Toys for Tots needs your help

I have been a volunteer for 35 years with the Toys for Tots North County. This year, our unit aboard Camp Pendleton moved to Cherry Point, N.C., and the Toys for Tots North County has been left without Marine Corps reps.

With all my will, I have put together Marines and sponsors to collect toys. I need to get the message out on drop-off points and events. We need to save our community program. I have been giving fundraisers, but I have a long way to go to meet all the needs of our county.

Please call me. All I need is a little of the paper's space to get the word out. I can be reached at (760) 725-4673. This is the warehouse number Camp Pendleton was so kind to let me use. I refuse to let the program die. I will get out on street corners with signs if I have to. Please help.

Deborah Anderson

Toys for Tots coordinator

Vista

Put Warren Buffett in charge of crisis

To our nation's leaders: President-elect Obama, House and Senate majority and minority leaders: We urge them to act on this proposal to control the current national financial and economic crisis.

In a direct appeal to the congressional leadership, this action is proposed: that Warren Buffett be requested to form and chair an emergency economic recovery team of savvy multimillionaires to: 1) raise $100 billion-plus in private capital for strategic investments in American companies operating in the U.S.; 2) provide direction and monitor and critique the congressional and administration efforts in the trillion-dollar-plus bailout effort.

Buffett has earned the respect of many Americans and of world leaders. By appealing to his patriotism and to the severity of the national crisis, such a joint urgent request by the leadership of both the House and Senate may be the only major effective move to ensure confidence in the rescue efforts.

Like fighting a wildfire, it must be done now to prevent dire consequences to our nation and to the world. We've read that to stem the panic of 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt, in addition to federal moves, urged John Pierpont Morgan to take similar action to that proposed above â€"â€" it worked.

George and Florence Elliott

Oceanside

What reports on the economy mean

Reports on the condition of the economy of our country should be judged by the financial well-being of the average citizen, not the profits of the big corporations. Good-paying jobs are the basis of a strong economy. The criteria to define a strong economy have changed drastically since the practice of replacing American labor with cheaper foreign labor has become common. If big corporations are doing well, it no longer assures that the economy is doing well.

For the same reason, a strong stock market like we had before the housing and loan crisis did not indicate a strong economy as some politicians assumed. When a big corporation replaces 20,000 American workers with cheaper foreign labor, their profits skyrocket but the replaced workers, who used to be a financial asset to our economy, now become a financial liability.

Contrary to what this administration has told us, outsourcing American jobs to foreign workers is bad for our economy. It often is more advantageous when the foreign workers live in the U.S., so now big business is pushing for an expansion of the worker's visa programs. No matter how it is presented, over $20 per hour, American labor cannot compete with less than $2 per hour foreign labor in this global trading system.

Herbert Pairitz

Carlsbad

Letter prompted a few thoughts

An interesting letter showed up a few days ago titled "Peggy the Moocher." It brought up a few thoughts. First, of the $700 billion bailout, what do you think is more likely, 70 million poor people each get $10,000 or 70,000 rich people each get $10 million?

Second, do you realize that all the states except Texas that voted for John McCain get more money from the federal government than they pay in taxes? It's the blue states that are subsidizing the red states. I don't mind paying a little to help those that haven't had the advantages that I had. What I don't like is my money going to the rich, and I don't like giving money to people who call me a moocher.

David Osterberg

Escondido

Questionable comic choices

We all understand that you have to trim back due to the economic downturn. However, your choice of what to keep and what to drop from the Sunday comics comes into question. Why did you drop "Prince Valiant" and keep "Doonesbury?" "Doonesbury" belongs on the editorial page, not in the Sunday comics. There is no more political and biased item (outside of New York Times news articles) in print.

Robert Housman

Solana Beach

Prop. 8 and the American way

A recent letter-writing campaign has the following theme: 1. America is a democracy. 2. The majority has spoken. 3. Losers should accept the will of the majority and end their protests. The ignorance of those with this position is appalling!

First, America is not a democracy; it is a republic.

Second, the Constitution and Bill of Rights were written, in part, to protect rights of minorities from tyranny of the majority. If we had majority rule, women might still not have the right to vote, slavery or segregation might still be with us and interracial marriage likely would not be allowed.

Third, all efforts to achieve civil rights have initially gone against the will of the majority. They all involved protests demanding the recognition of inalienable rights and were all opposed by fundamentalists. Peaceful protests are the American way and protected by the Constitution.

