LETTERS

— Baloney has a first name

Judging by his commercials, it looks like ol’ Tim Griffin is back on the bandwagon regarding the Keystone Pipeline. He grossly exaggerated the attributes of this project and apparently is hoping that Arkansans are dumb enough to believe his baloney.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette just recently published a story about the portion of the pipeline being constructed in Texas. I guess Griffin hasn’t read it or followed up on the progress of the pipeline. Or maybe he wants to just skip over the negative side and hopes that we will ignore the reports.

The article reports that Texas landowners say TransCanada is running roughshod over some of them, will not promise to use local workers exclusively and will not guarantee that the oil will remain in the United States. Also, about half of the steel used-and I am assuming this includes the pipelines-is not American-made.

What does ol’ Tim have to say about this now?

Whatever happens, it will not help us at the gas pumps. Folks have to remember that we are dealing with big business here. They look out for themselves, not us.

Ol’ Tim just seems to be blowing hot air and wants us to suck it up. One must not forget that he is trying to make political hay over this issue. And nothing has been said on his part about the Republican governor of Nebraska having asked President Barack Obama to delay a decision on the pipeline in his state because of the sensitive areas it would cross.

FRANK SWEGHEIMER

Benton

Don’t preach or scare

Sharon Williams writes that we should educate ourselves before we vote and should not be a single-issue voter.

This is all well and good, but after telling us to listen to all views and read as much as we can in order to cast an intelligent vote, she tells us who to vote for. It is, of course, Barack Obama.

The Peter Principle suggests that in a system of giving someone promotions to the next higher level of authority, again and again, one will eventually reach his own personal level of incompetence. I believe our president has reached that level.

And please-“You may very well lose your right to use birth control”- are you kidding me? Please tell me which wicked Republican has ever promoted that view.

Arkansans are smart enough to figure out what to do when they go to cast their votes. They don’t need to be preached to or scared by the disciples of Hope and Change.

Evidence supporting my position will be delivered on November 6th.

GORDON GONDEK

Little Rock

For her peace of mind

I have a friend I’ve known for a couple of years. When we met, she weighed 120 pounds and for some reason, she lost weight and got down to 98. When I realized how much she had lost, I pretty much insisted that she eat a larger portion when she eats and she since is back up to 101 pounds. The doctor is not sure what her condition is, and she continues to try her best to gain weight.

My friend has said that the one thing that gives her an appetite is to smoke some marijuana. She feels better after having the appetite to eat a good meal, but is literally scared to death of “pot.” There are a couple of reasons she is afraid of it: the fact that she takes a chance that she will get in trouble with the law trying to purchase it, and she is really concerned about the quality and being fearful someone will add meth to it and get her hooked.

If the medical marijuana act is passed, she will be able to purchase it knowing that it has not been contaminated with other drugs.

Please, Arkansas, help my friend by voting for the medical marijuana act.

Submitted with the most respect for all of our residents who suffer with pain not relieved with pills.

GEORGE McINTOSH

St. Joe

Misses the connection

The recent column on the editorial page about the welfare spiral reminded me of an old joke about a man who killed his parents, then asked for mercy because he was an orphan.

I believe Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation have worked very hard to ruin the middle class and drive people into poverty by supporting policies aimed toward helping the rich and stopping services to the rest of us. Feulner now complains about the explosion in the number of people who need welfare, actually necessitated by the policies he and his organization promoted; he doesn’t seem to connect how stopping government from helping people stay out of poverty would add to the welfare rolls, similar to how preventing affordable medical care drives people to emergency rooms.

They apparently either don’t care, or want people to cease to exist. Although it has been said that these pseudo-conservatives have no heart, it appears that there are deficiencies in the head department, too.

ANGELO TURTURRO

North Little Rock

It’s more than enough

How about term limits for the U.S. presidency being reduced from two four-year terms to only one four-year term? This would take a constitutional amendment.

What riles me is that it seems most presidents get in office only to want another four years to do a job that should only take four years. These people use at least the last 18 months of their first term to campaign for a second four years when they should be doing the work that voters (we, the citizens of the U.S.) elected them to do.

What a waste of our taxpayers’ money. Shame on every one of them.

One four-year term is enough. A president who knows that he will be in office for only one term will make the most of their time in office, will stay focused, and strive to leave a legacy for himself and to leave this nation in much better shape than it was prior to their presidency. Allow other respected and legitimate presidential candidates to be elected to serve in the top leadership role of our country.

