[4Freedom]

"Thousands of Puerto Ricans have died protecting those rights you and the Navy so cavalierly want to deny fellow American citizens."

This is the same stupid argument I keep hearing over and over. It galls me.

Thousands of Germans, Irish, Czechs, Poles, British, Italians, Greeks, French and men and women from almost every country on earth have died in combat wearing the uniform of the United States military.

Why do we owe Puerto Rico $18.8 billion dollars plus in hand-outs, each year, that we don't give any other country whose immigrants to the USA died in the service of our country?

Puerto Rico and the rest of the free world owe the United States.

[Dog Gone]

John Stossel is the only one at ABC who ever gets it right.

[Semper Paratus]

That's only because John Stossel was the reporter, the only conservative reporter that I know in th alpabet networks.

[Zorrito]

Si senior.

It is time for the Navy to vacate Puerto Rico. Then maybe next time the average PR will think twice before letting leftwing island commies set the agenda.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Vieques

[tiredoflurking]

Maybe because Puerto Rico is not a separate country looking for a hand-out. It's property the U.S. took ownership of after the Spanish American War, and therefore its well-being is as much a responsibility of the U.S. as is any of the 50 states. Now personally I couldn't care less if they keep a base open or closed, and after all the protests over Vieques I say this should've been expected.

But please don't paint all of us Puerto Ricans with the same brush, especially since so many Puerto Ricans are conservative Republicans like myself. Puerto Ricans have voted on the issue of independence time and again, and the status quo has always won out. So please don't assume that because some Puerto Ricans are complaining about one issue that all Puerto Ricans want to be separated from the U.S. There are just as many people demanding statehood as demanding independence.

And yes, many Puerto Ricans have died fighting for the U.S. (including one of my great-uncles who was killed in Germany in WWII) and their families are quite proud to say so. In fact, nearly every male relative I have has served in the military. Those other nationalities you mentioned put on our uniform because they LEFT their countries. Puerto Ricans fight because we're part of this country and proud. We're not immigrants, we're citizens. Therefore, money given to PR is NOT foreign aid "hand-outs" going to another country! It's money given to Americans.

[Willie Green]

Puerto Rico and the rest of the free world owe the United States.

There are two opposing perspectives regarding Puerto Rico's status:

1. An island that was unjustly seized and occupied by the United States as booty of the Spanish-American war, and whose citizenry have been unfairly exploited ever since, owing nothing to America.
2. An island that was liberated from Spanish colonial rule by the United States and is a legitimate U.S. territory. As such, the citizens of Puerto Rico are also U.S. citizens and have contributed both admirably and significantly to the defence of our nation.

I happen to hold that the second perspective is proper. But even the first perspective, with which I personally disagree, shows what an ignorant and illigitimate arguement you present. Your incessant anti-Puerto Rican diatribes are the product of an irredeemably twisted and bigotted mind.

[mathurine]

Maybe since we can't bomb Vieques, which I believe the United States actually bought from private owners for the express purpose, we could bomb Rosie Roads. The Vieques business was a well-financed campaign by real estate interests to free up some nice Caribbean property for development. Probably with only some minimal contributions, they were also able to sucker the ever-willing mainline churches to move the issue up high on their social justice agenda. Neither money grubbers nor clerics without calls care much about the effective training of the troops this country deploys in order insure that we have free speach and a free economy. Let the troops die in droves, they would say, as long as we either make money or feel good at the end of any given day.

[L.N. Smithee]

In answer to your question, "Did ABC finally get one right?": It isn't ABC News, it's John Stossel.

Stossel is the one bulwark against all-left all-the-time big three network journalism. ABC tolerates his opinions and reports because they are very popular and he is an entertaining guy. He is a libertarian, and is just as likely to bash the "religious right" as government waste and junk science, which, IMHO, makes him tolerable to the net heads. If he was someone with a purely conservative point-of-view, they wouldn't give him a soap box in prime time.

True, ABC does have George Will on Sunday mornings, but in their many hours of newsmags per week, it's only Stossel with his five minutes or so of "Give Me A Break!" to balance ABC's left-leaning heavyweights (Jennings, Walters, Sawyer, etc.).