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Voters deserve better coverage of the campaign

Letters to the Editor
Published July 15, 2004

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Re: Media unable to keep candidates' rhetoric in check this campaign season, July 14.

Robert Samuelson couldn't have been more on the mark. The media that have emerged in the United States play no other role than as cheerleaders, rarely providing critical or analytical observation of the entertainment whirlwind that campaigns can't help but create in the name of candid political discourse.

As citizens and voters in the United States, we are forced to watch the news and read the paper with extreme caution, having to sort through the lazy, big corporation-influenced reporting and analyze for ourselves what is happening.

Unfortunately, a majority of Americans either don't have the ability to do this or are too lazy themselves and swallow what is given to them along with their morning coffee and croissants. George Bush and John Kerry's rhetoric is nothing new to politics and provides no inspiration or insight into the real problems that America and the world face.

We can't completely blame the media. They, after all, are usually a reflection of what their viewers want to see. We as voters need to start demanding more, not only from the media but also from the candidates themselves.

-- Nicole Matuska, Indian Rocks Beach

Let "no opinions' be counted

Here is a partial fix to the touch-screen voting issue. Provide a "no opinion/none of the above" option on each issue or candidate. There is already a de facto no opinion: no vote recorded. No vote should not be an option. With this modification, the poll head count will equal the number of votes. It is not perfect, but no other fix is possible at this late hour.

-- Robert Droz, Lakeland

Keeping the women in their place

Re: When will we have a woman for VP?, July 8.

I enjoyed Ellen Goodman's column because it touches on a belief I have had for quite some time. I have felt all along that the Democrats did the women's movement a disservice when they put Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket in 1984. During the early '80s, we heard much from the women's groups about a female on the ticket and since then, we have heard almost nothing. This is the party that is supposed to cater to women's issues, and essentially they shut them up by putting up a Mondale/Ferraro ticket that had no chance. After all, why sacrifice a legitimate future candidate by pairing him up with Walter Mondale? Instead, use Ferraro as the sacrificial lamb and quiet the women's movement all at the same time.

The sad fact is that neither political party has talked seriously about a woman on the ticket when an election is close. Maybe someday, one of them will have the guts to actually test the waters. In the meantime, you can thank the Democrats for squashing the issue for the past 20 years and who knows how much longer.

-- Ross Preville, St. Petersburg

The real anti-gun agenda

Re: If the sun sets on the assault weapons ban, the possibilities are unthinkable," is the headline on Debra J. Saunders' July 10 column. I guess so: If the ban expires and the crime rate does not increase, assaults do not escalate over the country, and terrorism is contained, they have lost their cause, and have been proved to have either a hidden agenda or promoted the equivalent of entering a dead horse in the Kentucky Derby.

As for an increase in violent crime, even Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst for the gun ban group Violence Policy Center says, "If the existing assault weapons ban expires, I personally do not believe it will make one whit of difference one way or another . . ."

Those who would see this ban renewed are not interested in the so-called assault weapons. They wish to totally remove guns from our society but rarely expose their motives. In a candid moment, Sen. Diane Feinstein, sponsor of this Assault Gun Extension Bill, said, "If I could've gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them - "Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in' - I would have done it."

The same chorus of panic-stricken voices foretold gun battles in the streets if states passed the "Right to Carry" laws, yet throughout the country, in those states such as Florida that passed such laws, crime dropped 25-27 percent, and the number of legally permitted weapons carriers involved in illegal activities is so small it is statistically unrecognizable.

-- Vance R. Lackore, Madeira Beach

Buying into the propaganda

Re: If the sun sets on assault weapons ban, the possibilities are unthinkable.

It is amazing that a person who obviously knows nothing about firearms, except for the propaganda put out by those who earn their salaries by fooling politicians and writers, should feel competent to write about firearms.

A careful reading of the article discloses that even the propagandists have abandoned most of the features of this bill, mainly because the last 10 years have shown them to be nonsense. The only feature that they cling to is the limit of 10 rounds per magazine. They ignore the fact that a normally dextrous person can switch magazines in one to two seconds and that a person who has practiced can do so in a fraction of a second.

Politicians are starting to wise up to the fact that any anti-Second Amendment stance costs them net votes. Writers should wise up that articles like this one makes them look like fools.

