From the Associated Press:

Obama told reporters in Asheville, N.C., that he was surprised his Republican rival’s campaign would signal an effort to avoid talking about the financial turmoil because McCain advisers fear it could cause him to lose the election.

“I’ve got news for the McCain campaign: The American people are losing right now,” he said. “They’re losing their jobs. They’re losing their health care. They’re losing their homes. They’re losing their savings. I cannot imagine anything more important to talk about.”

-Aaron

Giving Wall Street miscreants $700 billion with some marginal provisions for homeowners is not a way to protect the United States of America. I am glad that the House of Representatives realized this ultimately.

An effective way to improve the economy is to funnel even a third of that sum to the states and local authorities to improve infrastructure and reduce property taxes. This would create jobs and give the average homeowner some respite. There should also be a moratorium on foreclosure. A variety of financial institutions have failed already, what is there left to lose?

Another thing: If the government is to use taxpayer money to to help out these failed entities, we need to own them. Nationalize those buggers and get us a return on our investment.

These are a few gestures that could help build a healthy foundation for our nation (jobs, more disposable income for the consumer, sustainable infrastructure, etc.) that will have a ripple effect across the planet.

Think about it folks.

-Aaron

As I grow older in chronological age, I realize the only real chance I can save the world is by saving myself.  I am a human being.  I am not the manager of the Earth.  I am simply the CEO of the Self.

Ok so, let’s say I find inner peace.  For me inner peace is found through moving my body–dance, contortion, yoga.  Someone else finds inner peace through fishing.  And yet another experiences peace through driving through the suburbs.   When I have inner peace I do not fight with others, I do not need to steal their resources, I do not try to steal their energy to restore my depleted reserves.  I am confident in my ability to govern myself.  I am invincible.

In the past I have tried to force others to experience peace through dance.  How silly of me!!  Forcing a model ship maker to dance is sure to create feelings of panic, anxiety…an inner war, so to say.  I am mad now because I wasted my energy on a ship builder who can’t see my path to the Light and the ship builder is indignant at having Dance forced upon him.  Basically…my inner peace is not your inner peace.  I may inspire someone to find their own inner peace but I cannot find it for them.  I may even lose my own grounding in the process of attempting to enlighten another.

And so this is where we are now in the U.S.  We’ve lost our grounding because we’ve tried to force what works for us (sort of) on others–creating even more turmoil with in the countries involved and between the countries.  We’ve squandered our money, our prana essentially, on trying to change others and this has left us more vulnerable than when we started.

We’ve decided to try to fix everyone else instead of doing the obvious–looking within.  Let’s say every man, woman, and child in the U.S. has full healthcare, a nutritious diet to feed their brains, loving family/community in their lives, higher education…we would be an alcazar of a nation.  No one could penetrate us.

Yes, the terrorists did throw the first jab at U.S.  That was terribly wrong of them.  Our collective country ego took a huge blow that we couldn’t deal with at the time.  But now this fanatic need to recover our sense of pride has cost us more lives than the initial attack which started the conflict.

So here is what I propose…

Keep our money in the U.S.  Let’s have education, healthcare, infrastructure, trains, national guards, music, social workers, teachers, and therapists. Support ourselves, our products, our ideas, our culture, our religions, our ideals.  We will have to work hard to rehabilitate ourselves as a nation, but it is easier than trying to change everyone else.

So what if other countries say we are being selfish?   So what.? We cannot manage the world without first managing our Self.

-Leah

“The onus is on us to focus on U.S.”

We Americans need to focus on our own nation before we try to fix or build other nations.

Who are we to tell other people how to live when we don’t focus on ourselves? Why are we sending people, money, and labor resources over to Iraq, to Afghanistan when we our banks are failing, people are losing homes and jobs, and are infrastructure is crumbling? The best the United States of America can lead the world is leading by example. We need to fix our transportation situation. We need to reduce our national debt. We need to ensure that families can receive the healthcare they need to become productive citizens. We can’t do this if we are sending our money elsewhere. It’s just a poor investment.

-Aaron

Focus on U.S. for a Change bumper sticker, as seen on cars in your area!

The onus is on us to focus on U.S.