Bad Politics

The following does not apply to those Republicans that are educated, thinking individuals.

With reference to the story about the visceral material distributed by elements of the Republican Party; I have acquaintances (formerly friends) that insist on forwarding the most degrading, bigoted, and just plain stupid remarks and illustrations of Barack Obama. They are generally based on ignorance of the facts and are meant to incite me by racist comments to vote for Senator McCain.

I can easily put them into the spam folder on my computer, but to think that these individuals are leading Republican Party groups is shameful and Senator McCain should repudiate those members of his party that participate in these actions.

Dear Republican

To all Republicans

You had eight years to straighten out the country. I want to congratulate you on a task well done. You have succeeded where no others have dared to go.

Thanks for a war that achieved nothing of significance and letting the terrorists escape. You have improved the expectations for the retired, I always wanted to try my cats food, now I have a chance and my cat is too fat anyway. The stocks that I invested for my retirement have all but disappeared along with the jobs they provided.

The bottom line is that your economic philosophy has bankrupted my country and is bankrupting me and my family. I am looking for a corner to sell the few oranges that grow in my back yard. I will help the economy by growing my own food but I am having problems finding space for the chickens and cows in my backyard.

Wake up before you had better learn to love rice three meals a day and are owned by China.

How to get out of the swamp

I think that the financial genius in Washington needs to allow credit to low again and to do something with mortgages that can't be paid. My suggestion is for the fed to buy home mortgages in foreclosure at market rates and then refinance them with an equity sharing note. If the house is sold, the government will get a share of the gain (sell price - cost basis).

There should be no free lunch.

What are the effects of high gas prices?

There is no point to consider the price of gasoline based on the price years ago. First, let us remember that the price of crude oil is being set by a cartel (OPEC), one that our government has been supporting in the belief that we are buying friends. A foolish task since our supposed friends has turned out to be (Al Kida from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Venezuela, Russia etc).

We collectively have helped support the high price of oil by refusing to conserve gasoline, buying gas guzzlers, not using public transportation.

Now we are pursuing ethanol as a cure all. Unfortunately the government has decided to pursue using corn as a feed stock (possibly as a bid to get votes from the farm states), instead of buying ethanol from Brazil at a more completive price. As a byproduct of using corn, we are raising the price of food to unprecedented levels. Since so much of our food supply is based on corn. Think of beef, chicken, carbonated drinks, cereal. Food crops have been displaced by farmers growing corn instead of other crops. Now we have not only the high price of gas but also a big increase in the price of food.

I think we must take the lead and pressure the government to allow ethanol from Brazil without the high import duty. We should also buy cars based on their gas mileage instead of the number and size of cup holders. Truck traffic should be allowed on the road during slow periods and truck only lanes should be provided to allow port traffic to keep out of the way of commuter traffic. Train traffic should be better coordinated to minimize congestion and overpasses should be built to separate car and train traffic.

We need to act now, before we destroy our economy and enter a recession.

Alternative Minimum Tax Time for an update

I agree with Representative Bono’s comment that the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) needs to be changed. The tax was originally designed to force taxpayers that receive large amounts of money and do not pay any income tax to pay a minimum amount of tax. It now has become a burden on many low income taxpayers because the AMT tax has not been indexed for inflation.

As an example, before the AMT went into effect a taxpayer could have received millions of tax free income from tax free municipal bonds or from tax avoidance schemes and pay no income tax whereas someone working at a job and receiving a 1040 tax statement must pay tax on small amounts of income.

Bono’s solution is to return to the old system of not taxing individuals that receive large amounts of tax free income. This is typical of the Republican Party’s philosophy of allowing the rich escape the tax burden and transferring it to the middle class.

The AMT should be retained in its original form and indexed for inflation. In fact, I would go even further and support legislation that would tax all sources of income above a minimum amount. Income is income no matter where it comes from.

What now Ollie?

It seems that every day more bad news about the administration in Washington (President Bush or his appointees) is being revealed. The worst by far, is the treatment of returning disabled soldiers by the military and Veterans Administration. We sent these men and woman overseas to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if injured, are returned to the US for care. Now, you don’t need to be an actuary to realize that if we send soldiers to war, there will be casualties and a need to hospitalize and treat them.

