Congress Should Determine the Outcome in Iraq‏

The old saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely
was very clearly demonstrated by President Bush, AN ELECTED PUBLIC
SERVANT, when he made that statement, "I AM THE DECIDER".

WRONG!

THE AMERICAN VOTERS ARE THE ULTIMATE DECIDERS IN THIS COUNTRY AND NO ONE
ELSE!

Every elected public servant from the President down does what the voters
decide wants done and takes our country in the direction we decide to go
in.

In this last election, November 2006, we voters spoke clearly and loudly
by changing political parties in control of both Houses of Congress, that
we think Congress should take control of the War in Iraq through the
funding process of the budget. Nothing else draws any attention to this
problem!

We voters have patiently watched this one ongoing strategy of this fiasco
in Iraq going from bad to worse for almost four years. Each time it gets
worse, the name gets changed but nothing else gets changed. This new surge
idea has already been used three times before under other names but always
with the same results, utter failure!

It is away past time to change ideas concerning this hopeless morass,
whether it is negoiating with the surrounding countries, because they
don't want an exodus of millions of refugees from Iraq or using our troops
to protect Iraq borders from incoming foreign fighters and weapons while
Iraq sorts out their own internal civil war on their own.

Only Iraq can decide their future or their future government, we gave them
that opportunity with a great sacrifice of human lives and national
treasure.



Sincerely,


Francis R. Gorman

Reason To End The War In Iraq‏

I believe that a target date for redeploying our troops from Iraq is vital in our efforts to combat terrorism abroad. As the President has shown no indication that he would consider a timetable, Congress must use its 'power of the purse' to fix this dire situation immediately. So far every top military commander in Iraq has stated very clearly that further military action in Iraq is useless and a military solution is not possible. Diplomatic action must begin and should have started over two years ago. President Bush has stated many times that he is guided by his commanders onthe ground, which makes sense. Unfortunately every ranking commander thathas disagreed with Bush starting back with General Shinseki has ended up offthe team and headed back home as a retired General real quick.This time when a new commander was needed as a replacement for a four star that just could not remember his lines and deliver as expected they started searching the list of Generals and finally found an ambitious three starthat was a real quick study and excellent with his lines. He was rewarded withthe job and a fourth star. Our military could then go back to fighting actual terrorists, the ones that did the damage, but could have been stopped before 9/11! That homegrown variety in Iraq are ones we created by our needless continued occupation of their home land. What other line of work does anyone seriously believe that some dedicated well trained members of a dissolved military would turn to other than guerilla warfare? Iraq had a large well trained military that sharpened their fighting skills in that Iran - Iraq war sometime back and not all of their military members hated Saddam Hussein, which many people seemto have forgotten. Another thing that gets swept under the rug to involve Iranis the fact that all of those i.e.d.s must have come from Iran because Iraq didnot have any demolition experts in all of their military that would know how or have the desire to build those charges. Just how stupid do the top members of this Bush regime think the majorityof our country actually is, to believe their fairyland BullFeathers? If any hostilities should begin against Iran by the United States we can be sure that itwas provoked by the Bush Administration and Congress should address theproblem immediately. President Bush and Vice President Cheney should at once be brought up on impeachment charges for contempt of Congress by engaging in unauthorized warfare without cause and the Secretary of State beassigned the task of ending hostilities and begin diplomatic negotiations out of that deliberate mess. Anyone that illegally attacked, destroyed, invaded and occupied our countrywith no cause, as we did to Iraq, would also be fighting so-called terrorists. I would be leading one of those forces. But like those Iraqi so-called terrorists under those circumstances, we would have no intention, desire or means leftto invade their country any more than they do to us. They just want us out of their country and will do whatever is needed to get us out. When the old Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the civilians turned to the same tactics thatare used in Iraq today. When the last Soviet troops retreated back home, nobody from Afghanistan followed them home forcing the Soviets to fight them in the streets of the Soviet Union. That statement by Bush to his biographer on just keeping us there long enough to ensure that the next President is stuck cleaning up his mess should have been grounds for impeachment right then and there and if found guilty, imprisonment. The proof came from his own mouth!
Sincerely,Frank Gorman
Aiken, South Carolina

