Bush proves he cannot run this war

Oh, my God, the Bush/Cheney administration has made an Afghanistan terrorist group called al-Qaida into an international terrorist organization in which the Homeland Security Department doesn't feel it can stop an attack in the United States this summer! And Bush still wants Congress and the American people to believe Cheney and he can run the war on terror.

People, do you realize that if Bush and Cheney were running the White House and in power during WWII that everyone in the United States would be speaking German, and be a member of Hitler's Nazi Party today!

The history of the Bush administration has been one major disaster, screw-up and corrupt appointed officials after another. How much more can this country take before clapping?

Gary Myers

Oceanside

Ration new development, not water

New development marches on at the same time we are asked to conserve water. Is the water we conserve going to new development? A wake-up call to conserve water by Water Authority director Gary Arant in his Community Forum article ("Wake up about our water supply," July 21) overlooks an important factor in coping with our water problems. We are not mandated to accommodate the millions of people he says are expected in the future.

We do need additional reservoirs to sustain our existing supplies due to the negative long-term effects of climate change on snowpacks and prolonged droughts, and we should conserve water during temporary shortages.

On the other hand, we should not have to cut back present use or pay higher rates to supply water to new development - unless we choose to. He expresses concern for agricultural water needs, yet his agency is cutting agricultural water 30 percent in January while they continue to provide water for new development. How about rationing new development for a change.

Glenn Carroll

Fallbrook

Problems already with new golf course

Opening Day at our new Carlsbad golf course came to a screeching crash ("Bookings overwhelm course staff," July 23). If you tried calling in at 9 a.m. to book a tee-off time you were interrupted with "all circuits are busy, please call back" message. After four hours I was able to talk to a live person, but was told their reservation system had crashed and they would have to call me back.

Management should have foreseen this issue when they opened both the course reservation and Carlsbad resident golf special reservation at the same time and date. I hope their open house on July 28 is more successful.

Michael Senger

Carlsbad

Acting president deserves the job

MiraCosta has begun healing under the leadership of acting President Dick Robertson. If anyone can heal the wounds suffered by MiraCosta, it is Dick Robertson. I hope that the MiraCosta College board is seriously considering him for the president's position.

Throughout the Palmgate turmoil Dick has been the steadying influence - holding the critical positions of vice president for student affairs and vice president for instruction. This has been at times a thankless task, having to balance the violently conflicting demands of the faculty and president and still see that the students of MiraCosta College receive an exemplary education and services.

I have known Dick for 20 years through various professional capacities. Most recently I have overseen the awarding of a $272,000 private foundation grant to students at MiraCosta, administered through the Student Services Division. I have been in and around academia for 30 years and have never seen a staff function so enthusiastically, responsively and competently as the Student Services Division, under Dr. Robertson's direction. As a result, this grant has become a multi-year one. The tremendous respect that the faculty, students and community hold for Dr. Robertson make him an excellent and natural candidate for the president's position.

Ken Golden

Encinitas

Wineries are good for the community

How many people have been killed driving after visiting a winery in San Diego County ("Ramona growers seek tasting rooms near vineyards," July 23)? How much additional traffic would a few winery stops make? Wouldn't the Ramona community be proud to be recognized as a sophisticated wine country rather than a bedroom community out in the boonies with their claim to fame as being turkey producers?

Wineries add beauty to the countryside. They offer opportunities for city-folk to get out of the city and visit the countryside. This, in turn, creates more awareness for good stewardship of the land. Worried about groundwater depletion? Grapes are not sponges and require minimal water use compared to other uses.

How can Ramona residents oppose little vineyards with quaint tasting rooms and support casinos that attract cars on the road 24/7 and really suck up water? Doesn't Ramona want tourist income? Wine tasters get hungry and visit local restaurants, shop, buy gas and spend their dollars in the community. Why not get tourists to stop in Ramona instead of driving right through it on their way to cute little Julian for apple pie?

