Hometown News

Don't help the enemy

Our country has many enemies: Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran and China come to mind. It just is plain crazy when we do things to help them get stronger.

Why the Obama administration would loosen controls on the export of strategic missile technology to communist China is amazing and it is a terrible mistake, which unfortunately, we may some day seriously regret.

Clearing up the card debate

In response to the reader question 'what's a temporary card?' in the Oct 23 edition, a temporary alien resident is issued a Social Security number and a temporary resident alien card to allow them to work legally, while they seek permanent residency under a green card. This procedure can take two years or more.

The Social Security number and temporary alien resident card remains legitimate and the person can legally work until the permanent residency (green card) is approved, while both Social Security number and temporary card are cancelled if permanent residency is not approved.

A person with temporary alien residency and legitimate Social Security number is as entitled to any job as any American citizen, how else would they survive?

America is built upon these immigrant foundations and is greater for it.

Broken promises

Despite the pledges coming out of Washington about the advantages of spending more to create a "brave new world," the reality is that Americans have no illusions about it and consider the promises of politicians to be just what they are, bogus.

In the debate over the proposed government take-over of the nation's health care system, the shame of it is that we could fix what needs fixing without destroying the parts which are working, and without creating a costly new government entitlement program, which would certainly speed up our decline into national bankruptcy.

Failed policies

President Obama and the liberals in Congress want to increase taxes on the U.S. oil and natural gas industry, but these costs will produce wide-reaching negative effects and ripple down through the economy at a time when Americans can least afford them.

Rather than continuing the current failed policy of importing energy from unreliable foreign sources, which erodes our national security, common sense tells us that we should be encouraging American companies, a sure way to the road of economic recovery.

Who's to blame?

Whether we want it or not, Democrats seem determined to saddle all of us with a hugely expensive plan for universal access to health care. If previous government programs are any indication, their plans will simply paper over the long-term challenges. They envision the establishment of a new health care bureaucracy.

It reminds us of the bureaucrats total failure in trying to handle the Katrina disaster. It came as no surprise when Washington finally admitted that the federal debt has risen to new records.

The real news is that all this government spending has done little to improve the situation. In fact, it may have made matters worse.

The dirty little secret is that our children and grandchildren will be forced to pay off the obligations, which we have incurred. No wonder Obama's approval numbers are in free fall.

What percentage are you?

A just-completed Gallup poll indicates voters, by 61 percent to 37 percent, believe individuals should be in charge of their own health care and that 89 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents concur. While 65 percent of Democrats feel it is the responsibility of government, the trend is in the direction of individual responsibility.

The report does not bode well for Obama's plan for a take-over of our health care.

Editor's note: This particular survey was taken on Sept. 30.

Religious views

The person who thinks that a spirituality poll found 5 percent of America doesn't believe in God must have seen a flawed poll. The true number stands at around 15 percent, and is in fact, the fastest growing faith/non-faith group. Because government cannot endorse any religion, because the Bill of Rights protects minorities from tyranny of the majority, and because God is not in our Constitution, are reasons judges rule the way they do.

And, according to your Bible, prayer should be practiced in private, or at a place of worship.

The Knights of Columbus can keep "Christ in Christmas," but I prefer to keep the word "happy" in my holidays!

What about Bush?

This is in response to someone who feels President Obama will evade, imply, misdirect, mislead, dodge, equivocate and use double entendre.

They then go on to criticize President Clinton's leadership. However, they failed to mention President George W. Bush, whose administration tarnished our once-proud prestige by perpetrating the crime of the century with his unjust war that has killed many thousands, outed a CIA operative, supported torture, failed to supply troops properly and helped to create this mess we are in now.

With his nearly 20 percent approval rating when he left office, I feel the writer left out an important part of our recent history.

Obama's world stage

It is unrealistic to expect our new president, who has extremely limited experience in world affairs, to be able to step up to the plate immediately. But Obama has started off on the wrong foot, first apologizing for all of America's past wrongs, then hoisting the red flag by abandoning the ballistic missile shield, which was supposed to defend Eastern Europe, and now weakening our export curbs of sophisticated weapons technology to China.

In baseball, it is three strikes and you are out, but politics is a dangerous game when one plays in the world theater.

Undo the UN

The peacekeeping missions of the United Nations have been remarkably unsuccessful and are costing American taxpayers many millions of dollars each year. Once thought to be an idea which could maintain positive relations among the world's nations, the U.N. has become bogged down in partisan bickering.

Despite its failures, President Obama has pledged even greater funding to keep the organization in operation