Money thrown away on no-win wars
To the editor:
The article by Lara Jakes of the Associated Press on page 12A Wednesday (“Audit criticizes results of U.S. spending on Iraq”) should have appeared on the front page with large print reading, “Lives and money thrown away in Iraq.”
After 10 years and $800 billion and counting of America taxpayer money, Iraq is still in a God-Almighty mess. No wonder there is a high suicide rate among combat veterans in these no-win wars. To see lives thrown away would unhinge any normal person. I dare say that after this no-win war in Afghanistan I will be reading a similar article about lives and money thrown away with little or no results.
When in the world are we going to stop this insanity? Money, money, money, that is all we hear from the fools in Congress. Instead of having our troops chasing so called terrorists all over the planet, let the troops chase the money terrorists in our own country.
JOHN TOMINSKY
LAS VEGAS
Paid vacation
To the editor:
“Suspended with pay,” was this a misprint? (“Henderson suspends cop who totaled SWAT vehicle,” March 5.) Are we being told that an employee can destroy government property (city, county, state or the like) due to extremely poor judgment and then is going to be rewarded with a paid vacation?
Either the employee’s position was not needed and can be done without or other employees have to work overtime. Sure, there’s lots of money for that!
Is common sense a thing of the past? It’s high time for the policies of the police department and/or the Chief of Police’s head to be examined.
HELGA LOTT
LAS VEGAS
Single terms
To the editor:
Remember term limits? Currently there’s a lot of pressure for a politician to toe their party line. Otherwise a party won’t support a candidate’s efforts in their next primary or general election. A one-term limit removes this pressure and thus enables doing what’s best for their state and the country.
Certainly there would be enough eager candidates for office, but would they be responsible? A start at encouraging that also would be to abolish government pensions for “retired” politicians. Yes, politicos need a salary while in office, for their expenses. But no pension is justified, certainly not after only one term.
This also would remove an incentive for some hacks that we see running, fortune hunting to score an extra pension. Politicos would have to come from the non-federal sector or return to it afterwards and make an economic contribution there in order to get a pension.
Do multi-term politicians become more knowledgeable and valuable to their state and the country? Look at the poster-boy counter-example, Sen. Harry Reid. Of course he opposed term limits in his own personal self-interest. But he also has placed Nevada near the bottom of many proportional lists, of revenue returned to a state from the federal government.
No one else, Democrat or Republican, could have done worse over his terms.
PAUL ALBRECHT
LAS VEGAS
Illegals
To the editor:
I cannot believe Lawrence Poteet’s letter of February 26 (re: immigration reform).
No, Mr. Poteet, perhaps most average Americans will not benefit directly from immigration reform. Most Americans do not live in Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas, where illegal immigration is a very serious and constant problem.
And once again, you’re wrong. Beefing up border patrols will most certainly create more jobs.
We need to consider what’s best for all Americans.
JOHN MAYNARD
LAS VEGAS
Other factors
To the editor:
In Mr. Keller’s letter (“They don’t want us to know true costs,” March 7) he voiced concerns about the “hidden factor” in electrical power purchase contracts. He might be interested that other factors often ignored in renewable energy costs is the cost/benefit to the environment, political ramifications of international energy purchases, inter-grid tariff costs contracts and penalties. Power need projection methods also include weather and moisture forecasting costs, skills and water contracts, which can be required to be kept confidential.
These factors are taken into consideration by your PUC. It’s not just the cost of fuel or “green energy industry lobbyist’s bribery.”
JERRY STURDIVANT
LAS VEGAS
No new taxes?
To the editor:
Nevada Senator Michael Roberson is leading a handful of fellow Republicans in a push to impose a new tax on mining. Another politician signs a “no new taxes” pledge to get elected, then violates it when it becomes inconvenient. Nevada conservatives who have been sitting out Republican politics the last few years must feel vindicated. They shouldn’t.
In Douglas County, conservatives came back to the Republican Party in the last primary election to replace a RINO assemblyman with a “no new taxes” absolutist. The campaign ran on a shoestring, featured lots of shoe leather, phone calls, and smart messaging.
The way to replace Roberson and his arrogant raiders with true conservatives is to beat them in the Republican primary election. Now is the time for inactive Republicans, conservative third partiers and non-partisans to get off the sidelines and help effect change that comes only through governance.
LYNN MUZZY
MINDEN
Inconsistent judge
To the editor:
In your January 17, 2013 edition you posted an article about the convicted ex-process server who was sentenced by Judge Elissa Cadish, who was nominated twice for the federak bench by Barack Obama and Harry Reid. In the article she stated “The jurors got the verdict right” and she sentenced this first-time offender of a $770 invoice gone wrong to 37-1/2 months in Nevada state prison.
Well, Senator Heller “got the verdict right,” as well. This judge is an absolute nightmare on the bench. Gangsters, sex offenders and robbers in her courtroom get probation, while businessmen who made a mistake should be locked away from their families and communities.
Judge Cadish should never be a federal judge.
DAVID JIMMERSON
NORTH LAS VEGAS
Borrow & spend
To the editor:
A what-if scenario might be the following: You’re the head-of-household. You receive an income, but 40 percent of each dollar that you spend comes by way of a loan. You were warned, 18 months ago, that you had to cut spending. No plan to cut spending was created and so you continued to spend beyond your means.
Would you really put yourself and your family into such a position? Perhaps you would drastically curtail the use of your credit cards. Would you also ask associates and neighbors, who have a job, to give you money? That gift money doesn’t go to paying-down your huge debt. Instead, you give that money to a group that we shall call “the middle class.”
Here a definition of your “middle class” is in order: Those who have no job, a low paying job, no health insurance, undocumented, anchor babies, etc., including the 47 percent of the population who pay no federal income tax.
Now you’re bound into an entitlement situation because the gift takers now expect/demand that you continue and even increase what they’re given.
You fall deeper and deeper into debt. In a ploy to increase your revenue you must threaten your associates and well-off neighbors to give you more money or you will tell the “middle class” (also known as “folks”) that it’s all the fault of the “rich” associates and neighbors that folks’ entitlements will dwindle.
You wouldn’t act in this manner with your own family, would you?
DOUG PLUNKETT
LAS VEGAS
