Letters to the Editor
ordinarulo
Published Letters: 23 Editor's Choice: 2
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From the other side: Small towns and driving
[Read the article: We paved paradise]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All the discussion here is centered on big-city/suburb life. One of the many beautiful things about living in a smaller town (say 4,000 to 10,000) is that you simply don't need to drive. There is nowhere I need to be, in town, that is more than a 15-minute bike ride or half-hour walk.
In some ways, living the small-town life is easier than ever. Online work, online shopping, and online communities.
Unfortunately, everyone here drives every day, even though they very rarely get more than two miles from home. We have the same parking hell as the rest. Urban jealousy? Automotive addiction? Nuts is what I call it.
The other sadness is that one is basically stuck in my town without a car. Until WWII, there were eight railroad departures a day (several of them "doodlebugs", solo self-propelled railcars... brilliant). Through the 70s, there were several busses a day. Finally, as of two years back, even Greyhound breezes by on the interstate, and you have to go 40 miles to get on it.
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Sex ed in the UCC
[Read the article: Of condoms, Clinton, Obama and McCain]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One thing I hope Obama did learn from his association with Trinity UCC is the value of comprehensive sex ed. The United Church of Christ shares a very broad and informative sex ed curriculum with the Unitarian-Universalists called "Our Whole Lives". If public education was even a tenth as comprehensive, we'd be getting somewhere.
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Gasoline... the *untaxed* good.
[Read the article: McCain-onomics: Cheap gas in every tank]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gas is taxed as a reasonable way to pay for the roads we use. They are fairly directly connected to miles driven (though heavy trucks do proportionally more damage than their increased fuel consumption). But, roads are expensive. A country gravel path is expensive. A rural freeway costs over $7 million a mile to build and nearly $2 million a mile to repave every few years. Gas taxes in this country do not, on net, even pay for the cost of maintaining our road and street network (some gas tax gets siphoned to transit or tourism, but more is spent from general revenue on roads). When you consider the other things that are supported by sales taxes (schools, jails, etc), gasoline is an untaxed product.
We've been deferring maintenance and running down the capital of our highway system since Eisenhower (remember, he maintained a 91% top marginal tax rate to help build roads, dams, and schools).
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Ironic geography
[Read the article: McCain-onomics: Cheap gas in every tank]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It seems appropriate that the Republican National Convention will be in the Twin Cities this year, albeit 10 miles from the famous former bridge.
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The case for XM.
[Read the article: Ask the pilot]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Full props to Airtran and Jetblue for XM radio on board. I've heard what's on my MP3 player. Typical "on board music" blows. But, on those two airlines, you've got 100 choices, including live news, talk radio, or sports. Plus, you can listen to the XM below 10000 feet, during interminable taxiing, etc.
Of course, for seats and decent people, I'm lucky to get to fly Midwest more often than not. Somehow or another, they even have pleasant desk people in places like Newark.
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Attribute 1992 properly.
[Read the article: The haunting of the Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Even if the warring parties do not consciously feel that way, results speak louder than words: Excluding the Jimmy Carter "Watergate election" of 1976, Democrats have elected just one president since LBJ. And while Bill Clinton's economy looks pretty good right about now, let's remember that he lost both houses of Congress halfway through his first term, was virtually paralyzed by scandal in his second, and drifted toward social policies slightly to the right of Richard Nixon's. Then there was his wife -- what was her name again? -- who botched the issue of national healthcare so badly that it's been off the table ever since.
More to wit, Bill Clinton not only lost midterm seats in a landslide, he won by minority (43%, 49%) both times. Perot's effect. GHWB was out of touch. But, it took more luck than that to beat him. Since Bill "the natural", "greatest politician of our time" Clinton, couldn't convince 50% of the electorate to ever check his name, is it believable that his less politically-gifted less inherently popular wife can?
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Kathleen Sebelius
[Read the article: Obama Veepstakes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If the split in the party is real, Obama needs to get more HRC voters than he needs crossover macho (Webb) appeal.
But, he can't pick HRC. He can't defend the indefensible parts of the Clinton era (the pardons being the biggest unvetted pile), he's just been kind enough not to mention them. They might govern well together. But, their campaign would be pulled in two entirely different direction. Hillary would not take one word of advice from Obama/Axelrod/Plouffe and would be making "off-the-reservation" comments every few days.
Enter Kathleen Sebelius. Experienced governor. 24 continuous years of elected experience, despite being a Dem in a ultra-Red state, and still popular. White woman. Midwestern. Of a certain age (within a year of Hillary). Catholic. Politically independent of her husband. And, most importantly, not Hillary Clinton. No pre-existing high negatives. No connection to Clinton-era scandal.
Some HRC voters will be upset with the substitution. The sooner it happens, the more get to know Sebelius.
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Not a buck to be made.
[Read the article: The peak oil culture wars]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One problem with conservation for the conservatives is that there isn't a buck to be made (or not much of one). Very little money in bicycles. Very little money in clotheslines. Very little money in public transport. Very little money in smaller houses. Very little money in small families. And precious little continuous "growth", the metric by which all else is measured in capitalism.
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"No Foreign Policy"
[Read the article: Why Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as veep]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Is "No Foreign Policy" the best you've got on Sebelius? She's a Governor. Just like, um, Bill Clinton in 1992. I'm betting virtually every Hillary Clinton supporter voted for him. Just like Carter, Reagan, and Bush II.
Sebelius, before she was Governor, was an anti-corruption insurance commissioner. She prevented the non-profit Kansas Blue Cross cooperative from being bought by a for-profit company that would have raised rates. I'd rather Sebelius, hated by insurers, over Hillary Clinton, the #1 recipient of insurance lobbyist cash in the U.S. Senate.
There are a thousand bits of Hillary's history, like her connections to Bill's pardons in 2000-2001, that Obama didn't hit (he didn't have to), but he surely doesn't want to have to defend, either.