Open letter to Diane Sawyer and all other liberal media. We are not "accusing" the news media of having a liberal bias. The news media, by and large, has always had a liberal bias. All you are doing is continuing to show it in your coverage of this presidential election.

I don't know who Steve Russell is, but he wrote a letter describing my feelings exactly. Here it is:


Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

United States Senate
476 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

I recently read where you have incurred substantial debt with your unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Your plight concerns me and I would like to help as much as I can. I would certainly hate for you to feel pressured, due to the size of your debt, to support a candidate that you do not truly believe is ready to be 'Commander in Chief on Day One.'

I have always believed that our form of government, while less than perfect, is the best the world has to offer. I've also always believed that Congress with 535 elected members has more power to do good for this country than only one person or even nine people. Congress has the power and ability to guide and direct this country like no other group.

I vividly remember in 2006 how the Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress trumpeting "Change" and a better America. Let's review how that has worked out for us.

* Mortgage companies have declared bankruptcy costing thousands of people their jobs.
* Home values have nose-dived.
* Millions of Americans have lost their homes.
* World oil prices have risen astronomically.
* The Democrats continue to block drilling in oil rich reserves to continue and even increase our dependence on foreign oil.
* Gasoline prices have increased to over $4 a gallon and there appears to be no end in sight even though Americans have reduced their driving over one billion miles a month.
* The stock market, where most Americans' retirement hopes are invested, has dropped by more than 15%.
* Food prices are increasing at an alarming rate fueled mostly by rising energy costs.

All in all I'd have to say that the Democrats fulfilled their promise and have brought change to our country. It isn't good change, but it is change.

Unfortunately, because of all this change, change is all I have to give you to help you retire your debt.

I am enclosing one penny for you to add to your campaign "war chest." I think that's a fair trade. Everything you've done for me is worth about a penny and because of the success of the Democrats, that's all I have. Just so you know that you really aren't alone in this, I had to borrow the penny from a friend.

I do have one simple request in return. I would really appreciate it if you could teach me how I can get the American people to pay off my debts that I knowingly and willingly incurred. Isn't this a great country?

Good luck in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Steve Russell
American citizen, patriot, veteran, taxpayer and voter

This is an open letter to America -

Dear Democrats: Jesse, it's not about you! It never has been and never will be, get over it!

Dear Republicans: It appears that the current administration's fix for the current oil crisis is to let their cronies - who own all the big oil companies - make all the money they can until the Democrats get into office and actually come up with a fix. I think the Republican fix is entitled: GREED - get all you can while you can!

Dear Mr. McCain: Obama is like Britney and Paris? He is acting too Presidential? And you think your attack ads are making you look Presidential? It's only July and you are already showing your desperation. What are August, September and October going to bring - public crying like Hillary? If you want to be elected President act like one.

This just in: According to an article out of Chicago by Lindsey Tanner of The Associated Press we should not text on our cell phones while walking or driving a vehicle. It appears people have been killed and injured while doing this. Wow, common sense may be making a comeback!

