33rd District Democratic Club, Anne Arundel County, Md

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Opinions from the 33rd District Democratic Club


These letters express the opinions of our individual members and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the 33rd District Democratic Club.

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Letter Published in The Capital, 5/5/2011

Reply: Councilman Benoit's Insurance

I have refrained from responding to the subject of your article on 4/20 regarding Councilman Benoit's insurance. I have read it six times with my emotions erupting each time. I wanted to calm down before commenting.

I love politics because I love living in a democracy. Perish the thought of having everything my way or your way. Our country is based on intelligent and intellectual exchange of opinions, settling on a compromise. What we are evolving into is a government being infected with mindless, thoughtless attacks containing no basis for common sense. This is a good example.

If a government representative is incapable of participating in an intellectual dialogue too often he/she resorts to attacking the ridiculous. It is very much like the anger that erupts from an uneducated person who cannot communicate. Absent of knowledge, absent of critical thinking skills, absent of an understanding of logic, attacks are made with short sound bites created to put constituents with a similar lack of skills into a fit of unsupportable anger and call to action . . . serving no purpose but to falsely discredit.

Councilman Benoit had a choice of insurance programs. He chose the one best suited for his family, a choice any responsible person would have made. That is the end of that discussion.

I would hope that anyone who would launch an attack on such feeble, thoughtless grounds would themselves be held up as antagonists and creators of these tones of non-productive dialogue. We need to identify and replace them with promoters of understanding, civil conversation, and democracy. I submit two names to this replacement list, Fink and Grasso. Being of an opposing party is not an excuse for absence of dignity, character, and common sense.

Rusty Vaughan
Odenton

 

Letter to The Capital, 4/14/2011

Medicare

As chairman of the House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R. Wis., proposes to replace Medicare with a program that would give vouchers to senior citizens and have them shop around for private health insurance.

You can bet the vouchers won't be enough to buy the insurance coverage needed for seniors. The premiums would be much higher than those charged younger and healthier Americans, which is why the Medicare program was created in 1965 during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. Republicans opposed it then as they do today.

Ryan also assaults the Medicaid program for the very poor. He would just turn it over to the states as part of a new federal bloc grant program that would be vulnerable to cuts in annual appropriations, and he has a tax reform plan that can have the richest Americans dancing.

While Democrats demand repeal of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, Ryan wants more and deeper reductions in the taxes paid by the richest 2 percent of our population. It should not surprise us that Ryan is a fan of the late Ayn Rand, a writer who taught that the wealthy have no responsibility for the well-being of other citizens.

Raymond Gill
Crownsville
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Letter to The Capital, 3/26/2011

Corporate Welfare and Special Tax Breaks

Today I learned that GE's billions in profits totally avoided paying even one cent in Federal corporate income tax. All done by manipulation where profits and costs are accounted for in a world wide economy - much of which is beyond the reach of our tax laws.

Another report a few months ago on TV showed that drug companies have been paying less and less in corporate income taxes since 2000. These multi-billion $$ businesses claim that almost all the profits are due to their patents. They move their patents legal locations to places like the Cayman Islands tax haven, again outside the reach of our laws. Their offices there are little more then a file cabinet in a lawyers office.

There they use those "subsidiaries" and the profits held within to establish production facilities in near slave labor nations. Not only are the profits out of reach of our tax laws., but they fund the moving of jobs from America to the far east.

Also being involved with small aircraft, I've learned how to avoid sales tax - even on planes that easily can cost into the millions.. Set up a shell corporation located in a state without sales tax, like Delaware: there the shell corporation buys and owns the plane. Presto - no sales tax, even if the plane is based in MD.

Its time to end corporate welfare and multimillion $$ tax breaks while our government is cutting education, services and employees jobs and benefits. And Republicans are trying to gut social security.

We should all be outraged.

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 4/14/2011

A Bigger Megaphone for Republicans

To the Editor:

In The Sunday Capital you welcomed a “New Columnist,” Michael Collins, a Republican apparatchik to your editorial page. A year or two ago you were ecstatic to welcome Bob Williams. Both Mr. Williams and Mr. Collins can be expected to espouse a solid Republican philosophy. You concluded your Editor’s Desk piece “[Mike’s} comments should be of interest to many readers who wanted additional conservative views on countywide issues.” That’s nice. However, you’ve completely ignored Democratic readers. Democrats want “additional liberal views of countywide issues.”

What your column suggests is that the Republican philosophy is to provide a bigger megaphone for Republicans while offering the Democrats, apparently, nothing. Thus The Capital is just another mouthpiece for the discredited philosophy and policies of the floundering, failing Republican Party. Evidence of my claim about the Republican Party is the financial program presented by Rep. Paul Ryan (WI). Ryan thinks Ayn Rand’s philosophy is the salvation of the country, even though those ideas have not produced any contribution to the welfare of the country or its citizens. The only people who benefit from her philosophy are the wealthy, think the Koch brothers.

Several years ago I suggested that The Capital alternate columns by Republicans and Democrats. The contrasting columns would energize both parties and make the differences very clear. Instead, you’re larding your editorial page with the same tired, failed ideas rejected by the American citizenry after Franklin Roosevelt became president.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

 

Letter to The Baltimore Sun, 4/13/2011

Dan Rodricks and Congressman Andy Harris

Thank you to Dan Rodricks for his excellent assessment of Congressman Andy Harris (The Sun, April 10). As a resident of Anne Arundel County, represented by Harris, I am appalled at how he has done nothing for his constituents regarding job-creation and betterment of the middle-class.

Besides signing onto multiple anti-abortion amendments, a legal medical procedure, Harris has shown his colors that pander to his Tea Party base. Remember, he was funded by American for Prosperity, the Tea Party organization founded by the oil and gas titans Charles and David Koch.

Recently, Harris voted to defund the EPA that not only protects all Americans, but particularly the state of MD and Chesapeake Bay. In that same voting cycle, Harris voted to keep an earmark for the Alaskan "bridges to nowhere" that are still being funded with federal money. So while stripping the environment and MD of its safe guards, Harris gave Alaska $183 million for their "bridges to nowhere" adding to the deficit with an earmark.

That he's a doctor adds to his pretense. Harris voted against an amendment (H147) that would protect construction workers and enforce safety standards for these workers- again the middle class. He voted against regulating mountaintop removal and strip mining allowing toxic poisons into streams and drinking water. The working poor and middle-class of West Virginia have no political clout, so what does he care? Harris also advocates hydraulic fracking of gas in Garrett County putting more carcinogens in their water and jeopordizing their real estate and tourism industry. Another assault on MD and the middle-class.

Harris calls himself the "caring conservative". Just who does he care for? And where are the jobs?

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Baltimore Sun and The Capital, Published in The Capital 4/10/2011

Andy Harris - Our Representative in Congress

Maryland ranks 7th nationally in cancer mortality, yet our Congressional Representative Harris wants to totally remove the Environmental Protection Agency, whose job is to insure that the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe are free of carcinogens.

His idea of reducing government expenses is his supporting Palin’s Bridge to nowhere, A $300 million boondoggle for favored contractors that benefits 50 people on an almost deserted island.. At $6 million per inhabitant, why not instead resettle those people at miniscule cost.

This reminds me of those advertisements Harris ran before the election, complaining about the government spending $100,000 on insect studies. The real objective of those studies was to understand life processes in creatures a million times simpler then humans with the goal of being able to develop life saving drugs for cancer etc. for us, our parents and our children.

One would think that Harris, a doctor, would do better. His comment last year about "living the American dream" is best described as his being "Our American Nightmare."

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, Published 4/4/2011

Gay Marriage Bill

I am concerned and disappointed in our failure to pass the gay marriage bill. Concern is that we are denying others the basic American freedom to live their lives as they choose where it does not interfere with ours.. Disappointed in citizens who want to deny their freedoms to others. What fears must be driving people to forsake the roots of their country and impose their beliefs on others.

I am a heterosexual male. As a child, I too was a pawn of these fears. As an adult, I questioned the source of choices homosexuals would make that cause them to lead a gay life. Then there was searching, a result of my need to understand. I learned this "choice" is as much in their individual chemistry as heterosexuality is in mine.

As I opened to biological facts and dropped my fears from ignorance, it became logical. What if, as a heterosexual male, I were placed in a society that allowed me to marry only other men. What if I could not live and love openly with women. My life would be tragic living contrary to my makeup. I would be fearful of being discovered, shunned if I were to follow my genetic inclination.

Homosexuality is no more a choice than heterosexuality. I believe it is one's right to FREEDOM in my America. Quality of a person is not determined by sexuality. This should not be a debate. Gay or straight we can still openly go to the same school and church, fight alongside each other, and marry the person of choice.

If not change, perhaps this will encourage more to stand up and support the freedom of adults to marry regardless of gender, race, age, or nationality. If we have no reason to be apart, we must work together.

Rusty Vaughan
Odenton

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Letter to The Capital, 3/28/2011

Energy Response

This letter is in response to Mr. David Dirkes comments in Sunday, March 27,2011 letters to the editor. He made some serious allegations and errors in reporting the direction our current progressive leadership is taking us regarding our National energy needs.

Oil - Deepwater permits have, in fact, been issued in the past month by the Obama Administration.

Coal - Massey Energy, has applied for four permits to mine 6,600 acres of Coal River Mountain in W. Virginia. The permits would also allow for the construction of at least 19 valley fills, where mining waste would be deposited in nearly every headwater stream originating from the mountain.

A coalition of environmental organizations have proposed an alternative 440-Megawatt wind farm consisting of 220 wind turbines to be constructed on the land slated to be blown away for coal mining. This project would:

• Create 440 megawatts of power, enough to power more than 150,000 homes in West Virginia.
• Create more than 200 local employment opportunities during the construction phase, and 40-50 permanent operations and maintenance jobs during the life of the wind farm.

Wind - President Obama recently issued permits for the mentioned wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, allowing the project to proceed.

Nuclear - In the face of a horrendous meltdown of a still leaking Japanese reactor, the jibe at anyone who expresses a reasonable concern as to the ability to manage these facilities safely seems ridiculously cavalier.

In order to face the serious energy concerns of our Nation, it is necessary to state facts, not hyperbole, if we are to work together toward the common goal of safe, affordable, environmentally appropriate sources. Additionally, it is always easy to make fun of the concerns of others when you are not personally impacted by poor decisions allowing some of the unsafe and needlessly destructive sources we currently see in place.

Susan Guyaux
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 3/26/2011

Congressman Andy Harris' Voting Record

Regarding the March 22 letter, Voting Record, and Congressman Andy Harris' vote to continue funding the "bridges to nowhere", the writer was too kind in calling him glaringly inconsistent. I call him glaringly hypocritical.

Just when we thought the Alaskan "bridges to nowhere" (AKA earmarks) had disappeared, it seems they are alive and well in the GOP House funding.

According to the National Journal (March 2), a Democratic motion to "recommitt the extension of the surface transportation bill", ( with a bipartisan vote of 421-4), Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo) offered another motion revoking $183 million still on the table for these bridges to 2 Alaskan islands- one of which serves 50 residents.

In misleading the American people that these earmarks had been eliminated, apparently Alaska has continued to fund these bridges with federal money: one costing $304 million and the other $1.6 billion. While viciously railing against the current administration about the deficit, every House republican, including our supposed deficit-reducing, job-creating, steward of the environment Congressman Harris, voted against Rep. Polis motion and for the earmark.

Adding to his pretense, Harris had the gull to recently announce his support for the GOP House ban on all earmarks for 2011. He said, " I am pleased that the House Republican Congress has taken a strong stand against earmarks. Earmarks have come to represent the broken system in Washington and how the process of appropriating federal tax dollars needs to be completely reformed." Really now?

So within 2 weeks, Harris voted to defund the EPA, which protects all Americans- particularly his own constituents and the Chesapeake Bay- and voted for an Alaskan earmark that funds 2 bridges that go nowhere and serve 50. This is not inconsistent but unconscionable.

Harris calls himself a "caring conservative." His voting record reflects the opposite.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 2/17/2011

Social Security

An ABC poll shows that while most Americans favor most of the Omnibus Package, 57 percent oppose the part which, for one year, cuts 2 points off the Social Security payroll tax. To buttress benefits during the year, $112 billion would be borrowed.

This destailizes Social Security. It funds it with deficit spending. What happens at year's end? Republicans will want to make the cut permanent and reduce benefits. Part of a plot to kill Social Security.

As funded before Omnibus, Social Security could have maintained full benefits for another 27 years. Democrats were planning these modest adjustments to prevent shortfalls thereafter:

1. Slowly lift the caps on earnings subject to the Social Security tax. The cap is now $106,800 and inches up automatically each year based on average wages.

2. Also slowly raise, 1/20th of 1 percent per year for 20 years, the payroll tax rate. Shortfall reductions- 23 percent. Yes, this is a sacrifice for the middle class and poor.

3. Extend Social Security to newly hired state and local government workers. Shortfall reduction- 10 percent.

4. Give Social Security just some of the tax on large estates. Shortfall reduction- 27 percent.

These adjustments would have, before Omnibus, cut the shortfall after 2038 by 10 percent. Who knows what will be necessary now to do that? Four things to remember: Every 6th American receives Social Security and every 7th retiree depends on Social Security for 100 percent of his income. Social Security is a pension to which workers contribute- not welfare. It's a major pillar of both the economy and the middle class. And messing with Social Security is playing with social fire.

