Letter to the Editor
Should the federal government help Oklahoma after this weeks tornadoes? Normally I would say absolutely yes. However, both of Oklahoma’s Senators, Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn have repeatedly voted against funding FEMA and voted against relief for other areas of the country. The both voted no for Hurricane Sandy relief. So now comes Oklahoma with their hat in their hand wanting money from the government after they said no when the rest of the country needed help. Shame on you! Shame on you!
So – should we help them? Yes – we are America and we take care of each other in times of disaster. But if I were a senator I would tell Coburn and Inhofe that I’m not going to support disaster relief till the begged for forgiveness on the floor of the Senate. And I would make them pledge to never vote against disaster relief again. There just has to be a price to pay for that level of hypocrisy.
Letter to the Editor
These so called not for profit tea Party groups deserved more scrutiny by the IRS, not because they are Republican, but because 100% of them are in fact in violation of the law. Tax exempt groups are supposed to be tax exempt because they are “charitable” or “social welfare organizations”. The organizations are supposed to be feeding the poor or the sick.
But that’s not what they are doing. These Tea Party groups are laundering money so that rich people can give campaign contributions to help candidates and deduct it from their taxes. So saying that they are targeting the Tea Party is like accusing law enforcement of targeting bank robbers. That’s what they are supposed to do.
Letter to the Editor
America is no longer a democracy. America is now an oligarchy. An oligarchy is where a small group of rich people control the government. Here’s 3 strong indicators supporting my claim:
1) In 2008 there was so much fraud in the banking system that every major financial institution collapsed. They had transferred trillions of dollars out of our pockets leaving us with 18 trillion in national debt. And in spite of crashing the economy with fraud, no one is being prosecuted for these crimes. The rich don’t go to jail,
2) All of us in the lower 98 percent pay our taxes but the rich pay half the rate we do on the money they aren’t hiding in foreign bank accounts. Apple – for example - has $137 billion stashed overseas. They live in California mansions while we pay interest on the debt.
3) When the sequester made air travel inconvenient for the rich to fly Congress acts instantly to releave their suffering while the old and the poor eat dog food in some alley.
And it’s not just a republican issue. Both parties are allowing it to happen. We need to tell Obama and Erik Holder to start prosecuting the rich the way they go after the poor.
Letter to the Editor
Although the news media can attempt to alter what we remember about the Bush administration you can’t actually change the past. What happened happened and the results of what Bush did are still with us. The 16 trillion dollar debt is still here. The wealth transfer from the middle class to the rich are still here. All the people who dies in Iraq and Afghanistan are still dead. With the help of big media the memory might fade but the facts are still the same. One think that I think we can agree on. When it come to Bush – we shall forever be in his debt.
Letter to the Editor
At the beginning of this year Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reed had the opportunity to end the filibuster and allow majority rule in the Senate. But that didn’t happen again in part because it wasn’t supported by senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein from California. Today gun background checks again didn’t get a vote because Democrats support the procedural blocks that Republicans use to black good legislation. At any time the Democrats could choose to stop the filibuster rule but they don’t do it. So they can’t blame the evil Republicans when they enable them through the filibuster. Both parties stand in the way of the will of the people for their own selfish purposes.
Letter to the Editor
I have to say that I am very disappointed with the History Channel over their “The Bible” series. The definition of “history” is a record of what really happened. History is a reality based word and is in the domain of the reality based community.
The problem we realists have with “The Bible” series is that none of those events are real historical events. In short – it never happened. The Earth wasn’t created 6000 years ago. There was no ark and no flood. No mass killing of the first born Egyptions, no wandering the desert for 40 year, no parting of the Red Sea. People in the Bible like Noah, Moses, Jesus are not historical figures. They no more existed that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. These are all stories – fictional people. They aren’t like Lincon, Washington, Newton, Einstein, Ben Franklin, or even Hitler – people who are real and actually existed.
So by depicting stories like “The Bible” on a channel called “The History Channel” they are representing fiction and fact as if there is no difference. In doing so they are committing blasphemy against reality itself, basically stating that reality doesn’t matter. Well reality does matter because if we don’t learn to live in right relationship with reality the mighty hand of Darwin might strike us down like he did the Dinosaurs. . We need to understand the capital T Truth, what really happened in History. So I say to the History Channel, “May Darwin have mercy on your soul!”
