Letters to the editor

[eridani]

Did you or a friend write one that got in? Is an organization you belong to pushing for people to write letters to the editor? Please post here.

[eridani]

1. LTE on health care

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/story/368920.html

Re: “Health benefits are a tough pill for business to swallow” (TNT, 5-13).
This article gave a good idea about the rising costs of health care for businesses. However, it fell short in discussing solutions by making it look like there are only two: “government run or continue to rely heavily on employer-based private insurance.”

Other alternatives include national health insurance, regulation of the insurance companies, allowing competition between a public and private insurances or having a two-tiered system. None of these is “socialized medicine” but the government does play a bigger role in protecting its citizens against the greed of private for-profit insurance companies.

National health insurance, for instance, would put our tax money that is now going for Medicare and Medicaid into the same pool where we pay premiums. Everyone would be covered, and private health providers would all bill the same pool for covered benefits. Citizens and health provider experts would decide what is covered and what isn’t based on fairness and available funds.

Right now, these decisions are made by individual insurance companies whose bottom line is how much money they can make.

[eridani]

2. We need to write letters about Dem races as often as possible and submit them all over

To the Seattle Times--

At a McCain rally a woman held up a poster that said "War is over" but her sign was quickly ripped down by people in the audience. She then held up her hands in the "V" symbol for peace and yelled, "We want peace!" She was quickly escorted from the premises.

At many McCain/Palin rallies, supporters have been shouting '"kill him," 'terrorist,""off with his head'"and other equally incendiary terms about Barack Obama, and both claim they have no control over what members of their crowds do. If their security can remove someone for shouting "We want peace," why can't they remove people for explicit murder threats?

Clearly, both McCain and Palin are disqualified for holding the offices they seek because they are utterly incompetent as leaders. If they can't manage their campaign events, they can't manage their country Or perhaps this is what today's Republicans think of as real leadership. If so, it's too bad that Governor Dan Evans had to live to see it.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/11/antiwar_protestor_disrupts_mcc.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003873876

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/articles/2008/10/14/news/doc48f4ba8994588930223377.txt

[eridani]

3. To the Seattle Times on "real America"

October 23, 2008
Editor:

So, Ms. Palin thinks that "the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America . . . pro-America areas of this great nation."

That obviously doesn't include the firefighters and other first responders who fought the fires and dug through the debris at the World Trade Center seven years ago.

I always wondered why the Bush administration cut health care funding for 9/11 related illnesses to give more tax credits to oil companies, and cut Homeland Security funding for NYC and Washington and other large cities and gave it to small towns to fight "terrorist threats" against their county fairgrounds.

Now we know. They live in an anti-American part of America.

http://www.pbnv.com/a/26-billion-in-tax-credit-for-oil-125-million-taken-away-from-september-11th-health-care-funding/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/nyregion/13symptoms.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/31/homeland.grants/index.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/31/AR2006053101364_2.html
http://www.dailyherald.com/special/homelandsecurity/storyday1.asp

[freshwest]

17. Awesome.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Mine on I-985

INITIATIVE 985

Trumps the rights of local communities

Monday's letter writer uses straw man arguments to defend I-985 ("Open HOV lanes just one good idea"). The initiative incorrectly defines peak hours as being from 6-9 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Anyone who spends much time on the road knows peak traffic lasts much longer. The initiative does not allow for flexibility.

Likewise, the writer states the initiative would prevent tolls being collected for anything other than the project they're funding. That is already the status quo. That was the reason the toll booths came down on the Highway 520 floating bridge in 1979. The project was paid off.

There has been some discussion of financing a new 520 bridge by charging tolls on I-90 as well, but this is extremely problematic. As part of the interstate highway system, such would require federal approval.

I-985 does other stupid things like making it financially impossible for communities to use red light cameras to catch violators since all fines would have to go to the state. Sounds like big government trumping the rights of local communities? Is Tim Eyman angry about a ticket he received? Running red lights is a dangerous thing to do.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081101/OPINION02/711019962#Trumps.the.rights.of.local.communities

[eridani]

6. You're doing better than I am on publication so far

Still, I encourage everyone to keep writing. They count pro and con letter numbers when making publication decisions.

[eridani]

5. To McDermott on impeachment

Dear Rep. McDermott,

Yesterday was the results of an amazing effort put forward by the people of the United States. We stood up and said in clear tones, "Enough". For those of us who have been working to elect Democrats and to hold everyone accountable to what we see as true American ideals and values, it was vindication of the work that we have done for years, even decades. On January 20th, Barack Obama will become the President of the United States, and we will be on our way to a much more positive future.

