Hold CIA, others accountable

The wiretapping program without the approval of Congress has been used from the years 2001 to 2008. This illegal program was started by the Bush administration and is in violation of our Constitution. The CIA has withheld information from Congress in violation of the law. Our citizens can only act wisely when information is not withheld. Measures need to be taken to hold those (who are responsible) accountable for these violations or they will continue.

Bill Wernett

Fallbrook

Endlessly Palin

I wasn't sorry to see Sarah Palin quit as governor of Alaska; I can imagine she has a much larger agenda in mind.

Her wildlife policies are barbaric! Allowing aerial hunting of wolves and bears to trophy hunters? What is sportsmanship like to chase an innocent animal in its habitat to exhaustion, pop out of a plane and shoot it, drape it over the wing of the plane and go home. Hunting and eating the animal is one thing, but in this society, no one needs to kill for food! Sadly, I don't expect the new governor's policies to be any different. One would like to think Alaska would treasure and protect the pristine areas left, but Palin refused endangered status for beluga whales and polar bears, both with diminishing populations. …

Palin loves the spotlight, and now that she has had a taste of celebrity, she will continue to gain more status and fill her PAC coffers. I am intrigued as to why the media is so taken by her; she seldom has anything interesting to say and has difficulty in answering basic questions.

How about the Sarah Palin Doll? Wind her up and she will speak the same old rhetoric over and over, ad nauseam. Eyeglasses/batteries not included.

Cara Lou Wicks

Oceanside

What was he thinking?

Did you know a bill is proposed in the state Assembly to change the Constitution so that the required public vote for passage of special tax increases and bonds would decrease from 67 percent to 55 percent? Would you support such an amendment? Would you want the Poway City Council to endorse such an amendment?

I am concerned that Poway City Manager Rod Gould would propose that the City Council support this amendment and that he would bury it deep in last Tuesday's City Council consent calendar. It indicates to me that he wants to make it easier to impose new taxes. And putting it on the consent calendar implies that he was hoping the council would pass it without questioning it.

The most distressing thing was watching City Councilman Jim Cunningham go on endlessly about the benefits of such a constitutional change. And it was amazing watching him change his vote once he realized the majority of the council opposed the proposal. It seems we had better watch our wallets where Cunningham is concerned!

Kudos to Councilwoman Rexford who introduced a motion that the council oppose the proposed amendment as well as members Boyack and Kruse who voiced their support for her position during the discussion.

Jack Tripp

Poway

Grandma Liz an inspiration to us all

Grandma Liz, you strolled into my life Friday night, dancing your way onto the dance floor with your walker on wheels, smiling, your whole body dancing to the music of the Bill Magee Blues Band performing at the Carlsbad TGIF concert. At the ripe young age of 87, you showed us all what joy is, how we really can enjoy our every moment, no matter how old.

I want you to know how honored I am to have had the privilege of dancing with you for more than two hours. I want to acknowledge your daughter as well, who takes you out to these events, who gives you the opportunity to have these experiences. You have your hands full! Thank you!

And thank you, Bill Magee, for providing joy to so many people, of all ages. Your music touches me and obviously Grandma Liz too, as neither of us could stop moving while you played your music.

Thank you, Grandma Liz, for sharing your joy. You are an inspiration to us all. God bless you and your family.

Annette Higby

Bonsall

Help defeat amnesty again

The push for another amnesty bill is back in Washington, this time led by Sen. Chuck Schumer. Despite the highest unemployment in decades and a border with Mexico that is still open to tons of drugs and hundreds of thousands of illegal crossers per year, Schumer has promised a new amnesty bill by Labor Day (Sept. 7) that would "legalize" 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens.

Poll after poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly want our borders secured and our immigration laws enforced before we legalize millions of people who have violated our immigration laws.

The best Web site for the truth about illegal immigration is www.NumbersUSA.com. At this great site, you can also send free faxes to your representatives voicing your opinion! Millions of Americans have signed up for e-mail alerts during the past few years.

The other great group that fights illegal immigration is CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization). You can also send free faxes to Sacramento politicians at its Web site: http://capwiz.com/caps/home/.

With your help, we will defeat amnesty again this year, continue to gain border security and return our country to a nation of legal immigration and respect for the rule of law and the Constitution.

Jeff Schwilk

founder, San Diego Minutemen

Vista

Oppose health bill until it's understood

I am writing to voice my opposition to the Obama administration's health care proposal. I feel it will cost too much at a time when we can ill afford to raise taxes or take on bigger deficits. Health care should be between the patient and the doctor, without the government deciding what procedures, drugs, etc., we need.

The administration is taking on too much too fast. The debts are piling up for social programs we don't need and for pork-barrel projects. Congressional representatives don't even have time to read the bills. Obama doesn't want discussion on the bills because he knows they can't stand the scrutiny of the light of day. It is a disgrace that our elected officials are not even informing themselves before they vote to spend us into oblivion.

I urge every taxpayer to urge your congressperson and senator to vote against this bill, at least until they have read it, understand it, can explain it to their constituents and have had healthy debate on it.