James Hoage
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 1/25/2011

Gay Children

Thanks for your article on gay-straight alliances (The Capital. Jan.17). These are groups that foster respect and understanding among heterosexual and gay children in schools as well as providing "safe space" for gay kids, free from bullying etc.

Most remember the terrible scene of Tyler Clementi jumping off the George Washington Bridge because he was exposed as gay by some other kids via a PC video. But virtually every day, I see a news item, if you dig deep enough, of a gay kid committing suicide.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. According to a psychologist friend a few years ago, and confirmed by an FBI agent I met some months ago, several thousand gay teens commit suicide annually. Driven to despair by jokes, endless bullying and being made a pariah among their peers in our society. So poisoned by hatred propagated in the name of God. As well as an unknown number of the other thousands of kids who commit suicide annually, who are secretly gay.

We went to war, rightly so, over 3000 people murdered on 9/11. How are we going to stop the annual mass murder via induced suicide of America's gay children?

Steve Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 1/30/2011

Fiscal Follies

In the fiscal follies of the Bush years, the Republicans legislated deep tax cuts, mainly favoring the wealthy, while waging two wars and padding every budget with old-fashioned pork. Vice President Dick Cheney even said "Reagan showed us that deficits don't matter."

Even worse than the spending binge was the love affair with the financial markets that allowed mountains of dubious mortgage debt to be traded as investments, despite the shaky nature of those bets, and the nation's economy collapsed when the truth became known.

The Republicans now have the nerve to complain about budget deficits and demand steep cuts in federal spending. At least a third of the current budget deficit is a product of the Bush tax cuts. Another third has been caused by a fall in federal revenues in the recession, which ruined many businesses and erased millions of taxpaying jobs.

President Obama inherited a budget deficit of more than a $1 trillion and had to spend on major pump-priming measures to prevent an economic catastrophe of another great depression.

In the congressional wrangling at the end of 2010, the Republicans insisted that the Bush tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires be extended as their price for extending unemployment benefits and middle class tax cuts. A shameless group they are, serving the richest Americans while talking about reducing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Raymond Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 12/10/2010

Americans for Prosperity

In his letter to the Capital (Nov. 29) Andy Harris complained that a liberal "out-of-district" special interest group was attacking him and spreading misinformation. This is both ludicrous and hypocritical. Not even sworn in, Harris has forgotten that his campaign was mostly funded by the "out-of-district" billionaire-backed right-wing tea party group, Americans for Prosperity(AFP). During the campaign, their slanderous mailings from Arlington, VA constantly filled our mailboxes.

AFP likes to front itself as a grassroots organization made up of the 'locals', but this is hardly the case. Sadly, many AFP members don't even know that their organization is bankrolled by the billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, the $25 billion/year, pro-outsourcing, anti-regulation BIG OIL and energy conglomerate.

At their annual summit in October 2009, and on their web-site, Americans for Prosperity's David Koch told his audience,"....Five years ago my brother, Charles, and I provided funds to start Americans for Prosperity...It is beyond my wildest dreams that AFP has grown into this enormous organization.

What's really worrisome is that the 1st Congressional District now has a Congressman beholden to his backers. They(AFP) are against Wall Street reform, against efforts to end tax breaks for outsourcing, against all environmental initiatives, against health care reform, and for the privatization of Social Security and Medicare-just to name a few.

Andy Harris was not only funded by this "out-of-district"special interest group, he was specifically targeted to carry out their agenda. Not only are they out-of-district, but alarmingly out-of-touch with middle America.

Lucy Travers
Odenton

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Letter to The Capital, 12/1/2010

Harris and Health Care

It seems Andy Harris and I are off to a rocky start in our new relationship of Representative and constituent. According to his letter to the Editor November 29, 2010 I must be a liberal, special interest person not actually living in his Congressional District because I have watched with great interest his shenanigans over questions as to why he will not be eligible for instant health care coverage. He will be covered within the next thirty days, unlike many others in his District. It is clear that those people are not on his "to do" list as stated in his letter. He has trotted out the old, tired "reduction of wasteful spending" as his mantra rather than doing something productive like working cooperatively with the Senate and the President to actually accomplish goals important to all Americans, not just the ones he seems like.

Susan Guyaux
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 12/1/2010

Harris and Health Care

Our 1st District congressman, Dr. Andy Harris, complained at an orientation about having to wait a month for government sponsored and subsidized health care.

This is the same millionaire Republican whose campaign revolved around smaller government and ending government sponsored health care. And he wants to throw all of us into the jaws of the health insurance industry, where they are great at taking your money when it comes to paying for serious health care bills?

Have these people have no shame?

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, Published 11/27/2010

Andy Harris and Hypocrisy

To all card-carrying members of the Tea Party such as Americans For Prosperity, Institute Of Liberty, Club For Growth, The Heritage Foundation, and to all who echoed the rhetoric, "vote them all out", where are your rallying cries regarding Dr. Andy Harris demanding his share of federally-subsidized health care?

Last week, Harris was caught on-tape during his Congressional orientation demanding to know why he had to wait 28 days for his government-subsidized health insurance to become effective. (In the real world, those of us lucky to have employer insurance have to wait 30-90 days).

During his campaign, Harris and ilk crissrossed the entire 1st Congressional District railing against health care reform as socialized medicine. Along with the newly elected Tea Party candidates, Harris has pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act. So he wants to deny health care to millions while having the same afforded to him at the taxpayer's expense.

In the big picture, Congressional members are allowed to purchase private insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program- the same for all other federal employees. It is government -subsidized as the government happens to be their employer.

As their employer -including we the taxpayers- the federal government will pay $10,500 (factcheck.org) of the premiums for each member of Congress with a family policy. In short, since Harris vows to "repeal" the health care bill and has rallied against all subsidies, then he and his cronies should opt-out of this benefit supported by taxpayers. As a candidate who ran on economic principles, let's see if Dr. Harris has any.

Upon graduating from medical school, Dr. Andy Harris took the Hippocratic Oath. On January 3, 2011, as he is sworn in, will he be taking another one- the Hypocritical Oath?

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, Published Online 10/31/2010

Andy Harris vs The Greatest Generation

We've all heard that all politics are local. For me, all politics are personal. This week, my 87 y/o father had a dangerous Alzheimer's event requiring that he be hospitalized. Waiting 3 hours for him to see a doctor, thus providing ample time to compose this, I again reviewed his plethora of papers regarding finances and general wishes.

My father lives alone on a combined income of $1500/month from his Social Security and small pension. The Tea Party candidates and the groups who support them like Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity want to privatize Social Security. The Club for Growth PAC has even said that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional. Andy Harris is a member of their Generation Club guaranteeing their agenda is carried out over the next 2 years.

On the flip side, my father as a WW II veteran and ex-Marine is a member of The Greatest Generation. His medals and Presidential Citation are testimony to that. What's under the radar- but definitely on the table- is that Andy Harris, who hypocritically campaigns as a proud Navy veteran, and his PACs want to privatize the Veterans Administration too. Yes, give all veterans a voucher card to get their medical care. What a blow to today's returning Veterans and their numerous medical needs.

My father's only insurance is Medicare. His private insurance company dropped him at age 75 because he actually made a claim. Andy Harris and his billion dollar PACs support their right to do so. If the Tea Party prevails and Medicare is dismantled and Social Security is privatized, then what?

My father will not have the cognition to realize how his country and The Tea Party intend to treat him. But I do. And I will vote accordingly.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park, MD

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Published in The Capital, 10/10/2010

Andy Harris

Regarding the "attack ad" (The Capital, Sept.27) on Congressman Kratovil, the author in her zeal to demonize Kratovil omitted some key facts.

On his website, Sen. Andy Harris is on record as supporting the 'flat" or "fair" tax. According to FactCheck.org (May 07), this would 'impose a flat 23 percent tax on all goods and services." Americans for Fair Taxation states this includes "new homes, rent, car loans, doctor bills," etc. This too is the policy and tax code mandated by Club for Growth, the conservative PAC, who once again has endorsed Harris.

Harris also wants "across the board tax cuts" (AP, Sept.9). This sounds great, but what does it mean? Federal agencies would be cut. For starters, this includes the FBI, correctional officers at federal prisons and the already stressed USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Additionally, the SEC would cut inspectors, leaving stockbrokers and traders free from oversight.

Numbers for Cap and Trade are always subjective and misleading. In 2008, President Obama earnestly commented that Cap and Trade would make utilities initially "skyrocket": in reducing our dependence on foreign oil, the "benefits outweighed the costs." But, the 2009 Congressional plan differed from the president's. The Waxman-Markey Bill would be phased in to protect consumers from increases.

Regarding the CBO's cost analysis of $1600/year, the writer fails to mention that energy rebates would be given to consumers, lowering the costs. Also, the EPA's study of the CBO report, (checked as true in PoliticFact), said the cost would be $800/year, the cost of a "postage stamp per day."

The writer accuses Kratovil of running away from his record. At least he has one. Harris has only an agenda that promotes Wall Street, big oil and the upper 1 percent.

Lucy Travers
Odenton

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Letter to The Capital, 9/23/2010

Gridlock

Whichever way the congressional elections go, it seems likely that the winners will not be able to govern. The few major legislative successes of the Democrats in 1909-10 were achieved by having overwelming majorities in both houses of Congress, a situation that will not prevail in 2011-12.

The Republican pledge to repeal the health-care reform legislation is a bogus promise that cannot be accomplished. It cannot obtain the super majority that would be required in the Senate, and President Obama is waiting with his veto pen for any bill that would seriously damage the reforms.

For the same reason, the Republicans will not be able to privatize Social Security into the stock market, which some of the leading Republican thinkers are proposing. I should also mention that they want to convert Medicare into a voucher system. Medicare-eligible citizens would be given vouchers to shop around for health insurance, which you can be sure will cost more than the vouchers are worth.

Republican efforts to repeal the financial reforms will also fail. Wall Street hates the new regulatory system designed to prevent high-risk and fraudulent practices in the financial markets.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 9/4/2010

Income Redistribution

As the Party of No continues its campaign against logic, it is important to understand what income redistribution really means.

None of us likes the idea of taking money from hard working people who earn their money and then giving it to people fully capable of working, with jobs available to them, who are just too lazy to work.

The truth is that throughout American history income redistribution has always worked in the exact opposite direction. Money is taken from the poor who work full time, sometimes at two jobs, cutting our lawns, doing our gardening, harvesting our crops, building our buildings, digging our ditches, operating our heavy equipment, and on and on. That money is then given to the rich, the people who run around on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange waving paper in the air and shouting buy, buy, buy, or sell, sell, sell.

The first group, the people who actually produce our wealth, usually at the minimum wage or slightly above, pay huge amounts of money to the people in the other group, who produce nothing of value, those who make millions of dollars a year, and millions more in annual bonuses.

If you believe in income redistribution as it actually exists in the real world, taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich, then by all means vote Republican. But please don't fall for the Fox Tea Bag Republican propaganda, that those "poor" rich people who produce nothing but make hundreds of millions of dollars a year are the victims.

If you believe in people who work hard producing actual goods and services and are barely getting by, vote for Barak Obama's Democrats at all levels of government.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to The Washington Post, 8/30/2010

Obama's Faith

The ever-angry, always-fearful Glenn Beck assumed the role of defining Obama's religion during an interview on Fox News Sunday. The President, asserted Beck, "is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor and victim. People aren't recognizing his version of Christianity."

I am curious to know what version of Christianity is embraced by Beck. Any serious reading of the Gospels, with some understanding of conditions in Palestine at the time of Jesus, demonstrates that the theme of his life was social justice. He spoke for the peasants and the oppressed, demanded that the rich must share their wealth, and challenged the imperial rulers from Rome and their collaborators.

The Catholic Church speaks clearly for social and economic justice. The American Catholic bishops have defined poverty as a national scandal that must be addressed by government as wells as individuals and private organizations. The church finds capitalism to be acceptable only if it serves the common good. As long ago as the 19th century, the church proclamied the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively for wages and benefits.

Beck said Obama's religion about "oppressors and the oppressed" ......."is a perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as most Christians know it." Mr. Beck should trot over to Georgetown University for a chat with a few Jesuits.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 8/30/2010

Mosque Controversy

I have followed with great interest the controversy surrounding the placement of a Mosque near ground zero. I assume that those concerned have discussed whether 30 ft, one mile or 20 miles is far enough. I'm sure their decision rules are very logical.

My only question is how soon these well-meaning citizens will mobilize to remove the Christian chuches fom within the same distance around the Oklahoma City federal building. Timothy McVeigh was Christian.

Ann Chafin
Crofton

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Published in The Capital, 8/18/2010

Misleading Letters

Two readers have written misleading letters to The Capital in response to my letter published on July 11.

The first letter refers to a Senate vote of 57 to 41 in favor of extending various tax cuts, and extending unemployment benefits to those who, through no fault of their own, are now out of work. Their salaries are being used to pay huge bonuses to Republican CEOs who shuffle paper.

Due to Republican tricks, the majority vote for approval in the Senate, along with a majority vote for approval in the House, and the approval of our very popular elected President, are being interpreted as a loss. So the tax cuts were not extended, nor were unemployment benefits extended. The same tactic was used in the 1960s to delay civil rights legislation, which Republican Rand Paul now wishes to repeal, so that racists can have separate lunch counters, one for the blacks and one for the whites.

