Reader's Alley
By IR Staff - 10/08/07
Letters to the Editor
Vote for Elsaesser
Candidates courting us are always asking us to take a leap of faith between their promises and the responsibilities of elected office. Voting for Matt Elsaesser requires no risky leaps. He’s proven, with the results of his ceaseless care for this community manifest in countless critical ways. As the founding executive director of the S.A.V.E. Foundation, which he began at Carroll College as an honors student, Elsaesser has answered our community’s plea for more recycling opportunities.
While the past year’s Montana legislative session proved contentiously partisan, Elsaesser and his student interns successfully worked with both sides of the aisle to reach consensus on bills ranging from electronic waste to electric cars.
While his accomplishments in myriad areas too long to list speak for themselves and have made our community richer, it is Elsaesser’s character that remains most impressive. Honest, brimming with new ideas and committed to Helena, Matt Elsaesser is a proven achiever who is never “off the clock.” He is exactly the sort of candidate all of us have been waiting to elect and wanting to represent us on the City Commission.
Ashley Oliverio 63 Dayspring Loop
Propaganda
I recommend President Reagan’s motto, “Trust, but verify,” to those who blindly accept liberal propaganda. The far-left organization Media Matters, started by Hillary Clinton, cherry-picked the words “phony soldiers” from a radio conversation by talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Democrats in the U.S. Senate then ran with it, passing a condemnation resolution.
However, the radio transcript reveals that Limbaugh was talking about a few servicemen who blog or travel around exposing atrocities (proven to be made up) committed by our troops in Iraq. These far-left icons have been revealed to be basic training washouts or sitting in tents in Kuwait, with no knowledge of what’s really going on in Iraq. Limbaugh has the utmost respect and admiration for our troops. After nearly 27 years of active-duty service and listening to a lot of his programs, I should know.
Media Matters has never condemned the following words: “Those Marines are murderers” — Rep. Murtha (D); “The troops have nothing to do with the surge successes” — Sen. Leahy (D); or “If you don’t do well in school, you’ll end up being a soldier” — Sen. Kerry (D).
Know their agenda. Know who’s lying to you. Our country’s future depends on it.
Bruce Supalla
20 Sweetgrass Road
Protest control
From local TV station KTVH Channel 12’s news cast on protest control, you would think that protesting is illegal, subject to arrest by black-clothed officers with wraparounds, all this from a smiling news commentator. You’d also think that the local broadcast media outlet would be more cognizant of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech rights shared by all people here, including redress of grievances. What a chilling effect when a military-cut officer is shown standing over cowering protesters who are not harming anyone except the status quo. I don’t know who is more guilty of the scare tactics used here, the police or the corporate media who make sure everyone knows the consequences if they want to exercise their constitutional rights.
Ted Scherf
P.O. Box 233
Free speech?
Mr. Murphy seems to confuse free speech with malicious personal attacks of the far left. The two are not the same. First, the disgusting assault on a true American hero, Gen. Petraeus, by MoveOn.org (as subsidized by the New York Times) had nothing to do with free speech and was rightly condemned. Secondly, Rush Limbaugh’s statements were purposefully taken out of context for the sole purpose of personal attack. Limbaugh was referring to a Jesse Macbeth, and others like him, who pretend to be legitimate soldiers in order to slander the military, and on closer examination turn out to be outright liars. Macbeth claimed to be involved in all kind of war crimes, but in reality was discharged only 40 days out of boot camp and was charged and convicted for these false reports. “Phony” appears to be an appropriate term, and also for the feigned “outrage” of Sen. Reid and his bogus Limbaugh condemnation bill. None of this has anything to do with the legitimate dissent of soldiers like Staff Sgt. Gray and has everything to do with unethical political posturing. Perhaps this is one reason why the current Congress has the lowest rating in history.
Mark Rabold
P.O. Box 360
Avon
Culling deer
I have to admit, I am as surprised as FWP biologist Joslin that the city commissioners have turned back from the brink. My guess is, its a funding issue.
What gets culled to pay for culling the deer? And they sure are delightful. Except when you’re an insurance adjuster. Maybe they’re not such a problem that way yet. In Philadelphia, back in the early 1990s, the herd lived in a park squarely centered between two major arteries (20 lanes or better). The insurance industry there finally paid for a cull and did it with mostly volunteer archers. Course they had a giant park to do it in. That seems to be a problem in Helena? Or maybe it was too successful. I would rather be alert and able to share the road than never see them enjoying human civilization with us. It is such an ironic comment on the ways of propagation, human as well as deer.