However, I want to remind everyone of an important event that took place on September 8, 1974. On that date, President Gerald Ford issued Proclamation 4311, giving a complete pardon for any and all crimes that MIGHT have been committed by President Richard Nixon. I believe that we have seen the results of that event carry through all the way through our recent history, giving every President since that time the understanding that history starts anew after every election. The idea that actions taken by someone in office are not subject to investigation has become a tradition, from Bush I and Clinton stopping the investigations into the actions of Reagan, and Bush II ending the investigations into Bill Clinton. This is not a partisan issue, it's an American issue.

We do not now know everything that George W. Bush has done or provided the environment in our Federal Government for others to do. Many of it seems wrong to a huge majority of people in the United States. I believe that the current popularity of Congress is due in large measure to the failure of Congress to hold the Executive branch accountable for their actions. And I do not believe that those popularity numbers will budge if that failure continues through the next session. I know that you signed on to the Investigation and Impeachment resolution introduced by Representative Kucinich. I would like to ask you, as my representative, to do everything that you can to push for the start of Impeachment investigations in the US House of Representatives. The Constitution states that pardons may be granted by the President for anything EXCEPT Impeachment. Starting those investigations would prevent Bush from escaping to Texas without any possibility of holding him accountable for any crimes he may have committed from the Oval Office.

Please, don't let anyone, at any level of our government, get away with crimes. We must close the door on this escape route, once and for all. Otherwise in a few years or decades, we will see history repeat itself again, with even worse results.

--
Chad Lupkes

[eridani]

7. Lisa Fitzhugh guest editorial on 3 strikes law

WASHINGTON state projects how many prisons to build using the high-school dropout rate. To be clear, we build jail cells for tomorrow to house children who are failing in school today. And just when we thought we might have a chance at supporting those children destined for prison, Gov. Christine Gregoire has proposed more than half a billion dollars in cuts to K-12 education. Yes indeed, we plan for failure.

Even in Seattle, we are not immune. While Seattle Public Schools announces its plan to close between six and nine schools, saving a meager $3 million to $4 million a year, the city of Seattle announces its plan to build a new jail for misdemeanants for $200 million.

District and city leaders have defensible reasons for making these choices. The district is facing declining enrollments (made worse by the closures) and significant budget shortfalls, and because King County will no longer provide incarceration services to certain types of local offenders, Seattle has to pick up the slack. Everyone's hands seem to be tied.

Our rational minds accept their arguments, and we look for actionable ways to offset the wounds of both decisions.

Yet somewhere out there is an imminent train wreck — that is our presumed "just society" — if we continue along the path of more jails and fewer schools. Rates of incarceration in the United States have quadrupled in the past 30 years. Of all the prisoners in the world, one out of every four is incarcerated in this country. We now operate the largest system of imprisonment anywhere.

And to make clear the massive inequity of this system, an astonishing 52 percent of African-American male high-school dropouts, versus only 13 percent of their white male counterparts, had prison records by their early 30s.

Parallel to this crisis is the failure of our schools to offer excellence, opportunity and a way out of this penal system of lost dreams. Once again, African Americans take the greatest hit, as they are relegated most often to failing schools with the fewest resources.

At this moment in time, we face a dying planet, a spiraling economy, endless wars and a disparity of resources without parallel. And still we continue to tackle the challenges in front of us with the same consciousness of the past, with each problem having its own narrow set of causes and possible solutions. Yet all around us, individuals and organizations are waking up to the need for a more ecological approach. It requires an unyielding commitment to look at whole systems through a big lens.

Too complicated? Then start where things are most directly correlated. Levels of education can predict rates of incarceration for young black males. Start with two systems we know a lot about yet somehow have not been able to make real cross-sector progress on. If we can't do it here in Seattle, one of the most progressive, creative and ecologically minded cities in the country, where can it possibly be done?

So while hands may be tied, and decisions about schools and jails already forgone, we could decide to see this moment as a turning point and put everything we have into changing a system that plans for failure into a system that places all its bets on success.

We could put aside our jurisdictional constraints and more deeply invest our time, money and true collaborative spirit into creating a system of education that truly honors the unique gifts of each student when they walk through its doors, that fosters in them all the skills they need to reach their fullest selves, and that helps open every pathway they seek out regardless of where they start.

In this same month, we in Seattle confront the juxtaposition of school closures with new jails. And we throughout this country celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and watch the ascendance of Barack Obama to highest office, two black men planted and grown on promise.

