LETTERS: NCT, Dec. 7, 2008

By Readers of the North County Times | Sunday, December 7, 2008 12:13 AM PST ∞

Not a dime for the Big Three

The Big Three automakers want us, the taxpayers, to bail them out. Yet they weren't thinking about us when they created the "sticker shock." Almost overnight, they doubled and tripled the price of their cars.

Furthermore, it is my understanding that the assembly line workers make an average of $77 per hour. If they want to keep from going under, let them reduce wages and the price of their cars so we (the public) can afford to buy them.

I say, don't give them a dime.

Joseph Hemond

San Marcos

Big Three bailout is tragic

For decades, the Big Three have pushed around Congress, the states and environmentalists while pushing false claims that they would go out of business if they had to reduce smog or greenhouse gases or stop making gas-guzzlers. Now Detroit comes begging on its knees for money, and our Congress plans to just give it to them with no environmental strings attached. What a tragedy.

Why is Congress not going to simply enact –– as a condition of any bailout money –– a statute that says Judge Ishii was right: The fuel economy law does not pre-empt California greenhouse gas laws? That would put an end to the lawsuits by GM and Chrysler against the laws that are now in place in 14 states covering half of our nation's population.

Isn't that just a basic condition of good citizenship? Don't take the taxpayer's money if you cannot live with a law that terminates your litigation against half the nation's taxpayers.

Elizabeth Taylor

Encinitas

Should the Big Three become the Big Two?

I was wondering why there is so much talk about letting/forcing the Big Three automakers to merge to become the Big Two automakers in order to save the American auto industry and the American economy. This is backwards.

The problem isn't that U.S. automaking corporations are too small, but just the opposite. They are too big.

Perhaps the biggest lesson we should take away from the current recession is that companies should not be allowed to get so big that the government can't let them go under.

No on the GM Daimler-Chrysler merger.

Robert Cooper

Oceanside

Hoodwinked again by Christian dogma

The election happened over a month ago. I am still waiting for the passage of Proposition 8 to sanctify my two previous marriages so they stop feeling as miserable as they were. Alas, nothing has changed.

I do believe I have been, once again, hoodwinked by Christian dogma. When, oh, when will I stop trusting what these people say?

Phil Acosta

Vista

Thanks to Vista Unified supporters

I am writing to thank my supporters, campaign workers and the community. It has been my honor to serve you for the past eight years as a member of the Vista Unified School District board. It has been a privilege to work with Superintendent Joyce Bales and the teachers and staff.

I believe we –– you and I working together –– have helped change the direction of the district. In Joyce Bales, we have one of the best superintendents in the country, and her leadership is having a positive effect on district staff.

Our principals, as a group, are doing a much better job than the group we had when I took my seat in December 2000.

Our teachers have demonstrated a renewed dedication to education. Our teachers were beginning to confront the literacy issue before Dr. Bales arrived, and during the past two years, under her leadership, the teachers have flourished. For the first time in years, they know they have a superintendent who cares and who knows what to do to support the classroom teacher's efforts.

I thank the North County Times for endorsing me, and I wish inspiration, success and great statesmanship to the board.

Stephen Guffanti

Vista

Writer needs to see real world

Chris Pulse seems to have never met a self-loathing minute nor historical revisionist moment he couldn't embrace ("When was our freedom endangered?" Letters, Dec. 5). I'll help him out.

1. Native Americans were every bit as, if not more, vicious and enamored of slaughtering and torture than Europeans. Hurons, for example use to put a hook in their enemies stomach and run them around a tree until their entrails were pulled out –– I'll describe Comanche rope torture another time, but these were practiced long before any Caucasian set foot in North America.

2. There wasn't a single slave brought to this country who didn't have slaves in his own African tribe –– hindsight is always 20/20, 300 years later.

3. "The U.S. was never in danger of being invaded by Japan," according to Chris. Gee, I thought Hawaii was part of the U.S. in 1941 –– maybe not in the Pulse universe.

4. The North Korean and Cuban things have worked out so much better without the U.S.? North Korea is composed mainly of a robotic population and insane dictator, and Fidel Castro murdered everyone who disagreed with him and has kept the Cuban people in such oppressive bondage that they'd risk death to "boat" to the U.S.