Still I come out clearly on the culling side. How naive do you have to be to think an ever-expanding population is healthy?
David Porter
Box 513
SCHIP
Mr. Mike Thomas, under the House version of the expanded SCHIP program a family of four earning $82,000 per year living in New York would have been eligible for medical care. I will bet you a dinner at the Silver Star on it.
Wm. Wise, M.D.
10 Wallace Road
Clancy
Stewart Homes
I’m writing in regards to the HHA board’s decision to postpone the destruction of Stewart Homes. Not only do I feel that there needs to be more issues addressed but also straighten out some facts. Like how the cost of operation can be so high after all of the remodeling that has been done over the past 20 years. Some of the items include lead paint and asbestos abatement, new kitchens and baths, new boiler systems and new water heaters. Please look into some of the so-called facts before you tear down a needed facility.
Glenn Arlint Jr.
P.O. Box 1173
Lake Helena Road
In last week’s Your Turn, county commissioners said they were not requiring developers to improve off — site roads. I wonder why I have to widen, pave and put guardrails on all of the unpaved part of Lake Helena Drive, $2 million worth! I offered to pave the road to my 12 lots, but they want all of the road paved. This is a major valley bypass and heavily used recreation road.
Affordable housing? I don’t think so! Add $166,000 to each lot and you can see why it costs so much to build. Oh! You also add about $15,500 for the new level two septics that we must put in now that we have zoning. Zoning will also make anyone who needs to repair or replace an existing system spend about $18,000 to remove the old system and put in a new level two, everywhere, even in Augusta! That’s where affordable housing went! I think I will have to put my toll booth back up.
Jerry Christison
5220 Lake Helena Drive
Insurance woes
I have a business-savvy friend who owned and recently sold a successful engineering company and is now working his way through the maze of public/private health insurance we call Medicare part this, part that, part ad nauseum. He says it is an absolute nightmare. I just hope he figures it out before I need to sign up so he can advise me.
An article in the October AARP Bulletin states that: “America spends more on health care than any other country in the world,” yet we have 47 million people who must rely on emergency rooms for their medical care. What has happened in this country? Nothing seems to work anymore. Any politician today who dares do something in the public interest gets steamrolled by special interest lobbyists.
Private-sector insurance exectives with exorbitant salaries receive bonuses for “controling costs” by promoting the denial or delay of legitimate claims. Administrative costs for private insurers generally exceed 15 percent while those of Medicare are about 2 percent. These things, together with Medicare’s Part ABCDXYZ fiasco, provide sound reasons not to involve private-sector insurance companies in any new U.S. health care program.
Bob Balhiser
735 Corral Road
Max had it right
Sen. Max Baucus deserves high marks for his TV ad on health insurance for children. Max accurately reflected the mood of Americans. In effect, he told the White House bully that he may get away with lying to adults, but he can’t shortchange our kids.
George L. Bousliman
673 South Montana
Pass the resolution
Enough already! On Nov. 6, join me and other Helenans to vote for Referendum 2007-1 which asks for the safe return of our troops from Iraq. We need to leave Iraq. If we stay, the war will cost billions of dollars more, and, even more precious, additional American and Iraqi lives — not to mention our already tarnished reputation around the world. If we leave, it will cost billions but less in the long run. There is no easy, inexpensive way out of this situation, but leaving would be a start. Even the Romans figured this one out a couple of thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. Support Referendum 2007-1.
Bonnie Bowler
807 E. 6th
White canes
Will you stop for me?
As a vision-impaired pedestrian who lives in Helena, I have noticed more and more drivers in the city who have no idea about the meaning of a white cane. Many drivers completely ignore a vision-impaired pedestrian with a white cane attempting to cross an intersection at a crosswalk.
Montana statutes concerning pedestrians state that “the driver of a vehicle, shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, (MCA 61-8-502, Montana’s white cane law).
This “white cane law” not only provides safety for the vision impaired, but for all pedestrians; children, the elderly, the handicapped and even the sighted.
Please allow a pedestrian, any pedestrian, the time to cross a street. You or another driver may prevent a serious injury or even save a life.
