My Opinion by John Zilverberg

congress message

2011-12-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

It seems congress is not going to get anything done about balancing the budget or our national debt. I said A long time ago that it would be better to let all the Bush tax cuts expire then to do nothing so now is the time to let all the Bush tax cuts expire and if congress passes any laws to reinstate them the president could veto them and let all the tax cuts expire that would give the country A chance to recover. It might be hard on some of the lower income people but it would restore the countrys credit rating and give people confidence to expand their businesses and start new ones and that would create A lot of new jobs. Then if we were to pass the right to work law that also would encourage people to start new businesses. Another law that should be passed is to make english the official language of the U. S. With the stipulation all government business and official printing materials and voting ballots be in english only That would that would save the country billions and would encourage all emigrants to become english speaking american citizens I would agree nobody should get A cost of living increase as long as the government is in trouble. Every time you give A cost of living increase the cost of living goes up another notch. It’s a never ending cycle. You have to draw the line some where. My opinion by John Zilverberg

November 20, 2011

2011-11-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

The legislators are not getting anything done about our budget shortfall or our national debt. The legislators are not getting anything done about our budget shortfall or our national debt. Maybe we should give all our legislators A years vacation without pay. That $175000.00 salary and the additional perks each one is getting would be A good start on correcting our budget short fall and our national debt. We could probably hire some retired farmer for $25000.00 to run the government.. He could surly do A better job of running the government then our present legislators are doing, At least he would have enough common sense to know that you have to collect some money to pay your bills if you are going to exist, then there are Fannie mae and Fannie Mac . We have already spent 170 billion to bail them out and they could cost us up to 220 billion by 2014.Right now they are asking for another 13,8 billion bail out money from the government ( that is us the tax payers) In the mean time they are paying their executives millions in salaries and bonuses. .In 08 and 09 twelve executives got 35 million in salaries and bonuses The top executive getting 9.3 million. They claim they have to pay that much to keep their top qualified employees .If I had top qualified employees that were losing me that much money I would send them down the road in A hurry. It should not be hard to qualify for A job to destroy A business. . My opinion by John Zilverberg Maybe we should give all our legislators A years vacation without pay. That $175000.00 salary and the additional perks each one is getting would be A good start on correcting our budget short fall and our national debt. We could probably hire some retired farmer for $25000.00 to run the government.. He could surly do A better job of running the government then our present legislators are doing, At least he would have enough common sense to know that you have to collect some money to pay your bills if you are going to exist, then there are Fannie mae and Fannie Mac . We have already spent 170 billion to bail them out and they could cost us up to 220 billion by 2014.Right now they are asking for another 13,8 billion bail out money from the government ( that is us the tax payers) In the mean time they are paying their executives millions in salaries and bonuses. .In 08 and 09 twelve executives got 35 million in salaries and bonuses The top executive getting 9.3 million. They claim they have to pay that much to keep their top qualified employees .If I had top qualified employees that were losing me that much money I would send them down the road in A hurry. It should not be hard to qualify for A job to destroy A business. . My opinion by John Zilverberg

blue print for congress

2011-02-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

A blueprint for congress What they need to do to get this country back on A sound financial basis. First make english the official language of the U. S. All official government documents and voting ballots to be printed in english only. If any one needs an interpater it would be up to them to furnish one. No government equity or business should be required by law to furnish one. that would save the government billions. second pass the right to work law . that would give businesses an opertunity to hire cheaper labor .Thereby creating more jobs , creating new businesses and all these people with new jobs would be paying taxes instead of the govrnment having to support them. Third raise out top income bracket on personal income from the present 35 persent one persent for every 100 thousand after the first 250 thousand up to 90 persent 4th reinstate the inheritance tax with A three million exemption then 10 percent on the fourth million and increase it 10 percent for each additional million up to 50 percent 5th make everybody pay the social security withholding tax on all of their income and return any tax collected on social security payments back in to the social security funds .that would solve the problem of the social security short fall,.If these recomendations were passed we would soon have the national debt paid off and our economy back on track. And we could save 50 percent on the taxes we are paying now because that is presently being used to pay the interest on the national debt If we use social security and medicare funds to pay off the national debt we are taking the money away from the poor people that need the money while the big money people and the unions that are responsible for the trouble we are in . so they should be paying the bill My opinion by John Zilverberg.

Arizona's Law

2010-05-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

There has been A lot of fuss about Arizona’s new emigration law. Seems to me it is just supporting the federal emigrattion law. Every state ought to pass the same law then the states might be able to enforce the law which the federal government has failed to do.It’s easy to see why the illegal emigrants and their friends wouldn’t like the law.Criminals never like laws that criminalize them .But what would A country be like if we didn’t have laws and laws should be enforced.congress finaly passed A wallstreet regulation bill. And I hope it helps but I am afraid it is only A band aid on the big problem. While wall street seems to be prospering again We still have nearly 10 percent of our population out of jobs and many people losing their homes. We have to get this downtroden part of our population back into the main street, working and paying taxes. We are creating A society of have and have nots. We need to create some laws to level the playing field. Right now big money is running the show and they are running it to benefit themselves without regard to what it is doing to the country and the rest of the population . My opinion by John Zilverberg

The National Debt

2010-05-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Government debt is now 94% of the nation's national gross product. That is 94% of our national income, and at the rate we are spending money, we will soon be a bankrupt nation like Greece. They say a big part of the problem is social security. The reason social security is in trouble is because our government that is our congress, has been using social security money for all kinds of pet projects. Some of which were probably good projects but they should have gotten the money to pay for them somewhere else other than the social security fund. The seniors paid that social security money to be used in their old age and that is all it should be used for.

The social security could still be easily fixed by raising the age bracket and raising the amount of income individuals would have to pay social security on. That way people with large incomes would be paying in more. They would also get larger payments. But with our present tax on social security we would recapture a lot of that. Right now many of the large company executives that get big bonuses in stock options that were in depressed prices and now have gone up are making millions and billions. An increase in taxes on those high incomes is what we need to get the country on a paying basis. That is not apt to happen because we have too many big money people making our laws. They are taking care of themselves and their rich friends that are putting up the money to keep them in office.

Of course, if we could find productive jobs for the 9.7% of the people that are out of a job, they would be paying taxes and that could bail the government out.

There's no way we can keep spending more than our income and survive very long.

Housing and Money

2010-04-28T15:51:00.001-07:00

The money is about to run out for the government housing program that has been helping the housing industry at least temporarily.It should temporarily because the government has been selling the houses to low income people without any down payment. Seems to me that was what got the housing industry into trouble in the first place,Selling houses to people that could’nt afford to pay for them . For every house they buy we are adding to the national debt.And if we don’t find jobs for these people the government is apt to end up with A lot of houses.Seems to me the sensible thing to do rather then forclose on all these houses would have been to let the people stay in their houses as long as they maintained them and paid A reasonable interest on their debt. If necessay the government could have given them A temporary loan to pay the interest .That in turn should have kept the financial institutions from going bankrupt.People tend to forget that president Bush asked congress several times to create an overseeing board to check up on the big financial institutions But the democratic congress never did anything about it. Now Obama and the democratic congress are trying to do the same thing and the republicans are dragging their feet.We need to check up on these big institutions and the people that are running them so they don’t con the public out of all that money while they pocket millions. Its criminal for these people to make more in one day then the working people that are producing the wealth in this country earn in A year.We need some laws to level the playing field. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Language Problems

2010-04-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

I see where someone introduced A bill in congress that courts should furnish interpreters for people that appear in court and do not understand english.English should be the official language of the U. S. And the congress should have made it so long ago.all official government business and documents should be in english only.If any one needs an interpreter to understand the english language in the courts or anywhere else it should be up to the person needing the interpreter to furnish them or if the courts or anyone else furnishes the interpreter it should be up to the person needing the interpreter to pay all the costs of his services. It would be perty hard for the court or any business to have an interpreter for all languages as there might be 40 or more people with different languages to show up needing an interpreter.If these people want to live in the U. S. They better learn the english language It would cost the government billions of dollars if they had to paint all official documents in multiple languages and the same would be true for any other business or organization. One common language would help unify the country. If different ethnic groups were to speak different languages in different areas that could lead to disagreements between the different ethnic groups and could have serious consequences. MY opinion by John Zilverberg

Rediculous Ads

2010-04-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

Some of these rediculas ads you see on the media these days by law firms trying to bilk the public out of their money are A disgrace and ought to be outlawed. They try to make you believe you are entitled to compensation and they will get it for you ,For A price, one example is the ones relating to asbestas Mesathelioma. Then about reverse mortgages. They make it sound like A great deal and all the wonderful things you can do with the money. What they don’t tell you is the with A reverse mortgage you are selling the equity in your home and when the mortgage comes due you will no longer have A home .another is where they have the people telling how much money they saved from what they owed the I.R.S.in taxes.They are talking about thousands of dollars. If these people are telling the truth there is something drasticaly wrong with the system or the people that are running it. What ever these people owe in taxes that is what they should pay . Nobody should be getting any special deals.If they cheated on their taxes and owed that much they should be in jail ,Not saving money.If these kind of deals are really going on some people must be getting A big rake off and we better have an investigation. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

Russian Agreement

2010-04-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Obama has signed an agreement with Russia to reduce our arsenal of nuclear weapons as A means to reduce the chances of A nuclear war which sounds good . But with these rouge nations developing nuclear weapons I am not sure we should be reducing ours. Roosevelt said the best way to keep out of trouble is to carry A big stick. The fact that we have them might deter some other nation from attacking us.And we better keep our missel defense system in good order.It would be great to have A peaceful world .But as long as there has been people on this world they have been fighting for one reason or another,In some cases it is religion others it is energy or greed. And economic conditions are not helping.with our medications improving people are living longer. A lot of countries are being over populated and can not produce enough food for the people. If we could eliminate wars we could take care of A lot of people with the money we spend on maintaining our armies and their equipment.And there in no reason why some people should be making millions and billions while others are starving or living in poverty. We could do A lot to adjust that if we would adjust our tax system to level the playing field. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Country In Trouble

2010-03-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

Things are drastically wrong at present when we have millions of people out of jobs or living on the edge that would like to have A job at any wage. It seems the cost of living should go down. Instead everything is getting higher priced. All service and repair jobs are costing more. A loaf of bread is costing almost as much as the farmer is getting for A bushel of wheat,Medical and education prices are going through the ceiling. The Unions are asking for higher wages and more benefits. We are creating A society of the haves and the have nots. The haves are doing better and the have nots are getting worse off every day and our country is in serious trouble. We are already seeing protests and riots and things are going to get A lot worse if we don’t get things corrected. Why isn’t congress doing something to correct things? For one thing the biggest share of them are millionaires and multi-millionaires and they make the laws that take care of themselves and their rich friends that put up the money to keep them in office. We need to get this country back on A sound financial basis and level the playing field for the general public.There is no reason why ten percent of the people in this country should have 90 percent of the money. This is supposed to be A democratic country where the majority rules so we should be able to put people that make the laws in office that would do what is good for the country and the general public. My opinion by John Zilverberg

financial problems

2010-02-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

We bailed out the big financial institutions on wall street. Now they are making big profits at the expense of the general public. Paying out over 20 billion in bonuses. It is estimated that broker dealer operations will make over 55 billion in profits. All this while our nation is in big trouble and our congress can’t seem to be able to do any thing about it. They have spent over A year haggling over A massive health care bill that looks like A disaster if they do pass it without the means to pay for it. We need jobs so we have people paying taxes instead of drawing unemployment. And we need to revise our tax system by increasing the present tax system on individuals by one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first $250000.00 up to 90 percent. That would get some of that excessive bonus money back into circulation and pay off the national debt that is costing us billions in interest. Our present tax system is producing A class of multi millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the general public. Also we have twenty million illegal emigrants in the country putting A strain on our health care and education systems and competing for the jobs we do have. The S.D. congress has bills to lower the drinking age and to sell liquor on holidays. As if we don’t already have enough drunk drivers on the road killing themselves and A lot of other innocent people .My opinion by John Zilverberg

