Bush's War

The one thing that criminals such as our present White House (not to mention the types who do land in jail) always forget is that there are only two kinds of secrets. History is based on the fact that secrets are either not good enough to keep (like George Bush's moral and military careers,) or, they are too good to keep, like the way he made his money or the way he staked his 'legacy' on his faked holy Iraq war, and to hell with truth and the lives of thousands of innocents. The real problem seems to be that in neither case do the media or the public seem really to notice the truth that finally comes out, or worse, give a damn. Again, the good old British, despite their vicious Official Secrets Act - a law that George would sell his soul for - have today let more of the real, ugly, cat out of the bag. Yet twice last week I saw and heard Bush (at risk to my retch reflex) repeat his well known lie, in front of millions of people, on imperishable digital videotape, to the citizen who slipped through the 'loyalty oath screen' to ask why he decided to invade Iraq the day after he was appointed to his job. He lied again to good old Helen Thomas, the gadfly press corps hand of thirty years, when he finally let her ask a question after six years in the back row. You gotta admit he has gall! He couldn't match words with Thomas the best day he ever lived. Why is this man still in office? Isn't there some way to catch him in something the crackpots in his camp will find unacceptable enough at least to get him impeached? It worked for the other side and Clinton never killed a single American. Won't somebody give this guy a blow job so we can impeach him?

DONALD CONNOLLY

Linwood

Dems Let Bush Bully Them

I don't always agree with everything Richard Cohen writes, but I wanted to thank him for his March 15 column, “Republicans are distressed now — so where have they been?” I see our country's future in jeopardy, with most of the threat from within. My husband and I worked hard so we could retire owning our own home and with enough savings to be comfortable. All around us I see people who will never be able to do that.I've been a Democrat my whole adult life. I never fell for the right-wing Republicans' efforts to make “liberal” a dirty word. Liberals are responsible for every good social program this country has ever had. I agree with Cohen's question — where have the Republicans been that they are just now becoming distressed? But what I find equally troubling is where have my Democrats been? Why did they allow themselves to be bullied by a president whose ideology is not that of the majority of the American people? When President Bush says he is for clean air and water and helping children and the poor, why didn't the Democrats say, “Great. Now let's write the laws that truly support rather than subvert these efforts”? Why not admit they were wrong and were misled about invading Iraq? Our country is at a crossroads. We are quickly returning to the days of the robber barons, with the super wealthy in control and the rest of us just existing. It appears more and more that our leaders are concerned with perceptions rather than with facts. And Democrats and Republicans alike place being re-elected and maintaining their powerful jobs before the needs of the nation.

BETTIE J. REINA

Milmay

Letter published in Press of Atlantic City, March 22, 2006

Control Information

The Bush administration has started a campaign directed at "leakers" of classified information and the journalists who make that information available to the public. The CIA, under Director Porter Goss, has begun a polygraph investigation intelligence agencies to uncover who leaked information embarrassing to the administration, such as the existence of secret CIA prisons and warrantless wiretapping. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez also has threatened journalists who air such information with prosecution under a 1917 World War I espionage law. Somehow, it was OK for a top aide to the vice president to leak the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the media after the agent's spouse had contradicted President Bush's statements about Iraq purchasing uranium from an African nation. At the same time, declassified historical documents stored at the National Archives are being removed from public access. The work is being done by the CIA, the Air Force and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Add to that the changes made by this administration to executive orders, the Presidential Papers Act and the Freedom of Information Act, and it begins to look like a conspiracy by our government to control public information. It is not surprising that Americans were willing to go along with an unprovoked attack against Iraq when one considers that supporting information was more readily available to the public than contradictory statements made by international weapons inspectors. I believe it is time to get concerned that our rights are being eroded. This November, we should fire anyone who places loyalty to the president ahead of loyalty to the Constitution. Let us not forget that most dictatorships begin with suppressing the free flow of information.

