Letters, 12/01: Bush's resume lacking, too
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I must take exception to Ronnie L. Herrold (letter, Nov. 25) and several others’ assertions that Barack Obama is “the most inexperienced president-elect ever.” While one could obviously point to George Washington, I would remind aggrieved Republicans that George W. Bush’s experience included (1) a failed run for the U.S. House of Representatives; (2) a Texas governorship consisting of a record number of rubber-stamped executions and a burdensome schedule of ribbon-cuttings and rodeos; and (3) assisting his father’s campaign (when he wasn’t attending Ranger baseball games).
Moreover, as the first president trumpeted as having “earned” an MBA degree, no one pointed out that Dubya’s prior business experience was a consistent record of failures, something that resonantly echoed during his dismal term of office.
But as the now-experienced President Bush gets ready to ride off into the Texan sunset, may I suggest an architectural scheme for his presidential library that has caused no little embarrassment for its future site, Southern Methodist University, his wife’s alma mater? I think the whole structure should be built underground with a tastefully obscured entrance and a few shrub-bedecked ventilation pipes. This way, SMU’s campus would not be despoiled and the edifice would reflect the Bush administration’s predilections for secrecy and a bunker mentality.
Jim Hejduk, Lincoln
Obama is a mere politician
Before people drown in a sea of euphoria over the election of Barack Obama, they should grab onto some common sense. The man is just a slick Chicago politician, not a god, who has surrounded himself with advisers from the Chicago political machine.
It is neither un-American nor disloyal nor prejudiced to criticize him. The compassionate man people claim him to be twice voted against diverting earmark funds to help rebuild a bridge damaged by Hurricane Katrina. He voted for the Bridge to Nowhere and against rebuilding a badly needed bridge in Louisiana. The man is not magic; he does not change his tune overnight.
Have faith in him and Congress? Ha! My book says “put not thy trust in princes.” I worship God, not man and especially not politicians.
The sappy adulation pouring forth from Garrison Keillor’s column (LJS, Nov. 16), the claims of greatness, the reference to the “prince from the prairie” (he grew up mainly in Hawaii) and the comparisons to Teddy Roosevelt and the tales of how slaves built the White House for him and his wife (Amy Goodman column, LJS, Nov. 16) are ridiculous.
He is a mere politician, nothing more. And he is certainly no JFK and cannot even approach what we lost when Bobby died. About the only change he’s accomplished so far is to appoint old Clinton people to government posts.
Jacque Lumb, Fremont
Good habits help students
Improving your grades requires a little sacrifice, including quitting smoking, turning off the TV and going to bed. All of these can improve your grades by a lot.
“Teetotalers reported an average GPA of 3.31 compared with a 2.99 for students who drank excessively at least once in the previous two weeks,” according to the article, “Good health equals better grades” (LJS, Nov. 7). I can relate to most of these except for smoking. I agree with this article on how smoking, drinking and stress can affect your life.
While I was in high school, I was very careless about what I did with my time, and in turn it affected my school, my sleep and work.
In addition, on the weekends I would drink excessively and would work from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday mornings. I would get hardly any sleep on the weekends. After a couple of months of doing this, I noticed my grades falling drastically.
I decided to change my whole lifestyle, which entailed not drinking, studying and eating better.
In doing all of this, I saw a huge change in my grades and in my outlook on life.
The next time students get asked to go out and drink, I hope they consider the end results and how it will affect their life.
Raquel Herrera, Lincoln
Death penalty necessary
I would like to express my concern that the death penalty is necessary.
I know that many citizens point to the Eighth Amendment, but I would like them to realize that the Fifth Amendment states, “No persons shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury … nor be deprived of life without the due process of law ….”
This clearly allows the death penalty to be forced and proves that the death penalty is not one of the “cruel and unusual punishments” outlawed by the Eighth Amendment. Let’s face it, we are in the 21st century, and heinous crimes are increasing every day. This is why it is necessary to enforce the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes.
The most common method of execution is lethal injection, which is painless; therefore, it is not cruel and unusual. Execution also cuts down on murderers, which in turn leads to fewer innocent victims. There are sufficient safeguards against executing criminals, so the danger of executing the innocent is very unlikely.
Heinous criminals should be executed so they do not have a chance of committing another crime.
Paige Priefert, Lincoln
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Cole wrote on December 1, 2008 5:19 am:
The tired old ploy of saying that someone voted for or against this or that when those earmarks were tiny parts of huge, bad legislation just doesn't work anymore. Every representative in congress has voted against "funding our troops" at one point or another. This kind of transparent 'gotcha' should just go away.
And then you turn around and use the Kennedys as the benchmark! Can you think of a worse form of nepotism / cronyism than appointing your own brother to be AG?
Obama is certainly no god. Just try not to take offense when some of us celebrate just a little bit that the we and the world will no longer have to cringe when the President stands in front of microphone and opens his mouth. "
RD wrote on December 1, 2008 5:35 am:
Bush and his sheepish followers are the unloyal Americans. Bush and his ilk should be arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced for treason. It'll take at least 100 years to overcome the corruption from the Bush regime. "
Pete Allen wrote on December 1, 2008 5:37 am:
And yes, Barack Obama is a member in good standing of the Combine. Just as his sponsor, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, is. And Governor Rod Blagojevich, Senator Dick Durban, and in fact every Illinois politician of any importance.
Whether Barack Obama can take a page from Chester Alan Arthur's book and repudiate the Combine as Arthur did Roscoe Conkling remains to be seen. However, if Obama's proposed cabinet and staff appointments are a straw in the wind it does not look good.