Jerry Hutch, President
Capital City Chapter, MAB
1111 East State Street
Vote for Elsaesser
Candidates courting us are always asking us to take a leap of faith between their promises and the responsibilities of elected office. Voting for Matt Elsaesser requires no risky leaps. He’s proven, with the results of his ceaseless care for this community manifest in countless critical ways. As the founding executive director of the S.A.V.E. Foundation, which he began at Carroll College as an honors student, Elsaesser has answered our community’s plea for more recycling opportunities.
While the past year’s Montana legislative session proved contentiously partisan, Elsaesser and his student interns successfully worked with both sides of the aisle to reach consensus on bills ranging from electronic waste to electric cars.
While his accomplishments in myriad areas too long to list speak for themselves and have made our community richer, it is Elsaesser’s character that remains most impressive. Honest, brimming with new ideas and committed to Helena, Matt Elsaesser is a proven achiever who is never “off the clock.” He is exactly the sort of candidate all of us have been waiting to elect and wanting to represent us on the City Commission.
Ashley Oliverio 63 Dayspring Loop
Propaganda
I recommend President Reagan’s motto, “Trust, but verify,” to those who blindly accept liberal propaganda. The far-left organization Media Matters, started by Hillary Clinton, cherry-picked the words “phony soldiers” from a radio conversation by talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Democrats in the U.S. Senate then ran with it, passing a condemnation resolution.
However, the radio transcript reveals that Limbaugh was talking about a few servicemen who blog or travel around exposing atrocities (proven to be made up) committed by our troops in Iraq. These far-left icons have been revealed to be basic training washouts or sitting in tents in Kuwait, with no knowledge of what’s really going on in Iraq. Limbaugh has the utmost respect and admiration for our troops. After nearly 27 years of active-duty service and listening to a lot of his programs, I should know.
Media Matters has never condemned the following words: “Those Marines are murderers” — Rep. Murtha (D); “The troops have nothing to do with the surge successes” — Sen. Leahy (D); or “If you don’t do well in school, you’ll end up being a soldier” — Sen. Kerry (D).
Know their agenda. Know who’s lying to you. Our country’s future depends on it.
Bruce Supalla
20 Sweetgrass Road
Protest control
From local TV station KTVH Channel 12’s news cast on protest control, you would think that protesting is illegal, subject to arrest by black-clothed officers with wraparounds, all this from a smiling news commentator. You’d also think that the local broadcast media outlet would be more cognizant of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech rights shared by all people here, including redress of grievances. What a chilling effect when a military-cut officer is shown standing over cowering protesters who are not harming anyone except the status quo. I don’t know who is more guilty of the scare tactics used here, the police or the corporate media who make sure everyone knows the consequences if they want to exercise their constitutional rights.
Ted Scherf
P.O. Box 233
Free speech?
Mr. Murphy seems to confuse free speech with malicious personal attacks of the far left. The two are not the same. First, the disgusting assault on a true American hero, Gen. Petraeus, by MoveOn.org (as subsidized by the New York Times) had nothing to do with free speech and was rightly condemned. Secondly, Rush Limbaugh’s statements were purposefully taken out of context for the sole purpose of personal attack. Limbaugh was referring to a Jesse Macbeth, and others like him, who pretend to be legitimate soldiers in order to slander the military, and on closer examination turn out to be outright liars. Macbeth claimed to be involved in all kind of war crimes, but in reality was discharged only 40 days out of boot camp and was charged and convicted for these false reports. “Phony” appears to be an appropriate term, and also for the feigned “outrage” of Sen. Reid and his bogus Limbaugh condemnation bill. None of this has anything to do with the legitimate dissent of soldiers like Staff Sgt. Gray and has everything to do with unethical political posturing. Perhaps this is one reason why the current Congress has the lowest rating in history.
Mark Rabold
P.O. Box 360
Avon
Culling deer
I have to admit, I am as surprised as FWP biologist Joslin that the city commissioners have turned back from the brink. My guess is, its a funding issue.
What gets culled to pay for culling the deer? And they sure are delightful. Except when you’re an insurance adjuster. Maybe they’re not such a problem that way yet. In Philadelphia, back in the early 1990s, the herd lived in a park squarely centered between two major arteries (20 lanes or better). The insurance industry there finally paid for a cull and did it with mostly volunteer archers. Course they had a giant park to do it in. That seems to be a problem in Helena? Or maybe it was too successful. I would rather be alert and able to share the road than never see them enjoying human civilization with us. It is such an ironic comment on the ways of propagation, human as well as deer.
