Uneven reporting
I really tried to avoid writing this letter, but I feel compelled to do so in light of recent news from the Middle East.
Do we really need to kneel down to Islamic hard-liners? We believe in freedom of the press. We do not invoke journalistic standards or morality differently between nationalities and religions. Except, of course, as it concerns Islam. We are not imposing journalistic segregation, nor should we.
Regarding the fatalities in Benghazi, why is it that only Chris Stevens was mentioned in the news? With all due respect to his memory and condolences to his family, there were three other fatalities. I have heard the name Sean Smith mentioned once or twice. The other two names of victims I haven’t heard. I realize that his profile is more pronounced than the others, but this is really exaggerated. This uneven report on the fatalities is simply not fair. It gives value to the worth of human bodies and memories.
One more thing: President Barack Obama declared that “all” those responsible for the seizure of the consulate in Benghazi will be brought to justice. I realize that Obama has many more resources at his disposal, but give me a break. It was a bombastic statement that cannot be fulfilled. At least, not in this life.
Douglas Kazdoy
Bangor
Keep tax relief
As a small-business owner, I know that when considering a change in business tax rates, it’s important to keep in mind the difference between revenue and profit. Revenue is all the money you bring in, profit is what’s left after expenses such as cost of goods and wages. Taxes are based on profit, not revenue.
So when you hear a proposal to increase taxes on businesses with income more than $250,000, we’re talking about a quarter of a million in profit. So don’t think it will affect the corner convenience store, local bookkeeper or almost any other small-business owner you know. Only 3 percent of unincorporated businesses in the country make that much profit.
For the other 97 percent of us, the effect of slightly higher taxes on the most profitable businesses is all positive, since the increased public revenue can be used to pay down debt and bolster programs that support our customers, the middle class. With federal finances in better shape and programs such as Medicare and college tuition assistance strengthened, working families are more likely to spend on local businesses such as mine.
A few months ago, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins got it half right when she went against her party and voted to end tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.
Unfortunately, she also voted to end tax cuts for the middle-class families and small businesses making less than that. She and Sen. Olympia Snowe will face this issue again soon. They should vote to keep middle-income tax relief, while restoring fairer rates for the better-off.
Mike Shunney
Rockland
Eye-opener
Our family has had the privilege these past four years of observing state government through the experiences of our son, Andy O’Brien, as he served as Democratic representative from District 44. It has been truly eye-opening, especially the trend toward ever-more-partisan politics, even in Maine.
Now Lloyd Chase, D-Liberty, a new face in the political arena, is running for this seat. Chase is a Maine native and understands what it’s like for working Maine families. His ability to compromise when necessary and to work toward solutions with people who have diverse opinions, backgrounds and beliefs is needed more than ever in Augusta.
Chase has seen so much change in Maine during the time he has lived and raised his children here. Family businesses have closed, school budgets have been reduced and small towns struggle to maintain services with reduced resources. Chase wants to put partisanship aside and work across the aisle to build our local economies, energize our communities and invest in education.
We urge voters to consider Chase for the House of Representatives. Be on the lookout for him as he visits the towns of District 44 — Appleton, Hope, Islesboro, Liberty, Lincolnville, Morrill and Searsmont — over the next several months. He’ll do a good job for us.
Diane O’Brien
Lincolnville
Fortunate care
On Thursday I broke my ankle biking in Acadia National Park. I want to thank the ranger who quickly and competently helped me, the ambulance drivers and the friendly and helpful people in the emergency room at Mount Desert Island Hospital.
While I lay in the ER, I thought how fortunate I was to have this great medical care and the insurance to pay for it, and I thought it would great if all Americans had access to the same care without the fear of being ruined financially.
I have a nephew who lost his job and then his insurance and could not get new insurance because he was seriously ill. Is that the America we want to go back to? I don’t understand patriotism that loves the country but doesn’t care about fellow Americans.
Some ask us to pity the people who made enormous fortunes through bank shenanigans and outsourcing our jobs. If we tax them lightly we are told, it will trickle down. Well, it’s trickling down, but it isn’t jobs.
Remember, they sell you indifference and hatred of others, but when you get home and see what you bought, it’s reduced benefits and job insecurity. God bless America and all its people.
Ronald Shelden
Bass Harbor
Frey in November
Even though I am a registered Republican, I was shocked that Rep. Jim Parker of Veazie sided with extremist Republicans in his party by supporting LD 1746. This bill cut crucial funding for home visitation programs that are extremely effective in preventing domestic violence.
Because of this vote, more women and children do not feel safe in their own homes right now. Parker needs to go.
Fortunately, there is a great candidate running to represent Bangor, Orono and Veazie. His name is Aaron Frey. Frey, a Democrat, grew up in Bangor and has experienced some of the same challenges that many of our neighbors face every day. His time in Bangor has taught him that public safety needs to be a top priority. Instead of making the streets more dangerous by senselessly cutting public safety funding, I know he will fight to protect funding for important anti-domestic violence programs. It is my sincere hope that Frey is elected this November.