Any wonder why presidents are called politicians and not national leaders?

REEVES HUIE

Benton

Even kids understand

I tutor several third-grade students at Fountain Lake Elementary school. I tutor math. It involves addition and subtraction of single-digit numbers. I have discovered that these students understand even our complex corporate federal income-tax laws.

Presently corporations are taxed at a rate of about 35 percent. Recent proposals by candidates and economics experts recommend that the tax rate be increased to as much as 50 percent, which would result in a profound reduction of our federal deficit. Wrong.

In 2010, G.E. paid no corporate income tax and received $1.1 billion in tax credits. Many other major corporations also paid no corporate tax. My students came up with the correct answer; 35 percent or 50 percent of nothing still equals nothing.

Maybe we should send all our elected officials back to third grade for a refresher course.

JACK McKINNEY

Hot Springs Village

The page has turned

In a recent Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial, the writers quoted Barbara Bellar, a Republican candidate for the state Senate in Illinois, who claims to be a physician, lawyer, professor, Army major and a former nun. I assume she was asked for a copy of her birth certificate and other support documents before you quoted her diatribe against Obamacare.

You attempt to distance yourself somewhat from the specific contents of the speech by noting that her assertion that 16,000 new IRS agents would be needed to enforce Obamacare doesn’t gibe with IRS estimates that only 1,200 new agents might possibly be needed. After all, what’s a 14,800-person overstatement among friends?

What really galls is your assertion that, “As for the rest of the doctor’s routine, it may or may not be factual, but it’s a safe bet it’s more factual than some of the president’s own claims.”

Why is it a safe bet? Why insinuate that the president of the United States is a liar but the funny lady from Illinois should be taken at her word?

There was a time when the editorials were as well-thought-out as they were well-written. They seemed to be crafted by a rational, intelligent person, albeit one with very conservative and backward-looking views. Today we read only cheap shots, parroting the positions of Karl Rove, the billionaire Koch brothers and other partisan zealots. Too bad, really. An editorial page is a terrible thing to waste.

DAVID COCKCROFT

Little Rock

Fix lottery scholarship

Arkansas is probably going to cast all of its electoral votes for Romney, so it is time to move on to issues that will make a difference to Arkansans regardless of who is elected president.

Right now, that is this state’s ability to attract good jobs and high-tech industries that will build here. The key is education. The “Scholarship Lottery” was sold to us as that key to provide Arkansas with more young people with college degrees.

The problem is, to no surprise, that lottery sales are down; therefore, available money for these scholarships is down.

But the larger problem is that the college dropout rate is very high, and many degrees being earned are virtually worthless to attract high-paying jobs and the industries to support such jobs. The bar is simply set too low. A composite score of 20 on the ACT is not even the 50th percentile-it is about the 47th.

Not much scholarship there.

While it will not be politically popular, the fix is simple. Raise the bar to a score of 25 on the ACT, and only award lottery money to degree tracks in the hard sciences (chemistry, math, physics and biology), engineering, computer and industrial technology, and graduate-level teacher education degrees. Give a full tuition, fee and books scholarship to only instate four-year universities. Require that the money be paid back in full from any one who does not graduate in six years and work in Arkansas for 10 years post-graduation.

JOE TUCKER

Cabot

Feedback

Heckuva job, GOP

Credit must go to the Republican Party for the masterful job it’s done in reducing the size and influence of U.S. labor unions. Eliminating their collective-bargaining rights should finish the job. We can see the effects this has had in the stagnation of middle-class income and the huge gap existing between income of the wealthy and that of the middle class.

Actually, a vibrant middle class is no longer all that necessary. We can now sell our products to the emerging middle classes of the nations we are outsourcing jobs to.

Still, Republicans need to be careful about doing too good a job. What this country doesn’t need is for China, India and Mexico to start outsourcing jobs to this country due to cheap labor costs.

JOE KRENZ

Little Rock

Comforting thought

In the aftermath of the horrendous storm that has devastated the Northeast, it goes without saying that sitting back and waiting for the affected states and the private sector to provide the estimated $50 billion to rebuild the area would be futile. Under the Obama administration, FEMA has been revamped and reorganized and is providing immediate and appropriate resources and funds where needed. Indeed, it is comforting to know that the tragic mistakes of Katrina will not be repeated.

SUZANNE V. HAMILTON

Little Rock

Editorial, Pages 17 on 11/03/2012

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