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4A Daily News – Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Opinion Endorsements for the June 5 Primary Election DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY 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 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. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. 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 Editor's Note: The following opinion piece was written by columnist Richard Mazzucchi and does not represent the Daily News' views of the election. United States 1st Congres- sional District Represen- tative: Jim Reed Jim Reed's key con- cerns include fairness to the middle class by saving Social Security and Medicare; equality of income tax rates for work- ing men and women with investors making more than $200,000; and pro- moting investments in American companies while limiting gambling on the stock market. As a moderate, Jim will speak in Washington for the peo- ple of the District, rather than political parties or special interest groups as was the practice of his conservative predecessor. advocates for clean energy expan- sion and energy efficiency now to create jobs quickly and as the only responsible path until nuclear fusion becomes available. addition protection and conserva- tion of Northern Cali- fornia water and its aquifers are among his highest priorities. Because this coun- In Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point focus will be on creating local jobs and ending bipartisan bickering to find a middle ground to get our government working again. Jim is the only front-running candidate for this position to advo- cate for clean water, clean air, and clean energy knowing that global warming is a real cause for con- cern and that climate change must be controlled by evolving our ener- gy and environmental policies. He His try farmer also has a thorough understand- ing of tax policy by serving as a tax attor- ney, your vote for Jim Reed will help to restore sanity to feder- al taxation and confi- dence in our federal governance. Calif or nia Assembly District 3: Charles Rouse orchard in Corning for 36 years and raised three children there. Charles is also a retired postal worker having been employed for many years as the Rural Carrier out of Gerber in the El Camino District. His wife, that everyone calls Angie, is retired from 22 years of being a Court Clerk in the Superior Court in Red Bluff. Charles graduated from Occiden- tal College in Los Angeles, the same college that President Charles and his wife Angelica have farmed a small olive Obama attended, and now serves as Vice President and Director of the Corning Healthcare District, where he has been member of the Board of Directors for five years. Charles is a middle of the road pragmatic Democrat that is tired of American politics as a jousting match between hard left and hard right. His campaign slogan "Prac- tical solutions for real world prob- lems," speaks to the need for prac- tical solutions to the vexing prob- lems facing the California legisla- ture. First on his agenda is the examination of issues of public safety, especially funding for police and sheriff's departments and for our fire departments. The education of our children is also a big priority where we need teach- ers working in the classrooms, not standing in unemployment lines. Because the allocation of scarce resources needs a lot of careful thought by people with roots in our community, literally, Charles Rouse deserves your vote. United States Senator: Dianne Feinstein Dianne knows full-well that these are difficult times for our state and our nation. The economy, while in the early days of a recov- ery, is emerging from one of the worst recessions in American his- tory and the country faces critical economic and national security challenges throughout the world. At this time California needs proven leadership in the US Senate that is prepared to meet those chal- lenges. Her number one priority is to bring stability to California's and the nation's economy by sup- porting sensible measures to grow the economy like payroll tax cuts, a refinancing plan to help home- owners with their mortgages and end the epidemic of foreclosures in our state, a much needed infra- structure plan to create jobs, sup- port for teacher and first responder salaries, and tax credits for employers to hire unemployed vet- erans and the long term unem- ployed. She is also deeply committed to protecting the Social Security and Medicare programs that are so vital to our seniors. The Senate Intelligence Committee, of which she is the Chairman, is run in a non-partisan manner, making it more effective in protecting the nation's security, disrupting terror- ist activity, and providing critical oversight of the 16 agencies of the Intelligence Community. As a member of the Judiciary Commit- tee, she will remain vigilant in safeguarding the civil rights of all our citizens and protect a woman's right to choose against all assaults. Since Dianne possess the know-how, experience, and com- mitment to make a difference for California, Dianne Feinstein deserves continuing support as the Senior Senator from California. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. 