The war in Afghanistan is yet another drain on the United States. Our economy cannot afford to fund several wars let alone one war. After fighting the same war for eight years, I think it is time to step back and realize we are not gaining any ground. The war started with huge gains and made a huge impact on the Taliban, but we have since lost the foothold.

The military is asking for more troops, because the enemy is getting more sophisticated. How could they not be? We have been in the same war for eight years, even a child would learn how to out maneuver a military force in that amount of time. The reason we entered into the country and initiated a war, was to find Osama Bin Laden, we still have not managed to do that. The Taliban is quickly gaining the upper hand, and we are going to lose more troops to this ridiculous war.

We have bigger fish to fry in this war on terrorism. We are going to get caught in a bad position, if we continue to drain our military resources on wars that are getting us nowhere. We are still fighting the war in Iraq and now must be ready to deal with North Korea’s threats. It is time to get this war in Afghanistan over. The President needs to protect the United States, and stop wasting our valuable military on a war that has no end in sight.

The Afghanistan people do not want the Americans or any other foreigners in their land. That is their choice. It is their choice to provide shelter to terrorists, and they must be dealt with accordingly. The terrorists are killing more of their own civilians then the war itself. Enough of the military presence that is being projected, the presence needs to be assertive and get this thing done with already. The war was intended to go in, get some bad guys and get the heck out. There is just no reason to stick around for eight years waiting for them to show up.
 

I believe we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform that gives those already here a path to legal citizenship. It is ridiculous to argue at this point about plans that include sending immigrants back. For one thing that involves anywhere from 12 to 20 million people, no one knows exactly how many.

This means that we have 12 to 20 million people many of whom are working and have families in the United States. Some have children who were born in the United states and are citizens by birth. They are part of our economy paying at least sales taxes, some would argue they pay state and federal income taxes.

Many immigrants do not very glamorous jobs. They clean our hotels and motels, they cook in restaurants, they mow our grass and tend our garden's. They are hard working. They came here to feed families so it is unfair that they they become the focus in our immigration debate. It is corporate America that provided them jobs and the Government that turned a blind eye to this Corporate law breaking.

Many people are sensitive to immigration because of the outsourcing and insourcing of jobs Americans used to do. As the unemplyment rate goes higher and higer immigrants become the designated scapegoats in a political battle for control of the national and state governments.

One of the biggest complaints about immigration is that they use our social services system which becomes a huge subsidy for Big corporations who get away with violating prevailing wage, hour and work place safety laws. They pay them a pittance and Middle Class America through its taxes picks up the tab for housing, food stamps, education and other services. This on top of losing their jobs is a lot to bear.

This provides one of the best arguements for legalization. If legalized, they would have Social Security cards which would insure that business had to pay at least minimum wage and would have to adhere to wage, hour and workplace safety laws. This would end the pressure to bring in more low wage workers and would guarantee that they payed taxes to help pay for support. We could then write laws that provided for a more sensible way to control immigration.

Boycott the RIAA

Like you, I've read about legal actions against people who trade music files on the internet. At first, I didn't understand. I thought recording artists received royalties for each CD sold. So it made sense that file sharing on line should be illegal, since no money changes hands.

But then I started thinking. What about used records, tapes, and CDs? People sell and trade them. Libraries rent music and movies free. Why are these things legal, but file sharing on the internet is not?

Then my musician son told me what was really happening. I started looking at websites and found out the truth! The whole thing is a scam, set up by the Recording Industry Association of America -- a bunch of fat cats who are lining their own pockets.

The RIAA claims to protect musicians, but is not above lying, invasion of privacy, even stalking, and downright terrorizing in order to get what they want -- money!

The RIAA And Their Dirty Tricks

The RIAA sued grandmothers, children, and even the families of recently dead people, who were suspected of having uploaded or downloaded music. Some of the people they sued didn't even own a computer! Now, the RIAA plans to monitor your online activity and notify your Internet service provider if they think you are downloading. Your internet service could be cut off forever!

All of this has just one purpose -- to instill fear and make us all tow the line, while they collect our hard-earned money for their ritzy lifestyles.

What is the RIAA?

Who and what is the Recording Industry Association of America? It is a group of attorneys representing four huge corporations -- Sony, Warner, Universal, EMI -- who own most of what you see and hear on television, radio and movies, not just CDs and DVDs.

The RIAA controls what the artists themselves are allowed to put before the public! When a musician or band is signed to a major record label, that company owns everything that band records, and can choose to put it out or hold onto it as they see fit. The band is no longer in control of what their fans can hear!

Lies The RIAA Tells Us

The RIAA claims that file sharing is responsible for loss of revenue through lower record sales, yet a study by economists at Harvard showed that record sales were falling anyway. Downloading had nothing to do with it!

Downloading music is not illegal! There has been no federal or state law passed. None of the court cases against file-sharing services have been decided, so there's also no case law against sharing music. The RIAA was filing lawsuits to make file sharing illegal -- not because it already was! And it is not illegal to make MP3 copies of music that you own.

My son tells me that musicians don't make money from major label record sales. Most of their money comes from concerts and shows, which are not controlled by the RIAA -- yet!

He showed me a website by Janis Ian, a folk singer who had her first national hit record decades ago when she was a teenager. She explains that music downloading has taken the place of radio. It gives artists like her exposure and publicity they can't get any other way. I didn't even know she was still recording! Line by line, point by point, her articles convinced me that the RIAA and the record companies are lying about protecting the artists.

