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PrintOur state reps are truly deserving of layoffs
I have an idea. Since the state needs to save money, why don't we start laying off our representatives in the Legislature ("State to Lay Off 319 Workers," Nov. 17)? It seems many of them have too much time on their hands anyway. Fewer representatives (I use that term loosely, as many seem to represent only their own interests) with the same amount of work to be done equals a larger value proposition for the taxpayers of the state.
"Our" representatives are better positioned to find another job as well. I'm sure there is someone who was donating to their campaigns who would be willing to hire them.
ANDY WALKER
North Shore
We have demanded
Your editorial "Capitol Capers" (Nov. 15) says, "God help the people if they do not rise up and demand a sweeping, top-to-bottom cleansing of this latter-day Augean stables." And how do you propose we do that?
The vast majority of Pennsylvania citizens have been demanding this for years if not decades. We want the size of the Legislature cut substantially; the Harrisburg mob says, "No. We don't have to ... so there."
I would be happy to contribute to a fund that would force this issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. How can this Legislature continue to tell the people to drop dead and we have no recourse? Ridiculous.
DON WALKER
Morningside
Botched by Bush
Families and friends of those killed on 9/11 have been waiting since 2003 to see Khalid Sheikh Mohammed face trial and justice for his actions. Had he been tried in U.S. civilian court when he was captured, he would have been convicted and executed long ago. The victims' families would have had a sense of "closure," and the world would have seen that the American legal system was fair and effective.
Instead, the Bush administration held him for six years and waterboarded him 183 times. So, what do you think will happen at the upcoming trial? The judge and jury will agree with the facts. He was held without charge or trial, and his confessions were the result of torture. The victims' families will see the man who killed their loved ones walk away from the courtroom, free to kill again. And the world will see how America failed to live up to its own Constitution and the Geneva conventions. Thanks, Mr. Bush.
JAY LYNCH
Upper St. Clair
House of cards
Let me get this straight. The Fed prints money we don't have, loans that money to banks for little or no interest and has promised to do so for as long as necessary. The banks then use this money to buy stocks, evidenced by the large advances in the market on low volume trading. This has resulted in a soaring stock market built on a house of cards. The banks then give the illusion of increased worth so the executives can keep getting bonuses.
Also, the talking heads on the financial networks tell us how great the economy is and how foolish we are to think otherwise -- this, to make the average citizen feel the economy is improving so we will spend money we don't have. While this is happening we read daily about layoffs in the private and government sectors, record unemployment numbers and housing foreclosures that we are not being told the truth about. And in the paper Tuesday we learned that nearly 50 million Americans are going hungry.
I, for one, do not see this ending well, and it will be the bulk of the citizens who pay the price, while the select few prosper. Life goes on.
DOUG BRICKER
Mt. Lebanon
PG rose petals
When I retire or die, I would like to request that Paula Reed Ward be assigned to write either my departure from office article or obituary.
What a wonderful paean she wrote for Mary Beth Buchanan ("U.S. Attorney Takes a Bow," Nov. 17 analysis). Ms. Ward's article now permits Ms. Buchanan to leave her position cloaked in self-adulation with very little criticism of all the horrendous things she did during her eight years as U.S. attorney.
There are so many important, documented, indisputable facts of a negative nature that should have been included in such a long story. I don't understand why Ms. Ward and the PG editors felt that it was necessary to allow Ms. Buchanan to exit the scene of her prosecutorial misconduct, unethical behavior and professional incompetence with such self-aggrandizing comments.
Does anyone truly believe that she decided to resign her position as U.S. attorney voluntarily?
CYRIL H. WECHT, M.D., J.D.
Squirrel Hill
Editor's note: The writer was the subject of a prosecution by Ms. Buchanan. A trial ended with a hung jury; she sought to retry the case but later dropped the charges.
Forgotten veterans
Another Veterans Day has come and gone, but many of us will continue to remember the sacrifice made by the many who gave their lives for our country. But it looks as though, again, the Merchant Marine combat veterans of World War II will be forgotten -- this time by our country's leaders. The World War II Merchant Marine veterans had the highest percentage of fatalities of any other branch of the service during the war -- most of whom never were buried, as they lie at the bottom of the Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean and Black Sea.
