LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — We’re all in this together

We are called arrogant, ugly and wasteful. We are Americans and, as a people, you could say that somewhere all of those things apply. The adjectives that better describe us as a people are generous, resilient, diverse, sympathetic, tough and, well, stubborn.

The U.S.A. has taken the tired, the hungry, the poor. That’s a good thing, yet we have to support all of us. We must all look around and see where we can help. We need to educate ourselves on political candidates, get involved with our children’s education, help someone else’s children, plan for our retirement so our children don’t have to.

We police genocide, child starvation and crimes against humanity, and fight disease across oceans, and we are criticized by heads of state for individual acts of extremism and going to great lengths to protect our national security. Our national debt issue will force us to be more selective about our battles.

Now America is experiencing troubled times. Our economy is struggling. Our national security is at more risk than ever before. Not to mention the worldwide issue of our environment being threatened by burning of fossil fuels beyond what Mother Nature can absorb.

America is going to tackle these issues, but not without what makes this country great-the voice and the effort of the people. Whatever race, creed or religion, we’re in this together. Let’s roll.

JENNY WITHROW Scott

Barbie era is needed

Re Gene Lyons’ recent column: I was amused at the “Barbie” reference to Christine O’Donnell and Sarah Palin being “heavy on lip gloss and light on substance” in view of the Kens the Democrats have put in the White House.

If he thinks these two are Barbies, then maybe we need a Barbie era. The Kens, including Bill Clinton, have had their chances and brought our nation to its knees financially and morally, to say nothing about the embarrassment.

At least these two “Barbies” have the right ideology and will work to protect our constitutional rights and freedom.

SUE RICHARDSON Bella Vista

Being partisan is OK

Re the letter from Les Bledsoe: I know a lot of people who have a love affair with Pat O’Brien. It is for a very good reason. So seldom has someone been efficient in government. He has excellent vision and management skills. I’m sure the previous Pulaski County clerk was a wonderful person, but everyone knows what a disorganized mess the county clerk’s office was in when O’Brien took control of it. I was surprised that anyone was able to straighten it out. I’m really in awe of his abilities.

As for his campaigning for President Obama, well, he got elected, didn’t he? I don’t think that statement disproves his efficiency and effectiveness, something we can use a lot more of in government. I don’t see what is so bad about his support of his own political party. Using Bledsoe’s perspective, I guess campaigning for someone makes every politician an activist.

SALLY MAYS Roland‘

Prebate’ won’t cut it

As a senior citizen on Social Security, I am concerned about John Boozman’s desire to institute a flat tax of 23 percent.

Since I no longer pay income tax as my Social Security income is not enough to qualify for taxation, Boozman’s imposition of this flat tax would cut my income by 23 percent, robbing me of approximately one-fourth of my income.

His tax would do the same to anyone else whose income does not qualify as enough to pay taxes, e.g., those on fixed incomes such as disability, those using Medicaid, Social Security recipients, those with tax-free retirement income and low-income people.

I spoke to Boozman’s office about this and was told that recipients of Social Security and other poverty level income people would receive a $200 “prebate” each month. That might pay for the 23 percent tax on groceries a month, with maybe the tax on utilities thrown in, but forget buying anything else.

I just had to replace my heat and air package and the tax was over $300. With Boozman’s 23 percent tax, it would have been over $1,000. Forget it, Mr. Boozman. You folks planning on voting for him should sit down and do the math yourself. Each and every thing you buy will carry that 23 percent charge. I for one cannot afford Boozman.

MARY WILLIAMS North Little Rock

Only one can prevail

The federal government has no constitutional right to federalize states or personal lives. The past has seen federalizing the education system, the police and the medical system. The Obamacare law puts all kinds of things that have nothing to do with medical care under the feds, if I understand right. Different laws for different people have been tolerated for years.

Do welfare clients know that people work and pay taxes to provide that tax money? Now it was too much to work with tax money, and the national debt is great. If Barack Obama puts people out of work, there will be no welfare.

As long as there is someone up there spieling something that sounds like government, some people are happy that government is ongoing. I wish someone would tell those who plan to run for the presidency that only one conservative can win. When it is divided among a group, none of them wins.

We have had too many who just know they are cut out to be president. It hasn’t worked.

WILLIE NELL GRAFF Pea Ridge

Oust Mike Ross, too

Folks, it’s getting nasty, as we probably knew it would. In apparent desperation, the Democrats are bringing out their falsehoods about Social Security and what their opponents will or will not do if elected.

Now if you’re smart and informed, you know the truth, but if you’re a diehard Democrat, you spread these falsehoods. And you folks living in the 4th District and seeking change (sound familiar?) and voting to keep Blanche Lincoln home, I certainly hope we complete the task by denying Nancy Pelosi’s aid of Mike Ross.