Letter to the Editor
On this Jewish holiday of Passover we are reminded of a story about God killing the first born sons of the Egyptians for failing to do what he wanted. But in real life some 65 million years ago Darwin smited the dinosaurs out of existence for failing to develop asteroid deflection technology. Last month an asteroid passed close to Earth and a large meteor exploded over Russia. What does this all mean? I think Darwin is tapping us on the shoulder asking “How’s that space program coming?” If we cut funding for NASA Darwin might reach out and strike us down the way he did the dinosaurs.
Letter to the Editor
10 years ago the Bush administration started the Iraq war. It wasn’t intelligence failures that got us into that war, it was fraud, lies, and deception. We wasted 4000 American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, and 2 trillion dollars of debt, and Iraq is worse off today than they were when we went in. And because of the sequester we’re not providing services for the injured soldiers that gave their limbs for no valid reason. And to this day no one is being prosecuted for starting that war.
It is important that we remember it the way it really happened and stop lying to ourselves that there was some noble cause relating to Iraq. What will happen next time the government comes to us with a war? What do we say when they want to invade Syria or Iran? Do we pay for it on the backs of the old, the poor, the disabled veterans? Do we believe them when they say it’s to stop weapons of mass destruction? Denial and irresponsibility is not a good foreign policy.
Letter to the Editor
Although Republicans make a lot of noise about the national debt the actually want more debt. More debt works in their favor. They want the debt to go up.
Republicans have been against Medicare and Social Security since it started and when Republicans ran up the debt in the Bush years it created an opportunity to use the debt as an excuse to “cut entitlements”. They also want to cut government regulation so they can pollute all they want, sell cigarettes, and let the banks rob us without the government protecting the citizens. “We have to cut spending!”, they cry. But they don’t care about spending. They just want to take our money and give it to rich people.
Our problem isn’t spending. Our problem is tax fairness. We need to tax rich people at the same rate as working people. We don’t get the tax breaks they do. The super rich are trying to enslave us in dept and we have to say no. We need to push the Republican boot off the throat of the poor.
Letter to the Editor
Most people don’t realize it but the Pope is in a unique position to reduce global warming more than any other individual on the planet. How you ask? By embracing birth control.
The single biggest cause of man made global warming is overpopulation. There are just too many people on the planet and the number is growing. Even if we develop clean technologies to cut emissions per person in half, when the population doubles we are right back where we started. The evolutionary fossil record indicates that overpopulation where a species destroys its habitat is one of the most common causes of extinction. There is nothing that will prevent the extinction of humanity if we fail to do what it takes to survive.
If the new pope were to embrace birth control then 1 billion people on the planet would slow their reproductive rates and set a new example for reproductive responsibility. So there is an opportunity to do something responsible, something real. So I hope that the cardinals choose wisely and pick a pope for the 21st century rather than the 12th century.
The Iron Mountain Daily News Responds
Do what it takes, Marc. First eliminate your family, then suicide.
The world would be much better off.
I might consider it but wouldn’t that just give Obama an excuse to take away my gun?
Letter to the Editor
It never ceases to amaze me the hubris of the Republican party. As if it wasn’t enough that they turned Clinton’s surplus into the biggest deficit in history, now they are deliberately crashing the economy with their sequestration. They seem to think it’s not treason to hold the economy hostage trying to destroy Medicare and Social Security as ransom. But I blame the voters who elected them. If you vote for dogs you’re going to get fleas. It’s just too bad that the rest of us in the reality based world have to suffer the karma of their irresponsibility.
Letter to the Editor
We need to raise the minimum wage because a low minimum wage is effectively welfare for corporations. When profitable companies pay wages that people can’t live on the taxpayers often have to make up the difference. For example, in many states the largest group of medicare and food stamp recipients are Wal-mart employees. And who pays for this medicare and food stamps? It’s paid for by taxpayers like me.
So I say it is time to raise the minimum wage to at least $9.00/hour because why should I pay taxes to subsidize corporate America. At a time when the stock market is back to records highs and corporate profits are through the roof why should I pay taxes to support greedy companies who should be paying workers a living wage.
California courts are processing correctable traffic violations wrong and the citizens are paying the price not only in improper fines but higher insurance rates. I don’t know how widespread this mistake is but I do know that the courthouse in Morgan Hill has been doing it wrong. But it may turn out that California is going to have to refund millions in improper fines that it collected over the years for correctable offenses that should have been dismissed. This will also save the People of California millions in insurance costs for traffic tickets that should never have been put on their record. The appeal attached to the case makes it clear, but what isn’t clear is if anything is going to be done about it.
