Does anyone out there know if the Amish are legally exempt from serving in the Military?  Bush was able to rally them and obtain votes from 30% of the PA Amish population (even though they've rarely exercised that right in the past).  They vow not to serve in the Military, but if there were to be a draft, would young Amish men be required to serve?

I felt one of the major blunders Kerry made was to not openly expose the issue of peak oil and how we will never see low energy prices again. 

For those of your who are unfamiliar with this issue I will put some urls at the end of this post so you can read up on it.  The basic concept is that the world will not "run out of oil" but rather run out of cheap oil because not only is demand high but geological conditions can not be argued with.  Think of all of the oil in the world being on a bell curve.  At the top is the highest useage with the highest extraction.  Once that top is passed demand exceeds supply and prices skyrocket. 

We've had such prosperity in the USA mainly based on cheap energy.  Until about 1970 the USA's oil supply had not peaked.  We were in fact a top exporter of oil in the 50's and 60's.  Since then imported oil has kept us artificially on the lower end of the curve where supply exceeds demand and prices are cheap.  Now the world supply is peaking so there will be no means by which to import oil to keep energy cheap. 

Seems to me we are just in the minority of thought anymore. Even the states we carried, like PA, NJ, (even Mass.) barely won or had even smaller margins than in 2000. For God's sake Edwards couldn't even deliver his own state! (Al lost Tenn. in 2000, too.)We lost the Senate & even more House seats on top of that.

Maybe we should just start listening to what the other side is saying instead of whistling in the dark in forums like these. I mean, all we do here is listen to people that are saying the same things. (Preaching to the choir?) No wonder the poles (polls?) are moving further & further apart. The extremests on the right do the same thing but they're winning.

I think the Republicans did a good job of portraying Kerry as an amoral, weak kneed extreme liberal. All I heard about here was how he was Catholic but still supports abortion. Things like that come off as dishonest or two faced. (People in the red states don't want to ban abortion but they keep voting for Bush.) Kerry's confusing comments on the war didn't help either. Was he gonna pull the troops out or not? I never knew what he meant when he said things like Saddam "wouldn't necesarily" still be in power. Would he have gone to ("the wrong") war, too?

Hi All,

         Let me start by saying I'm English and have stayed up all night hoping for a Kerry Edwards victory and at the moment I'm quite disappointed.

         Ok I have a few Questions for people to answer. These are mainly things I don't fully understand about US politics.

         1.Who leads the DEM party?(I thought is was someone called Dashle before Kerry became the challenger)

         2.a In England there is a Opposition "Shadow Cabinet" is their anything similar in the US?

         2.b If there is would you expect Kerry and Edwards to take up positions there or stand aside as soon as posible for the 2008 DEM challenger to create a platform to hold Bush and the REP party to account. 

         3.Why did it take so long for Kerry to be selected as the DEM candidate?

I hope you don't find these question stupid, but I was curious.

Thank you .

NEED ALL YOUR HELP TO GET THIS INFORMATION TO OUR CITIZENS.  ONLY CITIZENS CAN MAKE CHANGE, AND WE MUST DO IT BEFORE MORE OF OUR YOUNG HAVE TO DIE WITHOUT JUST CAUSES

GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets
Oct. 31, 2004
CBSNEWS.COM

Two weeks ago, a group of Army reservists in Iraq refused a direct order to go on a dangerous operation to re-supply another unit with jet fuel.

Without helicopter gunships to escort them over a treacherous stretch of highway, and lacking armored vehicles, soldiers from the 343rd Quartermaster Company called it a suicide mission.

The Army called it an isolated incident, a temporary breakdown in discipline, and an investigation is underway.

But the 343rd isn't the first outfit to be put in harm's way without proper equipment, and commanders in Iraq acknowledged that the unit's concerns were legitimate, even if their mutiny was not.

With a $400 billion defense budget you might think U.S. troops have everything they need to fight the war, but that's not always the case.

Correspondent Steve Kroft talks to a general, soldiers in Iraq, and their families at home about a lack of armored vehicles, field radios, night vision goggles, and even ammunition - especially for the National Guard and reserve units that now make up more than 40 percent of U.S. troops.

In this report, Kroft also talks to Sen. John McCain about how pork-barrel politics have shortchanged troops on the ground.

My husband and I were at the poll at 7:10 am this morning, ten minutes after the polls opened. There was already a line. It took us 45 minutes to vote. This has NEVER happened. We've lived here for 11 years and we've never had to wait more than a few minutes. This AMAZING. I hope it's like this all over the country because it means that Americans finally woke up.

There were people there checking lists of names every time a name was called out, but we had no problems voting. My town is heavily GOP but there were more Dems there this morning than I've ever seen. I think that's a good sign.

*crosses fingers*

Be safe all.

Izzy

What does everybody think that Kerry should do about Bush's failure to keep homeland security operating at its full potential? What is Kerry's plan I do not understand what he says about it.