Congress’ time is coming
I am so happy that President Obama is spending $50,000 for hisweek’s vacation home and so happy Nancy Pelosi has gotten a newplane and I am so happy Barbara Boxer has the right title,”senator.” And I am so happy that we will not be getting a cost ofliving adjustment in our Social Security checks. It is somessy.
Thanks to our Congress, who spend billions on the banks and carcompanies, but cannot see fit to return to the elderly workers ofour great country who have carried this nation through the toughyears of the last century.
Be alert, Congress, your time is coming. November 2010 is only14 months away. Atlas is shrugging.
Larry Ciuffo
Escondido
Subterfuge, deceit and treason!
Those who disagree with Amy Hoyt Bennett, such as myself, areaccused of “subterfuge” and “treason” and are labeled a “deceiver”in her recent … diatribe(“Deceivers paralyze our will to stop global warming,” Aug.18)!
Has Amy personally reviewed and analyzed the technicalpublications and claims of the IPCC and others who predict aclimate catastrophe? … I have and I’ve come to the sameconclusion as thousands of scientists — there is no pending”catastrophe” and the climate is not being changed by humanactivity!
People … try to dogmatically frighten the public intoaccepting Al Gore’s ridiculous claims of a 20-foot sea level rise,when there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for such wildpredictions. “Cap and trade” would not significantly reduce CO2 inthe atmosphere so it would be a totally useless burden on America….
“Cap and tax” would needlessly increase our power costs, damageour shaky economy — and make Gore and others very rich! … Theonly “catastrophe” we’re facing is being created in Washington,D.C.! …
If Amy has any objectivity in her, contact me at26peters@att.net and I’ll provide her with scores of technicalreferences that dispute the alarming claims of climatecatastrophe.
Ralph “Pete” Peters
Encinitas
Attend rally to have your voice heard
I am a hard-working American who believes in liberty, personalresponsibility and compassion for my fellow Americans. That isprecisely why I believe in health care reform, but I reject therecent massive expansion of the federal government in the form ofH.R. 3200, cap and trade, the stimulus bill, the omnibus bill andthe largest deficit in human history.
I will be at the pre-Labor Day rally-protest at the OceansidePier Amphitheater on Sept. 3ˇto have my voice heard.
Chad Lauffer
Oceanside
Private health insurance has failed us
Having private insurance companies dictating health care hasleft some 50 million of us without health care coverage or we areunder-insured or we are penalized for sickness. This would notoccur under a single-payer, universal health care plan. Most of ourcitizens now recognize this.
My parents were served well under Medicare. All citizens can beserved well (and better) without the private insurance companies inthe picture. Any money that has gone to them has been a wastecompared with what Medicare does and what single-payer, universalhealth care could do.
Carl Nigro
Vista
Health care is not a ‘life or death’ issue
We have millions of people out of work or underemployed in thiscountry! We have thousands of families or individuals who have lostor are in danger of losing their homes to the mortgage holder! Wehave auto manufacturers, banks, insurance companies and hundreds ofsmall businesses going out of business or filing for bankruptcy!State governments are drastically cutting services to try to meettheir budget and still provide people’s needs! The country isfalling to pieces!
Yet all we hear from the new president is how we need healthcare reform. Granted, it’s an important issue. But it seems to methat if he would spend more time trying to fix our defunct economyand less time making speeches about health care reform, many of ourproblems would fix themselves. …
As it is now, regardless which plan they agree on, no one willbe able to afford it anyway. …
Being able to feed yourself and your family is the most pressing”life or death” issue at the moment. What do you say, Mr.President? Shut up and get to work on the things that are importantnow!
Barry Bateman
Carlsbad
Go big or go home!
We must have universal health care. We have universal fireprotection. It’s as if our material possessions have more valuethan our physical bodies! … We’ll have a house protected in anfire emergency, but not our physical/mental bodies in a medicalemergency. Our health care is completely ruled by executiveslooking at a bottom line — or rather, eyeing a new luxury boatfiguring how to screw the … vulnerable.
Here is the solution: Let’s structure it so we the people getthe bonuses for maintaining good health! How about we get goodinformation about how to be healthy? If one eats healthfully,exercises, practices some sort of relaxation, maintains wellness ingeneral, we get a bonus at the end of the year or a tax credit.
