Make do at Modesto Junior College
It has recently come to my attention that Modesto Junior College faculty may be being pressured to vote for Proposition 30 through campus e-mail messages. A column by Dan Walters states: "Education Code Section 7054 prohibits K-12 and community college officials from spending public funds 'for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure or candidate….'"
The money generated from Proposition 30 will go into the state's general fund. Voter information notes, "Revenues deposited into the General Fund support a variety of programs…." We have no guarantees here regarding the amount of money going to our community colleges.
Shouldn't administrators – state and MJC – learn to deal with the money they have instead of milking more money out of those of us who pay taxes?
TRUMAN R.JENSEN
Turlock
Romney outsources jobs and more
In the last debate between Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama, Romney rattled on and on. The truth escaped him on the auto bailout. Plus, I was amazed how Romney kept attacking China, when just a week ago Romney's company was firing 144 people in Illinois and shipping their jobs to China where they pay $1 per hour in wages.
These workers get the shaft while Romney makes millions.
Remember, Romney refused to produce his income tax records like anyone else running for President of the United States.
I believe you will find Romney ships all his finances to China and other countries.
If he expects us to vote for him, he is dreaming. If he doesn't want to invest his money in the United States, he doesn't deserve to be president. Wake up voters, vote for President Obama.
LONIA HOWELL
Modesto
It's a fact — unemployment is high
So now we know that Jack Welch was right and Paul Krugman was wrong. When the U.S. Labor Department released the unemployment claims numbers for September, it claimed that the numbers declined from 8.1 to 7.8 percent. However, with only 114,000 jobs added, Welch knew something didn't add up. Krugman, of course, supported the erroneous numbers.
Later the Labor Department released the seasonally adjusted numbers, showing the actual number somewhere above 8 percent. Of course the Obama campaign was happy to use the incorrect 7.8 percent figure to support its claim that the job market and economy are improving. And on Oct. 18, the Labor Department announced another significant increase in new unemployment job claims of 46,000, raising the total number to 388,000, a four-month high. The job market is not improving; 50 percent of college graduates can't find a job; 23 million people can't find a job; 12 million are underemployed.
LOREN SUELZLE
Modesto
Research the Democratic Party
Democracy verses republic or socialism, that is the question.
President Obama and his agenda have doubled our country's deficit in less than four years. If he is re-elected for another four years it could double again with his liberal decisions. That could very well bankrupt our country. When a country goes bankrupt, the federal government then declares all monies null and void. Then they issue new currency.
When this happens, you now have a socialist government. Socialism is a theory where the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that all share in. Is this what you want?
When we first started voting I thought I was a Democrat, because my parents were. I soon realized their ideas were too liberal for me and soon found the Republican ideology more in line with my values.
Recently we did a search on the history of the Democratic Party. Very enlightening. We would like to suggest anyone on the fence do the same.
PAUL A. and DONNA CHAPIN
Modesto
One patriot's opinion
Where is the justice for the American people? Terrorists murdered innocents in the Twin Towers and continue to murder our young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, our diplomats and employees in Libya and murder the U.S. border patrol. Our political system's response is to let them get away with the murdering and give them more funding.
Then we have the nerve to let inflation skyrocket and tell the most deserving people, who are on Social Security, they will only receive a 1.7 percent raise when gasoline has more than doubled, food has significantly increased as well as housing costs. We have many families of lower socioeconomic status who are living on the streets or in shelters and jobless.
How do the Congress, senate and president have the nerve to sit back and tell us that they "feel our pain?" Politicians should be on the receiving end of the 1.7 percent raise since they are our public servants. Whatever happened to honesty, integrity and common sense? Why don't we take the foreign aid money and spend it in America on roads, homes and bridges? Let's put the American people as a priority for a change. This is one patriot's opinion on America.
BOBBY TERRY
Ceres
Vote for Proposition 37
We should support Proposition 37, a ballot measure that will require the mandatory labeling of food that contain genetically engineered products.
The only people who have proven that genetically engineered foods are safe are the chemical companies that are producing them.
JOHN KILEY
Turlock
Why does Hernandez support HSR?
Is congressional candidate Jose Hernandez's support of the $96 billion high-speed rail boondoggle a sign that he doesn't grasp that California and Washington are both derailing the economy through deficit spending? Consultants alone have cost upwards of $12 million.
Potential private investors consider the project too risky. Central Valley farmers, farm bureaus, and other agricultural related groups are vigorously opposed to the rail line route that would compromise 15,000 acres of prime farmland, agribusiness and the water supply. In addition to the negative impact on livestock and crops, valley wildlife would suffer as well.
Of further concern, during the economic downturn, is the added fiscal burden to the state that HSR will pose while up against dollars needed for education, roads, law enforcement and emergency services. Jeff Denham is against HSR at this time. I agree with Denham that a better economy and smarter planning are prerequisites to pursuing the project in the future.
Jose Hernandez looks to be good with HSR federal- state high-speed deficit spending, and with subsequent borrowing, tax hikes and downsizing of services. Let's back the train up and allow the economy to move forward.
KEN GROVES JR.
Ceres
Country is in big trouble
Let's talk turkey. In the 1930s my mother earned $125 a month teaching public school. Her principal garnished her monthly wages $5 per paycheck for the school's contribution to the neighborhood soup line. Today, our present slump is the worst since that Depression of the 1930s. Still struggling, this economy is growing at a slower rate than last year or the year before.
Yet the private sector cannot create new jobs in times of such shrinking markets. And insisting big government conterminously shrink too is pure folly. With 23 million unemployed likely unprepared as unskilled and untrained – re-creation of high tech jobs lost overseas is of no merit. We should not enlarge the public bureaucracy, but re-institute a Works Project Administration and C.C.C. camps.
Yes, we will have to fund them with short-term debt. But the poor die hard, and meeting your finish freezing to death on a concrete sidewalk is a bad end. The country is in big trouble! We lost control of our entire financial system just five years ago. And if the Republican right continues to refuse to fund the debt from additional taxes of upper income windfalls, maybe it's time to retire them.
TIM K. FITZGERALD
Sonora
Other countries laugh at us
We need to keep our money in the United States, not billions of tax dollars going worldwide. Jobs, not fancy words. The economy will get better once people go back to work. If we have no money to spend, stores and factories close.
President Obama has traveled the world but hasn't looked out the window to see the heartbreak of America. He gave billions to Wall Street, the same crooks that made the downfall and a very bad insurance plan that no small business can afford. Also every time Air Force One flies it costs $1 million. Let's stop going to Mars. The money we spend needs to fix things on Earth! Have the scientist make ocean water drinkable, electric cars affordable, etc. Other countries laugh at us, we're a joke to them. Obamaland in another four years will turn into a third world country.
In 2008 he said we need change. Yes, we do and that change is Mitt Romney. We want and need our dignity back! Mr. Obama, please read this, but I guess you are at a photo op or at a TV show or even another vacation.
TOM FRANCIS
Delhi
'Obama war on seniors'
Not many people are aware of the cuts to medicare that take effect in 2013 or 2014. The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) requires that everyone buy health insurance. In cases of the many millions of unemployed and low income people, the federal government will pay for their insurance. To do this, they will cut Medicare by $716 billion. This will result in less health service for those on Medicare.
I think it would be fair to call this the "Obama war on seniors." The Democrats use the slogan "war on women" in referring to some Republicans' beliefs on abortions.
Slogans on TV advertising can go a long way in politics, whether they are true or not.
DARWIN BAXTER
Modesto
Choice for president should be obvious
America was founded on the basic freedom of religion. When Barack Obama first ran for president, comments were made that criticized his church. He dropped it like a hot potato. Obama prioritized his election over his beliefs.
By comparison Mitt Romney has always been aware that his religion could cost him his candidacy. The integrity he has maintained and the example he has shown to stand up for your beliefs makes Romney the obvious choice to be our next president.
MARTHA FLORES
Turlock
Hypocrisy in the Republican claims
A government for the people, by the people, shouldn't be for the rich, by the rich, yet America is an oligarchy. Mitt Romney keeps secret his tax returns to hide corporate welfare, for shipping jobs to China and buying companies he forced into bankruptcy for profit — while paying less in taxes than mom and pop working working two jobs. The avenger of avarice was revealed when he spoke without his "trust me" mask at the Millionaire's Club (paying $50,000 per plate); said it's not his job to care about 47 percent of people expecting government to take care of them.
So when government picks up the tab on corporate taxes for outsourcing jobs, isn't that a government handout? And hypocrisy with a capital R? Wealthy propagandists like Hannity and Limbaugh, members in Club Oligarchy, blame Obama and Democrats for unemployment but support Republicans against taxing the wealthiest, because they're "creating jobs" — more hypocrisy! Can't have your tea party and drink it too; Romney and Paul Ryan receive plenty of welfare — then hide it. Food stamps feed the poor; tax evading feeds the greed. And women, hang onto your ovaries. It's going to be a bumpy ride if America makes a Mittstake in 2012.
MARIA LONG
Sonora
Romney's interests are out of the U.S.
The U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 5: "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President..."
Our founding fathers wanted to make sure the president had an undivided allegiance and loyalty to the United States and to protect the sovereignty and security of our citizens by prohibiting the proliferation of outside influences in the operations of our government.
It would be impossible for an 18th century gentleman to conceive of how much the world could change in 250 years, or how internationally interdependent our monetary systems would become.
So, can a person who has ties to international corporations, who made his fortune outside our country, who has deep and pervasive allegiances outside this country, who keeps his vast wealth predominately in foreign banks, meet the spirit of the framers' intent?
I'm not suggesting Mitt Romney is ineligible to serve, I merely want to consider if someone who's loyalty and allegiance is assigned to international mega-corporations could be an honest and effective leader of a democracy. Presidents need to set aside their personal religious, social and financial concerns. I don't think Mitt Romney meets my qualifications.
GINGER HADLEY
Manteca
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