Kenny Pinkham
Bangor
Diane O’BrienWith all due respect, until Andy was elected his biggest accomplishment to date had been backpacking across Asia and mastering the tambourine. He brought little to the job and less to his constituents. Mr Chase is another ex-union guy who would bring back the mentality that created and maintained wide swaths of poverty in Maine.
What a myopic view of government you have. If you got the right lenses, you would be able to see the whole picture. If you think unions ruined Maine, you are mistaken. I’m glad that unions tamed big business. If it wasn’t for unions, you and your little kids would be working six twelve hour days / week for subsistence pay and when you or one of your children got hurt on the job, that indidual would be tossed out and another warm body would take their place, all at slave wages. Sweat shops were the norm. I can remember my parents working in them when they were younger. Unions have made this country great.
…now kids aren’t working. Adults aren’t working. Hell… no one is working in Maine except state, municipal and school employees… all unionized government employees with great benefits and retirement. Yeah!!! The ultimate irony is that government employees in Maine will soon be the only class of working people earning enough to pay state income taxes to pay for their retirement and benefits and to pay for the $2.7 billion deficit in their own Maine State Retirement system. McKernan, King, and Baldacci all ignored this deficit. Who knew about it till LePage (as much as he’s disliked) put the deficit on the books…? LePage is acknowledging that every resident in Maine owes the state retirement system about $2 grand.
Quit crying and join a union if that’s where the jobs are.
I’m not crying. Maine is in an economic death spiral. We’re getting older and poorer virtually every day. It doesn’t matter who wins in November. I think Maine’s fate is pretty much sealed. Demise.
Right, so lets elect Republicans who will destroy affordable health care for everyone and medicare .for our seniors. And let’s keep taxes for the wealthy at the lowest rate in 50 years. Way to go !!!
You haven’t been paying attention. “Affordable” health care is becoming more unaffordable. If it wasn’t for government subsidizing expensive health care in Medicare (in particular), health care WOULD be affordable for everyone.
You do not know what you are talking about.
It’s axiomatic that anything subsidized by the government is more expensive for those who don’t receive the subsidy.
Again, you do not know what you are talking about .
You must be getting this jargon from your tea party pals.
If R &R should by some miracle get in to power we will all be working 12 hours or more again with our 6 year olds standing by our sides and then set adrift on an ice flow, if there is any ice left, like the old eskimos..
…. that’s ridiculous and you know it.
plus backrooms and coat hangers for women who want to terminate pregnancies. These people are dangerous and very very retro and YOU know it
Ronald Shelden
Tax the rich and give to the poor….nothing new here same old liberal nonsense. Why is there nothing offered as a solution besides redistribution. Cut spending!
Isn’t it terrible Obama is taking money from people and spending it on military, roads, bridges, education, the poor, the sick, the rich through taxes, veterans, research for cures, pell grants and many other things.The gall of that SOB. Keep America going FOWARD.OBAMA-BIDEN 2012
I agree with the cut spending advice. The cuts should start and be significant within the pentagon and homeland security. That is where the largest waste is located.
Well, it really is about what were supposed to be temporary tax cuts. I am willing to have mine ended along with the wealthiest if it will help this country. Isn’t that what this is supposed to be about? Taking care of OUR country.
Mr. Shelden and Mr. Shunney, these are both perceptive letters. Republicans under Bush II cut taxes too drastically and now refuse to stop the bleeding. Rather than applying a tourniquet, they want to open the wound even further and cut taxes even more.
When they sold us this tax cut nonsense, they made clear it was for a defined period. Now that the period they chose has ended, they are crying foul.
Under the Clinton tax rates we enjoyed record job growth. Under the lower Bush rates we had record job stagnation followed by record job losses. This would be no way to run a business and is certainly no way to run an economy.
Our President prefers to be sure of his facts before he makes a statement, as opposed to reversible Mittens, mouth in gear and brain in neutral. I am assuming he has one, a brain that is.
I guess he doesn’t act stupidly atleast in all 57 states.
He represents all 100% of the people in the USA not only 53% which are the richest. I’ll vote for Obama who will represent me, I just don’t have enough money to get reversible Mittens to watch out for me. Of course with Mittens I am sure he’ll change at least a couple of times before election day.
Obama doesn’t represent me, my sentiments or my understanding of basic economics and fiscal sanity. He’s just plain stupid, in my opinion.
Opinions are like a holes everybody has one, some are bigger others not so much, take your choice as to which category you fall.
I chose the empty hole category.
can’t you come up with something better than a slip of the tongue. Maybe you should try the teleprompter-in-chief one. Maybe you should come up with a good reason to back Romney. This other stuff is old! and not worth a pezz hole in the snow!