Very curious observation about Health Insurance‏

While following the Presidential Candidates debates by video recording every one and then watching individual responses to different questions numerous times. There is one single topic that generates the same response from everyRepublican candidate with only minor word changing here and there and SCHIP conveyed the same message very clearly. That widely felt Republican belief concerning single payer Government run Health Insurance is an idea that could only be thought up by Democrats or Satan. An idea that would be as disastrous for the country as Black Friday, 1929 was. One would think that every Republican member of Congress would have been boycotting that very liberal single payer Government run Health Insurance Plan in use by the Federal Government, that every one of those Republican members of Congress would have long ago replaced it with private for-profit health insurance plans they have been pushing for so hard and paying the affordable premiums from their own pocket. Asking the government to pay for their private health insurance premiums would be unheard of as everyone is in complete agreement that our government should not be doing that for anyone because it is socialized medicine. Then I noticed and realized a very curious thing about the Health Insurance Plans they were referring to for the country, it was for everyone else. They have nor ever did have any intention of mandating that every member of Congress must seek out Health Insurance Plans from private for-profit Health Insurance Companies themselves, pay for it from their own pocket, while preparing to pay higher premiums each following year, irregardless of their circumstances, while receiving less coverage each year which should be expected of them. They should stop using Bethesda Naval Hospital and Walter Reed Medical Center immediately and start using the doctors that theirHealth Insurance Plan directs them to use, utilize the facilities they allow them to use, settle for the treatment that Office Managers have decided they can use and get the closest medications to what they really need from the list of approved medications their plan allows. None of those health insurance plans and ideas that the Republican candidates are pushing, refer to them, only the average person. From all the statements I have put together into one general direction, it all points to settling for whatever health care your for-profit Health Insurance Companies decide to give you and how much you can afford.. As this is being argued that it is the best solution for the average voter it should be mandated by law, that it can be enforced on everyone alike.This would include all members of Congress and the Administration ourFederal Government would end all Government run Health Insurance so it isno longer available to anyone. I dislike thinking that they are talking about having two classes in this matterconcerning our national interest and policy. Free Government Run Health Insurance for members of the federal government and Private for-profit Health Insurance Companies for everyone else who must pay them out of pocket and settle for what those companies decide to give them.
Frank Gorman
Aiken, South Carolina

Being told who is Patriotic and who isn't‏

A retired army captain wrote recently inferring that disagreeing with the President is an unpatrioticthing to do and is demoralizing to the troops. Such hogwash would be laughable under ordinarycircumstances and times, unfortunately these are not ordinary circumstance nor times. Since this President concocted the idea of sending our military into the country of Iraq to destroy their government and take out their leader for questionable reasons and on dubious evidence, it has seemed to be unpatriotic to ask why? What real proof do we possess that makes them responsible for the attack on our country? As far as our intelligence services were concerned that attack was masterminded by Ossama Bin Laden and he and his people were in Afghanistan who we were fighting very successfully and we backed it wholeheartedly at the time. Then Iraq entered the picture and it was suggested that Saddam Hussein and Ossama Bin Laden were working together, that gave me pause and my first thought was just how long is an egocentric megalomaniac like Saddam Hussein going to tolerate another person as well known as he was and a following as big as he had in the same country, at the same time. The only answer was not long, plus given the fact that Iraq had been kept in a box with UN inspectors crawling all over the country for the past ten years and finding nothing, that question of what proof, just screamed out for an answer. But the question remained unanswered and it was unpatriotic to demand answers. The citizens of this country have always asked their leaders why? What is the reason? Even duringour revolutionary war, people not sure if our cause was right, asked why? It has always been that way in our free country, and the give and take of asking why and answering, even arguing has been called democracy in action. Now we have an officer from our military, a supposed person of learning and higher education that held the fate of many at different times who advocates that questioning and disagreeing with ourPresident is not only unpatriotic but should be expelled from a country who's very roots began withdisagreements with a king. This officer further contends that such disagreements affect the moraleof our brave members of the military. I contend that we now have an all volunteer military whose members are fairly well educated and have been schooled in civic duties, fully understand about disagreements with our President, more than likely have disagreements like that of their own but because of their job keep to themselves, I know I did away back when, plus a four star general has already addressed this question and also agrees that this does not affect morale at all.As far as fighting in Iraq so that our streets are not overrun with terrorists killing, raping and pillagingthat is strictly fear talk handed out by this President and some Republican politicians to continue refereeing the civil war going on in Iraq plus they have nothing but fear to offer. The insurgents our military are fighting have no means to come over to our country nor do they have any desire to.It is Shia death squads or militia killing Sunni for control, and Sunni militia or death squads killing Shia for control and both taking pot shots at our military. That fight has been going on for the past thirteen hundred years and we are not going to stop it now!

