Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/258322
6A Daily News – Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Opinion A politically weakened Presi- dent Obama (polls show the low- est approval of his term; 63 per- cent have no confidence he would make the right decision—on any- thing) says, "We're not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we're pro- viding Americans the kind of help they need. I've got a pen and I've got a phone." Apparently, his prior position, "I am not a dictator," has morphed far beyond President Bush's signing statements, hyster- ical castigations over a "unitary executive" (Bush, again) or simply allotting limited resources to poli- cy priorities. The new, emboldened Obama has no regrets over dismissing the Constitution's absolute legislative power in Congress, or the Presi- dential duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." He could say "I've got a pen and I've got a sword," since Obama's "dic- tates" now have federal regulatory sovereignty, thanks to a century of executive overreach, and S.W.A.T.-team-endowed, liberal- judge-approved federal suprema- cy. The brilliant writer, professor and farmer Victor Davis Hanson, wrote "Governing by Pen and Phone." It's a devastating and trou- bling take on the despotic evolu- tion of Obama's desperate efforts to accomplish that which the elec- torate fails to provide legislative authority for: sweeping "transfor- mation" of America's free market, capitalist economy. In the past, patriotism was "the last refuge of a scoundrel." The "kids" and the "folks" now justify nearly limitless executive initiatives and orders (get it? "orders") by someone who is far worse than a scoundrel: a populist demagogue with no com- punctions against using federal agencies and departments to pun- ish and intimidate his political opponents. Obama: "And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive action and administra- tive actions that move the ball for- ward …" The cynical but accurate observation would be that the fed- eral government has, for decades, inserted its grubby taxing and reg- ulatory hands into the affairs of businesses, industries and the peo- ple's governments of the 50 states, diminishing and degrading all it touches. Having wrought its destructive will, the liberal mono- lith, in the person of Barack Obama and his Democrat syco- phants, foolishly, arrogantly pro- pose—no, mandate—that illusive solutions and fixes reside in yet another bit of tinkering. When tin- kering fails, wholesale restructur- ing (Obamacare, Dodd-Frank), i.e. "transforming," is called for, not by the aforementioned businesses, industries and people's govern- ments but rather by the ideologues, fanatics and devotees of central- ized planning and power. VDH: "There are lots of creepy things about such dictatorial state- ments of moving morally back- ward in order to go politically 'for- ward.'" Obama had a Democratic Congress ready to pass his pet agenda—climate change, gun control, de facto amnesty and mas- sive borrowing to jump-start the anemic, jobless recovery. Instead, his Democrat col- leagues gave him massive borrow- ing and deficits, results-deficient stimulus spending galore, and Obamacare. "In the case of the lat- ter, the bill passed only through the sort of pork-barrel kickbacks and exemptions to woo fence-sitting Democratic legislators that we hadn't seen in the U.S, since the 1930s. And for what? Obamacare (be careful what you wish for) is proving to be the greatest boondoggle in American political history since Prohibition." I find that case easily made through the voluminous disclo- sures of epic failure, cor- ruption, manipulation and disappointment over broken promises. When it comes to the "kids," how's that work- ing out? Talk's cheap but results shout. Older Americans will die off long before Obama's $9 trillion added debt must be paid off. Anyone care to guess how much income a young person will "contribute" in taxes, rather than spend as they wish, to repay the debt? Making it an even tougher burden, Obama-crat poli- cies "socializing the economy" have the combined effect of near- record youth and minority unem- ployment, together with dimin- ished prospects as employers shed full-time workers and shift health insurance costs to those now- underemployed workers. The Obamacare "premiums," taxes effectively, are far greater for the "poorer youth who will not use much health care to pay for the more affluent baby boomers who will." Induced by easy federal stu- dent loans, young students have provided the monetary incentive for mostly liberal universities to jack up tuition at well above the rate of inflation, creating a $1 tril- lion debt bubble. "We are reentering Nixonian times, or perhaps worse, given that a free press at least went after Nixon's misdeeds and misadven- tures." Currently, we hear barely peeps from the media crowd that fears harming "a once- in-a-lifetime chance for a fellow progressive's makeover of America." A CNN moderator injected fallacious talk- ing points into a debate to support Obama's position. A New Yorker writer penned a fawn- ing 17,000 word inter- view after tagging along on a jet tour from "one mansion of the crony capitalists to the next—as Obama preaches to the head- nodders about inequali- ty and fairness in order to ensure that the bun- dled checks pour in." So-called "bridge-gate" gar- nered more breathless coverage in one day than the IRS targeting of Tea Party conservatives did in 6 months. The media is even less interested in the hypocrisy that the IRS has sought to expand its suppression of the same groups for the 2014 elections. Neither are they interested in conserva- tive filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza (he made the critical documen- tary, "Obama's America") being indicted, effectively persecuted, for raising a relative pittance of campaign cash for a college friend. No Obama critic or oppo- nent is assured of being left alone. Tyranny springs forth just so. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com. Obama taking action for 'kids' and 'folks' Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Don Polson The way I see it STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558- 3160; E-mail: governor@gov- ernor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Wash- ington, DC 20515, 202-225- 3076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393- 0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Your officials No matter who you are or where you live or what you drive or whether you thought "The Eng- lish Patient" or "Anchorman 2" the funnier movie, it is time to take a stand on plastic bread. Here's a hint: most of us are against it. Formaldehyde rinsed coffee beans? Not big fans. Flame retardants in our cupcakes? That's a big old negativo, Breaker One. And pink slime should be featured in horror films, not meat. These heartfelt proclamations result from the wake of recent rev- elations that the Subway sand- wich chain uses the chemical, azodicarbonamide, in its bread. Azodicarbonamide is an additive whose principle use lies in the production of plastic foam prod- ucts like yoga mats and sneaker soles. Not quite what you'd expect from the company that grew to 41,000 stores by being the healthy alternative. Hey Jared, when did you guys change the motto to "Eat Fresh Plastic?" This culinary confession has prompted reactions just a wee tad less hysterical than a carload of pre- school Catholic girls flying off a roller coaster into the pig- pens of the Nevada State Fair. "SUBWAY BREAD IS SNEAK- ERS, PEOPLE! YOU'RE EAT- ING SNEAKERS!" Settle down folks. You can find all sorts of stuff in our food. Cel- lulose, which is wood fiber. Hor- mones. Rodent hairs. Metal shav- ings. Dwarf goat beard trimmings. What part of the chicken you think the McNugget comes from? And don't forget that most omnipresent chemical of them all: the dreaded dihydrogen monox- ide, often nicknamed... H2O. There's a chemical known as castoreum that is used in raspber- ry and vanilla flavorings. The way castoreum is harvested is by extracting the juice from the anal glands of beavers. Nope. Not kid- ding. And you think your job sucks. Now, who first discovered that the juice of the anal glands of beavers tastes like raspberries has been lost in the sands of time- probably a good thing. But it does lead one to suspect the trappers of yesteryear were a whole lot braver and infinitely more curious than first imagined, and apparently had a huge amount of time on their hands. Not to mention a thin patina of something vaguely vanilla-ish. Thing is, you take all the chemicals out of food, they'd be the wrong color, rot in 6 hours and that quarter pounder would have to be market- ed as a 2.5 ouncer. There's only two ways to ensure your digestive tract is unsullied by taint- ed food. Grow your own or stop eating. The beau- ty of the latter is being able to fit into fashion- ably thin clothes. During that brief pre-dead peri- od. Both castoreum and azodicarbonamide are classified by the FDA as GRAS. Generally Recognized as Safe. Which seems a rather unexacting measurement where our children's food is concerned. For years Rock Hudson was GR as straight. Pluto - GR as being a planet. Trickle down economics- GRABS. This public relations nightmare couldn't come at a worse time for Subway, whose foot long sand- wiches were recently measured at 11 inches. Absent one angry inch. Or maybe the foot they're referring to relates to the sneak- er soles. Rather than run- ning away from the controversy, the sand- wich maker needs to double down, by sell- ing the American pub- lic (because they can't use it in the bread of foreign countries) azodicarbonamide as a low- fat, self- cleans- ing miracle additive. "Subway: Home of the Shiny Clean Colon." Will Durst is a nationally acclaimed, award-winning political comic. Go to willdurst.com to find about more about his new CD, "Elect to Laugh," and calendar of personal appearances including "Boomeraging: From LSD to OMG." Email Will at durst@caglecartoons.com. Subway: Eat fresh plastic Will Durst Raging Moderate