How can there be any relation to acquiring a major use permit with installing a gas station with severe environmental effects than installing a vineyard that more than likely uses minimal chemicals, if any, and has only healthy byproducts? Wineries are good for the community, not bad.

Tami Ridley

Escondido

Ramona wineries: It's about time

Ahh, the NIMBY is alive and well in Ramona ("Ramona growers seek tasting rooms near vineyards," July 23). What would have happened if the good citizens of Napa Valley had had the same sentiment some 30 years ago? Or those in the communities of Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Russian River, Temecula, etc.? Perhaps loss of a several billion-dollar-a-year agricultural business in California? To think that Ramona could rival those internationally renowned regions of wine making, probably not, or maybe? …

With regard to the reported downside of increasing the potential for drunken drivers, that comment was made by someone who has never been to a wine-tasting room. More alcohol is probably served at the local tavern at happy hour than would be served in an entire day at all of the wineries in San Diego County combined. It should also be kept in mind that the people who own the wineries are proud members of the community, have families too and have a sincere interest in keeping the roads safe. …

With regard to increased traffic, this is California. Anyone who believes that the public road outside their house will not see increased traffic over the next 20 years has either not driven around the block in the past 20 years, or just moved here from Iowa.

Steve Bradley

Ramona

No water shortage here?

Recent articles regarding water supply, drought and fake grass should bring to everyone's attention [the] many, many plants planted along Valley Center Road between Washington Street and Lake Wohlford Road since the Eureka Springs development has been built. Who approved this overkill, and who is responsible for the water bill? Hopefully, not the taxpayers.

Mary Clark

Escondido

It is lawbreaking, not religion, that is being protested

I read the Community Forum in the North County Times, "Fallbrook protest taps anti-Catholic bias," July 11. Anti-Catholic bias? What? When the Catholic Church breaks the law they cry bias?

The real question here is why does the Catholic Church believe they are above the law? Bill Donohue [president of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights] in his Community Forum expends energy and effort against the San Diego Minutemen. The Catholic Church is running an illegal employment agency, where tax evasion and worker abuse are the cornerstone of the illegal employment agency. It is lawbreaking that is being protested, not religion.

This is an irresponsible Community Forum designed to inflame the public. Instead of wringing their hands and whining, the Catholic Church should immediately close the illegal day worker hiring center they are running.

Robin Hvidston

Upland

Bush's colonoscopy

As reported here in the North County Times, Dubya had a routine colonoscopy and "temporarily handed over presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney" during the procedure. Bush came out OK, but a couple of questions spring immediately to mind.

First, Dick Cheney was running the White House? So, what else is new?

Second, and more importantly, would this sort of procedure on Bush be considered brain surgery?

Patrick Frawley

Carlsbad

Enough already!

As the recent spate of 5-4 Supreme Court decisions shows, the nine justices, loyal, conscientious and presumably well versed in constitutional law, cannot agree on what's constitutional or not. I didn't realize something could be 55.55 percent constitutional.

Or take our Congress (please); they don't seem to be able to agree on anything. And they're not even trying to kill each other! Contrast that with what's going on in Iraq as we patiently wait for them to come to agreement on issues that have been dividing them for some 1,500 years. And they are trying to kill each other. Ain't gonna happen, folks.

So, do we withdraw to the borders so we can keep it contained and let them fight it out? For this situation to end one side will have to either capitulate or be destroyed. Or, do we take the radical step of imposing a solution? I know we're all about spreading democracy and letting the Iraqis decide their future, but I for one have had just about enough of Iraqi democracy in action. I'm thinking a three-state solution. After all, Iraq never was a real nation anyway, just made up out of whole cloth after WWI.

Jerry Jones

Oceanside

Report on moral disaster of censorship

This past week, a free press reported two big wins for peace and justice in our world and against dictatorial control by secrecy, silence, denial and censorship - but did not report on one big loss. The wins were, first, fair coverage of the L.A. Diocese's hiding of clerical sex abuses (reported by the North County Times and the Los Angeles Times) and, second, the revelation in Parade (NCT and LAT supplement) of the arrest and silencing of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, by Myanmar.

