What's the Trouble with this Country?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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