Yeah, Bob, China in particular is purely anectdotal. Your xenophobia is only surpassed by your myopic interpretation of history as well as current world conditions. Here's a news flash for ya, the 21st century won't be dominated by the USA. China has already leapfrogged us on so many fronts while the republican noodle-brains keep ensuring that we will continue to lag behind. I wonder how much the chinese are paying for that kind of support from the republicans?

Your data is anectdotal at best. You've talked to a couple dozen foreigners and concluded that the tens of millions of them believe socialized medicine is preferrable to our free market system. In the prior post, you take umbrage of my statement that socialism hasn't worked successfully anywhere in the world. That means you must be socialist or socialist-leaning yourself in general. Can you show me one successful socialist society? Let's see, the Soviet Union? Red China? Venezuela? Nazi Germany? Fascist Italy? Cuba? Humm, seems that none of them has worked. Imagine that!

Bob, do you actually believe that disagreeing is the same as lying? All I'm suggesting is that when you actually speak to people face to face who don't live in Waco--folks who really do live in those other countries, you discover that your perceptions of what is really going on often turn out to be wrong. Personally I think you believe a lot of stuff that simply isn't true, but I'm not calling you a liar. I didn't misrepresent one thing, I just call it the way i see it.

Free speech is great, Michael, but there is a duty to be truthful.

Ooohhhh Baaaaad Bob. You and I live in very different worlds. I actually have daily contact with people from many nations. Portugal, spain, germany, switzerland, mexico, italy, argentina, chile, korea, india, israel, and pakistan, to name just a few. i had dinner the other night with a guy and his family from teheran. The world is a much bigger place than your little myopic waco corner. Open your eyes and ears and mind and you just might learn something, but i suspect that you suffer from that type of self-inflicted ignorance I wrote about in an earlier post. See, I am a regular poster, too--just like you. Ain't free speech great?

Michael, you have blatantly misrepresented the facts regarding socialized health care. People from around the world come to the US for treatment for catastrophic health matters. That is because our free enterprise system encourages research and development of new treatments. Socialized medicine kills the incentive to do that, because there is no reward for new discoveries. No, people in Europe do not like what they have, and you are not doing the readers here a service when you say something you cannot substantiate and which is not true. Why don't you send a link to an article from a liberal rag with anecdotal evidence? That's all that liberals can come up with. All of us regulars here recognize who makes outrageous statements and who is rational. Care to guess which category you are in?

Gee whiz, Ben. You sure seem to believe in a lot of things that aren't true, but we democrats are grateful for your vote just the same. Just keep your head where it's at and keep groping.

Bob, you failed to mention corporatism. In case you haven't noticed, that's where the power and money is concentrated, and it will be a hard fight to wrest it away from the very few who have it. Socialism failed in every attempt? You must've limited your reading to stuff approved by the Texas State Board of Education. If you actually checked around in some western European nations, for example, you would discover that people are very pleased with the quality of their "socialized" health care. They have a hard time understanding how Americans are willing to tolerate such shoddy care. The tripartite of insurance, big pharma, and the AMA are all engaged in a big game of seeing how bad they can screw each other to the wall, and we get stuck with the ruinous tab. There's got to be a better way.

Communism, Fascism, Nazism, they're all forms of socialism. You're worried about concentration of wealth in a few hands, but these "isms" concentrate POWER in the hands of the few. That's why in socialism there is no middle class at all. Once the few get the power, they take the wealth. It starts with getting people dependent upon govt for all their needs. They make it sound like a good cause: "provide a safety net," "regulate the corporations," "make sure people who can't afford a home have one," "equal quality and availability of health care," and other socialist buzz phrases. Who can be against all that, right? The next step is taking up the guns so the people can't fight back. It comes along somewhere for each generation, and it's coming along now for ours, and it's happening right here in the USA. Ultimately, when you depend on govt, the govt becomes your god, and you have lost all your freedoms without even realizing it until it's too late. Socialism has failed in EVERY attempt. It is documented in every history book. It won't work here, either. Regulating what people can legally earn in the free enterprise system is a step towards socialism.