It's the promise we Americans make to all people, regardless of where they start or the color of their skin, to become who they seek to be. Given all that we know, and all that we have witnessed as humans on this planet, could there not be a more appropriate time to fulfill this promise?

Lisa Fitzhugh is the founder and former executive director of Arts Corps. She currently serves on the board of the New School Foundation.

[tammyppgnw]

8. Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest Needs YOU!

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest is looking for a few good letter writers!! If you are an East King County or Seattle resident and love writing letters to local media and reproductive health and justice we would love your help!

Contact:

Tammy Fox
Public Affairs Field Organizer, East King County
Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest
[phone]
[e-mail]

[eridani]

9. "Non-partisan" race for elections director?

The contest for Elections Director is not actually non-partisan at all. Though four of the candidates have never run for any public office as partisan candidates, two have run for public office as Republicans. You might recall the Lori Sotelo attempt at voter disenfranchisement in 2005, featuring perjury and illegal modification of voter registration challenge forms. Irons and Roach are running to make this the official policy of the King County Elections Department.

If either were to win, we can look forward to officially recognized attempts to make low wage voters give up a day’s pay to defend their franchise. Signature matching programs will be modified to throw out as many ballots as possible, and it is likely that the policy of three attempts at voter contact in the event of mismatches will be eliminated on the grounds of expense. There is ample precedent for this—Florida Republicans threw voters off the rolls if there was an 80% match between their names and a list of felons. Not good news at all for people named Jones or Smith in non-affluent zip codes.

The current Republican leadership committed to the notion that voting is not actually a citizenship right and duty, but a carnival kewpie doll prize that you can only win by getting past all the barriers they put in your way. Honest Republicans who disagree, for instance our own David McKay who refused to pursue bogus cases of “voter fraud,” were summarily fired as US attorneys.

As Paul Weyrich famously said, "Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw
http://horsesass.org/?p=1167

[eridani]

10. The Times got back to me, and says they are putting it online

Don't know about the print editon though.

[eridani]

11. Heath care LTE in the News Tribune

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/story/859325.html

Public option or no public option? This is a question designed by the health insurance companies.

Of course, the health insurance companies are in the best position to control the debate of this question. Health insurance companies cover those who are in the least need of disease treatment: those between the ages of 18 and 65 who are not disabled.

What if the health insurance companies were forced to cover everyone? Would they be able to survive?

They might be able to survive, but their CEOs would not be able to have the salaries with bonuses that they now have. Their stockholders would sell their stock, because there would be no profits to share with them.

There is one health insurance “company” that is forced to cover everyone who is 65 or older, those who need disease treatment the most. That is Medicare’s obligation.

You can tell that everyone over 65 loves Medicare when you hear people at town hall meetings say, “Keep the government out of my Medicare.” They appear not to know that Medicare is run by the government, but they sure want to keep their coverage.

Is there any wonder why health insurance companies are rich and Medicare is broke?

[eridani]

12. A good one from Don Smith

Obamacare has serious problems, but John Carlson's view isn't the answer
By DON SMITH
Bellevue Reporter Contributor
Today, 1:12 PM · UPDATED




Surprise! I'm a Democrat and I agree with John Carlson ("How NOT to reform health care", Sept. 9) that Obamacare has serious problems. I also agree that the Massachusetts model of health care is the wrong way to go.




Obamacare does prohibit some of the worst practices of insurance companies, but, like the Massachusetts plan, it mandates that citizens buy private insurance. Like Medicare D (which rewards Big Pharma) and like the bailouts (which reward Wall Street, AIG and the banking industries) Obamacare is likely to be a form of corporate socialism, It funnels tax dollars to private industry and perpetuates the broken medical insurance system. And, like the Massachusetts plan, it fails to rein in costs.




Carlson says a Massachusetts commission is recommending that the state move to a single payer system "to ration medical care." This characterization is lowball spin. The insurance industry rations care right now. They deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, they preemptively cancel policies based on technicalities ("recission"), and they terminate payment for treatment that exceeds norms. Over 46 million Americans have no insurance at all – which forces them to postpone needed care and to rely on expensive emergency room care. Millions more are under-insured, and 60 percent of bankruptcies are at least partly due to medical costs.




Fact is, there is only a finite amount of money available, but since everyone eventually gets sick and dies, there is nearly unlimited demand for health care. When their life and health are at stake, people are willing to spend pretty much whatever it costs to get better. Doctors want to help, but some treatments simply aren't effective enough to be worth the cost and the side-effects.




