I most certainly hope he and his spewings are soon toast.

OK with the Republicans trying to sell out the US economy (according to you, that statement really causes me to scratch my head) and the liberal Democrats trying to tax it to death, it is amazing that there still is a US economy!

Like I've said before, this is a global economy. If the Germans can make something better than we can, good for them. The US consumer will benefit. But don't get the goverment involved, all they do is give money to their buddies. They are incapable of making an a good economic decisions (see Solyndra).

If a start up company has a good enough business plan and good enough leadership to make it, they will attract money from the private sector. If they can't attract that money, you have to ask why? And when the government steps in and decides to support a business that can't attract private money, more often than not it just turns into taxpayer meney down the rat hole.

Giving politicians too much power (or tax dollars) is a prescription for disaster That's how we are saddled with big give away programs that we can never pay for (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid). If the Rebulicans get the white house next January (about a 50/50 chance) they will start trimming some of these programs. They have no choice. The Dems do not want to face that reality. And watch the liberal media bitch and moan about how Grandma will lose $10 a month out of her Social Security and that will cause her to freeze to death in the next ten minutes.

I live in Illinois, and this state is a perfect example of what happens when liberals get too much power for too long. A state that is on the brink of bankrupcy, that's what!

It really is past time to get these GOP radical regressives out of our Congress (and our bedrooms). These soggy teabaggers must be tossed in the garbage in November.

Thom was incorrect regarding the Chevy Volt. He said that when the battery runs low, the gasoline engine comes on to charge the battery. This is not exactly true. When the gasoline engine fires up it begins to provide electricity to the electric motor which drives the wheels that moves the car down the road. Technically a small amount of this electricity is used to maintain the battery at a set point above total discharge to avoid damage to the battery. The battery is only fully charged with 110 or 220 volts AC using the plug-in electric port.

I would like to respond to the question will "money" will win out in the end in regards the Presidential election for 2012. NO........money will not win!!! I believe there is a phrase that states, " the truth is mightier than the sword!!"

YES IN the end Mr Money will get the nod ...by a slim margin / NO birth control Santorum for VP to make far right / Obama hating Evangelicals happy ? Thats a recipe for Church run Gov't ! Egads US fought a war for Freedom of ( from ) the Church of Englands powerful control. . Gays Guns God people are baaaack without the morals this time .Does hate or money make the world go around ? Its close ..

Conservatives have no honour. They will do whatever is required to get elected. We in Canada are currently going through a conservative dirty trick issue, actually very illeagal under our election act for targeting liberals across the country in last years federal election. They hired robodialers to call and say polling stations have been moved etc. The conservaty party denies any involvement. Instead they had a 23 year old staffer take the hit. He claims he did it by himself. Probably cost close to $10000 to impliment and had to be organized across 28 ridings. I have a 23 year old son. $10000 are you kidding.

I believe that the conservative movement is on its way down and this is just examples of the ends justifying the means.

Thanks for the great links, fusero009!

Here's a very good site that has over 3000 videos that cover everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, history, and all kinds of subjects.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

If you want computer programming try http://www.thenewboston.org/ This young guy is a dynamo of learning about computer programming, mathematics, games, and other subjects.

How about learning about TCP/IP....here is a whole massive on-line, and free, book that tells it all...you can also buy the book if you want. My book has 1536 pages. I just had to have the book after reading most of the on-line stuff. http://www.tcpipguide.com/

And here's another dynamo from Harvard...David Malan...teaches CS50 and other Computer Science classes...all free on-line...along with transcripts, notes, slides, and source code examples. www.cs50.tv note: some of these on-line University classes have some very hard to understand lecturers/professors...but David Malan is easy to understand and definitely not boring. One of the best professors I've ever heard!!

Stanford has a class called CS106A Programming Mehtodology taught by Mehran Sahami...another easy to understand and definitely not boring lecturer/professor. He is also very good!