A Newspaper needs a variety of viewpoints‏

I fully agree with Mr. Liam McGinley and others who have commented on the lack of more balanced contents in the Aiken Standard. I fully believe that for a city having only one newspaper, that newspaper should have a broader range of views to serve all the public, not just the Conservative Republican viewpoint. Granted the Editorial is the editor's domain and pulpit but the rest of the paper, including columns, letters and talkback should be balanced between the Conservative, Democratic and Republican viewpoints which makes up the readership and population of Aiken. In all fairness I believe the letters and talkback try to follow that course for the most part, but the columns like Bill O'Reilly, who keep mediamatters and factcheck.org working almost overtime, and most of the news definitely is not which does not serve the readership fairly. The Republican party used to be a big and strong national political party, but over the past few years has more and more become affiliated with the Conservative Party. That affiliation brought on a ConservativeRepublican Party which caused many former members to defect in anger and disgust and become Independent and some even Democrat. That defection caused the once big strong national Republican Party to become for the most part a small, intolerant, narrow-minded regional conservativerepublican minority party. A fact that the Aiken Standard has failed to fully address and has failed its readership by continuing on with that failure.
Frank Gorman
Aiken, South Carolina

What Do You Support?‏

At the present time for every dollar spent in America, $5.00 goes into healthcare, we spend 2-1/2 times more on healthcare then any other industrialized nation on earth and get lower results and less healthcare. Our country ranks lower on infant mortality, life expectancy and many other means of measuring healthcare then many third world countries. Contrary to popular belief AMERICA DOES NOT HAVE THE BEST HEALTHCARE IN THE WORLD! What we have instead is the best healthcare money can buy, if you do not have the money you do not get the healthcare available! Recently a Harvard study revealed that 44,789 Americans died last year from lack of healthcare, that is more then the drunk driving and murder rates combined, currently 20% of South Carolina citizens do not have healthcare! South Carolina leads the nation with the highest teen pregnancies and the highest premature births resulting in the lowest birth weight and the highest infant mortality rate in the nation! South Carolina also has the lowest vaccination rate in the nation for HPV, an often fatal but preventable cancer through early vaccination! The President has laid out a Health Care Plan for affordable and obtainable healthcare for all Americans with a Public Option, are we going to continue the status quo of denying coverage that every member of Congress and federal employee presently enjoys? Are we going to continue allowing the Health Care Insurance Industry to dictate who gets healthcare, deny healthcare for pre-existing conditions, lifetime caps and allow personal bankruptcies brought on by a serious accident or illness and finding oneself seriously underinsured? Continue allowing the outright denial of treatment? There is your actual and real Death Panel that has existed for decades, at work! Are we going to continue increasing our federal deficit until we are a bankrupt nation by giving tax subsidies to pay for healthcare premiums? Because that is exactly what tax subsidies for healthcare premiums do, taking from the federal government and giving to the Health Care Insurance Industry in ever increasing amounts! We presently give 65 Billion dollars a year in tax subsidies and will be giving 483 Billion dollars a year in tax subsidies by the mandatory enrollment of all Americans to an industry whose profits rose 430% over the past seven years, how high has your income risen? OR, are we finally going to end the practices of pre-existing conditions, lifetime caps, denial of treatment, canceling of healthcare coverage and the constantly rising premiums? End the personal bankruptcies caused by a serious illness or accident and end all discrimination in healthcare by making strong binding regulations to govern the future conduct of the Health Care Insurance Industry? End the spending of 2-1/2 times more then all the other industrialized nations spend on healthcare? Are we going to end the Bush Tax Cuts that only benefit the extremely wealthy and no one else to pay for Health Care Reform?72% of American voters across America Support a Public Option77% of doctors across America Support a Public Option51% of Business Leaders across America Support a Public Option50% of Republican voters Support a Government run Health Care Plan51% of Republican voters Oppose Health Care Reform Without a Government run Health Care Plan.According to the Congressional Budget Office a Public Option would save 85 Billion dollars a year from our federal deficit. Massachusetts has a Public Option/Private Healthcare that raises their budget 1%. What do you support? As President Franklin Roosevelt famously said about Social Security, I'm all for it, now make me do it! It will not happen unless each one of us screams long and loud and demand it happen now!
Frank Gorman
Aiken, South Carolina