Doofuss? Is that how you spell it? Loser? I guess my comments have discomBOBulated you. What was that you said about name calling when you couldn't speak to the issues? Sounds kinda hypocritical to me, Bob. Sounds very Republican, in fact. I suppose there were some still clinging to the tatters of the Hoover presidency when FDR came into the picture. Thank god that policy train wreck didn't retain its stranglehold. I think perhaps you, Bob, are confusing welfare receipients with the middle class. I don't believe it's right, justified, or fair that 95% of the wealth is concentrated in the pockets of the top couple of percentiles. When countries allow this to happen it's a short ride straight into the third world. Is that what you want for this country? I assure you your enemies are no more democrat than mine are republican, OUR real enemy is corporatocracy, which partners effectively with whoever is in power to ensure continued control of wealth. This type of system is called fascism. Remember when we fought that big war to rid the world of fascism? Well, that's what we've got in America today. Why don't you try and look at the bigger picture? I don't think you want to end up being one of those folks who was just following orders.

No, we cannot agree that the old way is not working. It DOES work if the govt would get out of the way. Our capitalist system allows someone who goes to college or gets other training, or a person who opens a small business and works 18 hours a day in it, to prosper and earn more. Those who were raised on welfare have no incentive, and believe welfare is a normal way to live. Then they whine because they don't have what the motivated people have. They have the "you have it and I want it" mentality, like you. Capitalism rewards hard work and punishes laziness. That is why it is the only successful economic system ever invented. Income distribution (socialism) retards work because everyone gets the same whether they work hard or hardly work. As for your implication that I am rich, you're wrong. I work for a wage. I retired from one job and now have a new and different career. I got some training then built a good work record, staying long term on jobs. What have you done? You come across as a doofuss, so prove me wrong.

That was one mean spirited rant there, Bob. Typical Republican. What I expect, Bob, is that we collectively take the necessary steps to reconfigure our broken system. I think we can both agree the current deal ain't working. We have to get back to an economy where America makes things people want to buy, here and abroad. Corporate exploitation of the common man has been egregious and will continue to run slipshod over us until we can get better controls in place. Don't even get me started on the whole corporate welfare issue. Unions do a very good job of looking out for the working man's interests, but union activity isn't nearly enough. We've got to get tariffs in place to protect our markets once again from unfair foreign competition. At no time in our history has there been a greater disparity in the distribution of wealth. Without a thriving middle class, you rich guys have no customers. What will you do then, Bob? What will you do? People please, we have to wake up. We can't afford the same old tired policies, rhetoric, and Republican obstructionism that has placed us squarely in the deepest pile of manure ever. Those ways don't work, but there are millions of Americans just waiting for the chance to work. Maybe you should consider a move to somewhere in Latin America. Folks down that way love rich old gringos and you can really live like a king or at least a duke. Republicans are our equivalent of old European royalty. I say not in this country. Not any more. Vote them all out.

The unions are killing industries. They have priced too many products out of the market and now the imported goods are too much cheaper, so that's what people buy. Between the unions, the lawyers, and the rest of the socialists, we not make it to 2012. BTW, Michael, do you hate business because you believe everybody in business became successful dishonestly? In America, anybody can become financially successful, but it takes work and commitment. You must not have it, as you now expect all the slackers and deadbeats to have the same lifestyle as the college grads and smart investors. What a loser you are!

Commentator Bob sure seems to sympathize with corporatocracy. It doesn't even have to be American, which would be bad enough. But corporatocracy does have its advantages. Humongous salaries for upper level management, fabulous healthcare, 401K's out the wazoo, country club perks, company cars, and all the secretaries, to name just a few. Yep, life is mighty grand when you're at the top of the heap. Down here in the ever-shrinking middle, Bob, baloney is about all we can still afford. We need jobs, Bob. Jobs that pay a living wage. That means jobs we don't have to go into debt to perform, so Wal-Mart is pretty much out. Jobs that can support a household and send a kid or two to college, that kind of job. Come to think of it, it's high time the unions started making some inroads in Texas. Somebody has to be on the look out for the wolves. I used to know a guy named Bob Wolf.

St. Elmo, you're full of baloney, like all other liberals. There is nobody on staff working full time as a pool boy and making $42K. Sorry, but the readers are smart enough to know that you are fabricating that. As for the TTC, that project went to bid and no American company bid. That's why the Spanish company was the high bidder. It had to be a company who was willing to spend $50 billion and not get their money back for 50 years. There aren't many companies in the world that big. The main reason the US companies didn't bid was because of the unions in America. It causes them to be unable to compete with foreign companies. Look at all the imported products in our retail stores. US companies are moving out because of the unions pricing them out of competition.

