Health care costs

Has anyone investigated (pursued through the Freedom of Information Act?) just what our government pays for health care coverage for the U.S. Representatives and the U.S. Senators -- to say nothing of their vast staffs?

Seems like a good talking point.

Katie Wheeler

Encinitas

Send a message to Oceanside unions

Should Oceanside residents voice their displeasure with the recall election by boycotting it?Abstaining will play directly into the hands of the unions, guaranteeing the recall's success. The unions will leave no stone unturned to get out their votes in favor of the recall.

On Dec. 8, send a loud and clear message to the unions: "We will not tolerate wasting nearly $500,000 of our hard-earned tax dollars on your attempted power grab!" Join with thousands of your fellow Oceanside residents voting no on the recall ballot.

Randy Horton | Oceanside

Huddled masses are here

The huddled masses yearning to be free are here. They stand on the side of the freeways, on the street corners, in the fields. Little Oaxacan bodies, Paleolithic statues in the sun. Melancholy brown eyes searching, searching, searching for the lamp beside the golden door.

Shirley Turner

Escondido

Israel violates international law

Secretary of State Clinton described the Israeli agreement to reduce settlement building as unprecedented. Stopping some violations of international law, unprecedented? There has been little change in building illegal settlements on territories occupied by Israel for decades and everyone knows this is a major cause of terrorism in the Middle East. International law has also been violated in the recent attack on Gaza by Israeli forces which killed some 1,400 people, 80 percent civilians.

The United States condemnation of the U.N. Goldstone report on the attack is an attempt to shield Israel from accountability. There have been no U.S. specific concerns about the factuality of the report, only that it is biased. There may be bias, but after reading the report there can be no doubt that numerous war crimes have been committed. The House resolution condemning the report, which passed overwhelmingly, is totally inconsistent with our principles and is nothing more than Israeli special-interest damage control.

Some would say the reason for all this is our "special" relationship with Israel. I would prefer we have a special relationship to the rule of law and human rights regardless of religion, power, money and influence.

Mike Thielk

Fallbrook

Thank our own government

In response to Janet Osborn's letter in the Community Voices section on Oct. 28: I have to agree with the phone book issue -- enough already!

However, I don't thank Mexico for "all the illegals that screw up our United States of America." Thank our government for allowing the illegals into our country and allowing them to remain and receive all the benefits that the rest of us employed help support.

Anthony Marella

Carlsbad

Is the North County Times going broke?

Usually when a company is going under, they attempt to fix the problem. I have hesitated switching to the other paper because they don't cover as much Oceanside news. However, the quality of printing in the North County Times has gone from bad to worse. It started with faded sections and white-outs, and progressed to black blotches, streaks and creases. NCT news coverage is outstanding, but if you get a defective newspaper, it's inconvenient waiting around for a replacement.

On Oct. 18, several pages in three sections had deep creasing. At one time, the paper was flawless, but now Oceanside is dying for a paper that can be read without having to pull at both sides of the paper, trying to remove the wrinkles that cause eye strain and frustration.

If the paper is having financial difficulties, raise the newspaper rates by 10 cents a day, fix or replace the aging presses and start putting out a product you can be proud of. As a longtime customer, I don't think that's too much to ask.

June Kristapovich

Oceanside

We can't afford illegal immigrants

Re: "Undercover sting used to cite, deport Carlsbad day laborers," Nov. 2: Nowhere in the article is the word "illegal" used. The last I knew, this is not a bad word. Yet it does point out a major problem in this country being completely ignored by those elected in the D.C. puzzle palace. Election time is coming. Incumbents need to go.

We, the taxpayers, can't afford the invasion from the south any longer. Do it at election time, or amnesty will be shoved down our throats again and we taxpayers will be footing the bill.

Walter Jennings Sr.

Oceanside

GOP needs to devise its own health plan

Ladies and gentlemen of the Republican Party: It is time for the United States of America to come up with a laudable national health care program. We conservatives know that we don't want what Pelosi, Reid, and Obama would give us. But rather than just fooling around ensuring that the Pelosi/Reid/Obama plan fails, conservatives should be devising their own health care plan.

Numerous Republican members of Congress have presented their own partial plans and Band-Aids. Their efforts are appreciated, but what they have done is not enough. Republicans should take the bull by the horns: Take the health care issue away from the Democrats and make it their own by focusing on as large a bite as the Democrats have been dealing with. ...

And don't you realize that if you came up with a health care program without all the absurdities you rail against in the Pelosi/Reid/Obama plan, you would be assured of retaining a Republican majority in government for years and years to come? My God, there are any number of ways we can correct our health care shortcomings -- if we could only find the right people to handle this problem with integrity rather than vituperation.

Go for it! Make it happen!

David and Dolores Burwell

Carlsbad

Kudos to voters of Maine

Kudos to the voters of Maine for repealing a law that legalized same-sex marriages in that state, just like last year when California voters like myself passed Proposition 8 that banned gay marriage.

Juan Blanco Jr.

Valley Center

Letter writer sees all

I must be clairvoyant because I see the self-proclaimed seers on all things Israel, good ole Chris Pulse, Sorab Ghandi, the what's-their-names couple, and the rest of the "Friends of Israel" at their monthly meeting.