Some sort of intelligent allocation of resources is needed in any system.




The question is: Who do you trust to make the tough decisions and recommendations? The insurance companies? Or your doctor, in consultation with science-based guidelines developed by independent experts? The insurance companies are just out to make a buck; legally, they're required to maximize shareholder value. They do so by denying care and raising premiums.




Even Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine agrees that there is a serious lack of competition among insurance companies. They burden providers with onerous nonstandardized paperwork. Their profits, and, recently, share prices, have been soaring. They do little to rein in costs. They have no incentive to promote preventive care, since policy holders tend switch to new insurance companies when they change jobs. Corruption and overcharges are rampant, as in all medical industries.




Insurance companies are wealthy middlemen who provide little added value. They have a good scam going, and they're spending $1.4 million a day to lobby Congress to keep it going.




Pharmaceutical companies are little better. They've convinced Congress and Obama to disallow the government from negotiating drug prices, which are astronomically high. Marketing costs greatly exceed research costs, but many experts think medicines shouldn't be marketed at all. And many of their drugs are based on publicly-funded research from NIH and universities or are variations on pre-existing drugs. See

The Horrifying Hidden Story Behind Drug Company Profits and The Truth about the Drug Companies, where the author, a former Editor in Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, writes of the drug industry, "Instead of being an engine of innovation, it is a vast marketing machine. Instead of being a free market success story, it lives off government-funded research and monopoly rights."




Carlson suggests we turn to a purer market-based system that would introduce competition. He suggests Singapore as a model for market-based health care. But Singapore is a small country with a population less than that of Washington state. Its political system approximates a benevolent dictatorship. There is considerable central planning; government-linked companies dominate.




Singapore is actually an example of a highly regulated health system, where intelligent allocation of resources has been applied as well as prices controls There are heavy restrictions on speech, there are no jury trials, and they still cane criminals. Hardly a model of liberty and laissez-faire capitalism.




Besides, would you really want to shop around for the best deal on open-heart surgery or even primary care?




What's the market value of your life and health? Next thing you know, there'll be a derivatives market for human organs.




Medicine is a profession, requiring licensing and standards, and doctors want to be caregivers, not businesspeople for whom money is the ultimate measure of value. Most doctors should be on salaries; the current system perversely encourages unneeded care by tying payments to procedures and tests. Fifty-nine percent of doctors want single-payer health care – meaning public payment with private delivery – because they know medicine is supposed to be a healing art, not a cut-throat business in which success is measured by profits.




Most modern industrialized countries rely on some sort of government-run health care – with far lower costs and far higher effectiveness than America's market-based system. Despite conservative claims to the contrary, their citizens are generally quite satisfied their health care.




Conservatives love to say that government is inefficient. But Medicare (a government program) has about 4 percent overhead; private insurance companies have about 12 percent overhead. Medicare has been around for 44 years, and both patients and doctors give it higher scores than they give private insurance. Why? Because patients aren’t denied care, and doctors don’t have to fight to get every test, procedure, and prescription approved for their patients.




Even the post office – which conservatives love to hate – works pretty darn well. Letters arrive across the country in a couple of days. When was the last time a letter you sent failed to arrive? Consider, in contrast, the inefficiency of private companies such as AIG, GM, Bear Stearns, WaMu, and the insurance industry, to name just a few. Wall Street and the banks failed us miserably.




But I'm not opposed to private profit, and single-payer health care is not socialized medicine. Only the payment systems are government-run. Providers can still be private. But nor do socialized services don't scare me at all. The police, the fire services, the armed forces, the courts, public schools, and numerous government agencies are socialized. And there are good reasons for keeping them that way.




Already 60 percent of health care spending in the U.S. in America comes from taxes. But we're not getting our money's worth. We don't need any additional spending. We just need to control costs.




In fact, it's possible to fix private insurance to make it fairer and more efficient. This would require significant regulatory restrictions on insurance companies that go beyond those specified in the president's proposals. The Netherlands has highly regulated insurance companies that resemble public utilities.




In short, either a strong public option (ideally, single-payer) or heavy government regulation are needed to control health care costs. Neither of these workable solutions is palatable to conservatives, who are ideologically opposed to what they see as government "interference" in the economy. This is despite the disastrous subprime crash that resulted from reckless deregulation, and despite the manifest success of government-run health care overseas and numerous government programs here.




Alas, given the rampant corruption in Congress – with both major parties dependent on corporate campaign contributions, and with the revolving door between Congress and industry – it's unlikely we're going to get any significant reform unless the people demand it, the way they demanded civil rights in the 1960s.




