Letters to the editor - 3/31/04

This senior voter makes her own decisions

I am a senior and I live in a mobile-home park. I have had enough of all the rhetoric and insults as a result of, during, and after the Proposition G debacle. Enough is enough and it is time to move on. However, some of the most insulting remarks made were regarding seniors voting as a bloc and voting the way the council wants.

I vote the way I choose, and so do most of my friends and neighbors, relatives and associates, who are all seniors. I respect my right to vote, especially since I am a woman and my grandmother and her peers had to fight for my right to do so. I give my vote a great deal of thought and consideration, as I am sure many other citizens in San Marcos do as well. But I also know that now as a senior and retired, I, as well as many other seniors, follow the issues much more closely than I used to because I have earned the time to be involved.

Just because I am involved and follow the issues does not mean the troika (City Council members Lee Thibadeau, Mike Preston and Mayor Corky Smith) tell me what to do or how to vote. I am a responsible adult with a lot of knowledge and history and I make my own decisions.


San Marcos

Center divider will be a traffic mess

I have better things to do than to criticize Oceanside, but sometimes I just have to. Take that new center divider, for instance, the island being built on Mission Avenue at Interstate 5.

This will make the entrance to Oceanside much more attractive with its palm trees and all, but what effect will this have on traffic exiting the Mission shopping center? Cars turning left on Mission will no longer have the safe area between the double-line divider. This was a holding zone before entering the two east lanes and heading south on I-5, or continuing east on Mission.

It was necessary, and without this safe lane on Mission and with the usually fast traffic, turning east will become very dangerous, to say the least, and traffic will probably back up deep into the parking lot. I think the signal lights will need coordinating or this turn will be very dangerous.



100 years have brought too many taxes


Building permit tax, capital gains tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, federal unemployment tax, fishing license tax, food license tax, fuel permit tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, inheritance tax, interest expense (tax on the money), inventory tax, IRS interest charges (tax on top of tax), IRS penalties (tax on top of tax), estate tax, road usage taxes (truckers), sales taxes, recreational vehicle tax, road toll booth taxes, school tax, state income tax, telephone federal excise tax, vehicle license registration tax, vehicle sales tax, watercraft registration, workers compensation tax.

What the heck happened?



No building near 76 until it is widened

Re: the proposed Vista Unified schools at Melrose and Highway 76. It would be nice to have these needed magnet schools, and no one can refute the need for more housing, but neither the schools nor the housing should be built until Highway 76 is expanded, as was promised, to four lanes.

There should be a moratorium on all building on the Highway 76 corridor until it is complete to Interstate 15. Pressure needs to be put on SANDAG to keep to its promises and build roads. As of now I have no plans to vote for the next TransNet tax.



Misconceptions on issue of immigration

Barbara Vickroy's letter of March 17 ("Immigration most powerful issue of today") alludes to some statements I did not make in my letter of Feb. 20 and severe misunderstandings of those I did make. First, I did not say that all illegal immigrants pay (income) taxes, when seemingly they don't have to. I have no problem recognizing that there are probably scofflaws in this group of people, just as there are likely to be on her side of the fence.

Second, I don't like illegal immigration any more than she does. What I object to is the inhuman treatment of them once they get here, or while in transit.

As an immigrant myself (I came with my parents with a green card from the very beginning without committing the crime of breaking the law), I have experienced the hardships of working in the fields and orange groves and washing dishes, before getting a college education and qualifying for security clearances and later working as an engineer for defense companies. I naturally feel compassion for them (but not the conservative type).

Contrary to the wild estimate of $38 billion that Vickroy says immigrants send home, the estimates I came up with by research in the Internet range between $9 billion to $15 billion. This is quite different.


Solana Beach

Impeach and indict Bush

Bush should be impeached for treason for the deaths of nearly 700 American troops. He lied about the weapons, he lies about how he has ordered the calculated destruction of the environment and our once-thriving economy. Bush is the biggest whiner in history. Everything wrong is somebody else's fault. Cheney has refused to turn over documents about the secret energy meetings he and Dubya had at the White House, even after being so ordered by at least two federal judges.

Obstruction of justice is an impeachable crime and both Bush and Cheney are guilty.

