Bugle Sound-off
Fallout far ranging beyond Spitzer Scandal...
is this only the tip of the iceberg?

There is a great deal going on under the surface in the Spitzer Scandal that concerns me regarding the Bush administration and the financial health of the nation.
     First: Being retired I have had time to look at and analyze the stock market. The large swings in market prices didn’t make sense. It would have to take billions of dollars for the market to swing 100 points or more within a two hour period, and yet we see these shifts almost daily. Who is moving the money? Is it real money or just play money?      Second: The Bush administration under the tutelage of Dick Cheney has encouraged the disassembly of our manufacturing infrastructure and the active reduction of our engineering and technical skills of the American citizens. This is being further watered down by encouraging a large infusion of cheap and illegal foreign labor into the United States as well as a refusal to protect our borders.
     Third: The availability of money for school loans is drying up and will not be available to American Citizens (ABC News Report). Some universities want parents and grand parents to liquidate any equity they may have in their homes. There is no pressure being applied to the universities to manage their expenditures. The result will be that our children and grandchildren will be denied a higher and full education without mortgaging their lives away with no guarantee of being able to find meaningful employment. When you look at this in conjunction with the destruction of our industrial base and the selling of its assets to foreign governments, you are looking at the deliberate destruction of our country by Bush and Cheney. Note that Halliburton has moved its headquarters out of the United States so it cannot be held legally accountable for its actions.
     Fourth: Now we have the government bailing out the largest banks in the nation and the world. This is the same action that took place at the beginning of the great depression of the twenties and thirties. In the meantime wheat has increased 173%, heating oil and propane has risen a minimum of 67%. Diesel is now $4.15 a gallon. This has caused increases in food and clothing costs. The pharmaceutical industry has raised their prices on existing drugs in the United States a minimum of 12 to 15%. We are no longer on the gold or silver standard. The United States has banked its dollar on our industry, and with the destruction of our industry there is nothing backing the dollar.
     Today the financial moguls are trading nothing more that pixels on a computer screen. They have placed their fortunes in the hands of photons that light up their computer screens. Photons have neither mass nor value. When you add Spitzer and his stupidity to the equation and start to peel back the layers of this stinking onion, you will find out that New York State and the Country are in deep yogurt.
     Most people think of New York in terms of the city. However, the State of New York is one of the richest agriculture states in the union. I have traveled the length of New York and found that there are a number of small towns that are boarded up like Grapes of Wrath. The industrial parks like Kodak Park in Rochester are dynamiting parts of their factories to the ground in order to avoid paying taxes on the buildings. The same thing is happening here in Dutchess County with old IBM buildings. Old factories are being turned into waste dumps. While all of the equipment is going to China and India the chemistry stays behind for someone else to deal with. No one in State government is doing anything to protect the rest of the State outside of New York City, and if the State legislature doesn’t start dealing with the issues of the geographical majority of the State things are going to get ugly on a stick. It is up to each and every one of us to turn around and force the government to fix the problems. Get on the phone and call your representatives. Organize groups and go to the Capital and put their feet to the fire. Sitting home and complaining on this forum is not going to be enough.
     Ok I have vented enough. The bottom line is I am worried about our senior citizens not being able to heat their homes and feed themselves. They make up 35% of the population of Dutchess County. I am worried about our children and grandchildren not being able to remain in our community because there are a few people who want to rezone Red Hook making it impossible for them to buy or rent a home or to find employment. You can forget about development. Stop orders have been issued on all building projects from Westchester County to the Canadian border due to the economy. I am worried about rolling blackouts due to the limited supplies of oil, and the lack of support of government to find alternative sources other than corn for ethanol as well as tainted food and products from countries like China and India where our government from all political parties refuse to act to protect our people.
     Like it or not our planet has finite resources and we have to share them with every other nation. Climate Change and Global Warming are going to produce extensive challenges to all living things on the planet. There are going to be mass migrations across the globe and the United States cannot absorb them if we are going to survive. Food is going to be a major issue along with education, medicine industrial development and management across the globe. We have to work together to protect all of our citizens. Failure is not an option.
     Well I have to go now. It’s Alka-Seltzer time. - Dick Franklin

(Bugle note: As of publication time, there have been some replies to Mr. Franklin's assertions on the Red Hook Rooster. This will also be posted on the Bugle Blog in the event followers of the Bugle wish to chime in with an opinion. There are links to both the Bugle Blog and the Red Hook Rooster at the top of the page.)