RECESSIONS AREN'T THAT BAD--REALLY!

A record 777 point drop.

Markets are now terrified that they won't get the bail out they desperately want.

But if they do? Where does that leave the American taxpayer?

Up a creek without a paddle.

And a very expensive one at that.

But I think that what Wall Street is afraid is that this recession of ours will get worse if they don't get their money.

Well, I hate to break it to them--but that recession has claimed a lot of people's livelihoods already in the past year. And things are going to get worse before they get better.

That's the nature of these recessions. But none of us should fear something which is clearly out of our control.

Even Wall Street's.

Schuyler Thorpe

XX XXX XXXX

Everett, WA 98206

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SOME OF US ARE ALREADY HOMELESS BECAUSE OF HIGH RENTS

After reading a recent letter on the high rents here in Snohomish County (particularly Everett), the writer should take some solace in knowing that because of this trend, my wife and I are being forced out onto the streets because we can no longer afford any place of our own.

Even on Section 8 housing.

But because of some minor credit problems, we cannot rent from anyone whom runs an apartment complex.

And in the 13 years I've lived here (since coming up from Vermont), I have never seen it this bad. But I fear it may be several years before we can get back on our feet.

Only because this foreclosure mess and credit crisis has affected practically everyone with a source of income--even those on fixed like myself.

I wish there was a lifeline that we could hold onto, but the sad fact is...? Every state and city service is tapped beyond measure.

All we can do is wait till things get better.

Schuyler Thorpe

XX XXX XXXX

Everett, WA 98206

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GOVERNMENT ISN'T LISTENING TO US

If neither the government nor Congress listens to what the people are saying and demanding in the past week, why should we spend $700B to $1 trillion plus dollars bailing out Wall Street?

I keep getting that tingling thought in my head that we are simply being 'tuned out' by our own representatives and their just going to do whatever the heck they want--with or without our consent or approval.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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HOMELESSNESS ON THE RISE BECAUSE OF FINANCIAL CRISIS

In less than 9 days, my wife and I will be homeless.

Not because we made bad judgments, didn't read the market right and whatnot, but simply put--because people like me (whom are on low-income)--are simply priced out of both house and home.

The victims of this financial meltdown brought on by the Bush administration's love affair with de-regulation and his rich cronies--has been (unfortunately) homeowners and renters.Homeowners whom lost their homes and have flooded the rental market in record numbers in Western Washington these past several years, and long-time renters (like myself) whom have been relying on public housing to get by; because our normal amount of disability or other government-reliant--checks--is woefully insufficient to keep up with the now staggering costs of renting out even a 1-bedroom apartment.

But because of the crisis, housing agencies have become unable to absorb the extra costs.

And therefore, we were denied our voucher. And since we cannot afford to live anywhere else--becoming homeless once again is a sobering reminder of just how neglected the people have become since the Republicans took over Congress and Bush took over the Presidency.

And now--because of the financial crisis at hand--we are now staring down the barrel of the most expensive bailout in US history. All for Wall Street's benefit, but not Main Street's.

Mine will be on these cold streets of Everett--because there is no home for me or my wife.

It may be some time before we can get back on our feet--if at all. But I never once gave it much thought that we would be affected like this.

But I was wrong. So very, very, wrong.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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WORKERS FED UP WITH GETTING THE SHAFT

For all the hoopla and rigid defense of the rich and powerful's continued need to keep screwing us where it hurts the most, I'm finally starting to get a small inkling of change on the horizon. (And it's not the kind that John McCain will promise to deliver upon getting (s)elected to the White House like his failed predecessor did in 2000.)

The change I'm referring to is the kind where the American worker (big and small) is finally telling Big Business: "We're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore!"And why not? Big Business and Corporate America has been screwing the average American out of a living wage, affordable health care, and benefits for *years*.

Our well-being is no longer important to them. All these rich jack rabbits care about is themselves and no one else. How else can you explain why execs are getting paid rich bonuses and other thrifty pay packages and the guy at the lower end of the pay-scale are still getting paid slave wages and no incentives to boot?

Even after years of loyal service?So what do I think of the latest strike by Boeing? I think it's a wake up call to the company to start treating their employees better. With all those billions of dollars in yearly profits, surely a generous increase in pay, benefits, and job security won't cost that much--will it?

Or does Boeing intend on keeping a majority of their workers hitched to poverty wages for however long they intend on working there?

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS ARE 'LEADERS' TOO!

I find it distasteful that Sarah Palin has to stoop so low as to mock the work and dedication that many of our community leaders have done since time immorial.

Makes me wonder if she ever seen or read Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream"-speech?

Because if she did, she would've realized that Obama truly has more experience in dealing with the day to day affairs of the common people--than some glorified 'hockey mom' with a backwater taste for hunting bears and wolfing down overcooked moose burgers.

Simply put, community leaders are a vital part of our society. Without them, the world as we know it wouldn't function.
I just wish the Republicans would know this instead of making light of a life's work that some of us here in America believe in more than politics itself.

Because--when you get down to it--it is the people (not the party) that benefit from their leadership, wisdom, and compassion the most.

It shows that they care enough to put some effort into changing our lives for the better.

That's what makes Obama's situation all that more special. And he should be commended for his work as a community leader.

Not condemned out of sheer spite by Sarah Palin--John McCain's VP pick.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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JOHN MCCAIN'S FLIP-FLOP MAY COST HIM

As a former Alaskan myself, I find McCain's pick of a female vice-president from my home state to be baffling as much as it is a shock.

It comes as no surprise that the GOP aren't a big fan of women or women's rights in general.

McCain clearly has every intention of restricting women's rights on abortions--with more federal restrictions on the way. He also views gays and lesbians as 'second-class' citizens of America--and harbors little doubt that he'll bomb Iran the first chance he gets. (Just so he can show the world that America means 'business'.)

But what baffles me about McCain's pick is that Palin has zero experience on the national stage.

While his supporters are claiming otherwise--it's become all that painfully clear that this young female candidate of his was more designed to placate Hillary's supporters (to show that he's all for women voters) than anything else.

To satisfy his minority social conservative base, she was the best pick because of her anti-abortion stance.

To satisfy the Christian right, a little cute story about her son with Down Syndrome being carried to full-term.

But her youth and inexperience is what shuts the door on John's attacks on Obama about his own youth and inexperience--labeling him to be more hypocritical than anything else.

How can McCain now continue to attack Obama on his lack of experience when he now has a candidate who is less experienced than him?

If you don't have a migraine now over this general election, you will have one soon enough.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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STATE ISSUES MORE COMPLEX THAN DINO THINKS

Coming online today, I got a glimpse of a campaign banner on my homepage which Rossi declared he would:

• Lower Taxes
• Reduce the Deficit
• Fix Our Transportation Problem
  

Trouble is, President Bush also promised a lot of things when he ran for office in 2000 and again in 2004.

He lowered taxes for the rich, but increased it across the board for everyone else. (How else is he planning on paying for his nearly $10 trillion dollar spending spree so far? The rich certainly won't be picking up Junior's tab.)

As a consequence, the lack of higher tax revenues by our government has forced it to spend more than it could take in on a yearly basis--raising the deficit by leaps and bounds.

How does Rossi plan on reducing a state deficit that's in part due to the souring economy and falling state tax revenue? Does he plan on making it all "go away" through some magic hat trick, or will he just tell us that "deficits don't matter"--and spend away like Bush did these last 8 years?

Our transportation problem here at home is simply another symptom to a much larger truth that we badly need to revamp our national transportation grid to the tune of $1.5 trillion dollars.

The fact that we haven't gotten any further (or anywhere in some cases) points to the complexity of the issue overall--and requires time to iron out.

Something that Dino hasn't quite caught onto just yet.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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WHY ISN'T THE HOMELESS AND POVERTY THE MAIN FOCUS?

The foreclosure crisis has claimed us as the latest victims in the ongoing rental squeeze.

For the last six years, my wife and I have been on housing primarily because of my disabilities. After losing our jobs to 9/11--we've had an especially difficult time getting back on our feet and finding decent jobs.

But the 30% increase in our basic rent over the last 4 years has pushed the two of us closer to the homeless fringe than we ever have since I was single back in 1996; where I spent 14 months out on the streets and in the Everett Men's Mission.

We don't know what to do or who to turn to for help in our latest crisis. City services are tapped out and housing is at its absolute limit in giving us flexibility in where to live.

