Letters
Letters to the editor, Feb. 24
TBO.com
Published: February 24, 2012
A distorted viewPublished: February 24, 2012
I find it hard to believe that you have no better source for columns than Doug Patton. He writing barely skims the lunatic fringe.
His recent rant on how President Obama is trampling the rights of religions is so wildly inaccurate and distorted I have to wonder about the man's ability to understand what the reality of the situation really is.
Catholics did not like the insurance issue and a compromise was passed. I guess Mr. Patton, in his usual delusional manner, is trying to create something that just isn't there.
I think you should call him "Mayhem" instead of Doug. Please find a better replacement for your paper.
It reflects badly on your own integrity when you let people like Mr. Patton get printed.
Teresa Karas
Weeki Wachee
Time for change
Barack Obama is a threat to our national security and should be impeached. Obama's budget is crippling our military and the safety of the United States. Obama wants to reduce our nuclear arms by 80 percent while Russia will have 10 times more nuclear weapons than the United States.
Obama wants to reduce our ability to intercept hostile aircraft by closing some of our air sovereignty alert sites. After 9/11 we had 26 sites and now have only 16 with further reductions coming from Obama. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) stated the probability of the success of an attack against the United States increased as the number of sites decreased.
Obama wants to reduce our military forces by 100,000 which will throw these dedicated patriots into the unemployment lines.
With Iran's nuclear capability increasing and Israel's determination to disarm Iran by bombing its nuclear sites, we may be facing World War III. Do you really want Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief making the decision to protect our country against a nuclear war?
Congress must act and start impeachment proceedings immediately against this incapable president.
Betty Dobson
Brooksville
Article off the mark
I am writing in regards to the article titled "Springstead coach at odds with parent," about the color guard coach.
As a Springstead alumna, a certified teacher, and a professional freelance journalist, I have to say I find this article in poor taste and, quite honestly, an embarrassment to all involved.
This is a simple matter of a child who does not like a teacher. Nothing illegal or unethical happened here, and it does not serve the community to know about one parent's opinion.
All it does is tarnish the school's reputation, as well as Mr. Richard Dasher's. Mr. Dasher has been an invaluable member of the school and community for years and he does not deserve this kind of bad press.
Where are all the stories about how he puts in 15 hours a day to help his students achieve regular superior ratings? This story is an embarrassment to Hernando Today and its readers.
Amanda Lewis
Land O'Lakes
Living in a fairytale
If fairy tales usually begin with "once upon a time," where are the gnomes, fairies and elves?
Congress struck a deal last night to extend the payroll tax cuts and long-term unemployment benefits through 2012. But there's one element missing – the truth.
The payroll tax cuts are being robbed from personal Social Security accounts to cover up the tax increase imposed on payroll in 2010 by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. It was a smooth, slick transition to deceive people into believing Democrats actually believe in tax reduction.
The current "payroll tax cuts" is a buzz phrase to make people think the federal government is lowering their tax rate. Nothing could be farther than the truth. These "cuts" are targeted at an individual's Social Security account. The federal government hasn't cut anything except the benefits going into individual Social Security accounts.
Federal withholding taxes actually increased under the Pelosi-Reid agreement but no one blinked an eye. Withholding rate increases weren't imposed until months later when no one was paying attention.
With the economy in the ditch, no employees are complaining where the current "payroll tax cuts" are coming from because they have to put food on the table, feed their children and pay light bills. The group of people who should be concerned with these generous "congressional cuts" are the ones reaching retirement age. The two percent reduction is coming directly out of their retirement accounts.
Federal-farce number two concerns the long-term unemployment benefits. Congress doles these extensions out like they're giving trick or treat candy at Halloween. Congress endears themselves to the unemployed on the backs of every business in America. Business pays into the state and federal system for unemployment funds. Now business is being put on its knees with another extension that will prolong the malaise – the malaise created by government, prolonged by government and perpetrated by government.
