Does Obama have a grasp on reality?

I am a Democrat who gladly admits that I didn't ever vote for George W. Bush. However, I am beginning to wonder whether Barack Obama has a grasp on reality.

Soon after the Gulf oil explosion, the Dutch offered enough skimmers to eliminate 20,000 tons of oil daily. Obama said, "No, thanks." A manufacturer in Maine had 80,000 feet of oil boom and a production capacity of 42,000 feet per day. Obama said, "No, thanks."

Universal health care was an emergency and had to be passed ... yet Obama waits until 54 days into the Gulf oil disaster before he summons the CEO of British Petroleum to meet with him.

Obama meets with Spike Lee, and says, "I need to know whose ass to kick." I wonder what movie that line came from?

I believe Obama is using the Gulf oil disaster to stop all offshore drilling and to make sure that his cap and trade bill passes before the November elections. This is not a leader, this is just another politician whose actions are governed by political agendas and opinion polls. This is not the "change" that the American people were sold when he was elected.

Leonard Handzlik

Aguanga

Obama's priorities are screwed up

Like a spoiled brat, President Obama got his wish for government-controlled health care, which, by the way, is doomed to fail, just like Medicare, Social Security, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

But where is he when it comes to solving the problems with the oil spill in the Gulf? If anything should have been taken over, it should have at least been the British Petroleum cleanup efforts. Maybe the government does not have the technological resources to plug the leak, but they certainly could have taken over the cleanup operations. If Obama had any guts, he would freeze BP's assets to ensure that all cleanup costs would be paid.

Instead, BP will probably claim bankruptcy, change its name and taxpayers will be stuck with another bailout. And how could he possibly turn down the offers from some European countries to provide ships that were specifically outfitted to clean up surface oil that has ruined the fishing industry, migrated into marshes, killing wildlife, and now onto beaches, killing businesses?

With all undue respect, the president's priorities are all screwed up.

Mike Kelly

Murrieta

Residents have right to preserve quality of life

Since my letter of May 25, at least four supporters of Granite Construction's quarry have written letters extolling the virtues of Granite and attacking opponents. As usual, each of these writers ignored the question I had raised: Where is the water going to come from for this extensive operation?

Rick Kellogg (Community Voices, May 30) touts "the high quality of rock in the proposed area" while failing to address the negative impacts. ...

Bob Kowell (Community Voices, June 11) babbles about how water is getting scarce and how rock lawns would be better for us. While this may be true, he condemns "opponents' talking points" without specifically confronting them. He even goes on to suggest "living at the beach" to avoid possible silica dust.

Ezra Chapman (Community Voices, June 11) warns of 1,500 trucks coming from Corona if the quarry is denied. Is that 1,500 per day, per week, per month or per year? Anyone who really thinks Granite's operations (quarry, concrete plant, asphalt plant and concrete recycling plant) will reduce area truck traffic is ... totally lacking in common sense ...

Residents of the Southwest County have a right to fight for their quality of life, and if these people don't like it, they can move to the beach.

Chris Dejan

Murrieta

Column will expand students' horizons

I applaud and am impressed by the letters from Rebecca Wambua and Heidi Wise in the June 8 edition of The Californian. However, the girls are young, idealistic and gain most of their insight from their teachers and fellow students with personal agendas.

I recommend they read the column of George Will, "Democrats, teachers use phony crisis to expand funding," published June 8 in the Press Enterprise and other major newspapers.

Even at their young age, with no life experience to draw on, they will profit from getting the other side from their knowledgeable and not-so-naive elders.

Paul Puma

Temecula

Anti-immigration or anti-Mexican?

By the recent letters in The Californian, it appears that writers always state "anti-immigration." But do they mean "anti-immigration" against all immigrants, or do they mean "anti-illegal immigration" or "anti-Latino/Hispanic/Mexican"?

For their edification: All Latinos or Hispanics are not "Mexican," which shows the obvious bias or obvious ignorance of these writers. It appears from the tone of these writers that they are regressing to the 1950s when Latinos (or Mexicans, as they called them) were not only discriminated against, but attacked by whites in the so-called "Zoot Suit Riots."

Randolf Aragon

Murrieta

Editor's note:

The remaining letters that ran in today's Californian can be found under the North County Times letters section at www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/.