Donald A. Smith lives in Bellevue.

[eridani]

13. 250 teabaggers get coverage, but 2500 health care reformers don't

http://horsesass.org/?p=24870

Back in September, when two to three thousand people swarmed Westlake Park in support of health care reform — specifically, a greatly expanded federal government role in the health care market — the Seattle Times didn’t think the event merited even a mention in the following day’s paper. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Yet when maybe a couple hundred teabaggers show up to celebrate the anniversary of their faux movement, the Times apparently feels the need to devote a political reporter, a photographer and twenty column inches:

An anniversary “tea party” rally drew about 250 people to a rainy corner in Northgate on Saturday afternoon. Not bad for Seattle, or as one participant called it, “Lib-Ville.”

Really? This is news, and the ten-times-bigger pro-HCR/pro-government rally was not? You gotta be fucking kidding.

[eridani]

14. Re initiative 1098

http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/Illinois-state-taxes.htm

Illinois has an income tax of 3% for everyone, with the same personal deductions as for federal taxes.

There is a state sales tax of 6.5%, with a 1% tax on food and prescription drugs. Localities can add their own sales taxes, which can bring sales tax rates up to 11.5% in some areas. Chicago has a soft drink tax of 3%. There is no state property tax.

Apparently Boeing opted for Chicago over King County with its lower 10% sales tax rate. Paying higher sales taxes and income taxes in addition didn't bother them a bit.

The constant whining by some in our state over our "high taxes" is getting pretty sickening. That includes the Seattle Times editorial board, wetting their pants over the prospect of a 1% tax on couples earning more than $400,000 and 3% on those earning over a million.

Grow up already! If you don't want to pay part of your income for public goods, move to Somalia. They don't have to worry about that hellish burden, and tough, independent he-men can make out like bandits--literally.

[eridani]

15. LTE on Social Security from Oak Harbor

Letter to the Editor:

For all the talk about our appalling national debt, very few people are talking about how we got it. The large increase in the national debt over the last several years was caused by two unnecessary wars, tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, and Wall Street bailouts. Unlike Social Security, these initiatives were funded with borrowed money.

In contrast, Social Security has not contributed a dime to the deficit and has a $2.6 trillion surplus. It is a self-funded program that lifts people out of poverty, and it is truly one of America’s greatest success stories.

Despite all of the rhetoric, Social Security is not going bankrupt. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Social Security can pay out every nickel owed to every eligible American for the next 29 years, and after that, about 80 percent of benefits if nothing is done. Moreover, simply removing the cap on payroll taxes for the wealthiest Americans, who could most afford it, would make Social Security sustainable long into the future.

We all know something needs to be done about the deficit, but let’s look beyond Social Security. Why not start with our defense spending, which is supremely wasteful and marked by abuse and fraud?

I urge everyone to contact their congresspersons and tell them to vote “No” on any proposal that cuts or weakens Social Security! Our representatives must also be told in no uncertain terms that their failure to do so will end their political careers.

Marshall F. Goldberg
Oak Harbor, WA

[eridani]

16. LTEs needed on HB 2078--closing tax loopholes

HB 2078 is moving in the House and we expect a floor vote next week. The bill would end the tax break for big banks and redirect $115 million into schools to fund smaller K-3 class sizes. We need your help to show some public support for this bill - please take a minute to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper expressing your support for HB 2078 and asking your legislators to vote for it..


Letter Guidelines:

--No more than 250 words.
--Include your real name, address and phone number. The address and phone will not be printed but will be used to verify that you are a real person who lives in the newspaper's circulation area.
--Submission email addresses are usually listed in the "Opinion" section of the newspaper's website.

Points to consider making about HB 2078 (pick two or three for your letter):
--Washington State has already cut $5 billion from public services like education in the past two years, and is now proposing to cut $5 billion more.
--Washington State spends billions on unjustified tax breaks for special interests. Those tax breaks should receive the same level of scrutiny as all other state spending.
--Smaller class sizes in the early grades are critical to success in school. Students who read at grade level by 4th grade are less likely to drop out later on.
--Small classes mean teachers can discover learning disabilities and give more personalized attention where it is needed.
--Crowded classrooms overwhelm teachers and shortchange kids.
--Teachers are getting pink slips while big banks are getting tax breaks. That's not fair.
--Investing in our children and our future is more important than handing out tax breaks for big banks.
--The legislature should pass HB 2078.