Sir;... Your conclusion that America is still producing men like Mr. Panetta, when He was produced in many respects, 50 odd years ago seems a reach... If you look at the training ground for republican Leaders, to take the right as a Bad example, it is the Federalists Society... Ideology, and not practicality, is turning elections and driving our intransigence.... If you could distill the political process into a single being it would be Dr. Strangelove, wheel chair and all... Certainly, our best days are behind us; and the charge that we tried to fight our war on the cheap pales before the reality that we have done everything on the cheap, education, welfare, law enforcement, and healthcare -on the cheap... We are like a pack of mangy dogs fighting over a shoe... And I have been mangy myself, and I have fought over a few shoes; and that is the truth, and being a man in the richest and most powerful nation makes me consider the situation we find ourselves in as outrageous... Now; I saw your appearance on the News Hour; and I heard your comment about government as a instrament of positive change, and I would point out to every person the words of Aristotle written before Christ, that the object of government is good because that is the object of all human activity, my paraphrase, so I ask, where is the good???We were attacked by a pipsqueak of an enemy, and we gave them access to do it, again, on the cheap... Then we went to war, on the cheap, fighting as though determined to lose...But now that the economy is broke beyond stimulation, in its agony, the government is pumping out money, giving capital mouth to mouth, and CPR, and a heart lung by pass... The thing could never support itself -and its government... Yet, the government feeds capital, and not us... It keep the banker in business while the banker continues to put America onto the street...How many years has government nickle and dimed us???Suddenly they have all kinds of money... I think the absolute best proof that the rich were never taxed with equality is the war... If they paid for the war they would not have allowed the war.... But the people, starved, depressed, humiliated at home and abroad will always hope for the adventure of war; and then is when government should seek the truth and tell the truth: that war is always dangerous, always expensive, always a bad idea... We should expect reason, forethought, understanding, and ability from government; but if all who enter there have given up reason for ideology there is no hope of better coming out of government than those going in... Sir; the people have every right to good coming out of their government... Our constitution promised us certain defined goods... There are too many who deny to government the ability to do good, and deny also the right of the people to expect good from their government... There is plenty enough money to feed the rich so long as it is collected from future generations... How can the meagre good we get out of government today equal evils and wants for another day, when we cannot face the evils of this day on our own??? The solution is simple: If the thing does not work; sell it to a German... They will buy anything because they can fix anything... But this is the new world; and we do not have time for old junk....Thanks...Sweeney