Max, I feel your pain (like the dude who drives up to the drive threw and asks "how much are your $.99 cent burgers") and I have felt that way before (I used to drive way the hell up in the mountains drive the old logging roads in N. Calif. for hours get out of the car and sure as shit someone will be up there) But just think someone probably thinks the same thing about me, you to probably. We all have the right to be here, even us big fat burger eatin', spandex wearin' rednecks.
As for the Dole, that was never in dispute. We should never have began down that road, weening people off of it will prove difficult at best now. Allot of them think that is what the Government is for.
As for you Chuck
a conservative like Ron Paul would have Decriminalized pot. But for the most part your right, Republicans seem willfully ignorant and dogmatic. Don't tell me "hes a Libertarian not conservative" Libertarians are in fact the "conservative" wing of the Republican party who left it in frustration. So a "real" conservative would legalize Pot, IMHO. A "real" conservative hates wasting money and so, would be against fighting a "war" on a relatively harmless recreational drug and source of a valuable commodity, hemp. A "real" conservative believes in personal freedom even if its the freedom to harm yourself with a drug. There is nothing conservative about waging aggressive war. There is nothing conservative about allot of the crap Bush pulled. Bush IMHO is a 2nd rate fascist and good riddance to him.
A real conservative is against spending money we don't have to pay to bail out companies that have failed. A real conservative doesn't barrow money to create jobs. He lowers taxes cuts spending at lets the market recover on its own. A real conservative would let the old dinosaurs like GM fail. So new companies could rise lean and hungry and ready for competition.