ED HENRY SR. Mount Ida

Don’t fall for it again

If Blanche Lincoln hoodwinks us again into believing that she is a moderate despite her voting record, which is approximately 90 percent with Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, including the mother of them all, Obamacare, then we must change one of our great Arkansas slogans from “The Land of Opportunity” to “The Land Where You Can’t Cure Dumb.” DICK KIRKPATRICK Batesville

Too late for America

Those who decry the direction in which this nation is headed need to realize that Barack Hussein Obama could do nothing without the consent of the people. How did this president and this Congress get so powerful? The people elected them.

America can survive a bad president, but it cannot survive a self-serving electorate that prefers government programs and handouts over a free market economy and fewer government interventions in the lives of the people.

Unless Obama’s Congress is seriously hampered by an electoral tsunami this November and either the Republicans or the tea party or libertarians present a suitable presidential candidate for 2012, Obama and the present national leadership likely will throw this country into an economic and social chaos that ultimately will result in an oligarchy or dictatorship with a rich ruling class and everyone else consigned to a serf class.

Frankly, I think it is already too late. America is too “diversified” to effectively unite in a fight for a return to a nation governed by constitutional rule of law as envisioned by our Founders.

I predict that by 2025 this nation will no longer be a constitutional republic because of the majority desire for government to be the savior and solution.

Nikita Khrushchev was almost right. But it won’t be Russia that buries America. We will bury ourselves.

RICHARD WILLIAMS Pine Bluff

A ‘shaggy dog’ story

Is there such a thing as dog grooming police? Who monitors what groomers charge?

My cocker is a country gal and I do not take her but once, sometimes twice a year to be groomed. She had been to this same place last June and they left so much hair on her that I thought she would have a heatstroke. This grooming took so long that I made do with the long-hair look. That charge was somewhere around $40.

I took my shaggy cocker in today to the same place and asked those in charge not to cut her hair as she was an outside dog most of the time. Just clean her up. Those in charge took notes, then told me what they would do.

Four hours later, she is finally ready to be picked up. She looks clean and brushed out. I’m charged $109.25. I questioned this as I wrote my check and was told sternly that she was severly matted. I asked how I could keep her neater at home as she hates to be brushed. It was suggested that I bring her in monthly (with a cost of under $50). Not on my income.

When I got home, I went over this pricey ordeal and made up my mind not to go there again. Later, I took a long look at my gal. Her belly had been shaved. It is mid-October and she is an outside dog most of thetime. I am so upset. I knew she was in need of a bath before winter. Can’t professionals clean a dirty dog without shaving its hair?

COOKIE PARRISH Fayetteville

Interests not served

Having just read Gilbert Baker’s letter of endorsement of Tim Griffin, this is what I call chutzpah, or gall. This is one back-stabbing professional Republican endorsing another backstabbing professional Republican.

When Dave Bisbee was in line to be selected president pro tem of the Arkansas Senate, a first for an Arkansas Republican, Gilbert joined the Democrats to select a Democrat. He can spin that any way he wants to, but he can’t get the blood off his hands. Years later, when Tim wanted to become the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, he went to his boss, Karl Rove, and Karl removed the most outstanding Republican U.S. attorney in the United States, the Hon. Bud Cummins, to appoint Tim.

Tim can spin it any way he wants, but he, too, has Republican blood on his hands. Both Gilbert and Tim should man up and admit that what they did was not in the best interest of the Republican Party, the state or any Arkansawyer other than Gilbert and Tim.

As a member of the administration of the Hon. Winthrop Rockefeller, I am a liberal Republican, much like the late governor, but I have never stabbed a fellow Republican in the back. The stabbing was bad enough, but the hiding behind closed doors is even worse than the offense, a lesson they should have learned from former President Richard Milhous Nixon.

BOB SCOTT Rogers

Feedback Disconnect glaring

How dare Barack Obama and the Democrats ignore and govern against the will of we the people? How dare they?

Supreme arrogance, leftist ideological obsession and a vast superiority complex, all of which have created a massive disconnect between them and the American people.

With the November elections upon us, they are beginning to see the enormity of their folly, but they have no remorse.

This was the ultimate example of the disaster that is socialism. Barry and Dems had it all, the presidency and a congressional super majority, and look what they’ve done with it. Following Obama’s delusional fantasies, they’ve dragged America down into a jobless morass of debt and economic stagnation.

They’ve naïvely turned the “good war” in Afghanistan into a quagmire that America has no confidence in, and they’re standing idly by while a terrorist regime develops nuclear weapons.

The damage wreaked by their warped agenda is too long to enumerate, but the one thing we must never do is forget. This atrocity against the United States of America must not be allowed to happen again.

QUINCY JACKSON Rogers