The Bulletin Online - Letters March 2008

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Letters from our Readers - March 2008

Difference Between the Brits And U.S.
Thumbs UP for Prince Harry having the guts to serve in Afghanistan--for 10 weeks until Drudge leaked that information, endangering both Prince Harry and his fellow soldiers by making the Taliban aware of his presence. Thumbs down for Drudge. Taliban can read and Drudge made Harry's base a bigger target than it was. It cut Harry off from serving his full tour of duty.
Compare Harry's actions with President Bush's. Were Bush's daughters serving on the front line? No, although many American women, including mothers with children, are serving today. Prince Harry was within 500 yards of the Taliban and wasn't getting special treatment even though our allies control only 30% of the country, according to
our own intelligence.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is demanding that the same U.S. soldiers and their families repeat tours of duty in Iraq, as many as three or four, because too few people-- especially the sons and daughters of the privileged--are willing to do so. It's not Jenna and Barbara doing without body armor or waiting on an MRAP to avoid being killed by an IED. Afghanistan is now supplying 93% of the world's heroin which finances the Taliban. The Taliban are now importing insurgent techniques learned in Iraq, such as IED's and suicide bombings. They
are a growing menace.
We still have too few NATO troops in Afghanistan and no strategy to win. Recent TV reports showed four passes from Afghanistan to Pakistan that have no NATO patrols to keep out the Taliban for lack of sufficient troops. That makes it an "open door" for Taliban to cross over from training on the Pakistan side. If Sen. McCain wants us in Iraq for the next "100 years" he will have to draft kids into service to fight. If Prince Harry can serve on the front lines, U.S. kids of the privileged will have to do the same if we are an American system is based on equality.
But the problem won't diminish until we get involved in providing real education to Pakistani children to replace the 30,000 Madrassas teaching them hate instead of reading and math. Without that, there will be another 100 years of a steady stream extremist recruits growing up and crossing that border--shooting at our troops. We are fighting fires that will keep burning until we cut off the fuel by replacing the Pakistani hate "schools' with secular schools that have more than one book as well as Internet access, connected to the world like ours.
Meanwhile, the case of Ricin in Las Vegas is very strange for something authorities say is "not" terrorism. If not terrorism, what was it? It is a felony to make Ricin. It is used legitimately only in cancer research--but that research is not conducted in motel rooms. If the ricin was to be a murder weapon, who was its target? Who made it?
Some reports have indicated that ricin may have been used in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and that quantities of ricin were found in Al Qaeda caves in Afghanistan. It's more of an assassination weapon. It's not suitable for mass murder.
Which reminds me: Remember the Anthrax killer after 9/11? He is still on the loose, along with Osama bin Laden, hiding in those Pakistan hills beyond the unguarded Afghanistan mountain passes. "Heck of a Job" on counter-terrorism by our government so far.
The next President will need an actual strategy to win Afghanistan from the Taliban and keep Iraq stable, something that has been missing. The next President will need to find solutions to the root issues, instead of spending our blood and treasure over the next 100 years without addressing the extremist hate factories.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, head of the Senate Foreign Intelligence Committee, said today that he believes that Mr. Obama is best suited to do that. A huge mess has been left that will take a miracle to fix.
Michael Fjetland, DDA/JD
Global American Series

Our legal System
In this country we have given our judges virtually unchecked power and control to determine criminal sentences, child custody decisions and divorce property settlements without, in most cases, a chance of appeal. A judge can and often does make decisions which are not fair or equal in divorce and property cases. We the people are at the mercy of some unfeeling, uncaring judges who impose the sentence or decision that they had tentatively decided on based on first impressions. Texas is a 50-50 State - but that does not carry over in some courtrooms when a judgement is made. A judge can and often does give one all or most of the property.
There has been and always will be favoritism. Decisions and punishments are imposed and decided to a large extent based upon color, wealth, age, sex, appearance, the geographic location of the court and virtually based on the whims, biases, quirks and philosophy of the judge alone.
I can now understand why there is no belief in the judicial system as it exists today. It is in widespread agreement among law enforcement officers, law offices, legislative halls and most if not all law or legal people that the system does not work. It is believed we have given almost wholly, unchecked and sweeping powers to our judges. In the federal system and in most states, once a criminal sentence - however arbitrary, inconsistenet or unfair - is imposed; it generally cannot be appealed as long as it is within the minimum and maximum limits set by law. The United States is the only country in the free world that does not have some sort of appeal and review of criminal sentences. A criminal can appeal his conviction on a technicality, such as the wording of a search warrant, but cannot appeal the sentence which may condemn him to prison for most if not all of his life.
The most important deterrent to crime is certainty of punishment - not severity or length. There should be fixed sentences to each crime and only in extraordinary cases, could there be the legal limits, but the judge would have to justify in writing any deviation from the range of presumptive sentences. There would be no parole - serve the whole sentence - under the system, as it now operates, would be unnecessary.
It is a scary thought to think that a judge can and does make a decision based on profilling, (we all do it) - favoritism, biases, whims or even just a bad day - that can and does change everyone involved in the cases' lives - in a split second with the judges ruling.
There has got to be a better system - judges have way too much power. Even if a jury decides a case - a judge often does change the decision of that jury. What happened to a jury of our peers? They decide - the judge overrules them - what the hell - all that time and effort and the judge can change the jury's decision with a stroke of a pen.
What about divorces where there has not been a decision made between the two parties involved - a judge can and does divide property and does so without a signature by one of the parties.
No signature by one party of a divorce or property settlement and that's legal? What happened to a divorce and property settlement being agreed on at the same time? How can a divorce not be done for months or years? - I would say - not quite legal or appropriate.
How can a divorce be legal if one of the parties refuses to sign the papers? Should it be legal for a judge to sign off on divorce papers or a property settlement without consent and agreement between the parties?
Kathy Collier
New Waverly, TX

Consumer rights crusader and champion Ralph Nader has announced his candidacy for President in 2008. Immediately afterward, the attacks started. Obama said about Ralph: "He thought that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush, and, eight years later, I think people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about,". To which Ralph replied that Barrack Obama needed to explain why Barrack didn't "... come down hard on the economic crimes against minorities in city ghettos: payday loans, predatory lending, rent-to-own rackets, landlord abuses, lead contamination, asbestos,".
Not to be outdone, Hillary threw out the same old lines that Mr. Nader caused Al Gore to lose the presidency to which Ralph pointed out that" "The Democrats ought to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves why they have not been able to landslide the worst Republican Party and the White House and Congress over the last 20 years,". Classic Ralph Nader, intelligent replies to stupid and petty remarks. Hillary and Barrack, as well as McCain and any other candidate, will continue to dismiss this man whose influence and effort created such "petty entities" as the Safe Drinking Water Act and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). And, the other less qualified candidates can trash Ralph from the safety of their cars and buses thanks to his help in creating the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
How many of the other candidates can claim to have been voted by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential Americans in history? or can boast a book (Unsafe At Any Speed) that has been ranked as no. 38 among the top 100 pieces of journalism of the 20th century? McCain wants you to give him the presidency as compensation for being a prisoner of war. Hillary wants it because she is a woman and Obama because he is black. All of their contributions combined can not add up to what Mr.Nader has accomplished. Imagine what he could do if millions of Americans will vote for their own best interests and elect him President.
Richard C Amburgey
Spring, Texas

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