And they call themselves Republicans?

6/15/2005

The hypocrisy of this administration is more amusing than the comics section. Every day new examples are forthcoming.

On June 4, The Blade published an article about Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield lecturing the Chinese for developing new missile technology. On that same date an editorial reviewed this country s foray into a space-based missile program that required us to break a 30-year-old antiballistic missile treaty and squander $130 billion for a system that doesn t work. Who would promote such a boondoggle? None other than Rummy. He has brought talking out of both sides of his mouth to a new artform.

Also, for years the country has used the reports of Amnesty International to chide other countries for their human rights abuses.

Thanks to this administration s policies at Guantanamo Bay, we made the list this year. W s statesmanlike response that s absurd. Is he suggesting it is only this country s right to imprison people for years without charging them or bringing them to trial?

Is this country so scared after 9/11 that it will tolerate such buffoonery just to feel safe?

Some might conclude that this is just another attack on the Republican Party. I would suggest that neither W nor Rummy is a true Republican. True Republicans believe in:

1. Balanced budgets (not trillion-dollar deficits).

2. Small government (not ever expanding bureaucracies such as Homeland Security).

3. Citizens rights as set forth in the Constitution (not the Patriot Act).

4. Separation of church and state (not religious subsidies).

5. And, most of all, peace (not war-mongering using a half-baked invasion scheme against the advice of our generals).

It will be interesting to see where we end up after three more years of W and Rummy s excellent adventure.

Bill Ahern

Perrysburg

Seems to me the chickens have come home to roost for the Democratic Party. When impeachment proceedings were going on against President Clinton, virtually all Democrats fell into lockstep formation to oppose the impeachment even though Mr. Clinton was caught lying to the American people about his affair. While one could argue that the investigation was a witch hunt, because it was originally meant to focus on a possibly illegal real estate deal called Whitewater, it doesn t take away from the fact that Mr. Clinton lied.

Contrast that with Watergate, where several Republicans broke rank and supported the impeachment. The integrity of the democratic process prevailed over partisanship.

Today, it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Bush Administration has systematically engaged in misleading the American people about the real reasons behind its decision to go to war against Iraq. The Downing Street memo provides a good starting point to begin an investigation into the lies.

My fear, however, is that Washington has become so partisan that the Republicans will put party loyalty ahead of the good of the country just as the Democrats did.

I hope I am wrong. I want to believe in the honesty and integrity of all our representatives in Washington whether Republican or Democrat. These are times that demand courage and bipartisanship. Please don t let the American people down. The future of our country is at stake.

Bob Pacer

Delta, Ohio

Much of the complaining from the left is that all three branches of the government are under the control of one political party, the Republicans. They fail to point out that in our country the three major branches of propaganda outlets (entertainment, news media, and college administration) are under exclusive control of the other party, the Democrats.

The difference is that the people, in a free election, have approved of Republican control of the government while control of the propaganda production has been achieved over the years by a small group of radicals with a powerful agenda.

How can this have come about? Republicans/conservatives do appeal to common sense, logic, concern for the national welfare, and protection of the Constitution. Most people understand this.

ROBERT J. LAUER

Sulphur Spring Road

Trickle-down economics is a myth perpetuated by neo-conservatives like Ronald Reagan and both Bushes and neo-liberals like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry. Anyone who doubted this assertion need only have read four recent articles in The Blade that demonstrate the trend of wealth shift from working people to the wealthy.

An April 27 article exclaimed Record year for area execs. Corporate execs earned 20 percent higher salaries.

A May 27 article is a sidebar: Profits grow by 4.5 percent in first quarter. That is down from 13.5 percent in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

A May 29 article had the heading Millionaires. The U.S. can now boast 7.5 million millionaire households.

Before you begin the celebration, note a May 25 article that puts the other articles in perspective: Poverty rates rise for adults, children. The Blade reports that More than two in 10 Ohio children now live in poverty and the percentage of adults living in poverty increased to nearly 16 percent last year

One need not be an economics major to understand these trends. With a little research one could see that this has been the trend of the past 35-40 years.

Combine these trends with tax cuts for the wealthy, the increasing number of people without health care, the attack on social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare, and food stamps, and draconian cuts in public education and one can see the big picture.

Look at it as a game where the wealthy and powerful few make all the rules and the rest of us have to compete with the rule makers. The rules change faster than the average working person has time to watch or understand. Guess who loses?

Mitch Balonek

Sherbrooke Road

In his recent letter, Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Warshawsky attempted to deny that the President s Social Security price-indexing proposal would cut benefits and unfairly hurt middle-class families.

When Mr. Warshawsky argues, future seniors would receive benefits that are at least as high as today s seniors under price-indexing, he is overlooking adjustments for inflation. To do so is dishonest: any useful budget has to account for future cost increases.

What corporation budgets without factoring in increases to its costs for materials, shipping, and overhead? Show me a company that pretends costs will freeze at 2005 levels and I ll show you a company that will soon go out of business.

Seniors face especially steep inflation, thanks to skyrocketing health care and drug prices. Even if Congress rejects the President s benefit cuts, rising Medicare premiums are eating up an increasing share of middle-class Social Security checks. Over time, they will barely cover Medicare costs.

Nancy A. Beadle

Delta, Ohio

When I read the article in The Blade, TPS makes 25 teachers cough up extra pay, I was just astounded by Fran Lawrence s reaction.

Never mind that it took the administration at Toledo Public Schools four years to catch the mistake (that s another topic altogether) but to actually think that we taxpayers should just eat it is absurd.

Our schools are in financial need, so $55,868 would come in handy.

Besides, this would be a good time to teach our kids some ethics. Lord knows they re not seeing much of it these days. These teachers were overpaid and the ethical thing to do is return the money. We ll just have to see what kind of people we have educating our kids.

Thomas rawlins

Glenbrook Avenue

Regarding the Tom Noe flap, Democrats are immoral and Republicans are dishonest. So what's new?

GLEN DeGELNOR

Maumee