By the way there Slick Willie, Tricky Dick was not my buddy. I voted for some guy in the DFL that wanted to legalize marijuana.

Southshore--if you're out there I'd be real interested to hear you weigh-in on the US foreign policy (current or otherwise) and I don't care how "long-winded" you would get!

As to the other topics, you may have a point Torggy that our money goes to Europe more because that's where our ancestors are from...but we keep saving their asses militarily and ecomonically with no real thanks. Did they even pay back the money we "loaned" them on the Marshall Plan?

I hope I'm wrong about W as well Nugget. I just don't think he will be up to the job. Clinton had personal faults, but I think he was good for the country as a leader. Maybe W will grow into the job, who knows? But I'm not optimistic.

The feeding frenzy around Clinton affected me personally when the FBI investigated me for involvment in Whitewater. How bad is that?! So it is my claim to small-time fame, but it was a waste of tax dollars, and was pretty damn scary at the time.

I think that part of the reason W got elected was a sort of knee-jerk reaction of the voting populace. He marketed himself as the opposite of Clinton. I guess it worked. We'll see. . . .

Just for comparison. In Clintons first 6 months we got a tax increase (the largest single in history) retroactive to the first of the year. With Bush we get a tax cut (albeit to small)retroactive to the first of the year. Mine will be enough to pay for my daughters winter tuition. What better way to invest in the future.

Interesting topics, guys. It is so neat to be taking a history class and reading your fine posts at the same time. Keep it up.

Webman can get in trouble like a son-of-a-bitch. How's that one, Skipper?

I escorted Susan McDougal to a funeral one time and the press was there with telephoto lenses. I was sure I would end up on some gossip rag cover. I was nervous about it then, but now, 7 years or so later, I am disappointed that I didn't. Ah, fame is so fleeting.

NICE DAY TODAY. I'M SAYING SCREW THE GRADUATION PARTIES AND DOCKIN IT THIS AFTERNOON. WE ALL NEED A BREAK SOMETIMES. HOPE ALL GETS TO ENJOY THE DAY.

OH MISS KITTY, YOU ARE SO WITTY.

Nugget, How can you say that sitting in a Oxford dorm room smoking pot gives one a leg up on foreign affair’s? Not that the pot is such a bad thing. Ike was a very good President at a very hard time. He got the Korean conflict controlled and kept us on an even plane with the Soviets.

Will because of yesterdays scheduling screw-up I must head to work. Have a great weekend one and all

Certainly, Clinton can be used of hypocrisy. Here's a news flash: so can everyone else. If we examine our own lives, we can all find instances where our private behavior doesn't follow our public pronouncements. That said, it doesn't logically follow that Clinton's position on women's right was wrong. He and other similar thinkers are talking about political and economic opportunities for women.

As for the Bush tax cut, I suggest we all follow what's going on now in Texas, where the legislature is struggling with financial problems created by W's tax policies during his terms as governor. Also, some of us here are spending our rebates on things that are quite noble. But there could be, probably will be, a price down the road when certain worthwhile services provided by the government (yes, there are a few) won't be available because the funds aren't there. Nothing, not even a tax rebate, comes without a price tag.

Finally, I would offer this: I am disillusioned beyond belief by the political system - by both parties. I'm not sure what the alternatives are, but what we have now is not worth keeping.

The tax cut problem is really quite simple. Even in a time of stupendous economic gains and record rising revenues, our federal government can not live with in its means. The so-called balanced budget leaves the Social Security side of the ledger filled with IOU’s. If the Fed cannot live within its means during good times what happens when times turn bad? Lets look at one program “Head Start”. Studies show little short-term gain from this program. It gets 6.2 Billion a year and helps 10 Million kids. Do the math. Why not just give each kid a million each year it would be cheaper by far. The only recourse we have, as a taxpayer is to cut off their supply of money and make them do what you and I have to do, live within our means. Is this tax cut the answer? Hell no, but it is a step in the right direction. Problem is there are 2000 steps the other way every day.

Yes we all have some hypocrisy in our lives. The little thing we say to our kids “do as I say not as I do” is a far cry from climbing up on a stage and pronouncing what you believe. It is a good thing to try to right the wrongs against any group. But just because you support a certain cause it does not allow you to perpetrate wrongs against it. Those wrongs are still wrongs.

TWC, I share your disillusionment by both sides of the political aisle. Although I hold hope for the future and believe that at its heart our system is still the best in the world and I would live nowhere else.