Boob. Letting a Spanish company take over our roads for a profit was criminal(TTC) The 8000 rent is a disgrace to everyone in Texas. What about his full time pool boy on staff making 42,000? Really do we need that? Perry could act like the rest of us and cut back. He only works 5 hours a week. He tried to ram 5 coal plants in Mclennan County which would have killed this county but he could care less. His chief of staff went to work for Merkell and then he trys to ram this down our throats. He backs TXDOT after losing a billion.He vetoed eminant domain which was stupid after the legislature passed it. His cronies are everywhere and I will vote for Dumcrat for the first time ever.

The state's procurement board rents the temp house for the gov, not the gov himself. It must be a place large enough and secure enough to serve as a hosting place for many state visitors. It also must have quarters for 24-hour DPS guards. It can't be simply another house. It must be so many other things, and have state of the art security. I'm surprised they got some place like that for that price. The farm-to-market system and the Interstate system also were maligned when proposed, but we could never do without them now. I'm mad at Rick, all right, for backing down. TTC was very much needed. Now I-35 is being widened to replace TTC but at 10 times the cost of what TTC would have been.

Bob A vote for Perry says you have no problem with us paying 8000 a month rent for this boy. What a crock. Plus Merkel, TTC, Tx Dot and the coal plant debacle and even the eminant domain issue which Perry vetoed. Go ahead and vote for him. You must live in a rent house or apartment

Obviously Billy Mitchell is like all the other liberals in the country. Govt must respond to HIS desires, or he's against those currently in office. It's all about himself, not what's best for society in general. He's just whining about not getting what he wants; so go ahead and vote for your big liberal Bill White. If you like illegal immigration, you'll love White. He made Houston into a sanctuary city.

Michael, Inquiring minds would like to know how committed Cornyn and KBH are to having the Mammoth site here on the Brazos designated as a national monument. Would be interesting to see what you could find out from their camps and post here for discussion. Waco

Farmer Boob. You are right they both stink but Whie stinks less then Perry. perry lies so bad he cannot keep his stories and money people straight

Just like Dr. Paul predicts, we now once again have the choice between two evils: Both stink! I am writing in Debra Medina, whether it is p.c. or not.

I don't understand people using whiney little excuses to justify voting for Bill White and Barack Obama. Elsewhere in the paper the story was about the Democratic Job Killers were making the little man and his family hurt with no end in sight.

Robbie, Happy to answer. The Unity Rally happened to fall on the same day Brian Birdwell was picked to be the GOP State Senate nominee. I was working on that story even as I was at the rally. On Thursday there wasn't a lot else competing for my attention. But I attended as much of the rally as I could, and took notes on a number of local Republican candidates' speeches that I hope will inform my reporting as we get closer to the general election.

Y'all are all missing the point on this whole transportation issue. Building more roadways, toll or not, is no ultimate solution to the many layers of the real problem. Robbie has somewhat of a grip on the problem--too many vehicles. It is obvious that the existing paradigm doesn't work. Mass transit is an obvious answer. Texas leaders are MIA on high speed rail. It's nolo comprende if it doesn't involve oil and internal combustion. We had a very efficient electric mass transit system that connected lots of Texas towns until 1947. The electric transit system was bought up by big oil and dismantled then replaced by bus lines. We have to stop wasting time whipping dead horses and rethink the way America moves. As long as we continue to cling to the automotive mindset we will not progress, we will not cut carbon emissions, our air will be dirtier, our populace will be poorer as energy costs rise, and nothing will get better unless you're part of the corporations.

Well congestion will follow where ever a road is built except for toll roads to a degree cause alot of folks don't want to pay the troll! This even includes truckers! If you build a bypass cities will build out to them and thus congestion. It would be expensive as heck but what really practically should happen is take your existing major roads and widen them especially Interstates to 4 to six lanes either side. Government just needs to suck it up and do it! Yep relocation will be a cost but dad gum it one thing about the interstate roads where basically designed as the crow flies for the most part for the shortest distance between points. We screwed that up now!