Florida's unemployment fund went broke in July 2009. Florida Department of Revenue just sent out bills to every business in the state to pay the interest on the loans from the federal government to prop up the state's unemployment fund. Congressional members have really given a new meaning the phrase corporate welfare which bankrupted Florida's Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund.
We exist on borrowed money from business to prop-up the generous benefits our illustrious congressional leaders for extended unemployment benefits.
Maybe this is a fairy tale ... a fairy tale of big, bad wolves knocking on your door. When you answer, the voice on the other side says, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."
Anna Liisa Covell
Nobleton
Get informed today
All I've heard for weeks now is that the GOP doesn't want Mitt Romney to represent them. And hey! We all know what straight shooters all politicians are. And if I said they speak with forked tongues that wouldn't come close to describing them.
Before this current edition of what should be described as a well choreographed, Hollywood production began I told my wife that Romney would be the chosen one. Why, because he is the most acceptable to the corporate sector.
Who we all should know is represented by the GOP. His ability and many times eagerness to flip flop on issues and tells them that they won't have any trouble directing his political decisions.
He's liberal enough to be acceptable to a certain segment of American voters. Yet, for the average voter who knows more about the Housewives of Nantucket sound than they do about the candidates or those who arrived at their decision based on a single conversation with a stranger they met on the bus.
Mitt can still come across as a true conservative. One more thing is he looks presidential, and that accounts for more than some may think.
Now, will President Obama win a second term? Do not be surprised, if he does.
Oh, and getting off the subject for a moment, if you're an individual who enjoys hunting I suggest that you hide your hunting rifle, and, or sidearm because one of his first actions during his second term is to regulate the Second Amendment out of existence.
And all he has to do to accomplish this is to appoint one more liberal, socialist Supreme Court Justice. And after he does that, it's all over not only for our right to bear arms, but for America too.
Don't feel too bad that's something that's eventually going to happen no matter which party happens to be in power.
It wouldn't be over, if those who sat on the Supreme Court arrived at their decisions based on, and within the confines of the writings of the Constitution.
But unfortunately, the Supreme Court has been moving closer and closer to being nothing less than an extension of the political party that's in power. And although each takes an oath that requires them to uphold and defend our Constitution like our Presidents, past and present.
Very few of them ever intended to do so. The Constitution has been nothing more than an inconvenience one that a sitting president uses when it suites his political agenda, and tries to step around, when pushing legislation that is totally unconstitutional.
Our current president took a short cut by tossing out the Constitution all together by using his Presidential Powers in a way that resembles the President of Venezuela. So much so, that his actions constitute an extreme abuse of power but this isn't the America of 40 years ago.
We now live in the age of the non-logic, or illogic, the "ME" society, a society that determines the level of respect due an individual not on old outdated things like honesty, and integrity.
Today, how one projects his or her public image. How well he or she is at spinning untruths. That's just a nice way of saying lies.
Oh, and let's not forget one's bank balance. All these, combined with the indifference of, and if it won't affect "ME" American voters determines the level of respect one receives from our modern day society.
Those and a few more are reasons why President Obama could very well win a second term, a term that will more than likely result in the end of America, and our now rapidly disappearing way of life.
One might wonder why our President continues to push us in the same direction as a failed Greece, and Italy, just to name two. He realizes that it will mean the fundamental change he promised, a change that will bring about the total collapse of our nation and our way of life.
But out of the ashes of destruction, like the mythological Phoenix, America will be re-born joining the other third world, socialist, Communist nations that make up the Global economy. Tell me, the corporate sector has done everything else possible to achieve max profits. How else can Corporate America continue its march toward maximum profit and at the same time successfully compete in today's world economy?
How else, without significantly lowering our standard of living, which in effect will also completely change our way of life. In the end, both the Republican and the Democratic parties will achieve their goals. The Democrats will finally control every aspect of our lives. Even to a great degree, our time of death.
Another plus for the Republicans is they will finally be able to end their now greatly reduced struggle, a struggle that has for decades been trying to maintain and if possible increase the financial separation between the middle class and the upper. How? Under socialism, there is no middleclass, only the extremely wealthy and the poor.
David Robinson
Weeki Wachee