Yes, I do believe that the Republican apology to BP for efforts to hold them accountable for the BP-Cheney oil spill in the Gulf does damage to our children. Apparently Douglas H. John disagrees, which is his right.

The other letter writer considers today's "debt" more important than the education of his children, as though those are the only two choices. He feigns ignorance about the widely reported fact that 300,000 teachers will be laid off due to his party's votes of no, no, no, to anything supported by President Barack Obama and the majority of Americans. He should read back issues of The Capital if he has forgotten where this fact was reported. Or the Baltimore paper or the Washington paper.

I urge everyone to vote this November. The Republican myth that the corporate media is spreading, that Americans support rich corporations over their own children, will go down in flames.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton, MD

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Published in The Capital, 8/8/2010

Party of the People

It was an odd sort of gift, but Democrats with any sense should be pleased that Wall Street's economic royalists have sharply reduced their campaign contributions to Democrats.

Attempting to punish the Democrats for passing legislation that protects the public from being looted by sleazy financial shenanigans, the Wall Street barons instead have reinforced the Democrats' identity as the party of the people, not the party of unprincipled greed.

The Republicans can be easily portrayed as the party of giant corporations with global interests and little concern for the American people. See how Republicans leaped to the defense of a foreign oil company that destroyed the beaches, bayous, wildlife and seafood industry across a wide swath of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Republicans also offer the startling example of trying to block legislation that would block foreign corporations from shelling out unlimited funds to the campaigns of American politicians.

Not to be forgotten are the millions of dollars spent by the health insurance industry against the reforms that treat the insurance companies as public utilities needing regulation to protect the public interest.

Be joyful, Democrats. You are blessed to have those kind of enemies.

Raymond S. Gill,
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 8/8/2010

Constitution Pollution

Slots debacles in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, and Allegheny County did not have to happen. There was no need to imbed authority creating specific gambling venues in Maryland's Constitution.

Since 1791, there were numerous laws establishing and prohibiting gambling in Maryland. Statutes alone could have resurrected slots in Anne Arundel County and elsewhere in Maryland. Slots last appeared between 1943 and 1949 in Anne Arundel and Southern Maryland Counties. All were gone by 1968. This was accomplished solely through legislative process, not by Constitution Amendment.

Legislators have several reasons for placing issues on ballots as Constitution or Charter Amendments. There is a legitimate necessity to correct errors or update the governing process. Amendments appear because legislators are unwilling to create controversial statutes voters would hold them accountable for in elections. They simply kick the hard legislative tasks back to the voters. If the results are bad, it's the voters' fault not the legislators'. Unlike statutes created, changed or repealed in legislative sessions, Amendments imbed authority in the Constitution or Charter. It is relatively easy to get something in the Constitution. Removing it is almost impossible. This is great for special interests, but not for all citizens.

Creation, by referendum in 2008, of a new Chapter XIX in Maryland's Constitution imbedding special gambling interest's slots venues at specific locations was an abomination. I call this Constitution Pollution! Slots authorization should have been created only by General Assembly statutes.

Constitution and Charter Amendment "Questions" will appear on our November ballot. Voters must inform themselves of the issues, not just the candidates. Constitutions and Charters are frameworks for governing, not playgrounds for special interests. Remember, not all Amendments are bad, and most are necessary. Stay informed. Be careful WHAT you vote for - - you might vote for the debacles you get.

Patric Enright
Gambrills

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Letter to The Capital, 7/18/2010

ANDY HARRIS

Andrew P. Harris is challenging Frank Kratovil, Maryland's 1st District Congressman. The 1st District includes not only all the Eastern Shore- Elkton to Ocean City, Cecil to Worcester- but also three large pieces of the Western Shore in Harford, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties, where Harris lives.

Although he knows his Republican party's de-regulation of big corporations was the chief cause of Great Depression II, he opposes Congress' effort to re-regulate them.

Harris loves the Tea Party/GOP fix for every problem: a tax cut. He wants to permanentize the 2002 Bush income tax cut for the rich, which expires at the end of 2010.

Harris also wants to abolish capital gains and inheritance taxes. And it gets even worse.

He would change our progressive income tax into a "flat" tax. Our progressive tax makes the rich pay a higher rate not just a higher amount. A flat tax makes everyone pay the same rate. A heaven for the rich, it flattens the middle class and poor as would an atomic bomb.

Harris, as we might expect, goes into less detail about quality of life issues.

He favors oil drilling in ANWR. His votes against bay protection and toxic waste clean-up only sample his appalling green record over 12 years as a Baltimore County state senator.

Finally, Harris plays his populist: a shirt-sleeves, cares about everybody, Eastern Shore doctor; when for real, he is a mean, uptight, party-of-no Western Shore anesthesiologist.

A recent GOP poll calls the race even. That means Kratovil is at least a bit ahead.

First District voters, think long and hard. Imagine the Wall Street-loving Harris representing us in Congress. Maybe we do better to keep Frank Kratovil.

James A. Hoage
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 7/14/2010

Reining in Wall Street and the Big Banks

As we stand on the eve of new laws to begin to regulate Wall Street and the too big to fail banks, we should remember that the collapse of our economy was due to Republicans deregulating the banks and wall street. And letting a culture of corruption.take over. Trillions of $$$ in mortgages banks knew would fail were sold to an unsuspecting public via wall street's investment houses.. While banks made billions in fee profits, while dumping these mortgages on unsuspecting middle class investors via wall street.

Then they upped the calamity to come with derivatives. Paper rated tripple AAA, but as we learned to our nations sorrow, was worthless. Reminds us of the Enron collapse of a few years ago. By the way, about 3 months before Enron's collapse, none other then George HW Bush resigned from Enrons board of directors. He had to know what was coming.

Way back in 1950, Brinks in Boston was robbed of $1 million, no one was hurt. Ultimately the crooks got life in prison.

What penalty should apply to the top level people who destroyed Trillions, while stealing billions for themselves.

Shouldn't we hold the republicans accountable for the millions of Jobs lost (many shipped overseas), and the millions of families that lost their homes or are hanging on by a thread?

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to The Baltimore Sune, 7/14/2010

Taxes

Republicans in Congress and their big-money lobbyist pals are preparing for a desperate struggle to preserve the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Those tax reductions legislated in 2001 and 2003 account for 40 percent of the current federal budget deficit, about which the Republicans express great alarm. The deficit problem is aggravated by two wars, a collapse of tax revenues in the recession, and spending to stimulate economic recovery.

In order to reduce the federal budget deficit, President Obama and the Democats are not likely to extend the tax reductions for the wealthy, which are scheduled to expire in 2011. However the tax relief provided to middle-income families would be protected by the Obama tax policy.

Democrats are the real deficit hawks in this country. Remember, the Clinton administration balanced the budget for three consecuritve years and left Bush with surpluses, which the Republicans erased with record tax cuts and extravagant spending for eight years.

Keep in mind that the Bush tax reductions benefited mainly the very rich, while the middle class got a few modest bones thrown their way, and the poor got what the poor usually get. It is worth noting that some estimates show that the richest one percent of Americans control more wealth than the entire middle class. They count on Republicans to protect their interests.

Republicans would rather talk about cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the largest federal social programs. The Republicans opposed Social Security when it was created in 1935 and tthe Medicare and Medicaid programs when they were enacted in 1965. They would love to cut those programs to the bone.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 7/6/2010

Wall Street

It was an odd sort of gift, but Democrats with any sense should be pleased that Wall Street's economic royalists have sharply reduced their campaign contributions to Democrats.

Attempting to punish the Democrats for passing legislation that protects the public from being looted by sleazy financial shenamigans, the Wall Street barons instead have reinforced the Democrats' identity as the party of the people, not the party of unprincipled greed.

The Republicans can be easily portrayed as the party of giant coporations with global interests and little concern for the American people. See how Republicans leaped to the defense of a foreign oil company that destroyed the beaches, bayous, wildlife, and seafood industry across a wide swath of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Republicans also offer the strartling example of trying to block legislation that would block foreign corporations from shelling out unlimited funds to the campaigns of American politicians.

Not to be forgotten are the millions of dollars spent by the health insurance industry against the reforms that treat the insurance companies as public utilities needing regulation to protect the public interest.

Be joyful, Democrats. You are blessed to have those kinds of enemies.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 6/19/2010

Forty Republican Senators

"Now we know how many holes it takes..." - "Forty"

All forty Republican Senators voted for a tax increase on small businesses and on middle class Americans. All forty holes voted against extending unemployment benefits. All voted to fire 300,000 teachers nationwide.

Your children will have larger classes, and that special teacher may not be there when they go back to school in the fall.

Apparently they think the Bush-Cheney recession-depression is over and what we need to do now is make sure that we protect the multi-million dollar bonuses of their Wall Street masters.

They apologized to BP! They said they don't want to live in a country that expects corporations to pay for their screw-ups.

Who cares? Only sinners live on the gulf coast. Or in Haiti. Right?

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to The Capital, 6/18/2010

Apology to BP

So the Republicans (GOBP) have apologized to British Petroleum and are demanding that, once again, the government bail out a major corporation. Why should we the taxpayers foot any part of the bill for the disaster in the Gulf, especially when it occurred because BP deliberately took shortcuts in an effort to get the oil pumping a few days earlier, for the sole purpose of increasing their profits?

We "little people" are not amused, and don't care that their rich executives "want their lives back."

If you haven't seen it yet, watch the interview with the wife of one of the men killed by BP's negligence. He returned home from the rig, made out a new will, increased his life insurance, and said goodbye to his wife and daughters, explaining to them that he might not be returning from the oil rig because of the safety shortcuts that BP had ordered. He went back to the rig and never saw his family again.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to The Capital, 6/22/2010

Spewing Oil response

Mr. Rick Casali suggests, in the June 19th issue, that President Obama has gone over the top by suggesting that the Federal Government take over “the offshore [oil] industry”. While I do not know if this assertion is accurate, I do know that his characterization of the oil spill as simply an accident is misguided. It is clear to the meanest intelligence that BP has a long and sad history of cutting corners in order to cut costs. Nor is this the first time they have been responsible for the deaths of people working for them.

Now they are responsible for the death of a vibrant Gulf of Mexico and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. The death of so much wildlife has been beyond shocking yet somehow, the suspension of deep water drilling by our President is unwarranted according to Mr. Casali. He also blithely states that the Gulf spill will be cleaned up by BP. I only wish it was going to be that easy, that quick and that successful. And somehow all of this tragedy comes around to excessive Federal Government spending that rests totally on the shoulders of President Obama.

Assertions like these try to redirect us from the real issue of an under-regulated industry. One of the reasons BP was able to take so many risky shortcuts was because of the hands off approach taken over the last 30 years by our Government. I want our Government to step up to the plate and do the job they were elected and hired to do without the constant criticism of anti-government proponents. Our government is the only thing that is holding BP’s feet to the fire and I want them there strong and supported by all Americans.

Susan Guyaux
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 6/18/2010

Shakedowns

We should not be surprised that some prominent Republicans accused President Obama of using a Chicago-style "shakedown" that caused British Petroleum to put up $20 billion for a fund to pay damage claims arising from the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Republicans have almost a genetic attachment to the notion that coporations can do no wrong -- except when accidents occur -- while government should stand aside and let big oil, big insurance, big investment banks, hedge funds, and pharmaceutical giants have their way with the American population. That worldview of Republicans is on constant display in the debates and votes of the Congress.

In the matter of BP, the president achieved a rare and grand guarantee for justice as families and businesses in the Gulf states face economic disaster and wildlife suffers tortuous deaths in the black goo that continues to flow from the broken well a mile deep in the Gulf. The $20 billion figure is not a cap. It may be only a downpayment for the ruin that BP has caused.

Perhaps he warned BP -- the world's fourth largest corporation -- that failure to deposit $20 billion could lead to more severe consequences. If that was what has been called a "shakedown," then let's have more of the same when dealing with global corporations that damage the public interest.

We should all remember that corporations have the primary concern of making profits for their shareholders, while government is responsible for the common good and protecting the public from malfeasances of corporate power. Bravo, Obama!

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Baltimore Sun, 6/15/2010

A Teachable Moment

The letter "Nobody can deny it anymore: Obama is failing" (June 15) by Michael P. DeCicco was a bracing affirmation of conservative, Republican, libertarian creative denial of facts. Ah, facts. The Bush administration claimed they were creating a new reality. Instead, they fashioned a fantasy which their adherents spout whenever reality tries to intrude.

A refresher: The single largest foreign attack on American soil occurred when Bush was president. Thirty years of Reaganomics nearly pushed the American economy into a second Great Depression because the regulations put in place during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration had been systematically dismantled. Those regulations had been put in place because of the conservative Republican policies

Mr. DeCicco turned an unfortunate phrase when he pointed out that “CEOs are sitting in their country clubs not hiring… because of the federal government, “…and distracted politicians are jet-setting around the country trying to keep the jobs they’ve failed so miserably at.” For some reason I find it difficult to dredge up much sympathy for “CEOs sitting around in their country clubs,” the same CEOs who outsourced so many of the jobs Americans used to have. These CEOs have demonstrated little patriotism. However, they have demonstrated almost total fealty to the corporate bottom line. For some reason they didn’t realize that the unemployed aren’t independently wealthy and can no longer afford to buy the goods their former employers import.