The big loss (or missed opportunity) was closer to home, but no less a setback for the cause of peace and justice. It was the expulsion by the Church of St. Timothy in Escondido of a 20-year member and lifelong adherent to the Catholic faith for violating its order forbidding publication of Bishop Brom's urging of changes in parish administration to permit dialogue on the teachings of Jesus Christ against war. NCT has not yet reported the latter event.

Please, NCT, make it three wins and no losses by getting us a report of this moral disaster of censorship in our midst.

Dave Van Hoomissen

chairman,

Campaign Against

Censorship of Christ's

Plea for Peace

Escondido

Hillary's double name

I like what I saw in the North County Times, Friday, July 20, at the end of a half-page on Sen. Hillary Clinton in the words: "recycle, recycle." Someone in the layout department has it all together.

I remember in 1992 she was known as Mrs. Clinton (this was not her real name), when it was a done deal, she got a new hairdo and announced her name was Hillary Rodham Clinton. I see nothing wrong with her hairdo.

I now see she has changed her name to Mrs. Clinton, do not know if she got a new hairdo. If all the name change stuff was made known to the standard man-type redneck, he, Bill Clinton, would have never happened. There were, and still are, a lot of men who do not go for double name.

A while back they were having a time trying to pick her a song. Just like Ted Kennedy's is "Cross Over the Bridge," hers would be "Stand By Your Man."

Robert Duke Layton

Vista

Community involvement is paramount

The recent release of certain administrators by the new superintendent was not justified ("Vista schools lose administrators," July 11). These administrators just happened to be at the most difficult school sites. The schools were schools that have large low-income Hispanic populations. The children at these schools go home to families who speak Spanish and do not, in many cases, encourage the use of English in everyday conversation.

Dr. Larry Hall was considered a great administrator while principal at Roosevelt Middle School. He was moved to Lincoln, now Rancho Minerva. The student population is much different at this school compared to Roosevelt. This is just one example. I would venture to say that the current principals at Roosevelt and Madison would have similar problems if they were assigned to Rancho Minerva or Washington Middle School.

The district's money might be better spent in an outreach program to involve parents in workshops to encourage the use of English by their children when they are not at school. This could be money better spent than the superintendent's new reading program. Community involvement is paramount. I have some knowledge, having worked at all four of the district's middle schools.

Daniel Lynch

Vista

Register as an Independent

Republicans selling out their base in pursuit of a reckless globalist agenda, and wild-eyed, vengeful Democrats looking to settle a political score from the Clinton era represents the sorry state of politics today in America. Einstein stated the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It's time the American people stopped the insanity of partisan two-party politics.

First, start by telling your party phone solicitors that you are not giving them another dime unless they start representing the interests of a majority of their constituents. Then tear up your party voter affiliation card and register as an Independent as I did 15 years ago. Only then will you start to see meaningful change.

Jeffrey Pesche

Escondido

Democracy is dying a slow death

Democracy is dying in our country and there seems to be nothing we can do.

President Bush rules by executive orders, usurping Congress' power to legislate.

He claims executive privilege whenever Congress attempts to investigate any questionable action the executive branch performs.

There is no freedom of information; everything is done in secret. We cannot even view who has visited the White House. Anybody who even questions their actions is branded a "traitor," forget the Constitution, freedom of speech and right to privacy -- unless you are the president. This administration has been dismantling the Constitution since 9/11 and destroying the concept of "balance of power."

Bush negates Congress' legislation via his signing statements and his executive orders. He does not listen to the people or Congress, instead doing what he wants. Would someone please explain the difference between his presidency and a dictatorship? Even Dick Cheney is a "power unto his own" and a fourth branch of government.

Wake up America!