Many agree the easiest way is to expand Medicare. No newbureaucracies. Medicare still needs reform and must live within itsmeans. But it is fixable, and the simplest, most direct route tobreaking the shackles of this industry.
I refuse to give my power away to some overfed executive whocares nothing about my health and probably would love to see meeating fast food and smoking a pack a day.
Ronald Bocian
Oceanside
America lost its humanity in Vietnam
How sad to read that Lt. William Calley suffers daily regret atthe atrocity of My Lai Vietnam, 1968(“Ex-Vietnam lieutenant apologizes for massacre,” Aug. 21).
I’m saddened because so many of us who participated in Vietnamhave similar regret, knowing that every bomb we dropped and everybullet we fired was part of an overall profit-making atrocity,killing some 4 million people.
America lost her humanity in Vietnam, and we may never find itagain. How very sad.
Dave Patterson
Ramona
Understanding budget numbers
Most of us have difficulty comprehending numerical figuresrelated to state and national budgets. It might be helpful torelate them to the time required to count to such largeamounts.
For example, if one were to start counting at the rate of onesecond per dollar, we would find that it takes 60 seconds (oneminute) to count to $60. For one hour (60 minutes), we could countto $3,600. With one day (24 hours), we would count up to $86,400.With one year (365 days), we would count up to $31,536,000. And allof this without stopping to eat or sleep.
Our national government is now engaged in discussions of abudget in excess of $1 trillion. If we divide that $1 trillion bythe above figure of $31,536,000, we would find that it requires31,710 years to count non-stop that far, should we survive throughthat many administrations.
The late Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois was credited withsaying “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’retalking about real money.” This certainly applies to trillions aswell.
William Barbour
Vista
Silent majority is no longer silent
Re: the rally/protest at the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater onSept. 3 from 6 to 7 p.m.: I’ve never written a letter to the editorbefore, nor have I ever attended a rally before, but here I am. Ihave never been involved in politics before, but here I am. I guessI’m going to become part of the “angry mob” because I am angry. Asa matter of fact, I’m furious!
This president and his cronies think they can come waltzing inand hijack our country — not! The silent majority is no longersilent, we are fighting mad and we’re not taking it anymore!
They are trying the biggest government power grab ever and thesocialized health care is the straw that broke the camel’s back forme. I’m off the fence and in the fight and I think there is a wholelot more just like me.
Yvonne Atkins
Fallbrook
Location of rally changed
To our friends who are planning on attending the Stop Taxing Us(www.StopTaxingUs.com) Health care Protest-Rally from 6 to 7 p.m.Thursday, Sept. 3, please note that the location has been changedfrom the Oceanside City Hall to the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater.The amphitheater is directly south of the Oceanside Pier, on thebeach, and is the same location where the April 15 protestended.
This last-minute change has been made at the request of theOceanside Police Department in order to avoid creating excesstraffic congestion for our friends who live and work in Oceanside.There is plenty of free parking and we will not be surprised ifattendance is similar to our last event. Please come to our townhall format meeting and let your voice be heard. Politicalcandidates for the 2010 elections will be at this event.
This is not an endorsem*nt, but an opportunity for you toquestion the people who want to represent your interests.
Stop Taxing Us would like to thank the Oceanside police, thedozens of volunteers and the speakers who will make this anotherclassy event.
Gary Gonsalves, MD
cofounder, Stop Taxing Us
Carlsbad
Don’t change nation’s nature
Joe Martin(Letters, Aug. 22)wrote: “Great leaders don’t ask the generalpublic what they want; they tell them what they’ll get.”
Joe is obviously a prime example of that poor education systemof which he spoke! He obviously knows nothing about theConstitution of the United States! I strongly recommend Joe read”The 5,000 Year Leap,” which is small, easily read and understood.It will give him at least an inkling of the very foundation uponwhich this nation was built. “A government of the people, by thepeople and for the people.”
If Joe doesn’t like a constitutional republic, I recommend Cuba,Russia or even most nations in Europe today — but don’t try tochange the very basic nature of this country!