As for President Obama and the BP oil spill: The President can work effectively only when he’s given facts. At just about every step of the way, the executives of BP have either lied or misled him. None of the industry’s representatives seem to be honest or trustworthy. Like the aforementioned CEOs, they value only the bottom line.

The politicians who “failed at their jobs” are the Republicans who rubberstamped the policies of George W. Bush. Republicans should be required to refund their salaries because just saying “NO!” has been even less effective as a political policy than it has as the slogan for anti-drug and anti-sex programs aimed at teenagers.

I must confess that Mr. DeCicco was right about one thing: “Americans for generations will consider this a teachable moment in politics.” However, the lesson will be how President Obama, like Franklin Roosevelt, saved capitalism from the capitalists, that unregulated capitalism is just another kind of tyranny.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to The Capital, 6/7/2010

The Worst Sinners

In the baptistry for Florence's cathedral there is a mosaic of Satan eating Judas. Two serpents come out of Satan's ears to lunch on Brutas and Cassius. Further down, several more serpents emerge from both sides of Satan. Who are the sinners they are munching?

A manuscript fragment newly discovered in the nearby Laurentian Library identifies three of them: Impoteca Massima, a banker who pushed excessive mortgages; Impiego Temarario, a broker who promoted derivatives and hedges; and Grativica Obsena, the original bonus boy.

Next to Judas, Brutus and Cassius (betrayers of their leader), these are the worst sinners. They betrayed the middle class and poor by playing with money in ways they well knew might cause depressions. And we, too, can wish our evil money players a session with Satan. At least we need a lot of prosecutions, congressional subpoenas and revocation of licenses.

Capitalism in America has got to be re-regulated. Bankers can't give $500,000 mortgages to people who can't afford $250,000. Bankers can't get state charters so as to avoid federal rules.

Brokers can't get investors into derivatives such as the credit-default swaps that killed AIG- derivatives lack a clearing house to settle their daily values. And no selling stock short - it just worsens a falling market. And no hedge funds- the failure of one of them, Long Term Capital Management, nearly collapsed the economy 12 years ago, in 1998.

And no bonuses. A huge bonus tempts a CEO to do things he knows will soon ruin his firm.

The fear of God, or Satan or Leavenworth, has got to be put into our would-be Impoteca's, Impiego's and Grativica's. One thing sure: If we allow Great Depression III to occur, the Chinese will not again allow us to "stimulus" our way out of it.

James A. Hoage
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 6/3/2010

Fear and Smear

It is a well known principle of social psychology that a lie repeated often enough and widely enough can gain public credibility, which explains how Republican practitioners of the propaganda arts have achieved some success with their fear-and-smear campaign.

When the respectable Harris polling organization finds that two-thirds of Republicans think Barack Obama is a socialist, more than half think he is a Muslim, 45 percent believe he is foreign-born and not eligible to be president, and 24 percent think he is "the anti-Christ" foretold in the Book of Revelation, the presumably rational majority of Americans should be worried.

The socialist charge is the traditional Republican attack against any government program designed to ensure that the benefits of a capitalist economic system are broadly shared. It is the kind of attack that avoids debate on the merits of a proposed or existing government program.

What is scary are the substantial percentages of Republicans who believe the other gloomy and hateful delusions about our president. The Republicans thought in the distant past to be a party of respectable and sensible people, have apparently lured a large percentage of crackpots into their ranks. Some are racists. Others think Obama wants to take away their guns. Many practice a narrow and fearful religion that they believe is being suppressed by an evil government.

Let's hope that most American voters reject the political aspirations of such a crowd.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 5/25/2010

The Cheney-BP Oil Spill

As we know, disgraced former Vice President "Dick" Cheney lost the 2000 election but was appointed to the office by a 5-4 vote of the Supreme Court, which ruled that counting the votes in Florida could do irreparable harm to Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney.

What many seem to have forgotten, however, is that within weeks of taking office, Mr. Cheney convened a secret committee of oil executives to determine U.S. oil drilling policy. Mr. Cheney refused to provide a list of those who attended, or what was discussed and decided.

This became a long, drawn out court battle, as public interest groups on both the left and right sued under the Freedom of Information Act to find out and publish a list of attendees and decisions. Mr. Bush asserted executive privilege and the same Supreme Court that appointed Bush-Cheney ruled (surprise!) that Mr. Cheney did not have to provide the information.

It has now been reported that one of the issues decided was that a special oil cutoff valve for deep off shore oil drilling would no longer be required due to its high cost ($450,000 per well).

Since the Tea people (they are not a party) insist on calling health care reform "Obamacare" without objection from the corporate media, perhaps we should refer to the mess in the Gulf of Mexico as the Cheney-BP oil spill.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to Saverna Park Voice, (5/27/2010)

Scott Davis' Credibility

Scott Davis and his articles offer no surprises. Month after month we read his disdain for thisWhite House administration. What does surprise me is Davis’s blatant disregard for the "ethics" in journalism. Davis would have us believe that he is a profound thinker with a breadth of knowledge--distorted though it be. The surprise is that his words in print are not originally his own. I believe it's called plagiarism.

In the May edition of the Severna Park Voice, Davis rants about America’s vulnerability under Pesident Obama. He attributes it to the "class" of voters who voted in the last election and writes: " In the 2008 election Barack Obama won over voters with incomes under $50,000 and those with incomes over $200,000 and lost those with incomes in between. He won large margins from those who never graduated from high school and from those with graduate school degrees.”

These very same words, verbatim, can be found in an April 18 article, Tea Partiers Fight Obama’s Culture of Dependence, written by the right-wing pundit Michael Barone for the conservative paper, The Washington Examiner. To the readers and editors, look it up.

Davis derides President Obama’s nuclear weapons policy . . . and again he directly writes verbatim from Bob Unrah’s column (April 21, 2010) for World Net Daily, another right-wing website.

There is no changing Davis’s point of view. To him I say, at least if you are going to spew these distortions, give credit to the appropriate spewers. We the readers deserve better. As Arizona now says "show us your papers", I say to Mr. Davis, "show us your credentials" and also your photo!

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, (5/5/2010)

Candidate Andy Harris' Campaign Bus Tour

Fear and misinformation are alive and well in Anne Arundel County. On Sat. April 24th, I observed the Severna Park “bus stop” tour by Andy Harris, Republican candidate for the 1st Congressional district. Donned in his patriotic tie, and addressing a mostly white and white-haired audience, Harris spewed the usual declamations of blaming our economy on Nancy Pelosi and President Obama.

Exclaiming that our "American dream is being taken away" Harris failed to mention that our economy was left that way by a Republican administration. Like it or not, we inherited 2 ongoing wars that were never allocated in any budget (but now are), the meltdown on Wall Street, and a $10 trillion debt. Harris stated that our huge deficit is being addressed by borrowing from China, yet failed to mention that much of our borrowing under Bush was to give tax breaks to people with incomes greater than $250,000. As an anesthesiologist with dual practices on both the Western and Eastern Shores, a 2nd home in Cambridge, I’m sure Harris fits that bill.

Gathered in the parking lot of delegate Ron George’s jewelry store, I saw a group of people who feared more for their American lifestyle. President Obama is moving forward by offering affordable healthcare to all, creating financial guidelines that Republicans have vowed to oppose, reducing Medicare fraud such as addressing the over utilization of medical devices like arterial stents- (which Harris embraced), and offering the same quality of life to every American.

As the small group cheered and jeered, as Harris encouraged them to break the law and put up their yard signs because it’s their "Constitutional right” - in spite of the requirement of 60 days prior to the election- I left dismayed and saddened at this narrow view of what America should be.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, (5/4/2010)

Lies

It is a well known principle of social psychology that a lie repeated often enough and widely enough can gain public credibility, which explains how Republican practitioners of the propaganda arts have achieved some success with their fear-and-smear campaign.

When the respectable Harris polling organization finds that two-thirds of Republicans think Barack Obama is a socialist, more than half think he is a Muslim, 45 percent believe he is foreign-born anjd not eligible to be president, and 24 percent think he is "the antiChrist" foretold in the Book of Revelation, the presumably rational majority of Americans should be worried.

The socialist charge is the traditional Republican attack against any government program designed to ensure that the benefits of a capitalist economic system are broadly shared. It is the kind of attack that avoids debate on the merits of a proposed or existing government program.

What is scary are the substantial percentages of Republicans who believe the other gloomy and hateful delusions about our President. The Republicans, thought in the distant past to be a party of respectable and sensible people, have apparently lured a large percentage of crackpots into their ranks. Some are racists, others think Obama wants to take away their guns, many practice a a narrow and fearful religion that they believe is being suppressed by an evil government.

Let's hope that most American voters reject the political aspirations of such a crowd.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, (4/28/2010)

Goldman-Sachs

Goldman-Sachs bought the most "toxic" mortgages they could find: "underwater" mortgages; houses that had already been foreclosed on; and houses that were about to be repossessed. They deliberately picked the worst mortgages, bundling them together as derivatives. They sold these derivatives to their best customers, recommending them as great investments. Many accepted their recommendations and bought in, thinking they were locking in their futures.

At the same time, Goldman-Sachs was secretly betting that these mortgages would fail (selling short), since their own people had deliberately selected the most toxic of the toxic loans.

As a result, Goldman-Sachs executives made billions of dollars profit at the expense of its investors who trusted them, ultimately causing a worldwide recession and destroying the retirement plans of billions of people.

What is Goldman-Sachs' defense? What they did was perfectly legal, and that everyone else was doing it.

If this is legal, it should not be. If it isn't legal, then those who robbed us should be brought to justice and at least forced to return the bonuses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating this and has uncovered documents that expose the scheme in detail. There are five people on the SEC. Two are Republicans. The vote to investigate was 3-2.

Our President has proposed legislation to prevent this type of theft from every happening again. This past weekend, 41 Republican Senators, every one of them, signed a letter opposing this legislation and promising to filibuster to prevent its passage.

Once again, the "Party of No," is putting the wishes of the extremely wealthy, those who literally make billions of dollars a year, above all of the rest of us.

100% of the Republicans plan to block legislation that will make bank robbery illegal. Please remember this at election time.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton, MD

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Letter to The Capital, (4/19/2010)

The Tea Party Agenda

At least some Maryland citizens attracted to the Tea Party may not fully understand the source of its money and its agenda. Its most prominent fundraiser is Dick Armey, a former congressman from Texas and a radical libertarian who tends to think of Social Security as a social ill. He's a huckster for the Republican and Wall Street malarkey that Social Security recipients would have more income if they had been able to put their money in the stock market instead of paying the Social Security payroll tax.

The importance of the Social Security program as a safety net was illustrated when the stock market lost half of its value in the 2008-2009 recession, wrecking the retirement plans of millions of Americans. The recession should have taught everybody that Wall Street is a place of risk where values don't always rise, but sometimes go down and cancel out whatever gains had been obtained.

Keep a sharp eye on Republicans when they talk about cutting government. Social Security should not be put at risk, and neither should its companion Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 4/16/2010

BOAST

At a time when our state is struggling to pay the bills, and keep our schools open, a nefarious plan has been launched to divert tens of millions from our school systems to support private schools.

BOAST is the plan that would let businesses deduct from their taxes tons of milions of dollars that would go to private school scholarships. Money taken away from the funds desperately needed to keep our public schools open and functioning.

Please call and write your House of Delegates member, and tell them that this assault on our public schools to fund private schools for the super-well to do must not be passed.

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 3/29/2010

Support Obama

The Fox Tea Bag Republicans showed their true colors over the weekend, spitting on a Congressman, using a crude racial slur against another, and insulting a key Congressman because of his sexual orientation, as other elected Republican Congressmen stood on the steps of the Capital and egged them on.

In the last two national elections (2006 and 2008) voters overwhelmingly rejected the Republican party. Since that time, the government-corporate media have been stating that anyone who votes for health care reform will be defeated in this fall's election. This can only happen if patriotic Americans stay away from the polls and do not vote.

If you voted for Barack Obama in 2008, mark November 2, 2010 on your calendar now, and pledge to bring five friends to the polls with you. Please do not wait until 2012.

One hundred percent of the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the American people Sunday evening, and are attempting to intimidate us into thinking that this will somehow hurt those who voted for us.

Check the lists in newspapers, television newscasts, and internet websites, and identify those who voted for us and those who voted against us. Help re-elect our President by voting this fall for those who support him. Our Commander in Chief needs our help.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to The Capital, 3/29/2010

In Praise of Big Government

At this time of hysteria whipped up by the Tea-Party crowd against big government, I have no hesitation in saying we have a very big country with big problems for which I cannot imagine solutions coming from a teeny-weeny government.

When the anti-government, anti-taxation gang snarls that the Constitution does not provide for a universal health care system, and that the new health-insurance reforms will bankrupt the country, be very worried, for the same arguments have been used against the Social Security program and Medicare. I like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, believing that the "right to life" creates a social responsibility to protect the elderly and disabled against poverty and insure that all Americans have access to the health care they need.