Bush won't release information to the 9-11 committee or talk to them, but put a rodeo or fund-raiser on the calendar and he will be at the trough with the other GOP hogs.

No one at the White House, including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rove, Ashcroft, Rice, etc., has ever served a day in the U.S. armed forces, and they have the gall to question Kerry's credentials? Remember the Constitution, Republicans? High crimes and misdemeanors are punishable by impeachment.

They impeached Clinton for a behavior problem. Pathological lying and the treason of Bush and Cheney are a little more important; no one died because of Clinton's lies.



Kerry's Vietnam propaganda opens wounds

John Kerry's comments and propaganda of his four-month tour in Vietnam and his parade of 'Nam veterans are all over the major news network, displayed as his puppets for his own political gain.

I and many other Americans will make our decision in November 2004 for Presidents Bush or Kerry. I don't need the San Diego Veterans for Peace or any anti-war group to tell me how to vote. Some of us don't need to be reminded of what happened 35 years ago. All this propaganda is only more fuel for the enemies of the United States who are trying to hurt our armed forces overseas.

So if my freedom of speech is defamatory or "unsophisticated," as Sean Bell says (Letters, March 17), I trust our leader before I trust him or Kerry and friends, such as Jane Fonda.


U.S. Marine Corps



Reciting Bush's flip-flops

President Bush has been attacking John Kerry for his flip-flops. For comparison, here's a quick rundown on Bush's flip-flops: Bush is against campaign finance reform, then he's for it.

Bush is against a Homeland Security Department, then he's for it. Bush is against a 9-11 commission, then he's for it. Bush is against an Iraq WMDs investigation, then he's for it.

Bush is against nation building, then he's for it. Bush is against deficits, then he's for them.

Bush is for free trade, then he's for tariffs on steel, then he's against them again. Bush is for states rights to decide on gay marriage, then he is for amending the Constitution.

Bush first says he'll provide money for first responders (fire, police, emergency), then he doesn't. Bush was for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the U.S. After meeting with President Fox, he's against it.

Before the war, the U.N. was a useless bureaucratic impediment to action. Now that the war's going badly, it's an important force for peace and stability.

Bush lambasted Clinton for lack of an exit strategy in Kosovo, then invaded Iraq without even the hint of one.



Clarke stands up to bullies

I think George W. Bush could learn a lesson from my son and Richard Clarke. When my son was confronted by a pair of bullies, I told him to face up to them. He did and they backed down. Richard Clarke stood his ground when faced by hostile questioners in Congress.

Both had the courage to defend and a feeling of rightness for their cause, whereas President George W., while taking more vacation time than any other president, cannot fulfill his obligation to the people to be frank and explain his official actions to the people, to investigation committees, and to Congress as a whole.

Please, Mr. President, you are the one to best clear the air.



War only spawns more war

Who is doing the fighting for America in Iraq? Are any members of Bush's family over there? Any of Cheney's, Rumsfeld's, Rove's, Wolfowitz's, Rice's and our last best hope ññ Powell's?

They say every day, "Well, that's war, sorry." Yes, it's easy to praise our wonderful young people who are now sitting ducks in Iraq. Of course we support them. More, we don't want them slaughtered for the madmen now running our country. They are madmen. They are criminals.

They have blood on their hands. How do they sleep at night?

Why could we not use our immense wealth to woo those who hate America? Why not use that to help distressed countries? Yes, the despotic rulers like Saddam and Gadhafi, Hitler, Mussolini, etc., etc., had to be destroyed. But war is not the answer. War only spawns more war.

Most of the entire world bows to a male god. We believe in patriarchal religion. Maybe it's time we brought the nurturing side of mother god into the equation.


San Marcos

Americans should support President Bush

The March 16 edition had a response from Jerry Flynt to my letter printed March 4.

Mr. Flynt clearly missed the point of my letter (my opinion), which I supported by facts that are irrefutable.

To support one's opinion it is customary to choose the facts that prove one's point. I did not "try to rewrite history." I chose to single out some of the acts of former Democratic presidents to prove the point that other presidents have gotten the U.S. into other wars with worse casualties than the one in Iraq.

Except for the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and Hitler's tyranny, other Democratic presidents got the U.S. into wars when American soldiers were in foreign countries helping them, not due to an actual terrorist attack on American soil. I did not say any one of them was worse than Bush, nor was I "trying to demonstrate that Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy were all worse." That statement is Mr. Flynt's opinion, not mine.

