Nov. 6 Letters to the Editor

A downward path?

Azar Nafisi, who lived under Khomeini’s tyranny, wrote, “The worst crime committed by Totalitarian mind-sets is that they force their citizens … to become complicit in their crimes.”

President Obama has such a mind set. His victims will be the American worker, taking what they work hard for, to promote his agenda, and giving to those who have less, making them dependent and beholding, by vote, to the government.

You say Obama doesn’t have a totalitarian mind set? He wants control of media, companies, banks, wages, and most dangerously, life and health care issues. See the original health care bill, page 30, section 123. Obama appoints two-thirds of a committee that would “recommend covered benefits.”

The people voted for Obama, because of his convincing promises. Where are the “green jobs,” where the effort to keep U.S. jobs that have sustained families for decades, providing medical insurance without government intervention? As taxes increase and cap and trade looms, factories like Caterpillar are building factories in Russia and India. Where is the transparency, as Pelosi makes deals to pass her health care package behind closed doors?

Ronald Reagan said that, “Those who sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on a downward path.” Do we want to take that path? Let your congressmen know now.

Melanie Schaures

Castle Rock

Just the facts, ma’am

I like The Daily News. I like the local news that it covers and I like the capsule summaries of the U.S. and world news. Even though I was once an elementary school teacher, I have never felt the need to admonish The Daily News over typos, errors in grammar, etc.

But, an item on page A7 of the Oct. 30 paper has irritated me enough to write. I had heard this story on The News Hour last night so was aware of the facts. The Obama administration has released a progress report on the number of jobs created by its economic recovery plan and overstated its success; it had created 30,000 jobs rather than 35,000 jobs. It had overstated the success of the program by 5,000 jobs or about 17 percent and promised to correct the error in future reports.

So, what did the headline say? “Claims of stimulus jobs grossly overestimated.” And to make the story more inflammatory, the first sentence went on to say the “… economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved …” Images of 90,000 jobs danced in my head.

The use of the word “grossly” is just wrong. The Random House dictionary defines “gross” as “flagrant and extreme.” If the Obama administration had intentionally inflated the numbers by 50 percent, that would be a “grossly overstated.”

Laurel A. Murphy

Kalama

Staycation a bust!

I don’t know why all the people who are quoted in the (Nov. 2) article are surprised with business being down on the way up to the mountain from Castle Rock.

The mountain blew 30 years ago and the reason people moved to the Pacific Northwest was to be outside. People don’t go to Mayfield because it’s close to where they’re staying; they go there because there’s something to do. The south side gets business because there’s stuff to do.

Mark Smith says, “It wasn’t a good season on the mountain again.“ I say, “Recreation needs multiple use.” I and many others had a great time on the mountain again. Actually the past two years have been some of the best I’ve encountered. We don’t need any more wilderness areas or land closures. Many people go to the mountain three times a week; they just don’t go where you can only get out of the truck to ride a horse or look at a film. The mountain still looks the same as it did 29 years ago.

Mike Gwynn

Kelso

Keeping the streets clear

This is my annual letter of my sincere appreciation and thanks to the Longview workers who clean our streets of leaves.

I live on the Old West Side where our beautiful oaks drop trillions of leaves every fall. We are so fortunate to have them picked up in the street—we can just rake them out there. Many communities don’t have a service like that. Many thanks.

Mrs. Marion Thuma

Longview

Let me understand

Some want what? Let me understand this. Some want Obama’s federal government to take over the health care of the whole nation.

This is the same group that can’t get the H1N1 vaccine out in time to avert the outbreak. This is the same group that can’t even get enough vaccine out for the at-risk people. Let’s ignore the fact that this same government is trumpeting, “The H1N1 is coming. The H1N1 is coming.” Makes one wonder what they don’t want you to notice.

Boy, oh boy, oh boy — have I got a deal for these people. I have this nice bridge …

Carlin Lohrey

Kelso