Carol Derbis
Oceanside
Another reason for Kern recall
In the article(“Feds to hold steelhead workshop,” Aug. 23), Oceanside CityCouncilman Jerry Kern was quoted: “This whole thing about thesteelhead trout is just an overreach. There’s never been steelheadtrout in that river as far as I know.”
When told steelhead were seen swimming in lower reaches of theSan Luis Rey in 2005 and 2007, he responded: “Yeah, well, in 2002 Isaw a pheasant fly across Oceanside Boulevard. It was justrandom.”
This is not the kind of person I want representing me.
Rick Wilson
Oceanside
GOP should work with Dems on health
In his letter ofAug. 23, Kevin Konczal asks, “If Obama and the Democrats arereally serious about health care reform, why aren’t they doing someof the obvious things like tort reform?”
Medical malpractice lawsuits add 2 percent to the total cost ofour health care. In comparison, Americans without health insurance,most because they do not have an employer who shares the cost andcannot afford to buy it alone, or no longer have any employer atall, add at least 20 percent to the cost of our health care in theform of inflated medical provider bills to make up for those whocan’t pay.
Texas has had medical tort reform for several years. If you aremaimed or killed by a careless Texas health care provider, thelimit imposed on your possible recovery is so low you cannot hire acompetent attorney to represent you in court or an expert witnessto prove negligence, and the cost of health care in Texas hastripled just like everyone else’s.
If Republicans were really serious about health care reform,they would be working with Obama to provide affordable insurance tothose who will never be able to get private coverage.
Richard Weddleton
Escondido
Town hall attendees’ shameful behavior
Disrupters are attending town hall meetings with their electedrepresentatives, showing crazed disrespect, intolerance andborderline barbarity.Freedom of speech is the right to speak,sharing one’s ideas and views, not the right to verbally abuseothers. I have not previously witnessed this level of outrageousand shameful conduct.
Disinformation about health care reform is rampant. Lies aboutso-called “death panels,” claims that illegal aliens will becovered by health care and misinformation about abortions beingcovered with tax dollars are all part of this twisted drama.Allegations of being a socialist … are being leveled against thepresident. To top it all off, there are those who persist in theirinsistence that the president is not a native-born American, inspite of ample, existing evidence that he is.
Are these disrupters interested in facts and the truth? Do theybring an open mind? It would seem not. I am dismayed at how theyand I hear the same information and form such disparate judgmentsabout what is fact. It is beyond time for all to take a deepbreath, calm down, and invoke civility and common sense.
Tom Haley
Carlsbad
Don’t get fooled again
When listening to the utter nonsense, outright lies and sheerlunacy used in arguments for keeping our present horriblyinefficient and expensive private health care system, one shouldalso keep in mind that the most vocal opponents of government-run,single-payer health care are the same folks who advocatedprivatizing Social Security. Or at least they did, until the stockmarket crashed and the private retirement accounts of millions ofAmericans lost half their value overnight.
They’re also the same folks who swore Saddam had WMDs buried allover Iraq and was somehow connected to 9/11, until our costly anddisastrous military misadventure there proved otherwise.
And I’m still waiting for all that wonderful economic growththey promised after those big tax cuts for the rich. The cuts arestill in effect, but the economy is worse than ever.So, until yousee angry gun-toting Canadian mobs protesting “government-runhealth care” and fleeing across their southern border to enroll infor-profit U.S. health insurance plans, you’d do well to heed thewords our former president would have said, … “Fool me once,shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Wayne Strache
San Marcos
Obama victim, perpetrator of distrust
The Obama administration is both the victim and perpetrator ofthe distrust of a new health care plan.
First, it is the victim of a Medicare system that whilecurrently working, is heading toward a financial cliff. Anythinking person can do the math and see that the spendingprojections are unsustainable.
Second, the Bush reckless, rushed, $800 billion bailout of hiscronies on Wall Street was continued under Obama.
Third, the Democrats passed a dubious $800 billion stimuluspackage with the pitch that unemployment would go over 8 percent ifit was not passed. Now he is asking us to trust him and his partyto overhaul the entire health care system, and costs will magicallygo down! Obama is also finding that this is a conservative country,in the sense that 80 percent of Americans consider their healthcare options just fine, thank you, and do not want a change. We arewilling to help fellow citizens who need help. A historicalperspective on government spending is enlightening.
In 1968, the military budget was 46 percent of governmentspending; today it is 20.1 percent and it has increased by 6.7times. By contrast, Social Security has increased by 25 times andMedicare went up by 85.5 times and Medicaid 105.9 times! Soon,interest on the federal debt may surpass military spending, thesure sign of a country in precarious decline.
Douglas Wolf
Rancho Penasquitos
Steelhead deserve chance to survive
For thousands of years, native California Indians lived withsteelhead in our coastal streams providing a source of food. Nowwith water scarcity, those streams no longer provide the waternecessary for steelhead to survive.
Dams and the pumping of underground water have depleted themeans for steelhead to reproduce. Steelhead in Southern Californiaface extinction unless ways are found to protect them. Habitatimprovement can provide ways that will help sustain steelheadsurvival. They deserve our efforts to protect them.
Bill Wernett
Fallbrook
Promote future energy sources
Those who believe that man-made carbon dioxide is causing globalwarming should recognize that it is the byproduct of the use offossil fuels (hydrocarbons), which are finite in quantity and withthe growing use by India and China, will be depleted in a fewyears. Bio-fuels (also hydrocarbons) cannot make up for the amountof energy required.
Most of the energy that replaces fossil fuel will need to bestorable and portable and will be either hydrogen or electricstorage (batteries), or both.
Solar energy will generate hydrogen from water, and when it isused for combustion or in fuel cells for electricity, the byproductwill be water. Stored electricity (batteries) will be charged usingsolar energy from solar cells, wind power, etc., which are onlyintermittently (mostly daylight time) available. These new energyfuels will not generate huge quantities of objectionablebyproducts.
Given that hydrogen and electric storage will be required in thefuture, we need to be promoting and accelerating the deployment ofthese future clean energy sources now.
Wes Bounds
Oceanside
Kirk a de facto union member
After reading Richard Kirk’s commentary (“Union muscles inVista,” Aug. 25) finding only faults with teachers unions, Ireflect on what makes the Kirks of the world who they are. Myreflection is not meant to influence others, it’s a mental exerciseto delay my old-age senility.
One practical reason that unions exist is that without them, theunion members would return to the job terrorism, benefits andsalary they had before having a union. The Kirks want the unions todisappear because of the hypothetical bad-apple scenarios intrinsicto conservative thinking.
I was born in a union family and have walked the picket lines.Although today I am a relatively rich retired professional, my wifestill works as a licensed professional engineer in an environmentaljob she loves and also belongs to a union (great benefits andsalary).
I suspect that Kirk is a member of the God-fearing conservativeRepublican Party. He probably does not realize that he is a defacto union member of that party. He pays dues to the leadership,and the leadership makes lots of money. Are not churches unions? Sowhat is Kirk’s problem with unions?
Think, amigos, it’s good for the brain.
Tony San Miguel
Vista
NCT’s biased reporting on the Kern recall
The North County Times’ headline,“Recall leader refuses to debate,” Aug. 18, is another exampleof biased reporting. Anyone who reads the article itself will findthe headline contradicted because Jim Sullivan never said he wouldnot debate Kern.
In the online “discussion” section for that article, Sullivanopenly challenges Kern to a debate. Sullivan says, ” … I wouldgladly debate Mr. Kern. This was told to the Reporter. The headlineis deceptive, but the bias of the editors of the NCTimes has to beborne … “
The NCT adds to its bias with a “raspberry” to Sullivan(“Roses and Raspberries,” Aug. 24)for his Op-Ed(“Kern recall drive’s success stems from grass roots,” Aug.23). The NCT gave the raspberry to Sullivan “for accusingrecall opponents of being beholden to special interests.”
Mary Azevedo, the protege of the late Jack Orr, is the new faceof the big developers’ interests in North County. Yet the majorplayers of the anti-recall claiming to be living with Mary Azevedosomehow arouses no suspicion of vested interests with the NCT. Howbiased can they get?
Regardless of the NCT’s biases, the people of Oceanside are ableto reason for themselves. We want Kern gone, and the recall willsucceed.