I see it as the meeting unfolds. "Well, whatˇcountry shall we attack today? Let's take out the globe of the world and surely we can find somethingˇbadˇabout one of them." Out comes the globe and as they rotate it, it'sˇall blank but forˇa little tiny speck called Israel. "Ah-ha," they say, "There's one."

I doubt if any of them know where Israel is, hence the tiny speck. After writing the attacks on this speck, happily they put the globe away until the next meeting. They close with the mantra, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who are the biggest anti-Semites of them all?"

We all know the answer. Ad nauseam, ad infinitem. What a group.

Phil Epstein

Carlsbad

Writer puts foot in mouth

Finally, Brandon Webb put his foot in his mouth when he asked, "When did we 'murder millions' in an effort to rule the world?" (Letters, Oct. 28). In one word, Vietnam. It is estimated that 3 million to 4 million were killed and it had nothing to do with Communist expansion.

Israel our friend? They are a parasite on this country and cause us no end of trouble. We can do without friends like this. Webb and his ilk don't do any research. Webb's cohorts talk about socialism, running around the world with a big stick and how we can't afford to spend a trillion dollars over 10 years for health care but can spend a trillion, or 10 trillion, a year on war.

Webb and his cohorts can't wait to get their copy of those incoherent ramblings by their bimbo heroine, Sarah Palin. The one who said this downturn was caused by regulation. Webb's cohorts say Beck and Limbaugh are giving us the truth. Ignorant people don't know the truth. You know truth by study, not listening to some demagogue.

Quite frankly, I think there is something wrong with these clueless flag-wavers.

Chris Pulse

Vista

Proud of Obama's Nobel Peace prize

We consider ourselves an exceptional people, ever since John Winthrop's sermon in 1630 when he declared that we should be as "a city on the hill." This irritates many nations, who delight in the fact that we ranked 13th in the latest UN study on human development. In a single year, however, President Obama has recaptured our status of being the most admired nation in the world.

The Nobel committee, which awarded him the Peace Prize, cited that he has created "a new climate in international politics" and added that "only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention, and given its people hope for a better future." Inasmuch as a leader of a nation sets the tone, this is praise of a very high order

Using the cover of patriotism, there are some who would delight in dragging the United States into the gutter, if they can succeed in doing the same to Obama. To them, I say, a pox on you. For my part, I am very proud of this Nobel Peace prize, awarded to our nation, and not just to our president.

Sorab Ghandhi

Escondido

Prophetic bumper sticker

I saw a bumper sticker on a car with other slogans indicating that the driver was a "semper fi" Marine. It read: "I love my country, but fear the elected officials."

How true these words were!

Merrill Brown

Oceanside

Stop playing politics with soldiers' lives

I hope and pray that by the time this is published, President Obama has stopped playing politics with the lives of soldiers in Afghanistan. More of our brave soldiers have died there since he became president. If he is waiting until the election so as not to upset the far left, then this is unconscionable. Obama is not in Illinois where he can say "present" to avoid making a decision. Also, I remember when the left demanded flag-draped coffins be shown on TV. Where is the clamor for that now? Hypocrisy.

Not only are people getting pretty sick of all the hypocrisy that goes on with the left, they are also sick and tired of being called racists if they disagree with Obama. Sure, there are racists on both sides, but it is not the majority of the people. It is policy.

I would suggest Obama stay home and stop campaigning, stop playing golf all the time, and stop having so many extravagant parties and concentrate on the economy and putting people back to work again. Didn't the left say much worse about Bush? Hypocrisy.

Jean Carroll

Carlsbad

How much do insurers make on flex accounts?

The article in the Nov. 2 paper regarding flex spending ("Flex spending accounts face hit in health overhaul") brings to light a question: Why are the insurance companies vying for the right to allow the insured to save more money this way? Given that it saves a mere 15 percent (pre-tax dollars saved), the amount that the insurers make on the funds that are not spent should be transparent.

It seems the only reason that an insurance company would want to maintain flex spending amounts would be to increase profits. The only way the insurance company clearly profits from these accounts is by pocketing the money left over when the insured does not use all the funds in the account. I cannot imagine that the interest alone would generate enough profit to matter, especially given that the companies cannot determine when the payouts will occur throughout the year. Further, if accruing interest were the motivating factor in maintaining these accounts, then the insurance companies would refund or rollover the funds into the next fiscal year.

I sure would like to know how much these companies pocket from unused flex spending accounts each year.

Sarah Turitto

Cardiff

Very old trick

It's a very old trick. While the right hand promises, the left hand takes away. We are told that "middle class" taxes won't increase, only those incomes over $500,000 (the rich) will increase -- not to worry! That's the right hand promising.

Meanwhile, the left hand is devaluing the dollar at an overwhelming rate. It's very simple economics. At the rate the government is overprinting money, inflation (takes about two or three years) will raise middle incomes to far exceed $500,000. Is anyone naive enough to think the feds or the states will adjust their tax tables accordingly? No! They won't!

We are being scammed. There is a war being waged against the dollar and we -- the average struggling Americans, Independents, like myself, Democrats and Republicans -- will all be the losers. Wise up! When someone is trying to divide us, i.e., rich versus poor, they are really out to "conquer" us -- another old trick. Now what kind of American would want to do that to the rest of us?

Roy Parker

Oceanside