Bob Meade

To the editor,

It appears that my letter in support of Mr. Horvath caught the attention of, and rankled two professed liberal/progressives, and one independent/conservative/liberal. After hitting that tri-fecta, perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket

As to Mr. Allard’s comments. He would do well to research the long trail of diplomatic efforts by this country, and many others, to try and calm down the maniacal crew that’s running Iran. These efforts have gone on for years without Iran budging an inch. To have our president enter into negotiations with them, with no preconditions, isn’t diplomacy, it’s naïve. And, on the world stage, it elevates a thug to the stature of our president. And what do you do when, with the whole world watching, that thug tells the president to take a hike?

As to his comments about President Bush’s WMD claims being fantasy, I wonder how Mr. Allard missed the comments made by President Clinton about those same WMD’s, when he was president. Or similar reports from the intelligence services of other countries, or the comments by any number of influential senators prior to voting authorization for the president to take the action he felt necessary.

Mr. Allard’s comments about Jimmie Carter being President 27 years ago, and citing the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, attempts to put the issue into the “old news” category. Well, my claim still stands: as president, Carter sat on his thumbs when our sovereign territory (our embassy) was invaded, and our citizens were taken hostage and held prisoner until Ronald Reagan took his oath of office. Prior to that, Carter virtually pulled the rug out from our support of the Shah. The exiled Grand Ayatollah then returned from France to establish the radical theocracy that has been funding terrorist groups throughout the middle east ever since. Those groups are firing rockets into Israeli cities on a daily basis, and are fomenting unrest in Iraq. President Carter did broker a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. While the effort was noble, the result was that Anwar Sadat was assassinated by terrorists who will die before they make peace with a Jewish state. Is it any wonder that even though Israel made extremely generous peace offers to the Palestinian Arabs during the Clinton administration, Arafat turned them all down. He was probably more concerned for his own safety and well being, his life, than he was for the Palestinian people.

As with Rep. Morrison and her pals, E. Scott Cracraft seems to believe that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and anyone affiliated with them, should be impeached or tried in criminal court. And, if that fails, Mr. Cracraft is willing to give up our nation’s sovereignty and turn them over to an international tribunal. And I ask Mr. Cracraft, if all those avenues of revenge fail to accomplish what you want, then what do you do? Stamp your feet? Throw a tantrum? By the way, I have yet to read anything written by those who want the president impeached (including Rep. Morrison), offer any solid reason for his impeachment. I think most of these folks don't view the presidency as a co-equal branch of government. They think he should be subordinate to the Congress (of course, only when the Democrats are in control). Centuries ago, the English used impeachment as a way to get rid of their opposition, but they outgrew criminalizing political differences. Maybe some day our left leaning friends will see the light, too.

As often happens with Mr. Cracraft, he shows that he is anti-business, and doesn’t like the wealthy. Well, I like business, and I don‘t envy those who are wealthy. Businesses provide jobs. Those jobs give people the opportunity to provide for their families. Those businesses pay federal taxes higher than any country in the world, except Japan, which is only a few tenths of one percent higher. However, when you factor in the state and local taxes imposed on businesses, American businesses have the highest tax rates in the world. And by the way, their employee’s are also in the tax base. You, Mr. Cracraft, are a beneficiary of those taxes. You might also take a moment to research how much veteran’s funding has increased since George W. Bush took office. Bush's record funding increases for veteran's issues, kind of makes President Clinton’s increases look small. I will agree that we still have a ways to go to provide veteran’s with adequate funding, but GWB has been doing his part.

Mr. Cracraft, true liberal/progressive that he is, was compelled to toss “environmental crisis” into the mix. I would like a little more light and a lot less heat on this issue. For example, do all the scientists, that he believes have all the answers, factor in the impact of solar activity and the cyclical nature of sun spots? Does ethanol really increase the emissions of greenhouse gasses? Does the bovine population’s flatulence really contribute more to greenhouse gasses than do auto emissions? Is there actually more polar ice and not less? Has the Polar Bear population declined or has it really increased five fold over our lifetime? Does the hole in the ozone expand and contract with the seasons? Wouldn’t it be great if we could get straight answers, and not theories designed to get more government funding?

I don’t want to leave out Mr. Punturieri, and I will apologize to him for lumping him in with the “left”; I wouldn’t want that to happen to me, either. I do think he and I may have a disagreement on Jimmy Carter. As I cited above, President Carter failed miserably in so many ways and his actions, or lack of them, indicated to the radical elements of the middle east that we didn’t have the stomach to defend ourselves, or our allies.

Now I think I’ll go and buy that lottery ticket.

Bob Meade

Laconia