Ramona Byron
Oceanside
Bilbray’s jobs claims vs. voting record
Brian Bilbray has the gall to send out a slick campaign mailerat taxpayer expense claiming he is getting San Diego County’seconomy moving again by coauthoring a recovery bill, H.R. 470. Hestates his effort “will immediately assist our working familieswith the help they need.”
… Immediate help? Hardly! The truth is, the bill was referredto committee on Jan. 13 and has sat there for eight months. Thenumber of jobs Bilbray and H.R. 470 have created is none, nada,zip, zero! Bilbray needs to stop lying about helping workingfamilies.
In fact, Bilbray actually tried to kill the most far-reachingjobs bill since the start of the Great Republican Recession — thepresident’s recovery plan. This paper has done a good job ofreporting the many positive impacts of the federal stimulus.
Another news agency put the total number of new jobs created byPresident Obama in San Diego County at 19,200. But Bilbray, andother extremist Republicans, voted “no” on the stimulus plan. Their”no” votes on creating thousands of new jobs proved to be reckless,irresponsible and negligent during a national economic crisis ofthe Republicans own making.
Robert Tormey
Escondido
Green jobs myth; move destroys jobs
Ms. Amy Bennett(“Deceivers paralyze our will to stop global warming,” Aug. 18)should perhaps count herself among the ranks of the “deceived” sheso frustratedly laments.ˇ
Since Earth began, climate has been changing: Temperaturesfluctuate by plus or minus 30 or 40 degrees. Sea levels rise andfall by hundreds of feet. Oceans form and disappear; continentsbreak up and drift. The United Nations Panel on Climate Changeforecasts a couple of degrees of warming by the end of the century,along with a few inches of sea level rise. This just isn’t thescreaming emergency the environmentalists try to sell us.
Our (Obama) Environmental Protection Agency has said that ourexpensive efforts to control climate change cannot work without thefull participation of developing nations. Therefore there is noreason to pass regulations now except for the government to takeour money and control our lives. “Green jobs” are a myth.ˇ
Spain has already found that creating “green jobs” withso-called alternative energy technologies at its present level ofdevelopment requires huge taxpayer subsidies, and destroys abouttwice the number of jobs that it creates.
Could it be that these environmental “advocates” are really moreworried about controlling our lives than the environment?
Barry McElmurry
Vista
Blue Dog Dems block important legislation
Democrats have an overwhelming majority (256 to 178) in theHouse of Representatives. However, they cannot win everylegislation, because they are a diverse group: 23 are focused onadvancing Hispanic issues; 41 promote racial equality and civilrights and 80 work for economic justice. Some 52 members, known asBlue Dogs, are social and economic conservatives who defendbusiness interests under the guise of fiscal responsibility. Theywield considerable power because they can swing the majority fromDemocratic to Republican, depending on how they vote.
Blue Dogs have delayed climate change and health care bills, andblocked legislation that would help unions to organize. TheDemocrats recognize their clout, and often compromises theirposition in the hope of preserving their support.
One example is the “single-payer” option for health care, theonly meaningful way to provide a cost-effective approach. The partymade a fatal mistake in taking this “off the table” at the start ofdiscussions, leaving expensive insurance-backed care as the onlyalternative, in order to mollify the Republican/Blue Dog coalition.This is now under attack by them, because insurance-backed carecannot be cost-effective compared with single-payer programs suchas Medicare.
Sorab Ghandhi
Escondido
Use rally to remind reps they work for us
Are you tired of our republic being hijacked by a Congress andadministration that is more concerned with maintaining power andtheir special interest groups than the people they were elected torepresent? They continue to trash our Constitution with no regardfor our children’s or grandchildren’s future by spending trillionsand trillions of dollars that just don’t exist!
Please join us from 6 to 7 p.m. Sept. 3 at the Oceanside PierAmphitheater for a rally to let all our representatives at everylevel that they work for us the people of the United States! Formore information go to www.StopTaxingUs.com.