Our soldiers have been in active combat for over four years. Why didn’t the administration budget for, and provide funds to properly treat our returning soldiers? Is the president thinking about falling on his sword for the incompetence that is prevalent in his administration? He seems to make political appointees that are unable to perform their jobs. Political or religious philosophy is the only basis for appointment to a government job. From Supreme Court justice to the lowest political appointment the candidate must be vetted for both political and religious views.

I think it’s time we voted the leadership of the Republican party out of office and give some new candidates the opportunity to return our government to a philosophy of ”by the people and for the people”.

No drivers license and can’t read English

No drivers license and can’t read English

No drivers license and can’t read English. The result was a collision with a metro link train and a life lost. Before we consider giving a drivers license to a non English reading and speaking individual, the state must consider the danger that they are allowing to roam our streets and highways.

The same thought should apply to allowing Mexican truck drivers to drop off and pick up loads on our streets and highways. Can they read and speak English? Do the trucks and divers carry insurance in the event they cause injury or physical damage? Do the trucks burn low sulfur fuel or are they going to add to the pollution and particulate problem? Are the trucks safe and the drivers skilled enough to drive our freeways?

Is the administration (President Bush) willing to sacrifice our health and welfare in the name of NAFTA. I would expect that before any Mexican truck is allowed to freely roam the highways and byways of the United States they are inspected for having a qualified English reading and speaking driver, adequate insurance with a company based in the United States, and a safety inspected truck burning low sulfur fuel.

If the administration can’t insure these minimum requirements, then Mexican truck drivers should be banned from United States roads.

Medicare Plan D drug plan

Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

If you think the Republican Medicare Part D prescription drug plan did you a favor, consider this. In 2006 my total cost of prescriptions was $2,839 of which I paid $696. The allowable Medicare limit for the basic coverage was $4,000. If the total cost of medication, including the portion I paid was in excess of $4,000, I would be forced to pay the full retail for non-generic medications. According to my health plan, these allowable costs and limits are Medicare rules.

Now for 2007, I am estimating that prescription costs will increase by 5% (the increase from 2005 to 2006) for a total amount of $2,981 of which I will pay $731. The kicker is that the Medicare limit has been reduced to $2,500. So, everything above the $2,500 limit (except for some generics) will have to be paid at full retail, not even at the reduced rate that my Medicare Part D drug plan pays.

If the Medicare limit keeps decreasing, it will go to $0 in a short time. In other words, the Medicare Part D drug plan is a scam fostered on American seniors by Congress and the President trying to win an election.

What can we do; encourage Congress to allow purchase of drugs from Canada (the cost can be as low as 50% of American retail), go to a single payer plan where Medicare can negotiate rates as is done by the VA, work with Congress to eliminate the donut hole in the Part D drug plan, stop the practice where a drug company can buy off generic drug manufacturers to keep the generics off the market while they continue to sell their higher priced drugs, and come up with a solution that is more equitable to American seniors.

I think that seniors should pay their fair share of prescription costs, but not be taken advantage of by the drug companies trying to improve their bottom line. Use of generics, and fair pricing for non-generics should be the Medicare drug plan goal. If our government can't do it, then turn the program over to Wal-Mart. They know how to cut costs and keep prices affordable.

The President's energy policy

The President and energy

The President still hasn't got the message. It is not enough to cut gasoline use by 20% over 10 years; especially when it will be done by the increasing use of ethanol. Ethanol requires corn as a feed stock. If you watch the commodity market, the price of corn is at an all time high. This will shortly transform into higher food prices as corn is a prime food for cattle and sweetener for soft drinks.

What he should have said is that America is at war, and starting now everyone, not only the troops in the field, will have to make sacrifices. Higher mileage standards for cars,trucks and users of gasoline and diesel fuel, lower highway speeds, more use of car polls and public transportation. In addition to conserving energy, we need a Manhattan type project to develop newer and more efficient energy sources including low risk nuclear power plants and nuclear reprocessing to reduce the amount of nuclear waste.

It is a shame the country doesn't have leadership in Washington. I can't wait for the next presidential election to get someone who can lead this country in trying times

Menorah Madness

In response to Sheila Link’s letter “printed under Menorah Madness” in the Press Enterprise, I would take exception that to her statement that the United States of America is a “Christian Country”.

As I can recall from a long ago civics class, this countries first non Indian inhabitants were either people from England who were trying to escape persecution for practicing their religion, or Spanish explorers who enslaved the native Indians and forced Christianity upon them.

