"Thumbs down to Sen. Ken Salazar and his colleagues in the Senate for voting to approve $189 billion for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008 with no strings attached. After stating Nov. 16 that 'we cannot give President Bush another blank check' for the administration's failed Iraq policy, Salazar turned around and did just that. To borrow an idea from cartoonist Mike Peters, perhaps the reason most Democratic congressional leaders support stem-cell research is that they think it will help them grow a spine."

Kevin Cross, Fort Collins