Crowning success of the Bush years

Every major action by the Bush administration has been to either provide more money and favors for the big business investors or to reduce the benefits of the middle class and the poor.

This $700 billion bailout for the greedy loan companies will go down in history as the final crowning success of the Bush administration term.

Herbert Pairitz

Carlsbad

McCain unfit to lead country

One of the most challenging foreign policy issues today is that of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, Gov. Palin has no experience on global security issues and showed no expertise on the content or purpose of American nuclear weapons during the vice presidential debate. When Gwen Ifill asked: "What should be the trigger, or should there be a trigger, when nuclear weapons use is ever put into play?" Gov. Palin said, "Nuclear weaponry, of course, would be the be-all, end-all of just too many people in too many parts of our planet." The rest of her response was just as muddled.

As a U.S. Air Force veteran with nuclear weapons training and experience, I was shocked at Palin's incoherent answer. Nuclear weapons are about as serious an issue as they get. Voters must now weigh Sen. McCain's judgment, or lack thereof, in selecting Gov. Palin as his running mate, and even question McCain's fitness to lead.

Robert Tormey

Escondido

RIP, capitalism and free market, 1776-2008

It is a sad day for the very bedrock of America. The free market and capitalism died while 435 members of Congress were at its bedside, along with 100 members of the Senate. There will be no services, and all but a few members cheered at its passing; not the passing of the bill, but the actual death of what made our country great.

The free market and the capitalist system lived 232 years and enjoyed a full and robust life, but suffered from frequent attacks in its waning years. How could this have happened? It is not known exactly, but the suspected cause of death was apathy, self-interest and exposure to a socialist virus from the very people who were elected to protect and promote this precious system.

Do not send cards or flowers, as the only recipients are those who caused this unfortunate demise of an American treasure.

Jim West

Vista

Prop. 2 reflects the best of the human spirit

We have vast power over animals, and with such power comes great responsibility. We can choose to be kind and merciful, or cruel and abusive.

Millions of Americans love animals, but many creatures still suffer, especially farm animals in factory farms that the public cannot see. Proposition 2 is such a modest and common-sense reform that will allow the most basic humane treatment for 20 million farms animals in California.

It is simply wrong to confine farm animals so tightly into cages that their bodies cannot move at all their whole lives; this causes them a lot of pain. We can help stop causing this pain by giving them more space to at least stand up, turn around, and extend their limbs and wings.

Prop. 2 will provide the space these animals need to live a more comfortable life while they are alive. This is the least we can do for these animals, who give their lives to us for our food. Prop. 2 encourages more local, sustainable, healthier family farming. Help us confront animal cruelty by voting "yes" on Prop. 2 this November election.

Please visit www.YESonProp2.com.

Karen Snyder

Rancho Bernardo

Palin makes lefties go nuts

From the number of anti-Sarah letters Sunday (Sept. 21), she seems to have the North County lefties going nuts. …

Personally, I will take the God of Thunder Thor over Obama's guy Jeremiah Wright, who hates America and the white race. Wright preached black liberation theology and for 20 years, Obama chose him as his mentor! Quote from Wright, "Not God bless America, God damn America"! …

Junious

Montgomery

Carlsbad

Choose renewal over ruin

Renewal or ruin? That is our choice on Election Day. The Bush administration has already started this country down the road to ruin. Consider:

The war: Bush could have ended the war when he learned there were no WMDs or when he captured Saddam, but he didn't. Now we borrow heavily to continue war, but to what end? Here's a clue: Our military allowed the looting of priceless historical artifacts while protecting oil-production facilities.

Civil liberties: Lois Bujold has well summarized the situation: "The crimes they hope to prevent in the future are imaginary; the crimes they commit in the present are real."

The economy: The financial crisis is largely because of unregulated markets. Oil price inflation is the result of the declining dollar.

Church and state: Faith-based initiatives, an anti-choice Supreme Court majority and aggressive fundamentalist Christian evangelism in our military academies.

History records many great countries brought down by bad leadership. The U.S.A. is not exempt from that possibility. Choose renewal over ruin â€"â€" send the Republicans home for awhile, so they can reflect on what they have done to our great country.

Paul Buchman

Vista

Hilarious or pathetic?

I saw something this morning that is either hilarious or pathetic, depending on your point of view. It's fairly common knowledge that the triumvirate on the Escondido City Council has been trying for years through any means (some of which actually are legal) to rid Escondido of every Spanish-speaking person residing within the city limits. This has provoked much anti-City Council sentiment, and Escondido now has a reputation of being unfriendly, if not hostile, to this group. We have a nationwide reputation now of being an anti-immigrant city, although it seems that I remember reading that this is more than 40 percent of our population.