From The New York Times, March 25, 2008*

Clinton Says She ‘Misspoke’ About Dodging Sniper Fire

By PATRICK HEALY and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

BLUE BELL, Pa. — As part of her argument that she has the best experience and instincts to deal with a sudden crisis as president, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton recently offered a vivid description of having to run across a tarmac to avoid sniper fire after landing in Bosnia as first lady in 1996.
Yet on Monday, Mrs. Clinton admitted that she “misspoke� about the episode — a concession that came after CBS News showed footage of her walking calmly across the tarmac with her daughter, Chelsea, and being greeted by dignitaries and a child.
The backpedaling was a rare instance of Mrs. Clinton’s acknowledging an error, and she did so on a sensitive issue: She has cited her “strength and experience� since the start of the presidential race, framing her 80 trips abroad as first lady as preparation for dealing with foreign affairs as president. That argument was behind her campaign’s “red phone� commercial, which cast her as best able to handle a crisis.
Mrs. Clinton corrected herself at a meeting with the Philadelphia Daily News editorial board; she did not explain why she had misspoken, but only admitted it and then offered a less dramatic description.
Mrs. Clinton said she had been told “that we had to land a certain way and move quickly because of the threat of sniper fire,� not that actual shots were being fired.
“So I misspoke,� she said.
Earlier Monday, Clinton advisers corrected the Bosnia anecdote, saying they did not want it to harm her credibility. One Clinton foreign policy adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity in exchange for being candid about her mistake, said that Mrs. Clinton had been “too loose� with her words and that she risked looking as if “she was trying to pump up a somewhat risky situation into a very dangerous one.�
In her most recent account, offered last week, Mrs. Clinton described an action-packed arrival in the Balkans.
“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia,� she said, in remarks that aides described Monday as not being part of her prepared speech. “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.�
In interviews Monday, aides to Mrs. Clinton at the time of the trip, as well as an Associated Press photographer who was on the trip, said that she and others were briefed before landing about the possibility of sniper fire around the airport in Tuzla, Bosnia. None of the aides remembered actual sniper fire. Nor did the photographer, Doug Mills, who now works for The New York Times.
“I remember being told we were going into a war zone, but I don’t remember any commotion at the airport,� Mr. Mills said. “I don’t recall her running to cars. If that had happened, we would have made a picture of it.�
Maj. Gen. William Nash, who has since retired but was then the commander of United States troops in Bosnia and was at the Tuzla airport that day, said in an interview that there was no threat of sniper fire at the airport during Mrs. Clinton’s visit. He said she was gracious during her visit and took pictures with the soldiers, who were there to enforce the terms of the Dayton peace accord, signed five months earlier.
“She never had her head down,� General Nash said. “There was no sniper threat that I know of.�
Before Mrs. Clinton’s admission that she had misspoken, a spokesman for the campaign, Howard Wolfson, was asked Monday on a conference call with reporters to square her recent accounts with other evidence. In response, Mr. Wolfson referred to news accounts at the time that described the region as hostile.
He then added, “There is no question if you look at contemporaneous accounts that she was going to a potential combat zone, that she was on the front lines.�
Minutes later, when pressed to clarify his comment, Mr. Wolfson said news accounts made clear that the area in which she was landing was “a potential combat zone and was hazardous.�
He said that in her memoir, “Living History,� Mrs. Clinton wrote about sniper fire in the hills and “clearly meant to say that� when she brought it up last week. He said she had described the event many times the same way and that “in one instance, she said it slightly differently.�
In her comments Monday, Mrs. Clinton made a similar point, saying, “I didn’t say that in my book or other times.�
Mrs. Clinton had described the sniper fire in similar terms at least twice in recent weeks. She mentioned it on Feb. 29 in Waco, Tex., when she was rolling out her “red phone� commercial, recalling the trip to Bosnia and saying that the welcoming ceremony “had to be moved inside because of sniper fire.�
According to Mrs. Clinton’s public schedule for March 25, 1996, she arrived in Tuzla at 8:55 a.m. and was greeted by the acting president of Bosnia, Ejup Ganic; the United States ambassador, John Menzies; two senior United States military officials; an 8-year-old girl, whose name was redacted from the schedule for privacy reasons; and a seventh-grade class that had been “adopted by Germany.�
The first lady’s public schedule, which was among more than 11,000 pages released by the National Archives last week, lists the greeting ceremony at the Tuzla airport this way: “Ambassador Menzies intros HRC to greeters; 8-year-old Bosnian Girl Reads Poem to HRC; HRC greets 7th grade class.�
Later that day, Mrs. Clinton spoke at a show for about 500 troops. She was joined by the comedian Sinbad and the singer Sheryl Crow, both of whom performed for the troops, according to the schedule. Later that day, Mrs. Clinton and her entourage left for Aviano Air Base in Italy.
Sinbad challenged her account of sniper fire soon after he heard it more than a week ago, saying the scariest part of the trip for him was wondering where the next meal would come from. Sinbad is supporting Senator Barack Obama for president.
Patrick Healy reported from Blue Bell, Pa., and Katharine Q. Seelye from New York. Don Van Natta contributed from New York, and Helene Cooper from Washington.

QUESTION: Isn't this the same political candidate who recently ran campaign ads suggesting she was the one we most needed in the White House to answer the phone at 3AM? I don't think I want her answering the red phone at 3AM if she is prone to "misspeak". What if she tells the caller to "Go to ..." and the caller starts WW III? What does Hillary do the next morning? Hold a press conference and apologize - AGAIN!

*For some reason this blog will not accept certain types of punctuation.

On February 9, 2008 Gary Hubbell wrote an article for the Aspen Times newspaper concerning an important issue involving the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Cut and paste the below link into your browser to read it. I tried to copy and post it here, but my website publisher has trouble with copying and displaying punctuation properly:

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/2008198091324

Would someone from the financial world please enlighten me regarding the current mortgage loan crisis?

1. First, you give loans to customers who would not, under normal circumstances, ever come close to qualifying for a mortgage.
2. Second, you sucker them in by lending them the money at a low interest introductory rate.
3. Third, then their introductory rate ends and the balloon rate is so high that thousands of home owners can not now afford to make their mortgage payments (and as a side light their home values have declined in the process).
4. Fourth, now you want to literally kick them to the curb because they are defaulting on their loans when many of them would just like to refinance at a lower rate so they can make their payment and keep their home even if the value has declined.

QUESTIONS?

WHERE IS THE SANITY IN THAT? WOULD YOU RATHER FLOOD THE HOUSING MARKET WITH FORECLOSED HOMES WHICH WILL SIT STILL FOR MONTHS, IF NOT YEARS, NOT EARNING A DIME VERSUS ACCEPTING LOWER TERMS FOR THOSE WILLING TO WORK WITH YOU IN ORDER TO KEEP A ROOF OVER THEIR HEAD? YOUR INDUSTRY CREATED THIS MESS. I DO NOT BELIEVE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (AKA US TAXPAYERS) SHOULD SUPPORT YOUR IDIOTIC GREED AND BAIL YOU OUT! STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND RESOLVE THIS MESS YOURSELVES.

The Top Ten Indicators That Your Employer Has Changed To a Cheaper Health Care Plan

10. Your annual breast exam is done at Hooters.
9. Directions to your doctor's office include "Take a left when you enter the trailer park."
8. The Tongue Depressors taste faintly of Fudgesicles.
7. The only proctologist in the plan is "Gus" from Roto-Rooter.
6. The only item listed under Preventative Care Coverage is "an apple a day."
5. Your primary care physician is wearing the pants you gave to Goodwill last month.
4. "The patient is responsible for 200% of out-of-network charges," is not a typographical error.
3. The only expense covered 100% is "embalming."
2. Your Prozac comes in different colors with little M's on them.

AND THE NUMBER ONE INDICATOR YOUR EMPLOYER HAS CHANGED TO A CHEAPER HEALTH CARE PLAN:

1. You ask for Viagra, and they give you a Popsicle stick and duct tape.