An op-ed headlined "Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime" was published in the Washington Post in February. It explained how President Bush through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to put into operation new rules that "prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks." The author of the article was then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer wrote that when the dust settles the Bush administration would be "judged as a willing accomplice to the lenders who went to any lengths in their quest for profits." Now, we taxpayers are not only being sucked dry by a preemptive war started under false pretenses, corrupt oil speculators and bloated defense contracts; now Wall Street's elite want us to bail them out.

Americans need to shut off their TVs and find the real news elsewhere. It's out there but requires some digging because the corporate-owned mainstream media sure as hell don't want us to know what's really going on.

We Americans need to start talking openly with one another about what's happening to our country, instead of being afraid to offend. Do you know about the Military Commissions Act of 2006? The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, H.R. 1955? Share what you know about these frightening pieces of legislation with friends and family. Talk with your neighbors. Small talk is fine at times, but not all the time and especially not in times of crisis such as we are seeing now, with worse to come.

TRICIA ORR

Warner