Letters to the editor 3-22

Time not right for new Douglas senior center

I see Mr. Lockwood is at it again. His latest letter indicates that "Douglas County has the most inadequate senior center and services in the Western United States." Wow. I was unaware of that.

That's a pretty broad area. Yet he chooses to live here. I'm confused. In the same paragraph he says that "telling local seniors to keep their mouths shut and quit complaining ... doesn't help the situation" (i.e. they should be allowed to continue to complain), but concludes his letter by saying that "complaining ... doesn't resolve anything."

I'm confused again. Which one is it? On one hand it's OK for Mr. Lockwood to complain about the senior center (time and time again by the way) and the poor services of a budget-strapped county, but on the other hand complaining doesn't resolve anything. I like the last one Paul, complaining doesn't resolve anything ... no matter the subject you might be complaining about (hint, hint). And I never said that "seniors are not welcome in Douglas County."

My mom is a senior (she's 90 this year God bless her); I sit next to two senior ladies in church every week (can't hug them enough). I love senior citizens. So that's just not true. He also indicates that "cutting county services to balance the budget doesn't solve the basic economic problems." I don't even know what that means. What I do know is that unless the county buys a printing press and starts printing money, services will be cut. No increased revenue (taxes) equals a reduction in services. It's just simple math. It has nothing to do with "attracting" people in these hard economic times. In conclusion; does Douglas County need a new senior center? Absolutely. Is now the time? Absolutely not.

GREG WORMS

Minden

Lots of folks opposed to commentator's malevolence

On Jan. 21 of this year, Limbaugh the Loony publicly stated, "I hope he (Obama) fails."

In the March 16 issue of "Time," David Von Drelhe castigated Democrats challenging this diatribe as, "standing by the president, right or wrong" ... he missed the mark by a mile; hoping for the Obama stimulus package to fail is simply not a legitimate criticism of the president, but a sign of just how bankrupt the whole conservative movement has become. The GOP is in such shambles that the only way some see for survival is an ongoing economic catastrophe they can blame on Obama and the Democrats.

Frank Schaeffer, in the "Huffington Post"said: "There is something worse going on than a fat stupid man shooting his mouth off ... mark my words: in the next few years the more President Obama succeeds, the more shrill and demented Limbaugh, Coulter and the rest of the rabid crowd will get."

Yes, this man touts an audience of 20 million - that still leaves 287,824,640 (July 2008, estimate) of us folks who will have none of his malevolence.

JOHN O'NEILL

Minden

'Nuclear' has become a political password

Who will take nuclear waste? Well, it isn't truly waste because, at least as I understand it, the material is reusable, but the key to the entire fear is the term nuclear. I wonder how many of your readers know just how much radiation they are exposed to on a daily basis?

There were initially five different locations taken as consideration for storage, and Yucca was deemed the best. As a matter of fact, Gov. Pete Wilson of California offered areas in the Mojave Desert but the Carter Department of Energy had its eye on Yucca.

We are told that France is 80 percent nuclear-powered, residue is transported through towns and cities to a location in Northern France that rests beneath grazing livestock and agricultural fields and, at last report, France is still there. Are the French better informed? It is that term nuclear that frightens the scientifically uninformed and it has now become a political password.

I regret the disposal of a letter I received from Sen. Reid about 15 years ago. A letter expressing some uncertainty about the disposal site. Sen. Reid told me the containers are state of the art and will withstand collision with a freight train. Politics seems to have changed his position.

VERNON LATSHAW

Gardnerville

Picking up the pieces left by King Bush II

I have to agree with Mr. Stevenson's recent comment. But instead of calling the Republicans "a joke," I'd say a "tragedy" is more accurate.

Ever since Obama won, the "Party of No" has done nothing constructive but whine about his decisions and, as in Rush Limbaugh's case, openly hope for him to fail. If they want another president who takes away our Fourth Amendment rights and wipes his fanny with our Constitution they can vote another Republican in when Obama's time is up, but for now they have to "man up" and accept defeat like we had to do for the past eight years while King Bush II sent our country into a tailspin.

The fact remains that we all have to work together to get out of this mess. If Republicans cannot (will not) be constructive and help us pick up the pieces, then they need to "sit down and shut up" while we do it.

ROBIN CHRISTY

Carson City

Democrats continue dirty tricks in Nevada

In the March 10 edition there were two articles that drew my attention. The first was Harry Reid's comments on the former U.S. Attorney for Nevada, who as Harry said "was forced to resign."

He was talking about Daniel Bogden, who with nine other federal prosecutors was asked to resign by the Bush administration. I would like to remind Harry, that Bill Clinton dumped all of them when he was president. They serve at the pleasure of the president.

