Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/311292
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Better economic data should help persuade voters in November that President Barack Obama's policies and necessary health care system revisions are good for medicine for our ailing economy and help Democrats hold onto the Senate and limit losses in the House. Republicans would rather rehash their specious diatribes about the evils of Obamacare, press releases following the Bengazi tragedy, and continue a witch hunt of IRS employees that questioned the tax deductibility of conservative political groups. Although the economy far outweighs these political distractions in polls of top concerns, Democrats may be well advised to downplay the economic improvements. Somesayitisbad for Democrats to make the argument the econ- omy is improving and they should instead fo- cus on promoting ways to further improve the economy like raising the minimum wage, provid- ing affordable college education and closing the pay gap between men and women. That's because even though the national data is pointing higher, many American voters still see an economic landscape lit- tered with long-term jobless- ness, stagnant wages and ex- cessive personal debt, partic- ularly in rural areas such as ours. So politicians who might have been expected to trum- pet how the nation has emerged from the worst recession since the 1930s are wise to focus on improvements still to be made rather than the better data for the economy as a whole. Between now and Elec- tion Day on Nov. 4, the battle for the Senate largely will be fought in Louisiana, North Car- olina, Alaska, Arkansas and New Hampshire where the big prize in November's elections is control of the Senate, as Re- publicans see 2014 as their best chance in years to end the ma- jority control Democrats have enjoyed since 2007. In Loui- siana and New Hampshire, it would seem as if a 4.5 percent unemployment rate ought to hearten Democratic candidates but if it does, they are not ac- knowledging it. Asked about the possibility of a buffed-up economy improv- ing her re-election prospects, Louisiana's Democratic Senate candidate says, "It's not going to change anything about my campaign." She added, "I'm go- ing to continue to run hard and not take anything for granted." When the New Hampshire can- didate was asked about eco- nomic indicators that normally would make a politician smile, she said: "One of the things I continue to hear from people is concern about the economy, about jobs, about student loans, about...retirement." She added that her campaign will focus on how she has tried to tackle those problems. While Republicans are ex- pected to maintain their hold in the House of Representatives, and possibly expand it as mid- term elections typically favor the party not in control of the White House, they aren't letting the positive data stop them from attacking Democrats' record on the economy. Representative Paul Ryan, the unsuccessful Re- publican vice presidential can- didate in 2012 and leading voice on conservative budget and eco- nomic matters believes we are five years into Obamanomics and the economy is not improv- ing despite factual data to the contrary. I mean why would he let inconvenient facts derail his fairy tale economic views so long as die hard Tea Party voters blindly support anything that Obama is not? Along those lines, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who faces a tough re-election battle in Ken- tucky this year, regularly talks about "the sorry state of the economy" un- der Obama. Some Democratic candidates including Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, say it would be a "huge mistake" to ignore the economy's improvements during this year's campaigns. "I personally think it's very im- portant that Democrats talk about how we're making prog- ress on the economy because if we don't, who will?,'' he said. "If we don't, people will continue to believe" Republican claims that there has been no improve- ment, he said. Consumer con- fidence already is building, ac- cording to surveys, and job cre- ation has been showing gains. There were 8.8 million jobs lost during the deep recession that began in December 2007. Now, employment is accelerat- ing, with 9.2 million jobs added since February 2010, according to government figures. Mean- while, the national unemploy- ment rate has declined to a 5- year low of 6.3 percent from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009. Local voters will have little say in what happens in the piv- otal Senate races but can help shift the balance in the House of Representatives by sup- porting Heidi Hall to replace Doug LaMalfa this November. While Doug claims he is "one of us," I know that far more of you can identify with Heidi who does not benefit from mil- lions of government subsidy dollars and feels the pain of those without jobs, education, and entitlement. In any event please be grateful for the good economic trends as our econ- omy mends. RichardMazzucchiisaretiredre- search engineer specializing in en- ergy efficiency and renewable en- ergy. He has travelled extensively and now makes his home in Los Molinos, where he is striving to manifest a sustainable and spir- itual lifestyle and operate a bar- becue equipment and supply busi- ness. He can be reached at living- green@att.net. Richard Mazzucchi Good trends as our economy mends Cartoonist's take Every local event that puts candidates in front of the citizens whose votes they seek illus- trates the core of our Constitutional represen- tative democracy; I have to give a big thumbs-up to the Tea Party Patri- ots for their candidates' forum. The able, affable and fair-to-all MC Cal Hunter kept the pace moving and the questions con- cise and relevant to the office be- ing sought. Submitting written questions rather than providing an open microphone may have crimped some attendees' style; however, it was a blessing to ev- eryone's patience to filter out queries on federal-centric issues and the inevitable speechifying that sometimes occurs. As the evening proceeded, the questions and answers left some issues out. While saying you sup- port the 2nd Amendment is up there with "Mom" and apple pie, and since the issue is decided in Washington, D.C., Sacramento and the judicial branch, it would be more informative to voters if candidates for Supervisor were asked if they support "shall is- sue" policies regarding permits for "carrying concealed weap- ons" (or CCW). I challenge all such candi- dates to let voters know their po- sition. I would hope the ques- tion is not obscure to them, and I would hope for a firm and vigor- ous answer supporting local law enforcement presuming in favor of providing law-abiding citizens the permit to carry their choice of legally purchased firearms for their own protection. There should simply be no hoops to jump through or verifiable threat to a citizen's safety to be able to legally carry a handgun. For the Clerk-Recorder posi- tion, I would like candidates to state their position on pro-ac- tively purging deceased voters from the voting rolls. While the subject of "voter ID" is not de- cided at the local level, in defer- ence to state and judicial author- ity, I would like to know if their bias is for or against seeing iden- tification similar to that needed to, say, open a checking account or use a credit card, or even (here's the irony) to enter Eric Holder's Justice Department or many federal offices or events. Do such candi- dates feel it is as great a miscarriage of justice for someone to illegally vote, thus canceling another's legally cast ballot, as it is for someone to be disen- franchised of their vote? From candidates for Superin- tendent of Schools, I would like to know if, in their many years in their classrooms and offices, have they been aware of the incompe- tent teachers as well as the good and excellent ones? It's incompre- hensible that, in any profession, let alone the teaching field where ed- ucation and training thresholds are, reportedly, considerably lower than business or technical fields, there are not those performing be- low the necessary standards for continued employment. Surely, the two Superintendent candidates have witnessed teachers whose performance should have cried out for termination. Surely, they must have real- ized that bad teachers do a dis- service to students, parents, and, ultimately, our nation's economic success, by turning out ill-edu- cated and even illiterate gradu- ates—not in Tehama County, to be fair, but certainly elsewhere. More to the point (acknowledg- ing the inevitable presence of in- competent teachers), have they seen terminations resulting from substandard performance? Have they witnessed teachers' union support for removal of bad teach- ers, some with nearly criminal levels of misconduct? Or has the reverse been the case: removing a bad teacher is fought, with almost ferocious tenacity, by the union that ought to have the students' best interest in mind? Stories abound where teachers are sim- ply transferred, paid lump sums to leave, or assigned to perma- nently vacant "study halls," with no stain upon their record. In- quiring minds might like to know. Finally, for Supervisor candi- dates, I would expect a clear an- swer on the issue of the Bend Recreation Area, under the Bu- reau of Land Management's ad- ministration, which was proposed years ago, approved by a divided Board of Supervisors, and drew much opposition from those sus- picious of the kind graces of the BLM. It never went further when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2010 and put such empire-building ef- forts on hold; their agenda was to shut down Sen. Diane Feinstein's project over her lack of sufficient concern for existing property and usage rights and future compro- mises of same. The way I see it, anyone wanting that county elec- tive position ought to be able to tell voters that, in light of BLM's record of abuse of ranchers, they would not vote for the Bend Rec- reation Area unless hard-and-fast protections for rights and usage by locals was etched in stone. Correction note: It doesn't surprise me to find that, with limited time and 800+ words of space, I conveyed a less-than- thorough summary of the ori- gins of land for western states. Thankfully, Mr. Janot made the effort to fill out the record and note my errors. What remains irrefutable is that, while mis- management occurred before 1934, we now have gross, institu- tional mismanagement favoring species, habitat and trees rotting on the ground in the service of radical, environmental—mean- ing anti-any-traditional-use of resources—land grabbing in the west, including closed trails and roads. Federal land should be re- turned to local and state control, benefiting our economies and budgets, period. Readers may have noted that, once again, left- ists simply cannot argue issues without adding snide insults and personal attacks. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com. Don Polson Questions for candidates on guns, teachers and the BLM Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Some of our local Los Molinos businesses take part in the (Tehama) Trail so we should support them. Fun time. Los Molinos Chamber: Preview of Tehama Trail Passport Weekend June 7-8 This is what the article says but they just said via (Facebook) they are open. I don't think I would want to be there with armed guards around. Greta Corbin: Story on casino dispute in which one faction claimed casino was shut down Richard Mazzucchi Don Polson While Doug (LaMalfa) claims he is "one of us," I know that far more of you can identify with Heidi (Hall) who does not benefit from millions of government subsidy dollars and feels the pain of those without jobs, education, and entitlement. Surely, they must have realized that bad teachers do a disservice to students, parents, and, ultimately, our nation's economic success, by turning out ill-educated and even illiterate graduates. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, May 13, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6 ★