The Merchant Marines never received veterans benefits of GI home loans, tuition assistance, veterans hospitals or veteran disability payments. Our allies gave their Merchant Marines veteran status within a few years from the end of the war.
The U.S. House has passed HR 23, which has been called the "Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act." It allows for a $1,000 a month payment to each of the survivors or their widows. This bill is now at the Senate, but there has been no action. Have our senators forgotten these heroes again? This is certainly not the act of true American patriots. The Senate needs to press this bill immediately, as there are fewer and fewer of these veterans around for our country to finally thank for their sacrifices.
JOHN GORAY
Mt. Lebanon
The writer's father served in the Merchant Marines.
Negative for jobs
In his defense of cap and trade in the Nov. 10 letter "We Must Act, or Risk Missing Out on Jobs," U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak tries desperately to spin his support for a bill that raises energy prices dramatically and destroys millions of jobs. He accuses Pat Toomey of relying on slanted studies, but Mr. Toomey's Perspectives commentary (Nov. 6) came to the same conclusion as ... President Barack Obama and his administration.
According to CBS News, the Obama administration concluded that the cap-and-trade bill would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, imposing as much as $1,761 in new costs on American households every year. Additionally, the nonpartisan Factcheck.org says that projections by the Energy Information Administration and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predict that the net effect of the cap-and-trade bill will likely be to slow future job growth. The EIA says the bill could cost as much as 2.3 million jobs.
If Rep. Sestak wants to support cap-and-trade legislation, that's his choice, but he should at least be honest about the negative consequences for Pennsylvania's hard-working families.
CHRISTOPHER KOZUB
Plum
Her death is a great loss for many, including troops overseas
A thank you note to the Post-Gazette for the front-page story (and color photo) of Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, who was among those killed at Fort Hood (" 'This Is Not the Way She Was Going to Go,' " Nov. 8).
I had the privilege of working with Juanita at Western Psych in the 1990s while she was earning her master's degree in nursing. She was known for her grace and dignity in crisis situations. What a great role model she was for the nurses.
She shared her unique reserve military experiences with civilian RNs and was a great teacher and resource. Juanita was a true example of how varied the experiences are in the field of nursing and the opportunities of advanced education on a shoestring that are available to those truly interested in wide-open career choices.
While her family and friends mourn her passing, there is a truly great loss to our troops overseas who will never get the benefit of her caring and expertise.
KATHLEEN LIND, R.N.
Bethel Park
The timing is politically suspect
Regarding "Corbett Gains Political Edge" (Nov. 15): Had state Attorney General Tom Corbett brought all the Democratic and Republican lawmakers up on charges at the same time, then the attorney general could be thought of as being apolitical and unbiased in his pursuit of "justice."
The very fact that he targeted the Democrats during the election year and now targets the Republicans in an off-year calls into question his sworn responsibility to ensure "equal justice under law." Perhaps it would be better if the office of attorney general were an appointive position rather than an elective one.
MICHAEL B. SHEPPERD
Cranberry
Women can be randy, too, so stick to the issue
I can rest now. I have just read the most ludicrous statement ever placed in the letters section of the Post-Gazette ("Randy Congressmen Should Consider Their Actions," Nov. 16). Does Liane Ellison Norman really believe that "randy" congressmen are the reason for Congress arguing about keeping government-funded abortion out of the new health-care bill? Really, Ms. Norman? You blame randy men for causing women to obtain abortions? Wow, I never thought about it that way.
Ms. Norman's argument basically places all of the blame on men for abortions, basically leaving women out of the equation. I would guess Ms. Norman never met a "randy" woman who enjoys having sexual relations -- abortion as the end result or not. Please, if you are going to argue against such an important issue, get your facts straight.
In a recent Rasmussen poll held in Ohio, basically it can be read that roughly a bit over 50 percent of voters do not want government-funded abortion. Statistics do not show the entire story, I know. But if the numbers are even close to being correct, according to Ms. Norman's views, those 50 percent would have to be all "randy" men. Of course, no "randy" women would vote against government-funded abortions.
STEPHEN P. ARCH
Findlay
Reg Henry's drive-by criticism
Reg Henry comes off as a coward in his column "Who Spawned All These Nuts? Ayn Rand" (Nov. 11).