When the Republicans whine that they have a better plan for health-care reform, they put forth a non-solution that involves tax cuts (of course) and reliance on an illusory free market to make health care affordable. This means dependence on insurance companies responsible only to their shareholders and motivated to limit their coverage as much as possible to healthy people, not those at some risk for costly illnesses or injuries.

When the Tea-Party gang warns against government making research-based decisions on which treatments are most effective, be reminded that health insurance bureaucrats are less interested in effective care than they are in avoiding costly care.

And, incidentally, I like our interstate highway system, unemployment compensation, workplace safety regulations, federal wage and hour protections, civil rights laws, national parks, and the other programs of big government that are designed for the common good.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Capital, 3/22/2010

We made history! [The Health Reform Bill]

Editor:

God Bless America!

The passing of our health care reform bill is a magnificent triumph over all the ill will and ammunition thrown at our Democratic President and the Democratic Party especially in these last few months—the low-level name calling, the half truths, the absolute lies, the threats, the hideous cartoons, the pessimism of the nay-sayers, the fostering of fears, and the wild spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the big insurance lobbyists. Nothing was as disgraceful as the the ill-mannered vowed obstinacy of the partisan obstructionists.

In spite of it all, we have witnessed the triumph of people over profits.

Here we have the clearest mission statements of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

I am so proud of our Maryland Democratic elected officials who have for years worked long and hard to improve the health care availability and affordability for all Americans: Senators Mikulski and Cardin, Representatives Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, and of course, the majority leader—our own Steny Hoyer.

I am so proud to be a Democrat.

Ann Marie Remillard
Millersville

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Letter to The Washington Post, 3/7/2010

Did Liz Cheney's husband Keep America Safe?

In the March 5 editorial, Misdirected Fire—Justice Department lawyers are unjustly maligned for having defended detainees—the founders of the organization Keep America Safe and their vicious video are omitted. Subsequently, we learned that one of the provocateurs of this fear mongering group is Liz Cheney, daughter of former VP, Dick Cheney.

From the onset of the Obama administration, Ms. Cheney (and father) has repeatedly maligned this administration's policies and questioned our safety. Perhaps Ms. Cheney should pose those questions in-house, specifically to her husband, Philip Perry.

Post 9/11, Perry, a lawyer and Bush/Cheney appointee, was a leading character in putting the brakes on having our nation's vulnerable chemical plants regulated by the EPA. In 2003, as general counsel for the OMB (Office of Management and Budget)—Perry wasn't going to impose regulations on the Bush-friendly chemical industry. In stead of giving this overdue task to the more qualified EPA, the oversight of chemical plants was given to the DHS which had and has minimal authority in this arena.

Presently, chemical plants essentially police themselves and remain vulnerable. I suggest to Ms. Cheney that she look at her own house and ask did your husband keep America safe?

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Washington Post, 3/5/2010

Fear

What is surprising and amusing is that that the GOP put its fear strategy in writing, and it has become publicly known. But fear is the traditional Republican strategy—fear of big government, taxes, socialists, feminism, gays, evolution, science generally, blacks, Latinos, gun control, etc. Unfortunately, their nonsense works among the ignoramuses that form a large chunk of the American electorate. Those folks are not the Taliban in their aversion to all things modern and tolerant, but the tea-party movement is worrisome.

Watch those people when they congregate for mass rallies or protests. They are not the unemployed, or the working poor, the nearly poor, or racial and ethnic minorities. They are nearly all white, wearing hard and hateful visages. Their rabid opposition to health-care reform, which would bring insurance coverage to 31 million Americans, shows a repugnant commitment to the proposition that other American's problems are not their concern.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to The Washington Post, 2/3/2010

A failed Maryland teacher for changing tenure

Regarding the Jan. 25 editorial “Race for education dollars”:

The basic assumption of President Obama’s Race to the Top education program is that there can be a relationship between quality of education and money spent but that money spent without reform could be wasted. The president has demanded certain changes at the state level in return for substantial federal money. For Maryland, we are talking about millions of desperately needed dollars. I would like to discuss one of those reforms.

In 1993, I voluntarily left a 21-year career in information technology in Washington, beginning as an operations clerk and ending at the vice presidential level, to teach fourth grade in a Baltimore public school. Call it a mid-life crisis, but let me say this: Teaching was the hardest thing I ever did for the least amount of money I ever made. I challenge anyone who criticizes teachers to do the same thing. It was a real eye-opener for me.

I failed as a teacher and resigned after four years, yet after completing less than two years of teaching, I was guaranteed tenure under the contract between the city of Baltimore and the Baltimore Teachers Union. I fully supported the BTU, but giving a failed teacher like me tenure was a mistake.

President Obama has asked for reform in return for substantial federal education funding. One of those reforms, supported by State Schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, is that tenure not be granted so early in a teacher’s career. But there appears to be resistance in state government to this idea for political reasons. Democrats need union support, and this is an election year.

I call on Gov. Martin O’Malley to publicly endorse the reforms proposed by the president and the superintendent. Our educational system needs the money and the reform.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to The Capital,2/1/2009

An Olive Branch!

No demonstrations against our President during the State of the Union Address? Phew! The Washington antagonists are growing up; perhaps legislators will now proceed as mature adults. The tone of the Hatfields and McCoys can be put aside.

Our Country’s political atmosphere was becoming so dense with the poisonous air of distrust, conflict, and arrogance, it was difficult to discern truth in the pompous chatter. Mean spirited politics was becoming worse than our problems.

While registering voters at the Mall this summer, I overheard walkers commenting:
“Pox on both their houses.” I knew they didn’t mean “Pax” (peace!); their disgust was so obvious. How sad! Epithets “Socialist”, “Communist”, are flung around in hateful e-mails by senders unaware of the correct definition of either. Some letters to the editor with outlandish accusations, still sound like playground games - “can you top this”?

No wonder the debate at the Baltimore Republican Retreat was refreshing. “How sweet it is” to observe disagreements made in a civil manner. Tough questions were asked – but with respect. President Obama, known for his sharp analytical mind, brilliantly explained reasons for past decisions. The obstructionists, who had vowed to bring the President down, to cause his Waterloo, by digging in their heels and shouting a resounding “NO” to all his proposals, seemed willing to be cooperative President Obama promised to listen to their ideas in regularly scheduled meetings.

Hopefully, the Retreat was a turning point. Instead of the “Waterloo Curse”, an olive branch was presented- a promise not to let politics get in the way of good governing. Republicans, as well as Democrats, should now move on. Their incentive should not be “Will this get me re-elected?” Instead, legislators, activists, bloggers, (and ratings conscious TV commentators), should ask themselves: “Is this good for America?”

Ann Marie Remillard
Millersville

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Letter to The Washington Post, 2/1/2010

Pro-Family on Super Bowl Sunday

In "How to be Pro-Choice on Super Bowl Sunday" (Jan.31st), little attention was given to the sponsor of the anti-abortion ad. Paying $2/1/2 million, James Dobson and his group Focus On the Family prove that money can buy their extreme right-wing ideology.

In 1980, my husband and I attended Dobson’s video lecture series on parenting. As a popular child psychologist, he advocated corporal punishment to the brink of tears. My husband and I walked out.

Many books, a radio empire, and millions of dollars later, James Dobson and his Focus On the Family have become a right-wing ideologue. As a frequent visitor to the Bush White House he helped shape Bush’s anti-abortion policy. His mission also included far right justices on the court and conservative legislators in the Congress. To support otherwise would incur Dobson's wrath through his money and the media. He endorsed Randall Terry, the radical founder of Operation Rescue, who at one time prayed for the assassination of abortion providers. Dobson’s anti-gay views are equally extreme.

Last year, Dobson retired as chairman of Focus On the Family but his hateful ideology remains. Perhaps this Super Bowl Sunday, in lieu of the cheers and Doritos, we should Focus On Our Families. Turn off the TV.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Capital, 11/30/2009

[McWilliams and health insurance reform]

Kudos to your headline writer for Bob McWilliams’ Plain Speaking column: “Common sense lacking in national health care debate” (Nov. 27). About the only thing Mr. McWilliams got right was that we are not having a healthy debate about health care. Virtually every “argument” he presents has been thoroughly discredited or has little possibility of improving our health care system.

He believes that a government run health insurance program will automatically cause another “loss of liberty” because the government will start dictating how we lead our lives. If that were true, then Medicare should prove his point. But it doesn’t. In fact, that government-run program is the second-most popular health insurance program in the U.S.; the most popular one is another government-run program, the one run by the Veterans Administration.

The length and complexity of the new legislation also bother McWilliams; the bills are “the ugly conglomeration of political favor,” replete with “secondary agendas of special interests.” Thus, he wants to disregard everything that has gone before and begin “fixing the simple stuff.” Claiming that competition will force lower costs, he automatically nixes government involvement. He wants insurance companies to be allowed to operate across state lines. Other than his wishful thinking, he offers no reason why such a change should occur.

Currently, even when given the opportunity for competition, the insurance companies opt for monopoly. They have divided the country by states to have a minimal amount of competition. If competition worked in the insurance industry, Medicare would not have been necessary.

Another pseudo solution is the imposition of tort reform. The major effect of tort reform as envisioned by Republicans would be to shield incompetent doctors and protect industry profits.

Mr. McWilliams laments: “Why not ‘test’ something first, instead of going all in on a complete overhaul of health care.” I suggest he read the second paragraph above. A primary reason why health insurance reform must be done now is the cost of doing nothing will bankrupt the county, and if not the country at least its citizens, in less than two decades.

Toward the end of his column, he grants that “the health care system can clearly be improved.” He believes the major problem is simply the poor quality of the debate accompanying the effort. The real source of the problem is the insurance industry’s focus on profits without regard to providing service. Companies deny claims without legitimate justification. They cancel coverage for bogus pre-existing conditions.

In his closing Mr. McWilliams pulls out another chestnut, that with the Democrats now in “control of all three branches of government, the normal (and beneficial) limitations of divided government have been lost.” He should realize that the Republicans were rejected because they botched things so completely. They started two wars (neither of which they finished) and the effects of which, in blood and resources, will extend well into the future. They deregulated Wall Street and left an economy which came perilously close to a depression. They ignored international treaties, leaving our country’s reputation in taters. They violated the rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. Mr. McWilliams’ observation about divided government has some validity. But nothing in his column indicates that he found the eight years of the Bush administration, six of which featured Republican dominance, unbearable. His only concern is now and nothing about how we got here.

Finally he posits that “the people” have not been heard. He must have been out of the country last November and January. In the presidential election, voters chose Senator Barack Obama who, as part of his campaign, vowed to change the current insurance system. They can no longer tolerate a system that allows 44,000 people a year to die because they have no insurance, that accepts medical costs as the leading cause of bankruptcy in the county, and that excludes more than 40,000,000 citizens.

The people have heard, and they have spoken. Recent polling indicates that more than 60% of all citizens favor a public option if not a single-payer system. Republicans, after killing health insurance reform in the 1990s, use every device to kill or at least kill any reform now, insisting that the U.S. has the best system in the world.

The only people not listening seem to be the Republicans and Mr. McWilliams.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to The Washington Post, 9/8/2009

[A Public Option as Part of Health-Care Reform]

Edwin L. Fountain ("There's a Reason It's Called Insurance," Sept. 1) unwittingly explained why Medicare for all, or at the very least a public option, should be a part of health-care reform: With everyone covered, risk would be distributed across the entire population.

The system Mr. Fountain defended is really insurance for the profit of the private insurance industry; coverage is designed for the healthy, wealthy, or lucky. Instead, health care should be from conception to the grave.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 8/24/2009

Thanks, Sen. Cardin:

During the entire Bush administration, people opposed to his policies were denied access to supposedly public events. We were literally herded blocks away into fenced in "first amendment zones" to make sure that the press could record and broadcast video to show unanimous support.

Sen. Cardin, on the other hand, has held repeated, public town hall meeting in front of dozens of television cameras, and listended patiently to a self-selected group of fanatics, who literally yelled and screamed before the senator finished his first sentence.

Anyone who knows Sen Cardin knows, if nothing else, that he is an honest man, yet shouts of "Liar! Liar!" filled the air. What a disgraceful, dishonest display. No wonder Republicans don't win elections in Maryland.

Hats off to our fine senator. We support you in your efforts to provide decent, affordable health care for all Americans in a way that is fair to everyone.

Shame on the loud mouths who disrupt these meeting, hoping for their five seconds on Fox News.

And of course, shame once again on Fox News for repeatedly providing those five seconds as part of their effort to undermine our president. Face it, Fox, your party lost the last two elections big time. We have an African American president. If you can't get over it, at least get used to it.

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 8/28/2009

A Response to an Irrational Letter

Talbot Manvel’s letter stating that health care is not a right (August 27, 2009 letter to editor) is a common theme based on an irrational concern that someone is getting something that they have not earned. That someone is dipping their hands in someone else’s pocketbook. Humans have always banded together in order to support the whole. As a species our strength has been the understanding that we cannot be as successful alone as we can as a community.

All of us benefit in many ways from our community, be it our country, our state, our county or our neighborhood. Countries that support their members are more successful then those that don’t and since that has been demonstrated statistically and by common sense, why wouldn’t we want to do it? I don’t want to live in a place where people are dragging themselves along a sidewalk begging for a few coins and that would be a sample of what we would experience every day if Mr. Manvel has his way.

