c'mon, kevin-- you are better than that!  dont play this "i'm gonna pick up my ball and go home" stuff.  you are a smart and intelligent guy.  you have a right to your opinions, and i for one respect you for that.  i may not agree with all of your politics, but i still respect your views.  i dont like many comments i have seen here over the years, but i am not going anywhere.  i'm also sure many people havent liked some of the things i have said, but we all have a right, even a duty, to speak our mind freely.  it is the free and open exchange of ideas.  this whole discussion thread has made me shake my head because i dont support either obama or mccain, but i still like to hear what others say and love the fact that we have the freedom to speak our mind.  but this is what i was warning about.  both parties, as they are currently structured, are taking us to the same place.  yet they continue to keep us fighting with each other with this FALSE left-right paradigm.  no matter who gets put in there-- they wont be looking out for us.  george w. bush is the biggest liberal president since johnson and clinton is the most conservative president in the last 20 years.  yet the right-wingers still stick up for bush and the left-wingers still love clinton.  the same people (both parties) that have ruined our economy tell us the only way to fix it is give them more money and power, the people overwhelmingly SCREAM "NO!!!!!" and both parties ignore us and pass a pork-laden bailout bill.  both of these clowns voted for it.  mccain has been telling us that he will veto every piece of pork, yet he voted FOR this bailout AFTER they added $150 BILLION of pork to it!!  just one of the reasons i could never support mccain.  and as i said before, obama is a socialist, plain and simple.  anyway, kevin, dont go anywhere and dont take offense.  i dont always agree with you, just as i am sure you dont always agree with me, but i respect you and feel that yours is a valuable voice in this community!