Letters for October 12, 2006

The public airwaves
Why do we allow radio stations like KKOH to keep giving the people who listen half-truths? At the beginning of Election 2006, KKOH and Bill Manders stated that they would give full coverage of the elections. What a bunch of CRAP! So far to date, all we hear is how they want Jim Gibbons to win for governor of Nevada and Dean Heller to win his seat—to hell with all the other races! It’s gotten to the point that every time Jim Gibbons does a restroom stop, he calls into Bill Manders and gets free air time!

Hey, KOH and Mr. Manders, do you realize that there are a lot of good people running for local office in both Reno and Sparks? Mayor and Council seats are up for grabs. So are some Assembly seats.

You wonder why more people don’t run for office? Well, when they get ignored by those like KKOH and struggle to win a race on their own, can you blame them for not wanting to run? Also on the Lazy 8 Project, there is another side but, of course, KKOH did not want to hear about that. They were just interested in talking to Harvey Whittemore and Mike Carrigan. I was going to vote for Gibbons, but KKOH has convinced me to change sides, and for that I say, “Thank you!” and, yes, I will be changing stations to a FM talk station

Beth McBride
via e-mail

Democrats at fault
Republicans should control Congress after the elections because at least they have a plan on all fronts. The Democrats only complain and blame. If pages were warned 11 years ago, why didn’t they correct the matter then? [Republican Rep. Mark Foley’s fascination with underage pages] was released at this time as just another trick by the Democrats!

Joe Wilson
via e-mail

Mind your own business
In early August, General John Abizaid, the commander of the U.S. Central Command and the most knowledgeable senior military official about Iraq, expressed his fears to a Senate Committee that conditions in Iraq are the very next thing to a “civil war.”

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman went further one day later when he wrote that our armed forces in Iraq “are babysitting a civil war.” Can any good come of continued U.S. presence in such a conflict? Isn’t it time to consider letting the Sunnis and Shiites settle their centuries-old animosity without our forces caught in the middle?

I also refer you to U.S. President John Quincy Adams, who stated, “America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

And Calvin Coolidge, our nation’s 30th chief executive, said, “Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.”

I agree.

Marilyn V. Hilborn
Boulder City

A cry for help
As a retired career military veteran, I am extremely disappointed with the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act passed in the last minutes before recessing for the elections. As with any legislation, there was both good and bad news.

[Legislation included] the end of the separate treatment of those 20,000 retirees with disability ratings less than 100 percent who are paid by the VA at 100 percent because they are individually unemployable. Current legislation phases in full restoration by 2009 where this provision would have made the effective date retroactive to December 2004.

This is the third year [our country] voted for people who screwed the 20,000 vets who can’t work because of our disabilities. I really wish the dumbass reps and George Bush have a great remembrance of our misfortune.

I am just a servant of the Congress and the Senate … unless you want to hear that most of us that are rated 100 percent have less than five years to live. I am one year over my limit and fading fast, so please just give our money to your best interest and not to the vets that need it.

Go ahead and tell us, “One more year.” All I have to say is I love America and served her proudly for 30 years, and I have to say thanks for my kin who gave me support—not my elected people. It kind of reminds me of the movie Gangs of New York. Mr. Greeley said, “Go West, young man, go West.” I have a wife and three grandchildren, so God in heaven, please give me a sign.

Jim Greely
via e-mail

Slave labor
Slavery is alive and well in Nevada! Today, my wife appeared at the courthouse to comply with a summons for jury duty.

She was selected for a case. The defendant pleaded guilty, and my wife was released.

Well, it seems that our elected officials have decided that if you only go one day to perform your civic duty, you don’t get paid. We had to close the office in our family business, make all sorts of arrangements at a cost of time and money, and now the state refuses to pay the pittance of a fee and mileage.

Folks, that’s slavery plain and simple. Next thing you know the government will be carrying whips along with their guns!

Bruce Feher
Las Vegas