As humans living in a country where we seem to always find endless funding for war, it would be refreshing if we left that behind and focused on education, health, living harmoniously with our environment and the happiness of our citizens.

Susan Guyaux
Crownsville

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 8/26/2009

Senator Kennedy

What could be a more fitting memorial for Senator Ted Kennedy than passing a health care reform bill that would directly contribute to the well being of all Americans, especially those for whom Kennedy has long been a champion: the little guys.

Had he been well, Senator Kennedy would have been able to work with others in Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, on behalf of ensuring health care for all. He might have been able to quell the hysteria, quiet the shouting, and bring all of us to understand why universal health care is good for America and all Americans.

I fervently hope that the Congress will pass a health care reform bill that is strong enough to honor Kennedy’s legacy. Let us rise to the occasion and do the right thing. In memory of Ted Kennedy, let’s not let the fear-mongers and the very profitable special interest groups deny him his dying wish.

Peggy Sange
Severna Park

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Letter to The Washington Post, 8/24/2009

[How can Michael Steele be so Wrong?]

To the Editor:

How can Michael Steele be so wrong? The 8/24 op-ed piece by the Republican Party chairman must have been ghost written by the health insurance lobby.

Steele says the health-insurance reforms will prevent people from keeping the doctors or insurance plans they choose. Fact: There is no proposal that would withdraw choices from people. The reforms protect free choice of providers and endorse competition betwwen insurance plans for subscribers.

He says the Democrats' health-insurance reforms will increase the federal budget deficit. Fact: President Obama insists that the reforms be fully funded without increasing the deficit.

Steele claims the reforms will increase health-care costs. Fact: A major reason for the reforms is to reduce costs, which are increasing at an unsustainable rate.

He suggests that reform will inject government between doctors and their patients. Fact: The government will prevent harmful policies by insurance companies that hinder the care of patients.

Steele says he is speaking to protect the Medicare program, which is amusing. Fact: That's a direct contradiction of Republican policy against single-payer health insurance systems.


Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 8/19/2009

An Experience With Rationed Care

We all bring our unique experiences to the health care debate. Personally, I am outraged at the misinformation directed at our most vulnerable population. Three years ago, my mentally challenged 60 y/o brother died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was denied the prescribed chemotherapy by my father’s private insurance company the very day Viagra was approved for reimbursement. Obviously, rationed care guided by profitability.

My brother could not go to a for-profit cancer center simply because of the expense. My 85 y/o father had no house to mortgage to give the required thousands of pre-paid dollars. No one should have to do this.

My mother, currently in a nursing home, was denied private insurance several years ago due to a pre-existing condition. Both parents and brother relied on Medicare, Social Security, and disability- all government programs. Without them, one can only imagine where they would be.

Instead of enjoying quality time with my father, I now spend time allaying his fears. There are no "death panels." You still have Medicare and Social Security. Additionally, he is reluctant to seek care from his doctor as he fears being entered into a data base because of his age.

I am angry. It's the nay-sayers who want to eliminate Medicare and Social Security, not President Obama. Recently, the former republican politician Dick Armey, founder of Freedom Works and financier of the Tea Parties, called Medicare tyranny.

To the nay-sayers, this is your right. If you don't want "government" in your lives then stop attending public universities and traveling on federally-funded highways. Give your veterans benefits to those who want it. Cynically, perhaps you could transfer your Medicare and Social Security to the population who truly needs them. Contrary as to how my brother died, let my father spend his remaining days peacefully.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 8/6/2009

[Children and Health Care]

Dear Editor,

Our assets are our children. We have no greater. No matter who parented them, if they are American, they are our country's assets, and they are worthy of investment in their future. The best way to grow the value of that asset is by providing good health care and a growing level of education.

Forget the suppositions that the only people without insurance are those who choose it. We must decrease our cost but, at the same time we must make it available to everyone.

These are incredible numbers for our assets. I do not believe that these people never get sick or injured. Therefore it would stand to reason that someone is paying for their health care or paying for their lack of health care. Who might that be?

Would it not be a wiser investment of our dollars to provide health care and by the same process preventative health care. Would that not get us a higher return on our investment?

We CAN create a plan to do this.

(Data Source: NCHC . National Coalition on Health Care)

Rusty Vaughan
Odenton

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 7/29/2009

[Frank Kratovil and Health-Care Reform]

Congressman Frank Kratovil's concern about some of the financing issues in the health-care reform legislation is understanable, and I am convinced that he and the other sausage-makers on Capitol Hill will find their way through the fiscal thickets.

However, here is the bottom line for myself and millions of other Democrats. The legislation must protect all Americans with health insurance that will guarantee them the care they need. Never again should unaffordable costs of care leave a mother with the grim prospect of not seeing her children grow up.

Work out whatever financing arrangements will do the job, possibly taxing the socks off the Wall Street bonus boys and other millionaires if that is deemed possible, but no Democrat should vote against the universal health insurance that has been our party's foremost aspiration for half a century.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 7/26/2009

[Errors About President Obama]

In his letter (President Obama, July 23) Bill Lesko makes several factual errors.

Among others, Mr. Lesko asserts that President Obama started the war in Afghanistan. In fact, President Bush started the war in Afghanistan in response to the attacks of 9/11. Before that war was completed, Mr. Bush decided to invade and occupy Iraq. Those two wars did not begin during the Obama administration. Mr. Obama is trying to end them. Of the two wars, the one in Afghanistan is the one which made sense. That country gave aid and shelter to the people who attacked us. The one in Iraq was one which fulfilled part of a neoconservative dream, deposing Saddam Hussein. The part left unfinished was winning the war.

As for the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, Mr. Lesko misstates history again. That she was "slapped down by the Supreme Court for her prejudicial views" simply did not happen. If Mr. Lesko is referring to the case of the firefighters, he misunderstood what happened. Judge Sotomayor, as part of a three-judge decision, upheld existing law. Activist conservative justices of the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision created new law which Judge Sotomayor could not have known about.

Mr. Lesko got one thing right: President Obama promised us change. Although Mr. Lesko might not like it, President Obama is now president and is bringing the change he promised. That change will take time. During the election, conservative Republicans accused then-Senator Obama of acting like "the messiah." Now that he is president, they criticize him because he isn't using divine power to instantly undo the colossal mess he inherited.

Alberta J. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 7/9/2009

[A Letter to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County]

Republican Women of Anne Arundel County:

Thank you for removing the despicable article on your web site that compared our President, Barack Obama to the most hated man in history, Adolph Hitler. As you can well imagine, when hearing about this article on the national evening news, many women in our area, regardless of party affiliation were deeply distressed. People unfamiliar with our county could have, at best, thought that the women of Anne Arundel County are devoid of understanding about the political process. At worse, the audience might have deduced that we harbor small minded citizens who are consumed with hate and not accustomed to rational discussion.

I see that the writer of the article is your president, Joyce Thomann. Unfortunately her confrontational style of writing continues further on your web site with her solution for the improvement our environment:

I have figured out a way to get to that massive 90% reduction within less than a day. Here’s MY solution to the so-called green house gas problem. First, let's acknowledge there are more registered Democrats in Maryland than Republicans. Second, EVERYONE who breathes OUT emits CO2 – (carbon dioxide). VOILA! ALL the Democrats in Maryland must STOP BREATHING AND WE ARE THERE!

It might be helpful if Ms.Thomann and the membership of her club would reexamine the first basic principle espoused by Republicans:

I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.

It would be well if they could resolve to honor each person's freedom and dignity- even Democrats, and especially the President of our great country.

Respectfully,

Ann Marie Remillard
Millersville

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 6/30/2009

[A Party of Hypocrisy & Lies]

Recently, leading Christian conservative Republicans—Gov. Sanford of South Carolina and Sen Ensign of Nevada, have been forced to admit they had extramarital affairs, People are human, infidelity does happen. But the real issue is that these are leading Republicans. who campaign as the "Party of God and family values"—appealing to our conservative friends while violating their own principles.

And there are many more leading Hypocrite Republicans. Newt Gingrich—on his 3rd wife. He cheated on his first wife who had cancer. Hardly family dedication to someone fighting cancer. And John McCain, who divorced the wife who waited 7 years for his return from Vietnam to marry a fabulously wealthy ‘trophy wife’.

And Rush Limbaugh, Leader of the Republican extremist wing. Three wives, three divorces. Other examples include Republican gay haters Rep Foley of Florida, and ex-Senator Craig of Idaho. Both caught in attempts at gay relationships. And Minister Ted Haggard of Colorado. Who knows how many gay children he drove to suicide with his hate filled anti-gay megachurch rantings. But then his male prostitute boyfriend exposed him. After being "Christian cured," he was caught again in gay relationships.

Bottom line: The Democrats have their cases of infidelity. But it's the Republicans who pitch "family values, & moral superiority." They act as if they are the Party of God. In reality they are the textbook definition of the Party of Lies and Hypocrisy—all in the Name of God.

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 6/19/2009

[Republicans and Selective Editing]

To the Editor:

One of the problems conservative Republicans have is the propensity to selectively edit something—an event or a quote—in order to make it fit their purpose, no matter how much that editing distorts the original. Your correspondent, Eileen Roberts, in her letter entitled "Slinging Mud" (6/15) provides a good example of this approach.

In reaction to President Obama saying that he is a citizen of the world, Newt Gingrich attempted to ridicule and malign Mr. Obama by emphasizing that he himself is only a citizen of the United States.

Mr. Gingrich must have forgotten that the conservative Republican hero President Ronald Reagan—in the 1980s in the speech I believe he and Ms. Roberts refers to—said the same thing Mr. Obama said, that he is a citizen of the world as well as a citizen of the U.S. Shortly after Mr. Gingrich’s comment, several news programs played the video of Mr. Reagan’s speech.

Now, just what point were Ms. Roberts and Mr. Gingrich making?

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to The Severna Park Voice, 6/4/2009

[The Truth About the Institute On The Constitution]

I read with interest John Singleton’s article about the Institute On The Constitution, the “small non-profit” founded by attorneys, Michael and Stephen Peroutka. This group has always interested me ever since I heard them speak at Archbishop Spalding high school in Oct. 2003. Here, the IOTC featured the deposed Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was ousted for refusing to remove the largesse Ten Commandments from the Alabama state courthouse. The Catholic school denied sponsoring the event and cited their involvement only in the use of the facility. However, diversity and ecumenicalism were hardly the topics of the evening.

Oddly, the IOTC's website denies any association with any political party. Yet, Michael Peroutka ran as the 2004 presidential candidate for the Constitution party. His platform was more than a Tea-Party enthusiast, but anti-abortion, anti-immigration, anti gay-rights, anti teaching of evolution, pro-secession, and basically anything anti-government, including social security and Medicare.

Additionally, Mr.Peroutka (as noted on his campaign 2004 website) is a member of the League of the South, a neo-confederate and increasingly racist group. Other endorsements (as found on their web-site) included the white-supremacy group, the Aryan Nation. Mr. Singleton quotes Pastor David Whitney, an IOTC instructor, and he too along with his congregation were very vocal in trying to defeat MD’s anti-discrimination law.

No. The IOTC is more than an anti-tax, non-profit out to educate the local disgruntled citizenry on the Constitution. This is an organization that focuses on restoring Fundamentalism as their law of the land.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 5/22/2009

[The Republicans Show Their Economic Ignorance]

When Republicans demand fiscal discipline and criticize Frank Kratovil for voting for the $787 billion economic stimulus legislation, they show an astonishing level of economic ignorance.

With the nation's financial system and major industries in critical condition, millions of homes taken in foreclosures, and the jobless rate rising toward double digits, the federal government is the only power that can restore the economy.

In an economy that has lost trillions of dollars, a central question is whether the $787 billion stimulus is sufficient to the task of economic recovery, even when added to the $700 billion for rescue of the banking system and the many emergency measures undertaken by the Federal Reserve.

As a matter of political philosophy, Frank Kratovil is a fiscal conservative, but he has the sense to know that this is not the time for fiscal restraint. The immediate goal is to prevent a deep recession from becoming another Great Depression.

Eight years of reckless Republican rule, featuring a doubling of the national debt and deregulation of the financial markets, led the nation into economic crisis. They don't deserve much credibility on economic policy.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Submitted to The Capital Newspaper 05/14/2009

The Christian Impact Alliance—Background

Under the cloak of Christianity, the contents in the May 4th Capital article, Political Group Targets Christians, seem misleading and deceptive. Founded by Bill Voelp of Pasadena and Pastor Rick Bowers of Columbia, The Christian Impact Alliance is designed to reach out to MD Christians and aid them in finding their political voice. Incredibly, they deny being associated with any political ideology.

Let’s look at the players. As their consultant, Delegate Don Dwyer’s name alone evokes political right-wing ideology. Besides his crusade against gay rights, same-sex marriage, women’s reproductive rights, Dwyer is an avid Constitutionalist. He got his 'calling' after attending the Institute On The Constitution (IOTC), an organization run by the attorneys and Constitutionalists Michael and Stephen Peroutka. Their mantra is the biblical interpretation of the constitution, secession, creationism, anti- gay and women’s reproductive rights. Basically they are anti-government, including programs like Medicare and social security. Dwyer says he left the IOTC a year ago, yet he is still listed on their board of advisors.

