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May 2008 |
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Letters To The Editor
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Tuesday, 11 March 2008 |
Letter from Jack Schauer
Fargo, N.D.
One of the most frustrating and negative aspects of the Hoeven Administration is when he utilizes the method of co-optation in order to increase his popularity among North Dakota voters. For example, Hoeven’s property tax plan and his program for funding education are issues which have already been propounded by Sen. Tim Mathern and other Democrats for quite some time now. It is no secret among Democrats, and some Republicans, that this is the way Hoeven operates. Like other issues, Hoeven has borrowed from the Democrats. He only shows up in the media, when he is good and ready, to take credit for a program, where due credit often is not earned.
However, from this writer’s vantage point, this is the well-known political strategy of Gov. Hoeven. He will let other interested parties, (again, mostly Democratic in nature), to decide, resolve or even create programs, such as the property tax and educational funding ideas, and once the issue is inevitably settled, he will suddenly take credit it for it, when in reality, he shouldn’t be credited for it. In this sense he is a “copycat.” This is not something new in political circles. Most politicians in North Dakota already know this. One wonders when he will decide to borrow Sen. Mathern’s program for covering all children via medical care in North Dakota?
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Keep working in N.D. for good-paying jobs |
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Friday, 07 March 2008 |
Letter from Gary White
Dickinson, N.D.
We definitely need the coal gasification plant Great Northern Power Development has proposed to build near South Heart. Finally, some folks paying living wages in our area.
My four children, all now living in Colorado and California, got a great education from the universities here in North Dakota, and then had to leave the state for good-paying jobs.
The only jobs we have seem to be in the oil fields and the power plants. I mean jobs paying $30 to $40 per hour.
I grew up on a farm and ranch here in North Dakota, but had to work off the farm and ranch - on the oil rigs - to support my family. We need all the coal-based jobs that they will bring in and permanently base here in North Dakota.
As I drive across the state and see the new wind farms generating electricity; ethanol plants producing fuel we burn here that helps support our farming and ranching communities by using their crops grown; and the oil companies paying the landowners good mineral leases, it makes me feel sure we will have a good tax base and good jobs for our children in the future.
No matter what political influence you are of, we need to work in a bipartisan effort to make sure all of this continues.
I am also very glad commodity prices are up and land values are up for our agricultural communities.
One thing I learned growing up on a farm and ranch, these people spend their dollars locally on pick-up trucks, farm machinery, fuel, fertilizer and all other inputs. They very much keep these local communities in business and I am very proud of all them.
It finally looks like North Dakota is going in the right direction.
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Treat Israel, Hamas with even hand |
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Friday, 07 March 2008 |
Letter from David Pautsch
Davenport, Iowa
Newspapers across the country unjustly attacked Israel for defending her people from what has now been seven years of rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza.
However, more than 335 rockets were fired at Israeli civilians by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists, killing one Israeli civilian, a father of four, and wounding many others. And how does the American media react? Silence! The deafening silence might just as well be interpreted as a wholesale endorsement of the Holocaust.
Yet, when Israel lifts a finger against these terrorists, there’s a massive outcry and shrieks of horror that Israel has no regard for human rights and the lives of innocent people. This is an outrageous double standard!
How do you suppose the United States would respond if Mexico fired 335 rockets into Texas?
What's even more absurd is the way our government and media have been duped into believing that we can actually negotiate with Muslim terrorists. The ultimate purpose of their very lives is sworn to the destruction of Israel and we think these terrorists will negotiate in order “to live peacefully” with their Jewish neighbors? What kind of dark spell would dupe people into such naivety?
Would you, in your position of influence, not only support Israel's right to exist, but also use your position to defend her right to defend herself? At bare minimum, will you refuse the temptation to treat Israel with a standard different than the one you use with Muslim terrorists? |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Letter from Rob Lauf
Mayville, N.D.
I’ve known Steve Risher for several years, and am giving my public support to him for Public Service Commissioner.
He is the most electable candidate for several reasons: He has political experience, yet a clean voting record that won’t be criticized. He has 25 years of financial experience, crucial to North Dakota’s bottom line. He is a servant of the people, as his 20 years of work on charitable boards proves. He has the resources, organization and energy required to run an effective campaign, and is already actively working for change.
He’s got a plan to advocate fair rates and practices for all citizens of North Dakota, to actively work with developing alternate energy resources, and to insure that North Dakotans’ financial interests are protected. Besides that, he’s a great guy. He knows how to get the job done. While serving as Hospice president, he helped bring Hospice to a state of financial stability, moving from a small building to a large beautiful building, as well as putting in place measures to ensure future success. That’s what we need for North Dakota, someone who knows how to inject enthusiasm and energy into the state!
