Letters to the editor, Oct. 3, 2008

More understanding on Metrolink

Since I wrote that letter concerning the Metrolink crash (“Engineer Deserves Fair Treatment,” Sept. 22), I received information explaining to me that the Metrolink trains are set up different than other trains. On the Metrolink trains the conductor has to sit with and help keep an eye on the passengers.

The person I talked to told me that at one time they wanted to put a conductor with the engineer to help with the signals but instead thought it too expensive.

Hopefully in the future Metrolink will put the conductor in the engine with the engineer and hire a security guard to keep an eye on the passengers because human life is priceless.

Anita DeLeon, Barstow

Market manipulators should be punished

The nerve of these white collar criminals! Whether corporate thieves, corrupt lobbyists, or political hacks — they should all be hunted down and prosecuted.

Why is a minority imprisoned five-to-ten for stealing a car or selling drugs but when a rich guy in a suit steals millions or billions with a computer and the help of some politicians through deregulation, they get to use the money to buy their own tropical island and sip on mai tai? Apparently a desperate person who steals copper wire from a street light is worthy of being actively pursued but rich and powerful criminals who violently rape our economy get to walk and then have the audacity to blame the victim. How typical of a rapist.

This situation is the end result of the “trickle down economics” concept by way of deregulation first introduced by the Republican patriarch Ronald Reagan. That actor wasn’t smart enough to come up with ‘Reaganomics’ all by himself. He was manipulated and controlled by corporate special interests just like our congressmen are lobbied to death by them today. They demand hundreds of billions on a plan with no guarantees of success or even a clearly defined goal. They messed it up and now they say, “Trust me.”

Being unable to obtain credit, the biggest savings and loan/bank known as Washington Mutual (or “WaMu” for short) was seized by federal regulators working out of the “Office of Thrift Supervision” (whatever that is) and relinquished to a private insurance corporation known as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (or “FDIC”) who immediately sold WaMu assets to JP Morgan Chase for a fraction of its value based on a secret pre-bidding process conducted before the seizure.

JP Morgan Chase executives were probably screaming “WaHoo!” all the way to their banks, but this was not their first back room deal. They recently bought out Bear Stearns for $236 million when it was about to collapse; and the Federal Reserve supplied a $30 billion credit line to guarantee the sale would happen. That’s about a quarter-billion in private risk to 30-billion in public risk. Where was the Justice Department’s oversight during the formation of this monopolistic merger and acquisition?

When corporations run our government we don’t have a democracy, we have fascism. This is a corporate created panic resulting in the seizure of our government. And if you’re frantically looking for safe haven stocks in which to invest, maybe the best place would be where there is a high likelihood for future sales, like manufacturers of guns, ammunition, coffins, and headstones.  Regardless of whom they work for or represent, these crooks need to be hunted down and prosecuted and held accountable. And we voters can accomplish this first step by ousting republican deregulators in November.

Joe Orawczyk, Yermo