The Republican Solution
Go ahead! Vote Republicans back in office. They will thank you for it. How? By cutting taxes for the rich; isn’t that always their answer to every problem? That’ll help you, right?
By deregulating banks and the financial industry. That’ll help you, right? Instead of focusing on the actual problems we face, we can investigate every non-Republican and scapegoat every nonwhite and non-Christian in the world. That’ll help you, right?
By dismantling and gutting OSHA [the Occupational Health and Safety Administration], the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and all the regulatory agencies set up to protect our health. That will help you, right?
By privatizing Social Security, phasing out Medicare, privatizing public schools and anything that can be privatized so that large corporations that donate to their coffers can make even larger profits. That will help you, right?
Wait, I hear you saying, aren’t these the same policies that Bush and friends pushed that got us into this whole mess? Well, yeah, but it did work fine for them. Or maybe you haven’t noticed: the rich are just getting richer.
Ever notice how Republicans always support what benefits the rich? On principle, of course. Ever notice how they oppose anything and everything that benefits working or underprivileged Americans? On principle, of course. What principle, you ask? Feed the rich; starve the poor till there are poor no more. It’s just their way of eliminating poverty. Dying of lung cancer? Smoke more cigarettes. Not making enough money? Quit your job. Afraid of snakes? Jump in a snake pit. Frustrated with our politicians? Go ahead! Vote Republican.
Keip Inon
Greenfield
Ground Zero Mosque
The media is full of people giving their opinions about the “Ground Zero Mosque.” Here is my point of view. To be fair and balanced, first take the pro-mosque side. If we let them build their mosque at Ground Zero, it makes it less likely that the terrorists will try to blow it up for a third time since there’s a mosque sitting right there. It’s not the collateral damage mosque, after all.
Sure, they may have the right to worship any place they want, but they don’t have the right to offend any one. After all, that’s the essence of political correctness. Their rights aren’t as important as our feelings. So no action should be allowed if any one is offended—with the exception of Koran burning, which is offensive to Muslims, but who cares about how they feel?
Remember, Muslims, Christians and Jews were all killed on 9/11. So if they build a mosque, the Christians will be offended. And if they build a church, the Muslims will be offended. And if they build a synagogue, then everyone will be offended. We don’t want that.
People have different opinions depending on their political and religious point of view. They may have the right to build there, but just because you have the right doesn’t make it right. The Left says they have the right, but the Right says they should have left well enough alone.
Personally, I don’t think much of the name “Ground Zero Mosque.” I think what they should do to get a better name is follow the custom of the city, which is name it after a bank, like Citi Field, where the Mets play (also known as Bailout Park). This way they can get tons of extra money by changing the name to something less controversial like The Goldman-Sachs Mosque. But even this might offend someone because, when you think about it, the bankers did more damage to America than the terrorists ever could.
Andy Morris-Friedman
Hadley
Nuclear Blitz
There is a media blitz occurring in Vermont. Members of the Vermont Energy Partnership and other front groups created by Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee have placed letters and editorials in papers all over the state, using such words as “inexpensive low-cost power,” “clean,” “CO2 emissions-free,” “plenty of low-cost power,” and “more than a thousand jobs.”
On the inexpensive power issue, Entergy has yet to offer the state any deal on power after March 21, 2012. The proposed deal offered to the state in late 2009 was not low-cost; it was market rate, with some rate increases after that. No matter how one sees it, nuclear is more costly than the Hydro Quebec power now lined up for the state.
On jobs, only the Entergy-funded study found that the loss of jobs related to Vermont Yankee is in the thousands. The reactor runs with about 430 to 550 jobs.
On “clean,” atomic power is not clean if looked at from cradle to grave. Storing highly radioactive waste on the banks of the river is by no means “clean.” And while the reactor in Vernon does not release CO2 into the atmosphere, it does release radiation, as all working reactors do.
Gary Sachs
Brattleboro
More Debate About Sick Leave Mandates
Instead of addressing the substantive arguments against a government sick leave mandate, Professor Mark Clinton (“No Free Space for Corporate Shills,” Letters, September 9, 2010) spends 580 words calling names and rehashing my original letter in scare quotes. His ad hominem attack does little to advance his argument.
Furthermore, his criticism of my organization is without merit. The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) has published nearly a hundred economic studies authored by the country’s top labor economists, some of which have gone on to publication in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. The credibility of these scholars and their work is unquestioned in professional circles, which is why Professor Clinton relies on SourceWatch.com—a website with no credibility, whose founders are described as being on “the far side of liberal”—to try and discredit EPI’s reputation.
I’d also note that academic skepticism about government sick leave mandates knows no partisan boundaries. It’s well established in economic literature that employees absorb the cost of a mandated benefit through lower wages or reduced work hours. Even Dr. Lawrence Summers, currently head of President Obama’s National Economic Council, once said that the extra cost of a mandated benefit could reduce employment for less experienced employees whose wages can’t adjust downward.
Michael Saltsman
Employment Policies Institute
Washington, D.C.