He hides behind so-called humor and oversimplifications to attack those he dislikes. For example, he writes that some readers erupted with volcanic name-calling because of his "mild criticism" of Sarah Palin -- but he fails to mention whether that criticism was rational or ... crazy. Often, it's not mere criticism that people are responding to but the nature of the criticism -- and whether it is fair or unjust.
Likewise, he blames Ayn Rand for all the alleged "nutty" ideas out there today. God forbid that people call Barack Obama's efforts to take over the banking and health-care industries for what they are: "socialist" -- that is, government wresting control of the means of production in an industry.
But never once does he give an example of her ideas, other than to summarize them as "greed is good" and leave it as that. In short, his criticism of Ms. Rand amounts to an ad hominem attack.
Based on this smear job, I'll chalk him up as just another of many drive-by critics of Ayn Rand who are too intellectually impotent to stop and provide any rational criticism of her philosophy.
Now who's the name-caller and crazy one?
JOSEPH KELLARD
East Meadow, N.Y.
My tax proposal
In view of the relentless tuition increases over the years, the universities' protests of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's tuition tax are hilarious.
Of course the schools stress how valuable they are to the community. On the other hand, many intellectuals profess to admire compromise in public affairs, so here's a proposal: Tax only Marxist-imbued pursuits such as sociology and political science. Valuable fields such as science, engineering and medicine should be exempt.
WILLIAM L. KRAYER
Mt. Lebanon
Conservation beyond the contiguous 48
Anne Raver's Nov. 10 article "A Hunt for Seeds to Save Species, Perhaps by Helping Them Move" (Web) mentions only the conservation efforts occurring in the 48 contiguous states of the union. Hawaii, with just 1/500th the land area, is home to about one-fourth (or more) of all endangered/threatened organisms of the entire country. Hawaii harbors more endemic species (plants and animals) than any area of comparable size on the planet. Of the approximately 1,000 plant species native to the Hawaiian Islands, about 90 percent are endemic. The island of Maui shelters more than 40 plant species, and at least four species of birds, found nowhere else in Hawaii, or any place else on Earth.
How would one manage just the endemic species of Maui, which is the same size as Allegheny County? The task of conserving even a small part of the genetic diversity of each endangered species is monumental, especially when only one individual, or a handful, are all that remain.
The plant propagation laboratory at the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, a research branch of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is the focus of these efforts. The plant tissue culture laboratory there grows many of these endangered species for possible reintroduction into the wild, once their habitats have been protected.
A plea from a Leetsdale native: Please remember that there is more to the United States of America than just the contiguous 48.
RICHARD PALMER, Ph.D.
Honolulu, Hawaii
The writer is a research associate in botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Why did they leave out Reagan's role?
The Nov. 8 PG ran two pieces about the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall collapse -- a column by Executive Editor David M. Shribman ("Why We Celebrate") and the other by David Francis ("20 Years Wall-Free," The Next Page).
Neither writer, not once, mentioned the name of President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Reagan had said in a speech during an earlier visit to Berlin, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." He was speaking for all those throughout the world who cherish freedom.
I think he deserves some credit (and an apology from both writers to your readers).
DICK KRAFT
Bethel Park
A distorted picture of physicians' support
The Nov. 8 Forum article "Doctors Support the Public Option" reports that a variety of physician organizations have lent their endorsement to health-care system reform and that several surveys in a prominent medical journal have demonstrated the support of medical professionals for a more inclusive system.
The article then purports to demonstrate that the supposed approval of health-care providers and their umbrella organizations for a change in the manner in which health care is provided extends to support for HB 3200. Given the fact that the medical journal surveys quoted and the preponderance of organizational support came before there ever was an HB 3200, this claim is at best disingenuous and at worst outright deceitful.
As a physician who supports some measure of change in a system that functions badly, I find the House bills dreadful for patients, especially those on Medicare, health-care providers and the fiscal future of the country. Acknowledgement that there is a need for change does not mean support for the changes enumerated in the various House bills including that passed in the late hours of Nov. 8. Hopefully the Post-Gazette's next foray into the health-care debate will present a more nuanced picture.
BARRY KISLOFF, M.D.
Churchill
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