Criticism of stance on Iraq funds unmerited
I read with some interest the News editorial of Oct. 22, "Don't burden Iraq with more debt," in which I was criticized for supporting the "foolish" concept that Congress ought to seek a conditional repayment of roughly half of the reconstruction funds that American taxpayers will soon be pouring into Iraq by the truckload.
The News conveniently overlooked the fact that this "foolish" idea was one that originated with the Bush administration, and most of the Republicans in Congress - including those in the Colorado House delegation that the News commended for their foresight in opposing loan proposals.
It seems the News has forgotten that as late as March, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress that, ". . . there's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money . . . we're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction." In May, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte pitched a Bush administration plan to the U.N. calling for - you guessed it - Iraqi oil revenues to finance Iraq's reconstruction. And as late as Oct. 21, the House of Representatives - by a bipartisan majority of 277-139 - voted to make half of the Iraq reconstruction money a loan rather than a grant.
I supported that measure, and if the News had done their research they would see that six of Colorado's seven House members also did.
The stakes for success in Iraq couldn't be higher, and the situation there is no laughing matter. It should not be treated lightly by members of Congress, the Bush administration or the Rocky Mountain News.
I hope the next time the News chooses to weigh in on this matter, it at least takes the time to do some basic fact checking. The readers deserve better.
Rep. Tom Tancredo
R-Colorado
Trade pact imposing poverty on Mexicans
I am writing concerning the News article of Oct. 18, "Bridging borders: Colorado-Mexico business ties have profited from NAFTA." This subtle, biased piece of journalism ignores integral facts in the North American Free Trade Agreement debate.
True, Ross Perot's insistence that U.S. jobs would suck quickly and consistently to the south was an exaggeration. Yet this article, busy disproving the supposed "exaggerations" of original NAFTA critics, fails to address the concerns of those critics who had nothing to lose, the Zapatistas and revolutionaries of southern Mexico.
Chiapas and Oaxaca, along with pockets of other states in Mexico, are watching the subsidized and technologically advanced juggernaut of American agribusiness force their products into Mexico's markets. As a result, Mexico's food imports from the U.S. are at an all-time high, while their exports are only a small portion of U.S. imports; a heavily one-sided trade dependency!
This is forcing many to a different poverty in Mexico City or Monterrey. Yet, more than likely, these displaced persons cross over a highly militarized border to the United States where they are accepted with hostility, and find work for the very agribusiness that drove them from their homes in the first place.
The News' article seemed to insinuate that our regional benefit from such controversial legislation is a win-win proposition. In truth, development in conjunction with our southern neighbor will require much more ingenious thinkers who are willing to go outside the "less government interference" ideology and who actually understand regional development obstacles.
Christopher Benoit
Montrose
Childs case coverage disappoints reader
I find the News' coverage of the Paul Childs case sorely lacking. The paper's reporters are highly sympathetic to the family but none has the guts or perhaps the common sense to ask some questions that need to be asked: Where is the boy's father? Why are the police fixing a screen door at the house? Why were the police always called for non-emergency things? The police were used as social workers or surrogate fathers, which should outrage any taxpaying citizen. That is not their job, that is a father's job.
Only when the black community addresses its 70 percent illegitimacy rate and absence of fathers will this ever change. The police are not the problem, the breakdown of the family is. Our government agencies are not equipped to handle problems that are the responsibility of parents and families.
Also, the News and the black community are the ones making this a racial case. The day of the district attorney's decision not to prosecute Officer Turney, the News' headline screamed about a white cop killing a black boy. If the situation were reversed, would the News report it that way? Why does skin color matter? The media keeps pushing us further and further away from Martin Luther King's dream of a colorblind society.
Until our society can have an open, honest discussion of these issues without always crying "Racist!," this kind of thing will keep happening. Judging by the coverage of this case, I am not optimistic.
Nancy Gassen
Parker
Metro hierarchy blind to lack of diversity
I am a political science major at Metropolitan State College of Denver and was extremely irritated after reading the Oct. 10 article, "Metro president says no to inquiry," regarding the Academic Bill of Rights. Faculty Senate President Joan Foster and MSCD Interim President Ray Kieft must be blind if they doesn't realize that there is little, if any, diversity in the form of conservative speakers and professors on the Metro campus.
To say that it is an issue about partisanship is right on the nose - liberals run the campus and that of the vast majority of other public Colorado colleges. (Anyone been to Boulder or Fort Collins lately?)
What gets me is that the bleeding hearts are whining that the Academic Bill of Rights is a cry for "affirmative action" by conservatives. I guess liberals think they have the monopoly on that.
Kieft says he is concerned about officials or organizations "pushing a particular political [or] ideological . . . agenda onto the college or into its classrooms." Perhaps he should take a walk around campus, visit some classrooms and see the political and ideological "diversity" on his campus.
Mandy Randall
Littleton
An 'A' for Owens is an 'F' for state's schools
So George Will calls Colorado "an economically vibrant" state ("Owens' mile-high profile attracting GOP's attention," Oct. 19). He credits this to the governor who "used his line-item veto to cut 50 times more spending in his first five years than his immediate predecessors cut in 24 years." He touts all Owens' tax cuts.
And what have we got for this? Colorado is the only Rocky Mountain state still in recession. We rank dead last among all states in job growth and wealth creation. Last in childhood vaccination. Near the bottom in spending per student in schools that have been forced to cut classes and teachers to stay solvent (the latest casualty being the Limon School).
Owens and Gov. Jeb Bush both received an "A" rating from the Cato Institute. The Cato Institute "A" equals failure when it comes to schools. Florida is going to make the 12th grade optional for students, an educated work force being unnecessary for the kinds of jobs the right wing intends to offer Americans of a lower socioeconomic class.
James Bowen
Boyero
Allard out of touch
After the recent recall vote in California, how can any Republican resurrect the Clinton scandal with a straight face? Yet Sen. Wayne Allard is stretching for a connection between it and the one under investigation at the Air Force Academy ("Allard seeks new hearing in AFA cases/He wonders if Pentagon ignored claims because of Clinton's own scandal," Oct. 9).
Get with the program, Senator. Serial groping, as News columnist Mike Littwin describes it, is now politically correct. Just as Republicans feel free to change the way we elect our presidents, redistrict our states, and switch our governors, they should certainly feel free to change their moral values.
Time for a rewrite of the Ten Commandments. They got those etched-in-granite copies out of the courthouse just in time.
Adeline McConnell
Fort Collins
Why vote for 'A' when reservoirs not full?
Gov. Bill Owens keeps plugging his Referendum A for water with the claim we have plenty of water but not enough storage. I know at least three reservoirs here in Western Colorado that are not filled anywhere near capacity. Crawford Reservoir is almost empty, as is Paonia Reservoir. Blue Mesa is the biggest in the state and is nowhere near full. Last time I saw Ridgway Reservoir it was also nowhere near full.
Rio Grande Reservoir (East Slope) was virtually empty last time I saw it. I must admit I haven't seen Rio Grande Reservoir for a few years now but I have seen the others this summer. The only reservoir I have seen this year that was full is Dillon. Oh, yeah, that's Denver's water - it would be full.
I don't believe we should be trying to build new reservoirs when we apparently can't fill the ones we have.
Please vote no on Referendum A.
Wayne Flick
Grand Junction
Changed view
After reading the News' Oct. 10 account, "Drama in courtroom," my view of Kobe Bryant has changed from "probably guilty" to" probably not guilty." If the News' report is correct, I find something wrong with the behavior of a woman agreeing to discuss her back or ankle tattoos with a stranger, agreeing to be kissed and hugged, not immediately reporting the crime to the authorities, etc.
There appears be a great degree of consensual sex in this encounter. Under the circumstances, Bryant's attorney, Pamela Mackey, has no choice but to question the veracity and credibility of the alleged victim, police, the prosecutor and even the judge.
George H. Wayne
Golden
Unconvinced on 33
An electronic lottery game? The proponents of Amendment 33 must think we are all stupid.
Have you ever seen an "electronic lottery game"? Of course not. The VLT (video lottery terminal) is a slot machine, pure and simple.
There are too many unanswered questions: Who will purchase the machines? What are the hours of operation? What is the minimum age of players? What is the betting limit?Doesn't this generate a conflict between Lottery Commission slot machines and Gaming Commission slot machines?
They haven't convinced me that 33 is the best way. I'm voting "no."
John Roberts
Thornton
Reward firefighters
I read recently where Mayor John Hickenlooper's administration found $14.5 million and is saving some city programs ("A welcome reprieve," Oct. 15). First, I am very concerned that $14.5 million dollars can appear out of nowhere. I certainly do not have the luxury of making those kinds of mistakes in my checkbook.
Second, why are the police programs being saved? What happened to the real heroes . . . the firefighters? Didn't they just make a sacrifice to help protect us in these crazy times? They are the ones who should be rewarded.
Stacey Black
Denver
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