NICK REINA

Milmay

Letter published in the Courier Post, March 17, 2006

Bush, LoBiondo Hurt Workers

Thanks to the Bush administration, and with the help of U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, the new bankruptcy law allows big American corporations filing under Chapter 11 to renegotiate their union contracts and, worst of all, to dump their pension obligations. There is no safety net for the average American working family. By the way, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. mandated by Congress is running its own deficit of $23.3 billion and counting.One thing is obvious: LoBiondo and the Bush administration don't have the best interest of American families in their hearts. They can talk family values all they want, but their actions speak volumes. The Bush administration wants to do away with defined pension plans as we know them. LoBiondo and this administration want American families making the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour to join 401(k) plans.It's shameful that the AFL-CIO endorsed LoBiondo for Congress for our district.

HIPOLITO LAGARES

Vineland

Letter published in Press of Atlantic City, March 17, 2006

Time to Give Gate to President Bush

Richard Nixon had “Watergate,” Ronald Reagan had “Iran-Contragate” and Bill Clinton had “Monicagate.” It seems, therefore, only fair that the Bush administration should have its own special “gate.”The problem is that there are so many possibilities: “Port-gate,” “Iraq-gate,” “Katrina-gate,” “Wiretap-gate,” Intelligence-leak-gate,” and on and on, that we would need a special investigation to keep track of them.Therefore, it is simpler to refer to the mess as “Bushgate” and give George Bush and his friends the gate through impeachment hearings and with the November congress-ional elections.

BARBARA CLARK

HAROLD CLARK

Egg Harbor Twp.

Letter published in Press of Atlantic City, March 14, 2006

Bush Plan Would Raise Deficit by $1.2 Trillion, Budget Office Says

WASHINGTON, March 3 — President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday. The nonpartisan budget office said that Mr. Bush's tax-cutting proposals would cost about $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years and that his proposals to partly privatize Social Security would cost about $312 billion during that period. The office also said Mr. Bush's proposals to save money on Medicare, Medicaid and most nonmilitary programs would offset about one-third of the cost of his other proposals. The report comes as Republican leaders in Congress prepare to settle on their own budget for next year, which could differ substantially from Mr. Bush's. They are already running into political and economic obstacles as they try to extend Mr. Bush's tax cuts, pay for the war in Iraq and squeeze spending on antipoverty programs, education and most other areas of nonmilitary spending. Senate Republicans, nervous about their prospects in this fall's midterm elections, are balking at Mr. Bush's proposal to trim $36 billion over five years from Medicare, the government health program for the elderly. House and Senate leaders remain bogged down over a limited extension of Mr. Bush's tax cut for stock dividends, and Senate Republicans have repeatedly failed in efforts to permanently repeal the estate tax. At first blush, the Congressional Budget Office's report appears optimistic because it envisions that the budget deficit will slowly decline from $371 billion this year as economic growth generates more revenue and as Mr. Bush's budget cuts take effect. Measured as a share of the total economy, the budget deficit would decline to about 1 percent in 2011 from 2.8 percent this year. Though the government would still be borrowing money each year, the annual deficit would be low by historical standards. But the budget office noted that it had not included money for military costs in Iraq and Afghanistan after this year. The Bush administration has asked for a total of $92 billion in supplemental spending this year for those efforts. Mr. Bush's budget also omits any cost for preventing a huge expansion of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel income tax that is expected to engulf tens of millions of people over the next several years. Mr. Bush's budget assumes that the government will reap well over $1 trillion from the alternative minimum tax over the next decade, but Republicans and Democrats alike have vowed to prevent that from happening. The optimistic outlook also assumes that Congress freezes or cuts the vast majority of discretionary government programs outside of military and domestic security ones. Mr. Bush's 2007 budget would cut $2.1 billion next year from education, which had been one of the president's areas for increased spending. It would also cut money for community development block grants, low-income housing, child-support enforcement against deadbeat fathers and scores of other programs with support in Congress.

