Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/83042
4A Daily News – Saturday, September 15, 2012 Opinion Get rid of 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 Polson Editor: fabric of our community. It reflects who we are. It's who we brand ourselves everyday. It should be reliable, unbiased and honest. It should have a staff of professional journalists to make sure these goals are achieved. When the Daily News allows a lay person with no degree or professional training to write a weekly column, in which he wastes valuable inches of news- paper space self-promoting his web site and his Tea Party poli- tics; where he often bullies or name calls anyone who dares to have an opinion other than his; who supports criminal behavior by elected officials; and spews the kind of hate and bigotry that fuels the kind of violence that murdered four true American heroes standing for peace in Libya, they do their community a disservice. Our local newspaper is the When people come here to have fun, buy a home, open a business, do we really want them reading Polson's opinion in our paper and listening to him and Cal Hunter spew out bigot- ed, sexist and hate filled remarks. If they are the voice of Red Bluff, no wonder we don't grow healthier, wealthier and wiser; why we don't get blessed with jobs and opportunities. No won- der the homeless and drug rat- tled fill up our slough, beg on our streets and rob our homes, look who has been branding our community. Polson berates candidate for Assembly and Senate Dan Logue for "despicable mud- slinging, disingenuous mischar- acterizations and flat out lies." Nielsen took money from his campaign, funneled it illegally into the Tehama County Repub- lican Central Committee, of which Polson is part. Then, they illegally funneled the money into Bob Williams' campaign account. Everyone involved should have been prosecuted, yet Polson whines for yet anoth- er apology. Polson was ready to testify for Nielsen and swear in court, with his hand on the Bible that Nielsen lives in Gerber. Now, that is a bold face lie. Nielsen receives $20,000 illegally every year telling that lie. His wife, also a state employee, receives per diem for the same lie also. How much money are the Nielsens stealing from taxpayers, while Pol- son and his Tea Party Patriots preach weekly about fiscal responsi- bility. Yet, they endorse these thieves. Nielsen and LaMalfa stole Your Turn our lake, put in a pumping sta- tion, which will pump water from what is left of our river to fill LaMalfa's Sites Reservoir, which will then connect with the tunnel under the Delta that Nielsen is supposedly fighting, but is actually a part of, to ship to his real constituents the Cen- tral Valley and the main reason Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento have not brought charges of any kind against Nielsen and now, LaMalfa. Sacramento wants our water. LaMalfa and Nielsen, both proven liars, will deliver. In addition, when LaMalfa's campaign manager put up a fraudulent website in another candidate's name, criticizing one of his fellow Republicans running against him, LaMalfa committed fraud, showed he was a coward and proved he couldn't be trusted. These are the candi- dates Polson and his Tea Party endorses for our community. stepped up and wrote an excel- lent column about this political quagmire and I applaud him. We need more editorials like that and news reporting to sup- port it. Editor Chip Thompson finally Just like cleaning up our park and Main Street put pride and heart back in our community. Cleaning up our newspaper and radio station will go a long way toward reflecting and branding the true goodness hidden behind the political corruption, bigotry and hate that appears way too often on air and in print. Pat Johnston, Red Bluff 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. A lean and hungry look Commentary "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." — Virginia Woolf new sport of fact checking, Neil Newhouse, a Romney pollster said, "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact- checkers." I 'm going to give Newhouse the benefit of the doubt, because I am sure that he meant to say that the campaign was not going to bore the voters with a barrage of facts and details, and that it would stick to its own version of the truth to make things simpler for us vot- ers. Most likely he could have been speaking for either of the major parties, but it does call to mind the necessity to make sure that those in public life are responsible in handling facts. I read that Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, had to back off from a claim that he had run a marathon in just under three hours. I have a good friend who has been run- ning marathons for years, and he snickered when I told him about Ryan's claim. My friend is a championship runner, but he has never done three hours. Appar- ently Ryan now claims his time was "a little over four hours." Ryan's job may be to act like the cheer leader for the top of his ticket, but the correction of his alleged marathon time rein- forced my impression of him based on his body language and his acceptance speech and other comments he has made. After his speech I remembered some- thing that Julius Caesar said about Cassius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Yound [sic] Cas- sius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous." (Act I: Scene 2) In an attempt to downplay the was a deceptive character who was very clever at placing doubt and envy in other people's minds so that Caesar might be over- thrown. He was like the little devil sitting next to your ear whispering things that motivate you to act in a way pleasing to it. When I was in high school I As you may recall Cassius falsely told a girl friend that I could run the 100 yard dash in under 10 seconds; it was a bold faced lie, but I thought it might impress her. Her other boy friend was on the track team and was a loud scofflaw when she repeated my claim to him. Aside from being red faced and look- ing foolish there was no other consequence for my attempt to command someone's attention. Many teenaged boys want to be considered a paragon of mas- culinity, and are capable of doing any range of things to acquire that image; most teenaged boys grow up to under- stand their best foot forward is the truth. For Paul Ryan high school received; however, now Ryan is speaking to all of us, and he needs to be clear and honest in his remarks and promises; he needs to be believable. for now he is living in a fishbowl and all of us are observing him. An attorney friend of mine said in such a public setting someone has to "be purer than Caesar's wife." At least When speaking to the faithful Ryan can naturally feel a little more daring and confident that his version of truth will be well was about a quarter century ago. One can only hope that Ryan might have learned the lesson of truth before he turned 42, before he was in the national spotlight, and before he might be one heartbeat away from becoming the leader of the free world. It takes more than cleverness, a detailed knowledge of budgetary figures and the willingness to speak out to be a leader. Even Fox News had a commentary about the limited truths in Ryan's acceptance speech, and this was before the marathon revelation. tle evasive when trying to explain his tax plan, but he's telling us it "will turn the economy around." It may be that "the devil is in the details," as someone once said. It has been calculated that based on Governor Romney's 2010 tax returns, the only ones released, the Governor would have paid only 0.82 percent in taxes rather than the 13.9 percent that he did pay. Given his more than $21 million in reported income, this would be a significant savings. The reason for the calculated decrease is that capital gains, interest and dividends make up the vast majority of his income; these would not be taxed under the Ryan plan. Ryan has been a lit- Joe Harrop view Ryan was evasive in detail- ing the kinds of tax loopholes he would curtail. When pressed, he said "What we don't want is a secret plan.... The best way to do this is to show the framework, show the outlines of these plans, then to work with Congress to do this. That's how you get things done." In other words, don't bother the voters with details, don't let the voters know what is going on, trust us to do the closed door negotiations to do what we consider to be the right thing. Party platforms have general- ly been disregarded; they are like a tossed salad with lots of ingredients, including God and Jerusalem, that don't necessarily go well together, but they are the written program the party allegedly endorses. After his acceptance speech, Ryan did a lot of equivocating about the Republican platform, and essen- tially telling reporters, "trust Mitt to do what is right, never mind the platform." It should be noted that when debating with Newt Gingrich, Romney admitted he would not have paid any taxes if there were no levy on capital gains. He was not misleading or evasive. It seemed to me he was neither complaining nor supporting the Ryan approach to taxes, just stating the facts. It would be good if the governmental budget expert on the ticket could explain how this plan would help all of us. On last Sunday's ABC inter- While certainly more informed about the internal poli- tics than Sarah Palin who was thrust into the 2008 campaign with little preparation, Ryan may be a drag on Romney, who seems to be a straight arrow per- son, and who has tried to care- fully navigate his campaign to appeal to the entire party. Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net.