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Letter to the editor

Dear Editor:

I shudder to think what Gov. Taft's state of the state address is going to be like. From hearing Pres. Bush's state of the union address, he and the Republicans (The real "Evil Empire") didn't mention one word about jobs, healthcare, or education, which I've come to a conclusion that the Republicans don't have too high on their priority list. As a citizen of Galion (population 11,200) and volunteer at the Galion Public Library, I for one, disapprove of the job that Gov. Taft is doing during his final term in office. I knew from the very outset that Taft was going to cut back on state funding on both education and library expenses, and not to mention create a very dismal unemployment rate, which I believe we are still suffering to this day.

There is without a question that this man is in my opinion "the worst ever governor in the history of the state of Ohio." He is a total disgrace to the world of essential moral values (such as education and employment) that give our children what they need the most, hope and a brighter future, which apparently Taft doesn't care one bit about. I don't look forward to his state of

What They Really Mean...

Since the 1950s, many young Americans have first encountered critiques of mass media in the pages of Mad. With its intricate cartoons and satirical sendups, the monthly magazine gained a reputation for skewering politicians, advertisers, TV shows and a variety of print outlets.

One of Mad’s recurrent shticks has involved making fun of gaps between words and meaning -- an especially welcome form of humor because mainstream news so often amplifies the words of public figures with scarcely a hint of irony, much less deprecation. Notwithstanding the zany image of Alfred E. Newman, the magazine’s grinning icon of absurdity has overseen plenty of sobering antidotes to the phony self-importance of major media.

One-third of the way through February, looking at a few of the day’s top news stories, I tried to imagine the properly Mad way to annotate them. Here’s what I came up with:

* Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said to an audience at a university in Paris: “It is time to turn away from the disagreements of the past. It is time to open a new chapter in our relationship and a new chapter in our alliance.”

More bad news from Bush

AUSTIN, Texas -- I feel snakebite about praising any proposal by George W. Bush. Every time I write a column saying, "Look, he's done something good!" he does something else that makes it either not so good or just plain bad. He welched on his deal with Ted Kennedy in the Lots of Children Left Behind Act, now underfunded by $12 billion. And nobody has ever seen that $15 billion he promised to fight AIDS in Africa.

Don't let the U.S. ignore global warming

Next week, the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty to curb global warming emissions, will officially come into effect without the involvement of the United States. While the rest of the world has affirmed the serious threat of global warming and has taken action to move forward, the U.S. remains a mere bystander, watching the parade pass by while refusing to tackle the problem head-on.

As the world's largest contributor to global warming pollution, it is time for the U.S. to establish our own national emissions goals. The U.S. global warming bill, known as the Climate Stewardship Act, is a good first step toward solving the real and serious environmental threat that we can't afford to ignore any longer.

Please take a moment to ask your senators to support the Climate Stewardship Act. Then ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on the link below: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=35&id4=OHFreep

Background

Threat to Disability Medical Assistance

Under directions from Governor Taft, ODJFS has filed an emergency rule that will cut people off from Disability Medical Assistance after 6 months and leave the program closed to new applicants. By June, there will be no one left on DMA!

The Governor is, therefore, ending DMA without input from the legislature or the public. He is ripping the net from under some of our most vulnerable citizens, people with very low incomes (countable income of $115/month) who are dependent on medications to live. We cannot remain silent.

PLEASE CALL THE GOVERNOR AND ASK HIM TO RESCIND THE RULE ENDING DMA. (614) 466-3555. GET YOUR NETWORKS TO CALL THE GOVERNOR AS WELL!

There is nothing to fear but Bush's fear

It is time that the Karl Roves and Dick Cheneys take their place on center stage of the Bush puppeteer and puppet show. Bush is the puppet. Jumping and frilling about in the stick while the brains of Roves and Cheney’s are during the day-to-day planning!

Rove-Cheney-Bush a year or so ago decided essentially that, “We are an Empire now through ‘The New World Order,’ Therefore, when we speak and act we create our own ‘Reality’ a reality that is based in crisis, fear, misinformation, confusion, promotion of mass ignorance, and mass need to be saved from these images of our manufactured crisis. Fear and crisis themes evoke emotional leverage and facilitate easy mass control. Creating this New Reality is really God like; therefore, we can then carefully claim our image of God like. This brings ‘Religious Initiative’ the thinking public will be left a ‘study’ what we do, therefore, they can only react after we have finished and are safe!”

A no-brainer

AUSTIN, Texas -- Last week, The New York Times quoted a Harvard Law student who favors the privatization of Social Security as saying the accounts-formerly-known-as-private are "a no-brainer."

Funny, I'd say that pretty well describes this future legal eagle.

Here's my take: If you aren't smart enough to figure out what's wrong with President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, then you won't be able to run one of the accounts-formerly-known-as-private, either. (The White House doesn't want anyone to call them private accounts anymore, even though they have always been known as private accounts -- it's the new political correctness.) It's not as though this were all just-too-complex for the average citizen.

Without any math at all, you can understand the most important problems with the Bush plan:

re: Bush to Social Security: Drop Dead

Dear Mr. Waserman,

Your column is so on the money!  I believe Bush even concieves of himself as Caesar. Even John McLaughlin on his show; McLaughlin Group, this Friday posed the same idea that the aim is to kill Social Security not to save it.

To put it succinctly; FDR's legacy was the New Deal, whereas, "W"'s legacy is a Raw Deal...

Anita Knight

St. Petersburg, Florida

Direct Action For Peace?

Do we need to start taking mass, nonviolent direct action for peace?

Street protest is no longer spontaneous, relevant, or reported in the news.

Permits for demonstrations are now staples of bureaucracy. Free speech zones with collapsible barricades are standard equipment. The recent inauguration even saw a separate bleacher section (of course, in a poor location) for protesters.

This is not how struggles are won. This is not what was done in the past.

Thousands of protesters demonstrated at the recent inauguration. What if hundreds or thousands of them had committed to a united direct action against the parade?

What if hundreds or thousands of people had blocked the limousines by standing (ala Tianamen Square) or lying down in front of them along the parade route? How many hours would it have taken the police to arrest and haul us all away? Would the police have had to airlift the president and company by helicopter out of the street?

What a spectacle that would have been. What a powerful statement. That is just one possibility. No doubt, there are many others.

Exit stage Baghdad

Was it Colonel Klink or Captain Schultz who said "I know NUTHINK!"?

Neither. On Sunday’s Meet the Press, when asked if there were a goal or timetable for an exit strategy for Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld hid under the shadows of the "unknowable" and said that there are just some things we can't know. Well, Ted Kennedy disagrees. You know what you plan and intend to execute. You can have a reasoned best estimate of the likelihood of people getting on planes that you deploy to leave. Ted Kennedy understands that if your goal is to truly leave the Iraqi government and self defense to the Iraqis then you plan an exit strategy and you execute it with all due diligence. You train adequate numbers of troops, and you leave them at it.

This might be a bit too much "tough love" in approach for Rumsfeld, but it has to happen. No one is fooled when he says that he can't know when it will happen.

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