, and the national AMA. If national health care becomes a requirement I will have to cease treating Medicare and Medicaid patients.
I may be carrying that statement to the wrong conclusion, but it appears to me that although we will have Medicare coverage, we seniors will be unable to get treatment under it. What is the practical difference between that and being uninsured??
Then we will have millions more without usable medical coverage - which we will probably continue to be charged for via Social Security deduction. Where is the gain in that?

Would You Rather Fish For Freedom... or Cut Bait For Obama?

Referring to slavery, Abraham Lincoln said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

Paraphrasing our 16th President, yet referring to a different kind of slavery - "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half socialist-progressive and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other." (emphasis added)

I, on the other hand, would not be surprised to see the Union dissolve. Thirty-three states have felt it necessary to reaffirm their sovereignty over the past 12 months. Why do you think that is? Were their State Legislatures bored, and had nothing better to do? The reason is that they can see The Beast of government growing larger on an almost-daily basis - stealing more power for itself while attempting to reduce the powers granted to the States by the United States Constitution, Amendment X - "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
Any government is essentially a parasite. Our government is much like a leech - one which "supports" itself by simply taxing the earnings generated by the blood, toil, tears and sweat of the citizens of the fifty sovereign states. The government ignores the expressed will of the people, for we are not nearly as intelligent as "The Chosen One". We are just the ignorant worker-drones whose only legitimate function is to feed The Beast. But The Beast is insatiable.

SAVE THE REPUBLIC - IMPEACH OBAMA!

Universal Healthcare Will Be Universal NIGHTMARE!

Here are a few facts - that you won't hear on the mainstream media - regarding the House version of Obama's Universal Healthcare (Management) System. The following is from a July 15th, 2009 radio interview of Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant Governor of New York - and an active Patient Advocate - who has actually read the bill:

1. The bill is half paid for by a $500 BILLION cut in health care benefits and services for seniors!
2. On page 425 of the House version, Congress would make it mandatory that everyone on Medicare have a required counseling every 5 years on how to end their life sooner! How to decline nutrition, how to decline hydration, and how to go into hospice care. And, if you get sick during that 5 year period, you have to go through that counseling again!
3. All this is designed to encourage you to do what is in the best interest of society, or your family's best interests, by cutting your life short.
4. To insure equal treatment, even if you have enough money to pay for the needed treatment yourself... treatment cannot be provided.

When the "Stimulus Bill" was passed in February of 2009, there was something slipped into that bill called "Comparative Effectiveness Research" - this is generally a code for denying care to a patient based on their birthdate. It is a code that economists are quite familiar with, and the formula is relatively simple. You divide the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit from it. So, for age-related diseases - like Macular Degeneration, or Alzheimer's, or Osteoporosis - those treatments are often turned down in England, where this formula is widely used because the elderly patients have too few years left to benefit from treatment.

In 2006, the British National Health service issued an edict, using Comparative Effectiveness Research, saying that elderly people with Macular Degeneration - a condition that causes blindness - couldn't get a new drug to save the vision of both eyes until they had lost the vision in one eye!

Barack Obama's plan to reduce health care costs will be met thusly:
1. Reduce Medicare benefits and services by $500 BILLION dollars. While the White House, the Cabinet, and members of Congress continue to receive gold standard treatment in their own separate health plan - which is paid for by the taxes of the same people whose care will be reduced by $500 BILLION! If this health plan is good enough for US, why isn't it good enough for THEM?
2. Encouraging suicide among those whose care creates a drain on the system - the elderly, the chronically ill, and the developmentally disabled. We're now talking about your parents and grandparents, your brother with Downs Syndrome, or your sister with Muscular Dystrophy!
3. Creating TRILLIONS of dollars in new taxes to support his socialist dream.

Dr. Ezekial Emanuel, brother of Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, said "People who have incurable or irreversible illnesses, should not be given basic health services." And, as an example, he cites, "An obvious example is not giving health services to patients with dementia."
This would include your parents with Alzheimer's, and your children with Cerebral Palsy!
Personally, I believe that Michelle Obama and the Emanuel brothers should be the first to experience such a health management system!

For more detailed information on the hidden ramifications of this horrific medical nightmare, and others, go to (cut-n-paste): http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us/

The whole thing stinks of communism! Perhaps your governments next plan will be to round up all the Jews... or all the Whites. Shades of Soylent Green (for those of you unfamiliar with SG, see: http://www.retrojunk.com/movie/trailers/45-soylent-green/44/#intro ). And why does the AmeriCorps mandatory volunteer program sound so similar to Hitler's Jugend (Youth Corps)?

I could be wrong about this... but I'm not!

Government 101 - How To Control A Runaway Government

First let's establish what the United States is and is not:

a. The United States is a democratic Republic, it is not a Democracy. The difference is that a Republic is a form of government under a constitution which provides for the election of:

1. an executive and

2. a legislative body, who working together in a representative capacity, have all the power of appointment, all power of legislation, all power to raise revenue and appropriate expenditures, and are required to create

3. a judiciary to pass upon the justice and legality of their governmental acts, and to recognize

4. certain inherent individual rights.

b. A pure democracy is strictly "majority rule", and is destructive of liberty because there is no law to prevent the majority from trampling on individual rights. Whatever the majority says goes! A lynch mob is an example of pure democracy in action. There may be only one dissenting vote... and that is cast by the person at the end of the rope.

Professor Alexander Fraser Tytler, nearly two centuries ago, had this to say about Democracy: "A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a Dictatorship."

We have recently seen this come to pass in the private sector, although Congress has been "voting themselves largess out of public treasury" for decades!

Now that we are all on the same page let's do a little probing. First question: What is the stated purpose of government? Tick-tock, tick-tock... time's UP! According to our Constitution the purpose of government is - "We the People of the United States, in Order to
a. form a more perfect Union,
b. establish Justice,
c. insure domestic Tranquility,
d. provide for the common defense,
e. promote the general Welfare, and
f. secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Those six charges in the Preamble establish the "purpose" of our government. What follows in the body of the Constitution constitute the ways and means by which those goals may be achieved - the "details". The Constitution establishes the limits of the government over those who have installed it.

Second question: Who is the government? Easy answer - "We the People", although we subrogate the responsibilities for the day-to-day operation of the government to those whom we elect (here comes the democratic part) by majority vote.

Third question - Who controls the government? Buzzzzzzzz - WRONG ANSWER! Although technically it should be "We the People", the government has developed its own power to control vital resources, and has encouraged the indolent to become highly dependent upon the government through various giveaway programs. This is - more often than not - against the expressed will of the vast majority of the people. Our government has been growing less responsive to the will of the people for the past fifty years! What we have today is a modernized version of the Roman Circus. Smoke and mirrors, misdirection, sleight-of-hand, palpable charisma, individual complacency, and the promise of "Gubmint cheese" for all who are willing to surrender their rights under the Constitution, have combined in a comedy of errors to erode the people's control of government.

Our elected officials no longer see themselves as the servants of the people, but rather, they now see themselves as the masters of the largest single plantation on Earth. "We the People" must now "tote that barge and lift that bale", or Massa Government will punish us.

How do we regain control of our unresponsive and irresponsible government? The government has no income producing arm other than the Constitutional ability to levy taxes. Government is essentially a parasite feeding upon the fruits of the labors of the governed. If you earned four bananas today, the government will eat at least one of them. As the government grows larger, it requires more food for itself - which leaves you with less food for you and your family. How do we stop the increase of government's girth? We stop feeding it until it slims down! What does it eat? TAXES. If you have ever stopped to think about it, you must realize that every government tax, fee, and license is an (unlawful) income tax! From where does the money come to pay those taxes, fees, and licenses? Your INCOME!

So here are our options:
(1) Continue to feed the beast until you starve, or
(2) refuse to feed the beast until it brings its appetite for taxes under control,
(3) replace the exisiting beast with a more responsive/responsible beast. And, one that is less likely to buy pork with your hard-earned money.
(4) I don't even like to think about option #4.

As always, I could be completely wrong about this... and the millions of entitlement whores could get jobs!

Outrageous Taxes Levied on Smokers and Drinkers

As of April 1st, 2009, Oregon State taxes on cigarettes increased by 59¢ per pack, and Federal taxes added another $1.01 per pack! This means that a pack of cigarettes will have a median price of about $6.00 per pack. Federal taxes on loose bulk tobacco, the kind used by the "roll your own" crowd, jumped from $1.09 per pound to $23.48 per pound! Statistically, this will create a new "class" of person. The working-class, low-income person is, statistically, far more likely to be the user of tobacco products, than are the middle- and upper-income persons. Assuming that "statistic" (I have not heard an exact percentage) is accurate, the new class will be the "well-to-do" working-class, lower-income person, who, regardless of the cost will refuse to surrender their tobacco habit, thereby making him or her the envy of his or her working-class neighbors. There's also an additional 50¢ per bottle tax on alcoholic beverages. This has been referred to as a "sin tax" for years, but it is, in fact, a pleasure tax. Tax those things that people enjoy, and you will reap greater profits for the Government than if you taxed things like cauliflower, vasectomies, or root canals! Certainly not everyone enjoys either or both of the aforementioned "sins", but enough people do enjoy them to make it very profitable for the Government. "So what?" you say "I don't smoke or drink, so it's no skin off my nose!" Well what do you enjoy? Fishing? Already taxed via "license fees". Boating? Already taxed via "registration fees". If you look at it from a practical standpoint, permits and fees are nothing more than a means of taxing people who enjoy certain activities. The "bowling fee" is probably coming soon, along with "golf permits", "softball licenses" and "Frisbee fees". Neither the Federal nor State Government "owns" the wild game of the USA, but the State sells you a "hunting license". Suppose that deer you just shot wandered over from one of the neighboring states just this morning? Does Oregon have the right to charge you a license fee to shoot a non-resident animal from the state of Washington or California? It's not like Oregon had anything invested in the maintenance of that animal. It's wild game! "Wild" implies that it belongs to nobody... "hunting license" is just a Government euphemism for another tax. And those "game tags"... one more tax!

The Obama administration seems to believe that we can be taxed into prosperity by adopting a more European tax standard - like 40+%. If that works so well, why are the Europeans experiencing the same kinds of difficulties the USA is having? We are not the Europeans!!
We are the United States of America, and there is no apology necessary for our ability to succeed in a free-market economy or to overcome adversity! Most Europeans envy us our successes, many resent us - not because we acted "superior", but because they felt inferior after we saved their collective asses in WWII. Yet even those that resent us still respect American technology, American creativeness, Americas willingness to help, and our military power.

Personally, I refuse to support his taxes, and smoked my last cigarette at 2pm, on April 3rd 2009! So far, so good.

There's an outside chance that I could be wrong about this... about the same chance that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has of becoming the Grand Ayatollah of Iran!

Taxes On Top Of Taxes!

Oregonians are about to receive a treat from our Governor, the less-than-Honorable Ted Kulongowski. Granted, this is just a specific group of Oregonians to be saddled with an additional tax, but if it can happen to one group, it can happen to us all! Effective 1 April 2009, cigarette taxes will be increased by 59¢ per pack for all vendors, including those cigarettes in existing inventory. That means that cigarettes upon which the prevailing, authorized tax has already been paid, will be taxed again at the new rate! Also, we have another $1.01 FEDERAL tax being added on the same date! Objectively, even non-smokers should see the inherent wrong in such double taxation. The issue is not smoking - it's inappropriate taxation. Also, bulk tobacco, for those who "roll their own", or pipe smokers, will see a tax increase from $2.50 per pound to $25.00 per pound! That's an increase of ten times - or 1,000 percent. There's an additional tax being levied on "smokeless" tobacco as well. Today's assault is on tobacco products... tomorrow's tax hikes may be on all paper products, rubber products, dairy products, or whatever else a mad-dog, tax-crazed Government dedcides. There's nothing to stop them but the outcry from "We the People"!

Is there any question why there will be a nation-wide tax protest on April 15th? Next will be what... alcohol tax? More gasoline taxes? Taxes per mile on your vehicle? If there is a convenience, vice, or pleasure that is not taxed today, perhaps that tax will come tomorrow - the fishing tax, the bicycle tax, the skiing tax, or the television ownership tax. Think about it - we are the ones who must pay those taxes, and we are already paying more than enough. Have you looked at your telephone bill or your cable or satellite TV bill lately? The are about 10 obscure taxes on that already!

Enough is ENOUGH! Stand with those who will protest against unnecessary taxes, and wasteful spending of our tax dollars on April 15th. If you don't there will be a tremendous price to pay in the near future!

There's a remote chance I could be wrong about this ... do you want to take the chance that I'm NOT?

Left-Wing Socialist Government Destroying America On All Fronts

I find the actions of your new government absolutely incomprehensible! Janet Napolitano, the "Director of Homeland Security" (with no security background) appears to be against immigration control. Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) is the investigative branch of Homeland Security... does that say anything to you about our chances of controlling illegal immigration? I only hear, "C'mon in, my door is always open to you!" What's coming in through that "open door"? Drugs, additional violence, illegal aliens, and now - Hezbollah and al Qaeda terrorists! Sure, just walk right in... and bring all your problems with you. Our taxpayers will be more than happy to support you and your extended family. We haven't had a good terrorist attack on American soil in almost 9 years now, so bring lots of those terrorists also. But, that's just Homeland Security - safety within our borders.

We still have our international security monitors, the CIA. The CIA is headed by Leon Panetta, who has no background in intelligence - or possibly just no intelligence, period. Are you familiar with the name Linda Panetta? Probably not, since she doesn't get media coverage in this country. Well, Linda Panetta is Leons' daughter, and she gets all her media coverage outside the United States, where she takes every opportunity to discredit our country and to side with anybody who is anti-American. Here we see Linda with her good friends, Hugo Chavez ("elected" dictator of Venezuela, and noted America hater), and Daniel Ortega ("ex-Marxist", "ex-"Sandanista leader) current El Presidente of Nicaragua, who says the United States has an obligation to add all of Central America to our financial bail-out plans (I'm not quite certain what his reasoning could be for that opinion, other than he's INSANE!). Doesn't Chavez look simply brilliant in this photo?

Then we have Timothy Geithner, Head Monkey of the Treasury Department - who, incidently, "forgot" to pay some $40,000 in taxes over the last few years... or, at least that's what he told Congress when he was nominated for this political plum! Don't you feel better now, knowing that our entire Treasury Department is now in the hands of a man who couldn't even figure his own income tax properly! Or could he... and simply tried to avoid paying those taxes? That would make him a "tax dodger"! Would you or I be similarly rewarded with a high-paying government position if we "forgot" to pay any amount of taxes owed to the government? God bless those thieving, lying, corrupt left-wing Democrats... and the horse they rode in on, too. I'm certain there are other, equally unqualified appointments, we just haven't heard about them yet!

What we have here is a government in which the (metaphorically speaking) blind are leading the visually incapable (no offense meant to those truly visually impaired)! Never in the history of this country have we had such gross and collective incompetence at the highest levels of government! Obama's appointments seem to be designed to destroy the foundation upon which this great nation was built.

I could be wrong about this - in fact, I hope I am! But the chances of that present about the same odds as Rosie O'Donnel becoming pregnant in the "natural way".

Tea Bags and (Tea) Tax Parties ... Be Heard On Taxation

We have a couple of important dates coming up ... April 1st (not my choice for a date) has been set as the date for all concerned American citizens to send one tea bag to Washington D.C. as a gentle reminder that the government serves at our pleasure. (I'm aware that I've mentioned this before, in passing, during another post. I simply feel it is worth mentioning at least once again - in case you missed it.) I would suggest addressing your envelope to:

Current Resident
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C. 20500

It also wouldn't hurt to send one to both of your congressional and senatorial representatives. It's a cheap and convenient way to let those we elected to serve our country know that we are watching their performance, and that we are not particularly pleased. The whole package will only cost you about 50¢ each, and you don't even have to go out in the weather and carry a sign to make your displeasure known! So much for April 1st - let those fools know this is no joke!

Next item: As you are all aware, April 15th is tax day. There is an organized nationwide movement (in 40 states at last count). We have just witnessed how "responsibly" the Government is handling our tax dollars. That's right, OUR TAX DOLLARS! The Government has no money of its own - only that which we provide via taxation. Do you think Obama has a paper route? Or that Pelosi is a "nail technician" on the side? Those few supposedly revenue producing functions the government does have, like the Government Printing Office, operate at a loss. The Government just gave $165 BILLION of our tax dollars to AIG ... without placing any restrictions on its use! How stupid is that?? Go to your local lender and ask for $50,000 on just your signature. Then, when they ask how you plan to use the money tell them, "Any way I damn well please!". How successful do you think your request for funds would be? You would probably be thrown out of the building - from an upper-level window! The tax protest is not "anti-tax", it's anti-waste, anti-fraud and anti-pork. It's our way of saying ENOUGH!! Stop the bailouts, stop the stimulus, stop the borrowing, stop the spending, we have more than enough government, and too many taxes! To see if your state is among those participating go to (copy-n-paste):
http://taxdayteaparty.com/find.html

If you have an opportunity to be heard, and fail to take advantage of it, you deserve whatever the outcome.

I could be ... Nah ... NO WAY!

How Much Does It Pay, And Do You Need A Degree To Get The Job?

I was first introduced to Utah in 1975, courtesy of the United States Air Force. Hill AFB is in Davis County, Utah, and is surrounded by the towns of Clearfield, Layton, Sunset, Roy, Riverdale and South Ogden. The base occupies a rather large chunk of land - about 13 miles around Perimeter Road - atop a hill ... hence the name (isn't our government just SO creative?). In 1975, the main road linking Layton, Clearfield, Sunset and Roy was full of potholes, and (it seemed like) almost everybody had a Bear Front End Alignment machine. Every service station (this was back when they actually did something resembling "service"), tire shop, inspection station ... maybe even Rite Aid, and Sacco's Produce stand.