The USA was founded on the principle that religion was a private matter and not the function of the government to either promote or reject. The same philosophy also applies to all public entities. If a church or an individual wants to display Christian symbols on their private property, that is acceptable but, a public agency does not have the right to display them on public property. If a public entity wants to display seasonal symbols, at the very least it has an obligation to display the symbols of all religious groups that want to contribute to the display.

Cell Phone Emergency Number

Helping Rescuers

The suggestion in the article “Cell phone plan aims to help rescuers” (Press Enterprise page D6-11/30/06) is an excellent idea. Although using “ICE” as a name/address in a cell phone to identify an emergency contact, it would be simpler to a) have the cell phone manufacturer provide a cell phone address location specifically for use in storing emergency phone numbers and b) paste the emergency phone numbers directly onto the cell phone, which can be done with existing phones.

In addition to the individual putting an emergency number into the phone, it is important to train emergency workers to look at a cell phone for emergency phone numbers.

God is OK but religion may not be

Why Mix God With Religion

An individual can or can not believe in God. After all, it is impossible to explain the reason for the existence of our complex universe. Someday science may come to our rescue, but until then, we can argue about the existence of an all empowering God.

Religion however is another story. History shows that there were many religions that had believers, rituals, and validity. One point should be recognized. Most of history atrocities were, and still are, being committed in the name of religion. Using the theory that “my god is better than your god,” millions of innocent people were, and still are, being killed.

Would the world be better off without all organized religions? How many more people would be alive to contribute to society? How much money could be saved by not spending on war machines and used instead to help the poor, sick, and inocent?

My argument is not to condemn any specific religion, but to offer the thought that without organized religion the world might be a safer place to live.

Letter to the editor:

Regarding the proposed city improvements

I am strongly in favor of the City of Riverside improving the quality of life for its residents. I find fault though with the proposed sources of revenue. For example, borrowing from the electric and sewer funds will prevent necessary repairs and upgrading to infrastructure and will require raising significant money in the future as these needs develop.

The parcel tax is another problem. For example, why should a single family home owner pay the same amount in additional tax as the owner of a 100 unit apartment complex? There are more tenants that will use the improvements in the apartment complex than a single family home owner would use. Wouldn’t it be more equitable for all citizens of Riverside to pay their fair share by making the parcel tax somewhat proportional to the number of residents living on that parcel? What about the large commercial properties? They will also pay the same as a single family home owner. Since they also benefit from an improved city environment; shouldn’t they pay more than the single family home owner?

As usual, the players in city hall have taken the easy way out and are again sticking it to the single family homeowner and avoiding taxing the big commercial interests in town.

Back home from trip

Glad to be home. The Oregon coast is beautiful but cool with a lot of fog. 1000Trails campground at Seaside OR is a wonderful place to visit with an RV.

Glad to be back but lots of weeds to get rid of at home.

Fighting Terrorism. Each life is important

I think that author of the letter on "Israeli Aggression" may have the right idea. After all, how important is the life of one soldier? Using the author’s logic that invasion of your country by a terrorist group is not important, why is the United States spending lives and treasure fighting the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan? Just as we recognize that the life of every soldier and civilian of the United States is very important, why shouldn't Israel?

Regarding Israel response to consistent attacks by terrorist groups from Gaza and the West Bank, I maintain that they are justified and necessary to protect Israeli citizens. If the "innocent" Palestinian citizens want peace, they can eliminate the terrorist thugs within their cities and villages by cooperating with the moderate authorities trying to get rid of them. As long as the citizens of Gaza and the West Bank continue to harbor suicide bombers and rocket firings, they are vulnerable to retaliation by Israel. I am sorry that "innocent" lives are being harmed by the Israeli response, but if there were no suicide bombers or rocket firings, there would be no Israeli response.

Need more poll workers

In response to Dan Bernstein

Is there a shortage of poll workers?

Why does the county have difficulty in getting people to work at the polls? I have volunteered as a poll worker for several years and I want to offer my observations.

The job as a poll worker starts the night before election day for setup and at 6:30 am during election day. It continues till 9:30 pm for all the paper work to be completed (polls close at 8:00 pm). County employees that work at the polls receive a full days pay plus $65. Non-county employees receive $65 or $4.33 for 15 plus hours work. I wonder how many more non-county volunteers there would be if the county paid them a decent wage. I think $150 per day would be a fair wage that would attract sufficient non-county volunteers. If a day laborer can receive a decent wage, why can't volunteer poll workers?