2010-02-21T19:36:00.000-08:00

Joe Stock of Austin Texas thought the I.R.S.had mistreated him. He felt so strongly about it that he set his house afire got in his plane an crashed it into the I.R.S. building killing himself and at least one other person and putting some more people in the hospital. That was an extreme case . But A lot of people seem to feel that way and it is not justified. The I.R.S. has A tough job trying to collect all the taxes to run the government,build our roads ,educate our children ,Maintain an army ,Navy and Marine core to defend us and our nation .Besides all the other benefits we take for granite.How many people do you think would pay their fair share of the taxes if there was nobody to check up on them.Of course we know that A lot of that money we send to Washington is wasted. But that is not the I.R.S. fault.That is the fault of the people we send to Washington to make our laws.Some people want to eliminate the I.R.S. In fact there was even A bill in congress to do that.If you have A problem with the I.R.S. it is usualy your own fault.Sure they make A mistake once in A while .But if you have good honest records there shouldn't be A problem getting things corrected.I have always found them fair to deal with. My opinion by John Zilverberg

This Country Is In Trouble

2010-02-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

This country is in trouble, and it is going to be till we get it on A paying basis. We are paying out billions in interest on our national debt The unemployment population increased by about A third last year and job opportunities decreased by about twenty five percent. It is easy to pass tax relief but that wont pay the bills. Tax relief wont do anything for the people with no jobs and no money because they don’t pay any taxes anyway. Tax breaks for companies are good because companies create jobs and people with jobs pay taxes. We demand A lot of services from our government and someone has to pay for them. The people with the money are going to have to do the paying. At the present time some company executives and directors are making more money in one year then the average worker makes in A lifetime. The same goes for popular sports figures and entertainers etc..We need these people that excel in what they do and they should earn more then the average person but not to such an unreasonable amount. All that excessive income is made at the expense of the general public goes into the private bank accounts and out of the economy. My recommended personal income tax increase of one percent on every one hundred thousand after the first one hundred and fifty thousand up to 90 percent would get A lot of that excessive money back into circulation if properly handled invigorate the economy benefit the nation and everybody in it. This won’t be easy because we have too many rich people in Washington making our laws and they are taking care of themselves and their rich friends that are putting up the money to get them elected into office and now that the judges have thrown out the law that restricts the amount of money any person or organization can contribute to A candidates campaign big money is going to be running the show more than ever. My opinion by John Zilverberg

The Cost of Living

2010-02-15T13:00:00.001-08:00

Saturday I was listening to A panel of supposedly experts discussing about the effect of the 87 billion stimulus money and if it was getting the job done. I think some of their opinions were influenced by their political affiliation. Evidently it helped the big financial institutions. Some of them seem to have fully recovered and are back to making record profits that might be A sign it saved us from A total recession, but for the ten percent of the people that are out of jobs the recession is getting worse every day they are out of A job. The cost of living is going up and the prices for labor and repairs is going thru the ceiling. A loaf of bread now costs about as much as the farmer is getting for A bushel of wheat. That may be good for the people that have the jobs and are making the money but it is tough on the rest of the people. And is creating A class of destitute people that have to be taken care of and are not paying any taxes. Now the federal judges threw out the law that limited big companies and organizations as to the amount they could spend on political support so now anyone that wants to pass any legislation to benefit the general public will have to buck A lot of big money that will influence the election. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Obama's State of the Union Address

2010-02-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

Obama’s state of the union address was rather long and he tried to justify his programs and himself. But it was not very well received especially by the republicans. He again made A lot of promises that he may not be able to keep. I think his intentions are good and some of his ideas are good if he could get them passed. He has been working on creating new jobs but so far his ideas have cost A lot of money and have not produced very good results. Now he is planing to give the low income people tax breaks. That may be good for the people that have jobs and can pay taxes but for the people that have no jobs and no money to pay taxes it is not going to do them any good. And I am sure it would not create any jobs. He has suggested A tax break for small companies .That is good if it keeps the companies in business because companies are what create jobs and people that have jobs pay taxes. We are going to have to raise taxes some where if we are ever going to pay off the national debt and the people that have the money are going to have to do it and they have no intention of doing that. We are just going to have to put some people into office that are willing to raise the taxes on the super rich people that are taking all the money out of our economy to increase their own bank accounts. Our present tax system is creating A class of multi millionaires and billionaires at the expense of the general public. I would estimate ten percent of the people in this country are holding at least ninety percent of the money. We need to get some of that money back into circulation where it will help the general public and the country. One good idea Obama had was to let the bush tax cuts for the people making over two hundred fifty thousand expire. But of course he probably wont get that done because the people with the money wont let that happen if they can help it. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Where Has The Stimulus Money Gone?

2010-02-10T19:02:00.004-08:00

Where has the stimulus money gone besides to the big financial institutions and how many jobs has it created?A couple of examples .One .we built an air strip in Alaska that cost nine million.Probably A 60 day job that created 46 jobs for sixty days .Each worker probably earned about 80 0.00 And each job cost us tax payers $195652.00.Of course if we needed the air strip and it is worth six million maybe we got our moneys worth.then there is the Florida bridge that cost us seventy two million three hundred thousand and created seventy two jobs for probably six months at A cost to the tax payers of over A million dollars for each six month job.Of course the same applies here. If the bridge is worth the seventy two million three hundred thousand and we needed it maybe we got our moneys worth .But the bills still have to be paid and I havn't seen any action in congress that is going to pay the bills.That would be the same as some one that needed A house to live in .They could go out and buy A house for $100000.00 but then if they couldn't raise the money to pay for it they would be right back out on the street.Our government is going to be in big trouble if we don't raise some money to pay our bills . My opinion by John Zilverberg

Stimulus Money

2010-02-10T19:02:00.003-08:00

Saturday I was listening to A panel of supposedly experts discussing about the effect of the 87 billion stimulus money and if it was getting the job done. I think some of their opinions were influenced by their political affiliation .Evidently it helped the big financial institutions . Some of them seem to have fully recovered and are back to making record profits.that might be A sign it saved us from A total recession .But for the ten percent of the people that are out of jobs the recession is getting worse every day they are out of A job.The cost of living is going up and the prices for labor and repairs is going thru the ceiling.A loaf of bread now costs about as much as the farmer is getting for A bushel of wheat.That may be good for the people that have the jobs and are making the money but it is tough on the rest of the people.And is creating A class of destitute people that have to be taken care of and are not paying any taxes. Now the federal judges threw out the law that limited big companies and organizations as to the amount they could spend on political support so now anyone that wants to pass any legislation to benefit the general public will have to buck A lot of big money that will influence the election. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Big Execs

2010-02-10T19:02:00.001-08:00

Well the execatives of the big financial companies are at it again .Paying themselves millions in bonuses.They already have big salaries and shouldnt be alowed to pay any bonuses untill they have paid back all the government bail out money they got.We have millions of people that would be glad to have A job at any price.And the situation is getting worse .We lost another 85000 jobs last month.With twenty million illegal emigrants in the country and probably that many legal emigrants coming into the country every year.Obama wants another thirty billion to help create jobs . But all the money he has spent to date has not created many jobs so we may need A new kind of approch.Congress is now working on getting the health care bill passed but the big money people and the Unions are going to gut the bill of the best methods of paying for it.The unions are objecting to the tax on the high priced insurance plans and the big money people are objecting to the plan to raise the the income tax on people making over two hundred thousand dollars. why don't we get some good reports on who voted against these parts of the bill and vote them out of office the next election.Because we will know they are voting for what is good for the big money people and not what is good for the general public and the country. Haiti is A real mess after the big earthquake.Obama has promised one hundred million in aid and Haiti can sure use it but that is an awful lot of money for A country that is already in financial trouble. Obama better send some people down there to monitor that money so it gets to the people that realy need it and not into the bank account of some politicion as has happened to A big share of the money we have sent down there in the past. Also we could send some of our unemployed construction crews down to help them rebuild and that way bring some of that money back home. My opinion by John Zilverberg

SD Is Great

2010-02-10T19:01:00.002-08:00

I have to put in A good word for S. D. We somtimes like to complain .But realy S.D. is A great place to live.We have very few realy bad storms or floods and are not getting burned out like they are in some other parts of the country.The recession has affected us much less then it has most of the rest of the country.I still see A lot of constuction going on and adds in the local papers for help needed. add it all up and we have A lot to be thankfull for. I see the packistan army is now fighting the Taibon .That should take some of the pressure off of our armed forces and we better give them all the support we can, I am disgusted with some of the people we send to Washington to make our laws .I think some of them are more interested in polatics and keeping their jobs then doing what is best for the country. One thing is our interigation methods ,If we used some methods that were considered illegal ,See to it that it dosnt happen again .But why drag out our dirty laundry and give us A black eye in the rest of the world.It looks like political tactics to give the Bush administration A bad name .Has everybody forgotten what tactics the enemy was using like chopping the prisoners heads off and throwing their bodies in the river, When we were not doing anything to them they flew the planes into the world trade centers and burned up 3 thousand people aalive,And remember what Sadam did to people that didnt agree with his polatics,He had the head of the head of the housholds head chopped off and nailed up on A post in front of their house. Not to mention gassing people by the hundreds.The media could do us A favor by reminding the public of some of these things so people dont forget what kind of enemy we are fighting. My opinion by John Zilverberg

English

2010-02-10T19:01:00.001-08:00

the english language should be the official language of the U. S. All official documents and voting ballots should be printed in english only. That would encourage all emigrants to learn english . for one thing we cant afford to print all official documents in multiple languages .Allso if we have people speaking diffrent languages in diffrent sections of the country that could cause friction and discord between the diffrent communities and might even lead to A cival war.As A country we have to be unified with one language.It is good to know other languages but we need one official language .That will help to keep the country united and better able to work on any problems we might have and right now we have plenty of them. What should have been done and maybe still could be is freeze all forclosers on homes and small businesses for two years and guarantee the interest for the people that could not pay up to 250 thousand morgages and take A lien on the property from the people that could not pay.That way people could keep their homes and small businesses ,the financial companies would get the interest, That should bail them out,We would not be putting people out on the streets. That should help out the housing industry and we would have two years to get the economy back on track. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Using Up Our Natural Resources

2010-02-10T19:00:00.001-08:00

At the rate we are burning up oil there is comming A time when we run out of oil. It may not be in ten or even 29 years but some time in the future we are going to run out so it is very important that we work on increasing the use of renewable fuels.There is ethenal ,biodiesal, the wind, the sun and something that we have not made much if any use of ,and that is the oceon tides.There are places where the tides are as high as fifty feet .I think there is A tremendous potential for creating electrical power by taking proper advantage of the tides. These are soursses of clean power that will not pollut the air that we have o breath. Another thing that concerns me is our artesian basin water supply. We have one deep well that has been A life saver for us. We have approximatly twenty miles of pipe hooked to it and it supplies water to four ranches at its own power so their is no power cost to us.We conserve the water by restricting the outlets so no water goes to waste. I know there are some deep wells that are left to flow freely thereby wasting million gallons of water. I am concerned that if these free flowing wells are not restricted we will eventualy run out of power and then out of water.We could sure use some regulation as to how this water is used so it isnt going to waste. My opinion by John Zilverberg

The Cost

2010-02-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

Besides the 787 billion stimulus bill congress just passed.Congress passed A 32 billion health care bill and now A 410 billion bill to boost domestic programs. I thought the 787 billion stimulus bill was supposed to cover all that.Seems to me that we are digging ourselves into A mighty deep hole.I hope we can find A ladder long enough to get us out of the hole.Obamas total plan will amount to bythe last report I hered $3 trillion 600 billion.spending A lot of money we did not have is what got us into the trouble we are in now.Just to analize this amount ,3 trillion 600 billion amounts to 100thousand fo each of 3million 600 thousand families , That means that many families will have to come up with 100 thousand dollars each to pay off the cost of the recovery package.Obama is working on his plan to get our troops out of Eraq.I dont see anything new about his plan ,It looks about the same as the plan Bush was working on before he left office. Also he is planning to make A deal with Russia to reduce our nucular war heads. Before we start reducing our armaments we better have agreements and thorough inspection programs in place with all the countries that might be A threat to us in the future. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2010-01-11T06:22:00.000-08:00