Move onto Bill Voelp. Hardly innocuous and hardly apolitical. On his “public profile”, Mr. Voelp lists his political views as "Constitutionalist." In the 2006 election, he was Dwyer’s campaign manager—not just his campaign aide. Mr. Voelp also hosts the political talk show the "Right Issues" on Anne Arundel community TV. A Sept. 2008 recording, (episode 16) shows Voelp calling upon Israel to bomb Iran, to “save the face of the U.S.” This is not an ideology?

Pastor Bowers subscribes to the same political doctrine. Along with Mr. Dwyer, he is a frequent guest on the Right Issue. In 2007, the IOTC gave him an award for his leadership in the church community and “politics.” These are hardly venues without political ideology.

This is Christian Fundamentalism, a theocracy, mixed into the political process.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to The Washington Post, 5/5/2009

[Senator Specter Should Act Like a Democrat]

To the Editor:

Senator Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic fold has produced calls for the Republicans to be concerned about the loss of one of their members and for the Democrats to avoid being consumed by a false sense of power caused by their increasing numbers. In all the talk, the comfortable winner is Sen. Specter.

However, Mr. Specter should be cautious about his newfound home with the Democrats. As grateful as the Democratic Party may be, he should beware of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania. They might not be as sanguine about having a longtime Republican thrust upon them.

The reason for this caution can be found locally, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Ten years ago, a Republican legislator, Diane Evans, was persuaded by the state and local Democratic political hierarchies to switch parties in order to run for county executive. The Democrats thought a moderate Republican reborn as a Democratic would easily capture the nomination and then the county executive position. The only flaw in this plan was the emergence of Janet Owens who upset Ms. Evans in the primary and went on to win the general election. The voters decided they didn’t want the choice of a candidate imposed upon them.

As for Diane Evans, I have not heard about her since that primary. Mr. Specter might find that he will have to act like a Democrat and not the righteous independent he now professes to be, at least during the time leading up to the 2010 primary.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to the editor, The Capital, 5/4/2009

[Words Change Meaning Over Time]

More on word meanings change over time:

I thank Mr. Thomann for his letter about words meanings changing over time. In the early days of America, 'citizen' meant whites only. ‘Voter’ meant only if you could pay a poll tax. For some, it even meant death..

‘Capitalism’ meant a small wealthy class had the capital. That changed with social progressiveness and development of a middle class. Now threatened by the 8 past years of Republican "winner take all" mentality that gave us our economic issues.

‘Freedom’ meant the freedom to enslave others. After the civil war, still justifying their actions biblically, the south created the KKK and created segregation. Enforced by violence. Freedom changed meaning.

Lincoln ended the confederacy and slavery, but ‘slavery’ was replaced by virtual slavery called segregation. Then with the 1964 civil rights act, the south reacted by becoming rigidly republican, fighting to keep it's corrupt segregationist culture. Now totally disgraced by President Obama’s election.

And the meaning of ‘marriage’ has changed also. The woman is no longer a subordinate at work or home. The old south ‘whites only marriage culture’ ended in 1867. ‘Marriage’ became inter-racial nationwide in 1968,. Despite conservatives screaming about “God, moral values”, etc. Now most people can marry the person they love.

And another change in the meaning of ‘marriage’ is occurring. The end of the last great biblical discrimination in America. Four states have gay marriage, 3-4 more are poised to do so. And 5 others have a civil union semi-marriage for gay people .

Thanks for your comments. Words do really change meaning. But some words don’t change meaning, they just take time to become reality. As one who teaches the Constitution, you should agree with what we all said at school openings thousands of times, that ended "…..with liberty and justice for all".

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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Letter to the editor- Baltimore Sun, 4/29/2009

Focus on building a brighter future
[We Should Not Prosecute Members of Bush Team]

As a liberal Democrat, I appeal to my fellow progressives to back off their obsession with investigating potential criminality in the interrogation of al-Qaida prisoners by the Bush administration ("Bring it on," editorial, April 22).

Former President George W. Bush's gang has departed the government. We have a brilliant young president whose ambitious program could be overwhelmed by many months or even years of bitter political strife over the subject of torture. It is profoundly against the interests of our country, our party and President Barack Obama to pursue investigations that could lead to prosecutions of Bush administration lawyers for their opinions and possibly of those who had ultimate responsibility for the policies.

We don't need the ferocious political strife that could be ignited by such backward-looking vindictiveness.

I want President Obama to succeed in fulfilling his agenda for universal and affordable health insurance, affordable college education and new energy investments that diminish our dependence on foreign oil.

Let's focus on building a better future for America.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Letter to the editor, Capital Gazette, 3/30/2009

Slots Proliferation

I would like to supplement the letter from Barbara Knickelbein (The Capital, March 29 2009) concerning slots in Anne Arundel County. We citizens are under a serious threat from proliferation of slots in our county. Currently, there are three Bills in play in the General Assembly and County Council. Council Bill 10-09 will modify zoning in the Constitution-allocated slots territory specifically to permit slots facilities. This modification is mandated by the Constitutional Amendment passed by voters in 2008. If this Bill does not pass there will be no slots in Anne Arundel County.

The other two Bills, introduced in the House by principal sponsor Delegate Eric Bromwell who represents Baltimore County not Anne Arundel, are designed to expand slots in our County. Bill 1268 is another Constitutional Amendment to the 2008 Amendment that would permit slots at BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport. Bill 777 would, contingent upon approval of Bill 1268 by the voters in 2010, allow up to 3000 slots at the airport. If we think attempts to proliferate weapons of mass destruction is a serious problem, then I submit we should be equally concerned about the proliferation of family/community-destroying slots. I wonder it the great jurist and Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall would appreciate his name being associated with the gateway to his beloved home state as a casino—the first Maryland-experience a visitor has.

It's anyone's guess how these Bills will turn out. The County Council will hold a special hearing on Bill 10-09 Thursday, 2 April at 7:00 PM. Those interested can come and voice their concerns. I encourage all concerned citizens to contact their Councilman and Delegates.

Respectfully submitted,

Patric S. Enright
Gambrills

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Letter to the editor, Capital Gazette, 3/14/09

Conservatism Remains Ideology of Obstruction

The conservative party not only seems to have trouble finding a credible leader, their constituents seem to have trouble finding their own words. In the letter, Conservative, (3/11/09- The Capital)the mosaic of words and thought processes seem not to be those of the writer but come directly from Rush Limbaugh’s 90 minute speech given at the recent CPAC.

Google the writer’s phrase such as ‘we are not a minority’ or the reference to President Obama’s ‘doom and gloom’ view of our country, and your taken to page 1 of Limbaugh’s bellicose inaugural transcriptto his conservative audience. As in Limbaugh’s speech, the writer derides President Obama and mockingly says “some leader.” Yet the writer seems to be inspired by a talk-show host whose comments, according to the now apologetic RNC chairman Michael Steele, are “ugly and incendiary.” Yes. Some leader(s).

Incredibly, the writer says that “the hallmark of conservatism is the willingness to accept the viewpoints of others.” Whose viewpoints? Michael Steele when interviewed by The Washington Times said bipartisanship is a “fiction of politics.” Our own former Governor Ehrlich, during an appearance on Chris MatthewsHardball in February 2009, said it was his job to be “oppositional.” Additionally, the gods of conservative talk and radio hosts like Sean Hannity and Glen Beck spew phrases akin to revolution and secession. This is hardly “accepting the viewpoint of others.” Instead of being the party of “inclusion”, and the “vitality of our constitution” as the writer infers, and judging by its leadership or lack-of, conservatism remains the ideology of obstruction and divisiveness.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Baltimore Sun, 2/9/2009

Cutting School Funding

To the Editor:

Mark Tetting and Tom Wilcox make several good points in "School cut unfair, unwise" (Feb 9). One is the idea of "fairness." However, they left out what Governor O’Malley should cut in order to give the Baltimore school system the desired $23 million. If they do not believe that other programs are as deserving as those in Baltimore, they should identify which ones should be defunded.

Mr. Fetting is chairman and CEO Legg Mason. Would he be willing to tax his and other similar enterprises in order to finance the school system? Mr. Wilcox is president and CEO of the Baltimore Community Foundation. Would he be willing to sacrifice money given to BCF in favor of the school system?

Both Mr. Wilcox and Mr. Fetting apparently missed the battle in the U.S. Senate over the stimulus package. Republicans got a $40 billion decrease in school funding for the states. Maryland would have received at least a small portion of that now absent money.

My intent is not to criticize either gentleman or the Baltimore school system. They just need to explain where this $23 million is supposed to come from.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to The Washington Post, 1/29/2009

Governor Ehrlich Should Practice What He Preaches

In his disparaging critique of President Obama's inaugural address, (Obama's Speech: Post-Partisan? Not Really, The Washington Post 1/22/09) the former governor of MD, Robert Ehrlich, wrote "simply put, words matter. Words send signals about intentions." In hindsight, perhaps the former governor should review some of his own speeches.

In his January 2005 state of the state address, Mr. Ehrlich went off-script and gave a brief homily on the virtue of respect, which in his opinion, had been lacking in the MD state legislature. In his own words, the governor defined respect as "working in partnership with someone who doesn't agree with you" and "not playing Capitol Hill assassination politics." How quickly he forgets.

Where is Ehrlich's respect when he implies President Obama is playing "class warfare" for trying to help working families? Where is the governor's respect when he fear-mongers and questions President Obama's "moral clarity in the fight against terrorism"? These are hardly the words or intentions of someone who plans to "work in partnership" with the Obama administration. Mr. Ehrlich employs the very assassination politics he railed against in 2005. Simply put, words do matter. The former governor should practice what he preaches.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to the editor, Capital Gazette, 10/3/08

Innuendos and Incompetence [Governor Sarah Palin]

In the aftermath of the Biden-Palin debate we have been asked to praise the performance of Governor Sarah Palin. Her folksy nuances and winks are supposed to appeal to our "middle-class" values. Somehow, we've allowed ourselves to lower the expectation for this "down-home", "hockey-mom" candidate and not demand of her the accurate facts and decorum needed for leadership. She gets a "free-pass" in not answering questions, being void of specifics, and speaking tangentially. In allowing this to happen, I sadly believe we have lowered the expectations of our country and ourselves. Here is why we should not:

George W. Bush. Dick Cheney. Karl Rove. Alberto Gonzoles. Scooter Libby. Jack Abramhoff. Donald Rumsfeld. Paul Wolfowitz. Harriet Miers. John Ashcroft. John Bolton. Paul Bremer. George Tenet. Michael Brown. Condolezza Rice. Ted Stevens. Randy Cunningham. Sarah Palin. John McCain. Locally- Andrew Harris.

"Axis of Evil" "Weapons of Mass Destruction" "Slam Dunk" "Shock and Awe" "Mission Accomplished" "Bring Em On" "Stay the Course" "Heck of a Job Brownie" "Stuff Happens" "I Am the Decider" "U.S. Attorney Scandal" "Abu Ghraib" "Halliburton" "Preemptive War" "Walter Reed" "Blackwater" "Executive Power" "Trust Me" "Lack of Body Armor" "Katrina" "Guantanamo" "Yellowcake" "Waterboarding" "Bridge to Nowhere" "Deregulation" "Wall Street Bailout" "Golden Parachutes" "Big Oil" "Privatize Social Security" "Club for Growth" "Free-market" "Largest Drop in the Dow Jones" "Largest Deficit in the Country's History" "Largest Job-Loss of any Administration" "31,000 Wounded" "4200 Killed"

In the debate, Governor Palin kept repeating how we must "look ahead" but both she and McCain fail to demonstrate how their administration would be any different from the current one. We've had eight years of innuendos and incompetence. We cannot afford four more of the same.

Here's another nuance. Will I remember these facts on November 4th? "You betcha!"

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Baltimore Sun, 9/25/2008

[McCain Campaign Stalls Amid Bailout Crisis]

To the Editor:

The headline on the Election 2008 article of the Sun "Debate in question as McCain stalls campaign amid the bailout crisis" gave me pause. Headlines are valuable. They help the reader form his thinking on an issue. They also pose some questions. The primary one for this headline is: Does the headline writer’s declaration accurately present the situation?

The simple reversal of two words in the "Debate…" headline offers an entirely different take on Sen. McCain’s actions: "Debate in question as McCain campaign stalls amid bailout crisis." Given the events of the last two weeks, the revised version is easily as valid as the original.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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The Capital, 9/13/08

[The Difference Between the Two Candidates]

To the Editor:

The Capital’s Letters to the Editor section (Sept 13) was a worthwhile contribution to political dialogue as viewed by the Annapolis area citizenry. The ideas expressed were, for the most part, fairly predictable.

The layout for the section was a good idea: one part for John McCain, one for Barack Obama. There was, however, a curious allocation of one comment to the Obama group. That letter was the one by Alan McAllister. The placement of his letter was curious because he expressed no preference for either candidate. Instead, he listed some points he told his son that he would use in making his choice for president.

All of the points were instructive. Collectively, they define the difference between the two candidates. Among them:

That The Capital chose to place ideas enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the Obama column and not the McCain column speaks volumes about how your editorial board views the two candidates.

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to the editor SP Voice, 9/8/08

Safety of our Troops

No matter how you feel about the election, we can all agree that the safety of our troops is one of our most important values. But In the past few days, important classified details publicizing the deployment to Iraq of Track Palin, son of Ms. Palin, and what / where he will be posted / doing, have found their way into the media. Whoever released this classified information puts him and other soldiers serving with him at risk as well, by turning them all into high value targets for our enemies.