Finally, to those who hide behind the Mormon or Christian faith to justify their self-righteous bigotry, you do not speak for true Christians. Many Christian churches want the right to marry same-sex couples. Judge not, lest ye be judged. Pray for enlightenment and turn to the teaching of Jesus for guidance.

Robert Borden

Escondido

This line will not be crossed

Reading the article of Nov. 16 by Tracy Rolling, it was clear that the photo showed fewer than 100 protesters, yet Tracy reported nearly 500 opponents of Proposition 8 ("Disappointed voters march to repeal Prop. 8"). I guess that's a close call for a reporter.

Perhaps you folks forget that 52 percent, or 52 of every 100 Californians, supported Prop 8. Just think. If we were all homosexuals, we wouldn't have to worry about overcrowding in our schools or on our freeways.

Didn't anyone ever grow up in a normal family where you had a mother and father who loved you and took care of you and whom you wanted to be like? Has our country really turned into a class of people that no one will be proud to call home? The fact that many of our elected officials supported "no on 8" only means we should replace those who do not agree with us, no matter what party they belong to.

And only a homosexual can see Prop. 8 as denying them their civil rights. They have a right to marry, but there is a line they shouldn't cross and a man marrying a man or woman marrying a woman is where that line is.

Clyde Cobb

Oceanside

Kudos to Escondido

We salute the hard work and courage of Chief Maher, the Escondido Police Department and the Escondido city government for having the guts to enforce illegal driver and code enforcement laws, thus making their city a much safer place for its citizens.

We live in Vista, and are envious of all you've accomplished. We hold you up as a model and hope your example and many successes will encourage our do-nothing city government to follow suit. Everywhere we go, we hear people talking about the great job they are doing in Escondido, and we agree.

So kudos, and thanks from your neighbors to the west. What you're doing is having a positive effect on us all.

John and Suellen Shea

Vista

Letter showed pure ignorance

I've suffered through the thousands of Bush-bashing letters the last few years, and now we'll suffer through the Obama-bashing letters for the next four years from the right, but never have I read a more ignorant, ill-thought-out letter than that from Joseph Oppenheim (Nov. 15) titled, "Not all veterans deserve our thanks."

He states that celebrating all our veterans of all wars would be like Germany celebrating all their veterans, or our celebrating our Vietnam vets or those veterans who wiped out the Native American culture. If this individual wants to not honor someone, he should look to the government who put our veterans in that position, the government leaders who sent our young men and women overseas to fight those wars. …

Many from the Vietnam era were drafted to go fight that lousy war. And the war in Iraq? So if you want to object, go march on Washington. Better yet, go to the military hospitals and see our young men and women with severe brain injuries or who have lost limbs. Yell at them to their faces that they have no honor. He should be honoring them and not damning them. And please, don't write any more letters on subjects of which you know nothing.

Frank Bodden

Carlsbad

The no's blew it

The "Yes on 8" side wouldn't have had a chance against a well-focused, intelligent and disciplined opposition. Instead, the "no's" obligingly gave it the winning boost it needed with their inept, disorganized campaign and their counterproductive, self-absorbed recreational indignation. Did they actually believe screaming at Mormons in front of their church and demonstrating with anti-religious epithets would do anything but strengthen the opposing vote? I doubt it. More likely, acting out for the TV cameras in the culture wars is just great, self-affirming fun and doing the tough analytical, organizational and planning work essential to win votes is no fun at all. …

Incidentally, this straight married male voted no on 8, for the only reason that should have mattered to anyone: It's profoundly bad constitutional law.

Dale Delmege

Escondido

The grown-ups are back in charge

Numerous letters predicting the failure of the coming Obama presidency have been written since the election, before he's even sworn in! This campaign of lies, Internet innuendo and groundless name-calling has been thoroughly repudiated by the American voters. Why do they think their whiny scare tactics will make any difference now? Who do they think is listening to them?

These right-wing extremists have gotten everything wrong so far. We tried it their way, and look where it got us. They have trashed our economy, misdirected military resources away from the real terrorists to a quagmire in Iraq, declared war on science (evolution, climate change, stem-cell research), devastated civil liberties, destroyed our international reputation and, in an effort to shrink the government to a size that they could "drown it in the bathtub," have rendered government utterly incompetent.

The party is over. Conservatives are like wild teenagers whose corporate greed and economic mayhem have trashed the place while Mom and Dad were out. Now they must face the grown-ups who are back in charge, while leaving behind one doozy of a hangover.

Douglas Dunn

Escondido

Is NCT ever embarrassed by the AP?