Arlene Christensen

Murrieta

Finding God is both easy and difficult

I have noted the challenge on creation vs. evolution. It all leads up to the question, "Is there a God or not?" Finding out if there is a God is very easy. It does not take a Rhodes scholar or a rocket scientist. You will never find God using the Hubble telescope, archeology or geology, etc. As easy as it is, most people scoff at it and immediately write it off; it's too easy for them.

The formula is easy; anyone can put it to the test. The Lord himself gave this formula with a promise to all who follow it. He said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21)

So, if you really want to know, learn his commandments and live them. When you qualify for a blessing he'll immediately bless you. Too easy? It isn't. People have to change lifestyles, live morally, help one another, etc.

To some, the scriptures are just a lot of stories. To others they provide examples of the past that can be brought to life in our lives today. This requires real faith, which is only manifested in this life by our actions. Learning is useless without action. This leads to what modern society abhors: taking responsibility for yourself, being moral and doing good works. This is called character development.

Mark Mobley

Lake Elsinore

Opposition to peace rallies to be expected

Kathryn Barnett is puzzling over the opposition to her peaceniks' demonstrations at the Church of the Valley ("Counterprotest is puzzling," Community Forum, July 19.) What's new about that kind of reaction to the whining impracticality of the sort she espouses?

Most true Americans can justify fights for freedom that include killing a determined enemy. Those who can accept no real sacrifice for principle have been around for generations and are fairly ridiculed as wuzzy idealists who think coexistence with rapists, murderers, suicide bombers, gang-bangers, and, yes, Islamo-fascists is possible and desirable.

We fight the al-Qaida terrorists because they want to murder all infidels, whether they have had or want to acquire weapons of mass destruction or not. No amount of reason or negotiation is possible against such a fanatical movement.

The tired old "Bush lied, innocents died" is but one of many justifications for deposing the despot Saddam Hussein, who rejected U.N. diplomatic solutions for more than a year. The reality of confronting the coalescing terrorists in Iraq after dumping the monster was and is a superior alternative to reacting to suicide bombers on Old Town Front Street.

Besides, the human sacrifice for this worthy cause is still far less than the carnage we accept among our youth on highways or in drive-by shootings. Why not gather in condemnation of those more numerous wasted lives?

Maybe the jerks who oppose silly placards are feeling the same as I, but they do what they can, even if badly.

Ken Woytek

Sun City

Church needs to 'practice what it preaches'

I am a former Catholic who strongly disagrees with Father Bud (Kaicher) at St. Peter's for running a day laborer hiring site at his church in Fallbrook. Day laborer sites are a phenomenon of the illegal immigrant invasion and they aid and abet this criminal activity. I am disgusted with the Catholic Church and its actions to hide pedophile priests and to support illegal immigration. It doesn't seem to be following the good book that I was taught to follow in Catholic school.

They say that we should help our brothers and I should contribute money to that effort. I say to Father Bud and Cardinal Roger Mahony that the church should put its money where its mouth is. I believe the Catholic Church has the largest private hospital and school systems in the U.S. I will be glad to contribute when the church has opened up all of its classrooms and hospital beds to nonpaying illegal immigrants. Wouldn't that be the charitable thing to do?

"Practice what you preach," as the saying goes. I don't think I'll have to pull my wallet out very soon, do you?

Arne Chandler

Temecula

Parents told to leave before child was born

The July 13 article about the Roa family in Northern California says it all ("Illegal immigrant parents might have to leave disabled toddler"). The story reads the Roas were ordered to leave the U.S. long before Maria Roa was even pregnant. That just shows what many illegal immigrants think about our laws and how much they care what their burden is on our lawful taxpaying citizens. What part of "not a citizen, no constitutional rights in this country" don't illegal immigrants understand?

I, for one, am getting tired of footing the bill for the world's problems while we need to take care of our own. I am sick of sharing my hard-earned and rightful resources with people who don't belong here and I am positive I am not the only one.

Bill Cosgrove

Temecula