LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Give credit to Obama for foreign policy
7/2/2014Paul Krugman’s June 23 op-ed column, “Finally, the Barack Obama we’ve been waiting for,” includes several positive comments about the President’s domestic policy. However, he does not mention matters related to foreign policy for which the President is often criticized.
Contrary to war hawks such as Dick Cheney, the linchpin of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy is to keep U.S. combat troops off the ground in countries that are fighting civil wars.
Americans are still reeling from our unnecessary war in Iraq, despite agitation from Mr. Cheney and his cohorts to send in the troops. The President’s policy respects our concerns and rejects his opposition.
EDWARD NUSSEL
Sylvania Township
Cameras can’t give testimony
Toledo’s speeding cameras are illegal, regardless of the opinion of city officials and courts (“Keep the cameras,” editorial, June 10). In any legal action, the defendant has the right to confront witnesses and other parties adverse to him or her.
A camera is not a human being that can offer testimony in a trial. A driver accused of speeding must be offered the opportunity to cross-examine the Toledo police officer who issued the ticket, before a judge. Otherwise, any verdict would be invalid.
That includes the right to have the accusers — the police department and the camera — prove that the camera accurately recorded the vehicle’s speed, and was calibrated to a known standard.
In Toledo, an alleged violator gets a bill in the mail, payable to a service in Arizona, without any opportunity to confront a human accuser. That’s pathetic.
JIM ADAMS
La Salle, Mich.
Motorists forget to pay attention
Driving is a full-time job, but most people are too busy texting or talking on their cell phones to pay attention to their driving.
I am a retired semi-trailer driver of 31 years. I also have driven motorcycles for 54 years, until this past spring. During my time driving a motorcycle, I was run off the road five times and was in two crashes. It’s just not safe anymore.
Motorists are too busy communicating to look out for motorcycles — not that they did much of that in the first place.
ROBERT HUTCHINSON
Monclova Township
Will IRS be just as forgiving?
Now that the Internal Revenue Service has lost emails of six senior officials that may have proven that they targeted conservatives, can we assume the IRS will be sympathetic when taxpayers say they lost receipts (“IRS lost emails in Tea Party case,” June 14)?
JACK BELISLE
South Lyon, Mich.