Michael, I'm not sure I understood everything... could you draw that out for me? I just offered up more numbers, information, and resources in 5 lines of a comment from a simple Google search than this entire publication has under the Robinson Media title and all you can manage are talking points that have made California a great liberal Mecca! All that spending and taxing seems to be working out well for them! Sodbuster, I agree! The roads are great quality. Driving in Louisiana is like driving an old washing machine! The point I was making is that congestion is a large problem concerning our traffic issues. We have to ease the congestion, but how do we do it? We've got to get past the talking points like "split the state in half with a massive land grab" and start talking about realistic ideas that can accomodate a growing population. Do we widen the highways or bypass them with service or toll roads? Which has the least impact on the taxpayer, and in cases of eminent domain, which offers the best solutions for property owners? Let's take a look at what's worked and what hasn't, and let's go from there. The TTC was an example of talking points gone bad. Perry certainly didn't help out the plan by outsourcing it to a Spanish company, but stopping it dead in its tracks did nothing to ease our traffic issues and now makes it more difficult to look at possible solutions.

Robbie ya missed the point. Our existing roads are great! TXDOT thank goodness contracts all road repair out (due to they can't budget correctly), however, when I-35 and others were built they were in the road building business then (so what does that tell ya). If you want to toll new built roads that doesn't split the state in half by a huge land grab i might be in favor. The true problem is TXDOT allowed too many cities to build on top of their roads which turned into main streets therefore causing the congestion you described except the area i described between north of Hillsboro and Elm Mott. Other than Hillsboro there is open country. Answer that should be no congestion!!!

Wouldn't it be nice if, in government, when the plebescite was made aware of stupid behavior of elected OR appointed governmental officials, we could simply vote to stop behaving stupidly? Whenever we saw stupid policies in action we could vote to change them. That would be really great. Texas leads the nation in despicable and stupid policies that do leave children behind, more people behind bars, and more uninsured folks than anywhere else in the world. We're number 44 out of 50 in how much we spend per school kid. What are we doing? Why are we continuing to value the wrong things? What will it take to get us to WANT cleaner air, better schools, better jobs, better food, better opportunities, better government? Ignorance is very powerful stuff. We should never underestimate the power of the ignorance of our fellow man. What happens when we do? We get leaders like Perry, a SBOE fresh out of the Salem Witch Trials, and millions subsisting below the poverty line while our governor cheerleads on the sidelines telling us how great everything is. Texas is poor, polluted, and ignorant--getting dumber by the minute. I'd tell all you tea partiers to go back to reading your Ayn Rand propaganda, but I doubt many of you know how to read. I'm thinking of doing a picture book for you explaining how society works. Robbie--do you like picture books?

Sodbuster, You began your statements hammering on TXDOT for athe traffic congestion on I-35 then wrapped up by stating that you want to kiss Texas highways when you travel in from other states (esp. Louisiana!) Typically traffic congestion is caused by more cars attempting to occupy less highway space. Of course construction, travel conditions (weather, road quality), peak travel days, etc. weigh in on congestion as well. Considering Texas' population growth and the fact that it's centered on the triangle between D/FW, San Antonio, and Houston, it makes sense that congestion on I-35, I-45, and I-10 will increase. There are more people trying to occupy that travel space. Major metropolitan areas (Austin, D/FW, Houston, and SA) are travel nightmares. Toll roads around Austin (130 and 45 to Mopac) dramatically reduce travel times around Austin and bypassing the city down to San Marcos and San Antone. The George Bush Turnpike in Dallas relieves the LBJ freeway, as do the additions of HOV lanes, a highway expansion project. The Dallas North Tollway relieves north and south bound traffic on I-35 and hwy 75 into downtown Dallas. But as you mentioned, there are substantial problems outside the metropolitan areas. Hillsboro, Waco, Temple, Belton, Salado all have traffic issues along I-35. As demonstrated on these urban highways, you've got two choices to relieve it, extensive construction projects to add more occupancy space (additional lanes) to the existing highway (which has worked south of Salado into Austin) or an adjoining highway system, as the proposed TTC was. Both need to be paid for and both will encroach private property, unless we all start traveling in the Jetson's pods. The questions remain on how you go about the expansion, whichever it may be, with the least impact on the taxpayers and in the most respectable manner towards the effected property owners.

Mr. Michael Shapiro...you left out that the conservative activists had NO IDEA a Dem candidate was coming until YOU told them when you came over to say hello. If you want to report a REAL story, then find out which Dem parked his black Mercedes in a handicap spot. He was either a candidate, an elected official, or a donor.