Isn't the North County Times a tad bit embarrassed to keep running misleading Associated Press stories about the rich and poor â€"â€" most recently, "Number of working poor increased from 2002 to 2006," Oct. 15.

Anything from the agenda-driven AP is automatically suspect, and boy, do you rely on the AP a lot. You publish the AP stories, people read them and then comment in letters, and ignorance is spread across the land. I know, I know, I was told you don't claim to print the truth â€"â€" you simply print what people say.

At minimum, for a semblance of balance, you could run countervailing articles on income statistics by Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Robert Rector, which completely, totally and wholly demolish the interpretive baloney put out by the Associated Press. The AP, as Andrew Lang would say, "uses statistics as a drunk uses lamp-posts … for support rather than illumination."

Fred Schnaubelt

Rancho Bernardo

How the mighty have fallen

My, how the mighty have fallen. So while we good, patriotic Americans were sending our soldier boys and girls off to create a bloody mess in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to protect us from those terrorists, our president and his administration were busy shredding our Constitution and helping their cohorts in the private sector destroy our economy. But these flag-wavers never learn.

We should be raising our children to do something positive with their lives instead of telling them that putting on a uniform and going over to some other country and killing some other mother's children makes them a hero. We have these Marines telling us all the successes they are having in Iraq. The only thing our military has accomplished in Iraq has been bringing catastrophe to the Iraqi people. And now our government wants the Iraqis to sign a security agreement so that we can stay in perpetuity. Signing an agreement with the U.S. is like dealing with the devil.

On the election of Barack Obama, one Iraqi said that presidents come and go, but the U.S. foreign policy never changes. One can only hope that our problems will bring an end to our imperial hubris.

Chris Pulse

Vista

Checkpoints violate Fourth Amendment

The police checkpoints are unconstitutional. They are being touted as a solution to stop illegal immigrant drivers, unlicensed drivers or repeat DUI offenders. I believe these occurrences will continue regardless of checkpoints. Illegal immigrants are not within the police officer's job description, and once the court tries to convict them, for say, a DUI, they cannot prove that person exists, so they cannot prosecute, and oftentimes these offenders are released with a small fine.

The reason that checkpoints are unconstitutional is violation of the Fourth Amendment: illegal search and seizure. In some cases, such as the Denver Sheriff's Department, officers have assisted a checkpoint held by a private corporation, in which citizens were subject to "voluntary" gatherings of DNA samples from saliva and blood (Google it).

If you get stopped at a checkpoint, the person/officer has no right to stop you if he or she answers no to any of the following three questions: Are you an officer of the law? Am I being detained? Do you have probable cause? Newspapers print the checkpoint warnings so the police are already able say they have probable cause.

Arne Hansen

Valley Center

I used to really enjoy your paper

You keep asking in your paper for my opinion. Here it is: I would like a chance to win $1,000, but I can't enter because I am not computer-literate. I don't do www.coms.

Most of what I liked about the North County Times is gone, and I'm now paying $15.50 a month so I can have the TV schedule. Will I have to pay extra for stocks, the lowest gas prices, 2 cents worth to win $100, shop and tell, more than two pages of the food section, tomorrow's weather, police action in my area, etc.?

I used to enjoy your letters section, but now I find most of the same names writing letters that are disgusting and full of lies. How many people do Sudoku? Most of the business section is the classified section.

You wanted constructive criticism â€"â€" here it is! I used to really enjoy your paper.

Judith Tanksley

Vista

The Prop. 8 fiasco

I voted yes on Proposition 8, as did nearly 53 percent of California voters on Nov. 4. Barack Obama was elected president of the United States by roughly the same margin. I think it is important to note the strong "Yes on 8" votes, despite Attorney General Jerry Brown's deceitful change in the wording on the ballot!

We now have the radical homosexuals, the ACLU and even Gov. Schwarzenegger calling for Prop. 8 to be overturned by the courts. It is shocking that the rule of law may not exist. Gay marriage is not a civil rights movement. It is far from it. Exit polls showed 71 percent-plus of African-American voters in the state of California supported Prop. 8. African-Americans clearly understand this and will not be fooled by our liberal media and the radical homosexual movement.

The "No on 8" protesters terrorizing churches and citizens who dare to stand up for Prop. 8 need to stop. The tolerance crowd is showing its true colors. The homosexual activists are tolerant only if you support their agenda. I think it is time that we take a deep breath and move beyond this issue. Clearly, Californians want the definition of marriage to remain between one man and one woman.

David Klose

Escondido