-- Daniel Vogel, Tampa

Reading choices should be private

Re: Changing their minds, editorial, July 13.

Thank you for your insightful editorial on the House amendment that would have restored some of the privacy safeguards for library and bookstore records taken away by Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. This important amendment went down to the narrowest of defeats on July 8. The amendment had broad bipartisan support and a clear majority of votes - until the Republican leadership, facing a pre-emptive veto threat from the White House, held the vote open long after the time for voting had expired.

As strong supporters of the amendment, we are not trying to thwart government efforts to investigate terrorists. However, we do not believe the government needs broad, unsupervised, unrestrained and secret powers to learn what ordinary Americans are reading. The freedom to read what we choose without the government looking over our shoulder is perhaps the most basic of all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The freedom to read and the freedom to think independently are inseparable - undermine one and you've seriously compromised the other.

Although ultimately unsuccessful, the emotional confrontation on the floor of the House over the "Freedom to Read Protection Amendment" should send a loud and clear message. We Americans take the privacy of our reading choices very seriously. The fight is far from over.

-- Carol Brey-Casiano, president, American Library Association; and Pat Schroeder, president and CEO, American Association of Publishers, Washington

Another loss for the people

Re: Libraries and the Patriot Act.

The recent vote in Congress regarding the Patriot Act is another example of the steamroller government we are subject to. The president issued a veto threat, and the vote was held up until the few wandering congressmen decided to change their vote, thus resulting in a tie vote with no majority to win. This is a great victory for the president, and another loss for the people.

Thanks to this loss of privacy, our library records will be subject to review from the government. This will give government officials the power to know what I read, and give them insight into how I think. Isn't that something that should be mine alone? Not subject to review?

The justification behind all this is that the terrorists had used computers and reference materials from the library. This would indicate that the plans for terrorism are made at public libraries, so all of our privacy should be eroded as a result. National security, right?

It is common knowledge that terrorists speak to one another and conspire from within toilet stalls at public restrooms. Nothing is safe anymore with all these terrorists running around. The government needs to get busy putting cameras in these toilet stalls, maybe with retinal scanners as you enter. Also, I have heard that terrorist couples discuss terrorism in their bedrooms. The terror czar needs to examine this, and act quickly while we are still in the mood.

I just wonder how I can make myself invisible from all this.

-- Jim LaFlamme, Fort Lauderdale

Speeders deserve tough treatment

Re: High price of speeding sinks in around state, July 8.

Hello!? If you speed, you should get a ticket, and that ticket should be expensive. For a person unhappy with how much a speeding ticket costs to say that the fines are unfair is plain stupid.

To give people who speed and then complain when they get caught a place to have the opportunity to say anything about it is a waste of space in this newspaper.

Does anyone in this area really care that the "working stiffs" who fly up and down their residential streets at 15 or 20 miles per hour over the speed limit have to pay a ticket? I personally don't care if it's all their pay, or if they have to take out two mortgages to pay the tickets.

I, for one, and tired of being run off the road by people who feel they have the right to drive like maniacs. I'm also tired of watching these same speeders not able (or willing) to stop for red lights because of their speed, and tired of speeders zooming up behind me and riding 2 inches from my bumper because I'm not willing to go 20 mph over the speed limit.

We have speed limits for reasons and we have tickets for those who feel they are above the law when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. The rest of us who obey the traffic laws deserve this kind of enforcement, and the people who speed deserve much more punishment than even these fines provide. If you don't like it, stop speeding or get off the roads.

-- Jonathan Sones, Largo

A hefty fine sends a message

Re: High price of speeding sinks in around state, State Sen. Alex Villalobos is quoted as saying: "You can only charge so much on a traffic offense."

Speeding and running stop signs (or red lights) can kill or injure people. If this happens, oftentimes the "traffic offense" could become a criminal offense.

When a driver violates our traffic laws and subsequently pays a hefty fine, it may help that person to become a better driver. A good example comes from a teacher's assistant who was interviewed for this article.

She said: "It's a lot of money, but it keeps me more self-conscious about my speed and the safety of others".

Fines for just "traffic offenses" should be dramatically increased. It would not only help save lives, but also could spare the various costs and pain of serving time behind bars.

-- Barbara L. Shelby, St. Petersburg

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[Last modified July 15, 2004, 01:00:38]