Obama only paying lip service

This letter is in response to the self-avowed religious fanatic who wrote on 6/6/09, “Can’t blame Israel.”

First off, you’re not a religious fanatic because of your “firm belief in God and Jesus Christ.” You’re a fanatic because of your firm willingness to delude yourself with absolutely any and all information that might verify that belief and exclude any that doesn’t.

The fact is, we can blame Israel. Regardless of what some burning bush may have told old Abraham, in an international court of law, United Nations Resolution 242 trumps the word of burning bushes. Israel has no right to steal Arab lands.

In his original letter, our fanatic condemns President Obama for actually speaking with our enemies. Israel is not happy about this either. Letting the American people hear the other side of the story runs the risk of dispelling the myths and lies Israel has spent 50 years propping up.

President Obama has indeed been paying some impressive lip service concerning the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Unfortunately, lip service is all we’ll likely get. It’s doubtful that he’ll take any concrete action that might run the risk of bringing down the wrath of “The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee” upon himself.

If President Obama were to actually have the guts to withhold U.S. foreign aid to force Israel out of the West Bank — as Eisenhower did in 1957 to get them out of the Sinai — I suppose I might have to actually vote for him in 2012.

There will be no peace in the world until Israel abandons its illegal occupation of the West Bank, and makes room for a viable Palestinian state.

Jerry Hansen

Burlington

Real choices for people

Re: June 3 AP article “U.S. health overhaul?”

I’m glad to see Congress is finally considering health reform measures that would offer people real choices: If you like your private insurance, fine, keep it; but if you don’t like your insurance, or don’t have any, you can participate in a public health plan. If enacted, this would encourage competition and drive costs down.

More importantly, allowing people the option of a public plan is the only way to create a good, reliable system that puts health first. We know we can’t trust the insurance industry to value our health over their profits.

As the mother of a teenager with diabetes, I’ve struggled to convince private insurers to cover proven care that could prevent my daughter’s condition from worsening.

As a nurse, I see examples of insurance greed, short-sightedness and neglect all the time. When care is denied, people’s unmet health-care needs don’t go away. Patients get sicker and end up costing more.

We have a huge number of unemployed people resulting in more uninsured. They wind up using the ER for something as simple as an earache, costing at least three times as much as a clinic visit, or wait until they are sick with a serious condition that could have been prevented. These high expenses are passed on to all of us, the taxpayers who pay for our local hospitals, in the form of skyrocketing health costs.

Don’t be fooled by the latest TV ads opposing health reform and labeling it “socialized medicine.” The insurance industry is behind this media blitz, spending untold millions of our precious premium dollars on misleading advertising instead of health care. The truth is, offering Americans a public health insurance option would finally give consumers real bargaining power. It’s the only way to keep the private sector honest.

Anita Thewes

Sedro-Woolley

I think for myself

A factual rebuttal of the Fox News kool-aid drinkers posted in the Saturday Soapbox on June 15:

1. Obama did not bail out his “wealthy banking cronies.” The bailout bill was signed October 3, 2008, by then-President Bush. Whose banking cronies?

2. When did Obama say that the day he took office that he would remove all military from Iraq? You expect our president to do something in five months that Bush couldn’t do in five years? Let’s be a little bit realistic. He said that he would withdraw them within 16 months, not 16 minutes.

3. Obama is going after bin Laden and his ilk. I realize this is not important to the right-wingers because Bush couldn’t finish what he started. Instead, he took us into an unnecessary war so that he could prove himself a better man than daddy Bush.

4. Obama in five months has spent (call that allotting) approximately $800 billion for stimulus of the economy. You received a tax cut or one-time payment of $250 if on Social Security. Compare that to the more than $1 trillion that the national debt was increased between Sept. 1, 2008, and Nov. 28, 2008 (three months) for “Obama’s wealthy banking cronies” of which a great deal went for bonuses for the very wealthy in those institutions. How much did you receive?

5. The federal government borrowing more in this six months than in the past 30 years? Is that what Rush and Hannity told you? Google Treasury Direct and you can find the real facts. I realize that this is from government figures and not FOX or Rush, so you can choose to ignore them and continue believing whatever they tell you. As for me, I think for myself.

Mike Allen

Mount Vernon

Obama creating massive debt

Excellent letters in the June 13 Saturday Soapbox by Bill Reinard and Val Ross Johnson, voicing deep concern about our nation’s precarious financial situation. President Obama seems oblivious to this problem with the massive debt he is creating.

His insistence on socialized health care, education “reform” and “green” energy will only increase the debt. The latter (cap and trade) will create higher taxes, and do nothing to reduce CO2 emissions.

Why is he so resistant to nuclear energy and increased exploration of our natural gas and oil resources, and why doesn’t he listen to wiser voices?

Elma Johnson

Burlington