Still I come out clearly on the culling side. How naive do you have to be to think an ever-expanding population is healthy?
David Porter
Box 513
SCHIP
Mr. Mike Thomas, under the House version of the expanded SCHIP program a family of four earning $82,000 per year living in New York would have been eligible for medical care. I will bet you a dinner at the Silver Star on it.
Wm. Wise, M.D.
10 Wallace Road
Clancy
Stewart Homes
I’m writing in regards to the HHA board’s decision to postpone the destruction of Stewart Homes. Not only do I feel that there needs to be more issues addressed but also straighten out some facts. Like how the cost of operation can be so high after all of the remodeling that has been done over the past 20 years. Some of the items include lead paint and asbestos abatement, new kitchens and baths, new boiler systems and new water heaters. Please look into some of the so-called facts before you tear down a needed facility.
Glenn Arlint Jr.
P.O. Box 1173
Lake Helena Road
In last week’s Your Turn, county commissioners said they were not requiring developers to improve off — site roads. I wonder why I have to widen, pave and put guardrails on all of the unpaved part of Lake Helena Drive, $2 million worth! I offered to pave the road to my 12 lots, but they want all of the road paved. This is a major valley bypass and heavily used recreation road.
Affordable housing? I don’t think so! Add $166,000 to each lot and you can see why it costs so much to build. Oh! You also add about $15,500 for the new level two septics that we must put in now that we have zoning. Zoning will also make anyone who needs to repair or replace an existing system spend about $18,000 to remove the old system and put in a new level two, everywhere, even in Augusta! That’s where affordable housing went! I think I will have to put my toll booth back up.
Jerry Christison
5220 Lake Helena Drive
Insurance woes
I have a business-savvy friend who owned and recently sold a successful engineering company and is now working his way through the maze of public/private health insurance we call Medicare part this, part that, part ad nauseum. He says it is an absolute nightmare. I just hope he figures it out before I need to sign up so he can advise me.
An article in the October AARP Bulletin states that: “America spends more on health care than any other country in the world,” yet we have 47 million people who must rely on emergency rooms for their medical care. What has happened in this country? Nothing seems to work anymore. Any politician today who dares do something in the public interest gets steamrolled by special interest lobbyists.
Private-sector insurance exectives with exorbitant salaries receive bonuses for “controling costs” by promoting the denial or delay of legitimate claims. Administrative costs for private insurers generally exceed 15 percent while those of Medicare are about 2 percent. These things, together with Medicare’s Part ABCDXYZ fiasco, provide sound reasons not to involve private-sector insurance companies in any new U.S. health care program.
Bob Balhiser
735 Corral Road
Max had it right
Sen. Max Baucus deserves high marks for his TV ad on health insurance for children. Max accurately reflected the mood of Americans. In effect, he told the White House bully that he may get away with lying to adults, but he can’t shortchange our kids.
George L. Bousliman
673 South Montana
Pass the resolution
Enough already! On Nov. 6, join me and other Helenans to vote for Referendum 2007-1 which asks for the safe return of our troops from Iraq. We need to leave Iraq. If we stay, the war will cost billions of dollars more, and, even more precious, additional American and Iraqi lives — not to mention our already tarnished reputation around the world. If we leave, it will cost billions but less in the long run. There is no easy, inexpensive way out of this situation, but leaving would be a start. Even the Romans figured this one out a couple of thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. Support Referendum 2007-1.
Bonnie Bowler
807 E. 6th
White canes
Will you stop for me?
As a vision-impaired pedestrian who lives in Helena, I have noticed more and more drivers in the city who have no idea about the meaning of a white cane. Many drivers completely ignore a vision-impaired pedestrian with a white cane attempting to cross an intersection at a crosswalk.
Montana statutes concerning pedestrians state that “the driver of a vehicle, shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, (MCA 61-8-502, Montana’s white cane law).
This “white cane law” not only provides safety for the vision impaired, but for all pedestrians; children, the elderly, the handicapped and even the sighted.
Please allow a pedestrian, any pedestrian, the time to cross a street. You or another driver may prevent a serious injury or even save a life.
Jerry Hutch, President
Capital City Chapter, MAB
1111 East State Street
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consider_this wrote on Oct 12, 2007 10:22 AM: