Liberty and Justice: My American Journal

The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for gas and 22.4 cents per gallon for diesel. This tax does not include the other taxes by the states and local communities. This federal tax is not generating the $260 billion GOP needs for a proposed highway construction and transit program! The cars are more efficient and people are not buying more gas. The GOP has a solution. They want to get the money from the federal employees. How? They suggest the federal employees should contribute 1.5 percent more of their monthly income for their retirement. At present the retirement benefit is calculated based on the average salary of the last five years of the service. The GOP has proposed to base the retirement benefit for the new employees based on the average salary of the last three years of the service. These changes would reduce the federal contribution to the retired employees’ benefit by about $4 billion a year. The GOP proposal would take money from the retired federal empl...

The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for gas and 22.4 cents per gallon for diesel. This tax does not include the other taxes by the states and local communities. This federal tax is not generating the $260 billion GOP needs for a proposed highway construction and transit program! The cars are more efficient and people are not buying more gas. The GOP has a solution. They want to get the money from the federal employees. How? They suggest the federal employees should contribute 1.5 percent more of their monthly income for their retirement. At present the retirement benefit is calculated based on the average salary of the last five years of the service. The GOP has proposed to base the retirement benefit for the new employees based on the average salary of the last three years of the service. These changes would reduce the federal contribution to the retired employees’ benefit by about $4 billion a year. The GOP proposal would take money from the retired federal empl...

The statement that” Iran is a threat to US and an existential danger to Israel" is not logical. I don't believe a word of it! Iranians are anything but stupid to attack us or Israel. The story is just a fabrication to heat up the stuff before another war hits the fan. Israel will go to whatever length necessary to drag US into another war in the Middle East. Who would benefit from another war in the Middle East? Not Iran or USA. They both have a lot of internal problems, and neither one can afford another war. We need to stop the crazy people whose intentions are questionable. We have just started to make headway to economic recovery, if another war instigated by Israel would drag US into a new conflict, the war surely would derail our recovery for a longtime. In that case, let us say good bye to President Obama’s second chance for another term in the office. Do American workers and families have to sacrifice more to allow Israeli control of the region? Could President O...

Many Republican candidates and Tea Party members are advocating or agreeing with many of the following ideas: The government should create a two-layer tax system. Those who make less than the poverty level should mostly be exempt from all federal income taxes. Those who make above the poverty level should pay a flat tax of 14% on all incomes exceeding the poverty level. • A flat tax of 5% should be levied on all incomes to be used exclusively for the national defense. • Education should be free up to 9th grade. Any schooling above 9th grade should be privatized and fully paid by the students and their parents. All real estate taxes at the federal and states’ level of education should be eliminated. • Any tax at a state level should be approved by a 60% of the eligible population. • All interstate highways and railways should be designated as “tollways” and the cost of the maintenance and expansion be paid by those who use those roads. • Any environmental regulation that would t...

What is the nature of the political war between the Democratic leaders and the Republican candidates on the government's role in our society? We call our system a Capitalistic society. A society based on the principle of making profits and using our capitals to employ others to produce goods and services (workers) for making profits from the investment. We have been very successful as a Capitalistic system. The conflict between the two parties can be summarized by: Republican Party candidates advocate curtailment if not the elimination of the government’s control on making profits. Democratic Party leaders advocate protection for people who provide the services, their environment security, and income. Republican candidates challenge the leadership in the Democratic Party as a hindrance to freedom of making profits by creating many rules and regulations. The Republican leaders see these regulations as anti-job or anti-profit. They indicate these regulations reduce the profit...

A group of former government officials, diplomats, military officers, and nonproliferation experts issued a letter to President Obama calling for him to reinvigorate direct diplomatic engagement with Iran to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President, We write to convey our strongly held view that it is vitally important for U.S. and international security to reinvigorate direct diplomatic engagement with Iran to seek a resolution to the current standoff. We applaud your Administration’s success in uniting the international community in its response to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and its human rights violations, and we welcome recent statements by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon that your Administration remains committed to a diplomatic resolution with Iran. But in order to capitalize on the positive steps your Ad...

Are we reviving many of the same arguments that neoconservative proponents of armed intervention against Tehran had advanced during the latter years of George W. Bush's presidency? Is President Obama falling short of his own arguments for a robust diplomacy with Iran? US war advocates are using the same unsubstantiated arguments that Iran is developing nuclear arms to attack Israel. But should Iran develop the nuclear bomb? Appearing on the Charlie Rose show on PBS, Ehud Barak was asked if he would want nuclear weapons if he was an Iranian government minister. He said he probably would. “Probably, probably. I know it's not -- I don't delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel. They look around, they see the Indians are nuclear, the Chinese are nuclear, the Pakistanis are nuclear, not to mention the Russians.” • And, Germany has approved the sale of another Dolphin-type military submarine to Israel and will pay for about a third of its cost, a senior Ger...