The stuff I reponded to is just as old. Can’t you come up with a better excuse than a slip of the tongue? Did I say I was for Ronmey. Just weighing in on the sea of apoligists for each side.
Do you really think Barack Obama thinks there are 57 states?
I think he has such a poor background about American history, that, yes, he really doesn’t have even “walking around” knowledge of the U.S. When he was on Letterman, he said he didn’t know what that the national debt was.. not even in approximate numbers… ($16 trillion). It shows that he IS an ignoramus… even if he feels the debt isn’t important.. how can HE, the President of the United States, not know this. It’s like…”common knowledge”.
I don’t think you know, as much about it as you think you do.
You should have ended your reply to me after the third word, “think”.
every time you type, you make yourself look more foolish.
I don’t care whether you think, I think. I know you have little value for anyone but yourself. I also know you are paid to type the things you do, which in my mind gives your words no value at all.
I must have some value to those who pay me.
You may have value to those who pay you. If the words you type don’t belong to your heart they have no value.
Your piety is ridiculous. No one pays me. The insults didn’t begin with me. I can and will return insults. I can’t understand how anyone could support the failed presidency of Obama, save for the fact that his main opponent is a Mormon or, worse yet (in his or her mind, a REPUBLICAN). I can understand that some here would never support a Republican for any office. Any excuse will do to vote against a Republican. I feel the same way about the Democrats. Never, ever will I vote for a Democrat. It’s simple. And I’ll always be as critical of any Democrat as Democrats are mercilessly critical of any Republican.
Petty, mean and worthless response….
you are becoming pathetic….
pot. kettle. black.
I agree completely with you. I have noticed how you manage to politely refute other posters with whom you disagree. We can all take a lesson from your civility.
Petty, mean and worthless response…. really wonder what it is that you are being paid to do.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBP4J98Ii3c
I think he thinks (or he used to think) there are 58 or 59. He’d been to 57 of them with one left to go… Alaska.
If you ever listened to the speech you would hear then Senator Obama begin to talk about having visited fifty states, then pause after the work “fifty,” realizing he had not been to all of the states, and then leaving out the word “forty” as part of his correction. You see, he is not a robot, like Romney, and actually thinks carefully, even in mid-sentence. In fact, at the time of that speech he had been to forty-seven states.
Funny. Very funny. He was deliberate in saying 57 states and when the audience started LAUGHING at him, he then became nervous and added….”I have one left to go, Alaska…. Alaska and Hawaii, my staff would not justify it.” something like that. Here, you can listen for yourself ….25 seconds to see our brilliant President:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws Had Sarah Palin said this… oh my.
Watching the video proves my point. The long pause between “fifty” and “seven” makes it clear to all but the Obama-haters that he was correcting himself and left out the word “forty.” He immediately indicates that he is missing three states out of the union.
Consider how he mastered McCain in the debates (and will master Romney). These are totally unscripted, sans teleprompter, and are a measure of the man’s sharp mind and ability to think on his feet.
Of course, how could I be so stupid. Geez. I never divined that he was saying “40” in that long pause of deliberative silence between “50” and “7”.
Our president did make a statement. It just happened to be a lie.
It’s crazy. Even TWO days after one of Obama’s national security men told Senator Lieberman that it was definitely an organized attack by terrorists (al Qada), Obama was still saying it was a spontaneous attack in Benghazi related to the mythical film.
I am assuming that he doesn’t have a brain. When I look into his blank eyes on TV there is nothing there. Nada!
Makes sense to me.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/0922/Benghazi-attack-Why-the-White-House-changed-its-story/%28page%29/2
Mike Shunney, Ronald Sheldon: good letters.
Regardless of crude zealous Israeli support or disregard for Islamic Arabs, what happened in Egypt is disgraceful. There’s no reason for it. If radical Islamics want to blaim all of America for what someone puts on youtube, this’ll just go on and on. The attackers are delusional, the attacks juvenile, and so irrational. Beyond reasonable comprehension to attack and murder American embassy employees. Frankly, American society and peoples have generally been great to Egypt. If these Islamics want to generalize, how about this: Americans adore Egypt. From childhood we romaticize the country, from the pyraminds to the Suez canel, many grow up wanting to visit the region. The history of Persian culture is usually glorified in educational American realms. Perhaps they just assume do blaim “ugly Amerians”but here the ugly is all Islam.
Douglas Kazdoy:
Bill Clinton initiated a FBI/CIA manhunt for those responsible for the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Most of those responsible are now serving life-without-parole in US prisons or were killed in drone strikes in Pakistan (many during the Obama administration).
Osama Bin Laden – the ringleader of those – and the 9/11 attacks – was killed by US Special Forces in Pakistan during an operation ordered by President Barack Hussein Obama.
President Barack Hussein Obama ordered a FBI team to Libya to pursue those responsible for the Benghazi attacks.
Pity the Fools.
Yessah