Richard Hodges
Oceanside
Support rule of law, police Chief Maher
Bill Flores of El Grupo is ranting again with his personalracist agenda against Police Chief Jim Maher, once again demandingthat Chief Maher stop all driver’s license checkpoints(“Maher, Flores discuss police immigration policy,” Aug. 18).Why? These checkpoints don’t pick on any one group — if you’reblack, white, red, yellow or brown, and are in violation, you willbe cited.
It galls Flores that Latinos are being cited more and therefore,it’s a racial issue with him. I wish the police department wouldhold more checkpoints.
Flores goes on to state that the checkpoints and the immigrationagent at the department make the Latino community afraid to reportcrimes. Nonsense. Many Latinos won’t hesitate to report a crime.The illegal Latinos may be afraid to, but that isn’t the issue. Thereason for the checkpoints is and always has been the publicsafety.
As a 60-year resident, it’s nauseating to see the increase intraffic accidents where many offenders run and have no licenses orinsurance.
I applaud the efforts of Chief Maher and his officers for thejob they are doing. It’s a difficult, thankless job when you have agroup trying to put your neck on the chopping block.
Dennis Galt
Escondido
Don’t let insurance industry scare you
Remember when Americans were able to trust a call to theirfamily doctor would result in his personal attention to theirhealth problem to its final conclusion? The insurance industry hastaken health care out of the hands of doctors completely bylimiting the care they can give, and with the mounting paperworkand red tape involved, many doctors are retiring early or quittingaltogether, adding to the already inadequate care.
This industry is hoping for a repeat of 1993 when it succeededin scaring people from reform by lies such as “reform would causeloss of the care they then had.” People are again so frightenedthey refuse to listen to arguments that in a calmer climate wouldmake sense.
We have allowed this industry to take away from healthprofessionals all decisions, leaving us vulnerable to its bottomline, which is to keep its ever-increasing profit margin no matterthe consequences to the people the industry is hired to treat.
The Obama plan does not mandate anything except to expand choiceso as to bring down costs, giving us more control over our healthneeds. Let’s not vote against our own interests again.
Delores Feicht
Fallbrook
So what’s the problem?
Frank Lancelotti is back once again(Letters, Aug. 23)with his opinion that since sexual behavioris learned, it must be a choice. He apparently thinks this issomething we should be concerned about, but doesn’t say why.
For the sake of argument, suppose that sexual behavior isn’t achoice. Then a hom*osexual would be forced to select a partner ofthe same sex. A heterosexual would be forced to select a partner ofthe opposite sex.
Now suppose it is a choice. Then a hom*osexual would choose apartner of the same sex. A heterosexual would choose a partner ofthe opposite sex. In other words, choice or no choice yields thesame result. So, what#,s the problem?
Is it because of a religious belief that hom*osexuality is a sin?Not everyone agrees. Slowly but surely, some religious leaders arebringing their churches out of the Dark Ages and into the thirdmillennium, accepting that hom*osexuality is part of the humancondition. Episcopalians, Lutherans and members of the UnitedChurch of Christ should be justly proud of their leadershiprole.
If it’s not because of a religious belief, then tell us, justwhat is the problem with hom*osexuality?
John Terrell
Fallbrook
Left taught us how to protest
The president and other progressives and radicals are shockedand angry that the upset citizens are protesting the idea of thegovernment takeover of health care. What hypocrites! Whatnerve!
Barack Obama cut his political teeth as a community “organizer”who united a discontented community (note to leftists: The FirstAmendment was designed to protect political speech — notp*rnography).
Leftists have shown the rest of us how to protest, shout andorganize for the last 40 years.
Thank you! And now they want us to sit down and shut up? Not onyour life.
Alexandra Cloney
Encinitas
Where is his money?
In 1951, I started work at my first full-time job, and wasforced to start paying into Social Security insurance. In 1965, Iwas forced to start paying into Medicare insurance. Throughout myworking life, I was reminded by our government and Social Securitythat we should only consider Social Security as a supplement to ourretirement plans. Our employers presented their retirement plansfor us with Social Security as supplements. That is what we did. Atage 65, I went on Social Security and Medicare according to theplans.
