Posts
Peter Lawrence
PO Box [redacted]
[redacted]
President Barack Obama
White House Residence
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
1/27/09
Dear Mr. President,
The closure of Guantanamo is a great start but we all worry if closing it will truly stop certain things from happening. In other words, it wasn't the prison that was causing problems; it was those who were in charge. I am actually most concerned about those who have been subject to rendition or ghosting. Will we be able to learn of who and where they all are as well as what happened to them?
Many of us support Israel but also hold great concern for the Palestinian people. In South Central LA there are a lot of gangs that do damage. We know we can't bomb the area because people live there. We cannot negotiate with the gangs because that gives them legitimacy. Could it be time for Israel and the US to join in to gain favor also through "Hearts and Minds"? Would humanitarian aid fly further and strike deeper than rockets?
The news is abuzz this week with the NSA wiretapping of news reporters and House and Senate members. I have a great concern about this because our personal liberties are at stake as well as the press'. As Jefferson said, "Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it."
I believe the reason 43 was so confused was because he held a different definition of freedom. I believe 43's definition was; Freedom for corporations to do what they want without restrictions or regulations even if it means trouncing on human rights and stripping the environment of its resources. We have a perfect example in Haiti as to what could happen if corporations had those freedoms. Just look at the Island from the sky; two countries, Haiti and Dominican Republic. Haiti is barren and desert-like with many poor and starving and Dominican Republic is Lush and green with plenty of island beauty and charm with more poor than is acceptable to me but still considerable better than Haiti which was stripped clean by corporations.
For years the Republican Party has been calling something what it is not (I know, shocking, huh). There is an argument as to what constitutes an embryo. Stem cells are taken from something called a "blastocyst", not an embryo, in most opinions. Once those stem cells are all given a designation then it becomes something else. For many definitions it is pre-embryonic until week three or so. It doesn't begin manufacturing the nervous system until week four or so. Depending on the gestation, it is not a fetus until week nine or so. But when Republicans say "Embryonic Stem Cell Research" they want people to think of an embryo as a fetus as a baby, which is as far from the truth as a 2,000-pound hunk of metal being called a car. Any piece of that 2,000 pound hunk of metal could be a fender, trunk, lug nut or, if I were true to the analogy, windshield or tire. A blastocyst is not an embryo. Very simply put, the term "embryonic stem cell research" is, or should be, an oxymoron because a cell from an embryo cannot be a stem cell and a stem cell is not yet from an embryo. Perhaps you could call it "Blasto-stem-cell research" and when the right winged media starts blasting you over the "Embryonic stem cell research" you can honestly say, "We do NOT allow embryonic stem-cell research" because there is no such thing.
More big news about mass lay-offs this week. I believe this is a prequel to the biggest tax-break heist in history. The big companies of maybe 5000 or more employees know you want to give a tax break of $3,000 if they hire someone. So the smart way to capitalize on the tax break would be to lay off thousands of innocent people. Then they can hire them all back and save that much more. So a company like Microsoft or Intel or Boeing would get tax breaks of 15 million dollars to hire the employees they just let go. Caterpillar and Pfizer each would get 60 million dollars. For the one-day loss of jobs on Monday alone it will cost US taxpayers almost 200 million dollars in tax breaks to big corporations to rehire. For job losses in January so far that's more than a half billion dollars. You're welcome to offer the tax breaks but I propose either a "date" rule or "tiered system". A "date rule" would say that any company would get the tax breaks for hirings above the level of employees a company had in October 2008 (or whatever date). A "tiered system" would say, "OK, we'll give you $300 each to hire those numbers that were lost in January, another $1,000 for those since November and $3,000 for any above the November numbers. Of course there would also be a requirement to keep those people hired for a certain amount of time. My representative is [redacted] and I'm going to call and make sure [he/she] understands this possible tax-break rip-off of The People.
Very Sincerely yours,
Peter Lawrence
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