McClellan: unchanged

Scott McClellan is doing media tours supporting his book. The book is supposed to be an insider look at the mistakes and deceptions of the Bush White House.

He says the administration used deception and propaganda to lead us to war. If he knew that, why wait until now? If you see someone is going to get hit by a bus, do you wait until years later and write a chilling expose on the bus company? No. You shout a warning as loud as you can.

Scott McClellan is a criminal.

Garth Gregory Hansen

Escondido

Lobbyists run this country

There are more than 35,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., including some 200 ex-congressmen and women, and uncounted numbers of their relatives and former aides. Former congressman Denny Hastert is among the latest to join the club. He is now a "strategic counselor" for a lobbying firm with a salary estimated at $500,000-plus.

The registered lobbyists in the nation's capital alone reported spending almost $2.8 billion last year. You can imagine what they didn't report. Benito Mussolini envisioned what is happening in our country today when he organized the League of Fascists in Italy in 1921. The word "fascist" was defined as an agreement between government and corporations for their mutual benefit. As far as I'm concerned, today's Republican Party should be renamed the Neo-Fascists. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party isn't far behind.

Every one of us has an obligation to our children and grandchildren to demand an answer to this question from every elected official and politician running for public office: What are you going to do about the lobbyists who have thoroughly corrupted the democratic process? How about the North County Times challenging 50th District congressional candidates Brian Bilbray and Nick Liebham to debate this issue in public?

Bob Fisher

Encinitas

Oliver is no baloney

Recently, there were two negative letters dealing with Oliver North. I was retired when these events took place. Initially, I thought that he and Poindexter had overstepped their bounds. RR's administration had a problem with the notorious Boland Amendment, which sought to tie the president's hands in dealing with the dictatorship ruling Nicaragua. There was a question about the constitutionality of that amendment as it related to the power of the executive branch.

As time went on, I saw North's side of the story. Later, events proved that their action to circumvent Boland was correct. Congress fell all over itself to investigate, and North paid the price of their rancor. But a grant of immunity later led to his acquittal on federal charges. Justice was served.

By the way, I wonder if those letter writers even knew what Boland was, and what part North played. Lt. Col. North is now a respected journalist and, to many of us, an American hero. Don't believe the baloney of ill-informed hate-mongers.

William Ficere

Escondido

A perfect system of transportation

Recently, I have become more educated about the Sprinter. I have heard from people that they are very glad for the new transportation. I believe, with rising gas prices, San Diego can make good use of the trolley system. A drawback that I see is that it causes traffic congestion at street lights. Another drawback is that it doesn't go around the county. If it were to expand, it would be a perfect system of transportation in San Diego. Other than that, I think that the Sprinter is a great and affordable system that will help this city.

Ali Karbassi

Rancho Bernardo

A fitting sendoff for a warrior hero

Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike Monsoor was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for jumping on a grenade in Iraq, giving his life to save his fellow SEALs.

During Mike Monsoor's funeral in San Diego, as his coffin was being moved from the hearse to the grave site at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, SEALs were lined up on both sides of the pallbearers route, forming a column of twos with the coffin moving up the center. As Mike's coffin passed, each SEAL, having removed his gold Trident from his uniform, slapped it down, embedding the Trident in the wooden coffin. The slaps were audible from across the cemetery; by the time the coffin arrived grave side, it looked as though it had a gold inlay from all the Tridents pinned to it. This was a fitting sendoff for a warrior hero. This should be front-page news instead of the stuff we see everyday.

Howard Sharpell

San Marcos

Media silent as hunger strike reaches day 12

Blair Gadsby, an instructor at Mesa Community College in Arizona, reached the 12th day of his hunger strike on Saturday, June 7, across the street from presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's Phoenix offices. Gadsby chose McCain's offices because McCain wrote the forward to the Popular Mechanics book, "Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts."

Gadsby is asking McCain to commit to attending a two-hour meeting where four scientists, two from each side of the 9/11 issue, present their competing views. Furthermore, Gadsby insists the meeting take place in the presence of the news media. Quite startling to me is the resistance by the media in covering this story. Is 12 days of starvation just not long enough to raise any interest in the American public?

