I think no republican in a close race, should concede until every absentee ballot is back and counted. But as I've stated before, our commands normally were WAY out in front of absentee ballot issues. My command had a person contact the states and gather the ballots for everyone and then ship them to the overseas unit as one large package normally hand carried by people headed that direction rather than sending it snail mail.

Normal military mail sucks even now, packages end up falling off of piles for delivery or only the top of the pile gets taken rather than first in/first out like you'd expect. The military knows this, that is why they handle things like ballots specially rather than letting them get lost.

Now if you are stupid enough to have your state send a ballot directly to your FPO/AP address instead of going through your command rep then well...sorry.

He is snarky and off topic, but he doesn't usually just flat out lie like some people. Nor does he troll like most of the others. At worst I find him a minor annoyance, and I'd like to see what he is talking about if he can share it.

It is not about liberal vs conservative, it is the fact that the NB Panthers are black and the tea party is predominantly white (Any large group in the US will be predominantly white unless it is specifically a Minority group)

Its already been said, Obama's Justice Dept (and possibly Bush's, I'm waiting on woof to back that up) say it isn't intimidation unless its whites doing the intimidating.

Before I call you a liar and make a fool out of myself, I would like to know what you are talking about. I know you don't come in here spreading BS. Any chance you can find a link?

Nobody said he had to swallow the food he taste tested either. That was his choice.

You know this is the next big thing here in the US and possibly around the globe. The employees will sue McDonalds for giving them free lunches and discount cards, and bankrupt the entire thing.

What Jefferson was actually describing in his "natural progression", is a cycle which all civilizations go through, from oppression, to struggle for freedom, to fledgling government, to successful country, to intrusive government and back to oppression.

Human beings naturally tend toward laziness if they are allowed. Back in the 1700's a home owner would have repaired their own home, fixed the road outside of it, mowed their own grass... Now you pay someone to fix your house, mow your grass etc because you decide it is worth paying someone else to let you be lazier or do other things. The difference between hiring someone to mow your lawn, and having the government fix your roads, is that you can always fire the gardener and do it yourself again. You cannot fire the government, and any power the government gets its hands on it does not let go of lightly.

As we surrender more power to the government so that we can be lazy, let them take care of many of the things which used to be individual responsibilities, the government grows. Eventually the government will grow to a size and intrusiveness which leads to oppression at which point the next logical step in the cycle is to go back to "struggle" once more.

This slide toward socialism is inevitable, but it can be nipped in the bud as the tea parties are doing now. Moving toward struggle for freedom, with a minimum of oppression. Other countries have not had it so good. USSR, France, Britain have all gone through the socialist moves and the USSR already failed, France and Britain are telling us to stop what we are doing because it doesn't work, but our arrogant government who was all about being more like Europe, is now deaf to their pleas.

The left is NEEDED in this country or we would never move forward. But the right is just as needed to keep a check and balance on their lofty goals, else we slide straight into socialism and oppression. It is a balancing act, a pendulum, the only thing that can be said about the hard swing to the left lately, is that the swing back to the right will be harder still. The difference is, a swing toward maintaining the status quo, or possibly reverting just a bit, is much easier for the average person and the Economy as whole to deal with, than the uncertainty of the march toward socialism.

Wrong, how asinine of you to equate property with life. If the house is not in a covered area (or the owner didn't pay the fee) then it should be left to burn if other areas need firefighters attention. In the recent case, those firefighters were already on scene AND the home owner offered to pay whatever it cost to save his home. What should have happened is the fire should be put out, and the home owner charged directly for the services of the firefighter. Just as people are charged directly for health care if they do not have insurance.

They are NOT "equal emergency situations" by any stretch of the imagination, unless there are people trapped in the house. Saving the people si something any person, let alone firefighter, should do regardless of money. Saving the house should be attempted if they are already there and don't have a covered area they are needed. Once lives are safe and there is no danger of the fire spreading to covered areas, I'm sorry but you didn't pay the fee and you don't pay taxes, if the firefighters hadn't happened to already be there they wouldn't have come if you called 911.

I no longer care what the percentage is, I don't care if it would put them under, or if they wouldn't miss it. Take it away anyway, the government doesn't need to subsidize it any longer in any form. It is one of those things that can be cut without hurting much of anything, including the big social black holes.

lets go for it and let the chips fall where they may.

So the figures are wrong, then we can happily pull the government funding and apply it toward the debt right? NPR wont even notice the tiny percentage right?