The Incident
A correctable violation is what appears to be a violation at the time but later proven to not be a violation. An example of this is proof of insurance or corrective lenses. I found out about this when I was pulled over for running a stop sign and was given 3 tickets totaling $1400 on November 25th 2013. Running a stop sign, no proof of insurance, and no corrective lenses.
Here is the dash cam video I obtained from the Gilroy Police Department of the incident. Unfortunately because it is at the wrong angle I couldn’t prove I had stopped. Notice however the police officer running the stop sign without turning on her lights. She’s actually the one who broke the law. Also notice that I’m going through the intersection at 1/2 the speed of the car in front of me who came to a full stop.
2011.11.25_17.24.06_GPD_1716_VID1
However after I was pulled over she asked for my drivers license and insurance. The insurance can in my glove box was old – but I had an app on my cell phone that Geico gave me that shows proof of insurance. I offered to show it to her and she refused to look at it. Then she noticed the corrective lens restriction and I told her that I had Lasik – and that Lasik was a corrective lens. She wrote me a total of $1400 in tickets. Read More…
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Law
This post was written by
marc on February 6, 2013
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Letter to the Editor
Although it is commendable that the Boy Scouts are going to stop prohibiting gay scouts I’m not hearing them say anything about changing their position when it come to excluding boys based on their religious beliefs. The Boy Scouts require scouts believe in God and excludes boys who don’t share their particular religious views.
There are a growing number of boys who are part of the reality based community who are uncomfortable being required to acknowledge a belief in something that isn’t real. Furthermore in the believing community boys are uncomfortable with a flavor of religion that is different from their own. Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim children are uncomfortable with the Boy Scouts pushing a Jesus based religion on them.
Boy Scouts are supposed to be teaching life skills to boys and a set of skills and values that would apply to any boy of any religion. If the Boy Scouts don’t want to do that then they should just call themselves the Christian Boy Scouts. It seems to me that the time has come to decide if they are going to be inclusive or exclusive and if they are going to be inclusive then they should include boys from the doubt based world and focus on universal ethics, camping, and tying knots. Things that all boys should know regardless of sexual orientation or what invisible people they do or do not worship.
Letter to the Editor
Republicans are trying to rig the next presidential elections in advance by changing the rules of how electoral votes are allocated so that even if a Democrat gets the most votes the Republican still wins. If these rules had been in place in 2012 then Romney would have been president in spite of Obama getting millions of votes more than Romney did. But instead of giving up their crazy positions they are focusing on better ways of cheating at the polls.
Interestingly enough there is another movement to change how the president is elected which is based on making the national popular vote determine the winner. One person one vote – what a radical concept! The way it works is that states pass laws to allocate their electoral vote based on the winner of the popular vote. The law would go into effect when enough states pass the law that total 271 electoral votes. So far there are 9 states who have passed this law. Those states are Vermont, Maryland, Washington, Illinois, New Jersey, Washington DC, Massachusetts, California, and Hawaii. In the next 4 years if we can get enough states to pass this law then we can improve the system to elect presidents. If this system had been in place in 2000 the disastrous Bush presidency and the massive debt and 2 wars would have been avoided. Gore got half a million votes more than Bush did and should have won.
Details can be found at NationalPopularVote.com and I ebncourage everyone to read about it. We should make the elections more fair and counter the Republican threat to slant the system more in their favor.
Letter to the Editor
For the last 4 years the Democrats have had the majority in the Senate but have complained because the Republicans have used the filibuster to block what the majority of Americans want. Today for the third time Democrats had the opportunity to fix the filibuster and they failed to do so. The Democrats who blocked reform are Max Baucus (MT), Patrick Leahy (VT), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Barbara Boxer (CA), Joe Manchin (WV) and Mark Pryor (AR). I also blame Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed and President Obama for failing to provide the leadership to make it happen.
I’m sure in a few days when the Republicans start filibustering everything again the Democrats will cry, “we can’t do anything because the Republicans are filibustering.” That is a lie! When Democrats have the chance to fix the problem and they don’t it makes it their fault – the Democrats fault! Just like the whole fiscal cliff deal, that was an artificial crisis created by Congress, this process is phony and it just gives Democrats cover to let the Republicans ave their way while pretending to oppose issues that they secretly support. I am particularly ashamed of my two senators from California, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein and on behalf of the sane people from California I apologize to the rest of America for allowing such nonsense to continue. And I say to the entire Senate – shame on you, shame on you, shame on you!