Daily, I hear some mealy-mouth politician saying that “they” donot have enough money to continue paying Social Security andMedicare benefits to recipients. I want to get in their face andshout, “What have you done with my money, you incompetentpork-barreling earmarker? We have a contract! An agreement! That ifI paid during all those years, I am to receive the benefits I haveearned from the insurance plan in my old age! You are not living upto your part of the requirements of the contract! I would remindyou that there is an election coming up in little more than a yearand if your performance continues as it is, you should not wasteyour time running again.”
Ramsey Marcus Tuell
San Marcos
What planet are we on?
It seems you’ve mixed up planetary news once again. On the frontpage is an article about a young man receiving a pay raise of $92million for leading a group of men in a ball game (“Signed, sealed,staying put,” Aug. 25).
OK … but then, a few pages later, there is an article about agroup of men being asked to step down from their public servicefire management positions for less money(“City eliminates 3 fire management jobs,” Aug. 25), and aletter to the editorabout some union men being asked togive up their $21-an-hour jobs for $13 an hour.
This can’t be the same planet. Roughly speaking, the man playingfootball for a living will make just about $8,000 an hour if it’sequated to a 40-hour work week, while the men protecting the publicand the men driving huge trucks full of granite are being asked totake less due to these hard times? Or am I just confused here?
Please help me understand how these stories ended up in the sameplanet’s news.
Mike Bertrand
Carlsbad
Health care reform step toward socialism
Norman Thomas, socialist candidate for president in 1944, said,”The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, butunder the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of thesocialist program until one day America will be a socialist nationwithout ever knowing how it happened.”
Today we have the national health care proposal, H.R. 3200, thatis one giant step toward socialism; other steps are nationalizingthe banks and the auto industry. H.R. 3200 might well not beadopted if the full H.R. 3200 does not pass muster, but awatered-down version might well pass this year. Next year comesanother bite, and so on until we will then wonder how ithappened.
Politicians often ask for way more than they really expect,being satisfied momentarily for a little, but bite by bite, theyend up getting the “whole meal.”
Slightly under the radar lies “global warming,” with its hiddenagenda of world government control that really has nothing to dowith CO2, for CO2 is just a straw man in the ambitions for powerand wealth and has little to do with warming.
Irvin Forbing
Escondido
Ignorance, racism walk hand in hand
It never ceases to amaze me the level of ignorance from some ofthe North County Times readers. Some is pure lack of education,while some is pure hatred.
Of course undocumented people pay taxes. When was the last timeyou heard a clerk at a store, or a landlord or vendor, ask theimmigration status of someone so they could waive the taxes? WithSocial Security alone, undocumented people pay $7 billion ayear.
Study after study and source after source (Pew Institute, Cato,Wall Street Journal, Business Week) confirm that undocumentedpeople pay millions more in taxes then the benefits theyreceive.
Ignorance and racism walk hand in hand, and it’s time to learnthe truth about immigration. From the racial profiling Escondidopolice chief to nativist Supervisor Bill Horn, from formerspokesperson for the hate group Federation of Immigration ReformCongressman Brian Bilbray, to San Diego Minutemen founder JimChase, it is time to put away the hate and hit the books. The truthwill set you free.
Enrique Morones
San Diego
Thanks for sharing
I’m writing about an opinion piece published in the North CountyTimes on Aug. 25 written by Harrison Lee Fisher (“Congress versusour Constitution”). This was a paid opinion piece on page B4. Toobad you couldn’t have published it on the front page! I read thisand my comment to myself out loud was, “Wow.” This man is so righton and not only describes the problems with what is happening toour Constitution, but he also offers some solutions.
I know I’m not the only one frightened by what thisadministration and Congress are doing to our Constitution and ourcountry and the huge debt they are creating for us, our childrenand our grandchildren. Thank you for sharing this with us, Mr.Fisher.
Patricia Turner
Escondido
Ridiculous fees deter kids from fishing
I find it ridiculous that my 14-year-old son has to pay $25 toregister his 7-foot plastic Pelican boat, that he must have$300,000 worth of insurance and pay $25 every time he wants tolaunch it (at the Agua Hedionda Lagoon), even though it can bepaddled and carried down to the area where people launch theirkayaks.
How do these fees make it possible for our youth to buy a boatand develop a love of fishing with such crazy fees? Pleaseenlighten me.
Anastasia Schmoll
Carlsbad
