RAIN on them: Replace all incumbents now

Guys … if we vote for a politician who won't or can't answer a question without stammering, changing the subject or double-talking, we are supporting a scoundrel.

If you look at it as a train that has gone around the bend, jumped the tracks and is tumbling down a hill, you can see what these posers have done to our country, our treasury and our economy. We are in free fall and they don't have a clue what to do, well, except tax us for sunlight and call it global warming.

Windmills and sun traps (solar panels) aren't going to get us out of this mess our trusted public (self) servants have gotten us and our great-grandchildren into. Oil until nukes can. But the same self-serving plutocrats who dug this hole surely won't, can't, and though they will assure you they are working on it, we know they aren't. They are stalling until they can move to Dubai with our wealth.

RAIN on them: Replace All Incumbents Now.

Fred Schuster

Vista

Stop blaming copper!

The value of copper has nothing to do with the theft of copper

href="http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/07/08/news/inland/vc/z3e43d88cd1c996bf88257480005f6a86.txt">"Alleged copper thief arrested," July 8)

Until meth arrived, theft of copper was not a threat to society. The problem is drug addiction. The solution is custody. As long as the bad guys are in custody, stealing copper is not possible. Rehabs mostly create jobs for people working in rehabs; little or nothing to do regarding protection of stealing copper and precious family grave markers to our loved ones.

Known felons are sometimes hired by California Superior Courts for rehab. Stop that. Having a known felon working in state courts is sinful. Wonder how many known felons work in federal courts? … Make selling metals as hard as cashing a check; thumbprint, picture ID, please. Push the burden onto the thief, not copper. Forget rehab, do the time and we will be safer knowing where the bad guys are. Fifty percent of bad guys will be back in prison in six months, 87 percent in 18 months.

Michael Kearns

Vista

Surrounded in Afghanistan

Our soldiers and Marines are fighting the Taliban on their front, but are being attacked on their right flank by Pakistan, which is giving protection and support to the same Taliban. Also, there is an enemy at their rear in the form of the corrupt Karzai administration. …

We need to pressure Karzai's politicians to take an interest in their own people. Their farmers need protection from the Taliban, seeds to fertilize for food crops, markets where they can sell their harvest and farm-to-market roads.

A total of $230 million in aid is going to Pakistan, but little of that will be used to deter the Taliban from using the tribal areas on the border. The Pakistanis are more concerned with building up their arsenal for defense against their perceived enemy, India. If we cannot convince the Pakistan and Afghanistan leaders to help us instead of the Taliban, how can we ever win the war? If we can't win Afghanistan, why are we there? It seems we are fighting global terrorism and nobody is helping or cares, and I don't mean by just sending troops, but by pressuring Pakistan and Afghanistan to help instead of hinder.

Robert de Georges

Encinitas

No American hydrogen car

Jerry Sarnataro (Letters, June 22) is ignorant of what is happening in the real world. He states that Honda and Toyota have hydrogen cars and are ahead of the United States. He does not know that GMC has more than 100 hydrogen-power cars running in four major cities. He blames George Bush for this. He states that Toyota had an electronic car in the '90s, and the U.S. didn't. But he doesn't blame Bill Clinton for this. GMC had an electronic car in the '90s, but the batteries at that time limited its range.

By the way, Mr. Sarnataro, the Japanese companies are subsidized by their government.

Max Hagan

Ramona

Liberals know what's best for you

It was interesting to read the opinion that one of the letter writers had of John McCain's Social Security check (July 29.) This letter should be cut out and posted on every refrigerator as a good example of what will happen if the Democrats gain control of the three branches of government, where we would have far-left socialists running our country. They want his check sent back to the government because they think he has too much money. This is the typical mind-set of liberals who think they have the right and know better how to spend our money and to whom it should go.

Soon, the Social Security check would not be enough, and they would again have to take more money from deserving Americans to fund their other entitlement programs.

John McCain and every other American has a right to donate their time and money as they wish, and not have self-serving, power-hungry, ill-informed liberals run their personal and financial lives. The arrogance of these people is scary.

Barbara Peterson

Escondido

Let people express their opinions

The July 17 Vista Unified School District school board meeting was more civilized and less fluff, and ended at 10:30 p.m. Thanks to all participants for the improvement. But the board still demonstrates rude behavior to both the audience and its own members.