Why dosn't congress pass the bill H R 997 to make english the official language of the U S.This is A very important bill t0 the future of the U S. as A nation.For one thing it would cost us billions if we had to print all public documents in multiple languages of which there are at least 40 or more.If public documents were printed in one ore two extra languages that would be discrimination and would lead to A lot lawsuits. Last year there was A bill itroduced in congress that would have made all businesses furnish Interpreters for people that could not understand english.that was A rediculous bill that would have forced A lot of companies out of business .If a ny one that dose not understand english needs an Interpreter it should be up to them to furnish the interpreter and pay for them. I was asked what we should do to create more jobs . That is A tough question . I just heard that we lost another 85000 jobs last month. We never should have lost the jobs in the first place. The unions forced the wages and benefits up so high that we are priced out of the world markets . We are importing most of our manufactured goods .That is adding to our trade deficit . We can not compete with other countries where they have cheap labor. that is where our jobs have gone. The only way I can see to get our jobs back would be to lower our minimum wage back down to $5.00 and the rest of the wages accordingly Start some factories and atart manufacturing some of our own products.then impliment my recomended tax increase on individuals one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first two hundred fifty thousand up to 90 percent. That would lower the cost of living on the lower income people and they would have to pay less taxes. That would benefit 90 percent of the public help our economy and get the country back on A sound financial basis. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

2010-01-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

Faculty at the university of California are developing A cell phone with A G P S that tells migrants where to find water in their treck These people hope to pass thes accrost the desert in their illegal entry into the U S .They are being paid by the state of california.I suppose A lot of people like me did not know they had water stations in the desert to help the illegal immigrants trying to sneek into the U S. these people hope to pass these phones out free in mexico.What A great way to spend american money.As if we need all those illegal immegrants. If this isn't A crime for U S citizens helping Illegal immigrants to get into the U S when we are paying the boarder patrol to keep them outI don't know what is. It seems like prices on A lot of products and labor in the repair shops are going up.It seems like at a time like this with A lot of people in trouble and out of jobs prices should be going down.Raising the prices might be good for the people that have jobss and the companies if they can get the higher prices, Butit makes it harder for the rest of the people to pay their bills and buy their groceries.My opinion byJohn Zilverberg

2010-01-01T18:31:00.000-08:00

Well the senate finaly got the votes they needed to pass the health care billBut some of them came at A very high price,By earmarks tacked on to the bill that are going to cost us billions of dollars.In Obamas campaighn he said he wouldnt sighn any bill with A lot of frivilous ear marks added to it.I wonder if he is going to sighn this bill. They claim this bill is going to reduce the national debt, But unless they have something in it that they are not telling us about it looks to me that it is going to do just the opposit. The young man that tried to blow up the nortwest flight 253 with 298 pasangers aboard shows that we ca'nt afford to let our guard down.Our inteigence people should have top priority on anything they need to check on any suspicious characters.The athorities had been warned about this young man and should have had A close watch on him He tried to kill 300 inocent people and the fact that he failed is no credit to him . I think he should recieve the death penalty.Hiis intention was to die anyway ,so that surley would not have been unjust punishment. My opinion by John Zilverberg

health care bill

2009-12-18T05:18:00.000-08:00

Congress has spent months now working on the health care bill that is going to cost us A lot of money .If they ever do pass it I have my doubts if we will be any better off then we were before.Congress has'nt done much of anything else except to spend A lot of money trying to cure the recession.I never thought the best way to cure your financial problems was to spend A lot of money that you already do'nt have.If it works for the government I may go out and buy A few cars that I do'nt need just to shore up my bank account,Global warming is another problem that our government and other world leaders are working on and it could be A serious problem .Especialy for all the people that are living on those islands out in the oceons that are going to dissapear under water.And we should try and do something about it but I am not convinced that our activities on this world have anything to do with it. I think mother nature is going to do whatever it is going to do in spite of what we do, According to science and history there have been climate changes in this world for millions of years.How about the ice age when this whole country was covered with ice. And there must have been A tropical age when all those tropical animals and fish that we are finding skelatons from lived here. I am more concerned that we as people are going to destroy ourselves with all the chemicals we are producing and the eficient killing machines like the atomic bombs etc, My opinion by John Zilverberg.

recovering

2009-12-18T04:50:00.000-08:00

The president and some of the democrats claim we are recovering from the recession .But frrom my side of the fence it dos'nt look so good.The washington athorities keep talking about phisical responsibilities but I do'nt think they know what the word means.Congress just voted in an expence bill to run the government and the legislaters added 5000 ear marks ( those are pet projects of individual senators)that are costing us billions of dollars.The fact is we are drowning in red ink and if we do'nt learn to swim we are going to die. The fact is this twelve trillion national debt is not going to be paid off unless we raise the taxes to pay it and the destitute people with no jobs and no money can not do it so it is going to be up to the people that have the money to do it. We better get with it and get this country back on A sound financial basis or all that money is'nt going to be worth anything anyway. my opinion by John Zilverberg.

christmas greetings

2009-12-11T05:10:00.000-08:00

Merry christmas and happy new year to you all.I hope this finds you all healthy and happy. I have been living alone now for A year and it has been A long year but I try to keep myself busy . I raised A good garden this year and was able to supply A lot of people with tomatoes cucumbers and squash this summer.I played A lot of golf and played A lot of pool at the senior center.I guess the high light of my year was my trip to the national senior games in Sanfrancisco california. My son Gary and their two children went with me.While there I managed to win A gold medal in bowling and A gold in shot put,A silver in the 100 meter run and A silver in the discus. I had A slight stroke but I recovered from that in good shape.Otherwise I have been in good health I have developed A newspaper column (My opinion by John Zilverberg) that rus in the Highmore herald every week .And in eleven other papers on occasion. that takes up some of my time .We have only one bowling league this year so I only get to bowl once A week.My bowling isnt what it used to be . My average is way down but I still enjoy it and feel lucky that I am still able to do it at the age of 96 years. Best wishes John.

2009-12-05T17:02:00.000-08:00

the 26 week unemployment law is about to run out and congress is considering an extension that isgoing to cost another 100 billion dollars that is on top of the 140 billion that is already being paid out in unemployment benefits.I know we can't just let these people starve. But we will soon be A bankrupt nation if we have to keep this up very long.And these people will eventualy turn to crime or whatever they have to do to make A living. I am wondering how many of all these illegal emigrants that are in the country are recieving the unemployment benefits. Or have the jobs that our legal citizens should have.Health insurance for all these unemployed people is another problem that is going to cost us billions.I think Mike Huckabee is getting A bad rap being blamed for signing the papers the released Clemmens from prison who then went out and shot four police officers.We all know now that that was A bad mistake but at the time he was following the recomendation of the patrole board.Clemmens was arrested A couple more times after he was released on serious crimes and again let loose. The people that turned him loose the last times are the ones that should have the blame for turning him loose again.they say it takes up to 20000,00 to keep one of these fellons in prison for A year and that is quite A stran on our econamy and in some cases may influance the athorities to turn these criminals loose.And if we don't find employment for all the unemployed people we will have A lot more criminals to support.I am sure that is what is fueling the big drug cartels in Mexico ,Afghanistan and columbia,I believe if most of these people could find A job and make an honest living they would not be involved in these criminal activities. My opinion by John Zilverberg

salaries

2009-12-01T21:55:00.000-08:00

I was appaled recently to learn of the salaries some of the people were getting that run the charities that I was supporting It was in the hundred thousands to over A million dollars.Just imagine anyone taking A salary of A million dollars out of money they colected to help needy people.That would be enough to give 200 needy familys $5000.00 each. Well black friday has come and gone and from all reports most of the stores did perty well.That is A good sign but we have A long ways to go.With over ten percent of the people in this country unemployed and the national debt we have we better find A way to put these people to work and pay off the national debt.If we get these wars settled and our military personel comes home we are going to have A lot more people looking for jobs.The only way I can see out is to lower the minimum wage back to five dollars so we can get some factories going and start manufacturing some of our own goods.And put in my recomended tax increase of one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand on personal incomes.up to 90 percent that would lower the living expence for everybody and eventualy lower the income tax for the low income people. our present income tax is creating A class of multi millionairs and billionairs at the expence of the general public.Some people say that is socialism and wont work. the only reason it wont work is because the big money people that are in controle wont let it work. This is supposed to be A democratic country where the majority rules. There is no good reason why 90 percent of the people should let the other ten percent of the people have 90 percent of the money. My opinion by John Zilverberg

service men sentnace

2009-11-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

I suppose everybody heared about the three aservice men that were sentanccedd to life in prison for shooting prisoners that they were supposed to be delivering to the athorities.I thought the sentances were perty severe considering the circomstances.If you just came out of A fire fight and these guys probably killed some of your buddies and you got to thinking these might be some of the guys that killed the prisoners they were holdingg. choped their headsoff and threw them in the river.If we deliver them they will be housed taken care of and probably turned loose you might be tempted to apply some of your own justice. what they did was A crime and they should be punished for it. But I would consider A ten year sentance more appropiat.This is A war and these guys are under A lot of pressure. I was exposed to the same kind of situation on Boganville during world war two.A sargent and myself were assighned to deliver A jap prisoner back to headquarters.When we got part way the sargent decided we ought to shoot the prisoner.I convinced him it was A bad idea.We delivered the prisoner.I dont know what happened to him after that but at least my concionce was clear. There is still A lot of contoversy over the war in Afghanistan but I don't believe we can afford to give up the fight now. I see where the Samali pirates are still active.Spain just paid three million to get their ship and crew back.Those guys should be hunted down and blown out of the water.All ships should have armed guards with orders to shoot to kill any pirates that try to board A ship. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-11-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

Last week the democrats were congratulating them selves and patting each other on the back because they had passed the health care bill in the house .But that is only the first step .It still has to be passed in the senate and there are A lot of contivercial issues still to be settled. the cost is one big issue.The last estimate I heard was one and A quarter trillion dollars . that is A lot of money that is going to have to come from some where.Obama said he wouldnt sighn any bill that was going to add to the national debt.Majoity leader Harry Ried had suggested taxing the high income peope that are making over $500000.00 to pay for the health care bill .But I am afrid there is to much big money influance in Washington to let that happen. The fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded an additianal 29 of them was A very tragic event that never should have happened.But maybe it woke some people up. I see where the government has siezed four Muslim Mosques and A thirty six story office building owned by A Muslim organization and cotrolled by the Iranian government.There are also some Muslim schools and other organzations that that should be carefuly checked. We may be raising more terrorists in our back yard. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-11-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

To listento the ads on tte T.V,from the psople that want to settle your account with the I.R.S,. They make it sound like the I.R.S. is your mortal enemy.They are not they are your friend. It is up to them to collect the money to run the govwernment.Build your roads , educate your children ,Supply the military and whatever other benefits you get from the government. How many people do you think would pay their share of the taxes if there was nobody to check up on them.The I.R.S. has A big job.If you pay your taxes on time and the right amount they wont give you any trouble.Sure they can and do make mistakes ocasionaly.But if you paid your taxes and have good reords you shouldnt have any touble correcting any mistakes. If your money is being wasted by the government that isn't the fault of the I.R.S. That is the responsibility of your legislators.If you cheat on your taxes you are cheating on your neighbors because the taxes you dont pay your neighbor will have to pay. My opinion by John Zilverberg

I was listening to lou Dobbs

2009-10-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

I was listening to Lou Dobbs the other night and he brought up the subject of the unequal pay between company workers and the Ceos ,managers and directors that sometimes get millions in salaries and bonusses. some of them make as much in one day as the workrs do in A year. That is exactly what I have beentrying to get acrost for years.We are creating A class of multi millionais and billionairs at the expence of the general public.And A very simple soloution to the problem would be what I have been recomending for years.Raise the personal incone tax on individuals one percent for every100 thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand up to 90 percent.That would take care of A lot of our problems. We could pay off the national debt and return the excess money back to the states to use for projects that would help the general public. WE could raise the tax credit on capital purchases. Then the people that are getting all this money .If they knew they were going to pay most of it out in taxes would spend it on capital purchases to expand their operations . There by creating more jobs so more people would be paying taxes and we wouldnt have to be paying out so much in unimployment benefits The country and everybody in it would benefit.The only reason we can't get this done is because we have to many rich people in washington making our laws and they make the laws to protect themselves and their rich friends that help keep them in office.My opinion by John Zilverberg