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

New York Times

LoBiondo Must Be Challenged

Is Mr. LoBiondo so certain that all of his constituents insist he break his promise of term limits? I dare say he only polled his supporters. And is it really what the voters want, a one-party system without a healthy contest for one of the most important offices in our government? This is one of our most critical points in history. We are at war. There is deep division in our nation over issues of religion, education, the environment, our courts, taxes and tax cuts. What we need is healthy debate on the issues and valid candidates from whom we can choose when we walk into our polling places in November. What we don’t need is for this decision to be made for us by those already in power or for Mr. LoBiondo, as he has been doing of late, to send a message that no one else need apply for his job. If Mr. LoBiondo is so sure his record can hold up to scrutiny, he should not be afraid of serious competition for his seat in Congress.

JANET L. FAYTER

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP

Letter published in the Press of Atlantic City, March 5, 2006.

Political Doublespeak

An article by Francis Sparagna "Democracy corrupted by political doublespeak" (DJ-3/2) has a little doublespeak of its own. A better analogy about the future pay raise for employees might have been: I promise 10 employees that I will raise the total payroll from $1,000 next year to $1,500. It appears that everyone gets a $50 raise. But I hire 10 more employees, and now I have 20 employees and each will receive $75 instead of $100. Costs increase when more people qualify for programs, even without inflation, so we have a cut in services for everyone. We have more seniors reaching 65, more needy families, and more military returning with physical and mental disabilities. To label Medicare and Social Security entitlements is a misnomer; they are insurance programs, which we paid into from our first paycheck. Medicaid, an entitlement, is necessary with more Americans in need, many because of jobs lost or downgraded. President Bush's jobs growth does not even keep up with the number of new people moving into the job market. Before his election, Bush stated that he wanted to discontinue most of these programs; now he says he just wants to slow their growth, which can only be done by slowing the need. We neglect our people, but give huge tax cuts to oil companies and the wealthy. We must build our economy to provide jobs instead of outsourcing, stop borrowing from Social Security, and bring our people home from the poorly managed war in Iraq as soon as possible. It is ludicrous to accuse the Democrats of doublespeak when the guru of doublespeak, Karl Rove, is advising the president. As for the letters criticizing Congressman LoBiondo, it's obvious that many people in his district are extremely unhappy with his votes. Should we put up with what is going on, stay silent, and acquiesce to corruption and mismanagement in Washington, D.C.? If Mr. LoBiondo is feeling threatened, maybe it's because of his support for the Bush, Cheney, and DeLay policies, which he must know are now being rejected by the majority of Americans.

BETTIE J. REINA

Letter published in the Daily Journal, March 4, 2006

Second District Need Real Choice

Regarding the Feb. 21 letter “Criticism unfair to LoBiondo”:The writer asserts that U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, shouldn't be judged on his support of the Iraq war and on the assorted Bush scandals. He also seems to feel that it is not important that the Democrats run a credible candidate this year against LoBiondo.But the Iraq war is the key issue that our Congress should be judged on. Since President Bush is not on the ballot, yes, the 2006 congressional elections should be a referendum on Iraq and on the Bush administration. LoBiondo should be held accountable for his continued support of the war. But to do this, the Democrats in the 2nd District have to show some guts and not be scared off by LoBiondo's political war chest or the carefully engineered pro-LoBiondo soiree recently held in Atlantic City.The reason the 2nd District needs the Democrats to run a well-funded credible candidate is that LoBiondo avoids debates and doesn't respond to surveys like Project Vote Smart. Thus, without real campaign finance reform, it is very difficult for an unknown and underfunded opposition candidate to get his or her message across to the voters.This year, more than ever, voters deserve a real choice and a real discussion of the issues confronting our country. We need the Democrats to run a real campaign. This district needs democracy.

NORM COHEN

Letter published in Press of Atlantic City, March 2, 2006