However, our latest credit check came back rejected and because of that, we don't have a real place live in the six weeks we have left here.

I don't want to face the specter of being homeless or continually living on limited income, but through this, I wondered why isn't our two Presidential candidates addressing the two main issues of poverty and homelessness here in this country--instead of focusing on oil drilling and wars in the Middle East?

I guess my problems just aren't "big enough" to be considered a top priority for either the Democrats or the Republicans these days.

Or anyone else for that matter.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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IRAQ WAR SHARPLY DIMINISHES US INFLUENCE ABROAD

Don't recall who said it first, but either Petraeus, Gates, or Donald Rumsfeld made boisterous claims that the US could and was "able" to meet any threat that comes up on the horizon--even though we were mired in Iraq.

Like Katrina, the Russian conflict with Georgia made it painfully clear that the US isn't able to respond at all to any disaster, threat, or conflict which has clearly risen to the forefront.

Why?

Because of all the years we wasted spinning our wheels and chasing our collective tails in Iraq. Wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer monies, manpower, and equipment--all to prop up a discombobulated government which clearly has less power than the people whom ran it before it became what it is now: A shadow government for Iranian interests only.

As such, our military heads and our government reps were unable to get the Russians to stop their invasion of Georgia, let alone reverse course in good faith.

All they did was rebuff us, laugh in our faces, and keep marching on.

As someone whom grew up during the Cold War, I never thought I'd see the day when we couldn't even get Russia to play nice.

But I never thought I would see just how little influence we now have on the international stage these days either.

All thanks to the Iraq war. All thanks to one George W. Bush.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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STOP BLAMING CONGRESS AND BLAME YOURSELVES!

I for one am getting sick and dog-tired of people whining about how high gas prices are going and why Congress and the Democrats haven't done anything about it.

It's no secret that this nation hasn't had an energy-policy worth mentioning for as long as I have been around. But to shift the blame to the Democrats and to Congress when gas hits well over $4 a gallon--is beyond ridiculous.

Neither Congress nor the President controls the price of oil. Get that through your collective heads!

What drives this finite commodity is supply versus demand. I'm sure everyone reading this letter took a course in Home Economics. I know I did.

I learned that when supply is low, demand is high, you get expensive gas. So trying to pin this one on everyone else but ourselves is about as childish as it can get!

WE the people--of this United States of America--have an insatiable addiction to oil. And that's not going to change anytime soon. We also do not have an adequate supply to meet the demand of a nation that so far has refused to even accept change in our daily driving habits or the status quo.

All we can do is blame the Democrats, blame Clinton for not drilling in the mid-90s, or anyone else--but ourselves--for the energy crisis which we now face today.

We caused this problem to happen! But instead of embracing new ideas and new sources of energy, most Americans just believe that 'drilling our way out' will solve everyone's problems!

The sad part is: We don't have enough oil to go around. And that's a truth that few people are willing to accept these days.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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US GOVERNMENT TRAINED THE TALIBAN TO FIGHT THE SOVIETS

It's astonishing to see so many people with such short memories these days.

Not that I don't blame the letter writer of a recent letter ("Extremists pose an enormous threat") for forgetting and all.

Most Americans these days don't want to face down the consequences of our own actions during the Cold War: We trained those extremists that we are now fighting today.

Yes, it's true.

While the writer gives such historical examples of how much death and carnage caused by the Taliban and blames an entire peaceful religion on the acts of a few nuts on the international stage, not once did he also explain why things have gotten so bad as they have these days.

These extremists didn't just "pop up" all of a sudden and declare war on the US--as some claim. These extremists that we are fighting today are a direct result of foreign policy decisions carried out by a single US President and the CIA during the 80s.

In order to fight the bad Communists in Afghanistan, Reagan and the CIA covertly funded and trained Osama and his people to hold the Soviets at bay in that country. And it worked.

As a result of the stalemate, the US government ceded Afghanistan over to the Taliban as a reward for their actions--where the latter seeds of 9/11 were sown.

Because of what Reagan and the CIA did, today we are fighting those same extremists we once trained and funded.

Wonder what the American people would think of that--if they knew this truth? Or the boomerang effect that we now have to deal with today as a result of our own government's actions back then?