It is my opinion that President G.W. Bush is not the worst president in history, as so many liberals say.

Despite party loyalties, I believe Americans should support the president instead of trying to point the finger.


San Marcos

The president misled us

On the recent anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, we should all remember the more than 500 families of American soldiers who have lost a loved one.

We also should not forget that the Bush administration rushed us into this conflict without an exit strategy or the help of the international community. We should not forget that the Bush administration told the world that Saddam had stockpiles of chemical weapons, nerve agents, mobile WMD labs and the delivery systems to strike our allies.

We should not forget that this administration led us to believe there was an imminent threat to American lives. We should not forget that al-Qaida, not Saddam, was behind the 9-11 attacks.

As Americans, we need to hold President Bush accountable for misinformation and find out if this administration deliberately misled us.

Bush should be censured by Congress.



Take off your left-leaning blinders

Reading most letters one would think the world hates our president and his team. They all say basically the same mantra. They are all more informed than the puppet Bush followers.

I for one disagree. The truly informed pay attention to all news, not just the left-leaning mainstream sound bites. They would see the good things happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new schools and hospitals, the growing pride of the people.

You would also think we were alone in this war on terror, not alongside 80 other countries. Sure, we bear the brunt of the burden, but we are the greatest country on Earth and with that have the greatest responsibility. It's good to see truth and honesty in the White House.

I for one am very proud of the bravery and commitment Bush and his team have shown. I don't rely on Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw for all my news. They have an agenda and bend the news that way. Honesty and integrity promote a good leader and we have that.

I think I am very informed and I think we should be very proud of our president. Do your homework and take off your left-leaning blinders.


San Marcos

Let's ask ourselves what Kerry would do

John Kerry says that whatever Bush is doing, it must be wrong. Let's ask ourselves "What would Kerry do?" in all the circumstances he complains about.

How would Kerry have performed before 9-11? Would he have taken the same path as President Bush, which was the same path as Clinton before him? Bush needed more info to make more intelligent decisions and didn't get that from the Clinton administration; the whole intelligence-gathering structure needed to be reconstructed.

Would Kerry have supported the war in Bosnia as Clinton did without U.N. support or would he have stayed out? In the future, if Israel is attacked by Islamic fundamentalist countries, will Kerry only help Israel if there is a U.N. mandate? If so, Israel will be annihilated. If the United States is attacked again, will he go to the United Nations to beg for the ability to retaliate, only to be turned down by the people who attacked us?

Why all this coziness with the "red socialists" of Europe? Didn't the French, Germans, and Russians make money off the "Oil for Food" program while the people of Iraq were suffering? Aren't the Europeans the ones who are guilty of "Blood for Oil"?

Does Heinz ketchup -- Kerry's wife is the Heinz ketchup heiress -- have anything to do with the Oil for Food program? I don't know, but it looks as "red" as blood to me.



Editor's note: Kowell is president of the Murrieta-Temecula Republican Assembly.

Resident offers resignation to volunteer post

Over the years, I have written many letters to the editor regarding various topics from traffic to local campaign finance. Recently, the Murrieta Friends of the Library, a nonprofit that I was the president of, had a special meeting to discuss my letters to the editor due to pressure from the local librarian and mayor. For years, I have never mentioned my volunteer work nor have I used my position to do anything but help the community. This sudden attack on my civil rights is simply not right.

Recently, the board of directors of our organization had a disagreement with the city, a small insignificant matter. I guess it was a big deal to them as they seek my head on a platter for expressing the most basic of rights -- free speech. I offer my resignation to the organization, not my silence.



Honor our troops

One year has passed. More young men and women have been sent to Iraq to save the rest of us from the threat of terrorism. The terrorists are not visible on our shores, but they are doing a bang-up job around the world. They continue to bomb and kill whatever is in the way. We have lost too many of our troops to death and to mutilations.

We need to ask this administration, "Why do the terrorists hate us?" Once they figure that out, maybe, just maybe, they can try a different approach.

We want to honor our troops and their families, and in so doing, we can make sure our society remembers the enormous price of war. Never to be used except as a last resort.


Lake San Marcos