Democratic dishonesty

The latest debacle over the payroll tax break highlights the dishonesty of our Democratic senator from Florida and the president.

Sen. bill Nelson has repeatedly told us how he and his party are protecting the nations’ seniors. They don’t want Medicare or Social Security touched. their actions prove the lie.

Sen. Nelson voted for, and Obama signed into law, the healthcare bill that cut 500 million or was it billion from medicare. It also tries to do away with Medicare advantage for the people who selected and used this type of coverage. They did this at the same time they were telling you that the Republicans wanted you seniors to die quickly.

Once again, “the Republicans tried to stop this bill that cut medicare dollars and a medicare program that many seniors here in Florida use” and the Democrats scream to the press and on TV that it is the Republicans who are to blame. For this lie alone no senior in their right mind should ever vote for Obama and Nelson again.

That not being bad enough, they then passed legislation to cut the payroll tax 2 percent for the workers and 2 percent for the employers, for 2011. Never telling you what fund was being reduced by this cut. Folks your Social Security trust fund is losing this money. both the senior on Social Security and the worker are having their retirement safety net cut by 4 percent for 2011. They tell you that this will allow you to have more money in your pocket. Bless their hearts for doing this. tell me seniors did you get more money in your pocket in 2011?

I’m a senior and I didn’t. I also didn’t get a Social Security inflation adjustment because there wasn’t enough money in the budget. They spent billions on Solyndra and other companies that went down the toilet hole but there wasn’t enough for our inflation adjustment. of course these companies just happened to send large amounts of money to their re-election accounts.

Republicans had nothing to do with this. They just took over the House in the election of 2010 after all this had been done. For this the Democrats not only don’t deserve your vote, they should be taken out behind the barn for a good old fashioned butt whipping.

Then they do it again for 2012. The Republicans try to stop it by requesting a source for funds to offset the hit to Social Security. For this Obama and all the Democratic pinheads trot out the old ploy once again. Republicans are trying to take dollars out of your pockets.

The only thing this does is reduce the Social Security Trust Fund for another two months. then these scumbags will do it again. The really crazy thing is there are seniors down here who will vote for them again. Go figure that one out.

A better school system

The quality of our school system is ranked 23rd, throughout the world. this is not good. if we really want to change this and bring up the quality of our school system we have to be willing to make dramatic changes.

The school systems of Singapore, Japan and China are at the top of the list, because of their proven success. their students attend school from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. which attendance is the reason for their success.

First of all we must stop listening to the teacher’s unions. They are only interested in tenure, job security and not the quality of the teachers. The problem is that the students do not spend enough time on each subject in order to fully master it.

Reading and math are two subjects which most students are failing and are the basic needs of every one going into the work world. a normal work day for those of us who have jobs is from 9 to 5, which should be the same for teachers. this length of day will greatly increase the quality of our education.

Our schools should be preparing our students for the real world and real jobs. not every student has to go to college. Blue collar jobs are also important.

In the past we have been throwing more and more money into education without any good results. More money is not the answer, what we need is more school time. we need to dramatically turn around our educational system and take it out of the hands of the federal government and place it in the hands of local administrators who will be willing to do the right thing. What is the right thing will be up to honest administrators.

One of the reasons that we need to improve our educational systems is the dramatic growth of illiteracy. an example of how illiteracy has grown, in Detroit there is 47 percent illiteracy.

Let your state legislature know how you feel about our educational system.

Age discrimination?

While reading Michael Bates’ story titled “Looking for a leader,” I was surprised to see a direct quote from Commissioner Dave Russell indicating he would like to see someone “young and energetic and upwardly mobile” for the position of county administrator.

Are we looking for another lawsuit by actually stating that age could be a factor in judging candidates? Surely, Mr. Russell knows that this is a discriminatory statement and a person’s chronological age should not be an issue in selecting our new administrator. I’m sure he wouldn’t want that criteria used as a basis for his selection as a commissioner.

Time to withdraw is now

Watching the news last night I was very dismayed to hear about our soldiers who are being killed by Afghan soldiers who are supposedly on our side.

That’s one of the reasons we need to withdraw from that “war” and from other conflict areas in the Middle East as soon as possible. not next year and not in 2014. we don’t know who are “friends” are and who our “enemies” are.

The people in these third-world countries have been fighting among themselves for centuries. It is usually over religion, territory or some other power issue. Our military shouldn’t get involved with these issues. Let me make myself clear, I am not anti-war. my dad spent 32 years in the Air Force. He fought in World War II. I have friends and relatives who are currently serving in the military and have the utmost respect for them.

If we feel like we need to help the “good guys” then let us send non-military, diplomatic advisors over there. this has been done before, usually without the backing of the U.S. government and with no ulterior motives (economic gain, spreading ideology, etc.)

One man who has advocated and successfully implemented this technique is Gene Sharp. To quote an article on www.irrawaddy.com: “His book from Dictatorship to Democracy is perhaps his best-known and most-influential work. Renowned as a handbook for strategic non-violent protest around the world, it originated in Dr. Sharp’s work with Burmese opposition and ethnic groups in the early 1990s and was intended as a blueprint for the liberation of the country from military rule.”

For this reason and many others I am backing Ron Paul for president. He has received record numbers of contributions from military personnel. He understands the futility of some wars and doesn’t want to see any more young men and women killed in a useless unwinnable conflict.

A history of communication

The speed with which we communicate today really baffles me. everything has to happen right now. some news worthy event happens half-way around the world and we know about it within seconds.

Thanks to the proliferation of the call phone we can pretty much reach anyone whenever we want. Texting, instant messages, email on our cell phones, we can’t communicate fast enough.

And now we have the iPhone. we don’t even have to put fingers to the screen to send a text. Merely speak the message and whom it’s meant for into the phone and it will be sent.

It makes me a little nostalgic for a different time. There was a time when we moved at a slower pace when we didn’t expect an immediate response to every communication.

I find it fascinating to look back from where we came. It gives everything perspective. To that end I have compiled a list of my favorite outmoded means of communication. Come walk down memory lane with me.

Remember the carrier pigeon. can you picture a bird with a satchel strapped across its chest transporting a message across this land? It just seems so archaic, so last century.

Then there’s the telegraph. In its day it revolutionized communication, displacing the Pony Express.

Next is the telex or teletype. The teleprinter was the first mode of texting. It worked as long as you could read a long narrow printout with a series of holes on each side. I remember using it in the office of the U.S. Maritime commission in 1943, my first job.

Then the fax machine. you run your document through but are never really sure it makes it to its destination, but it was a major advancement into the world of immediacy.

The U.S. Mail. I hate to sound the death toll for the old United State Postal Service, but let’s face it very few of us communicate through the mail any more.

When one gets a handwritten letter, however, it’s actually a bit of a thrill. Growing up we knew what time the mailman came and we would run down to check our mailbox. Good things came in the mail, letters from pen pals, new issues of magazines, albums ordered from Columbia Record Club.

Next is the telephone. To go in my life from a fixed-to-the-wall, rotary dial phone with a party line to a cordless land line is the most miraculous of technological advances.

The newspaper. Television and the computer have reduced readership, but as an 86 year old retiree I enjoy reading the newspaper every morning during breakfast. The tremendous amount of news in the paper significantly outweighs what we get on the television or the computer.

While I was writing this letter new advances in communication are being discovered. The iPad and the witches that follow – mind boggling to say the least. I’ll leave it to my grandchildren and the younger folks to wrestle with them. I think I’ll turn on the TV.

Letters to the editor, Jan. 26

Tags: debacle, medicare program, social security trust fund, tax break

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