Mexican president calls out Americans — and Obama agrees
To the editor:
It should outrage every American to watch the president of Mexico stand outside the White House and condemn U.S. immigration laws when Mexico's immigration laws are much more stringent than ours.
It was thoroughly disgusting to hear Felipe Calderon's comments on the White House lawn, and then his speech to Congress, and watch our president agreeing with him.
It was also a sad display to see all the Democrats in Congress stand up and applaud the Mexican president's speech. Each and every Republican should have stood up and walked out of this terrible display of anti-Americanism in the U.S. Congress.
I believe the signers of the Declaration of Independence -- including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin -- are all rolling over in their graves knowing what this country has become under the terrible leadership of Barack Obama.
Stephen J. Chiarello
Henderson
Election plan
To the editor:
A California corporation is meddling in Nevada's upcoming Republican primary.
The Tea Party Express, formerly called The Our Country Deserves Better PAC, has told Danny Tarkanian to drop out and let Sharron Angle or Sue Lowden run against Sen. Harry Reid in November.
Consider the absurdity.
Most any candidate for any office has a competitive streak, and Mr. Tarkanian is far from an exception. After campaigning for about 10 months, with two weeks left before the primary, do you really expect the former All-American basketball player to walk away? Further, they suggest he throw his support to Sharron Angle, who could conceivably have less support than him, little campaign infrastructure and almost no scrutiny to date.
This because some faceless out-of-state group says so?
Politico reports that Kelly Eustis, who was fired from his job as the Our Country Deserves Better political director in October, said that while he was at Our Country Deserves Better, his colleagues regarded the Tea Party as "a brand name. We stole the brand name to make money." The PAC's income quadrupled after pilfering the Tea Party identity.
The impetus behind the directive for Mr. Tarkanian was a poll that showed Sharron Angle leading in the GOP senatorial primary with 29 percent, Sue Lowden at 26 percent and Danny Tarkanian at 24 percent. The three leading candidates are within 5 percentage points of each other, close to a statistical tie.
So this poll of 561 Nevadans is the basis for the Tea Party Express to point Mr. Tarkanian to the exit. The Tea Party Express (not to be confused with the Tea Party movement) cites the $836,000 Mr. Tarkanian has spent as of March 31. This figure makes the case for Mr. Tarkanian to remain in the race and shows that he is a viable candidate with a large donor base. Like the other two leading candidates, he has a good chance to win and would be formidable in the general election against Sen. Reid. He is a conservative, has performed credibly in the debates and has ads on TV and radio. There is no good reason for him to drop out.
Dean Stump
Henderson
On drugs
To the editor:
The Friday letter from William C. Dwyer is just another example of the antiquated, naive thinking about how to handle the drug problem in the United States. Americans recently learned that the so-called "War on Drugs" has been a miserable failure. (What is the quote attributed to Albert Einstein regarding the definition of insanity?)
As for Mr. Dwyer's second paragraph, I imagine teetotalers made the same arguments in support of Prohibition.
Now look at just the Las Vegas landscape. There is a "maze" of places that serve alcohol where one can drop in and drop out for awhile and -- in many of these bars -- also gamble.
Mr. Dwyer also states, "Studies have shown doing drugs is generally not good for your health." He's not talking about the occasional toke, now. Hello, Mr. Dwyer, alcohol (and cigarettes) have a much greater negative effect on the human body than marijuana. Would Mr. Dwyer rather have a confrontation with an angry, belligerent drunk or an angry belligerent pot smoker?
Finally, Mr. Dwyer asks, "Want your bus driver, pilot, teacher or cops getting buzzed while on the job?" I don't know what world Mr. Dwyer lives in, but this happens all the time already. How many times do we hear about airline pilots being drunk? Just as dangerous as a drunken driver are those who text and drive.
Imagine what happens with legalization: drugs off the streets, crime reduced, no more neighborhoods taken over by drug dealers, only those 21 or older can purchase, a set of safety standards would be created, farmers no longer needing farm subsidies with this new cash crop, jobs created with this new American industry, more private money being pumped into the economy instead of going to drug cartels and possibly funding terrorist organizations, and, oh yeah, the tax benefits across the board.
Yes, there will be those who abuse drugs, just like there are those who do with alcohol, gambling or any other addiction you can name. But some of that tax money generated from the sale of drugs will be funneled into recovery and education programs to help those who are addicted.
Matt Byrne
Las Vegas
Natural gas
To the editor;
Remember when the government decided to change over to unleaded gasoline? They picked a date and made the car manufacturers and oil companies comply.
Now it is time to do something like this again.
We could sit around and dither over what type of ecologically advanced car should be "the one," but in the meantime, the government should mandate that, by July 1, 2018, all new vehicles sold in the United States have a minimum capability of using natural gas for fuel.
In other words, every car sold in the United States from that point on would not use gasoline for its fuel.
You may scoff at the ability of the government to get this done, but car manufacturers already have the ability to build this type of vehicle. Also, there are already fuel stations that carry natural gas.
What are the benefits?
-- No more dependence on foreign oil, except for lubrication.
-- No more price gouging by OPEC.
-- Time for us to develop future, energy-independent technology to better fuel our vehicles, while saving in the meantime.
-- We have plenty of natural gas right here.
The sooner we get started, the sooner we start saving money on fuel, and the sooner we stop funding the terrorists who are getting part of their funding from the oil profits in the Middle East.
Bill Brzezinski
North Las Vegas