It Will Get Even Worse

The big companies realize that things are changing. Soon, downloading will be encouraged! But the RIAA will still have its hooks in the artists, and in you.

The record companies will pay download services to promote certain records -- just as they paid radio stations to play records in the past (payola). They will also force recording artists to sign a "360" contract, which entitles the company to a percentage of any item -- not just records -- that uses the artists' name or music. That's television appearances, books by or about the artists, and proceeds from concerts -- the major way musicians earn their money!

What Artists Can Do

This is why my son and his friends have decided to make all their music available independently. This means you will never hear them on the radio -- most stations are owned by the same companies that own the music. But they'll publicize themselves. They use the internet, send their recordings to the few local and community radio stations left, and sell tapes and CDs of their recordings at their concerts and shows. They are planning to register all their work under a Creative Commons license, and will tell anyone and everyone they know to boycott the RIAA.

What Can You and I Do?

We non-musicians can do plenty to boycott the RIAA. Most important, we can support local, independent musicians. Go to their shows, buy their records, tapes, T-shirts and whatever else they have for sale. Tell the musicians you support them -- and not the RIAA.

We can listen to music we already own, or listen to music on the radio or streaming audio. We can stop paying for new CDs, tapes, or DVDs, and buy only used and independent ones.

We can inform our friends and families. We can let local record stores know what we are doing and why. We can write letters to our local newspapers, and we can write to our Senators and Congressmen calling for the reform of copyright laws.

Support independent music! Boycott the RIAA!

#

All for Health Care Reform

I am in all favor for the proposed health care reform, as I have been in a battle with the insurance company over payments. I even had a claim denied saying my ear ache was a pre-existing condition. I do not know how an ear ache can be pre existing but they denied the claim in the whole two years insured with this company not one ear ache until then. Something needs to be done about the practices of the insurance companies. The insurance companies are quick to take payments from people, yet are faster to decline payments to the doctor or hospital for services rendered.

Here is a great example, there is this lady who lived kiddie corner to my parents house. She worked for one of the big insurance companies in processing. She told us that her employer had told her to conveniently lose a certain number of claims that fell onto her desk. It is a big business, and the businesses want to make money, not give it away. What we are seeing is many insurance companies doing just that. Something needs to be done to change the way this business is operating.

Now, what scares people in my opinion is they are afraid of what they do not know. Many people are covered under medicare now, which is a government type insurance where they pay 80% of the medical bill. People have to have additional insurance to cover the remaining 20%. Many elderly and the disabled who are covered under this plan do not seem to have any problems when they need to get into the doctors office, or what medical procedures they may need.

Health care reform would be a great thing to happen, as long as it provides American citizens with coverage. Too many people of all ages young and old are going without insurance. The emergency rooms are being flooded with people who wait to the last minute to get medical help because they can not afford to go to the doctor, and these are illnesses that are not life threatening like the flu. With no insurance, the buck does get passed onto the taxpayers who do have insurance with rising policy rates, hospital and doctor office fees.

In many countries around the world have their own similar plan of health care that seems to work for them and is successful, why can't it be done here? Put the proper people who have the administrative knowledge to run that program and lets give it a try. No American should be left out in the cold when it comes to getting medical care.

 

CNN News is the finest news station on cable television. The news that is given in viewer friendly format is world news as well as national news. The national news is presented in a fair non-prejudicial, objective journalistic style. A CNN viewer will get the entire story without political considerations that are often the case at Fox news. The international news is often given by Wolf Blitzer. Wolf Blitzer is the sole remaining journalist left in the United States whether on cable or on main television broadcasting stations. International coverage is presented in story format by author type journalist like Anderson Cooper.

Anderson Cooper and journalists like Christianna Amanpour or Nik Robertson are sent into parts of the world whose news is essential to our grasp on world events. Without such coverage, we would be back into the age of isolationism that we were in before World War II. Because of journalists like these, CNN world news coverage and national news coverage is all a viewer needs to keep abreast of the events and the people that make our world and that affect our lives.
We look at CNN for editorial news journalists like Lou Dobbs and political editorial news specialists like John King. Editorial news is a service that makes up for not reading the letters to the editors page in local newspapers. Few of us bother to read about what other people in our community think and feel about local news and events. But, millions of people listen in to cable editorial news and political discussions of Lou Dobbs and John King.

We also have reporters like Campbell Brown whose soliloquy's and guests on news and the makers of news is a personal slant on news reporting that only CNN offers as part of their coverage of national and international news.

CNN News lets its viewers feel confident they do know what is happening in the world that they live in. Because the people of CNN have the focus of we are all in this world and if we are broadcaster and you are viewer we all live in this world. Too many other cable news stations come off as elitist or condescending to their viewers. And, too often , lately, main station broadcasters have sold themselves to obvious political interests making their news coverage definitely hypocritical.

According to Glenn Beck, Obama is a racist.  Enough said.
He is entitled to his opinion, no matter how demented,

If you disagree with his opinion, please do three things:

1. Change the TV Channel
2. Join our Boycott Glenn Beck Group
3. Boycott the Beck Sponsors:
   
   General Motors
   Campbell Soup
   Chrysler
   Proctor and Gamble
   Pfizer
   Kellogg
   Walmart
   Chrysler
   Nestle

It is time for Glenn Beck to learn what capitalism is all about. No sponsors, no show.