Afghanistan in the News

2009-10-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan has been in the news a lot lately and some people are thinking we should get out of there. It sure would be nice if we could bring all of our troops home, but consider the consequences. Maybe if we were not fighting our enemies over there we might be fighting them here at home. Just think how many people would be getting killed and how much of our infrastructure would be destroyed. These people hate us and they are not going to leave us alone if we go home. Remember they attacked us several different places and we didn’t do anything about it. So they attacked us here at home and in one sweep killed 3000 innocent people and did billions of dollars in damages. The object of the Muslims is to control the world and they won’t stop at anything to accomplish that. Their bible says all Christians must be eliminated and they have been trying to do that for a thousand years. The Bush policies have kept us safe here at home up to now but we better not let our guard down. There are cells in this country right now that would destroy us as a nation if they could or can. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-10-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Unless our law makers in Washington get realistic and do something about our national debt this country is going to be in real trouble like you have never seen before. The Govenment paid 190 billion interest on the national debt this year and at the rate washington is spending our money it will soon be double that. No company or government can exist very long spending more money then it takes in.Obama says we are making headway on the recession . But we are going deeper in debt all the time and our unemployment rate is at19.8 percent.We are loosing jobs because our wages are to high and we can not compete in the world markets. Every time we raise the minimum wage our cost of living goes up and more of our jobs go oversea where the cheap labor is. Now the Unions are pushing hard to get the law passed that would that would eliminate the use of the secret ballot in union elections. That in effect would force everybody to join the union or face the consequences which could be very serious as we have seen in the past.If we had implimented My recomended plan to raise the income tax on personal incomes one percent for every 100 thousand dollars after the firs 250 thousand we wouldnt have all this national debt and maybe not even the recession.Also it would help if we had all the taxes owed on the money the multi millionairs and billionairs have hidden in overseas banks. we owe China alone 800 billion .The mexicans have already taken over A big share of our language . maybe China will be next. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-10-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

One of the high cost of our medical bills is caused by the high cost of the liability insurance of the phasitions and the hospitals.Which is caused by the extrmly high awards given to the plaintifs by jurys. i have always thought there should be some kind of limit set on these awards. Notthat doctors or anybody else shouldnt be respponsible for their mistakes and made to pay for them.but many of the awards to plaintifs in many cases are exccesive Not only in medical cases but others as well.Some jurys seem to think there is no limit to what companies or doctors can pay. One example is the case where A woman ordered A cup of coffee inMcDonalds and spilled it in her lamp burning herself. and A jury awarded her five million dollars.If you order coffee you expect it to be hot and if you spill it on yourself that sure isnt the establishments fault.I suppoe everybody herd the presidents speach to the gay community.It seems he wants to change the definition of the word marriage.THe dictionary says the word marriage is the union between A man And A woman. A union in my opinion between two people of the same sex would be A partnership.I would presume A definition of marriage would include the ability to produce children and create A family. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-09-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

Politics now days is all about the presidents health care plan and it dosnt look like its going anywere.A government run health care plan as an option might be good in that it would give some competition to the private insurance companiesand drug companies and keep the prices down. Phizer drug company recenttly had to pay two billion three hundred million in fines for their miss deeds.Just imagine how much money they were making to be able to pay that big A fine. But all that dosnt do anything for the millions of people that do not have A job and no money to buy insurance. And there are now an estimated twenty million illegal emigrants in the country. Who is going to pay their insurance.I havnt seen anybody address that problem and give any remedies for it. The only way I can see would be free health care for everybody paid for by the government. that would be A mighty big bill that would have to be paid for by higher taxes on the people with the big pay checks and I dont see anbody volonteering to pay the bill. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-09-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

I have ofton voiced my opinion that diffrent ethnick groups speaking diffrent languages in the country could cause trouble. And in some cases some exotic religions could do the same thing.I have recently learned of muslim communities in this country that could be A threat to our peace and security.Three young muslims from the Minneapolis area were recruited to be trained as suicide bombers one of whome has already blown himself up as A suicide bomber .Some universities in this country already have special foot baths and prayer rooms for their Muslim students.In some schools students are tought the muslim prayers and that the holy quram is gods word and everyone should live by its teachings.Teaching the Quram could be A threat to our way of life and eventualy lead to war between the muslims and christions in this country because the Quram spacifies that all christians should be eliminated. Any muslim that turns christian is to be stoned to death. We better be on our guard. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Keeping Our Jobs

2009-09-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

In the sept.24th Daily Plainsman columnist George will criticizes Obama for putting A 35% tariff on tire imports from China just because the United steel workers union asked him to. Makes you wonder if George had an interest in A tire manufacturing plant in China. But the fact of the matter is that may be the only way we can keep our jobs here in the U.S. Of course if we put heavy import duties on manufactured goods we can expect retaliation by duties on our exports so will we be any better off. We are presently in A world market and we are priced out of the markets because of our high wages. U.S. companies can not compete with foreign companies where they have cheap labor so they are forced out of business unless they move their companies out of the country where they have cheap labor. The unions are strong and are forcing us to keep raising our minimum wage. By doing that they are raising the cost of living for everybody .sending more of our jobs out of the country and encouraging people to sneak into the country looking for those high priced jobs that they wont find because most of our jobs have been sent out of the country. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-07-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

Some of the supper rich people in this country are putting on A lot of pressure to permantly eliminate the inheritance tax or death tax as they like to call it because it sounds bad.Dont let anybody kid you we already have A six million exemption so the only people it is going to help is the supper rich.If you made that much money in this country while you were alive you ought to be willing to give some of it back when you die.If you have heirs that you feel you owe something to you better take care of that while you are still alive. A vote to eliminate the inheritance tax is A vote to make the supper rich even ritcher. The government needs taxes to operate.We demand A lot of services from our government and they have to be paid for.We are running A defficet government and no government or anybody else can exist very long that way.We have A national debt that is costing us billions in interest and now we are trying to ad A health plan that is going to add another trillion to that. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

2009-07-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

why cant congress pass A law to make english the official language of the U.S. Eighty percent of the voting bublic is in favor of it so what is the hold up.Everybody better get on their senators and congressmen to get that law passed. There are at least thirty plus languages in the world and we couldnt afford to print all official corespondece and public documents in that many languages.And if we print them in one or two extra languages that would be discrimitation which is against the law.Besides one nation with one language will help keep the country unified . If we have diffrent ethnic groups speaking diffrent languages that will eventualy leed to discord like is happening in other countries where diffrent ethnic groups,clans or thibes whatever you want to call them are fighting each other. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-07-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

question. Is the recession getting better or worse. A lot of people are still losing their jobs.And some of the athorities are talking about the danger of inflation. It seems like with the labor unions making some concessions and all the people out of jobs willing to work for less prices should go down instead of up.On the other hand all these unemployed people have to be taken care of .Those unemployment payments are adding up to A big bill.Add the universal health care bill they are trying to push thru congress .That is another big bill that is going to have to be paid and the only way they are going to get paid is by raising taxes . Not on the companies that are prviding the jobs but on the individuals that are taking the big profits out of the companies. America has been the land of oppertunity but we can no longer afford all the multi millionairs and billionairs that are making the big bucks at the expence of the general public .We are in A world market now .A world where we are saving more babies and people are living longer.A world that is fast becoming over populated. Our law makers better be working on some answers .Not creating more problems. Of course if we get an attomic war started that would probably eliminate most of the people on this world. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-07-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

I see Obama wants to charge busineses $750. for each employee not covered by health insurance to get the money to pay for unemployment benefits.That is going to put quite A financial strain on the companies and probably force some of them out of busines thereby creating more unimployment.Also at the price of health care these days I dont believe companies could afford to furnish health insurance for $750. A month so the companies that could afford it would just pay the $750. and let the government buy the insurance that would probably cost between three and five thousand dollars per family so that would soon add up to another big bill to add to the national debt. It would be A lot smarter and more practical to raise the top bracket of the personal income taxes on the individuals that are taking the big bucks out of the companies . I join A lot of other people that are sick of hearing about michel Jackson.there must be some other news more important then the death of one man.there are A lot of good men dying every day.A lot of them just as important to this world as Michel Jackson. If the president of the U. S. died I doubt if he would get that much media coverage. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Governor Sanford

2009-07-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

South Carolina governor Sanford, a married man with four children lies about where he is going and disappears for a week to spend with another woman. If you are a governor, you took on a job and you owe it to the public that elected you to do that job. You also have a responsibility to your family. This man is not fit to be governor. In fact, he is not fit to hold any responsible job. He should be removed from office at once.

I see where the United Auto Workers Union made some concessions to General Motors, thereby making it practical for the company to build 51,000 cars in the United States instead of in China as originally planned, thereby saving a lot of jobs. I am glad the Union finally got the message that it is better to have a job at $20 an hour than at $30 an hour.
My opinion by John Zilverberg

Governor Sanford

2009-07-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

கவர்னர் Sanford

2009-07-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

2009-06-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

Obama is pushing his health care plan hard ,He wants everybody to have health insurance.I dont see how youare going to force anybody to buy health insurance if they have no money and no job.Any way you figure it the public is going to have to pay the bill, by forcing companies to supply health insurance to their workers the cost is going to have to be added to the goods you buy and the services you use and that still dosnt do anything for the people that dont have the resourses to buy the insurance. The only way we are going to have everybody covered is by the government guarateeing everybody free health care and then figure out A way to pay for it,Either by raising our tax rates or putting A heavy duty on imports. We have 12 million illegal emigrants in the country and more coming in every day that we will also be paying for,So we better put more effort into keeping them from coming in. We are constantly sending money and food to the poorer countries where the people cant seem to feed themselves,And missionaries are constantly going over there to try and save the starving children. What we should be doing over there is teaching them how not to have those children that they cant take care of. My opinion by John Zilverberg

card check

2009-06-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

I see where the unions are realy putting on the pressure to pass their card check bill which would in effect force everybody to vote for the unions or face the consaquenses which could be serious as has happened in the past.The secret ballot is the only fair way to have A vote. That way nobody can target you because of the way you voted.Obama has made his trip to the middle east and talked to the saudies and the Arabs which some people were against. But I dont think he did any harm.In fact he may have done some good.I never felt it was wrong to talk to people you disagree with. If they will talk to you.If you dont talk to them how are you ever settle your disagreements except by going to war and killing A lot of people. Just because you talk to them you dont have to let them take advantage of you. If you walk around with A gun in your hand and A chip on your shoulder you are bound to get into trouble. I see Baltimore is working on A plan to cancel A lot of mortages forclosures That is letting A lot of people keep their homes which is what the federal govenment should have done in the first place instead of bailing out all the big financial institutions.By bailing the people out they could have kept their homes and when they paid the financial institutions they would have gotten the money in the end.That way the money would be doing double duty and the housing industry would have gotten A lot of benefit from it. My opinion by John Zilverberg