Health Care Misinformation and the Need for Health Care Reform‏

Lately there has been a lot of misinformation and outright fallaciesabout Health Care Reform. Among these are, Illegal Immigrants will get Health Care, this is not in any bill in Congress; Abortions will be provided, this is forbidden by the Hyde Amendment; it will lead to a government takeover, the exact same Health Insurance Company nonsense used on Medicare and in every past Health Care Reform attempt; Members of Congress aren't in it, it must not be any good, Members of Congress and federal workers already have Health Insurance, reform is aimed at the uninsured and underinsured. Then the topper, put out Betsy McCaughey and embellished by 1/2 term ex Gov Sarah Pallin as a Death Panel. The same Betsy McCaughey that first headed a medical device company, Gentac Medical later Biotec and is currently a Senior Fellow in the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank funded entirely by the Drug Industry. Hardly someone impartial or a trusted place for information. The so-called Death Panel is a piece of legislation from Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of GA to pay for any VOLUNTARY consultation about the care and wishes of an elderly person or setting up a Living Will! Something I strongly believe everyone should have in case of a sudden accident or serious illness that prevents your wishes from being conveyed. Anyone wanting true accurate information about what the Health Care Insurance Companies are doing to protect their obscene profits of 430% over 7 years by spreading mis-information to kill Health Care should go to PR Watch.org/center for media and democracy/Wendell Potter. Mr. Potter was the Communications Director & VP of Cigna Health Care until visiting a health fair in VA, he saw unemployed and uninsured people lined up to get health care in animal stalls and under tents in the rain, it opened his eyes to what his and other Health Care Companies had reduced people to doing in order to get some health care they couldn't have gotten otherwise. Not what he expected to see! Anyone wanting information on how much their Representative and Senators get from Drug and Health companies should go to opensecrets.org/Money in Politics. Then ask yourself, how much is that influencing their vote on health care? Is that why they are deadset against any meaningful heath care reform for the people?That favorite group members in Congress like to quote, the Lewin Group is part of and fully funded by United Health Care, not a very impartial or truthful source of information that they like us to think, unless you always believe everything the Health Insurance Companies tells you. The profits of the Drug and Health Care Insurance Industry rose 430% over the past seven years. How much have your premiums risen? How much has your income risen? At the present time the Drug and Health Care Industries are spending 1.3 million dollars a day spreading erroneous and false information to guarantee continuous collection of those obscene profits without interruption.So why is the Drug and Health Care Insurance companies spending 1.3 million dollars a day trying to kill Health CareReform instead of standing on their record and letting Health Care sell itself, if it is so good? Good reasons for wanting a Public Option for Health Care that91% of Americans support, is that America spends 2-1/2 times more then any other industrialized nation in the world on Health Care and gets far less then any other country. For every dollar spent in Health Care, 30-31 cents goes on overhead, multi million dollar salaries and bonuses, advertisements etc. 69-70 cents goes into actual health care. We have the most expensive health care in the world and we are away down the list on infant death, mortality and other ratings. If we continue current spending on Health Care while more and more are being denied Health Care we will end up with a bankrupt nation and little meaningful healthcare. Recently on TV William Kristal admitted that our Military and VA had the best run Health Care in the world! Well guess who runs our Military and VA Health Care? Our government, the same government that not only runs the Military and VA Health Care, but also runs Medicare and would also run a Single Payer Health Care Plan which would only be an Option available to those without Health Care Insurance, anyone that lost their job and health care, were denied coverage or dropped, used up all their coverage or those that didn't like their present health care and wanted to change, but if you're happy with what you have and you're happy paying the premiums, you keep what you already have. Another reason is that 62% of personal bankruptcies are caused by health care costs. Also being denied coverage, shifting the cost on to you or dropping your coverage is a case of a company bureaucrat standing between you and your doctor with maximizing company profits or their own personal year-end bonus as the only critique. As for no choice of doctors, denied coverage or long waiting lists, I can assure you from personal experience that over the past twenty years in Medicare you can change your doctor anytime you want, anywhere in the country, and I have yet to be put on any waiting list or denied any coverage, which can't be said for private Health Care Insurance. So almost each and every one of us is only one sudden and serious accident or illness away from financial disaster, so it is up to each and every one of us to change that now before Health Care Reform is killed once again by the Health Care Insurance Industry as they have every time since President Theodore Roosevelt first brought it up in 1912 with the Bull Moose Party! So far every attempt at Health Care Reform from 1912 until nowhas been killed by the Drug and Health Care Insurance Industry,are we going to allow them to succeed once again this time also?
Frank Gorman
Aiken, South Carolina