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4A Daily News – Tuesday, August 21, 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 I read with interest that Mr. Mitt Romney paid at least 13% income tax in recent years. I wish my wife and myself paid only 13%. How do you do that? Income tax Editor: Charles Rouse, Corning Editor: Our Government has run amuck. In the Declaration of Independence it states, "Gov- ernments are instituted among Men, deriving their just pow- ers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to insti- tute new Government, laying its foundation on such princi- ples, and organizing its pow- ers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to Don't be conned effect their Safety and Happi- ness". Jerry Brown is not our friend. He got into office on the platform of protecting our education, (schools), law enforcement, fire depart- ments, jobs and agencies for the safety of Californians. And yes, I fell for it, shame on me. It didn't take long before Brown stood up in front of an audience in the Bay area and proclaimed he will get His legacy by building the fast rail-train from San Francisco to L.A. at the cost of 96 bil- lion, and yes it still is 96 bil- lion. Brown got his hands slapped by Legislators for stealing funds ear marked for other projects. Then he tried to take money from schools by stopping the bussing. That, he found out, was unconstitution- al, so he took $42 per student across the board. Then he signed into law AB109 releas- ing criminals back to their counties leaving state Cal- Fires without the help of inmate volunteers, and us unsafe. He also took funds away from cities and counties. He tried to close state parks, passed the extra fire tax and got legislators to ok 2 billon dollars from a bond we passed in 2008 to start the building of the rail-train. He tried to bypass the environ- mental impact report because that could take a few years to complete. Now Brown is threatening Californians with extortion, "to gain by wrongful meth- ods", if we don't pass his tax bill. I myself will not cower down to any politicians' threat that would only set a president for other politicians to do the same. I will not vote on any new taxes. this mess mostly because of California is in governments' frivolous spend- ing. Why would I feed their addiction? Your Turn Our schools need to recon- struct their system. Instead of the CSEA being in Vegas at the Paris hotel on the strip for a week with Mr. Brown trying to come up with a plan to urge California voters to pass his tax bill they should be in California spend- ing our money on a plan to help cash-strapped schools and all their teachers and the classified employees. Browns' press secretary said, "I didn't plan the party- all we did is respond to the invitation". Brown jetted off to Vegas to be with 1,400 school worker union leaders and delegates. Please don't fall for their deceptive motives to get us to pass any tax plans when they return. 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. Getting with some barbecue, pep talks, polls Commentary Being part of someone's campaign, as a contributor/bar- beque attendee at State Senator and Congressional candidate Doug LaMalfa's event in Rich- dale on Sunday, I find the opportunity to rub elbows with fellow supporters and hear party leaders rewarding. Not so rewarding that I and my fellow local Republicans hesitated to get back in our air conditioned car and on the road rather than hobnob, shake hands and enjoy further camaraderie, in nearly- suffocating heat, with folks we met, even some of those very leaders, like Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner. His was the big name on the ticket, on a weeks-long circuit to support both freshman candi- dates, like LaMalfa, as well as incumbents in tight races and even challengers to seated, vul- nerable Democrats in another potential Republican wave elec- tion. That's the expectation, anyway; I was right about Pres- ident Bush's reelection, wrong about McCain's chances but vindicated by the 2010 Con- gressional wave that swept Boehner into the Speaker's seat. This is a predominantly Republican county and region of California, with Democrats enjoying rough parity in our incorporated towns but badly outnumbered elsewhere. They have a lock on state government in Sacramento, having bought themselves a successful initia- tive that authorized one-party budgetary rule. Together with Gov. Jerry Brown, they can all look in their collective mirrors for the source of their problems, and quit fooling themselves that anyone will come to their res- cue, bail them out of their financial hole, and open up an imaginary piggy bank of new tax revenue. version of Greece with entrenched drains on the public trough, like the welfare class, public employee unions and favored corporate and business interests that have their lips firmly sucking on … you get the idea. The vast non-favored business community makes rationally self-interested choic- es to relocate or expand out-of- state, shed employees or go dig- ital so as to reduce their pro- file/target for the regulators, inspectors and bureaucrats of the onerous, punitive, vindic- tive state apparatus. A not-so- funny thing happens in that process: it turns out that those businesses, their expansions, employees or brick-and-mortar shops, once outside California's borders, are free of Sacramen- to's taxes, regulations and man- dates. Anyway, it should be noted California is the domestic by anyone with ears, eyes and observational powers, that Cali- fornia is the precursor for all of America if President Obama and Democrats can hold onto or expand their grip on our federal government. Part of Speaker Boehner's passionate message was that this election is the most important "choice" elec- tion of our lifetimes, carrying with it perhaps the last, best hope for restoring fiscal sanity, economic freedom and Consti- tutional principles to our nations affairs. I'm paraphras- ing without notes or a record- ing, but I heard what is in my heart and soul about the wrong- headed, nearly-diabolical path to financial ruin, confiscatory taxes and a tidal wave of bur- densome, business-and-econo- my-killing regulations coming our way in a second Obama term. Democrats seem to have no problems with the executive, nearly imperial, ruler in the White House and his unilateral sidestepping of Congress, prior laws or any other Constitu- tional restraint on his actions. They should kindly think back to whether they ever indulged their anathe- ma toward President Bush with epithets over the out-of-control "uni- tary executive" they imagined they saw. On his worst day, Bush never sim- ply cast aside settled law to legalize illegal aliens, illegally void welfare work require- ments, harass entire states with the EPA, or political enemies with the IRS. Speaker Boehner was absolutely confident of holding or expanding the Republican majority in the House, and opti- mistic for a Republican majori- ty in the Senate to complement President Romney and Vice President Ryan. I don't think the last two items are "in the bag," but here are some polling results for those wanting unfil- tered-by-liberal-media reality. For the House of Representa- tives, honest, balanced polls show not only a generic prefer- ence for Republicans ("Which party should win?") but also consistently higher levels of enthusiasm among Republicans than exist for Democrats and their constituent groups, like younger voters. For the big, brass presiden- Don Polson The way I see it tial ring, it is a close race, with the most reputable, reliable pollsters, Gallup (registered voters) and Ras- mussen (likely vot- ers), showing Obama and Romney trading the top spot back and forth but within the margin of error. As of Monday, Gallup had Romney holding on to a week long, 2- point lead over Obama, while Ras- mussen had Romney returning to a 1-point lead after slipping behind a couple of points. The bad news for Obama is that he is stuck in the 43 to 45 percent range, which guarantees defeat because the "undecideds" don't typically wind up voting for the incumbent. Right now, Romney gets at least 3 of the 6 swing states (FL, VA, OH, WI, IA, CO), a different 3 depending on the polling; however, any 3 of them are not enough to win 270. Stay tuned. In the Senate, we need 3 more seats to get 50, giving control to VP Ryan. Holding onto Republican tossup seats, the pickups from Democrats appear to be in MO, ND, WI, possibly also FL and VA. A Romney/Republican wave will result in 53 Republican Sena- tors and solid conservative con- trol. Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff Correction: Penn State's Michael Mann was misidenti- fied as Thomas Mann last week. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.