Response to Danny's comments!

First off, it is great to hear from Danny again. He actually is a friend, even though we disagree on many issues. One point I want to make is we can agree on issues and to make my point, I offer the following. Danny started with the comment we agree on nothing, then he went on to make a point that I had stated. If you look closely at my salute to veterans, I stated, " We must push our politicians to get our people out of harms way and find different avenues to protect them in the future, and be sure when we send American troops into battle they are prepared and the reason we go is in the best interest of America."  How is this any different from Danny's stance and comments. I did not support the war in Iraq or the continued conflict in Afghanistan. However one thing I am very clear on is the fact that we must support the men and women that do their duty and follow orders to carry out their missions. They are no different then any worker that faces the corporate ideals, as they perform their duties on a day to day basis, except for the fact that they are faced with life and death. It is very hard to know each and every day could be your last. I was listening to General Jack Jacobs, a Medal of Honor recipient, the other day talking about combat and war. He said, "War is very personal and the reason it is, is you are fighting for that soldier on either side of you." In the real world people cannot make sense of that, because they want to politicize it. In combat they do not care about the reasons or politics, they want to survive and help the person beside them survive. I will continue to thank them and if you desire an apology, that is you choice, however do not be surprised if they do not want or are willingly accept that. They did their duty, plain and simple.

The next thing is when you spoke about not accepting my type of society. We DO have moral obligations for each other. I do not and have never said I support a welfare society. I have said, we need to have government intervention to get the economy moving forward. Private companies are not doing it. They are sitting on cash, if they have it. The large corporations are and the banks are sitting on even more. A survey of small and mid size companies have stated there are two issues they face. Number one, no money being lent by the financial institutions and number two, no demand for their products. Banks are not lending because they get free money from the Federal Reserve. They then invest it and make money. We need to re-enact the Glass-Stegal that was repealed, when Clinton was President. This would force banks to go back to what they used to be. They made money by making sound loans. They attracted funds, to lend, by offering a decent savings rate and CD rates. They had skin in the game and if loans went bad, they took the lose. The second part would be solved by having the government invest in our infrastructure. This would create good paying jobs and then people would have disposable income at the end of the month to purchase other goods, which would create more jobs and then the cycle repeats. The economy moves along. I want the government to regulate business, because, due to greed they are incapable of doing it for themselves.  Where am I giving up freedoms? We give up freedoms when we do not vote. We give up freedoms when we are not engaged in our political system. Most importantly we give up freedoms when we allow the corporations and the elite upper class to control so much of the economy. We have to take back economic freedom and anyone, such as you Danny, that can not see this, need to open their eyes.