Gregory Farnsworth

Carlsbad

Health insurance and overhead

Time to get rid of needless overhead. Congressmen Issa and Bilbray, Sens. Boxer and Feinstein, listen to us. The majority of your public polls indicate 70 percent want a national health insurance plan now. Why not spend our money on medical services, not paperwork?

Paperwork, advertising, profits, CEO pay, etc., more than 30 percent of every dollar spent on health care in the United States goes to overhead. Overhead for Medicare is 4 percent and Canada's overhead is a whopping 1 percent. With our present lack of a plan, the U.S. has the most bureaucratic health care system in the world.

One year, my employer's health insurance company paid out 90 percent of the money we gave them in premiums to cover our insurance claims. To balance its books, the insurance company raised our premiums 25 percent the following year to make up the overhead it hadn't covered the year before. The insurance needed its 30 percent. A year later, our claims were minimal. Did our insurance company therefore lower its rates? Guess!We want health care, not paperwork. Congressmen Issa and Bilbray, Sens. Boxer and Feinstein, are you going to help or not?

Jim Hamilton

Oceanside

Emergency power shutoff is a bad idea

Now that we're in the high fire season, I'm just waiting for San Diego Gas and Electric to put into effect the stupidest plan they've ever come up with. …

If this plan is put into effect, those of us in the areas without power will have no phones, water, reverse 911, TV or communications. We won't know where the fire is, whether or not we need to evacuate, or be able to water down the areas around our homes. The last fire, we were able to keep up with reports from computer blogs and the media so we knew where the fire was at all times and whether we needed to evacuate.

On top of this, living in the country, most of us have freezers full of food that would rot, costing us thousands of dollars. Even the Valley Center Water District is fighting this plan, since it would cut off the ability to pump water.Living in the backcountry the past 30 years, (I have seen) few instances where fires were started by power lines. Usually, it's someone setting them accidentally or deliberately.

I, for one, plan to sue SDG&E if its actions cause damage to life or property. This plan needs to be abandoned.

Kathy Stech

Valley Center

AB 761 targets those most vulnerable

There is a myth, reinforced by politicians and nurtured in civics, that legislatures are fair, orderly and reasonable, and that only honest debate holds sway. Well, it "ain't" so. I'm sure that I, along with every other Capitol observer, can see things are getting flakier by the hour at the statehouse.

Take, for example, Assembly Bill 761 by Charles Calderon, D-Montebello: This bill cleared the house June 25 and now is in the Senate rules committee for assignment. And if anyone says this bill won't be captured by the governor (signed), well, who do we trust anymore? This bill targets those most vulnerable: the mobile homes residents and their rent control ordinances, the majority of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes. As a Republican, it upsets me that Assembly Republicans supported AB 761. …

Mad? Well, hold on to your pocketbook. Slick Charlie Calderon, a Democrat, wants it. Calderon is chairman of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

Terecita Bernal

Oceanside

Socialism is greatest threat

Mr. Herb Pairitz (Letters, July 13) overlooks the most important difference between the economic systems he compared. Under capitalism, individuals are free to dream and do without oppressive government control. Knowing they can keep what they make motivates innovators (Edison, Ford, Gates and Jobs) … who are willing to take major risks to create new businesses and economic enterprises. Most of these ventures fail, but many don't, and the rest of us share in the success of those that work.

All through human history, civilizations, empires and countries have been driven by a fairly small group of creative, innovative people who were free to pursue their ideas. If the creative minority is discouraged by an intrusive, all-controlling government, there would be no innovation, no new jobs. The working class would become the welfare class, and without a growing supply of new jobs, there could be no more working class. This is the great hazard of the socialist path, and we don't really know how much further we can safely go.

The final endpoint of our "soak the rich" policies is that … the rich will fade away and leave only the poor. This is a far greater hazard than … global warming!

Barry McElmurry

Vista

The United States is all talk

The United States is a big joke! We should have attacked North Korea 10 years ago. They are making a joke of us, testing nuke missiles whenever they feel like it. We are all talk and then we take action, when it's too late.

Just like Afghanistan. If we had bombed them years ago, maybe we would not have so many dead young soldiers now! It's obvious North Korea wants to be the superpower. We were the superpower, now we are the stupid power. Makes me sick.

This country is so screwed up, it's unbelievable.

Frank Medici

Vista

Powers not vested

"Several states" is found in the U.S. Constitution 10 times … .The Constitution at Article I, Section 8, clause 17, which limits the area of exclusive legislation of the government of United States, excludes areas of authority over the several states.Blacks Law Dictionary defines "fundamental law" as "The law which determines the constitution of government in a nation or state, and prescribes and regulates the manner of its exercise. The organic law of a nation or state; its constitution."

Clause 18 of the same Article gives power to Congress "to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

The government lacks constitutional power to impose cap and trade or health insurance upon the citizens of the several states not within ceded properties or to fine them for not accepting such insurance, unless a several state has ceded jurisdiction of the whole state to the federal government.

If fundamental law fails to grant power to the government and they do not like it, it must be change only pursuant to Article V.

Rick Urias

Escondido