Speak Out 2/1/09

Pied pipers

PRESIDENT Obama has put in charge of the IRS a guy who cheats on his own taxes but will prosecute and persecute any of you middle-class taxpayers if you dare do what he did. Corrupt bankers got bailouts as their reward, and middle-class America gets the shaft. Democrats rose to power propagandizing our nation as being the party for the little guy. Such rubes you Democratic voters are. Democrats not only rob citizens of their hard-earned paychecks, but their savings and Social Security as well. There is nowhere for the American worker to go. With the value of their wages eaten up by inflation, they can no longer pay their mortgages or buy a car, and many are barely surviving. Yet they remain mesmerized by the deceptive tunes of the Democratic pied pipers who are leading them to their destruction.

Ready to fight

WHEN Bush was president and Republicans were in power and the Democrats were fighting them every step of the way, the Democrats and their minions in the press labeled Republicans divisive. Now with Democrats in power Republicans must do what their told or they'll still be labeled divisive. Obama didn't win a landslide. Why should those of us who voted against him surrender the country's future to him without a fight?

Selling snake oil

AL Gore suggests our world is in grave danger, and I would agree with him. However, the danger does not lie in the myth of man-made global warming but in the continuing ability of snake-oil salesmen like Gore to peddle his nonsense to a gullible public.

Miserly GOP

PORKAHOLIC Republicans are trying to recast themselves as miserly penny-pinchers so as to differentiate themselves from President Obama's practical, sensible-minded stimulus program for political purposes. They may succeed.

Storm memories

MY prayers are with Sikeston and the Missouri Bootheel as well as Kentucky. Jackson was hit with a massive ice storm in February 2008 and a flood five weeks later. I know the terror that comes with the popping and snapping and the helpless feeling when you see massive trees and limbs falling and transformers exploding. It took till the end of May to clean up the mess. When this year's storm started, the trauma in my mind began: the noise of sleet against windows that would not go away, I kept waiting for the inevitable terror to start. Thank God we did not lose power or have massive damage. I dislike snow, but at 3 a.m. Wednesday I awoke to silence, the most precious sound since Monday, and I realized it was snowing. Thank God for the Wednesday morning sun and nothing falling out of the sky. God will get us through this.

Rural services

WEBSITES are so slow. I live in rural Cape Girardeau County, and I am sure I am not the only Internet user with dial-up service. It has taken me 17 minutes to log onto the semissourian.com site. The KFVS12 site is not even accessible. All the advertisements take preference and make it unpractical to use these sites. Why not use your influence to promote high-speed Internet service for rural county users? This is the 21st century, but Cape Girardeau County is so far behind times it is pathetic. Everything from unpaved roads to public water supply to any type of convenience service is what rural residents face every day. It doesn't have to be this way.

Snowy roads

WE pay fees to keep up the road where I live, yet we can never get out when it's icy or snowy. Since we've been here, we have lost as much or more in wages as we have paid in fees. Is this right? What's the point in paying the fee?