Well, I'm pleased to announce that those potholes on the main drag have, for the most part, been eliminated ... and replaced by man-made potholes on the intersecting side streets. Apparently some clever construction company got a contract to countersink all the manhole covers (and they average about 2 manholes per block, with each one being offset from the previous and following one)! Does someone not understand the concept of flush mounting? Or did the county hire a civil engineer from the Bubba's Skule Of Enjinearring? Who did they pay to set all their manholes 4" to 6" below the road surface?

Okay, now try to imagine navigating this asphalt slalom course on a motorcycle, on roads where the "speed limit" is apparently a suggestion, and if you aren't going at least 10mph over the speed limit, you will either have to move your tuchas into the slow lane, or find yourself discovering the joys of organ donation! I can remember the days of Sunset Officer "Ticket Tommy" Reynolds, the fastest pen in the west, so I'm a bit leary of exceeding the posted speed limit in this area, even if it is just a suggestion. And nobody would want my organs ... but that's a whole different story in itself. It's obvious that Davis County, Utah has spent the revenues from the gasoline road taxes, vehicle registrations, on anything but roads! Perhaps they had a giant Postum party at the State Capitol. And then, there's the exhorbitant and ridiculous (and quite possibly illegal) practice of charging new residents UTAH SALES TAX on vehicles brought into Utah by them if they come from a state without sales tax. And, they don't care how old the vehicle is, or how long you owned it before moving here! How does the Utah DMV figure that they have the right to tax something that somebody bought elsewhere prior to moving here?? Where IS the logic?

Complaining aside (and I've been told that I'd complain if I were hung with a gold rope) oddly enough, returning to Utah is always like coming home, and I've been gone for 10 years now. Sure, Utah has it's problems - like goofy rules, odd laws, and corrupt politicians, but so do most places. I was born in New Jersey, and have lived in 11 states and 4 foreign countries, but I have never felt more comfortable - more 'at home' - than I do when I return to Utah for a visit with my kids, and my numerically insignificant but absolutely wonderful (I consider each one a personal blessing in my life) friends! To borrow a line from The Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home."

Gil

P.S. And, especially if you ride a motorcycle, there are some MAGNIFICENT rides in Utah!!

Terror Suspects Can Challenge U.S. Detention: Court

The 4th U.S. Court o f Appeals , in Richmond, VA, today ruled that the President can order the imprisonment of an al Queda suspect in the United States, but the detainee must be able to challenge his status as an "enemy combatant." This has some interesting implications:

1. Are people engaged in combat against U.S. Military forces not de facto enemy combatants?

2. If not, then why were they carrying AK-47 assault rifles, and shooting at our soldiers? Did they confuse the 1st Infantry Division with a very large, noisy mob of rabbits?

3. If their capture was not the product of direct combat (i.e. not shooting or involved in obvious guerrilla activities, such as storing weapons, making/planting IEDs, etc.), but rather captured on reliable intelligence information indicating that they were enemy agents, should they be tried by a military tribunal, or in the civilian court system?

Let's assume that conditions 1 & 2 are both met, and the people we're talking about are genuine 'enemy combatants.' Historically, and in keeping with established U.S. military tradition and regulations, Prisoners of War (POW's) have been incarcerated without further legal proceedings for the duration of the conflict, whether it was 6 days or 10 years.

Suddenly somebody wants to change 200+ years of legal precedent to accommodate the uniqueness of the ongoing Iraq War. They want these terrorist hairballs to be tried in civilian U.S. courts! Could it be that shyster attorneys see an opportunity to make a lot of taxpayer money by defending these POS? Oh - my error - POWs! Another historical precedent is that anybody engaging in actions against the military, who was not wearing the uniform of the opposing military, was considered a spy and summarily executed - post haste! None of these cowardly, bottom-feeding scumbags wears a uniform of any kind (but if you're a left-wing, bleeding-heart, commie pinko, 'blame America first', Jane Fonda liberal, you've probably convinced yourself that the consistent lack of a uniform is their uniform, and should therefore be accepted as such).

Absurd actions, such as trying these bozos in civilian courts, will not only clog our Federal Court System, but will burn up tens of millions of our tax dollars that could otherwise be put to much better use. If they were involved in any manner working against our forces, then they are not 'civilians', but enemy combatants, and should be dealt with as such according to military law! But that's just my thoughts on the matter ... KILL 'EM ALL, and let their mythical Allah sort 'em out!