2009-05-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

I see where the Unions finaly made some consessions to the auto companies and its about time. They share A big resposibility for the problems the auto companies are having by forcing wages and benefits up so high that the auto companies couldnt compete in the world markets,And they lost A lot of jobs by forcing the auto companies to export A lot of jobs over seas to try and stay in competition therebycontributing to the trouble the country is now in. Obama is pushing hard to get a universal health plan passed that is going to cost A lot of money which may be O K if they can come up with A workable plan. But I would like to see some plans to recoup some of that money we are spending. This has been A country of great oppertunity and has created A lot of multi millionairs and billionairs, That money has to come out of the economy which is the wealth that is being produced by the working people most of whome are working for from 30 to 50 thousand dollars A year, A proper tax system would get some of that money back into circulation where it would benefit the general public that produced the wealth in the first place. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

the medias time

2009-04-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

The media is spending A lot of time these days reporting what some people consider our mistreatment of prisoners and our methods of interigation and that is not improving our image abroad. Lest we forget , we would be better served if the media spent more time reminding us of what our enemies have done to us in the past and are still trying to do.When youare dealing with an enemy that has no scruples and no morals you some times have to take desperate measures to defend your self. We took all those prisoners to Guattamola spent millions of dollars taking care of them feeding and guarding them and now we are turning them loose so they can go right back to plotting against us. Maybe we would have been better off if we had just chopped their heads off and throun their bodies in the river like our enemies did. I am sure that wouldnt have helped our popularity . But lets not forget and keep our guard up. Things are not always fair or right in this world.for example here we are hauling food and supplies to the Samallies and the samalie government is letting their pirates capture our ships and crews and hold them for ransome.Luckily they havent got any of our ships and crews yet But they have ships and crews from several other countries that they are holding for ransome. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Russian deal

2009-03-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

I see where Obama is intending to make A deal with Russia to reduce the number of nucular war heads we have.Before we start reducing our armaments of any kind we better be sure there are arangements for thurough inspection agreements with all countries like Iran or any other country that might be A threat to us. with the condition the world is in right now and the number of enemies we have,This is no time to let our defenses down. I believe it would be alright to talk to our enemies and try to settle our differances but that is no reason to let them take advantage of us.We have to be in A strong position to negociate any peace deals. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Trouble in this Country

2009-02-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

We are in trouble in this country because we have to many millionairs and billionairs in the country that they have made at the expense of the general public. They made their money in this country and they should be willing to spend that money to support the country that gave them the chance to make all that money. We could cure all our problems by raising the personal income tax one percent for every $100 thousand after the first $250 thousand up to 90 percent. With our present system the rich just keep getting richer .For example the mayor of New York is worth $20 billion .If he earns 4 percent on that he is getting $800 million richer every year. That is money that has to come out of the economy. I know he spends some of that money but even if he spends two million and gives two million away he still made 796 million to ad to his wealth’.Even if the government only got one half of that 796 million in taxes , That sure would help A lot of people that have no money and no job. And lower the taxes for the general public. I know this is A pipe dream because we have to many rich people in Washington making the laws that benefit them more then the general public and that is part of the trouble we are in now. My opinion by John Zilverberg

recession cure

2009-02-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Our first attempt to cure the recession was to bail out American International Group, Inc. to the tune of $83 billion. Their stock was originally selling for $74.00 a share. At last report it is selling for $.85. I don't know how many shares they had out, but I suspect that was a loss to the stockholders for another $83 billion that would bring the loss to our economy of $166 billion.

Question is where has the money gone and what do we have to show for it? Now Washington is passing a 1100 page, $787 billion stimulus bill that most of our representatives have not even had time to read yet. At 5% interest that brings the cost next year to $826 billion, 350 million and will increase accordingly every year to add to our national debt and that does not even include the normal cost of running the government. A big part of the stimulus bill is a big reduction in taxes, so our income will be down. So where are we going to get the money to pay off all this debt? Seems to me we are digging ourselves a bigger hole all the time.

The bill also includes $70 billion to shelter the upper income people from higher income taxes. So who do you think is going to pay the taxes to make the repayment if we ever get in a position to do so?

My Opinion by John Zilverberg

Taxes

2009-02-02T05:47:00.000-08:00

Taxes are A necessary evil. most people hate to pay taxes. but taxes are necessary to run the government. We expect A lot of services from the government and theyhave to be paid for. If we make enough money so we have to pay taxes we should be glad to pay them for the services we get. That of course is income tax.That is the fairest tax there is because if you dont make any money you dont pay any taxes.Property taxes is another matter . . property taxes you have to pay weather you make any money or not.If you dont make any money and cant pay your taxes you can loose your home or busines, South Dakota should have an income tax .With our present tax system the property owners are paying most of the taxes to pay for most of the government services we get including schools.The people that are working for wages and do not own any property are getting A free ride.Of course they pay federal income taxes but so do the property owners if they make any money. There have been bills introduced in congress to do away with the IRS and have A flat tax. How many people would be paying their fair amount of taxes if there was nobody to check up on them. Then again there are some people pushing for A national sales tax of 22 percent. that again would put most of the tax burdon on the lower income people.For example A person working for 50000 A year or less would be be spending all of his wages on taxable goods to support his family so they would be paying the 22 percent tax on all their income. while the person making one hundred million probaly would only spend one million on taxable expenses so they would be paying taxes on only one percent of their income, That would give the supper rich high income people even more of A tax break then they now have under our present tax system . My opinion by John Zilverberg

money matters

2009-02-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

I guess it pays to be president of the U.S. I see where bill Clinton made nearly six million making speaches in 2008, He is getting anywhere up to 525thousand per speach.Thats an income equal to the combined income of 120 working people if they were making 50000.00 each.Just to put these big money people in prospective .For example John Thain CEO of merrill Lynch took compensation from the company of 83 million. That would be equaal to the income of 120working people maing 50000.00 each.besides he managed the company so well that it lost 27 billion dollars That would be A loss of $50000.00 for each of 54000 stock holders.Thenbefore he turned the company over to the Bank of america he paid out over three billion in year end bonnuses. That would also be A loss to the stock holders. The government has allready paid forty five billion to bail out Bank of America and agreed to pick up another 97 billion in losses if needed . now we have A new stimulus package passed by congress of 819 billion .That amounts to 5000.for each of 163 million800000 families. this is money we mostly do not have. there is apt to be A day of reconing when we have to pay all this money back.I dont believe reducing taxes is going to get this money back. We have to tax these individuals that are taking millions out of the econamy every day.We have to get this country back on A paying basis and take care of the national debt or the prblems we are having now will look like A honeymoon compared to what we will be having in the future, my opinion by John Zilverberg

government spending

2009-01-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

The government ( that is us ) is spending A lot of money trying to cure this depression that we are in,That has been caused by A lot of greedy people. For one thing the working people most of which are controled by the unions could have taken an accrost the board A cut in wages, enough to bail out the companies, Then the companies could stay in busines and everybody could keep their jobs,Its as simple as that. We could sell our goods cheaper and that would help everybody.Also we would be more competitive in the world markets, That would keep more of our jobs in the U. S. All those companyC. E,Os. or managers that are taking millions in compensation out of these companies at the expense of the general public and running the companies into bankrupsy It dosnt take A smart person to run A company into bankrupsy ,Any dumbel could do that. Its A crime what they are doing and they should be in jail.Any manager of A company that is not making A profit should be getting A minimum wage if anything .we need A change in this country . With our present programs we are creating A class of multi millionairs and billionairs at the expense of the general public. The big money people are running this country and they are running it right into the ground causing A lot of hardship for A lot of people.

president leaves office

2009-01-18T05:53:00.000-08:00

President Bush is leaving office as an unpopular president Some say A bad president which I dont think he deserves,,He did not play politics he did what he thought was best for the country. He is getting the blame for everything that went wrong most of which was not his fault. For one thing he asked the democratic congres several times to create A committe to oversee the big financial institutions that are mostly responsible for the mess we are in now but nothing was ever done about it. The public was also partly to blame . To many people spending to much money they did not have. The auto companies building to many high priced cars that the dealers could not sell, Now we are spending A lot of money to bail out the auto companies so they can keep on building those high priced cars till that money is gone then they will be in the same trouble as they were before . Our trouble is the country is not on A paying basis.No person or country can continualy spend more money then they have income and exist in the long haul.We have A small percent of the people in this country making to much money at the expence of the general public. We need to increase our top tax bracket so as to get some of that ecsess money back into circilation where it will balance our budget and help the general public.When A ball player signns A contract for 41 million or A C O takes A 100 million income out of the company he is managing the general public has to pay for it in the long run. my opinion by John Zilverberg

the rip off

2009-01-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

It makes me mad and it should make every one else mad that is being ripped off by the execatives of some of these big companies that they managed into bankrupsy.At the expense of the general public.Some of wich are being bailed out by the government (that is us) but we are not having anything to say about how they are using the money.For examlle Lloyd Blankfien C E. O.of Goldman Sachs had 2007 compensation of 54 milllion and John Yahain C.E.O, of merrill Lynch that he managed so that it lost 11 billion and had to sell out to Bank of america had compensation of 83 million and now is asking for A bonus of 10 million. If we cant stop these people from legaly robbing us we at least should have A tax system that would get some of that money back to the government to pay off the national debt ,Run the government and return to the states to pay for work to benefit the general public.If we were to raise the present tax system one percent for every 100 thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand up tp 90 percent on individual incomes that would get the job done and still leave the muti millionairs and billionairs with plenty of money for whatever they wanted to use it for.That would reduce the taxes for the general public and put the country on A sound financial bnasis. My opinion by John Zilverberg

A new president

2009-01-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

we will soon have A new president and he has big plans to fix our economy.He is doing it by spending Alot of money that he evidently thinks we dont need (and dont have).I think part of his plan is O K. That is the part that creates jobs.But giving everybody A big tax break is A big mistake.He is helping the people that have jobs.The people that need the help are the ones that dont have jobs. If you dont have A job and no money to pay taxes with what good is A tax cut going to do you. he could do A lot more good with all that money by freezing all forclosures for two years and guaranteeing the interest payments on homes and small businesseswhere the owners couldnt pay the interest take A lien on the property. That way the financial companies would be getting the interest payments ,That should bail them out.The businesses could stay in bussines and that would create more jobs. The home owners could keep their homes. That way we wouldnt be putting people out on the streets and in homless shelters.It also should help the housing industry and give us two years to get the economy back on track. A tax break for businesses would be O K because businesses create jobs. we should be raising the taxes on the individuals that are taking the big profits out of the companies. My opinion By John Zilverberg. .

Depression Cure

2009-01-01T08:52:00.001-08:00

The fastest way to cure our present depression:
First, freeze all foreclosures on homes and small businesses for two years and guarantee the interest. Take a government lien on the property where the owners could not pay the interest. That way the financial institutions would get the interest money. That should bail them out and the home owners and small businesses could keep their property.
Next, the auto workers and the workers of the companies that supply the auto companies should take a cut in salaries that includes the top management.
That should bail out the auto companies and the workers could all keep their jobs. At the present we are priced out of the world markets. Most of the goods we buy these days are made in foreign countries. That is where our jobs are going. Next we should raise the income tax on private individuals that make over 250 thousand one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand. Don't raise the taxes on businesses. If we tax businesses out of business we put people out of jobs. We need to tax the individuals that are taking the big profits out of the companies at the expense of the general public. With that kind of tax system we would have enough money to pay off the national debt, take care of all government expenses including medicare and all our other problems. That would lower the taxes needed from the general public.

My opinion by John Zilverberg

What's the Trouble with this Country?

2008-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

For one thing we are not physically responsible. We are running the country like an irresponsible kid with a credit card that is running up a lot of debt that he cannot pay. We have too many people in the country with too much money that they are making at the expense of the general public and too many rich people in Washington making the laws to benefit themselves and their rich friends that are furnishing them the money to buy themselves into office.

If we were to increase the income tax on private individuals that make over $200,000 a year from 1% for every $100,000 after the first $250,000 up to 90% we could balance the budget, pay all government expenses, take care of our social security obligations and have universal health care and have money to give back to the states to build roads, hospitals, schools and anything else that would benefit the general public.

Don't fall for the gimmick of eliminating the IRS and having a national flat sales tax of 20%. That would give the multi millionaires even more benefits than they are getting now. For example someone that is working for a living wage would have to spend all his money to make a living, so he would pay taxes on all his income while the guy who is making 100 million would probably only spend one million on taxable expense so he would be paying taxes on only 1% of his income.

At the above suggested tax rate a person making 15 million a year would have approximately 7 million left after taxes. He could spend one million and still have 6 million left to save or do with whatever he desired. That should be enough for anybody and the country and everybody would benefit because the grant money would create more jobs so more people would be paying taxes.