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

(XXX)-XXX-XXXX

BUSH MUST THINK THERE ARE 300 MILLION TERRORISTS LIVING IN THE US

In this misguided Age of Terrorism, Bush has been pushing for Congress to give him the unadulterated leverage in which to spy on all of us without court approval or warrants.

This week, he got it--thanks to the spineless Democrats and the rest of the Constitutional-shredding varmints currently infesting the halls of Congress.

Thinking about how our Founding Fathers gave this nation its fundamental rights and liberties, Bush must have been in some kind of drug-induced hallucination into believing that there aren't 300 million Americans currently living and residing within this country of ours--after all--but discovered that he was really surrounded by 300 million Islamic extremists with deep ties to terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda instead.

So out with the Constitution, in with illegal spying for the last 5 years.

And when the government comes knocking on your door--accusing you of being a Muslim terrorist--be sure to thank your telephone carrier for their role in this whole mess as you're being led out in handcuffs with a hood over your face.

Because it was they whom illegally turned over all our personal phone and internet records to the government in the first place.

All without a court-ordered warrant. All done in absolute secrecy.

In the same of fighting terrorism.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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(This letter was published in the Everett Herald of Snohomish County.)

MORE BULLYING, LESS DIPLOMACY

When it comes down to dealing with rogue nations--or nations we just don't plain like--the status quo of this country has always been: "More bullying; hold the diplomacy mayonnaise and the pickles."

In the last 8 years, we've seen many such examples of our own country reps giving nations hostile to US interests both barrels of 100% True Blue American Bullying. (And it's fat-free!)

Diplomacy? What's that? Is it where we actually have to sit down and talk with these roguish nations or nations we just plainly despise because of a brevity of reasons known only to us, but not to them?

Well...yes.

Talk.

From a historical standpoint, this nation has gotten a lot more done talking to its enemies--rather than bullying or threatening them with force.

I realize that we have no love of Iran for the moment, but talking to them certainly would do more wonders than just desperately wishing to throw missiles and bombs into the heart of their country--with the blind hope that this will work so much better than good old-fashioned diplomacy.

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR OIL BLAME GAME TO SURFACE--DID IT?

Personally, I would like to know why The Herald delights in irritating some readers by publishing such outrageous hogwash and ridiculous propaganda in the first place. ("Environmentalists stopped the drilling.")
Blame the Democrats and environmentalists for not wanting the rest of us to destroy every inch of the environment we live currently in? Sure! If it fits the party rhetoric and classic blame game! Let's get it printed! (Should sell the paper more copies, right?)

But I seriously doubt that writer even knows why gas prices are so astronomically high right now, or the real reasons behind our lack of no new refineries or production facilities these last 30 years or so.

It's not just Democrats and environmentalists whom had a hand in clamping down, or introducing legislation to perserve sensitive areas to new drilling contracts all these years, but also Republicans!

Did the writer even consider that in his recently published tirade? I don't think so.

But it's so easy to blame one side when you don't have all the facts and information at hand. Isn't that right folks?

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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WOMEN EVERYWHERE SHOULDN'T BE AT ALL ANGRY

I didn't read the whole column ("White Women Takes The Gloves Off"), but the first paragraph about how most female voters feel that Clinton was unfairly 'victimized' by the media (and unproven with Obama)--because she was a woman, says in itself the transparent arrogance by such attitudes--which still permeates our nation's social fabric today.

From my perspective, the moment Clinton got into the ring, she was asking for it. The same with Obama. But to imply unfairly that she was mostly targeted because of her outlying gender is ridiculous.

Many women have been targeted for less than that, but where was the uproar then? It only happens when you're someone important and you happen to have serious name-recognition--does the terms "unfair" and "foul" start to come into play.

Only because you or your supporters believe you weren't given the benefit of the doubt.

In Clinton's case, she was given every opportunity to make her case stick. But she didn't. And she lost.

But not because she was just a mere woman.

That's ludicrous!

Clinton lost because she grossly underestimated the political landscape and the mood of the nation.

But it doesn't mean the world is over because of this. Because of Hillary, many women will now see that they too can reach higher pinnacles of...well, aspiration.

It's no longer a man's world anymore. And that's what Clinton proved in this election.

So women: Why be angry over that revelation at all?

The door is now wide open. The barriers broken. It's time for you to step through.

What's it going to be?

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

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