Get to know the real McCain

To the Editor:

It is hard for me to believe that according to some polls, more Americans think McCain would do a better job of handling Iraq and do better as commander in chief than Obama. Have we forgotten that this expert was one of the very ones pushing so fiercely to have us attack Iraq? Most Americans agree today that was a colossal blunder.

Let me share some facts just gleaned from Cliff Schecter's book, "The Real McCain." For all the working men and women who support McCain, did you know that the "straight-shooter" shot down six attempts to raise the minimum wage? Further, he supported the Columbia Free Trade Agreement, a country which leads the world in the murder of union leaders.

The so-called maverick who constantly harps on national security and keeping us safe, in '05 and '06, voted against every idea the Democrats made to keep America safe, from port security to more resources for firefighters and first responders. He missed the vote which was to implement the 9/11 Commission's findings. During the 110th Congress, he missed 261 of the 468 votes cast. Schecter accuses him of being a very selective voter and a safe "no be there" voter.

Finally, the staunch "supporter of the troops" was given a "D" grade by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He's quick to send our men and women into the war surge of death, but quite reluctant about helping them pick up the pieces of their broken lives afterward.

Read the book, and perhaps you will agree with me that a vote for McCain will continue to accelerate our moral and economic decline.

Elsie Speck

Carbondale

Ron Paul supports Republican values

To the Editor:

USA, land of the free, home of the brave, is morphing into the American Union, European style, with open borders with Canada and Mexico and Muslims welcome, along with Syrians, Arabs and whomever. Forget national sovereignty.

Congress was trumped by U.N. treaties and President Bush agreements to share Social Security checks (baby boomers won't need them) with Mexican workers, changing U.S. laws to agree with not only Canada and Mexico, but Britain and Europe as well.

Are there not tens of thousands dyed-in-the-wool Boston Tea Party, USA patriots, who love their sea to shining sea country and want to see it return to the individual freedom, small government our founding fathers gave us?

If so, write the Republican Party National Committee and say you support Dr. Ron Paul and his lifelong dedication to constitutional laws, states' rights, private property rights, individual freedom, U.S. sovereignty and respecting sovereignty of other nations. In short, true Republican values.

Tell them to choose Rep. Paul at their convention and you will get a vast number of votes from his grassroots revolutionists.

No viable candidate, no Republican vote.

Mary Wasson

Equality

Clean coal is a viable option

To the Editor:

So Al Gore wants to wean the country off of carbon-based electricity by 2018?

These new green technologies such as wind power sound great, but have enough questions been asked before we stake our futures on them? If we spend a couple of trillion dollars developing wind power in the Midwest, what would happen if the weather had a bad hair day in tornado alley?

A wind farm is a much bigger target than a coal-fired plant. How much damage could be done to that new infrastructure? Isn't this system dependent on predictable wind patterns? Are those wind patterns part of that rapidly changing climate Al keeps screaming about? What if global warming shifts those patterns? If wind was 100 percent dependable 24/7, ships would still have sails rather than engines.

What if the wind just stops for a day or two? If you want to see what one of these giants looks like when flying apart, just look online at www.youtube.com, where there are several videos. It's scary and could be deadly.

I'm all for clean power, but I don't want to see a repeat of corn-based ethanol. The demand for corn has skyrocketed and so has the price. It appears to be contributing to a food shortage.

Did the unquestioned politically correct promises of clean, renewable resources lead us down that path? Let's not make that mistake again.

Clean coal technology is a big key to this transition and it will take a lot more than 10 years, Mr. Gore.

Alfred E. Sanders Jr.

Marion