Thanks for the opportunity golfmonkey!

Our troops have done a great job in the IRAQ WAR. They checked and made sure there were no weapons of mass destruction, captured Hussein and made sure the new nation has basic freedoms. Now we can plan to bring the troops home. Here’s the plan: starting tomorrow (8/24/05), put our brave men and women on trucks, take them to the airport and fly them back to their families, who need them far more than Iraq does right now. Any nation’s internal security should always be the responsibility of that nation. Not ours.

It’s a national calamity that you even have to ask about EQUAL RIGHTS in 2005. I’m old enough to remember back in the late 60’s when , as a pre-teen, I had my front tooth knocked out by a white guy who objected to me for taking up for a “ni...r” because I dared to try and stop him and his older, and much larger, gang of thugs from beating up my friend. Just a few years ago I had my other front tooth removed and the dentist said that it was from damage done from the 60’s. I lost my two upper front teeth. I’m prepared to lose the bottom four to protect minorities, blacks, gays and yes, even stupid white men. Also we must make the Voter’s Rights bill permanent. It should be done as of yesterday.

FREEDOM of RELIGION is freedom FROM religion. Whoever is such a moral coward to think otherwise…well I’ll be nice and just say that person is no Thomas Jefferson.

REPROTUCTIVE RIGHTS and personal rights have plenty in common. Personally I know that abortion is morally wrong, but it is not MY right to lock up women who have to make such a difficult decision. I liken a woman having an abortion to the guy who recently, when trapped rock climbing alone in the wilderness, had to cut off his arm to save his life. I hope I never have to do something like that. Another problem is that, if we made it illegal, how would the “crime” be discovered? By searching a doctor’s office? We need to keep the government out of our bedrooms and our doctor’s examining rooms. This includes drug testing and locking up women for harming their fetuses with drug-abuse. Punishing sick drug-abusers is morally wrong.

We need to make HEALTHCARE more affordable. A good way to do this is to give employers 105% tax deductions for paying for healthcare for their employees. Any smart businessman would be glad to pocket the extra 5%. It would make healthcare cheaper for all of us because we already pay for those who can’t afford to go to the doctor and wind up costing us more in the hospital emergency room. I don’t think anyone disagrees that healthcare is a universal human right. That is why hospitals (I used to work in one) take in the poor and uninsured to begin with.

Politicians need to keep their greedy hands off our SOCIAL SECURITY money. The program is great as it is. The problem comes from busting open the Social Security Trust Fund. Taking that money is a crime that hurts the men and women of the Greatest Generation. These elderly vets paid for our freedom with their lives and limbs. The GOP is wrong for trying to take our vets, and their widow’s hard-earned money.

Employers should be given tax breaks for every new JOB they create. I understand the problem well, just last week I was laid-off from my job of twelve years as Food Service Director with Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, largely because of gas price increases.

I belong to the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and I’m certified with them as a Certified Food Safety Professional (CFSP.) I understand that the ENVIRONMENT means more than just protecting beautiful scenery. After all, we eat, drink and breathe our environment everyday. And that does not even include the fact that we need to protect our environment so it can continue to be the most valuable resource for our jobs and businesses we have. We need to protect for our future business people.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Thanks again,

Joe Otterbein
Democratic Candidate for Congress, PA-19