OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEMOCRACY

What is the United States doing to promote democracy in the world today? There are now at least two opportunities to help establish new democracies in the world: Tunisia and Egypt. Have you heard any pronouncements promoting the democratic form of government by the President? By any member of Congress? By the State Department? During Chinese President Hu's visit? If you have, please send me a comment.

What is the problem? Don't we care about Democracy anymore? Or is our national esteem so low in the minds of our leaders that they think that we are not a worthy democratic nation anymore? Have the leftist liberals made us feel guilty with their constant raving about our supposed bad wartime policies? Or is our leadership just afraid to speak out with forceful support for the democratic way of life? The world's main problems are due to the existence of non-democratic dictatorships that are rogue nations. I don't have to name them. You know which ones they are.

People everywhere want to be free. No one wants despots dictating to them about what they can say, what they can print, what they can wear, how they can or cannot worship, find out what the truth or real news is, how many children you can have, etc.

President Obama, Secretary Clinton, members of Congress, lets speak out about the value and benefits of democracy and what we are going to do to help democracies grow everywhere! Write and call your Congressmen today.

IS FREEDOM OF THE PRESS UNDER ATTACK?

Senator Patrick Leahy and others in Congress have criticized the Press for their coverage of the Arizona attempted assassination of Rep. Gifford and the crazy shooting rampage of a psychotic murderer. They are insinuating that the press is inciting violence and sensationalizing the event. The incident was certainly a terrible act of violence and I believe that every aspect of the incident and the crazy man that did this should be thoroughly investigated, REPORTED BY THE PRESS, and completely acted upon by law enforcement. Yes, the press coverage has been extensive and possibly even tiresome at times, but in my view it is necessary, and the Press, in most cases of reporting, has done a great job. Americans should be grateful and proud that we have a fine Press in both print and in broadcasting services.

It has also been suggested that the press is the cause of this violence by its political reporting. This is rediculous. There are always going to be psychotics who are going to do bad things unless they are discovered, treated, or imprisononed by law enforcement. By the way, both Airzona and Virgina have laws that allow citizens to petition the State to order a psych evaluation of persons who exhibit dangerous or violent behaviour. All states should have laws like this. So if a psychotic commits a murderous act of violence, who's fault is it, the Press, or the citizens who knew that the person was violent and did not report him or her to the officials? Some unscrupulous politicians would like to muzzle certain Press organizations that don't support their political views. Don't let these politicians to use the assassination attempt to restrict the Freedom of the Press! Write and call your Congressmen that you support the Freedom of the Press and they should protect this freedom!

THE RAPTOR IS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

The Obama administration has cut off production of the new Raptor F-22 stealth fighter. This is the only fighter plane the US has that can outfly the latest Russian fighter aircraft. The production of the F-22 will stop at 187 aircraft and the production lines will be shut down, causing the loss of many skilled jobs. along with the job loss we also lose military aircraft know-how and the advanced stealth fighter technology. The F-35 is supposed to be good enough that we don't need the Raptor. But the F-35 is 300 to 400 mph slower than the Raptor and is not stealth capable. It can be beaten by Russian aircraft. Also the Chinese are in the final test phase of their new J-20 fighter plane. The J-20 appears to have stealth capability according to experts' reviews.

The question is this: Is the US cutting too many corners in military capability to save minuscule amounts of money compared to the amount of money spent on stupid boondoggle programs and welfare? I say yes! The military budget may need some cutting in certain areas, but I don't believe that aircraft and missiles are the places to cut. Mr. Gates has also cut the SLAMRAAM air-to-air defensive missile system. This is also costing jobs and the loss to technology that will not be regained.

These cuts I believe are a sign of the decline of power of the USA and the cost may be very dear in the blood of Americans in the future. If you agree with me, call and write your Congressmen and let them know what we think!

REAL ESTATE - WHAT HAPPENED AND HOW CAN WE FIX IT?

What happened to the real estate market in 2008-2009? Crooked mortgage brokers and the government agencies backed mortgages for many people who were not really qualified financially to buy a home with a mortgage. To make matters worse, many of these mortgages were large adjustable rate mortgages sold during a low interest rate period of time. When the interest rates went up later these mortgages had steeply increased payments that people could not pay so now their houses have been foreclosed on or are now in foreclosure. Then the real disaster hit after Wall Street traders sold packages of the low quality mortgages as securities with the mortgages mixed together so that there was no way to even determine who held the mortgages or what quality they were (unless the mortgages were handpicked as the worst ones that could be sold short by traders who knew that they would fail.) This risky scheme finally came to cause real trouble when major Wall Street firms and banks started to fail (Lehman Bros.) forcing the government to start bailing out very large firms such as AIG for example. The effect of the bad securities was to cause banks to stop lending, leading to a very bad credit crunch which resulted in the government dumping huge amounts of money into circulation causing the value of the dollar to fall (we are lucky the dollar hasn't crashed to zero.) So now where are we in real estate? Well if you have cash it might be a good time to buy unless there is another dip coming. Real estate prices are still 15 to 20% higher than their traditional trendline. But if you need a mortgage to buy a house or property you will have a hard time getting a mortgage.

So what can be done to fix the problem? Unfortunately there is no fix until jobs come back, people have better incomes, and more cash to qualify for a mortgage. In other words, people have to have jobs and we have to get out of this recession. Call and write your Congressmen to remind them about the unemployment problem that needs to be fixed!