SLO mayor needs to shape up or ship out

If ever there was a more blatant demonstration of the "good ol' boys club," it took place at the San Luis Obispo City Council meeting held on Tuesday, July 17. When representatives for a subcommittee to renegotiate the Prado Overpass were selected, not to anyone's surprise, they were our mayor and Mr. Carter. Two in agreement with the big developers on any project. Two who are not listening to either the staff's recommendations, nor the general public. Two who are of the same mindset and not open to options. Two who obviously favor the opinions of several of the members of the Board of Supervisors which will only serve as repetition of what has gone before.

You, Mr. Mayor, have again shown your bias in not selecting Christine Mulholland to represent an opinion voiced by the voting and spoken general public. Why do you resist an opposing or competitive attitude? Are you so afraid to lose control and must continue to cast Christine in a submissive light? Your demeanor, Mr. Mayor, is appalling. You continue to be disingenuous, unjust, and unsuitable to your position on the Council. I, too, am just like you, Mr. Mayor a senior citizen and your actions are detrimental in nature to those who comprise this portion of San Luis Obispo citizens. Shape up, Mr. Mayor, or ship out!

Louise Justice

San Luis Obispo

 

 

 

Fight for the mentally ill

After eight years of success, AB 2034 is slated for extinction under the governor's proposed state budget.

Also known as the Integrated Services for Homeless Mentally Ill Adults Program, AB 2034 provides outreach and comprehensive services to those with serious mental illness, including young adults, parolees, and veterans. The aim is to control symptoms, secure housing, live independently, work, keep healthy, and stay out of trouble.

Each year, Sacramento distributes $55 million among the counties to help 5,000 Californians who are both seriously mentally ill and either homeless or candidates for homelessness, hospitalization, or incarceration. At any given time, 85 to 100 individuals are actively served here in San Luis Obispo County.

An effective model for comprehensive and long-term mental health support, AB 2034 has dramatically reduced hospitalizations, incarcerations, homelessness, and unemployment among the target population.

To unwisely eliminate this program now would undermine the stability and success of those served and cost taxpayers in added uninsured hospitalizations, jail time, and lost wages. Tell the governor to back and fully fund AB 2034.

Harold Light

Cambria

 

 

 

We should be outraged by court decisions

The recent 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in a landmark racial desegregation case marked a fitting conclusion to the first full term of President Bush's two Supreme Court appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. The majority opinion, authored by Roberts, served as a microcosm for the traits that have quickly come to define the Court: an alarming lack of respect for precedent, irreverence for the democratic process, and disregard for constitutional history.

As much as the Court has lurched to the right in the past two terms, the results could get worse if another Court opening were to occur during Bush's remaining days in office. Among the issues at stake in the near future are a woman's right to choose, the environment, voting rights, congressional power, free speech and the First Amendment, and the protection of fundamental rights and liberties as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

As U.S. citizens, we should be outraged by these recent decisions. Justices take an oath to uphold, not dismantle the Constitution by imposing their own personal and ideological beliefs into decisions that can negatively affect us all.

Vyvynne Sciarrilli

Santa Maria

 

 

Maybe Bush does want to be a dictator

George W. Bush, who took on many dictatorial powers when he declared our country to be in a state of national emergency after we invaded Iraq in 2003, has now issued another executive order that effectively destroys the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that a person will not be deprived of property or life without due process.

On July 17, Bush signed a new executive order in which he uses broad language to claim that he can seize the property of any person who "undermines efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq."

The language in this executive order is vague and incredibly disturbing. "Undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction," as cited above, is broadly defined and could mean anybody who speaks out against the Iraq war. We already hear, on an almost daily basis, how he and Mr. Cheney believe that people who question this war are undermining the effort. The President fails to mention the Fifth Amendment or due process anywhere in the order. I am beginning to think that when he said "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator," he meant it.

Meg Evans

San Luis Obispo

 

 

 

Democrats, keep standing up to Republicans

Recently, Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer, and other Senate Democrats fought to bring our troops home forcing Republicans to stay up all night and tell the American people why they were blocking an end to the war.

Senate Republicans need to stop blocking votes on issues of importance to the American people. (They have done it seven times on Iraq, and on issues like reducing health care costs and increasing the minimum wage.)

