Spitting in the Snake

In Idaho, left-leaning letters to the editor are like spitting in the Snake, e.g., going "ptooey" into the Snake River and expecting a wave. Not enough to make us stop, however. All of these letters have appeared as letters to the editor in the Twin Falls Times News. My family has contributed any with initials signed AN, AM, SM and StM. For clarity, I am going to go through the entire blog and match up responses; sometimes this will mean several letters.


August 2005

Idahoans made a serious mistake with Bush

Bush was congratulating himself on the improving economy today. Now for some ugly truth.

On August 6, the national debt hit $7,888,603,196,558. Each American’s share of this debt is $26,579.39. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.64 billion per day since September 30, 2004!

The dollar has declined 38% since Bush’s Great American Giveaway to the Rich of $450 billion in tax cuts.

The real reason for the GOP’s repressive laws will be evident when our economy finally tanks for good. Even the Stepford citizens might be hard to control then, thus the true reasoning behind the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, etc.

Our country has been plundered and the climax is coming. Add it up. Massive tax cuts for the rich; continued welfare for corporations; $9 billion a month for Iraq; slashing social programs including education, health; huge Medicare prescription bill that specifically denied states the ability to seek lower prices; $1 billion of US treasury bills purchased by China per day; no raise in the $5.15 per hour minimum wage; and how about the following?

According to the National Association of Realtors, 23% of houses bought in 2004 were investments; another 13% second-homes. Since 2001, more than 2/5 of non-government jobs created have been in areas related to housing. Mortgage backed securities account for $4.6 trillion. Say: "Adjustable rate mortgages." See: Greenspan continue to raise the prime rate. Read: Bankruptcy Act. Pretty soon, most of us won’t even be able to shop at WalMart.

By inflation-adjusted dollars, median income fell 1.2% between 2001 and 2003. Using the same measure from the end of 2003 through March 2005, 80% of the work force saw an income decline of 0.9%. At the same time, corporations are seeing record profits while they scale back benefits for the general employee. Got health insurance?

And to tickle your funny bone, it was just announced that Halliburton’s KBR division had a 284% increase in second quarter operating profits. This despite their history of "questioned and unsupported" expenses.

If you think the Magic Valley produces a lot of cow manure, it is nothing compared to what this administration uses to bury the truth.

SM
Gooding


August 2005

Extreme left abandons reason on GOP

After reading the thesaurus-toting Ms. SM's doomsday letter of Aug. 18, one would wonder on what planet she has been blogging and if Moveon.org has given her a free membership for spewing its hate.

It is one thing to disagree with a national party and a president but quite another to carry on with such blind animosity. One would wonder if these people have the same fervent hatred toward the terrorists.

As far as Ms. SM's same ol', same ol' mantra about robbing the poor and giving to the rich was last year's election slogan, which is as boorish now as it was then. People with money have it for a reason. Does Ms. SM think that they just woke up one morning and were suddenly rich? A novel idea would be that they actually worked hard for it. Is Ms. SM not cognizant of the fact that we are not living under a socialist government? No, you are not entitled to the more ambitious people's money.

As far as the state of the economy is concerned, I am no economist as Ms. SM or the left-bloggers apparently are, but I don't think I'll be hiding my money in a mattress anytime soon. Ms SM would have Mr. Bush give more money to social programs. Well, count me out on that one.

The big difference between the right and the left is that the left wants to give without accountability, whereas the right would like to help people help themselves. One wonders if it makes the left feel superior by keeping the poor in their places.

And, yes, Ms. SM, I do have health insurance because somewhere along the line, someone educated me on the fact that it is my responsibility to take care of myself and my family. People buy their insurance before they purchase such items a SUVs, cell phones, computers, cable TV, etc. Only then should one qualify for government assistance. The far left of the Democrat party have turned into humorless, hate-filled people who wouldn't understand irony if it jumped up and slapped them in their faces. I'll remember that about myself when, inevitably, the Democrats come into power.

Cooler heads know that elected officials, no matter how misguided we think they are, are not evil. They are just good people with different ideologies.

KR
Gooding, ID


September 2005

Perhaps KR needs a thesaurus to understand my letter to the editor. Somehow she has interpreted my warning about the US economy into another rich versus poor diatribe. Her statement that elected officials are "just good people with different ideologies" is astounding. Since when is malfeasance an ideology?

Perhaps if Ms. KR actually investigated some of these situations instead of using the tried-and-true right-wing method of diverting attention from the real issue or just totally ignoring it, she could formulate a response that had something to do with my original letter. But since she does not now nor has ever seemed willing to do that, I will do it for her:

GOOD PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT IDEOLOGIES:

"George W. Bush - President George W. Bush "whose own election was dubious" has seized monarchical powers in sending this nation into war without any legitimate congressional declaration of war or equivalent congressional action. He has lied to the United States Congress and to the American people about the rationale for the war. He has imprisoned American citizens without charges and denied them access to lawyers and the courts. He has thus trampled on the United States Constitution and he has violated his oath of office." John Bonifaz, author of Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush.

Tom Delay - Tried to coerce a Congressman for a vote on Medicare. Diverted funds from a children's charity for lavish celebrations at the Republican convention. Threatened retaliation against interest groups that don't support Republicans. Accepted trips from corporations and later helped kill legislation they opposed. Accepted trips from the lobbyist for a foreign government in violation of House rules. Crippled the effectiveness of the House Ethics Committee by purging members who had rebuked him. Paid family members more than $500,000 out of campaign contributions.

Oh dear, so many "elected" GOP leaders, so little space...

As for KR's label of the left as "humorless, hate-filled people," who is it that slimed Cindy Sheehan, outed Valerie Plame and evoked the following? "I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will ... Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end." -- Janis Karpinski, interview August 3, 2005.

SM
Gooding, ID


Isn't there a quote about fighting a battle of wits with an unarmed person?

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Why would you want the Democrats in power?

After reading Ms. SM's letter of Sept. 5, my first and only response was "wow." Talk about someone proving my point. Now I am forced to add a new adjective to hate-filled, humorless and ironically challenged and that would be "hysterical."

Ms. SM should look up apoplectic in that well-thumbed thesaurus. It would be 23 letters before "whiny." The only subject Ms. SM didn't bring up was the dreary allusive Halliburton non-story. Now how could she have missed that buzz word?

I think Ms. SM fully comprehends that I could counter every one of her quotes with my own and we could go on ad infinitum boring the whole of Magic Valley to distraction with hysterical rantings by at least one of us. So, I'll just ask Ms. SM one question. She states that those mean ol' Republicans lied to those poor unsuspecting Dems in Congress about the rationale for the war and stole not one, but two elections right out from the noses of the Democratic National Congress, John Kerry, and their minions of lawyers.

So why, Ms. SM, would you possibly want to put these same inept, bungling idiots into power. And that, Ms. SM, is a perfect example of irony.

KATHY ROONEY
Gooding