And we could play economic tic-tac-toe all day - your Head Start vs. Defense Dept. waste, and so on. There are programs of every stripe that could be and should be reevaluated. Which goes to my point about our two-party system -- way too much posturing, far too few solutions. And that goes from kids to energy, where our policy (or lack thereof) for the past quarter century has been shameful. Both the Demos and GOPers share blame for that.

Geez, Torggy, don't stick words in my mouth. I have enough trouble spitting 'em out on my own

But damn it is a nice day and I have to work again so gotta go. Have a great sunday

Now if some pandering politician could make it against the law to miss the Man show because of haveing to work late on a Sunday he would get my vote. What stupid law would you guys like to see?

Torggy, I was on my garage roof this weekend also. I know how you felt.

Had some beers with a few TH natives last week. I believe they let them out of high school around 83 or 84.

Politics sucks!!!

Way to go Webman! Did the FBI subject you to a body cavity search???

Reading the posts from Torggy and TWC was interesting. I have to say Torggy, I didn't think the countless investigations of Clinton were altogether warranted. People made accusations of "witness tampering," "abuse of power" and "obstruction of justice." He didn't do anything (in my opinion) that came close to those definitions. Abuse of power is using the Justice Dept, CIA and FBI to attempt to rig the outcome of elections like Nixon did.

I also personally think that the selling of arms to Iran to illegally fund the Contra's (Reagen-Bush) is much worse than lying about cheating on your wife...

I guess what I'm saying here is that what a person does in the privacy of their own home is their business. Both parties need to remember that more often and just debate policy rather than drag each other through the mud...

W cast himself as the anti-Clinton, but he used Cocaine and has a DWI on his record...some hero...but, as I've said before, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt hoping he'll grow into the job. I don't agree with the tax cut, but I'll spend the $300, so I guess that makes me a hypocrite too.

Well, off the soapbox and back to work! Take care Arbleys!

By the way, the second biggest employer in Cloquet filed ch. 11 this morning and it aint Wall-Mart.

Onlooker, That is a great one, it has merit. Allot of NFL player are hunters they might like that one.

Captain, Respectively I must say that power can be abused in many ways. If the local hospital CEO were found on a gurney with a candy striper, he is gone. Local fire chief in the bunkhouse with a young volunteer, we have the same result. I too believe in the privacy of ones home. But the abuse of power to gain sexual favors in the work place has been a hidden atrocity is this country for too many years. I do not speak of Monica she was willing, though she does fall into the same place as the above mentioned. I speak of the others that were not so willing. I did not know if Mr. Clinton was guilty of sexual harassment of not, that was what the trial was for. He was found guilty.

While I agree with you about Nixon. Did you know that a Nixon advisor went to jail for haveing one FBI file? How does that sit with the more than 900 found in the White House during the Clinton administration?

Iran-Contra was about a group of laws passed by a democrat-controlled congress aimed specifically at the president making it illegal to save American lives in the mid-east and fight communism in Central America. I think congress should have been brought up on charges.

New law: All people going to slow in the fast lane have their car taken away.

All I'm saying is that if we gave a "special prosecuter" 6 years to work and a $40 million budget or whatever, EVERY president could be made to look like a scum-sucking moron. FDR cheated on his wife. So did JFK. Andrew Jackson sired a child with his mistress while in office. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that "All men are created equal," went home to his plantation and doinked his slave woman every night ... I just don't think, that in a historical context, Clinton was such an "evil" guy that Henry Hyde and some others made him out to be.

Great man? No. Good president? Yes.

I imagine we'll just have to agree to disagree eventually, or else we'll bore everybody else to tears...

Drifter, I would consider myself a JFK democrate. My politicol stance has not changed. The democrate party moved away and the repbulican party moved closer.

Now, some of you may not see this as a problem. Well, you haven't been chewed out by a parent because you couldn't figure out on your own that their version of the name "Sally" is actually spelled "SssallLey" So enough already. A review board would be set up to approve any exceptions. But applicants would be required to sign an agreement waiving their right to complain about misspellings. Violating this agreement would mean a six-month sentence to the classroom where you would be required to write on the blackboard "I will spell Sally like everyone else" for eight hours a day.

And one more law: Every rap artist would be required to play one chord of some instrument on every CD they release. Just to see if they can actually do it themselves, as opposed to stealing it from someone else.

I think people talking on cell phones while driving 80 miles an hour should be an offense punishable by death. I've almost been hit multiple times by the morons down here due to that...

Is any Arbley going to be affected by the upcoming State o' Minnesota Government shutdown?

Captain, I forgot all about the cell phone law. I agree. Why do people sit in an office all day or at home all day and not use the phone but when they get in their cars, they have to call the world??? I got a cell phone and never use the thing. I guess I can wait till I get home to call.