Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/381658
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 Therearealotofoffensivewaystoobserve 9/11. A yoga studio near DC offered a 20 per- cent off sale ("9 + 11 = 20 percent off"), and a sex toy company soberly tweeted remem- brance of "those lost, & honor those still fighting for freedom." Butthemostoff-putting way to remember the terror- ist attacks on 9/11 was by Rep. Louie Gohmert, who thinks of Sep. 11 as the anniversary of Benghazi, or as he says it, "Benghazi!!" If this were a just world in which a person was judged by his merits and rose in life accordingly, Louie Gohmert would be relegated to writing the sorts of letters to the ed- itor that are never published. He is a cranky man who needs no tin foil to achieve flights of self-assured delusion. He should be mowing lawns for a living and attending John Birch meetings in the eve- nings. But he's from East Texas, so he's a congressman. It's guys like Gohmert who have earned Congress record- low approval ratings, lower even than colonoscopies, head lice and root canals. Of course, liberals have their cra- zies, too. Go to any precinct meeting, and you'll encoun- ter earnest activists in bedaz- zled sweatshirts who will in- sist that George W. Bush al- lowed 9/11 to happen so that he could invade Iraq so Hal- liburton could get the oil to make Dick Cheney wealthier. But we don't elect these peo- ple to Congress. Republican primary vot- ers have decided to treat the United States House of Rep- resentatives like a tea party meeting and have turned the gavel over to folks like Gohm- ert, who believe—despite all documented evidence to the contrary—there remain le- gitimate questions about the president's birthplace. Gohmert's crowd is called the Tortilla Coast Caucus after the Capitol Hill Tex-Mex res- taurant where they meet with Ted Cruz to hatch really bril- liant ideas like shutting down the government and default- ing on our debt. But even in this cabal of wizened souls, Gohmert stands out as the one who insisted to CNN's An- derson Cooper that pregnant terrorists were sneaking into our country to give birth to "terror babies" who could one day come back with American passports to kill us all. In Gohmert's world, the Benghazi attack is ground zero for Obama's political mal- feasance, the secret sin that deserves ALL CAPS COVER- AGE at the next congressional hearing that starts Sep. 17. "This administration needs to be held accountable, and we still need answers," he said at a press conference of the Benghazi Accountability Co- alition. Gohmert and many on the right believe that Barack Obama and Democrats cov- ered up treasonous acts for political reasons, even though it was the Romney campaign that politicized Benghazi by holding a campaign press con- ference before the bodies were counted, much less buried. Gohmert's questions have been asked in five previous congressional hearings. In Au- gust, the bipartisan House In- telligence Committee cleared the Obama administration of "deliberate wrongdoing" in Benghazi. The State Depart- ment's independent investi- gation, the House Armed Ser- vices Committee and the Sen- ate Select Committee have all debunked the fever dreams about "stand down" orders and other Republican myths. There is no "there" there, yet here we are again, con- demned to a travel an infinite Fox News feedback loop until conservatives find the moral courage to shout down the Benghazi wing of their party. The sad fact is that one con- sequence of the United States having a global reach is that we're attacked globally. Un- der Bush, there were 13 fatal attacks on our embassies and consulates. When we are at- tacked, we are all attacked, and we should stop acting like partisans and start acting like patriots. The attack on our con- sulate in Benghazi was one such attack, and it was not a small event, but the Repub- lican rush to judgment that Obama had a political mo- tive in his response that con- tinues to this day is small and petty. The continuing Repub- lican attack on Benghazi ele- vates lunacy to equal stand- ing with the facts, prevent- ing us from dealing rationally with the real world. It's time for Republicans to put Gohm- ert down in front of the car- toons with a juice box. We've got enough real problems in the world without making up fake ones. JasonStanfordisaregu- lar contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, a Dem- ocratic consultant and a Tru- man National Security Proj- ect partner. You can email him at stanford@oppresearch.com and follow him on Twitter @ JasStanford. Jason Stanford Time for GOP to deal with Gohmert Cartoonist's take MATSON The Tea Party Patriots will host both Sandy Bruce and Candy Carlson, runoff candi- dates for District 2 Supervisor, to- night at 6:30 at the Westside Grange; they will each give a state- ment and answer questions. There sure is a lot of news that accumulates over the course of 2 months of vacation-held Daily News issues. Even utiliz- ing the "epageflip" digital ver- sion doesn't allow for the time to grasp many articles' newswor- thiness. So it was that the head- line "No more popping tags on Main" from July 10 failed to con- vey a rather blatant lesson on life in the "happy volunteer work- ers paradise" of California, as well as a larger revelation on the sheer hypocrisy of the counter- productive over-regulation of the private sector. Hint: this would not happen under the purview of the State of Jefferson. There should be some clear lessons for our liberal friends over the inflexibility of labor laws and regulations as applied to service and charitable oper- ations. Whatever happened to the America that French ob- server Alexis de Tocqueville found in the 1800s? He mar- veled at the ability, eagerness and effectiveness of private cit- izens volunteering to organize and marshal themselves into ad hoc groups to resolve prob- lems—meet social needs—with- out waiting for a governmental entity to tell them what to do. In the case of the Poor And The Homeless organization, its thrift store served the dual pur- pose of providing both a cash flow for PATH, as well as op- portunities for those struggling to integrate into a productive role in society; they learn ba- sic skills that could serve their move into the mainstream economy. No one should be- grudge such groups the where- withal to fashion a "path" for making such efforts work for all involved. Enter inflexible, man- dated labor regulations, rules and bureaucrats whose exis- tence depends on pronouncing and proclaiming what shall be, regardless of practicality and efficaciousness. There is no more reason for forcing such volunteer-fu- eled operations to meet the Di- vision of Labor Standards En- forcement minimum wage rules than there is for forc- ing those same minimum wage rules onto businesses hiring un- skilled teenagers whose eco- nomic worth is a fraction of what they must be paid. Oh, but that's a whole different situa- tion, some on the left will say. Well, the way I see it, the insti- tutional left—in the form of ad- vocacy groups, academic insti- tutions, environmental outfits, etc.—depends on the whole "in- tern" (meaning unpaid) staffing concept. Maybe PATH should just call them "interns." Even groups whose purpose, at least in part, is to agitate and demonstrate for such loony con- cepts as a "$15 minimum/liv- ing wage" have unpaid interns. Graduate students at our pre- dominantly liberal/left-leaning universities instruct students so that tenured, highly-paid pro- fessors needn't actually teach all their classes. A truism oft stated is that if someone will learn to make themselves worth more than they are being paid, they will eventually be paid more than they are worth. Only a small minority of workers remains in the low- est rungs of the economy their whole lives. It is patently obvi- ous that when minimum wage and other labor laws impose an artificial floor for compensation (that many are not worth), they don't get the basic skills and habits that help them advance to higher paying positions. Hence, liberal inspired laws de- signed to artificially compen- sate entry-level workers have the unintended effect of depriv- ing those same unskilled peo- ple of the very skills they need to start to advance in life. All I can say is "good luck" to the vol- unteers that will now have little or no "path" to gain what they need to reintegrate in a self- supporting way into society. On another topic, sometimes I really doubt that leftist advo- cates have the slightest sense of their own hypocritical sil- liness. Some anonymous (of course) online commenter ac- tually stated that I've become "disloyal and unpatriotic" for my "partisan bickering against a freely elected leader of this country…" I'm wearing my best imitation of Jon Stewart's funny/mocking face. Does any- one remember when the Dem- ocrat left injected lie after lie after lie into the public debate about President George Bush? Some of those lies were fully intended to undermine our de- ployed military as well as re- cruiting efforts here at home. They were the kind of lies that, in WWII, were part of the "To- kyo Rose" and "Axis Sally" pro- paganda efforts to demoralize our troops and aviators. Does anyone remember "the war is lost" and "the surge has failed" rhetoric? Then the left, faced with legitimate criticism for such irresponsible claims, ac- cused us of "questioning their patriotism," even when not one Republican ever actually did. So, I will happily, gleefully throw these words back at such leftist trash-talkers: "I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, some- how you're not patriotic. And we should stand up and say, 'We are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.'" A shrill, screaming Hillary Clinton, April 28, 2003, Hartford, Connecticut. Please spare us your hypocriti- cal double standard, leftists. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it State undermines volunteer, entry-level opportunities The sad fact is that one consequence of the United States having a global reach is that we're attacked globally. ... When we are attacked, we are all attacked, and we should stop acting like partisans and start acting like patriots. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Thank you for posting this picture of our 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony. Carla Fultz: On coverage of the 9/11 ceremony held Thursday morning in downtown Red Bluff Why not partner with some local groups instead of making it harder for them to get involved. Linda Hayes: On Lassen Park's request for public input on trails plans for Bumpass Hell Don Polson There should be some clear lessons for our liberal friends over the inflexibility of labor laws and regulations as applied to service and charitable operations. Assemblyman Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217 Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Contact your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, September 16, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6