[Southsider2k12]

A big thank you to Mr Zirkle as well for his quick answers.

What is your position on the Bush tax cuts? Would you vote to extend them?

1. I would certainly extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes below 250,000.
I might consider the donut hole on the payroll tax to fund catastrophic
health claims so that health insurance costs for individuals and
businesses could be reduced to that more closely associated with student
health insurance which is 2-3,000 per year for a family.

What do you believe the US should do in Iraq? Should we have a timetable, an immediate withdrawal, or fight until we win?

2. I believe we should start a slow, systematic withdraw from Iraq
starting in the north and move back north as needed if the situation on
the ground requires it. I call this operation slinky which expands and
contracts. This way, the reason for our staying there can be blamed on Al
Qaeda and the insurgents. If they stopped committing terrorist acts, we
would leave faster. The U.S. and Russia, under a new peace and
cooperation treaty, should consider taking the Golan Heights and Southern
Lebanon and making a Christian pro-Israel buffer state to the north of
Israel. Northern' Lebanon would become part of Syria so that they would
cooperate and would no longer have a puppet state.

John McCain has made earmark reform a part of his campaign, do you believe we should freeze earmarks totally?

3. I agree w/president to be McCain that earmarks should be frozen in these times of budget deficits.

With the problems in mortgage lending, what would you like to see Congress's involvement in moving forward be?

4. We can't impair the obligations of existing contracts per the
Constitution. However, we can assist the working class by reducing
unsecured usury rates for credit cards for example from 36% to 18%.
People would then have more of the money in their pockets to pay their
mortgages. We could also limit the percentage jump that an adjustable
rate mortgage could rise for all future loans, for example, by 25%, so tht
if a loan started at 8%, it could only rise to 10% max.

With the rising cost of energy in the United States, is there a plan that you have for either reducing costs to consumers, or moving us away from fossil fuels?

5. I have been proposing for years to have a United States Civil Service
Academy that would be placed in LaPorte County in Indiana's Second
district where the masters and doctorate level students would engage in a
new "Manhattan" project for research and technological development and
where they would have an unfettered key to the patent office. The
technologies developed would be available for use for U.S. owned
businesses.


Finally with the big news stories, our audience wants to hear more about your thinking behind appearing at the Socialist gathering which has been making headlines, please comment on that if you will.

6. I have said I would speak before any audience that invited me. My
opponent witnessed to Communists in Cubs, and I see no problem with me
witnessing to socialists in Chicago. I handed out a whole box of books on
the life of Christ and was able to educate and inform them about the
pornography prostitution business.

[Dave]

Not too surprisingly, Mr. Zirkle has not made a sufficient enough case to convince me to pick up a Republican ballot this time around.

[Southsider2k12]

Just to play the part of devil's advocate, (because its a hobby of mine) will Barack Obama's associations with Bill Ayers change your opinion and/or chances of voting for him?

[just for clarities sake, I won't be voting for either, I am just curious how others feel.]

[Ang]

In the guys defense (or maybe not defense, but a way to explain his actions in "layman's" terms), I personally don't think he is looking at this group as individuals with ideas and beliefs. It's all about votes. He can't be personally responsible for the actions of the people who for him so as long as he gets the vote, it doesn't matter who cast it.

[Dave]

Will Obama's tangential connection with Bill Ayers change my opinion of him? No. Not really significant. Heck, Bill Clinton pardoned/commuted the sentences of members of Weather Underground who actually killed people. Politicians frequently have associations with people they don't agree with. I have to say one of the reasons I'm dissapointed with McCain is the associations he's made in the past 8 years, doing a 180 on Pat Robertson, and pushing W's agenda, even when it comes to torture.

As for Zirkle, I don't think it's about votes, I think it's about witnessing. He's pushing his own, err, trying to not use language too inflammatory, radical Christian (emphasis on the radical part) agenda, and he's willing to do so in front of anyone who gives him a podium, even the Nazis at a Hitler birthday party in Chicago. Don't forget that Chicago part -- he was what, 50 miles away from the Indiana 2nd District when he appeared in front of them.

I refuse to contribute more to this thread. Zirkle may have the right to run for office, but he isn't entitled to our attention, and I don't think he's worth it.