I support Steve Risher for Public Service Commissioner — he believes in a new horizon, and so do I.
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Do-nothing governor is not for the people |
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
Letter from Leon Thiel
Bismarck, N.D.
I’ve read a lot of letters to the editor lately with a ‘how dare you question Gov. John Hoeven’ and ‘the governor can do no wrong’ attitude. They are quite arrogant, and I would hope the campaign staffer writing them would stop.
Here are some things I’ve noticed over the years about Hoeven:
He often takes credit for many things other elected officials do for North Dakota. Ribbon cuttings, groundbreakings — you name it — wherever there are cameras, there’s Hoeven. It’s disappointing to me that getting media attention is the governor’s first priority.
Second, my property taxes are out of control. Hoeven waited until his third-term campaign to seriously address the problem. Is that leadership?
Also, Hoeven’s effort to address corruption in our government has been weak. Problems at Workforce Safety and Insurance have been percolating for years. Hoeven practically did nothing about it. The former WSI CEO said Hoeven hasn’t even visited the agency. That’s poor leadership.
Moreover, college tuition has increased almost 100 percent since Hoeven took office. This is outrageous. It’s a tax on our students. Hoeven obviously does not have a plan to keep our young people in North Dakota. In fact, it seems by approving of these high tuition increases, he wants them to leave.
Hoeven boasts about his economic development policies. I say: He’s been taking credit for North Dakota profiting from oil near $100 per barrel.
Hoeven has been a place-holder governor. He’s the epitome of the do-nothing, Republican-run government in this state.
Arrogant letters like the ones coming from Hoeven’s partisan campaign staff show he is not for the people. |
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
Letter from Brian Argabright
Velva, N.D.
Over the past several years, I have asked both Republicans and Democrats the question: What constitutes a good governor? To date, I have not received a definitive answer. Answers like “makes people happy,” “young with energy,” and “nice wife” are but a few of the answers. Due to the lack of general understanding of what we as voters in the state of North Dakota should be looking for in our governor, I have come up with a few ideas of how to measure the next candidates in the general election.
Leadership is an abstract idea. Few people are real leaders; most just go through the motion. A real leader sees problems before they arise; seeks out the real causes, regardless of party lines, and takes actions. Ask yourself if our current governor has done this regarding the WSI issues over the last year or the N.D. Department of Transportation Department not sending out license renewals and when they finally arrive two months late, clearly marked second request on them.
Frequently, I hear about an employee that is getting paid under the table. This would exclude that employee from unemployment insurance, not payroll
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
Letter from Ben Gums
Jamestown, N.D.
Maria Shriver Schwartzenegger had to do something spectacular to distinguish her appearance at the rally where she showed up as a surprise endorser of Barak Obama. She was not only countering her husband's endorsement of Sen. McCain, she was sharing a stage with Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy and Michelle Obama, wife of her candidate of choice. Her stab at cleverness reminded many of her career in television journalism in which her sophistry left her with egg on her face more than once.
Oh, the Obama fans loved it when she compared him to the State of California with an obvious but misguided litany of geographic references. Naively, the audience roared in blind agreement. History is replete with charismatic figures who aroused legions of zealots only to find themselves on destructive pathways.
As I write this, I can't shake the memory of James Jones committing suicide after hundreds of his followers drank poisoned Kool-Aid at his behest at their commune in Guyana. (That's not a comparison with Sen. Obama. It is a stark and recent reminder of the potential evil inherent in blindly following a charismatic leader.)
When Obama gave the keynote address at the '04 Democratic National Convention, I was enraptured. I pegged him as the best candidate in my lifetime to succeed as our country's first Afro-American president. I still see that as a possibility. However, I've studied his performance in his service of one-third of his first term as a U.S. Senator; I've listened to many of his campaign speeches and debates; and, as best I could, surveyed his single term as a state senator in Illinois. It's evident that his success in this primary season is due to his oratory and his charismatic personality, but doesn't take into account his limited performance in elected office and the inexperience for the level of leadership that his youthful zeal has prompted him to seek.
Reflecting on this, it occurred to me that there is a more apt California analogy. When Gertrude Stein, after spending her adult years as a writer living in Paris, got public recognition for a publishing success late in life, she made an author's tour visiting most of America's major cities, ending in San Francisco. She decided to re-visit her childhood home in nearby Oakland. At age 80 she remembered the reasons why she had left and never returned, but hoped to find that her memory had been unfair. It wasn't; Oakland was even sadder and more depressed than she'd remembered. When Gertrude Stein viewed her hometown, she reported, "There is no there, there."
I do think Obama has potentially a bright future. But in terms of the presidency in 2008, "There's just no there, there." Not yet.
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