Pete Allen "
to cole wrote on December 1, 2008 6:52 am:
Jody P. wrote on December 1, 2008 8:40 am:
Death penalty wrote on December 1, 2008 8:44 am:
Zoomie wrote on December 1, 2008 8:49 am:
Meanwhile...ever notice the only people who keep trying to compare Obama to something spiritual (like God) are his critics? I've never seen or heard a supporter make such a comparison, but it keeps popping up amongst Republicans! Perhaps its because for the last 20 years they've raised Ronald Reagan to deification-status (even literally making the creation of a statue or building named for Reagan in EVERY city and town in America one of their goals!), and so now tend to view Presidents as somehow God-like? Nor have I seen anyone claim its unpatriotic to criticize Obama (though I've been accused on many an occasion of being unpatriotic for criticizing Dubya over the last 8 years!). And Cole is correct, it is just "gotcha" to claim he supported this or opposed that, when the vote wasn't even on the thing mentioned, but instead was a massive gov't spending bill which required a straightforward up-or-down vote (which, FYI, is why both Obama AND McCain voted to deny our troops funding at one time or another!).
Death penalty...first, it is not and never has been a deterrent to crime! The closest thing ever noted which seemed to increase or decrease crimes (including murder) is economics. Good economy with lots of well-paying jobs, crime drops; bad economy and/or low paying jobs, crime rises. There is no discernable difference in murder rates between states with actual capital punishment (ie. TX) and states with no capital punishment (ie. NY), which should happen if it was a deterrent. Second, I have no problem with actually executing really, truely guilty people for heinous crimes. My problem is, 5th Amendment notwithstanding, many people on trial for their life get horrendous trial defense (especially in some states such as TX, where defense laywers have even gone to sleep while defending people on trial for their life!). Additionally, in some states, actual innocence has been found -- by a State Supreme Court -- to NOT be grounds to overturn a capital conviction (meaning the State SC is saying once convicted, even if innocent, it's ok to execute!!!). And we're not even getting into the racial and economic bias against certain defendents, nor are we talking about DNA evidence proving actual innocence of many on death row! So, guarantee me ONLY guilty people will be convicted and I'll support the death penalty; until then, its flawed, and I'd rather put them all in prison for life and have a chance to correct a flawed conviction than convict and execute an innocent person. Oh, and the idea that lethal injection is "painless" is far from true! If incorrectly administered (as has happened several times) its known to be painful enough that some convicts have died screaming in pain. Additionally, there is considerable debate by medical people that lethal injection is in fact extremely painful, but since the patient is first paralyzed (but feeling pain) there is no way they can make obvious how painful it really is! Let's remember for decades people insisted electrocution was "painless" because it was so fast. Only later did we learn it was extremely painful, especially when done wrong! "
Rockwell wrote on December 1, 2008 9:41 am:
RE: to Cole - Seriously? Seriously!? After eight years of a president incapable of putting together a coherent thought, you want to criticize Barak Obama for thinking about what he says? Your carping from the sidelines is just sad. "
DFB wrote on December 1, 2008 10:03 am:
In fact, states like Texas and Florida, which both lead the nation in executions, they have some of the highest per capita rates in the nation. So, where is the deterrent? If capital punishment was a deterrent, shouldn't those states have some of the lowest?
One final note. In the Bible God said "Vengence is Mine." and also Jesus said "Let who is without sin, be the first to cast a stone" at the woman the crowd wanted stoned to death.
Any of you out there pure enough to meet those criterium stated in the Bible? "
An unpleasant necessity wrote on December 1, 2008 10:19 am:
With regard to the comments that lethal injections are painful and therefore cruel, so is childbirth, amputation, tooth removal, and a wide array of medically necessary procedures. We accept these as part of ridding the body of what ails it. Society should be able to rid itself of what ails it for the betterment of the populace as a whole. "
Nina wrote on December 1, 2008 12:06 pm:
bicyclemike wrote on December 1, 2008 12:15 pm:
Me too wrote on December 1, 2008 1:48 pm:
up, I have to turn the dial. Where is Jefferson when we need him? He
said: "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who
are willing to work and give to those who would not." I guess Obama missed
that class subject! And Jefferson said: "I predict future happiness for
Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of
the people under the pretense of taking care of them." And in light of
the present financial crises, it's interesting to read what Thomas
Jefferson said in 1802: " I believe that banking institutions are more
dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people
ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currancy, first
by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow
up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their
children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." "
peb wrote on December 1, 2008 1:58 pm:
Doesn't it seem we are assuming the position of God if we use the death penalty to kill people? Who's to say the person won't be converted to Christ? If they're dead, they can't be converted . . . "
had enough wrote on December 1, 2008 2:31 pm:
stignob wrote on December 1, 2008 2:48 pm:
ddr wrote on December 1, 2008 3:27 pm:
uh ah ah wrote on December 1, 2008 4:24 pm:
MarkyMark wrote on December 1, 2008 4:32 pm:
Next time go ahead and give us your own thoughts. We've already heard the ones in your letter. "
re stignob wrote on December 1, 2008 4:33 pm:
As for sufficient safeguards against executing innocent criminals, dna and other tests that can be done to prove the guilt of someone has to be ran and interpreted by a human and humans can and do make mistakes. The last person who was perfect, Jesus Christ, was killed on the cross. "
hey jacque wrote on December 1, 2008 9:07 pm:
JB wrote on December 2, 2008 10:55 am:
To Paige wrote on December 2, 2008 1:27 pm:
Ken wrote on December 3, 2008 5:54 am:
Prison terms or capital punishment have not detered the continued commissions of crimes so we should just save a bunch of money and close all the prisons.
God said "Vengence is Mine." and also Jesus said "Let who is without sin, be the first to cast a stone" at the woman the crowd wanted stoned to death. Wouldn't these statements say se should stop punishing anyone? "
DR wrote on December 5, 2008 2:45 pm:
Douglas wrote on December 5, 2008 2:55 pm: