May 07, 2008 07:59 am Dems' energy policy ruins us When gasoline reaches $5 per gallon and food prices soar, the blame lies with the Democrats who deliberately scuttle any congressional efforts to tap our own domestic energy resources. For most of this century, it will be oil that fuels the world's industrial economics. Oil is the most-available, most-efficient and most-affordable energy source on the planet. To survive in a highly competitive global economy, the United States must have uninterrupted and affordable sources of oil, something the Democratic boneheads completely ignore. Democrats are playing a very dangerous game with our economy by continuing to rely on foreign oil sources. It puts our energy destiny in the hands of other nations, which have their own agendas, where even a small geo-political hiccup can make a roller coaster of our oil and food prices. China is keenly aware of the need to secure oil reserves to feed its expansion ambitions. It is locking up oil reserves around the world, including a deal with Cuba to tap oil right in our own backyard in the Gulf of Mexico. Ignoring the fact that there are enough oil reserves here in North America to take us well into the next century, the Democratic boneheads fashioned an inept energy plan that (a) is loaded with taxes, (b) penalizes American industry, (c) promotes ethanol, an expensive, marginally efficient fuel that's already driving up food prices (d) totally ignores nuclear energy options while hoping for some futuristic pipe-dream energy source and (e) ballyhoos windmills and solar power, something you can't run a subway system on. Having sold their souls to the devil, I mean the extremist environmental lobbies, Democrats are now worshipping, Al Gore's new deity, called global warming, whose gospel will send our economy along with millions of jobs into oblivion. William Eckardt Oneonta Nader not part of shell game Am I not the only one who suspects the presidential campaign is more of a shell game than a factual debate of the issues? Sens. Clinton, Obama and McCain are being controlled by the sleight-of-hand media, the appendage to the strong arm of corporate America. The corporate media make every effort to trail off onto subjects that obscure the many issues we need to focus upon: exactly where do the candidates stand on health care, living wage, ending the war, energy sources, the environment, employment? What pains me more is the feeling that these three candidates are willingly the empty shells in the game if being controlled by the power-elite is the price they have to pay to get into the White House. Will the next president be beholding to the citizens or to corporations? What has happened to informed voting in America and can we endure this much longer? We must demand an end to this assault on democracy and we can do that by electing a president who will not tolerate control of our government. Ralph Nader has no interest in hand-holding with corporate America. Just look at his record. Take a look at www.votenader.org and get details on how the Nader administration will deal with issues we are facing. Things are already rotten in Washington, so Nader can't be a spoiler. That label is just another message the media have very heavily endorsed while they keep his campaign far from our eyes and ears. Folks, stop accepting this sleight-of-hand with our government, and send a clear message to Washington. We, the people, want our country back. Wendy Weeks Cooperstown Act showed humanity alive On April 23, our daughter, Ashley, was visiting from Newburgh when she went to the bank to withdraw some money for her trip home, her two young sons, ages 15 months and 4 years, at her side. When the bank teller informed her she was overdrawn, she was mortified and worried. She needed the money for gas to return home. She was so upset. She called me from Price Chopper, crying hysterically. While there, a passer-by heard her crying and her problem. The woman handed her a $20 bill, telling her she needed to use it to go home. Ashley told her, "I can't take your money, I don't know you, I have no way of paying you back." The woman told her she was to take it and use it to take her children home to Newburgh. Ashley took the money and can never say thank you enough to the stranger who showed her that humanity was still here in the area she still calls home. As her parents, we too thank this stranger and will be eternally grateful for helping our daughter. We would have been able to ourselves had we known it, but you beat us to the punch, and you will forever be a hero in our eyes. Thank you, again. Richard and Bobbie Groat Sidney Center Copes Corners Park missed The copy of Upstate Life that came in the April 30 issue of The Daily Star was a nice addition to the daily paper. I must say that I was a bit disappointed in the section on Parks and Recreation. The Oneonta parks were listed, the parks in Cooperstown, and of course the state parks, but I noticed that you failed to mention the beautiful county-owned park in the beautiful Butternut Valley, known as Copes Corners Park. There is camping, picnicking, and fishing, too. The park is located between Gilbertsville and Mount Upton on state Highway 51. Beautiful views and wonderful people await. You should really give it the once-over. Bet you'll like what you encounter. Lorraine Brooks Morris No surprise on abortion, crime Margaret Sanger was celebrated as the mother of Planned Parenthood until someone read her book, "Woman and the New Race." H.G. Wells wrote the intro to her book "The Pivot of Civilization," and he definitely believed in breeding up. Those babies that abortions kill carry the genes of two extremely irresponsible people. So it is not surprising that legal abortion has been given credit for lowering the crime rate for the last 20 years. Herbert A. Faulkner Roxbury
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