Imagine my surprise, then, when, as I was passing the temporary Republican Party headquarters on Quince Street this morning, I saw signs on their door, directly above the "Re-Elect Sam" and "Re-Elect Ed" signs, saying, in Spanish, that people should register Republican, and vote Republican! I would suggest not putting the "Re-Elect Sam" and "Re-Elect Ed" signs on the same door as the signs encouraging Spanish-speaking voters to register and vote Republican (guilt by association, you know). …

Earl Brown

Escondido

New challenge faces Carlsbad

Carlsbad has always been good at rallying around issues, for good or evil, that come up in our city â€"â€" the oil refinery, Capt. Nemo's Harbor, Legoland, the strawberry fields, etc. The list could go on and on.

We have a new challenge facing us now, which is the expansion of the Encina Power Plant. The company wanting to do the expansion is NRG, and they feel that they can do whatever they want on the property without our approval. The city is agreeable to the expansion, but would like to see it on land farther to the east rather than right on our coast and next to the Interstate 5 freeway. The reasons are obvious â€"â€" noise pollution, the aesthetics of having it at the present location in a much larger footprint, the value of the present site to our tourism industry were the plant to be moved. …

Those agreeing with NRG, including some City Council candidates, either do not understand the problem or do not really have the citizens' best interests at heart. Find out more about this at the Imagine Carlsbad meeting on Oct. 27, 6:30 p.m. at the senior center. Both NRG and the city will be there to explain their viewpoints.

Hope Wrisley

Carlsbad

Former conservative has seen the light

For those of you who remember when I wrote letters to the editor concerning the Vista school district, you will remember how I was a confirmed conservative. Well, since the Iraq war, I have seen what a hateful bunch these conservatives are, and quite frankly, I don't want anything to do with them. These people have brought us war and have now trashed the economy. …

These conservatives just create one disaster after another, leaving the world filled with death, destruction and destroyed economies. …

Now we have Sarah Palin. Everything we have heard about her has been a lie. Remember all this stuff about "thanks, but no thanks." I have just run across something scary. Palin is convincing her supporters that the press is to blame for her poor performance. The Washington Post reports she was able to get a crowd of her supporters to hurl insults at the press when they were covering the rally.

As I said, these conservatives are so full of hate, and McCain and Palin are doing their best to appeal to that. Are these the kind of people we want running this country?

Chris Pulse

Vista

Democrats have their special interests, too

In the Oct. 7 letters, Kathryn Gould attacks the Republicans for taking the lion's share of lobbyist money, presumably to influence their vote on the financial bailout. There is no doubt that Republicans receive support from special interests. Wasn't it the Democrats (e.g., Chris Dodd and Barack Obama) who benefited from favorable loans from those same banking institutions? A little honesty would be welcome from the left, just once. They act as if only the Republicans receive money and support from lobbyists.

Does anyone remember when our governor proposed four propositions to strengthen teacher credentials and other measures to benefit the state? Over $100 million was spent by special-interest groups to subvert these proposals. Yes, the Democrats have their special interests, too â€"â€" teachers unions, police unions, gay and feminist extremist groups, environmentalists and trial lawyers. …

The next time the left accuses Republicans of sinister motives, they might look in the mirror. To accuse the administration of not working for the best interests of Americans while ignoring the damage done every day to our children by reform-averse teachers unions and self-serving trial lawyers is ludicrous and sheer hypocrisy.

Josef Horowitz

Escondido

Unready: Palin or Obama?

John McCain's mom suggested we should hold our noses and vote for him. Sarah Palin changed that for me. Unready? Hardly. Obama is worse than unready; he's a threat to our country. …

In college, he sought out and associated with people who were dedicated to socialism. After graduation, he gained all of his "experience" working with the Chicago union machine mobs. His otherwise experience consisted of running for the Senate so that he could spend all of his time once elected in running for president.

People remark to Obama's speaking skills! Huh? Skills that consist of droning on at great length without ever expressing an original thought, while carefully scanning the words that are projected before him. Without the monitor, Obama is basically reduced to a composition of hmms and errs. And exactly what does speaking skill have to do with presidential readiness anyway? This guy is a Manchurian candidate who is being run by other people. Why else would he be where he is? Watch me skip to the polls and hold just one nostril shut while I vote for McCain/Palin.

