Really? Republicans ruled the Presidency and Congress for over 6 years, yet they never enacted any legislation to do this drilling. And there were Republicans who were against this drilling at that time as well. How do you explain that?

Yes. Thank God McCain has never, ever done this, even within the past year. Thank God for that.

Hey, Bush wants credit for being the great "Decision Maker," so why should he not take blame? At the very very least, why were those jets that crashed into the twin towers not shot down before this could happen? Why were there no fighter jets at least put into the air, especially after the first assault? Wasn't the "Commander in Chief" responsible to try to stop that?

Wow. He decides not to use public tax money, and everybody gets pissy about that. First we decry politicians for taxing us to death, but then when they save us money, we get mad about it. Sound to me like we're the hypocrites.

Get real. First, capitalism works because some people get rich only at the expense of others. Period. It is a myth that anyone can get ahead. We do not have an even playing field. You think I could ever possibly attain the wealth of Bill Gates? His success came in large measure because he came from affluence (he dropped out of Harvard, for God's sake) and already had connections and access to those people and corporations that allowed him to market his software. Exactly where and how does the little guy like me find these people?

Second, we have had anything but smaller government under the current Bush/Republican regime. It was the Republicans who cashed in the Social Security funds and wrote an "IOU" in its place. By the time we reach the point where we need to collect on that promise, we will need some $52 trillion - yes, trilion - to cover it. If you paid back $1 per second on that amount of money, it would take 1.2 million years to repay it.

Contemplate that, and then tell me how this defines "small government" intrusion on our lives.