Perry creates jobs for his contractor buddies (some out of state and some out of country) using money that should go to improving the infrastructure and public education to mention only two. The good ol' gun totin' racists in Texas who support Perry will support him in spite of his arrogant disregard for the constitution and for good old time dedication to the state, including the poor and the minorities. His policies are killing the economy of all but the very wealthy kingpins in Texas who support Perry.

Oh come on, the reason for I-35 congestion is TXDOT! When do they decide to do road construction, AT PEAK TIMES! The engineering of I-35 from north of Hillsboro to Elm Mott is a disaster. Many times the traffic stacks up for no reason due to the turns and on & exit ramps. The TTC was a joke! Toll roads are not the answer. Go travel outside this great state on those roads. I just traveled 3900 miles across 6 states (some tolled) and when i got back to Texas i wanted to kiss our roads. The problem with this governor election you will have to hold your nose to vote. They both stink. Hard to find good points for either. What a shame and Perry has that self imposed aura about him as something of greatness. Give me a break!

According to the Texas Workforce Commission and the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M, employment by percentage for government workers in the state of Texas went from 17.4% to 17.9% over the last 20 years of total workforce in the state. That means 82.1% of employed Texans are privately employed, down from 82.6% 20 years ago. Sounds like government employment is BOOMING! Additionally, between June 2009 and June 2010, the state has maintained an employment growth rate of 0.9% while sustaining a population growth rate of 12.7%, nearly twice that of the rest of the country and more than any other state, according to the Texas Comptroller website. As for the TTC, anyone that believes that a major traffic corridor paralleling I-35 will not reduce I-35 traffic, is living in another deminsion. Additionally, most highways in Europe, the Autobaun for example, opperate as toll roads. Even in the US, I-35 through much of Kansas and I-44 through Oklahoma are toll roads. All are examples of possitive money-makers for the state. Dallas and Austin are encircled by toll roads that ease traffic congestion on their major highways and make traveling through or around the cities much easier on travelers. I understand the eminent domain is a hot-button item, but even in the expansion of I-35, property will have to be seized or compromised by TXDOT, considering the proximity of private property to the highway, especially in urban areas like Waco, Temple, Belton, Salado, etc. Realistically, in a state with the growth numbers sited above, you would hav to see eminent domain enacted, but you want to see it done in a way that justifies the actions of the state while justly compensating property owners, not just for their propery, but the consequential costs associated with property loss.

Elmo - I would hope that you would just skip the gubernatorial vote if you don't want to vote for Perry. With Bill White you will get sanctuary cities and the same liberal policies that are destroying our federal government.

Robbie Jobs? Yea right. Those are government jobs he created. He is worst then Obama

Robbie. You are as clueless as Perry if you think a foreign owned TTC would have solved I 35 problems. Toll roads are losing millions and face problems and is not the answer. Tx Dot lost a billion in a budget and Perry does not care. He vetoed eminant domain which you probably do not care because you live in a apartment. The coal plant debacle here was going to have 5 in Mclennan County and Perry fast tracked these for no reason. I never vote Dumcrat but I will this time. Perry must go

I'd like to thank all those that stood up against the TTC for the lovely traffic problems on an overly congested I-35. I enjoy reading news stories from outside the state of Texas that rail on how great our economy is holding up against the Obama recession. You want to talk about job creation, Texas has created 70% of the nation's jobs over the last 2 years. While states like Michigan and California struggle against mounting debt and burdening taxes, Texas is flourishing. You want to see a state income tax? If you don't think you're taxed enough and our state government doesn't spend enough money, vote for Bill White. Perry's made some definite faux paus, but why in the world would we want to put in a bleeding heart like Bill White in the governor's renting space while we watch California, Michigan and other states crumble under state policies advocated by liberal Democrats like Bill White? On a side note, I'm wondering why the Waco Tea Party and a coalition of Central Texas conservative groups can host an event at the Waco Convention Center starring Attorney General Greg Abbott, Congressman Louie Gohmert, Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones and attended by the Trib's Michael Shapiro along with hundreds of Central Texans doesn't so much as get a mention in this paper, yet a Democrat at a bar gets a blog and a feature article praising his record against discontent perceived from the Republican incumbant... Any answers Mr. Shapiro?

I will not vote for Perry either. TTC, coal plant debacle here , Merkel deal, Tx Dot supporter despite losing 1 billion in a budget, Eminant domain veto...........I never vote Dumcrat but will this time. Perry must go. And Perry living in a 8000 a month house. They guy is clueless