Letter to the Editor
As the Republicans begin their retreat this weekend they will have the opportunity to be lead by motivational speaker Erik Weihenmayer, an athlete perhaps best known for being the first blind person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. And although it is commendable that the Republicans are embracing this accomplished speaker, isn’t this just another case with Republicans of the blind leading the blind? Think about it.
Letter to the Editor
Some people say that President Obama have the option to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling in case Congress fails to do so. They are wrong. Obama doesn’t have an option to raise the debt ceiling, he has a responsibility to do so. The Constitution says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” Obama is therefore REQUIRED to raise the debt ceiling if Congress doesn’t. It’s not an option. It’s something he has to do under the Constitution.
Letter to the Editor
The US Senate is going to take up the issue of reforming the Filibuster so that a minority of Republicans can’t dominate the majority that was elected by the people. But standing in the way of this needed reform are the two senators from California, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. Both of these senators have complained about how the Republicans filibuster everything and they keep anything meaningful from being passed. Now there is a chance to fix the problem and they are standing in the way.
I’m beginning to wonder if they are sincere or if this is just politics as usual as the People suffer so these senators can play their ridiculous games. I’m asking people call on Boxer and Feinstein to get out of the way and reform the Senate.
Letter to the Editor
Republicans have been chanting “Spending Cuts” for the last several years and where shall we start. To me the place to start is obvious, Afghanistan. It’s time to get the h___ out of Afghanistan. The sooner the better. We’re spending billions every week babysitting a country that needs to take care of itself and join the civilized world. I agree with President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel who said – after Bin Laden was killed – that we need to get out, that we have no reason to be there anymore.
So – if Republicans want to cut spending then they should do everything they can to end the war in Afghanistan. That way they can share the credit in America’s recovery and move away from being the party of the crazy people.
Letter to he Editor
Republicans are publicly stating again that America is a hostage. They are saying that if we don’t start the process of crippling Social Security and Medicare that they will cause America to default of the national debt. The idea being that only Congress can raise the national debt ceiling. A debt that Republicans themselves created through the Bush tax cuts for the rich and 2 unnecessary wars.
But – there are three reason what Obama can raise the debt ceiling without Congress.
The first reason is the 14th Amendment that says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”
The second reason is that when Congress passed budgets with more spending than income they implicitly voted to incease the debt. That they knew, or should have known, that deficit spending would increase the debt, and they voted to do that.
The third reason Obama can increase the national debt on his own is in the case of a national emergency. If Congress fails on its own to do its job and be fiscally responsible then the President as the Chief Executive has to step in to avert a world wide crisis. And letting America go into default as a part of a political stunt would be irresponsible, and as President Obama should not let that happen.
So – if I were Obama here’s how I would play it out. I would tell Republicans that I refuse to negotiate with hostage takers, as he is doing now. Then I would wait for Republicans to cave in not telling them about the intent to use constitutional powers to avert the crisis. Obama could sit back and wait for then to either cave in or actually deliberately let America’s credit go into default. At the point Republicans actually put America in default Obama would then invoke all three of the above reasons to raise the national debt on his own. No court is going to overturn that kind of decision.
But my bet is the Republicans cave in and we never need to find out what Obama would have done. Take the Republicans to the cliff edge and dare them to jump. Taking America hostage is morally wrong and we should rub their noses in it.
As a result America’s credit will be saved. The credit rating will go up because the “Adults” are back in charge. And Republicans will have a record of having committed an act of treason against America on their record when they run in the next election. I’m just hoping Obama is smart enough to figure it out.
Letter to the Editor
In this age of partisan bickering one thing that I think both Democrats and Republicans agree on. House Speaker John Boehner is not up to the job. He is neither competent or effective and we Citizens of the United States should not have to suffer through 2 more years with him as Squeaker of the House. It’s time for Republicans who embrace sanity to step forward and assert responsible control and come up with someone else. Even if someone else is not a Republican.
Letter to the Editor
With the fiscal cliff looming and senators filibustering everything you would think from listening to the news that noting is being passed through Congress. But that isn’t the case. As it turns out on Friday the Senate passed an extension of the FISA act to continue to allow the government to spy in US citizens without a warrant or any form of constitutional oversight. Even the Congress can’t find out what’s going on. This was something they started after 9/11 and even though Bin Laden is dead they still seem to need to have secret laws and a secret police force that is above the law to illegally spy on us.