Dwain Deets

Leucadia

Demand and stand for change

Are you fed up yet? And if not, why not? Lies on top of lies, a fabricated war with continuing casualties leaking blood and money, a horrendous deficit, bad economy with high gas/food prices! The haves have gotten rich, the have-nots struggling more than ever.

Wake up, citizens. We collectively have put up with this for close to eight years and it hasn't gotten any better. Get a clue and take action; rolling over and complaining doesn't help. Demand change and make your vote count in November. The lifestyle of you/your family, this country and democracy are on the line this time. Stand for change!

Cara Lou Wicks

Oceanside

Backing our military, but not our war

While it was altogether appropriate to pay tribute to the fallen on Memorial Day, is it not equally as fitting that we honor their memory with more than words? Military relief organizations abound, and they are ready and waiting for your generous and frequent contributions.

Additionally, passage of Sen. Jim Webb's veterans education package is mandatory. While paying homage to our honored dead, nothing speaks more loudly to their sacrifice than genuine action supporting those remaining behind. If we can pour hundreds of billions into a war, surely we can provide a fraction of that to its warriors and families.

Memorial Day is important. Backing our military, however, neither begins nor ends on it, nor, while solemnly reflective of the terrible price paid, does my continued disdain for its misappropriation in an unjustified, unnecessary and costly war. Mutually exclusive, and indeed, irreverent to some, supporting our military yet reviling the war will never be a contradiction in terms for me. Their commitment to an illicit war was ours to decide, and we, not they, came up short. In West Point's motto, duty and honor precede country for a reason; they are reliable tenets while a country and its people are not always as unfailing.

Thomas Godwin

Oceanside

Pandering not productive

I just received a letter from Duncan Hunter explaining that he is an original co-sponsor of HJ resolution 89, a constitutional amendment to make marriage a union between one man and one woman. Every time I read that a congressman is proposing a constitutional amendment, I immediately think pandering. Such a constitutional amendment won't happen in my lifetime, so what's the point beside getting votes from the base? Pandering is not productive.

Dave Patterson

Ramona

Check the facts on Carter's legacy

I'm responding to G. Jean Snyder's letter that blames Jimmy Carter for the problems we face today (June 6). Did Jean check any facts before writing? Let's take a look at the facts. The only successful Middle East treaty in history is the one signed by Israel and Egypt. It was signed on March 26, 1979. It was negotiated by Jimmy Carter. Having the only success of any president gives him reason to shoot off his mouth.

In 1972 the United States returned Okinawa to Japan. Jimmy Carter wasn't elected until November 1976. He didn't take office until January 1977. Wasn't Nixon president? Negotiations to turn the Panama Canal over to Panama were started in 1974. Wasn't Nixon president? The first gas lines were in 1973. Again, who was president? Gas prices went from an average of 30 cents per gallon to 75 cents a gallon in 1975. Wasn't Ford president? Yes, Jean is right, gas prices reached the dollar mark under Jimmy Carter. They fluctuated up and down between a dollar and a dollar fifty until the Bush administration took office.

The Carter administration is not responsible for the American lives lost in Iraq, the highest unemployment in over 20 years, or the housing market collapse. It is not responsible for selling our country to China to finance an illegal war. That responsibility belongs to the present administration.

Thomas Cowan Jr.

Escondido

Proud of what Hillary accomplished

I am so proud of what Hillary has accomplished for all of us. Remember, there are only 87 women out of 535 seats in the U.S. Congress today. Our country is 232 years old! Now, onward, to make sure Barack Obama becomes our president in November.

There are so many intelligent, fully qualified Democrats he can choose for his VP and Cabinet. Something that was sorely lacking in the last seven years. I hope John Edwards will be considered for Attorney General and Bruce Fein and/or John Dean to be advisers. Both are such champions and scholars of the law. But that's just my opinion.

We need strong, no-nonsense people to get this country back on course …. with no more secret back-door decisions that always leave the people out in the cold and the corporations making policy. Obama's announcement that no more lobbyist and PAC money will be accepted is such a great, positive, immediate move. I don't envy them for the task of taking on the tremendous disaster that the Bush/Cheney reign has left this country in. It will be hard and take time, but can we do it? Yes, we can.

Joanne Goodwin

Oceanside