The second article was the commentary by state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto regarding Yucca Mountain. First of all, I would like to be clear that I'm not wild about having nuclear waste stored in Nevada. Had it gone through, Nevada could have reaped a benefit of money coming into the state treasury, how much is anyone's guess.

Now I wonder how many billions of dollars has been spent on that project since Jimmy Carter pushed it through when he was president. Now is it just going to sit? Maybe there is a scrap metal company that could come in and salvage the scrap and the feds could get some money to offset the Obama's stick-it-to the taxpayer stimulus plan.

Cortez Masto made a comment that Nevada has a friend in the White House with Obama. In my opinion that is a typical left-wing, bleeding-heart liberal remark. I firmly believe she and Harry Reid engineered the investigation of Brian Krolicki. Typical dirty politics and it is running rampant in our state. We need a change and I hope we can start in 2010; dump the Democrats.

BILL PYATT

Dayton

AIG poster child for devastated economy

On March 1, the government announced that AIG will get another $30 billion in help, above the $150 billion it already received. This was said to be absolutely necessary since AIG is so big that to allow it to fail would have untold consequences on the already faltering economy.

This is something that shouldn't take place, especially since President Obama has said that companies that took bailout money up to this point would get no further help if they had shown a lack of responsibility since receiving it. AIG threw an executive party that cost $444,000 the week it received the original funds, showing a complete lack of responsibility as well as callous attitude toward the public's trust.

The government's announcement of new funds was made along with the recent news that AIG lost $61.4 billion, yes that's billion, in the last quarter. This works out to an unbelievably whopping $460,000 per minute.

This only proves that they have no possibility of regaining control of their faltering company and seem to only be capable of throwing away our future generations' money. AIG should be the poster child for prosecution for having a hand in the massive devastation in the economy. As far as I'm concerned it wouldn't hurt the country to lose a few insurance companies anyway. Just like lawyers, this country has more than enough of both.

MARK PERKINS

Carson City

New president reveals true character

Porkulus not withstanding, it has not taken long for our new president to reveal his true character.

By signing this "flawed" spending package to keep the government afloat, he has proven he lacks the courage of his convictions. He has also shown his complete absence of shame in attempting to clean this up with us. Time to be rid of the lot of them, I say. They do more harm than good.

KELLY JONES

Carson City

Republicans are

way out of line

What is up with the Republicans? Especially the talk show hosts like Rush. These people are nuts. They are way out of line.

So the billions are being spent. It is better than spending billions on a war that we didn't belong in thanks to Bush. And he wanted to take Social Security money and invest it in the stock market or somewhere. Anybody with a brain could see this recession coming.

Or is it a depression? Call it what you want, but you have to spend money to make money. They say today the stock market is starting back up slow but sure. We will see. If all goes well, what will they cry about then?

Some day we could have a dictatorship. Let's hope not. As for Obama - leave him alone. Give him a break. We can't have a change over night. What would McCain and the Lipstick Lady have done by now?

RICHARD MOORE

Carson City

Auto industry credit essential to economy

An unprecedented drop in consumer confidence, credit market chaos and a steep drop in lending have created unsustainable business climate for dealers nationwide and their employees. Restoring the availability of credit for the automotive retailing network to ensure the recovery of the overall auto industry is essential.

Dealers need retail credit to facilitate auto sales, because 94 percent of all vehicle purchases are financed. Dealers need working capital loans to meet current cash flow requirements such as payroll. Finally, dealers need floorplan financing, which is specialized credit that enables dealers to buy their wholesale inventory of vehicles from the automakers. Absent access to sufficient credit on reasonable terms, dealerships will continue to close in Nevada, and nationwide. Over the past year 1,000 dealerships nationwide have closed, forcing 50,000 Americans out of work.

The single biggest threat to dealership viability is floorplan financing. Dealer groups are asking the Obama Administration to work with the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department to refine the term-asset-backed securities loan facility and undertake any other options to restore retail and floorplan lending. It's the No. 1 issue that the president's auto task force needs to understand.

The automotive Industry recovery is critical to Nevada's general fund with Nevada sales tax revenue having declined with poor vehicle sales statewide over the past 15 months. Demand is building and the industry is hopeful for a mild sales recovery to begin in the second half of 2009. How big a recovery isn't certain, complicating industry attempts to plan ahead.

The ball is essentially in the government's hands, and time is very much of the essence.

WAYNE FREDIANI

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

NEVADA FRANCHISED AUTO DEALERS ASSOCIATION

Sparks