My Opinion by John Zilverberg

The big bail out.

2008-09-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Brokerage firms in the U.S. are regulated by the securities and exchange commision and your securities held by the brokerage companies are supposed to be held sepperatly from assete of the brokerage firm so if the brokerage firm becomes insolvent you would not loose your investments held by the brokerage firm, That being the case I dont see why the government should bail out the brokerage firms that got themselves into trouble. If they are not conforming with the regulations the company managers and directors should be in jail.And if they managed the company so badly as to put it into bankrupsy they should not recieve any compensation. I understand the execatives of some of these companies that the government is being asked to bail out are walking away with millions of dollars in fact as high as 140 million dollars.That is A major crime. These execatives that put the company in this condition that the government has to bail it out should not recieve any compensation,They should be investigated to see if any crimes were commited and forced to work for the minimum wage till the government (thats us) is fully reimbursed.What we need in this country is more jobs so we need to do something to create more jobs,Presently we are priced out of the world markets so all of our jobs have gone to other countries where people work for A fraction of our minimum wage.If people worked for one half the wages they are getting now our cost of living would cost us one half of what it dose now and we could enjoy the same way of life we have now.and then if we raised the personal income tax one percent on every 100000.00 after the first 250000.00 we could put the country on A paying basis and the people in the lower income bracket would have to pay less taxes. With our present tax system we are creating A class of multi millioairs at the expense of the general public, And dont fall for the flat tax or the 22 pecent national sales tax ,That would benefit the rich even more then our present tax system. My opinion by John Zilverberg

our financial crisis

2008-09-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here we are in A financial crisis again and everybody is trying to put the blame on someone else,And of course in poitics the other party.I dont think any one person or party is to blame . I notice this thing goes in A kind of cycle. When everything is going good and the country is prosperous people tend to forget that what goess up usualy comes down. They are riding high and start spending money they do not have. Busines people are making money so we raise the minimum wages. now the goods we are making are costing so much that we cant compete with the goods imported from other countries where people are working for A fraction of our minimum wage.,So busineses are shutting down and people are loosing jobs. The housing busines is booming so developers are building houses as fast as they can. All of A sudden the people that lost their jobs can no longer buy houses or pay for the ones they have .So we have A housing surplus, The construction busines shuts down and more people lose their jobs.So now we are in A recession ,The people that have money decide they better not spend it. Now the financial istitutions that loaned money on all these high priced houses are not being paid ,Now we have A financial crisis,Now the government (that is we the pewople) are spennding A lot of money we do not have to bail out the financial istitutions. So now who is going to bail out the government (thats us) I am still looking for the answer MY opinion by John Zilverberg

taxes and jobs

2008-09-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

I recently listened to A debate between Obama and Mc kains representatives where the Obama represenatives accused MacKain of wantting to give tax breaks to big copperatives and businesses.Its good busines to give them A break from taxes because they are what create jobs and people that have jobs pay taxes. we should be taxing the managers and directors or anybody else that is taking the big money out of the companys these people are making big bucks at the expense of the general public . We need these people with the ability to manage A company or bussines if they do A good job,But they are not creating the wealth. The people that are creating the wealth are the laborers like the farmers that are producing the food,factory workers that build cars and machinery,Miners that dig the coal out of the ground etc.The company managers are not creating any wealth they are just handeling it and manovering it around and in some cases taking most of the profit.Those are the individuals on whom we should raise the taxes. A recent example is the Fannie Mae and the Fannie Mac debacle that was mismanaged causing A lot of people A lot of hardship and costing the tax payers in excess of one hundred billion dollars and the CEOs are alking away with millions of dollars.I call that legal robbery if they get away with it.At least if we had my recomended tax increase of one percent on individuals for every one hundred thousand after the first 250 thousand we would get some of the money back. Give president Bush credit . He repetatly asked congress to create an overseeing board to check on their activities and lending practices but congress never did anything about it till now that it is to late.The same goes for people in sports and the entertainment industries .They make millions at the expense of the general public.Instead of concentrating all that wealth in A small percent of the population we could level the playing field,and put the country on A paying basis and that would benefit everybody. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Russias invasion

2008-08-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

We are making A big deal about Russia invading Georgia but nobody is saying anything about Georgia invading Ossetia doing A lot of damage and killing A lot of people.It looks like Russia invaded Georgia to punish them for invading Ossetia and now we want to punish Russia for invading Georgia.If Russia honors the cease fire that was agreed to we should be thankfull to Russia. This could esculate into another world war which nobody needs. It sure would be nice if people or countries and their leaders could settle their differances peacefuly without starting A war.Wars cause A lot of hardships for A lot of people and kill A lot of innocent people,including the soldiers that are fighting the war,In most cases they didnt have anything to do with starting the war. They are just pauns of the government leadersthat are sending them in to do the fighting. MY opinion by John Zilverberg

rich folksandtaxes

2008-08-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

I generally like Bill O Reillys column and programs and usualy agree with him But I see in his column in the july 6 plainsman that when it comes to money he is just like the rest of the rich people. He likes to keep all that money he makes at the expense of the general public.He and the rest of the people who are making the big moneyare making it at the expense of the working public. Most of these are working as hard or harder then he is to produce the wealth,like the farmer who growes the food and handal it,the people who manufacture cars and machinery,the miners who dig the coal just to name A few.Sure some people are good enough and smart enough to take most of the profit from our labor.Butwe are A democraticc country and we ought to be smart enough to take some of it back to benefit the grneral public. If we raised the present tax on individuals one percent on every one hundred thousand dollars after the first 250000.00 some one making ten million would still have apprximatly three million left after taxes . He could spend one million and still have two million left to hoard or give away if they so desire. Instead of creating more billionairs,we could pay off the national debt and put this country on A paying basis.That would put the value back in our dollar thereby benefitting the whole country and everybody in it. And dont fall for that idea of A 22 percent national sales tax. That would give the multi millionairs and the billionaires even more of A good deal then they have now. My oppinion by John Zilverberg.

was it A mistake

2008-07-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

For those that say it was A mistake to invade Eraq,Up to now it was A well kept secret that Sadam had A stock pile of 550 tons of yellow cake used for nuclear enrichment.Imagin what he could have done if he had gotten that much nuclear material made into bombs.With that much nuclear material made into bombs he could have wiped out the whole U.S. And any other countries that wiuldnt give in to his control. Congress finaly passed the servilance program that will give our officials the ability to check up on any suspected terrorists communications and there by their activities and stop them before they manage to do any major damage.Some protesters say its an invasion of our privacy,So what. If we are not doing anything wrong what dose it matter if officials check up on our activities.And this bill will help keep us alive. My opinion by John Zilverberg

taxes again

2008-07-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

I hate to repeat myself but I think this suject is worth repeating and repeating. If enough people read it maybe we can get some one to do something about it.Our tax system is creating to many multi millionairs and billionairs. we have to many millionairs in Washington making laws to benefit themseves and their rich friends. Our tax reporting forms could be simplified so it wouldnt take A genious to fill one out. After the first $200000.00 of personal income the the tax should be increased one percent for each additional $100000.00of income up to 90 percent. that would give the government enough money to pay off the national debt and pay all government expenses and have money to return to the states in grants to use for projects that would benefit the general public .That in turn would create more jobs so more people would be paying taxes.A small percentage of the people in this country are making millions at the expence of the general public. in some cases it is legal robbery and in some casses illegal robbery. I see where they recently arrested 400 people in the real estate and mortgage businesses for illegal activities. Any one that is making that much money is making it at the expence of the general public and we ought to be able to takesome of it back and use it to benefit the general public, we have A bill in congress again to eliminate the internal revenue service and have A national sales tax of 22 percent.Then the person making A million A year or 100000000.00would probably only pay taxes on one or two percent of their income while the person working for A living wage would have to pay taxes on 100 percent of their income. My oppinion by John Zilverberg

MCclellans book

2008-05-31T06:57:00.000-07:00

Scott Mcclellan has come out with A book slandering president Bush, accusing him of misleading the public in order to start the war in Eraq among other things. if there was aany misleading done Scott was sure part of it. He was the white house press secretary and he reported and defended the presidents plans. He indicates the war was A mistake and A failure,Maybe he is right but that has not been proven and maybe never will be, hstory may tell A whole differant story, People tend to forget that Saddam was taking over Kuwait till we stopped him,If he had succeded there what would he have taken over next. if you will check your history you will find that kings and dictators once they have the power they want to take over the neigboring countries and eventualy control the world if they could. And you can bet that Saddam would have done the same if no one had stopped him. Bush is our commander in chief and he acts like one. he made his promises and he has stuck to them in spite of the fact that A big share of the public has deserted him,,He may have made some mistake s but who hasnt.Remember in seven years since the attscks on theworld trade centerwe have not had A majer succesful attack within the U.S.by our enemies whereas thir are millions of people out there that would like to destroy us. Give Bush credit for keeping us safe here at home. true we have lost over 4000 service personl in the Eraq war in the last seven years but remember we lost more then that in one day in world war two.If we hadnt won that war we would now be under the rule of the emperor of japan or Hitlers reich. Strange we are all over the world helping other countries out when they are in trouble but they all seem to hate us but they sure want to come to this country when they get A chance. My opinion by John Zilverberg

farm bill and taxes

2008-05-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

congress just passed A 9.2 billion farm bill. Idont know why they call it A farm bill bcause only 12 percent of it goes to support the farm and ranch families.The big share is going to nutrition programs like school lunches .food stamps and forein aid.Also pet projects that the senators take home and brag about their accomplishments so they can get reelected. I see there was recently another bill introduced in congress to do away with the internal revenue service and have A national sales tax of 22 percent or A flat tax with A tax report form the size of A postcard.if we eliminate the I.R,S. who is going to check up on us to see that we pay our proper share of taxes. How many people would be paying their fair share of taxes if there was nobody to check up on them .Dont fall for the national sales tax or the flat tax idea it would only make the rich people ritcher then what the present tax system is doing.Ill agree that people that are smart enough to run A successful busines or excel in sports are entitled to a bonus but it dosnt have to amount to legal robbery as is being done in many cases now.The people that are out there working for thirty or forty thousand A year and producing the wealth are working just as hard or harder then the guy that is sitting in the office and taking most of the profit. My opinion by John Zilverberg

fuel problems

2008-05-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

Some people are blaming the high prices of food on the production of ethanol from corn and want to cut down on producing ethanol from corn. Its true ethonal can also be made from other sources such as sugar cane ,switch grass,garbage and animal waste. But right now one of the most important thing for this country is to become fuel independant. If we pull out of Eraq and Afghanistan and our enemies get control they will have A strangle hold on us.If they cut off our fuel supply and we do not have our own our trasportation systm will be in big trouble,A lot of busiesses would have to shut down and that would cause massive unenployment. the farmers would not have fuel to plant or harvest their crops so we would have A food shortage.We would have masses of unemployed and starving people and that would cause run away inflation. We have to get power independant or we are in big trouble. My opinion by John Zilverberg

police justis and racism

2008-05-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

n regard to the shooting of Sean Bell A prospective groom at his bachelor party in New York on11 -25-06. the police were cleared of the murder charges against them because they were doing their duty trying to enforce the law and the shooting was justified under the circomstances. Now the Reverand Sharpton is trying to raise A mob protest and shut down the city. I am sure that if the person shot had been A white man Sharpton would not have said A thing. He is making it into A big racism issue that is not justified by any streatch of the imagination,I am sure the police had not come with A plot to kill the groom and were only there to enforce the law.What do we have A police force for if we tie their hands so they can not enforce the law,If we dont give the police the weapons to do their job the criminals will find it easier to get away with their crimes and the geneal public will be at their mercy. My opinion by John Zilverberg

global warming

2008-04-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Global warming, Is it realy happening.All indications are that it is but if so are we causing it by polluting the air,It seems to me that if we were polluting the air so bad we would be shutting off the sun from the earth and we should be getting colder instead of warmer .I was tought in school that at one time this country was all covered with ice and that has all melted so there evidently was globel warming going on here millions of years ago before we were here to pollute the air. I suspect nature is going to do what it is doing in spite of what we do. What makes more sense to me is that we may be causing earth quakes. earth quakes are caused byfaults in the earths crust slipping.When you consider all the gas .water and oil we are pumping out of the earth we are removing the substance that is supporting the crust therby causing the faults to slip. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Supplament to my 4-17-08 blog

2008-04-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

In rgard to my suggestion for A tax increase in my 4-17-08 blog.If anyone believes it would not raise enough money to do all the things I suggested,here is an example. I just recieved an annual report from one company whoes twelve top execatives recieve an average compensation of approximatly seven million each with the top execative recieving over ninteen million. the total compensation being approximatly eighty four million for just one company. I consider that legalized robbery. With my suggested tax system figured on the average income each individual would pay about $2024000.00 in taxes and have 4497600.00 tax free income left. and give the government $24288000.00 and that is just from one company. These are not precise figures but they are in the ball park. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

U. S. financial problams

2008-04-17T02:03:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest probloms in the U. S. right now is its financial irrisponsibility. We are headed for bankrucy, our dollar is loosing its value,other nations are buying our businesses. the main reason is our tax system . it is creating to many multi millionairs and billionairs at the expense of the general public. If we were to increase our present taxes on individuals by one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first two hundred thousand up to 90 percent we could put the country back on A paying basis,Pay off the national debt,have money to pay off social security,Support A national health care program and have money to return to the state so the could issue grantss to improve hospitals ,schools,roads and any other projects that would benefit the general public.That in turn would create jobs and people with jobs pay taxes. We should not put A heavy tax burdon on coops and bussinesses because they are what create jobs.we should be taxing the individuals that are taking the big money out of the businesses. We have to many rich people in washington making laws to benefit themselves and their rich friends that are putting up the money to keep them in office instead of doing what is best for the country as A whole. My opinion by John Zilverberg

being an american

2008-04-17T01:29:00.000-07:00

Theodore Roosevelt was president from 1901 till 1909. He was A wise man his ideas on imigrants and being an american in 1907 were good then and are just as good today. Here is what he said, In the first place,we should insistthat if the imigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an american and assimilates himself to us, He shal be treated on an exact eqality with everyone else for it is an outrage to dicriminate against any such man because of cread,or birth place,or origin. But this is predicated upon the persons becoming an american and nothing but an american. There can be no divided alleigance here. Any man who sayes he is An american but something else also isnt an american at all.We have room for but one flag, the american flag.. We have room for but one language here and that is the english language.And we have room for but one loyalty and that is loyalty to the american people. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

Essay to read: a turn in history

2008-04-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II. MOST OF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2008. This is an EXCELLENT essay. Well thought out and presented.
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Historical Significance Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war. Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies. France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia.Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe. America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel. The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks, because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors, because they didn't have real tanks . A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor. Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war, when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact). Actually, Belgium surrendered after one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could. Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany, only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940, at a time when England was on the verge of collapse. Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany. Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers. Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war. All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history. There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world. The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs -- they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal) There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East -- for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win -- the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists. If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC -- not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims, who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge. We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things. (1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians. (2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there, we won't have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed. WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945 -- a 17-year war -- and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own a gain . . a 27-year war. WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP -- adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action. The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack. The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism. This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be. The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it . If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world. The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless somebody prevents them from getting them. We have four options: 1 . We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons. 2 . We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is). 3 . We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America. OR 4 . We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later, when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier. If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today. The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win. Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them. Remember, perspective is everything, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind. The Cold War lasted from about 1947, at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years! Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany! World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept. The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq.. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW II, the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week -- for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far. The stakes are at least as high . . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law). It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis. "Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe. Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed! The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc. Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Raymond S . Kraft is a writer and an attorney living in Northern California that has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.

Eraq goyernment and people

2008-03-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

I am getting confused about the situation in Eraq and dissapointed in the people of Eraq. maybe we are not using enough diplomatic efort to convince the diferant factions and tribes to convince them that if they would stop killing each other an cooperate with the government they could live in peace and the americans would go home. At present some factions are fighting the amer icans and the government that we are supporting. It seems if there were some reasonable leaders in Eraq they could sit down and work out A government that would suit all the people .Then they could stop killing each other and the americans would be glad to go home. America is only in Eraq trying to create A viable government and stop the killing.It seems that if we could convince the people of that we could end the war and go home. The big trouble is that some of the group leaders dont want that to happen. They are afraid of lossing their power and control over the peopleand they would like to see america defeated at any cost. My opinion by John zilverberg

A milestone in Eraq

2008-03-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

We have just passed A new milestone in Eraq.We had our 4000th causalty in the Eraq war and the media and the poiticions are going to make A big deal out of it, The media because it makes good reading and the politicions because they hope it will benefit their political ambitions. Its A shame we have to havce even one causalty in this or any other sensles war. All wars are sensles because differences should be settled peacefuly but it takes two sesible people or governments to settle their differances peacefuly so we have wars and you cant fight A war without causualties, We realy havnt done to bad in this war when it comes to causualties if you put that in proper prospective. you must realize we have 158000 thoops over there and if you were to track 158000 people between the ages of 15 and 50 over A five year period I am sure you would find that more then 4000 of them had been killed in various accidents and homicides and you must realize that the terrorists killed nearly 3000 of our people here at home in one day and numerousother people before that in various attacts on american citizens and service personel. My opinion by John Zilverberg

terrorists thoughts

2008-03-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

Cant you just imagine the good feelings of the people runing the terrorist training camps and what they are thinking. The U. S. is having an election and maybe the democrats will win.If they do they will get all the americans out of Eraq,That will give us A free hand in Eraq to kill off all the christians and any one else that dosnt agree with our policies. We will just chop their heads off and throw them in the river and when we get done in Eraq we will have time to figure out how we can take care of the United States and do the same thing there. We have plenty of young people that we can brain wash into thinking that if they kill themselves and A lot of inocent people they will go to heaven. If they realize if there is such A place ae hell that is where they will be spending their time maybe they wont be so anious to kill themselves and a lot of inocent people My opinion by John Zilverberg

our country is in trouble

2008-03-15T05:42:00.000-07:00

As A world power we are fast becming A second class citizen. For one thing we are fast becoming A bankrupt nation. Our dollar is now only worth 72 cents and looeing value every day. foreign nations are already taking over A lot of the businesses in this country. we have A tax system that is creating A class of multimillionairs and billionairs at the expense of the general public, Our trade deficet is costing us billions and some people are pushing for free trade and open borders. Its A world market and we are already priced out of the market.How can we compete with countries where people work for 10 or 20 percent of our minimum wage. Eveery time we raise the minimum wage the prices of the goods we produce goes up accordingly so our wages dont buy any more then they did before but it puts us more out of world markets so foreign so foreign goods is taking over our markets and our jobs. We need some poiticions in washington with some busines sense to put this nation on A paying basis. My opinion by John Zilverberg

servilance program

2008-03-07T04:01:00.000-08:00

If we have A major disaster in this country caused by the terrorists the congressmen and the senators that refused to vote to extend the servilance program that gives our officials the ability to check the terrorists actvities can take the blame for it. So far it has kept us safe here at home. The democrats are realy hammering Bush for starting the war and blaming him for our war causalties. They want people to forget that the terrorists killed more inicent american citizens before we ever started the war then we have lost in the last four years of the war, besides the thousands of other inicent people they have killed. Freedom isnt free. You have to fight for your life and your freedom. our sacrafices so far are mild compared to what they will be if the terrorists take over the country. MY opinion by John Zilverberg.

meat recall

2008-03-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

The Animal rights activists took pictures of the way A slaughter plant was handaling downer cows . they called the animals sick and caused A huge meat recall. But I am sure that at least in most cases the animals had broken legs or dislocated hips so they couldnt walk or even stand up. So they had to be destroyed regardles and just because they broke A leg that in no way destroys the quality of the meat. This meat has never made anyone sick but I understand that all the meat in S D that came from this plant is to be buried in the Souix Falls land fill. Seems to me that it could be sold to some manufactures of pet foods and cooked up and made into pet food. That would give the state some revenue and make good use of the meat. I think the animal rights activists should figure out A humane way to have these downer animals handled so they wouldnt have to just lie where they had their accident and die A miserable death. With so many people in this world starving it seems A shame to destroy all this good meat. my opinion by John Zilverberg

what is wrong with this country

2008-01-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

E have to many rich people in washington making laws to benefit them selves and their rich friends that are giving them the money to keep them in offiice. the working people that are working for A living wage are in the majority in this country and should be able to vote some people into office that would do something about this. I am seriously thinking about running for congress or maybe even for president of the United States. I think with my program I should get nintey percent of the votes because it would benefit ninety percent of the public. Here is what I would do. First I would simplify the tax code so anyone with any comon sense could uderstand it.secondly I would raise the income tax as is about 38percent for incomes over $200000. one percent for every $100000. after the first $200000. up to 90 percent. that would give us enough money to pay off the national debt.Pay all government expenses an have money to grant back to the states to repair roads,improve our hospitals,schools and any other work that would benefit the general public. That in turn would create more jobs so more people would be paying taxes. And dont fall for this idea of eliminating the internal revenue service and replacing the income tax with A national sales tax of 20 percent because you would be beneffitting the supper rich even more then what they are getting now.for example A person working for A living wage would have to spend all their incom on supplies to live on so they would be paying the 20 percent tax on all of their income while the guy that is making $100000000.would pobably only spend one million on taxable material so he would only be paying taxes on one percent of his income .I would limit taxes on busineses because they are what produces jobs and people that have jobs pay taxes. the people that take the big money out of the companies are the ones that should pay the taxes because they are taking the wealth that the working people are producing.Next is the trade deficet that is driving us into bankrupcy and devaluing our dollar. I would have free trade but on A dollar for dollar basis. for example i would limit imports from any country to the same amount of goods that they purchased from us. Well; maybe I am to old to take on this job .I should have started to work on this 20 years ago. But some younge politicions should run on this platform and they should get 90 percent of the votes .

taxes

2008-01-07T05:02:00.000-08:00

One of the big problams in this country is our tax system . It is making the rich people in this country richer all the time at the expense of the general public. i see one of our leading preaidtial cadidates says he would eliminate the internal revenue service and replace our present tax system with A flat tax or A national sales tax.I dont know how you would make A flat tax work but A national sales tax would be A big mistake .and A big gift to the richest people in this country. for egample A person making A living wage would have to spend all his income to support himself and his family so he would have to pay the sales tax on all of his income. while the guy making one hundred million might only spend one million.so he would only be paying taxes on onr hundreth of his income.Also anyone running a busines that had to puy A high sales tax on his purchases might go broke.some people think we should have higher tax on corporations and busineses.We shouldnt put A high tax on busieses because they are what are producing the jobs.and the people that hve jobs are the people that pay taxes. we should be taxing the individuals that are taking the big propits out of the companiesIf we were to raise the taxes on individuals from the present maximum of 38 percent one percent for every two hundred thousand after the first two hundred thousand we could put this country on A paying basis and it would benefit everybody. My opinion by John Zilverberg

death penalty

2007-12-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

New Jersy just votted to repeal the death penalty.So what happens now. when we put A person in prison for life we are actualy punishing our selves more then the criminal. We are obligating our selves to be his or her keeper for the rest of their life ,guard them,feed them,house them ,take care of their health ,pay their medical bills and put up with any other problems they might cause. Meanwhile neither of the people they murdered or their family are getting any of these benefits. As for death by lethal injektion being A cruel and painful death as some people claim,That wont hold water, When you go to the hospital the doctors give you an injection to put you under and then cut you openand replace any of your organs or remove your lims or whatever is neccesary and you never feel A thing so I am sure if they gave you A shot to put you under and then gave you A lethal injection you would never feel a thing. If A person is to be ut to death I think by lethal injection would be most humane way to do it. My opinion by John Zilverberg