I applaud the Democrats and urge them to keep standing up to Republicans.

Bob Markel

Oceano

 

 

 

The war is just one of this administration's issues

Well, in the last Congress, the Republican majority attempted to bully and shame the Democrats into not using their limited power to filibuster various votes that went against the will of the people. Now that the election has thrown the Republicans into the minority, they use that very vehicle to block up or down votes on the direction this nation should take to protect our troops.

The stance of the minority party has been to support the clearly dysfunctional president, not the will of the people. The war would have gone better with no management. The administration has botched every single facet of it from political patronage to gross waste of our funds and the lives of our troops. I urge all sensible citizens (there still seem to be a few dolts who have their heads in the sand and support whatever our lying appointed president puts out) to contact their representatives and urge them to carry on relentlessly to get us out of this mess in Iraq.

The war is only one issue where the administration has been found lacking. The mean-spirited, graft-riddled endeavors to have free reign over just about every facet of our lives will take many decades to reverse. Taxes down for the rich, costs up for all others, pollution and devastation of the natural environment, health care in shambles, our very voting rights in question all brought to us by the current gang in the White House and their criminal friends in Congress over the past six years.

Pete Evans

San Luis Obispo

 

 

 

Congress must impeach Cheney and Bush

It is imperative and urgent that Vice President Cheney and President Bush be impeached. The issue is not one of "policy" or sloppy governance it is constitutional.

When Bush commuted Scooter Libby's penalty, there was a conflict of interest. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, and the target of that investigation was the White House itself. The president thus tampered with the judicial process, and in so doing, has himself participated in obstruction of justice.

Secondly, President Bush ordered Harriet Miers to disobey a subpoena to appear before Congress. In so doing, he usurped power from the judicial branch (by placing himself above the law) and usurped power from the legislative branch (by defying Congress's constitutionally guaranteed privileges).

To do nothing establishes legal precedent that will exist in perpetuity. If this administration's actions go unchallenged, then all presidents from here forward will be above the law. The Constitution repeatedly mentions impeachment as the sole protection against usurpation of power by one branch against another. Running out the clock is not an option. It is imperative that Congress impeach Cheney and Bush. The safety of our nation, the rule of law, and the preservation of our Constitution demand it.

Craig H. Russell

Los Osos

 

 

 

Wake up to this changing America

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. First they want us to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, now they want to take God out of the U.S. currency. No wonder America is going the way it is. People, we really need to take a good look at what is going on around us. Wake up!

Whether or not you believe in God and believe me, one day you will don't take him out of the lives of those who do. And as for "In God we trust," you will have to if you want to stay out of Hell. Yes, I probably offended someone.

Sally Ysalde

Orcutt

 

 

 

The media can't stop us from doing the right thing

We Americans must stand by our troops in Iraq and stand by the Iraqi people. We are their only protection from foreign genocide. We failed to do so in 1991 during the Gulf War, and Shiite Iraqis were massacred by Saddam.

We supported the South Koreans with our troops, and there is a peaceful and prosperous country today. We supported the Israelis against Arab Muslim genocide, and today we have a strong democratic state in the Middle East. We stepped into Bosnia and ended endless genocide there. We stepped into Afghanistan and stopped the roots of terrorism there.

The American news media led by the New York Times, Associated Press, CNN, and their like numbers in the Democratic Party, are placing millions at risk by undermining American efforts in the Middle East and demanding an ill-advised withdrawal before the area is stabilized. How long should we stand by the Iraqis? As long as it takes to assure all Americans that we will not be responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people in Iraq, or anywhere else in the world, again.

It is the American mission in world history to provide liberty, freedom, and democracy to all who wish to accept them.

Why do the Democrats and the media think the Iraqis should make the transition to liberty overnight? The Russians and the East Germans took years to adjust to their newfound freedoms after the Berlin Wall fell in 1991.

One gets the impression that the Democrats and the media are totally opposed to these ideals and support radical Muslim theocracy and fascism.

Let's not let the Democrats and the media and their terrorist allies precipitate another genocide in the world. Let's stand by our American troops and the Iraqi people!

Justin Ruhge

Lompoc