A message to Republicans and others: This economic crisis is our new security threat

By Mary MacElveen
February 13, 2009

Lost to all as Senator Judd Gregg backed down smiting the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama to be his Commerce Secretary was this most important story I read in today’s Washington Post: Financial Crisis Called Top Security Threat to U.S.. Which I will get to in a few moments.

Upon hearing this breaking news that Gregg took his name out of consideration as Commerce Secretary was, how dare he embarrass this new president whose polling numbers are stronger than those within the Republican congress. How dare he make this move the day before the Stimulus Bill is to be voted on where hopefully the tools contained within it can turn around this dire economy. Real people’s lives are being affected who are not even a part of this political process and the games played in Washington, D.C. by senators like Gregg is paramount to all of us. With Gregg out of the nomination for that seat, it is not the president’s loss, our loss and that is what we must take away from this. Be gone, Gregg is all that I will say.

With Republicans so concerned with the price tag of this stimulus package and not seeking any bipartisanship, exactly where were they when it came to the billions upon billions spent during the Bush presidency. Instead of reaching across the aisle to seek this elusive bipartisanship, they grabbed across the aisle demanding all get in line with former President Bush or be tagged as being unpatriotic.

We are facing unprecedented times and those Republicans who rebuke this president should be shamed instead of honored for standing on principle as Gregg tried to do yesterday. The American people need all of our elected leaders help and so does the rest of the world as we face down a new and real threat called the global economic meltdown which is affecting this planet in its entirety. The citizens of this country and the citizens from each and every country do need strong leadership and not gotcha games as displayed by the Republican Party.

In listening to President Barack Obama speak at the dinner in honor of the late President Abraham Lincoln who is the father of the Republican Party: I wonder, I wonder what this late president would think of the actions of those within this new Republican Party. Not much I would say.

Now back to the original focus of this piece is the security threat due to this global economic meltdown, the Washington Post wrote, “Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told Congress yesterday that instability in countries around the world caused by the current global economic crisis, rather than terrorism, is the primary near-term security threat to the United States.”

As we deal with this economic crisis that is endangering our national security, I invite all of my readers to read the original piece I wrote back in May of 2003 titled, President Bush, you do not defend America with a lie or a series of lies. Within it, I wrote which is pertinent to our present day circumstances, “A strong country means a country that is economically solvent, instead of insolvent. We have basically allowed a lie to put us in the red.” Little did I realize just how prophetic those words were.

Isn’t the security of this country paramount instead of playing partisan games as the Republicans are doing? They prided themselves as the party of security during the Bush years and now they decide to drop the ball? Then again, by leaving President Barack Obama with a budget deficit of over $1 trillion dollars, in that act, the ball was thrown off of the basketball court. Thankfully, we have a president who knows a thing or two or three of how to handle a ball both on and off the courts.

Let this be an ominous warning coming from Blair to these Republicans, bank executives who helped cause this crisis and to blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, where Blair stated, "Roughly a quarter of the countries in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as government changes because of the current slowdown," This economic crisis is far more dangerous than Al Qaeda and yet those who refuse to help stem this tide who think, who think the economy will be able to turn around without any intervention are the threat to our security as well.

Tax cuts, tax cuts and tax cuts cannot be the only tool used to stare down this new threat which is a clear and present danger.

Yes, elected leaders like Senator Gregg, Senator McConnell and Congressman Boehner are security threats not only to this nation but the world as a whole. Those who shout out from the sidelines like Limbaugh and Coulter as well as other notables like former Vice President Cheney are the threat and we should treat them as such.

As many within the Republican ranks stood against Immigration reform citing security reasons, I want to point out this observation made and written in this WP article, "He [Blair] also saw the prospect of possible refugee flows from the Caribbean to the United States and a questioning of American economic and financial leadership in the world." What say you, Congressman Peter King, Congressman Brian Bilbray and others such Lou Dobbs now? Will this economic firestorm cause an invasion by said refugees? These are dangerous times and I cannot stress that enough and yet folks who rebuke this popular president who has extended his hand across the aisle are playing petty politics and this is where we as Americans must rebuke them back.

What truly freaked out this columnist was this portion cited in that WP article that, "high levels of violent extremism" in the turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s along with "regime-threatening instability" if the economic crisis persists over a one-to-two-year period." Someone had better send an SOS out to those who would vote against the stimulus that it is urgent in nature that we as a nation pull together and get our house in order. Should those who fail to hear this SOS or just vote no on said principle or smite a president, they are putting self above country. Now what would the late President Abraham Lincoln say to that?

I will leave you the reader to read this ominous column published in the Washington Post in its entirety. It is about time we as a nation start paying attention to what is truly important and relevant to us all for the sake and security of this nation instead of stories dealing with celebs. Paying attention to celeb stories should and must be left behind similar to the way we should and must put the former administration behind us. Get that through your noggin, former Vice President Cheney.

In closing, those like McConnell, Boehner, Limbaugh, Coulter and any within the mainstream media who are talking down this stimulus package and President Barack Obama’s presidency itself, you are all a threat to our national security. Even those who smite President Obama such as Senator Gregg did the day before the Stimulus Bill is to be voted on are as well.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

GOP complain about the stimulus package: How much has the Iraq War cost we the people so far?

By Mary MacElveen
January 27, 2009

As President Barack Obama made his way to The Hill on Tuesday to meet with House and Senate Republicans to gain their support for the $825 billion dollar stimulus bill, it was met by all of them with the frost that remains days after Pres. Obama was sworn in. In the spirit of bipartisanship that Pres. Obama is trying to instill in Washington, the Republicans would have none of that. I would first like to add, weren’t they listening to the American voters on November 4th, 2008 as they swept Pres. Obama into office with a greater amount of Democrats in both houses of congress? Wasn’t that a clear signal to all of them, their leadership in D.C. was a failure? I guess they were still wearing the ear-muffs they wore on Inauguration Day.

In the first six years of the former Bush administration, the GOP was in power of both the executive and legislative branches and they expected Democrats to capitulate to their will all in the name of patriotism. America is staring down a different yet still devastating threat today that cannot be seen and it is up to the GOP to rise to the occasion to show how patriotic they really are in the face of this crisis which has equally imperiled the American people.

I would say that this economic threat is far more devastating than Al Qaeda, since it tentacles reach from sea to shining sea. I would also love to remind the GOP that former President Bush lied to the American people as to why we invaded Iraq. Yet the GOP expected not only congress, but the American people to fall for that hook, line and sinker.

As people have lost their jobs, and have continued to lose their jobs along with that are the health benefits they had and their ability to put food on the table as well as keep a roof over their head. This economic threat does not reside in terror cells, but in corporations that are no longer able to sustain the ability to employ these workers or states which are no longer able to meet their citizens needs. It was reported on Tuesday in The L.A. Times, “The budget deficit is $40 billion and growing. The state is so short of cash that, within days, it may issue IOUs, rather than checks, to pay its bills. The Legislature, bitterly divided, seems unable to agree on a way out. The governor warns of "financial Armageddon."

Yet, the GOP squawk at the amount it will take to get America working again in order to rebuild this economy, but no squawking took place when it came to the price tag of the Iraq War. To me, the Iraq War was the ultimate earmark and it did not get as much in-depth discussion of it and its price tag by former Pres. Bush, the congress and the media.

Since I chose California to prove the dire straights they are in economically, so far this war in Iraq has cost the American tax payer as a whole, over $591 billion dollars and counting by the second. Listed below is what the State of California could have used their portion of the funds for.

Taxpayers in California will pay $83.1 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

34,208,306 People with Health Care for One Year
OR
148,087,070 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year
OR
1,484,827 Public Safety Officers for One year
OR
1,174,122 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
OR
12,490,710 Scholarships for University Students for One Year
OR
248,783 Affordable Housing Units
OR
31,068,375 Children with Health Care for One Year
OR
9,941,768 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
OR
1,193,726 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
OR
1,049,740 Port Container Inspectors for One year

If I were Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, I would have an up-close meeting with these House and Senate Republicans and no using that phrase, “I’ll be back”, but stay there until they listened to reason as his state is in fiscal chaos. Without the Iraq War, they would have been in the black.

Oh and last but not least as the Republicans haggle over the cost of that family planning portion of the bill which was taken out, let me remind my readers that all of us as tax payers paid for an American Embassy to be built in Baghdad which cost over $500 million dollars. Yet, another earmark and of no use to we the people as we face this economic firestorm.

To the Republicans on the Hill, just how are you the conservators of the people’s tax dollars? I just do not see it since no example has been proven to we the people.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net