We Must Never Forget Sept.11, 2001

We must never forget those that died in the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor.

We must also not forget:

• That the Bush/McCain administration ignored numerous warnings about terrorists flying commercial airliners into the World Trade Center.

• That the first action taken after the disaster was to quietly whisk the bin Laden family, family friends of the Bush family, out of the country.

• That the Saudi’s, again family friends of the Bush family, were never held accountable for their part in sponsoring the terrorist.

• That the Bush/McCain admin used the fear and the trust of the American people to promote their agenda to start a war with Iraq.

• That Bush/McCain never put any effort to capture bin Ladin, the one responsible for the disaster.

• That Bush/McCain used and promoted fear of terrorism to justify brutal torture and the killing of innocent Iraqi’s.

Fannie Failure Equals Failure in Privatization

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) commonly known as Fannie Mae was founded as a government agency in 1938 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal to provide liquidity to the mortgage market.

Basically working men and women pooled their money (taxes) to help each other out in securing home loans. The sole purpose of the organization was to help working class citizens.

In 1968, FNMA was privatized because bankers wanted to get their hands on the money. Its purpose changed to making a profit and no longer for helping citizens. In good years it did good and the executives rewarded themselves generously. And now in hard times the executives still want their large rewards even though their company failed. Now they want the working class taxpayers to bail them out.

This is exactly what we can expect if McCain privatizes Social Security as he, and his wealthy banker friends, would like.

There is a place for capitalism and competition but it’s not in insurance like FNMA and Social Security. Insurance should be a pool of money set aside to help those of us in the working class that are less fortunate. There isn’t a lot of managing needed. We certainly don’t need middle-men (people) scraping off billions of dollars from the fund.

Now with satellite radio, we need competition. Isn’t it interesting that those that scream for privatization of Social Security to encourage competition are the same idiots that turn a blind eye on the monopolization of an industry like satellite radio?

I tried to use truthiness in writing this. If I have stepped on facts please let me know.

REPUBLICANS DON'T SUPPORT OUR TROOPS

The republicans have had control of the government for the last eight years. Six of those years they controlled all of the government. During that time we have spent more than $500,000,000,000 on a war. But little of this unbelievable amount has gone to help troops in the field, in barracks in the US and the biggest shame, to help our wounded vets.

Where has the money gone? Well, right off the bat Bremer lost approx $10,000,000,000 in cash. It just got lost. Halliburton, GE, Blackwater, and other profiteers have had no trouble getting their money. Some times even for projects they never completed. But did our troops get the body armor when they needed it? NO! The Blackwater mercenaries did. Did our troops get the blast protected Humvees? NO! The Blackwater mercenaries did. Did our troops get decent housing in barracks. NO! They got rotting, moldy, leaky, disgusting barracks.

And what have the republicans done for our wounded vets, the young people that we sent to Iraq to fight a war for nothing, they get poor service and a mountain of bureaucracy. The Nation magazine (Sept) has an excellent article on this issue and they state, “In 2007, 32,000 veterans appealed the VA’s initial ruling. They waited an average of three and a half years for their appeals to be processed.” This is a crime. These people that got wounded in battle have been ignored by the very republicans that were so eager to send them to battle. The republicans have pulled out all stops to get their contractor friends “no bid” contracts and their money, but somehow have failed to help out the wounded veterans.

John McCain says he doesn’t like big government. But in the last eight years he has supported the Bush administrations push for bigger government. And John McCain says he supports his fellow soldiers and veterans, but he voted consistently against increases to vet benefits, and he has supported republican filibusters stopping Democratic legislation aimed at streamlining the bureaucracy hurting our wounded vets.

When republicans say, support our troops, they mean support our contractors.

BOTH CANDIDATES FOR CHANGE

In Sen McCain's speech to the republican convention, he repeatedly echoed the call for change that Sen Obama is known for.

But this sounded hollow coming from someone that supported George W. Bush's policies over 92% of the time.

It sounded unbelievable since Sen McCain supported over 90 republican filibusters of change legislation last year. That is a new American record, 90 filibusters and with out any whining from Democrats about initiating a "nuclear option" like the republicans did in previous years.

It sounded empty since Sen McCain did not mention one single change he would work towards.

In fact McCain and his aristocratic friends loved the last eight years where they got mega-rich while the working class saw huge increases in poverty, lost jobs, home foreclosures, losses of health insurance, and saw seniors prescriptions soaring out of site.

McCain's writers, aware that the working class is demanding a change from the last eight years of aristocratic rule, put the word "change" throughout his speech. But he has no idea what it means. He still thinks Czechoslovakia is a country.