How will you vote????

" "My conscience won’t allow me to put people in office who have no respect for life and our Constitution"

If that's the case, you'll vote against the party who have launched a pre-emptive and disastrous war at the cost of thousands American men and women and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilan lives. You'll vote to remove from office the political party who asserts that it's fine to systematically dismantle the protections and rights afford you by your Constitution by engaging in wiretapping, torture and rendition in the name of fighting bogeymen. You'll reject the party who have advanced the dangerous and un-Constitutional concept of the Unitary Executive. You'll vote Democratic or at least Green or Libertarian to send a message to the bankers and hedge fund managers whose greed has destroyed the fundamentals of your economy and thus undermined the safety and security of millions of Americans, that enough is enough. You'll vote for clean air and water, renewable energy, and improving the safety of our food supply so that you and your family and friends and neighbors can live healthier lives. You'll vote for the presidential candidate who has asserted that healthcare is a basic human right.

If you're voting on the abortion issue, please understand that the Republican policies of the last eight years, which amount to idly preaching abstinence and removing references to preventative birth control from the public curriculum, have resulted in no greater decrease in abortion rates than under Reagan, Bush I, or Clinton. If that's the only reason you're voting Republican, you've been sold a bill of goods. If you care about babies, I ask you to consider that a Democratic administration will attempt to educate and help women to ensure that unplanned pregnancies are less likely in the first place and that there are actually options for a women should she become pregnant besides abortion.

When that unplanned baby is born, he or she will be better off under a Democratic administration than Republican. You've seen it yourself: your standard of living has decreased starting sometime in the last eight years - do you honestly expect to see it get better under a second round of big-business Republicans? Your freedoms have diminished - can you imagine them releasing their grip on your Constitution? The Republican party, for whom I used to have great respect, claims to respect life. They claim that only they put Country First. I hope you can see that these are offensive assertions on their part. I hope you can see that what they really respect is your vote and that they don't actually respect *your* life, or your children's lives and that they actually put the Dollar First.

I urge you, Ms. Ketner and all other readers sympathetic to her letter, to look beyond one single issue and consider the big picture. Take a few minutes and listen to Sens. Obama and Biden. You're adept at using a computer - it's the 21st century - so you know where to find them.

Respectfully,

Matthew Vaughn
(formerly of Paris, in case you're wondering) "

" "You'll vote Democratic or at least Green or Libertarian to send a message to the bankers and hedge fund managers whose greed has destroyed the fundamentals of your economy and thus undermined the safety and security of millions of Americans"

You make that sound like the Dems had nothing to do with the finalcial "crisis". You could not be farther from the truth.

"If you care about babies, I ask you to consider that a Democratic administration.... "

A Democratic Administration headed by the same person that refused to outlaw infanticide when he was in Illinois? Why should a baby, born alive after a failed abortion, NOT be given health care? and I thought you wanted health care for "ALL" ??


"You'll vote for the presidential candidate who has asserted that healthcare is a basic human right."

Not from my pocketbook it isn't. Research what happened in Hawaii when they provided health care for all. The ones that could afford insurance quit paying it and the healthcare fund went broke. Think that wouldn't happen on a massive scale in the other 49 states?

"When that unplanned baby is born, he or she will be better off under a Democratic administration than Republican. "

That must be a fact. After all, you are the doctor.

"You've seen it yourself: your standard of living has decreased starting sometime in the last eight years "

My standard of living has increased in the past 8 years and will continue to do so, so long as I can keep the Dems out of my wallet... I EARNED it, I should KEEP it. Don't take it from me and give it to someone that refuses to work.

"...in the name of fighting bogeymen."

It's clear that you cannot comprehend the enemies we are facing and what they are capable of doing to accomplish their goals.

Last - Thank you Rose Marie, I will choose LIFE, knowing that I did the right thing. "

" Dr. Vaugh - "healthcare is a basic human right"

I believe you are a dentist, correct? Do you give your services away to anyone who "can not afford them"? Since healthcare is a basic human right in your eyes, do you even charge anything at all? I expect that you only charge what you must to get by...correct? If not, you should be ashamed of yourself for profiteering from someone's basic human right.

Rose Marie - I will be voting my conscience as well this year. Therefore my vote will be for McCain. "

" I ama Holocaust survivor and I object to the use of the term "holocaust." It is insulting to compare the murder of 6 million people by the Nazis to anything else. It is blasphemous to the memory of the victims. it is further Godless. Those who use the term to advance their ideologies, in my view, are godless people. they often pretend to be relligious, but actually are atheists, godless folks.,I "

" If Obama gets elected, I'm gonna stop working. With all the free handouts that he's got promised for everyone, I'd be better off to just sit on my couch, watch tv all day, and just wait for my free health care, and my government check.

So everyone that has worked hard in their life, made something of themselves, and is financially stable.......please continue to work really really hard and make lots of money because my government is gonna take care of me.

What a joke....vote Obama in and you'll see how easy it is to kill economic progress and the American Dream. "

" I hope all you prolife people have adopted or are planning to adopt a baby.

If not, you don't put your money where your mouth is, and your opinion is totally invalid.

I will vote to help BABIES, not masses of cells. Affordable health care will help BABIES. But I am sure that is too complicated of a concept for you people to grasp. "

" Hey Not McCain Fan - I am voting for the candidate that will be best for responsible people.

