READER COMMENTS

CRASH TALK

All of the talk about the financial situation reminds me of something my father told me about 60 or 65 years ago. I cannot swear to the truth of it, but regardless, if we could get Obama and the entire DC crowd to support and promote it, I believe much could be gained. My father told me that China used to have a successful way of greatly reducing unemployment. Whenever unemployment went up, everyone would hire another employee. So, if Obama, etc. would encourage every employer to hire someone, if they could do it, and many could, you can see how this would help. Can you see it, Obama holds a press conference in "Prime Time" and asks all employers to hire at least one or more new employees! Then have all of Congress and the cabinet join him in daily promoting this?

NADER AND THE GREENS

"All these things have been supported by Nader who in 2004 spent a lot of time and money defending Green challenges to his ballot inclusion. For myself, I doubt I'll ever trust them again."

What? I was on the national council through 2004 and 2008 and nothing like this happened. One can interpret events that way but they would not be accurate. Nader simply refused to seek our nomination - I can only assume because he did not want to participate in a contested nomination process. Most Greens would have supported him had he sought the nomination but he did not. - Howard Switzer, Linden, TN

REACTION WITHOUT ACTION

Chet Atkins, speaking to Don Mclean c. 1977: "That Springsteen is the biggest hype in show biz. " Chet had great hands, and gave up his RCA corporate job to just play the last 20 years of his life. He even apologized for having watered down country music for RCA in the 60's (on behest of his New York masters - and even then those records were musically good and organic ). Chet was a real musician; the " boss " is the corporate toxic mimic of Dylan. Great article, though I don't agree about punk. I find it - as well as metal, techno and power pop - to all be BS.

OBAMA'S DUBIOUS & HYPER EXPENSIVE MEDICAL RECORDS

Do you receive a hand written check for your work? Or do you get a computer generated check? IT workers are the ones that keep your checks coming on time. We keep you working and make sure you are getting the information to do your job correctly no matter what industry your work in. Go back to doing your job without a computer and see how productive you are compared to your counterparts.

IBM WANTS TO OUTSOURCE WORKERS AS WELL AS WORK

Unbelievable. I worked for a large US bank that contracted IBM for outsourcing services (which cost me my job) and we used to joke about possibly having to move to India to find work. Now it's coming true!

BARACK OBABBLE

Many of the complaints about the bill pertain to relatively tiny amounts that sound huge, taken out of context. That is, a $400 million dollar budget for this or that budget priority sounds huge, but it represents only a miniscule difference of .00048ths of the total. Anything below this figure is, of course, of still smaller consequence.

So, it is childish for critics to seek out and ridicule as horribly unaffordable such amounts of spending, and to claim that is the reason they cannot back this spending bill. - Sofla

59% SUPPORT FEDERAL HEALTH INSURANCE

Perhaps the reason the poll numbers have dropped is that since the election some people believe that President Obama will be able to magically fix the health care crisis without instituting a federal single payer program. The truth is there is no way that relying on the private sector will ever work. America needs to wake up and demand that Congress and the president do the right thing. I, for one, would be willing to pay higher taxes to fix what I consider to be our biggest problem. How much better off would the "Big 3" auto makers be if they didn't have the burden of health care on their backs? - larry rogers