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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2008

Republican Penmanship
Regarding "Pasco Commission Majority Deserves To Be Kept Intact" (Our Opinion, Oct. 13):

What an outrageous editorial! As any schoolboy knows, if one party dominates, things will get done quicker, but he will also tell you that decisions by the Republican-dominated Pasco County Commission will be made without input by Democrats.

Sure, if you want fast decisions about roads, development, schools, rapid transit, trash, water sources and if guns can be sold in the county without a criminal background check, Republicans will decide what they want and how they want it passed, and all other issues will be ignored.

Since nearly half the registered voters in Pasco are Democrats, don't fall for an editorial which appears to be written by a Republican.

ART HAYHOE

Wesley Chapel

Poor Timing

Regarding "Busansky Would Restore Faith In Elections Office" (Our Opinion, Oct. 5):

Not the time to endorse Phyllis Busansky. Left-wing groups such as ACORN are engaging in nationwide voter fraud. This is not the time to put Busansky and her left-wing supporters in the election supervisor's office.

Busansky will be a disaster. We can register Donald Duck as well as Mickey Mouse in Florida.

It is the Democrats who are involved in the nationwide fraud. Beware of Busansky and her lefties.

JIM BARKER

Tampa

Busansky's Efficiency

It's too bad Phyllis Busansky had to wait until this year to run for Hillsborough County supervisor of elections. We needed her years ago.

Current Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson has run his office for five years, but from what I've read and seen, he acts more like he has run it for five days.

On his watch, voting machines have malfunctioned, votes have been lost, and in one case I know of personally, a voter had to go to Johnson's office because the three registration forms he mailed in supposedly were never received, even though his office earlier acknowledged receiving one.

Busansky has already proven herself to be an efficient administrator, and she deserves a chance to bring that efficiency to the supervisor of elections office so we could observe a smooth election for a change.

GEORGE PETRICK

Riverview

Give Ford A Chance

Regarding "To Build Clout, Region Needs New Faces" (Our Opinion, Oct. 11):

I can't agree with your endorsement of Ed Homan over E.J. Ford for the District 60 state House race. Ford has lived in this community all his life. He is running an impressive grassroots campaign staffed and financed by other people who live in this community and would like to see him make good on his commitment to improve our education system and provide relief to the growing costs of taxes and insurance.

Homan is a good man, but he has represented District 60 for six years and hasn't been able to fix any of these problems. I think people want a change and would like to give E.J. Ford a chance to show us what he can do.

JAMES MICHAEL SHAW

Tampa

Don't Like? Don't Go

Regarding "Paying The Price For Petty Vengeance" (Local 2, Oct. 14), I think Daniel Ruth is way off base here. This is not about money; it is about one man's three-year, money-wasting crusade against a simple, nonintrusive search that is intended to be proactive in helping keep 65,000 people a little bit safer.

Since the majority of fans understand and accept the minor inconvenience of these pat-downs, it really comes down to one simple rule: If you don't like it, don't attend the game.

I've always thought that "majority rules" was a primary theme in our country. Maybe I am wrong.

JAMES JONES

Tampa

Restore Full Editorial

I believe the changes you have brought about to enliven the paper's format has shorted the Editorial section tremendously. You have eliminated Joe Brown's column, one of the best in my estimation, and you shorted the readers from the other widely known syndicated columnists. I think the Editorial pages should be brought back to their previous status.

Not everyone sits in front of a PC to get the news, because the analysis is missing that you could read in the paper's articles.

Sports are fine, but it doesn't explain how the world turns!

ED CORNELL

Apollo Beach

Don't Deny Marriage

As someone who joined the LDS Church four years after it stopped denying priesthood to blacks, it grieves me to find it engaged in a campaign to deny marriage rights to gays and lesbians.

Marriage is a fundamental right - more fundamental than free assembly or gun ownership. It is not a privilege to be defined by any group - even a popular majority. No group, no matter how special it views itself, has a right to deny another the equal protection of the law.

The state cannot tell one group they can marry but tell another group they can't. That would be like denying marriage to a particular race or to couples from different races. This is an affront to individual dignity, personal privacy and individual conscience.

It's ironic that the one group that thinks it knows better is the same group that got into so much trouble the last time they tried to define marriage as between one man and as many women he could round up.

BILL KILPATRICK

Lakeland

A Neglected Issue

Since downloading copies of the Democratic and Republican 2008 platforms, my review indicated many areas overlooked as topics for the debates and advertisements by the presidential and vice presidential candidates. One area of concern is taxing Social Security benefits received by retirees.

Although the same gross pay dollar has been taxed more than six times over the course of time, Social Security benefits appear to be treated as "deferred income" rather than a "benefit for retirees" who have paid into the system for years. In my way of thinking, this IRS taxing of Social Security benefits is unfair and unnecessary for those persons on fixed income resources.

Although taxing deferred resources on IRAs and 401ks seems to be appropriate, taxing Social Security benefits is inappropriate and un-American. Maybe the new faces in the House and Senate will reconsider this unjust taxing imposition on those who need the benefits to survive daily on the minimum they receive.

MATTHEW T. HILLEN

Dade City

Here's Hoping It Works

Am I mad about losing money in the market? Not at all. Disappointed yes, but not mad, because when one invests in the market, one knows he is taking a risk, and he must be willing to accept the results of his trades. But I am mad about the bailout.

True, I do not know what would have happened without it, but Marcy Kaptur (Democratic representative from Ohio) reminded her peers that in the 1980s, 3,000 banks failed and we came out of it. Rep. Jim Bunning of Kentucky made a telling speech when he reminded them that the bailout was pure socialism. Or as my missionary friend in Germany said, "Bush simply borrowed a page from Karl Marx."

Unlike the Bush haters, I hope it works. But even if you were for the bailout, doesn't it make you mad that the people who are going to give out the money worked for Goldman Sachs? Geez. Unbelievable.

Even if they are the smartest people in the world (and we don't know that), they have a vested interest for God's sake!

ROY E. ROOD

Tampa

Off The Norm

Don't be fooled by the status quo. We are in this mess thanks to both Democrats and Republicans. When will the American public stand up to these two money-grabbing, self-interest politicos and really speak out for change?

A vote for anything other than the norm would send a clear message that we are fed up with Washington and its standard way of doing business.

Study the ballot, and pick someone other than the usual. They may not win, but enough votes nationwide off the norm would be a vote of no confidence for the two reigning parties in my book.

You have to do your research to learn about the other candidates, though, because in this democracy of ours you can't get your message out unless you have money dripping from your pockets.

So much for equal time.

RAY KLAUS

Tampa

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