Local Traffic Problem

Letter to the Editor 5/5/06

Traffic Congestion

Riverside will be better off by annexing the areas under consideration. Not only will it benefit from the income provided by the growth of housing and commercial, but it will be better able to control the growth of traffic generated from the annexed areas. Now concerning traffic growth. The city is planning to widen Allesandro Blvd. in anticipation of additional traffic as well as accommodating existing traffic. What is going to happen when all the cars arrive at the intersection of Allesandro, Arlington, Chicago, and Central Avenue. The current situation, with cars backing up during rush hour, must be producing enormous quantities of pollution as well as wasting lots of gas.

Wouldn’t it be more efficient to provide better access to the freeways before Allesandro is widened? For example, widen Arlington and Central Avenues. Then at least the bottleneck at the corners of Allesandro and Arlington/Central/Chicago will not be as severe. By the way, what happened to the Overlook bypass that would divert traffic from Allesandro to the 91 Freeway? When will the city traffic planning department discuss proposed concepts with the residents that will be affected before they finalize their plans? After all, the residents probably know more about the problems then hired consultants.

Give me 10 good men and I will give you 10,000 more

Fight back against high gas prices at the pump.

Lets fight back against high gasoline prices. We can't buy Congress like the big corporate donors can, but we can influence the cost of gas at the pump by using free market economics.

As a start, only buy gas from the lowest cost dealer. If enough of us stop buying from the high price gas stations, and only buy from the lowest cost gas station, we will go a long way in stopping the oil companies from squandering our hard earned money ($300 million + as a going away present to the ex ceo of Exxon).

Cut up your gas company credit cards so you are not tied to one brand of gas.

Let us boycott one major oil company each month. Let us start by not buying gas from Exxon during the month of June. Since they appear to have a big pile of money that they can squander, they will make a good candidate to start with.

Please send this message to 10 people. Spread the word. It may be the only way to bring relief to high gasoline prices at the pump.

Where is the beef?

Remember when Dick Chaney had a secret meeting with oil company executives to set the administration's energy policy? I wonder what was said. Could the conversation have gone as follows "Boys let's figure a way to bump up the price of oil. We can all skim off a big piece of change and pay ourselves huge salaries and bonuses. All we have to do is create a shortage and everyone who drives will have to pay. To insure our success, lets make a down payment to our friends in Congress and we are on our way. "

Well, here we are. Oil prices doubled and we are all the poorer. Good job Dick. Even if we put the country into an inflation-recession, your buddies will count their money on the way to the Florida Gold Coast.

Big oil is not going to solve this countries energy problem, not if it hurts their profits. We need a rational energy policy that considers, renewable sources, nuclear, coal gasification and deep drilling on land and in the continental shelf. And probably, most of all we need to change the leadership in the White House.

How many lives? How long do we stay in Iraq? LTE

How many, How long

The United States has been at war in Iraq for over 3 years. Where are we? How many lives and how much treasure are we willing to expend to pacify a people that don’t want us. We have become a colonial power trying to subdue the natives so that we can impose our flavor of democracy on them. From my knowledge of history, no country was able to force a people into submission over long periods of time. Yes, people have been forced to submit, but they eventually seek freedom. Look to Russia as an example.

Our government is trying to impose our form of democracy on three groups of people that don’t want to be united. There is no basis for unity since they have different religions, and tribal relations. The only way the British were able to create Iraq was by force and occupation. Is the United States willing to become an occupying power? I don’t think so.

The question to ask is why are we there. Is it for the oil potential? If it is, we could eliminate the need for Iraq oil by conservation and increasing the gas mileage from our transportation system. We could convert coal into fuel. Is it to settle a political score? If it is, we have declared that we won the war. Lets move on. Is it to stop terrorism? If it is, we haven’t done a very good job, as most of the terrorists still are able to threaten and kill on their schedule.

Why is the administration continuing to lose lives and give away treasure? I think it is ego and afraid to admit that they made a mistake. They are using the war in Iraq as a tool for winning domestic elections by shifting the focus from the real problems in America such as lack of jobs and opportunity, poor education, illegal immigration, lack of competitive manufacturing capability, high cost of medical care; local communities, cities, and states having to assume the burden for the health and welfare of illegal immigrants when it is the responsibility of the federal government to control immigration.

My conclusion is that we should get out of Iraq as soon as our troops can be safely removed. We should let the people of Iraq decide on the form of government they want and should fund their country with the oil revenue that they are receiving.