Todays Letters: Bush's budget offers more deceit

President's budget full of earmarks and Troop benefit plan not in Bush budget Feb. 10, stories 

These two articleshave boosted my blood pressure to dangerous levels. How long will it take for "we the people" to tell the current occupant of the White House how disgusted we are at his deceitful practices and blatant disregard for truth and honesty in government?

He denounces Congress for earmarking money for pet projects. But in his new budget, Bush seeks money for thousands of similar projects.

In his State of the Union address last month, he drew great applause when he called on Congress to allow U.S. troops to transfer their unused education benefits to family members. A week later, when he submitted his $3.1-trillion federal budget to Congress, he included no funding for such an initiative.

Sadly, those are just two more examples of the smoke and mirrors this administration has consistently employed. I hope our nation will be able to recover from their failure to lead.

Jim Lyman, Lutz

Economic stimulus package

Just charge it

What sort of a message is our government sending the future generations of our country? This stimulus package is the same as telling someone who maxed out their credit cards to get a new one.

If this is not a tax increase for future generations, I don't know what to call it. Is this the best our economic gurus can come up with?

Jack Levine, Palm Harbor

Gates ties slow Afghan support to anger over invasion of Iraq Feb. 9, story

The real confusion

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is concerned that allies are reluctant to send combat troops to Afghanistan. He says, "I worry that for many Europeans the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan are confused." Gates thinks they "have a problem with our involvement in Iraq and project that to Afghanistan."

This same confusion also happened with the current administration when they decided to invade Iraq for no good reason at a time when Afghanistan was unstable and Osama bin Laden was still there. The administration created the confusion, and it is Gates who remains confused.

Steve Wilson, Safety Harbor

Do more for the hungry Feb. 1, editorial

Let other nations do it

Why is it that America always has to do more? We help more people around the world than anyone while other countries sit on their hands and checkbooks. Frankly I'm tired of hearing about it.

Doesn't any other country know how to grow food? Don't any of them have ships or planes? It's always our problem?

We dole out help and dig ourselves deeper in debt, and for what? So we can get the one-finger salute when we leave and they're done with us?

We need to wake up. We don't owe starving people anything, and anyone who thinks otherwise should feel free to send in their money to the charity of their choice. We're broke. The rest of the world needs to step up for a change.

And if we're going to keep trying to feed 850-million hungry people around the world, let's make this deal: For every thousand pounds of food there should be 100 vasectomies or tubal ligations.

James Molloy, Pinellas Park

Thieves turn scrap to gold Feb. 7, story

Take aim at dealers

Why did it take so long to try getting laws passed to fight thefts of copper and aluminium? Scrap dealers are mostly to blame for this problem. When someone brings in a load of new copper tubing, wire, or pieces of guardrail or lamp posts that belong to a government agency, red flags should go up.

But dealers know that once the material is shipped out or melted, the evidence is gone. Cracking down on both the thieves and dealers will at least cut down on these thefts.

Chuck Grecco, New Port Richey

We're losing a leash on legislators Feb. 9, Steve Bousquet column

Keep the watchdog

Government in the sunshine will go dark without the persistent vigilance of experienced journalists such as Steve Bousquet, your Tallahassee bureau chief.

History continually demonstrates that something happens to elected officials that turns them into excessively defensive "public servants." They begin to prefer to not be held accountable for their votes and rationalizations. Only pain-in-their-neck nosy journalists can serve as the public's sentinel in bringing to light the misguided efforts of many, as well as the sometimes heroic actions of the few.

I personally would pay a little more for my Times subscription if it will help keep the light on.

Scott K. Wagman, St. Petersburg

Crickets a la eeww Feb. 7, story about a school principal rewarding students by eating bugs

Hard to swallow

How did the motivation of "love of learning" deteriorate to motivation by degradation and humiliation of a principal? Is this a technique taught in colleges of education? Are there actual classes in head shaving, tank dunking and pie throwing?

When a child is taught that it is a reward to be allowed to watch something gross that evokes natural disgust, what is going to be carried over for her/his life experiences? Is anyone doing any research regarding this? Is there a connection to the plethora of meaningless "reality" television shows?

Instead of lionizing this principal, I'd suggest that his credentials be re-examined.

Mortimer Brown, Lutz

Don Wright cartoon Feb, 10

A juvenile jab

Sunday, over breakfast, I was treated to your political "cartoon" depicting Rush Limbaugh as the west end of an eastbound elephant. How tasteful!

But it was instructive, since it makes the point that when the left runs out of ideas it resorts to schoolyard insults.

Ray Kelly, Spring Hill

President's budgetary farce Feb. 6, editorial

Zeroing in on numbers

I applaud the St. Petersburg Times for writing out the size of President Bush's proposed budget in full numerical form - $3,100,000,000,000 - rather than $3.1-trillion, as many newspapers did. The average mind, not trained in dealing with very large numbers, doesn't properly distinguish between million, billion and trillion. Only by writing it out with all the zeros does the sheer magnitude of the number register.

The British newspapers, instead of using the term "trillion," refer to "a million million." And they speak of "a thousand million" instead of "a billion." That is a major step in the right direction, but showing all the zeros, as you did, is the best way to drive home the sheer magnitude of a budget of more than 3-trillion dollars.

Edward H. Stein, Tampa

[Last modified February 11, 2008, 21:20:34]