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. Climate change baloney; tolerating detractors da note: Tonight, you will see a pre- sentation on DVD of Sheriff Joe Arapaio of Maricopa County, Ari- zona, who is an embattled fighter for the rule of law when it comes to illegal aliens. As stated at "Ameri- cans for Sheriff Joe" website, "Barack Obama, George Soros, 'La Raza' and the entire liberal political establishment has launched a multi-million dollar campaign to destroy 'America's Toughest Sheriff.' The title of the video is "Can you handle the truth: a question of eligibility". My enviro-liberal antagonist routinely provides readers with his case for "renewable" solar energy as part of a larger agenda to reduce pollution and control the earth's cli- mate. I'll not get into the tall weeds on the whole global warming/cli- mate change debate, but I'll refer readers to my blog, "Polecat News and Views" (at Daily News web- site, or enter "donpolson.blogspot.com" in a search window). There are, if you click on the "global warming" link on the right side, under "labels," 220 separate articles with source links that will help you to become far more informed on the topic than the other writer on this page. Posted last Saturday, an inter- Tea Party Patriots meeting agen- his scientific view: "Ten years ago I simply parroted what the IPCC told us. One day I started checking the facts and data – first I started with a sense of doubt but then I became outraged when I discovered that much of what the IPCC and the media were telling us was sheer nonsense and was not even sup- ported by any scientific facts and measurements. To this day I still feel shame that as a scientist I made presentations of their science with- out first checking it." You will find brief but conclu- sive answers to many of the core issues in the climate debate, such as "So we don't need to do anything against climate change?" Puls: "There's nothing we can do to stop it. Scientifically it is sheer absurdity to think we can get a nice climate by turning a CO2 adjust- ment knob. Many confuse environ- mental protection with climate pro- tection. It's impossible to protect the climate, but we can protect the environment and our drinking water. On the debate concerning alternative energies, which is sensi- ble, it is often driven by the irra- tional climate debate. One has nothing to do with the other." On that issue of pollution, some view by Swiss magazine "factum," with Klaus-Eckart Puls, "a German physicist and meteorologist who investigated the underpinnings of global warming hysteria and was horrified at how unscientific the global warming advocates are." The title, "The Belief That CO2 Can Regulate Climate Is 'Sheer Absurdity,'" succinctly summarizes hard facts that you might find sur- prising and counterintuitive consid- ering the tsunami of so-called established conventional wisdom propagated by the media and our schools: Since 1970, the six so- called "criteria pollutants" have declined by 63 percent, even though the generation of electricity from coal-fired plants has increased by over 180 percent, gross domes- tic product has increased by 204 percent, energy consumption has increased by 40 percent, and vehi- cle miles traveled have increased by 168 percent. (Institute for Energy Research relying on the Environmental Protection Agency's document "Air Quality Trends") Yes, everything that should, according to the environmentalists, lead to increased levels of pollu- tion, have accompanied lower levels of pollution. Great news, right? Con- sider that "Energy use per person in the United States fell 12 percent between 1979 and 2010 … and that energy intensi- ty – energy consumption per dollar of GDP – fell by 52 percent between 1973 and 2011." (IER's source: Energy Infor- mation Administration, www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data) America's energy use has become much more efficient over recent decades. Finally, Mr. Mazzucchi appar- ently insists on threatening his detractors with thinly-veiled legal action; I must directly address such threats. RM: "While everyone is entitled to their opinions they should be prefaced and considered as such, otherwise they are legally considered slander or libel respec- tively and can be adjudicated as such. I have a thick skin, but will not sit by idly as my character is assassinated or my intentions mis- construed," which apparently con- sists of "declaring in print or orally that a particular individual is inten- tionally misleading or worse yet lying to others when in fact that is not the case." Don Polson The way I see it sively copy others, or use foul, derogatory, racist or violent lan- guage." Your remedy, sir, is to "flag questionable posts and click on the 'Report' box by the comments." The Daily News production staff will review your complaint, and if they agree, it will be deleted. If not, you will kindly live with it. Of course, the editor will exercise his discretion when it comes to letters from the public and you will kindly live with that, also. If that all becomes onerous, you may wish to no longer write, but in seven years, I have found I can live with the slings, arrows and brickbats. I sug- gest the same for you. have no legal recourse whatsoever against any- one saying anything about a particular columnist's statements or opinions in his col- umn; making false accusations about someone's personal or business activities may qualify as slander or libel, not about what they write. Period! Mr. Mazzucchi, please note that there are simple rules for online com- ments: "DON'T: attack others, make unverified factual claims, exces- Readers, columnists Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.