Darrell McGuire

Oceanside

Political pressure, greed created mess

Please read, "Fannie Mae eases credit to aid mortgage lending," New York Times, Sept. 30. The essence of the article: "President Clinton requested from Fannie Mae to provide mortgages to low- and moderate-income people with substandard credit ratings, called 'subprime' credits." According to the article, it was understood that in case of an economic crisis, the government would have to bail out Fannie Mae. … All of this was under the umbrella of helping minority borrowers. …

Comment: A major organization behind the racial discrimination argument was ACORN, the same organization the Democratic Party wanted to dedicate 20 percent of the bailout bill proceedings last week. The Democratic Party had to withdraw this request as the Republican Party did not accept this.

And, by the way, Sen. Obama had intensive relations with ACORN during his community coordination time. He trained ACORN members and he actually acted as legal advisor for ACORN (see Fox News from Oct. 5). I do not want to say that only Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party are responsible, but they have created it. The combination of politic pressure with Wall Street greed have created a monster at the end.

Walter Koenig

Oceanside

Proximity is not cause for connection

Fox News' Sean Hannity dragged up information on a 1960s radical who happens to live in the same town as Sen. Obama, claiming they had "big connections" that were bad, as though Obama made the guy do what he did when Obama was 9. Months ago, the Chicago papers rightly called this a phony charge.

Obama, as an adult, attended a reception at the guy's house once and condemned what the guy did back in the '60s. Hannity wants us to believe Obama was responsible for those acts in order to promote a vote for McCain.

Obama doesn't want to go to the White House to be a lawbreaker to kill us all, but rather to get this country back together on a good footing again. This is not a connection, but guilt by proximity.

McCain, instead of condemning this, actually went even lower than Bush did in 2004 by repeating this attack in his own campaign statements.

We need to have leaders who talk about how they can fix things, not about the latest invented smear connection. Simply because Al Capone lived in Chicago doesn't make a bad connection with citizens in the neighborhood; quite the opposite.

Richard Sauerheber

San Marcos

Gibson will add integrity to council

Thank you, North County Times, for endorsing Jim Gibson for Oceanside City Council ("Wood, Feller, Gibson best for Oceanside," Oct. 5). We have been friends with Jim and his family for a dozen years. Jim is the most honorable gentleman I have ever met.

As a local business person whose business and home are in Oceanside, Jim knows firsthand what needs to be fixed in city government. During his time on the Vista school board, he established a great record of bringing together various factions for the benefit of the children of Vista Unified.

Jim is a man of the highest integrity. He will always vote for what's best for the citizens of the community, never for special interests and never for his own benefit. You have an opportunity to add integrity to the City Council. Vote Jim Gibson on Nov. 4.

Frank Donovan

Vista

Select the best candidate, and vote

This may be the most important presidential election in which you will be able to participate. I have heard many individuals comment who do not find either slate of candidates to be acceptable, and they may not vote. Please reconsider this decision. I realize that there may be problems with either candidate slate, but there must be some positions in either slate that meet your desires. Select the best set of candidates that satisfy your views, and vote.

Too many Americans have made massive sacrifices to provide you an opportunity to vote. If you are concerned about the major economic problems that are occurring, then you must also vote to remove every current member of Congress, independent of party, as they are responsible for failing to perform their job. You cannot allow individuals to remain in office term after term without realizing that they have become corrupt and are only interested in remaining in power. They do not represent the average citizen of this country.

If you do nothing else, vote them out of office now. Otherwise, don't complain about the taxes and sacrifices your children and grandchildren will need to make in the future.

Richard Staszak

Oceanside

A second opinion

I would like to offer a second opinion on Dr. Ruth Larson's "diagnosis" of the Sarah Palin threat (Letters, Oct. 3).

Exactly what disaster might President Palin precipitate should she succeed McCain in office: veto a tax bill, an expenditure, a declaration of war, a new law, program or regulation? The executive doesn't legislate.

Dr. Larson says the Obama/Biden ticket brings "American values of peace, protecting our environment, fiscal responsibility and deepening tolerance." … Does peace mean the absence of war? If so, American colonists lived in peace in the 13 regions; and slaves lived in peace on Southern plantations. Peace is not the end-all of American values.

"Protecting our environment?" Sure! But, when it approaches phobia that compels government to attempt to control global climate, experience tells me the best intentions will amount to no more than another expensive bureaucratic power coup.

"Fiscal responsibility?" I see neither major party bringing fiscal responsibility to Washington. …

"Deepening tolerance" for what? Tolerance for the pandering to special interests that goes on in Congress, rather than what is moral and constitutional? Tolerance can be a vice as well as a virtue.

Grant Kuhns

Carlsbad