Tough times for vets seeking employment

To the editor:

I would like to take the time to thank Jennifer Robison for her Saturday article on the Hiring our Heroes program. As a Vietnam veteran, I have found it almost impossible to get some form of employment in this city after nearly two years of being out of work.

I belong to a number of veterans organizations that are trying to promote employment for veterans. But at the latest job fair at the speedway, I had to inform the organizers that it was a futile effort because the companies there were actually not hiring. I know because I applied at many of them. With nearly 450 applications out there, I got zero response.

My heart goes out to the returning veterans looking for work. I am fortunate being retired civil service and military with more than 43 years of experience. But I'm still struggling tremendously due to the higher cost of living today caused by the "screw the public" attitude of our politicians that started with the bailouts three years ago.

R. Nishi

Las Vegas

Bad policy

To the editor:

In his Sunday column ("Where does this end?"), the Review-Journal's Steve Sebelius criticizes U.S. Senate Republicans for blocking the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because of issues they have with the structure of this new regulatory agency. Mr. Sebelius says "Congress already had a chance" to make changes when the agency was created by the Dodd-Frank bill.

But that's disingenuous.

The composition of Congress changes all the time, and today's Congress is not the same as the one that existed when the bill passed in 2010. Mr. Sebelius also argues that if the GOP wants to change the bill now, they should introduce legislation to do so -- knowing full well that any such bill would never clear the Senate, much less be signed by President Obama.

The reality is the Dodd-Frank reforms passed 223-202 in the House and 59-39 in the Senate, both along party lines, when Congress was totally controlled by the Democrats. Having been effectively shut out of the process of crafting this law, Republicans are now doing what little they can to have an impact on what they consider to be bad policy.

We're constantly hearing calls for bipartisanship in Washington, but it's hard to imagine how we'll ever get there if we demonize the other side every time it disagrees with us. President Obama, as I recall, ran on a platform of "change" because the system in Washington was so dysfunctional, but he promptly handed control of his legislative agenda over to people such as Nancy Pelosi, who famously asserted, "A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes."

We're now dealing with the legacy of those years, and it should not surprise us that it's likely to be a little messy.

Gary Porfert

Las Vegas

Iraq war

To the editor:

We are leaving Iraq after throwing away billions of dollars and many young American lives.

We were there for American investments and oil. After we leave Iraq, they will go back to killing each other over religious stupidity, like they have for centuries.

Afghanistan is the same situation -- lost lives, billions of dollars thrown down another black hole. When will it end for us? When we bankrupt ourselves and become a Third World country like our neighbor Mexico? Believe me, that is not far off.

John Tominsky

Las Vegas