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6A Daily News – Thursday, August 9, 2012 Opinion 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. 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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 Romney is seemingly fixated on apologies. He's obsessed with apologies like Bristol Palin is obsessed with teen abstinence—like BP is obsessed with clean energy— Marcus Bachmann with cur- ing homosexual men … Mitt's book is titled "No Presumptive nominee Mitt I owe Mitt an apology Apology." He's convinced the problem with Obama is that he apologizes for America. Because Mitt is so engrossed by apologies—he sees apolo- gies that aren't there. Mitt, he'll tell you, doesn't apologize for America. But he's had to apologize for him- self plenty. Aside from all the recent gaffes and gauche statements that managed to incense America's closest allies in Europe, earning him the nickname "Mitt the Twit," Mitt's ever-changing policy positions are, for all intents and purposes, apologies. It's saying his previous stance on, say, women's health, was wrong. For example: when Mitt said abortion should be legal because a close family friend had died from an illegal abor- tion. He's now saying he's righting (ahem) his stance on the issue and declaring his vigil for his family friend to be over. He's saying his crowning achievement as governor of a state, Oba- macare, nee Romneycare, is now a plague on humanity and must be repealed. A man who "retroactively retired" as CEO of Bain Cap- ital can effortlessly adjust his positions. For a candidate who's disgusted by apologies in his opponents—who hurls the accusation of apology as if it were a disqualifying offense to all that is whole- some—he sure walks back from, amends and revises the stuff he says a lot. So since apologies are so important to Mr. Romney, I'd like to offer mine. I've said on numerous occasions (some of them broadcasted) that Mitt has been running for presi- dent for 20 years. I figured somewhere around 1992, Mitt, having witnessed his father's failed run for presi- dent and his mother's failed run for Senate, was watching the first Baby Boomer presi- dent (Bill Clinton) being sent to the White House. It was then he resolved that he, too, was going to run for presi- dent. Now if that were true and his planning began the year Pope John Paul issued an apology for the Inquisition's banning Galileo, Mitt would have made some different choic- es. His business prac- tices would have been, candidly, more patriotic. He wouldn't have laid-off American workers, outsourcing jobs overseas, and then expect those same American work- ers to vote for him. He would have built something, instead of destroying corpora- tions and getting rich off the charcoal. If Mitt Romney had been planning to run for president for 20 years, he would have anticipated releasing his tax returns (his father pioneered the practice) and made sure everything on there was something he could be proud of; returns he would happily release to the public. So I was wrong. Mitt has- Tina Dupuy So, Mitt, I'm sorry. I had been saying something about you that just wasn't true. You haven't been running for president for two decades. You haven't been paying attention to what would play best to get yourself sworn into office. You've been paying atten- tion to your money. n't been running for president for 20 years. He made money in a way that's legal but now is embarrassed (think apolo- getic) about how little he's paid in taxes, or what he's made off his investments to show his tax returns to voters. He's taken advan- tage of tons of loop- holes, parking his money in foreign bank accounts. With his business record, he'd be a controversial presi- dential appointee, let alone a presiden- tial candidate him- self. Sure it's legal. But it's not ethical. Not for public ser- vice. Especially not for the most power- ful position in the country. Tina Dupuy is an award- winning writer and the editor- in-chief of SoapBlox. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@yahoo.com. 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: governor@gov- ernor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Ceanothus 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. Democratic Party's Declaration of Dependence Commentary me anything is one of the greatest gifts my hardwork- ing, blue-collar father gave me when I was young. His words carried me through some diffi- cult times growing up, sus- tained me through widow- hood, years back, and helped to shape me into the person I am today. The belief that no one owes Once upon a time in Amer- ica, and not so long ago, my dad's can-do attitude toward life was common place, until liberals and their faithful fol- lowing began to understand that immense and everlasting power could be bartered by peddling handouts in exchange for votes. anything, it's human nature. If you give people things they did not earn from sources from which they did not con- tribute, those same people will soon become dependent on whatever you give them. Add to that a bit of Machiavellian trickery to redefine those handouts into rights, and voila! You have just created a permanent voting base. In truth, liberals simply rebranded the definition of what our founders meant If liberal politicians know when they scribed the words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." Spinning and twisting the interpretation by suggesting "unalienable rights" are tangi- bles like health insurance, col- lege educations, and food stamps rather than the intangi- bles our founders envisioned as "life, liberty, and the pur- suit of happiness," liberals transformed the Declaration of Independence into a Decla- ration of Dependence. Before long, people bought into their lies, believing they had rights to certain "entitle- ments" simply because they breathed. Sadly, these lies metasta- sized within today's Democra- tic Party; chock full of liberals so extreme, Blue Dogs have all but disappeared. Now the entire Democratic Party platform revolves around the dangerous and dev- ilishly un-American idea that individuals cannot achieve success without government intervention. They are dead wrong. That the Democratic National Convention (DNC) would ask Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren to speak at its national convention in September tells us all we need to know about the DNC's vision for America. Warren's words spo- ken in 2011, and so echoed in recent days by President Obama, suggesting it is impossible for Amer- icans to attain suc- cess devoid of the federal government is an indictment on how far from the American dream they have fallen. Ms. Warren further sug- gests that successful job cre- ators are obligated to an "underlying social contract" in order to "pay [it] forward for the next kid who comes along," thereby ensuring future generations will never have the ability to stand on their own without the govern- ment. The fact that unemploy- ment rose to 8.3 percent last week is an indictment on Pres- ident Obama, Elizabeth War- Susan Brown ren and big government Democrats who believe rights are endowed by gov- ernment. The ridicu- lous notion that busi- ness owners didn't build their business- es speaks to their ineptitude and explains why unem- ployment numbers continue to move in the wrong direction. Obviously, Ivy League school atten- dance and acumen are not always mutu- ally inclusive. entitlements over ingenuity, this "New World" would be just like the old one, which is a case study in what happens when liberals are left to them- selves. Had our founding fathers believed in Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.