As a former Vietnam era army officer, the public release of this information is despicable. Releasing such information is illegal under DOD security rules, and DOD publicly has denied that the information came from them. The source for these leaks has to be somewhere in the republican campaign, looking to “score points” for their candidate. Isn't it astonishing that that they would do such a desperate act. On the other hand, I've seen information that Sen Biden has a son in the military, but no details are publically available. That is as it should be.

Where and what are the real "moral values" of the Republican party?

Stephen Kay
Severna Park

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The Washington Post, 9/11/08

To the Editor:

Lipstick on a Pig

In regard to your editorial "What’s the Pig Deal?": I think you and others have misunderstood the situation. Gov. Sarah Palin has every reason to be outraged by the phrase "lipstick on a pig." Her outrage should be directed to the leaders of the Republican Party. They think that whenever the phrase is used it automatically refers to her. Do they really think their candidate is a pig?

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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Letter to the editor: The Capital 8/3/2008

[The Truth About Sen. Andrew Harris]

Recently, the 1st Congressional District campaign of state Sen. Andrew Harris, R-Baltimore County, reportedly released the findings of its own internal poll conducted by the consultant Arthur Finkelstein and Associates.

As internal polls have a way of favoring the candidate that conducts them, it's no surprise that it shows Dr. Harris ahead of Frank Kratovil Jr. in the race for the congressional seat.

What is a surprise is that Dr. Harris' campaign still retains Arthur Finkelstein and Associates. Mr. Finkelstein, a longtime Republican operative, is openly gay and married his partner in 2005.

Dr. Harris touts himself as the family values candidate. He's against gay rights, including gay marriage. He embraces the endorsement of Phyllis Schlafly and her political action committee, the Eagle Forum.

Mrs. Schlafly is the notorious anti-feminist, anti-gay activist who calls homosexuality "sinful" and derailed the Equal Rights Amendmant years ago. Ironically, her son John, who currently directs one of the Eagle Forum branches, was outed in 1992.

Dr. Harris also embraces the endorsement of Dr. James Dobson, the religious right founder of Focus On the Family. Dr. Dobson, known to be on speed-dial to the White House, has called homosexuality an "abomination unto the Lord."

I suppose keeping Mr. Finkelstein on the payroll is OK as long as his polling results are positive. Call it hate the sin but love the sinner. I call it hypocrisy.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Letter to the editor: The Whig Newspaper and The Star Democrat 6/20/08

Andrew Harris is Not the Answer to What Ails Us

In the race for the 1st Congressional District, Dr. Andrew Harris touts himself as the answer to a conservative's prayer. His campaign theme, 'Prescription for Prosperity' is anything but healthy- least of all for the average citizen or the environment. As voters, we need to look at who underwrites Dr. Harris's prescriptions.

The PAC (political action committee) Club for Growth (CFG) bundled millions into Dr. Harris's campaign and got him elected. On the surface, CFG defines itself as the leading anti-tax, limited government advocacy group. Beneath the surface, their goals are more ominous. Led by Wall Street executives, CFG's aim is to dismantle Medicare and privatize Social Security. Calling senior citizens "selfish", "the new welfare state" and "dangerous", CFG"s founder Stephen Moore, says the"...biggest myth in politics today is this idea that grandparents care about their grandkids." "...all they want are their Social Security checks and Medicare payments to be made on a timely basis." CFG's current president, Patrick Toomey, believes the same. Medicare and Social Security are "entitlements" and "need to be dealt with."

CFG is anti-any- environmental initiative. Dr. Harris has repeatedly mis-diagnosed Maryland's environmental needs- specifically the Chesapeake Bay. In his nine years in the Senate, he voted "90 %" of the time against any pro-environment endeavor. Recently, he scored an anemic 9% from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV).

Is Dr. Harris the answer to what ails us? No. Judging from his record and the company he keeps, most patients would go elsewhere. Frank Kratovil will treat us much better.

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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MSTA caved to pressure by endorsing slots 5/7/2008

Letter to the Editor, SoMdNews.com
May 7, 2008

On Friday, March 14, a day that will live in infamy in this state, the Maryland State Teachers Association sold its soul to the devil. The MSTA board endorsed slots.

It caved into threats by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert, Prince George's) to block state aid to the counties for their schools, to push teacher pension funding into the counties, and to defeat a bill to give teachers better arbitration of their disputes with school boards. MSTA's moral cowardice is compounded with stupidity. Endorsing slots is endorsing "cultural deprivation." Every Maryland teacher knows that poor and lower middle class parents need to put their discretionary money not into slots but into activities that culturally enrich their children, giving them experiences they can connect to learning - experiences teachers set up for them in school.

It makes school seem less strange.

For this reason alone, many individual teachers are vigorously opposed to slots and so are their local unions at the county level.

Let's remember, as Comptroller Peter Franchot warns, that budget crises pass but "slots are forever."

J.A. Hoage,
Severna Park
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The Washington Post, 5/16/08

The Republican Brand

To the Editor:

The effort by the Republican leadership to rebrand itself, especially in light of their third consecutive loss of a heretofore “safe” seat in the House of Representatives suggests they need only to find the message that appropriately and forcefully identifies them. Rather than using one that infringes on the copyright of a drug company, I suggest this: “The shaft you’ve gotten.”

Stanley R. Baker
Gambrills

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McCain Health Plan Leaves Out Too Many

Published in the Baltimore Sun
5/4/2008

Sen. John McCain had to offer something to deal with the broken American health care nonsystem ("McCain outlines plan to fix health care crisis," April 30). But he proposed something that would fall far short of guaranteeing effective care to every citizen. His plan may not even do very much to serve the 47 million people who lack health insurance.

Mr. McCain would drop tax subsidies for employer-sponsored health insurance and shift the burden to individuals, offering $5,000 per family in tax credits to help folks shop around for insurance policies.

This is just cost-shifting, and the value of the new subsidy would be eroded by rising costs.

The growing price of health insurance would continue to be beyond the means of the working poor, and insurance companies would fail to cover people with pre-existing conditions and chronic illnesses.

The shameful truth is that health care in the United States is rationed by the ability to pay. No other advanced country shows such moral failure in its health system.

Most European countries provide health care to all of their citizens, as does Canada.

In these countries, the life expectancy of citizens is longer, the infant mortality rates are lower and the per-capita health care costs are far lower than those in the United States.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Slots and Schools Would be a "Perfect" Mix

Published in the Sunday Capital as a Guest Column
5/4/2008

I vigorously rejected slot machines for years. But now, as a longtime supporter of public education (and a former teacher), I think the Maryland State Teachers Association may well be right about them.

Slot machines should be placed in our schools, from kindergarten through 12th grade. This program - "Slots for Tots!" - would make other states once again view us as an educational leader.

Machines would be allocated based on the number of students in each grade at each school, with more machines for each higher grade. The increased income older students receive from jobs and allowances would get some consideration.

Elementary schools pose a bit of a problem. Machines could be distributed in connection with bake sales and the like, with the most machines per grade going to the biggest hustlers.

The kindergartners would have the longest learning curve to become fully adept at using the machines. Learning what each prize level offers and how to put money in the coin slots will take valuable time from independent playing.

A few guidelines would make sure that the machines, and the schools, are not abused:

Machines would be available one hour before classes begin and one hour after they cease.

The machines would also be turned on for special functions outside the normal school hours: athletic events, back-to-school night, band concerts and school plays.

In order to receive state funding, every school would have to have its full allotment of machines. It would be unfair for a school or county to refuse participation and then reap the bounty produced by machines elsewhere.

Special weekend and vacation hours would be provided so that not a soul would be left behind. Teachers would be the first ones considered to keep the schools open at these time. They could grade papers and make lesson plans when not needed for direct supervision. It would be a dandy supplement to their income.

Only public schools would be allowed to participate. If other schools, groups, organizations or businesses wanted to partake of the revenue, they would need to submit a special grant application indicating why they, unlike any other businesses, should be entitled to feed at this particular public trough.

Funding of public education from tax revenue would be frozen at the 2008 level so that education would receive the full benefit of the slots revenue.

The benefits beyond revenue enhancement would be limitless:

Teachers at all grade levels would rejoice because there would now be something for students to do when rain or snowfall cancel recess.

High school students could perform basic machine maintenance, increasing their post-graduation employment opportunities.

Math classes would find slots a boundless way to teach important concepts, including probability.

Schools would be a perfect place to generate data for long-term studies on gambling addiction. Under their psychology professors, students could do research on why some students, and not others, become addicted.

Our public schools would truly become community centers.

Guidance counselors would find parents always available for conferences, and could see each student's parents or guardians each week. Scheduled conferences would become almost passe.

Bring' em on. These one-armed revenue enhancers fit the bill for a citizenry whose attitude is "Don't raise our taxes, and damn the consequences."

Stanley R Baker
Gambrills

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Sarbanes Stance

The Capital
4/26/2008

A scathing letter headlined “Sarbanes betrayal” (The Capital, March 29) accused Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Towson, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., of political posturing and committing the moral equivalent of treason for letting the Protect America Act, or PAA, expire.

Mr. Sarbanes, the writer said, lied by defending his position that the PAA is an assault on our Constitution.

Yielding to the White House pressure, Congress enacted the PAA in August.  It amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and authorized our government of intercept any kind of communication here and abroad without obtaining a warrant.

Any American with no connection to terrorism could be spied on.  Our phone calles and e-mails were in the hands of President Bush, “the Decider.”

As the PAA was due to expire in February, the House refused to be intimidated by Mr. Bush.  It passed a moderate measure that focused more on foreign terrorists, without violating the freedoms of law-abiding Americans.

Mr. Bush said no.  He wanted the Senate’s bill, which gave law-abiding citizens few safeguards and granted immunity to the telecommunications companies.  In an attempt to rework the bill, the House requested a 21-day extension of the PAA.  Mr. Bush said he would veto it, so the act expired.

If the PAA was so important to national security, why didn’t Mr. Bush agree to the extension?  Why wasn’t the letter writer, to use her words, appalled, dismayed, shocked, astounded, disgusted and sickened my Br. Bush’s assault on the Constitution.

His powers have gon unchecked on many issues like habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping and free speech.  While granting himself retroactive immunity, Mr. Bush has violated his oath of office by failing to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”  He  He called the Constitution only a piece of paper.

Fortunately, Mr. Sarbanes believes otherwise!

Judith P. Moylan-Forman
Severna Park

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Immigrants

The Sunday Capital
3/30/2008

I wouldn’t want to call Del. Don Dwyer, R-Glen Burnie, a bigot,
but his animosity against undocumented immigrants risks public safety when he advocates denying driver’s licenses to workers lacking legal status.  The public is protected when drivers are tested, licensed, and have the necessary liability
insurance.

No public pupose is served when undocumented workers and their families live in the shadows without access to essential public services.

Public health is protected when immigrants are not fearful of seeking tr4eatment for illnesses.  Law enforcement is enhanced when immigrants are not afraid of reporting crimes against themselves and others.

Communities are well served when the children of immigrants are educated in our schools.  These children include many born here, and are American citizens by birthright. 

As a descendant of Irish immigrants who endured ethnic hatred when they came to America, I suggest that Mr. Dwyer show some compassion for the Latino immigrants who came here to escape desperate poverty in their homelands.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville

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Shifting the Blame for the Budget Mess

Published in the Sun Paper
2/26/2008

Cecilia Januszkiewicz's column was a shameful attempt to shift blame for the state's budget problems from the Ehrlich administration that nourished them to the O'Malley administration that has had the courage to remedy them ("Reckless spending," Opinion • Commentary, Feb. 19).

As former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s secretary of management and budget, Ms. Januszkiewicz helped to build the structural deficit of more than $1 billion that was Mr. Ehrlich's legacy to Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The large state spending increase in Mr. Ehrlich's election-year 2006 budget was the final hypocritical flourish from an administration that pretended to be fiscally responsible.

After being chased out of the governor's mansion by Mr. O'Malley, the creators of the budget mess now have the nerve to complain about the taxes and fees needed to correct the huge deficit.

But their claims that Mr. O'Malley has failed to control spending are only reminders of Mr. Ehrlich's extravagance.

Raymond S. Gill
Crownsville


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Fly Ash in Anne Arundel County

Letter to the editor:
3/12/2008

The March 9th article in The Capital questioned the "many hats" donned by Torrey Jacobsen. Is he a fly ash activist or pro-union lobbyist? As an ordinary citizen who lives in Anne Arundel county near the fly ash landfill, what kind of hat he wears is irrelevant to me. The more important issue is the immediate and long-term health impact resulting from this site. Citizens have reason to be concerned about the environmental and health risks associated with this development. Anne Arundel county is a hot bed for lung cancer. Fly ash and its components are known carcinogens. In 2007, the American Lung Association gave our county a failing grade for poor air quality. Our houses and cars have been topped with fly ash dust and some of our wells contaminated. If development is allowed to proceed at Waugh Chapel South, who will do the continued monitoring of this area? Who is responsible both physically and financially for the regulatory system needed in this area? Until these questions can be answered and our assurances met, development should be stopped.

Jutta Schmidt
Gambrills, MD

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