unenployment

2007-11-23T19:20:00.001-08:00

According to the official count thirty five and one half million people in the U.S, went hugary last year because they couldnt find jobs to support them so they could buy food. That dose not include three fourth of A million homless people ,That would bring the total up to six and one fourth million people that need jobs, If we have that many people that need jobs how can anybody claim that we need the foriners that sneek into the country illegaly to do the jobs that the americans wont do. A lot of these hungry people are single mothers and their children. why couldnt someone organize those people into groups of ten twenty or thirty and have A couple of them baby sit and then buss the rest of them to where the jobs are. That way they should all be able to have A job and make enough money to feed themselves and their children feed them selves and their children . My oppinion by John zilverberg

nicknames

2007-10-27T18:08:00.000-07:00

Is see where N. D. S. U. in A lawsuit to retain the nick name of the fighting Souix has three years to persuade the souix tribes to suppout the nick name. David Gipp president of United tribes tecknical college in Bismark said leaders of the Souix tribes and groups are opposing the nick name. there have been numereous disagreemente and law suits regarding names such as chiefs ,indians ,chiefs and redskins.That the tribes or their rersentives claim are hostile degrading and addusing.the whole issue is rediculas and should be throun out of any court. Instead of being abbusive and degrading they are meant to be complmenty and the tribes should be proud to have the popular sport teams named after them. Any judge with any comon sense should throw any suit to force A change of A teams nick name out of court on the bassis that it is frivious ,rediculous and with out merit. My opinion by John Zilverberg

english

2007-10-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Should english be the official language of the U.S. Of course it should. Its good to know other languages but english should be the official language of the U,S. Itshould be the primary language in all schoolsand all official documents and voting ballots should be printed in english only. This should be one country with one language. If we allow this country to break up into splinter groups with differant languages we will evetualy get into trouble with the differant groups wanting to make their own regulations or laws and not confirm with the national laws. That would lead to trouble between the differant groups and could end up in war between the differant groups and end up with them killing each other off as they are doing in Eraq now. My opinion by john zilverberg.

Taxes

2007-09-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

The National Tax payers union is againtrying to eliminate the I.R.S, and the graduated income tax and rplace it with A flat tax or A federal sales tax. dont let this happen, The graduated tax is the fairest tax there is only it dosnt go far enough. It should be increased one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first two hundred thousand of net income on the individual tax payer. At present there are A lot of people like company C.O.s ,entertainers and popular sports figures that ar making millions A year.and the maximum tax they have to pay is 38 percent If say we pas A flat tax of twenty percent someone making ten million would have to pay two million in taxes so they would be saving $ 1800000by payingthe twenty percent instead of the thirty eight percent. If they were making one hundred million they would be saving eighteen millionby paying the twenty percent flat tax and all that extra money would have to be paid by the lower income people.And the national sales tax would have about the same effect. we should not put A heavy tax on companys because companies create jobs. If we tax companies out of busines we are putting people out of jobs and they wont be paying taxes. We should be taxing the individuals that are taking the big money out of the companies If we were to implement the raise of one percent for every one hundred thousand after the first two hundred thousand on all individuals up to 90 percent the government would have enoug money to pay off the national debt,take care of social security and have money to send back to the states to use to improve roads, schools ,hospitalsand anything else that would benefit the general public and that would cut down on the local taxes we would have to pay. We need to run our country like any other busines and make it pay its way. We are getting in big trouble,,our dollar isgetting cheaper every day and our trade deficet is eating us up.we are priced out of the world markets, many of the large companies are taking their jobs overseas where they can get cheap labor in order to compete with the cheap imports.Lets get sone good comonsense people in washington that know how to run A busines and will work for what is good for the country instead of themselves and their rich friends that help them get elected.Lets get this country on its feet where we will have the respect of othr countries, at our present rate we are fast becoming A second rate country.

our environment

2007-09-27T05:52:00.000-07:00

I agree we should be doing everything we can to save our environmentalsystem but I am sure what we can do is limited. The experts say the icebergs are meltting and the oceons are going to cover much of the U.S, and the rest of the world. Historians say all of this country was covered with ice at one time, In the ice age and that has all melted so the meltting has evidently been going on formillions of years before we were here to cause it so I expect nature wll continue to do what it does naturaly for whatever reason and in spite of what we do. its the human asspect of our world problems that we as humans could do something about if we were willing .For one thing the world is over populated and we are sending missionarys all over the world to save the children where they have so many that they cant feed them wich is A good cause but we should also be teaching them how not to have so many children that they cant feed. Then maybe they wouldnt have to be killing each other off with constant wars. And of course A little reigious common sense would help. People of one religion that think they have to kill off people of any other religion are barberic and stupid and that seems what A lot of the wars are about. my opinion by John Zilverberg

polatics is A dirty bussines

2007-09-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

The democrats at least some of them are doing everything they can to discredit Bush and the republican party in hopes of winning the coming election and they are making A big issue out of the eraq war,and that is A big issue that we cant aford to loose. if we dont have the will to fight this one out we will loose the respect od all other countries and you can be sure they wil come after us.Then we will have to fight them on our own soil, People that are against the war and the media are always making A bid issue about the number of service people killed.We all know you cant fight A war without some people being killed, remember in world war two we lost more service men in one day then we have lost in EWraq in four years.But we won the war,If we haqdnt won it we would now be under japanese rull. How would you like to have A japanese dictator telling you what you could and could not do, In Eraq we are trying tocreate A peaceful and prosperus country and stop the killing,If more of the Eraq people understod this and would help us this would be easy to accomplish.I have the feeling that the majority of the Eraq people do not understand what we are trying to do and are being influenced by the propaganda from the influecial shieks. Remember there are millions of people out there under the influencs of some infulecial radicals that want to eliminate all christian in any way they can and rule the world so lets not let our guard down at home and tie the hands of the officialsthat are trying to keep us safe here at home by restrictions of the patiot act and any other toolsthey need to keep us safe. If we are not doing anything wrong we dont have to worry about the officials checking up on our activities. My opinion by John Zilverberg

presidetial debate

2007-07-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

The question about same sex marriges came up again in the democratic candidates ffor president and probably will again become an issue in the campaign, In my opinion the question is rediculous. marrige is A bond between A man and A woman,If two people of the same sex want to live together as A couple let them .If they want some official designation to tie them together let them form A partnership that way they have an official bond to tie them together and they can make their own rules as to what each partners rights are, The big question is the war in Eraq. Lets not throw in the towel yet.I know we are loosing some service peranel over there and that is to bad but if you were to check the statistics I will bet we have more homacides and accidental deaths per 100000 right here in the U.S.then we have in our military personel in Eraq and I would A lot rather be fighting the enemy over there then over here at home.If we pull out now we are just letting the enemy have A safe haven to reorganize and plan their next attacts on theU.S. And you can bet they will be doing just that. my oppinion by John

presidential candidates opinions

2007-06-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

listeing to the questioning of the presidential cadidates on T V is quite enlightening. Some of the questions were about the war in Eraq and about Irans nucular bomb program. they all agree we dont want Iran to dovelop the nucular bomb and we should do whatever we can to prevent that. The democrats want us to pull out of Eraq. If we pull out Of Eraq before the job is done what kind of messge is that sending to Iran and North Korea.It is the U.S. dosnt have the guts to fight A tough fight so why wory about what they say. We all know Eraq is A mess mostly due to the eraqe people themselves and the neighboring countries that are doing their best to see that we dont succeed in getting the country united with one government to represent all the people and stop the killing. I know we have had over 3000 of our troops killed over there and I hate to see even one killed but you must realize we have over 140000 trops over there and if you were to track 140000 people in the U.S. over A period of five years you would find that A lot more were killed in accidents and homicides then were killed in Eraq ouer A five Year period.you cant fight A war without some casualties but we cant sit and not put up A fight and be kiled off like A bunch of sheep.Remember in 9-11 they killed 3000 of us in one day. my opinion by John.

english

2007-05-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Lets make the english language the official languagef the U.S.thereby making us one nation speaking one language. Lets not grant citizen ship to anyone who cant speak english and cancel the directive that all government documents and directivs be printed in mutiple languages,That is costing us billions of dollars and thereby encouraging diffrent ethic groups to continue using their native language thereby creating A diversity of languages that could lead to diversity and discontent between the diffrent speaking groups and eventualy lead to connfrontation as in Eraq where diffrents sectarian tribes are killing each other off by the hundreds and could eventualy lead to A civil war.All official government documents and ballots should be printed in the engliush language only. my opinion by John

polatics

2007-05-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

We are hearing A lot about and from polatcians looking for jobs these days and when it comes right down to it its mostly about money. The fact is we have to many rich people in washington making laws to benefit themselves and the rich people that are supplying the money to keep them in office. Of course the one that has the most money to spend to make you believe he will do you the most good.If he or she can convince you that they are going to reduce your taxes you will probably vote for them. Our tax system is bad because it is making the rich people richer at the expense of the general public. Some company C.O,s movie stars T V hosts and prominant sports figures just to name A few are making any were up to A hundred million dollars A year. If we were to raise the personal income tax on our present tax system one percent for every five hundred thousand after the first five hundred thousand up to 80 percent the governmant would have enough money to pay off the nationaldebt ,finance A national health system and have money to send grants to the states to fix roads hospitals andschools and whatever else that would benefit the general public. At thet rate of taxation if you were making fifteen million A year you would have approximatly seven million left after taxes. you could spend one million and still have six million left to put in the bank give away or whatever. We shouldnt put A heavy tax burdon on companys or corporations because they are what are creating the jobs that people need to make A living and pay taxes. we shold be taxing the people that are making all the money from the companys. Now we are hearing tolk again about A flat tax of 17 or 20 percent or A national sales tax.that again would benefit the richest people by cutting their taxes by as much as 50 percent at the expense of the general public. Another gimic is to eliminate the inheritance tax.Who is going to benefit by that, we alreaddy have A six million exemption so that again would benefit only the five or ten percent of the richest people in the nation. If you lived in this country and made A lot of money in your life time you ought to be willing to give some of it back when you die. My opinion by John

justice

2007-05-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Where is the justice in this world. why is it that the U.S. is all over the world trying to help other countries,spending A lot of money there and in many cases putting our troops at risk and we are still hated by most of those coutries if you canbelieve what you read in the news reports. It seems everybody hates the U.S. but they all want to come to the states any way they can legaly or otherwise. If genocide is being commited or people are starving or some mager catastrophy happens in some other country the U.S. is expected to be there to help them out. If we dont do anything about it we are criticised for not doing anything about it. In Eraq we are spending millions of dollars and sacraficeing some of our best young people trying to end the genocide and give the people their freedom and we are being blamed for the genocide that is going on there by the very people we are trying to save and the neighboring countries that are doing their best to see to it that we dont succeed. What is the answer" Jealousy is the root of all evil,If you are jealous of some one you want to destroy them or at least tear them down to your own level, MY opinion by John Zilverberg.

decency and respect

2007-04-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Our morals decency and respect for others is rapidly being deroded in this country,Mostly by showes that we watch on t, v, these days. one show that seems to be very popular and evidently has good ratings is an example, the show is humorus at times but has A lot of neativity in it. The family is constantly bickering, Puttind each other down. showing A lot of jealousy ,being down right rude to each other and using language that I would consider unacceptible in A decent society.I would hate to live in A family that acted that way and if I had young children I would not want them to watch that kind of shows for fear they would grow up thinking that kind of performance would be accepable for them and grow up to be the same kind of repulive individuals. john.

racism

2007-04-14T11:37:00.000-07:00

Racism is becoming A big issue latley fired by people like Reverands Sharpton and jesse Jackson. they never failto bring up the issue and make A big issue out of it every chance they get. The Imus case is an example. They will destroy A white person every chance they get, they are breeding hate in their following in the black community and driving A wedge between the black and white communities, that is creating more hate and discord on both sides. That is starting with words and will eventualy lead to violance that will tear the country apart and could eventualy lead to diffrent factions attacking and killing each other as the people in eraqi are doing now. We all can make mistakes on occasion, If we recant and appolagize A little forgivness would be good for the soul. How about A little tolerance and cooperation to keep any difrences we have low key so we can have A plesant and peaceful community. John