At the meeting, I thought I was watching young boys in a sandbox, all yelling. In particular, Jim Gibson interrupted audience members and fellow board member Carol Herrera many times in mid-sentence. … Herrera is one of our elected board members, her voice is important. We parents want to hear her views. …

The behavior is unacceptable. I would not allow my kids to act that rudely. We don't need our board members setting a bad example for our kids.

Robine Lewis

Vista

We don't need more of what we've got

In 1974, President Richard Nixon got run out of office for spying (Watergate scandal). This week, our president and our United States Congress approved spying on not just the other political party, but on every United States citizen. In effect, they threw out the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution, yours and my right to privacy. Nixon is smiling in his grave. Did anyone hear Obama or McCain utter any objections? Will either care as we lose even more of our rights?

I hope everyone knows how to spell Ron Paul as a write-in candidate in November. If you haven't spent five minutes on your computer to check this patriot out yet, please do so before November. If you are thinking "wasted vote," think Obama or McCain. We sure as heck don't need more of what we've got.

Bill Hasty

Escondido

Batman sequel no place for toddlers

Sunday afternoon found me sitting in the Krikorian Theatre in Vista watching the latest Batman installment, "The Dark Knight," and wondering just what would compel parents to bring infants and toddlers into a dark and very loud movie theater to see a movie so ill-suited to very young children. A great flick, TDK is also dark, violent and very loud.

The theater had 10 to 15 babies and toddlers in strollers, seats and in their parents' arms. Maybe the parents just didn't know any better, maybe they thought a 3-month-old would enjoy trying to nap as onscreen, buildings blew up and the Joker murdered victim after victim. Maybe they thought it was fun for the other patrons to listen to their 4-year-old loudly ask question after question.

Maybe the parents are just personal-gratification junkies who were too cheap to pay for a sitter, too selfish to make the sacrifice to go see "Kung-Fu Panda" instead or too self-centered to wait for TDK to come out on DVD.

It's ironic that a movie with such a strong theme of self-sacrifice was so eagerly attended by parents who cannot begin to grasp the concept.

Lisa Galloway

Oceanside

GOP no longer so grand

I was raised in a Republican household, and am ashamed and alarmed that this Republican Party has lost its moral compass. During Nixon's impeachment, it was the Grand Old Party that enforced the Constitution, as was their duty.

It's obvious that the old party no longer exists, and certainly there is nothing grand about what it has become. Shame on all of you Republicans for being complicit. You should be impeached and tried alongside this administration.

Janelle Payne

San Marcos

Which political party is fiscally responsible?

In January, 1981, when Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush took office, the U.S. national debt was $0.93 trillion. It had taken almost 200 years to get there. By January 1989, when George H.W. Bush and Dan Quayle took over, it had grown to $2.70 trillion, an increase of $1.76 trillion, or 189 percent, in just eight years. That's a phenomenal average of 23.6 percent per year.

In January 1993, when Bush/Quayle left, and Bill Clinton and Al Gore took office, the debt had risen to $4.17 trillion, an increase of $1.47 trillion, or 54 percent in four years, an average growth of 13.6 percent per year. In January 2001, after eight years of Clinton/Gore, the debt was $5.72 trillion. That's an increase of $1.55 trillion, or 37 percent over eight years, a rather modest 4.6 percent per year. Then George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took over.

By June 2008, the latest figures available, the national debt was at $9.49 trillion, an increase of $3.78 trillion in seven years and five months. That's a 66 percent increase, an average of 8.9 percent per year. Tell me once again, which political party is fiscally irresponsible?

George Driver

Fallbrook

Newcomer isn't so new

Thank you, North County Times, for your coverage of the Encinitas City Council election. Having been described as "a relative newcomer" in Ruth Webster's July 28 article "City Council race is one to watch." I'd like to let Encinitas residents know that, although this is my first run for elected office, I've been very involved in regional policy issues for more than 20 years, including as chairwoman of the county's Health Services Advisory Board. We've also lived in New Encinitas since 1993.

I'd like to bring my abilities to work with people with diverse points of view to help improve the quality of life in the city I love. I look forward to the opportunity to listen to your concerns.

Harriet Seldin

Encinitas