For one thing, I feel a fetus in a woman's belly is a baby...not just "masses of cells". The baby moves, kicks, and has a beating heart within the belly, yet the "mother" can still kill it through abortion. The problem is, if the mother was responsible in the first place, she would not be pregnant. Because she was not responsible and is now pregnant, she wants to kill the baby? How about if she has the baby and then decides she no longer wants it? Should she be able to kill it when it is 1 year old?

Our country keeps moving towards allowing people to be less and less responsible and I feel an Obama administration will just help that ideology even more. "

" Prayer: Heavenly Father, please forgive us, for many of us know not what we have done. -Amen "

" We know EXACTLY what we have done. We have elected the best man for the job! "

" Yep... you have elected a man of socialist values who has never accomplished anything in his life. I pray that he will be able to accomplish something as President of our fine country. Only time will tell. "

" Never accomplished anything in his life?!? He put himself through college and Harvard Law School! He turned down big money attorney positions to teach and to work in his community for working people. He was a state Senator in this great state of ours, we elected him US Senator and he's run the most honest, positive political campaign EVER for President of the United States...and, by the way, HE WON!!! He won with a HUGE majority! Not just 50%.

What have you accomplished in your life, Mr/Ms "Paris Resident" ? "

" Paris Resident,

Do you even know what socialism is? "

" I guess I should rephrase my statement. What has Obama ever accomplished that has helped others? Maybe I haven't accomplished much to help others myself, but I have not run for public office.

As a state senator did he do anything of value for his district? Can you tell me one bill that he sponsored?

As a US Senator did he do anything besides run for President? As a community organizer, what did he really accomplish up there? If you go into the areas that he "worked", they are a complete mess. They are the most rundown, crime-filled areas of Chicago. He was able to get a lot of Federal and state money to spend there but it didn't really help the residents long-term. It just set them up for failure by teaching them to rely on others for their needs.

I will agree that he ran a well-oiled campaign, but feel it is very naive to call it "the most honest, positive political campaign EVER for President of the United States". He lied several times about his ties to unsavory people and only started telling the truth once he was found out. The MSM covered many items up regarding him which is very sad. Ask the Hillary supporters how honest and positive he was during the primaries. Bill Clinton even stated that he was pulling the race card.

Yes, I do know what socialism is. It is a very complex ideology and I feel that Obama agrees with it's values. Have you read either of his books? In one of them, he discusses socialism and even communism and how he was drawn to the ideology. I will give you one example how he wants to implement it here in our fine country. He wants to give "tax credits" to the bottom 95% of wage earners. If you look at the tax charts, the bottom 50% of people do not pay any federal income taxes. What taxes they do pay, they receive back as a tax refund. Obama wants to give these bottom 50% more money via a tax credit. If you think about what this means, he will be taking more money from the top 5% and redistributing it to the bottom 50%. That in fact is a socialist idea.

In closing, I will say that I am going to give Obama the benefit of the doubt as our president. I hope he proves me wrong and can do great things for our country that will not harm us in the long term. I have been a conservative for a long time and it has sickened me on how disrespectful folks are towards George Bush. I hope my fellow conservatives are not disrespectful of President Elect Obama in that manner. Even if we do not agree with his policies, we can respect him as our Commander in Chief. "

" I don't see it as distribution of wealth at all. I see it as the upper echelon finally paying their fair share. They have gotten so many breaks from W that they need to make some up. Sorry, but that's the way I feel. I know people in Paris who work their asses off for $25000 a year. Give them a break! And me too, for that matter! Give all of us "little people" a tax break and a little money in our pockets to pay our loans, debt, spend a little on our homes. I don't think ANYONE should get something for nothing. If you get money from the government, you should put in some time, work for the breaks you get. I have a strong work ethic, but sometimes you can work and work and get NOTHING from it than just surviving from paycheck to paycheck. I think Obama realizes that getting money into the hands of people who never get to spend money on anything but bills and groceries will stimulate the economy AND generate some badly needed morale for the working stiffs of this nation. "

" Hey Kit.

You say : "the upper echelon finally paying their fair share" Do you really mean that?

Take a look at this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121659695380368965.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

In it...you will find the following facts:
The top 1% of wage earners pay 40% of the federal income tax.
The top 5% of wage earners pay 60% of the federal income tax.
The top 25% of wage earners pay 86% of the federal income tax.
The top 50% of wage earners pay 97% of the federal income tax.
The bottom 50% of wage earners pay 3% of the federal income tax.

I agree that many people do work hard and could benefit from more money. The fact is, Obama's plan will not simply give a "tax break" for many of these people. A tax break would just take them down to owing no taxes. His plan will actually give them more money than they paid into taxes via a tax credit. This is redistribution of wealth. I am fine with him lowering their taxes to the even level of zero but do not agree with giving them more than they actually pay in. I will even tell you that I am one who would benefit from the Obama tax plan. The thing is, I don't think it is a fair plan to all.

Lets make a comparison to his tax plan to see if you agree. Say you have 3 automobiles in your family. There is another person in your town who has no car so they have to walk to work. Do you think the government should be able to take one of your cars and distribute it to the person without a car? Why not... it will help that person out? "