One choice clearly best
Re Antone Blansett's letter per the criteria he listed for determining the proper presidential candidate: There is a candidate who advocates small and limited government who is not a social experimenter.
There is a candidate who is the most ardent defender and supporter of American veterans. There is a candidate who is a leading advocate for reducing taxes, and putting an end to runaway government spending and pork-barrel projects, who does not line his own pockets or those of his friends at the expense of the American people. There is a candidate who does not oppose grass-roots reform. There is a candidate who is in the presidential race because he believes that America and its citizens are worth the fighting for. There is a candidate who is by no means a yellow dog. And yes, my friends, he has done his own research and combined that with his own life experiences in forming his personal and political beliefs and values. His name is John S. McCain III, and he has my vote and full support.
DANIEL McFADDEN / Little Rock
Drill for oil in America
I think it's high time that we the people do something about oil and gas.
I am tired of companies taking our oil, refining it and selling it back to us at a huge profit. Other countries that produce their own oil and refine it have gas prices below $ 1 a gallon. Those that import have to pay the middle man.
I say it's time that we got into the oil business. Think about it. We the people are in other businesses such as farm subsidies, insurance for money and floods, air traffic control, issuing debt and, of course, making sure everyone pays his taxes. If we can keep printing money for wars and pork projects, then we should compete with the oil industry.
We should drill our land for our oil, refine it and sell it back to ourselves at a fair price. Why should the oil companies make $ 40 billion a quarter from our products ? Government employees could drill for oil and send it to our refineries and then to our stations. No gas would leave the United States until we had an abundant supply. Then and only then we would sell to other countries, making a huge profit. We have the oil. Do it in the name of national defense; that seems to work well. We need to do something or the oil industry will milk every dime out of us. Elect people to office who have a solution to this problem that is choking us to death.
MIKE DAVIS / Maumelle
Thanks for the clover
Seeing the beautiful crimson clover along the interstates in Pulaski County almost makes one forget the high price of gasoline. Thanks to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department.
JOYCE IRWIN / Little Rock
Promote free enterprise
"Good morning, fellow socialist."I never thought I'd hear that. I remember when Fidel Castro nationalized the Cuban sugarcane fields. I thought," I'm glad I'm an American. That can never happen here."I'm going to ask you to do some homework that we were asked to do at school after World War II. Let's call it American Government 101. You remember how to do it. Pull out your Webster's dictionary, three sheets of paper and a pen. (A No. 2 pencil will do. ) At the top of each page write a word: On No. 1, fascism; on No. 2, socialism; on No. 3, communism. Look up each word and define it in three or four sentences. When you are through, pull out your Webster's dictionary again and look up "free enterprise."At the bottom of each page write how each of these economic systems compares to free enterprise. The American dream is not about being rich. It is about having the right to work hard and getting for your family a better standard of living. Benito Mussolini in Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany and Josef Stalin in Russia forgot to give the common man, the small business man or woman, a right to improve himself and his standard of living. The presidential race should not be about personalities. It's not black or white. It's not male or female. It should be about a free-enterprise economic system. We believe in America. I'm not sure our professional politicians remember why.
JOE M. "JODY"CRAWFORD / Little Rock
Re-examine U. S. policy
An inconvenient truth for the politicians of fear is that there is no global warming. Since 1997, the Global Mean Surface Temperature has decreased, confirmed by NASA's AQUA satellites, launched in 2002, and acknowledged by the United Nations's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a plateau for the last decade. This plateau is lower than the medieval warming level in the year 1000.
Ocean temperatures have been decreasing as well. Josh Willis of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has cited data from their ARGO deep-diving buoy system deployed in 2003 showing a slight decrease. The cooler-than-normal equatorial and eastern Pacific has spawned La Niņa, causing shifting and severe weather patterns. The cool Atlantic has diminished tropical hurricanes. Satellite data starting in 1997 show that Antarctica has been cooling and increasing in size, accounting for more than 92 percent of the Earth's ice and removal of tera tons of water per year from the oceans.
All this cooling, and still the CO 2 level increases. True science, not political rhetoric, shows that human activity produces less than. 01 percent of the atmospheric CO 2. I've heard that if total CO 2 was equated to a 10-story building, human-generated CO 2 would equal the height of linoleum on the first floor. We need to look at reality before we ruin our economy with wrongheaded policies such as wasting 50 percent of our energy to needlessly bury CO 2 or to pollute the atmosphere and increase world hunger with manic pursuit of ethanol.
BOB BECKER / Bella Vista
U. S. reaps what it sows
History repeats. This nation has lost its way. Built on rugged individualism allowing one the freedom to stand or fall on one's own endeavors, it has morphed into dependents on government failing to take responsibility, whether in child care, education, medical care, shelter or food to supply self and family. The industrious have been replaced by the lazy. Result ? A nation of wimps unable to think for themselves, much less take total responsibility for self. The elitists love wimps. Wimps are so easily led and controlled, eager to surrender their responsibilities for the promise of security and unearned rewards. Wimps love government programs, the lifeblood of politicrats. Elitists especially love to misrepresent our U. S. Constitution by titling it a living document, which changes with the times, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is fond of describing it. Principles don't change. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Forced redistribution of citizens' earnings and properties is just as heinous today as it was in 1776. But since the wimps have been brainwashed with politically correct hogwash, they don't know that. Besides, they just love the free stuff, especially illegal aliens, who would never get that stuff in their home countries. Wimps and their leaders suffer from Extreme Delusional Disorder. The slavelabor corporations and politicrats smile all the way to the bank while taxpayers subsidize their criminal endeavors. The only positive aspect is that the perpetrators won't escape the crash they are perpetrating. Actions have consequences.
BARBARA McCUTCHEN / Fort Smith
Another new nickname
Re letter writer James Cook's new abbreviation for the Dems, Dims: I have a completely new name for his party. Let us now refer to this party as the Republimbecile Party. It makes perfect sense to me. The current president is highly representative of this new moniker, as is the new candidate. One can determine his own abbreviation, I, of course, have my own. To those who agree, have a great day. To those who disagree, who cares ?
GARY W. GRABAU / Hot Springs Village
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