Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/92039
4A Daily News – Tuesday, November 6, 2012 Opinion Makers and takers and whiners and Shriners 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. 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While it is true that a percentage of takers engage in fraud to avoid the disci- pline of hard work, there are far more children, seniors, and legiti- mately disabled Americans that fall into the class of takers through no fault of their own. Many conservative Americans conservatives can agree upon is that folks that game the system to obtain benefits they neither deserve nor truly need are a moral scourge that should be arrested and taken to task for their abuse of programs intended to benefit oth- ers. As cases in point I submit that Jim Nielsen should be denied a seat in the state senate because he has aggrandized himself at taxpay- er expense for over twenty years perpetrating a fraud on the voters of the district by claiming he lives in Gerber so as to qualify as a can- didate and collect per-diem and travel benefits associated with a fictitious commute. I would also put out recently resigned State One thing that most liberal and Senator and present U.S. Congres- sional candidate Doug LaMalfa for the fraudulent campaign prac- tice of establishing a fake web-site to disparage his competition and also for abusing the federal farm subsidy program to collect nearly $5 million in personal entitlements established to help struggling farmers. I have learned over the years and associations with folks in both camps that such distinctions are far from black and white. Seldom have I found a person that has never taken advantage of a situa- tion for person gain at the expense of another nor a person that takes pride only in their ability to scam or steal to get ahead. However I do believe that by cynically typecast- ing folks into groups of makers and takers tends to provide the tak- ers with a rationalization for their behavior and the makers with a hypocritical sense of self entitle- ment. It seems to me that far more good comes from taking the high- er moral ground that divides folks into groups of entitled and non- entitled – or those that are living in relative comfort versus those that are not, which can be easily defined as those that have more money than they need versus those that struggle to get by. Over the past 30 years the wealthy have made tremendous gains in wealth while diminishing in number, while the vast majority of Americans suffered from a reduction in real earnings and their num- ber living in poverty has climbed dramatically. The culmination of a tax system that selec- tively enriches the rich- est at the expense of the others has lead to the incredible statistic that the earnings of the 450 wealthiest Americans exceed the total earn- ings of over half of all Americans. If this isn't alarming enough, with- out change the trend will continue to concen- trate wealth in the hands of few, leading to a vir- tual oligarchy where the wealthy effectively control the government for personal benefit. Many believe this is already true thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision that gives corpora- tions free speech rights to spend unlimited anonymous dollars on political campaigns. This election gives you the opportunity to follow the example of whiners that blame their prob- lems on others and disassociate themselves with a government that is "of and for the people", or the Shriners which selflessly give of themselves and their labors to help those in need. I invest my money and energies in progressive pro- Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point Finally, a well informed and engaged electorate is central to the effectiveness of the democratic process – unfortunately ours appears to be increas- ingly neither with the widespread effective- ness of 30 second attack ads, mis- leading and manipulative cam- paign tactics, and increasingly lackadaisical voters that fail to consider the sources and bias of the information they trust. I entreat everyone to consider the adage, "If it seems too good to be true – it probably is." President Obama is telling it like it is while Mitt Romney is promising us the moon without the means to deliv- er. grams like supporting the Shriners to serve our needy citizens, not those that seek to limit the positive role of govern- ment to ensure equal rights, equal opportuni- ties, and distribute wealth to best serve the needs of all Americans instead of the privileged few. I hope you do the same. Richard Mazzucchi makes his home in Los Molinos, where he can be reached at living- green@att.net. 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@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Ceanothus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893- 8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Fein- stein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707.Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Mont- gomery St., Suite 240, San Francis- co, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Some cry; some cheer—I got a good idea who Commentary That good idea is based on the most in-depth analysis of polling I have ever completed. That good idea suggests very strongly that those us who gather tonight at the Hampton Inn on Adobe Road, starting at 6 p.m., will be doing the cheering. Readers, Republicans and Tea Party Patriots are invited to show up, enjoy some refreshments, camaraderie, and fellowship, and celebrate. I foresee a solid win for the Romney/Ryan ticket in the popular vote as well as a 300+/- electoral vote. More on the results next week. I advised voters to choose "No" on all ballot propositions except for Prop 32. A "Yes" vote on 32 is essential if California is to ever break the corrupt process of public employee unions helping them- selves to your wallet via the taxes that pay employees wages, from which forced union dues are extracted, including vast sums for political campaigns. That's about a $70,000,000 deluge of your money to persuade you to send more to the Sacramento beast. While you may draw fair, informed, different conclusions on the other initiatives, I must draw particular attention to the attempt to overturn the death penalty; vote "No" on 34. It is part of a misguid- ed effort to eliminate the death penalty altogether, using phony arguments over the costs to carry out the death sentence on a limited number of murderers. Those sup- posedly excessive costs only exist because defense attorneys file end- less, frivolous appeals, seeking soft-hearted-and-headed judges who secretly oppose killing the killers, but allow the lawyers to do their bidding, and make their pre- ferred arguments. California Supreme Court justices were thrown out of office for substitut- ing their anti-death views for the will of the voters. Commuting death sentences to "life without parole" is only the first step in their campaign to reduce all sentences for all crimes—witness the attempts to water down "3 strikes." Such com- mutations are offered as a way to relieve us all of our collective guilt and responsibility for state-sanc- tioned killing. In reality, however, the worst-of-the-worst murderers that earn the death sentence will not stop killing when no longer on death row; many of them will eventually kill other inmates, prison guards, and even extend their murderous intentions outside the prison walls to those they wish to "rub out." Letting killers live condemns others to die, period. Furthermore, those related to victims murdered in heinous fash- ion deserve to be able to have that day when the killer of their loved ones is no longer on this earth as a matter of ultimate justice. The only guarantee they have of never hav- ing to face such depraved animals again is to execute them. Finally, I wrote in 2006 and 2011 of decades-long research into the deterrent effect of the death penalty. "My 'proof' that the death penalty works as a deterrent is the simple statistical record of murder rates during decades when the death penalty was or wasn't enforced. Executions came to a vir- tual halt from the mid-1960s until 1980…(D)uring that same period, the murder rate (homicides per 100,000) actually doubled. Annual murders topped out at over 23,000 in 1980. Executions resumed and the murder rate then fell over the next 20 years, ending a little higher in 2000 than it was in 1965. During the time execu- tions fell from 56 to none, murders per year increased from about 10,000 to over 23,000. Literally tens of thou- sands of lives are pre- served when killers have a reasonable chance of being executed—that's real deterrence proven over 50 years. (1/23/2006)" shocked to find my adamant support for Governor Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan. I could have devoted the last 3 months of columns to the Romney vs. Obama issue and still not exhausted the subject. Go to "Polecat News and Views" under "Blogs" at the Daily News site (DonPolson.Blogspot.com) for all things related to the election under the label "2012." I believe our long economic nightmare will begin to fade with Mitt Romney's election. Those throwing their ideologi- cal brickbats will probably never relent. I tried to put each sentence of a recent writer's anti-Romney screed into "true or false" cate- gories. Aside from a few state- ments of fact or truth, the balance of the dozens of sentences and statements were all one or another version of falsehoods, misstate- ments and lies, entirely unworthy of individually refuting. No one will be Here are some indisputably true statements about President Don Polson The way I see it Obama's now-revealed handling of the entire tragic, pre- ventable terrorist attacks by Islamic jihadists on our con- sulate in Benghazi, Libya (look up at my blog under the "Libya" label): President Obama's high-level administration figures (collectively lumped together as "Obama"), the people he's respon- sible for and directly works with, failed utter- ly, miserably and irre- sponsibly to provide the security that our civilian representati v e s deserved and asked for. They placed the delu- In spite of almost deadly attacks leading up to September 11, clear reports of Al Qaeda camps and training in Benghazi, and specific, urgent requests for heightened security, Obama failed to provide (he even reduced) security. Obama failed to come to the aid of our peo- ple under attack; assignment of available military assets was declined. Subsequently, Obama has prevaricated, manipulated and lied to the American people and the press about the attacks. Were Obama to be reelected, these same patterns will, without any doubt, result in more Americans suffering and dying at Islamic terrorist hands. God forbid. sion of "normalcy" with Libyans over American lives. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.