Come on, Chris, quit reading Nancy Pelosi's history books and start seeing the world as it really was, putting today's leftist dogma aside.

Richard Cole

Encinitas

Escondido residents back checkpoints

Over 1,000 signatures have been collected in support of the Traffic Safety Checkpoints that have been conducted by the Escondido Police Department.

Escondido residents commend our police officers and the reduction in "hit and run" accidents, and we attribute this improvement to their checkpoints.

Our personal car insurance rates will be decreased if our community can show improved statistics for reduced "hit-and-run" accidents.

Olga Diaz has expressed her desire to have the police check for insurance coverage at the same time they are checking for licenses, and we support her desire for increased law enforcement.

Tisha Bennett

Escondido

Aid to Mexico is insanity at its best

Re: "U.S. releases first part of $400M drug aid for Mexico," Dec. 4: We have a war on terror in our own backyard.ˇWhy are we giving $400 million to Mexico to fight a drug war that is spilling into Chula Vista?

We already pay for Mexican criminals by extraditing, housing, prosecuting and medical care for their own criminals. Mexico has it very good. We get their criminals.

It's pure insanity to give our money to Mexico. That's like sending children to pedophiles.

If our leaders would provide for a secure border, as they are sworn to do, Mexican crime would be of little concern to Americans. Instead we pander to them instead of making a stance and setting a precedent that we will not support a corrupt government, well, other than our own.

I urge you all to let our representatives know that we do not want any more of our money going south. We need to secure our own border,ˇa federal issue, which the feds have obviously left for us to do.

As dysfunctional as San Diego is, we could at least use some of that money for infrastructure and fighting Mexican criminals now living in San Diego County.

Chris Allen

Oceanside

Bush administration robbing nation

We're being robbed of our America!

There are people in the Bush administration who have lied to us and have taken advantage of their positions to line their own pockets. Trillions of dollars for the illegal war in Iraq (billions of which line the pockets of Mr. Cheney's Halliburton). Think of what wonderful things that money could have spent on: medical research, broken down infrastructure etc.

Associated Press press release, Dec. 2: "Cheney indictment dropped." A Texas judge dismissed all charges against Cheney and his buddy, former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. Indictments charged a private prison operator in an investigation into prisoner abuse. The prison operator GEO Group, partly owned by guess who? Dick Cheney!

On July 15, the House of Representatives voted to send Dennis Kucinich's Bush-impeachment bill to the Judiciary Committee. Chairman John Conyers Jr. said this hearing would review these charges against an imperial presidency and other matters such as the firing of the U.S. attorneys. It's never too late. I'll be waiting.

Stuart Goodman

Oceanside

Differences between doctors, witches

I am amused by the idea that our medical doctors are really witch doctors with a license to dispense witches brew. Witches ride brooms and live in scary places, but MDs drive expensive cars and live in mansions. Witches are not eligible to collect payments from health care insurance companies. MDs have the witches' skills of alchemy, but witches do not have the skills of a butcher and a seamstress, as do MDs.

When I was a kid, MDs made house calls and earned as much as the mailman. Today, patients make office appointments, wait an hour in line and spend a few minutes with a primary care MD who is committed to meet his quota within a sort work week.

You then receive a piece of paper, written in a strange language, go to a pill warehouse to obtain a magic potion that may or may not be useful, but will be expensive.

If you wind up in the witches' lair (the hospital or the ER), good luck! If you don't die, the bill will kill you. If you can read, go to the public library for self help. ...

Tony San Miguel

Vista

Obama changing into Clinton

A big stench is about to rise at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, even before the current residents have vacated. Obama the "change" man wants change, but it appears to be changing back to the first black president, Bill Clinton!

Hillary and Bubba seem to be lurking in the background, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Hillary, as secretary of state, must be saying to Bill, "Go, man, go, it will soon be all ours. One or two more appointments and we are in our third term. No matter that we're not living in the White House. Our people are getting the big jobs, which really puts us in control."

Hallelujah, Bubba is back! Where is Monica?

Junious Montgomery

Carlsbad