Excuse me, Ms. McGary, but just where do you get off saying that Martin Luther King Day doesn't apply to me specifically simply because I'm white? Do you have any understanding at all of what Dr. King's message was? Or why we celebrate his life and sacrifice?

@ boftx: The debt numbers are not an indication of spending alone; they are an indication of spending relative to revenue. To say that federal spending has increased because the debt is higher is not correct. Spending has increased somewhat, but by far the biggest reason for the growth of the deficit is the decrease in revenue brought about by the recession.

The fiscal mismanagement took place during the G. W. Bush administration when we gave massive tax cuts to people who didn't need them rather than pay down our existing debt.

The Obama administration's problem was not so much that they borrowed money to get the economy going, it was who they gave the money to. Instead of giving the money to the people whose consumer spending will ultimately get us out of this recession, they borrowed trillions and turned them over to the people who got us into this recession (i.e., the banks).

So there's plenty of blame to go around for our current mess. If, however, anyone thinks we're going to solve the problem by putting Romney - or any Republican - in office they are sorely mistaken. I'm writing in Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy dead is better than any of these craven clowns alive.

This tactic of trying to halt the workings of the institution by refusing to confirm its director is going to come back and bite the Republicans in the a**. They refused to confirm Elizabeth Warren, so she went home to Massachusetts and will be taking on Scott Brown in the Senate race. She'll probably beat him, too.

Mr. DiFazio:

I repeat: China spent $114 billion on their military in 2010 while we spent nearly $800 billion. What, exactly, are we countering? What threat does China represent to the US, militarily speaking? Did it never occur to you that Chinese military spending is a response to the fact that WE have such a large fleet just off THEIR coast? You think we might spend more on our military if there was a Chinese fleet 300 miles from San Francisco? Where does it all stop?

Let the Koreans pay for their own defense. Our best interests are not served by blindly accepting whatever the generals tell us. The military is not self justifying.

DO any of you posters out there have any idea oof just how much we spend on the military? The US spent nearly $700 billion on its military in 2010. China, with five times as many people to defend, spent $114 billion. We spent 4.7% of our GDP on our military. Germany spent 1.4% and Japan spent only 1%. Has anybody invaded Japan, China, or Germany lately?

Who is going to invade the US? Why do we need to pay for military bases all over the world? How is a naval base in the Indian Ocean defending your freedom?

Wake up, for cryin' out loud.

And why is it people will say cutting the military is defeatist, while cutting Social Security and Medicare is only common sense? Which of the three is of the least benefit to the people of the United States? Two programs that keep our senior citizens out of poverty, or one program which wastes untold billions of American taxpayer dollars paying for the defense of Europe and East Asia?

Is it really more important that we be able to bomb Pakistan than it is that the elderly not have to eat dog food?

Excuse me, but at what point do we say we've spent enough? The US spends as much on its military as all the other nations of the world COMBINED.

We also have to ask why it is we want such a large military. The constitution gives Congress the power to raise an army and a navy for the purpose of providing for the common defense. Last I checked, the common defense meant Americans, not Europeans, East Asians, and Afghans.

The defenders of the military-industrial complex say we need the military to defend "vital American interests" and then define a vital interest in ways that provide, not for the common defense, but for the defense of corporate interests. We're paying for a navy right now so that oil companies can keep the Straits of Hormuz open to take oil from Saudi Arabia to refineries in China and Japan. How is that providing for my defense? The Saudis sell the oil, let them guarantee its safe transport.

Mr. Dunton: If the season is what you make of it, why are you and Mr. Jeric so concerned with what someone else makes of it?

Who says YOU can't say "merry Christmas"? Who says YOU can't "keep Christ in Chrsitmas"?

So why get so hot and bothered when someone else says "happy holidays"?

Some people will avoid merchants because they post signs saying "Merry Christmas." Others will boycott them if they don't. Who's the bigger bigot?

Excuse me, but is someone having trouble celebrating the holiday? Is Christmas not ubiquitous enough? With all that is going on in the world, THIS is what you shoose to be outraged by?

Get a life.