Sure shows you where their priorities are. Obama is as bad as Bush when it comes to following the Constitution. Only Rand Paul, Ron Wyden and a handful of other Democrats opposed it. Amazing how some things just sail through while everything else is impossible.
Letter to the Editor
Politics these days are very interesting. The world of reality is in a battle to the death with the world of crazy, and it seems the reality is winning because crazy is collapsing in on itself. What crazy doesn’t realize is that reality always wins. There is no power in the universe that can go up against reality. I feel that we as a nation choose reality over crazy in the last election and that members of both parties need to make a commitment to the American to put reality first. Let us all agree, no matter what party we identify with, to insist on a reality first process for determining what is the right thing weas a country should do. That we choose reality and say no to crazy!
Letter to the Editor
Republicans keep saying we have a spending problem and we need to cut spending. But Republicans don’t want to say what cuts they want to make. If Republicans want spending cuts then tell us what you want. Just say it!
Do we pull grandma out of the nursing home and put her on the street? Do we take away lunch from school children? Do we close the emergency rooms to poor people and let them die on the steps of the hospital? Do we shaft our veterans? Tell us what you want to cut so we at least know what you’ll vote for.
Letter to the Editor
The Republicans keep saying “We have a spending problem – not a tax problem.” WRONG! The reason we are in the hole is that we cut taxes for the rich and paid for it borrowing money – from the rich. And now we have to pay interest to the rich. And the Republicans want us to give up Medicare and Social Security so we can keep paying the rich? No F-ing way! It’s time we stop giving the rich welfare and make them pay back the money they took from us running up the debt. I don’t care if my taxes have to go up if it will end the Bush tax cuts. I’m willing to pay more if it will make them pay their share.
Letter to the Editor
The debt ceiling threat is a false threat that for some reason both Democrats and Republicans are buying into. They say that only Congress has the authority to raise the debt limit and Republicans are using that to take America hostage to try to destroy Medicare and Social Security. And for some strange reason the Democrats are buying into it. But it’s a false threat.
There are two reasons why this debt ceiling vote isn’t necessary. one reason is the 14th amendment which says, “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” But that’s not the only reason. When past members of Congress passed budgets that were out of balance they knew that it would increase the debt. Thus by voting to spend the money Congress already voted to increase the debt ceiling. They do not need to vote on it a second time.
It’s bad enough that the Republicans hold us hostage but it’s even worse that the Democrats are also buying into this illusion and using it to create artificial fiscal cliffs where the “compromise” is to start the process of ending Social Security and Medicare. I’m beginning to think that Dems are just pretending to be for the middle class while caving into the demands of the rich. We will see by what they do if they are really with The People or if it’s just so much bull spit.
Letter to the Editor
Right when you think that Republicans can’t get any crazier than this they never cease to amaze me. What am I talking about this time? Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell is now filibustering himself. McConnell, in an attempt to bluff the Democrats offered a proposal to end the Republican’s hostage taking over the federal debt ceiling limit. To his surprise the Dems said, sure – let’s vote on that. So McConnell had to filibuster himself to stop himself from getting his way.
America is in trouble and we’re not going to get out of trouble as long as the Republican’s hang on to being crazy. Crazy is not a long term solution. What Republicans need to do is end their war on reality and end their war on mathematics. Reality change my life, it can change their lives too. Only by embracing reality can America be saved. Otherwise the angry hand of Darwin is going to reach out and slap us down.
Letter to the Editor
I keep hearing on the news Republicans saying that we shouldn’t raise taxes in the rich because we are “punishing success”. Are you kidding me? They turned Wall Street into a casino and when they crashed the economy we had to bail them out. And that’s what they call success. We bailed them out and we owe the money? No no no no no! We bailed them out, that is not success, and they owe us money.
Why should we reward failure with upper class tax breaks and have their wealth explode while the rest of America is being tricked down upon? I don’t think so! They should pay us back through higher taxes until their debt is paid off. They caused the problem and we shouldn’t be stuck paying for it.
Letter to the Editor
On one hand the super rich plutocrats who want to pay no taxes and are funding the Republicans have made it clear that they are going to cut the republicans off from their billions of dollars if they don’t hold real Americans hostage to get their upper class tax cuts. However the last election showed that there may be no amount of money that can by an election. So Republicans are either going to have to change or stick with a losing position. Maybe it’s time the Republicans started being nice to a broader base of America than just the Mitt Romneys of the world.