And if you are trying to learn Arabic, I still am, instead of paying hundreds or thousands of bucks for a course check out this Defense Language Institute (DLI) course that is free and very, very comprehensive. The instructor speech is very, very clear (perfect diction and enunciation in both English and Arabic) and easy to understand even with the background noise which I have been able to remove from each audio using Audacity. There are over 20 pdf books that go along with the audio and other pdfs as well. This was a real exciting find that I have been looking for for a long while. http://jlu.wbtrain.com/sumtotal/language/DLI%20basic%20courses/MSA/Basic...
I was originally was led to this by a Google web site where you can get access to 55 languages..on-line for free.
http://sites.google.com/site/soyouwanttolearnalanguage/specificlanguages

Here is a very talented young woman who is Arabic, lives in Italy, and teaches languages professionally but has posted many on YouTube. I loved her YouTube videos teaching the Arabic Language...there are lots of them...and watched them all. She is an excellent teacher...very expressive and easy to understand...and very cute...but married.
http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicwithMaha

And here is a wealth of on-line learning for free at an Indian University web site called NPTEL-
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses.php Every course I have checked out was in English and usually their English is very easy to understand. They use very good and state of the art visual assistance devices...usually they don't rely on hard to read and messy chalk boards that the cameraman has a hard time capturing in a timely manner...something that seems to be typical of many of the US Universities. Some of the lectures from US Universities tend to rely on these chalk boards, poor hand-writing, mumbled speech..or speak way to fast...and even when you slow the video down..they still sound retarded. The ones I mentioned before speak very clearly at all speeds. VLC media player is great for changing the speed to just the way you need it.

In response to the last two posts on self-education and education online from Apple, this kind of DIY movement is already happening, and it's long over due with the obscene debt situation students and their parents are finding themselves in. Ever since I got my B.A. twenty years ago, I've wondered if I could have done a better job myself and not ended up with the $12K in debt I had incurred (I know, that's nothing compared to today's student debt levels). In my humble opinion, I think students everywhere should start boycotting in protest of the financial rape that the American university system is propogating on the public. There are plenty of online resources, like those here below, that students can access, and they can form their own meetups if they want to build a local community around it.

From one article: "Ironically, it's only as recent grads that many of us discover our nascent intellectual curiosity, waiting to wander free outside the classroom. On the flip side, some of us have already discovered it, but once we begin working in the "real world" we suddenly realize there are a lot of cool skills to pick up that weren’t really on our radar in college (e.g., practical ones). But have no fear—DIY education is here!" http://www.gradspot.com/guides/diy-education

Just google DIY education, and here's some examples of what I'm talking about: http://diyubook.com, http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/diy-education-teach-yourself...., and of course www.udemy.com which I recently came across.

There's even a 2009 article by BY Anya Kamenetz | that's worth reading on the Peer2Peer University model - http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/who-needs-harvard.html. And then there's her book DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education.

The referendum here in CA will pass. This is despite the gowing anger over Jerry's latest string of vetoes, a few the same ones as Arnold. He vetoes equal employment rights for farmworkers and uprgrades for breast cancer screening? He calls himself a democrat? There are tough decisions to be made here but not on the backs of students, healthcare and hard working farmworkers.

We have million dollar college presidents and University regents with a paid staff of over $200,000 salary on average. Some of these are politically appointed real estate developers who contributed to their campaigns. We do not need a president or board of regents on every campus anymore then we should be paying over a millilon dollars for asst. football coaches. We can centralize our higher education here with a board of directors for the state colleges and one for the university system. End overlapping services and focus on specialized diversity of programs. Allow the students a say in choosing the board members. The goals should be higher education not real estate development and hilton dorm resorts for wealthy students. Make education and living costs affordable for all students. This is how we care for the future.

The latest comments on charter schools are most welcome. The message propagated over and over is that charter schools are here to rescue underwater schools. This is untrue. Here in Santa Cruz a private charter took over our best school. It was called Natural Bridges Elementary. The school had won both state and local awards for teaching excellence. Mrs Pingree was teaching hiku to 3rd graders with a wonder of results. Mrs Garcia and many others were a notch above most educators. The school was sold by our admininstrators to a charter. Parents of students have to pay to attend now. Young public school students on the west side must walk several blocks to a heavy traveled intersection to a depreciated older school building . Charter schools are a back door to vouchers. It is economic segregation. We must end public financing for charter schools.

Regarding Romney and Iran? You are reporting Romney wants ANOTHER war in the Middle East? THAT versus what Obama is doing in the Middle East? Thom, you lost a long time listener when you crowed your approval of the POTUS being a paid assassin with not a whif of due process.And you come on the air and talk about Romney? How can you talk for three hours every day and crow your approval of the Democrat Party wearing the mantle of paid assassin of US citizens? You have lost your way Thom, it's really tiring to hear your unmistakable, slobbering support for the Democrat party. Where in the Constitution does it allow Obama to assassinate his own people at his whim? By voting Dem. you are supporting a broken, preditory system. Shame on you.

REMEMBER "FLUSH RUSH"!!!