Opinions

I'm fed up with the onslaught of negative television ads that have been polluting the airwaves in the past few days. I expect we will see even more between now and Nov. 4. Why can't the politicians just tell us what they are going to do for us?
Both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are slinging mud like there is no tomorrow. Neither is focusing on solutions to the problems we face. Thankfully, there is a choice. Bob Barr is also on the ballot as the Libertarian Party candidate and he's won my support. Mr. Barr has a record of integrity and accomplishment and his campaign is running on the issues. Bob tells us in great detail of his plans for dealing with our nation's energy needs, the war in Iraq, our economy, and so many, many more.
I believe if every voter would just spend 10 minutes to get to know Bob Barr, they would join me in supporting him.
John Malkoski, Jr.
Ketner Avenue
Reporting rumors OK when it's Palin The only reason I continue to subscribe to The Blade is for pure entertainment - it makes me laugh.
The liberal media and The Blade tripped all over themselves explaining why they couldn't report on the John Edwards affair. The affair was a rumor and responsible journalists need facts, not rumors. Therefore, once the Edwards infidelity became news, the media covered the story for all of one day. I'm sure if this had been Mitt Romney, the media would have handled it the same way. Funny, isn't it?
Now we have a woman Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, with a pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, and The Blade runs a story, and I quote, "Almost since the day Ms. Palin was named as Mr. McCain's running mate, rumors have circulated on the Internet that raised questions about whether Bristol Palin was Trig's [Ms. Palin's 5-month-old Down syndrome baby] mother."
The Blade had no facts, just a rumor from a radical left-wing blog. I wonder if The Blade would report news found on the KKK Web site or on a radical right-wing Christian Web site. Funny, isn't it?
Rob Kegerreis
Berkey
Imagine Obama on hunt for bin Laden Speaking at the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama's remarkable naivet was never more evident than when he said, "John McCain likes to say he will follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he won't even go to the cave where he lives."
Imagine Mr. Obama decked out in Special Ops gear, surrounded by his blue-suited Secret Service detail, tromping off into the mountains of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. With a GPS unit to avoid wrong turns, he should have bin Laden under house arrest in a matter of days, if not hours.
Will bin Laden's cave have his name on the door? Will there be a doorbell?
Go get 'em, Barack.
Wanda Foster
Woodbriar Drive
Don't allow cartoon to sway your vote Although I thought I was immune to the Blade's biased, one-sided editorials, cartoons, and letters to the editor demeaning and insulting Republicans in any way possible, I think the Aug. 30 Kirk political cartoon hit an all-time low.
This cartoon, depicting John McCain's female running mate as his nurse, is insulting in so many ways it's hard to understand what Kirk and The Blade hoped to achieve. Surely they didn't think they could convince everyone over 70 years of age to vote for Barack Obama by insinuating that Mr. McCain is feeble and demented due to his "advanced" age of 72.
Certainly they didn't hope to encourage women, and men who are not afraid of a woman with a brain, to vote for the all-male Obama ticket by implying that a woman is capable only of attending to an old man. Suggesting that a woman can't possibly be successful, accomplished, and able to fill a position previously held only by males is not an adequate argument against her.
I meet twice weekly with many women over 80. Surprisingly (to The Blade and Kirk that is), these women are smart, articulate, and capable. They were accomplished professionals - among them a nurse and a school principal who also held an operating engineer's license so she could be responsible for the school's boiler.
According to The Blade's cartoon, these women are evidently fodder for a nursing home. The Blade is so wrong.
Mr. Obama has so many shortcomings and skeletons in his closet that have gone unreported by the mainstream media that it borders on journalistic malpractice. I hope intelligent voters will not allow The Blade to do their thinking for them.
Nada Sue Knauss
Bowling Green
If you like Venezuela, you'll love Obama I'm always amazed at the Democrats. They nominate a man to be president with no experience except running around with a home-bred terrorist, a strange pastor, and doing the important work of a community organizer - which must mean how to get yourself elected to a low end state political job and then to the senate for 14 months and never producing one piece of legislation on your own - while they criticize the Republican choice for vice president as having no experience.
The least competent of the four people running in this election is Barrack Obama, and the Democratic Party wants him to be our president.
Folks, we are in deep trouble. If you believe this country being run by a socialist with Marxist leanings is going to improve your way of life, take a close look at what is happening in Venezuela and their economy because here we come.
Joseph Fern
Maumee
Palin is a good fit for flip-flopping McCain Sarah Palin, John McCain's pick for vice president, is pro-life and pro-guns. What an oxymoron. And what a hypocrite she is. She should fit right in with the flip-flopping Mr. McCain and his policies.
Gudrun Carr
Deepwood Lane
Opportunity missed with Noe reporting It was disappointing to see the Tom Noe story degenerate into the obscure legal detail and lifestyle debate. Were we to believe Noe and his wife were the only ones in the state involved in these kinds of bundled political donations that got a huge return business? There were tens of billions of dollars available for this kind of political largesse just from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, and apparently there were no specific guidelines as to who was to get the billions or how the money was to be managed. No state reforms because of Noe?
The Noe case could have been so instructive, especially since he mingled all levels of political donations to better assure his state business chances. We didn't get a peek at how local and national politics tie in with our state bureaucracies.
It's hard to see how Noe was sentenced to 18 years for stealing if the state got its money back, and made a profit. Why didn't the BWC, rather than the Democrats, stop him?
And then, Gov. Bob Taft's career was destroyed for $135 in unreported income related to Noe at an Inverness golf meeting? Ridiculous, but the only legal hit available in this grand political scandal.
I give The Blade credit for its initial investigation challenging Noe and what appears to be political favoritism from the state. But I think the ball was dropped and the story degenerated into a personal thing against Noe. The Blade might have better served us all by exploring how we citizens should know how imperfect our government, business, and legal systems are - and how politics is the mysterious lube that keeps it all working.
John A. McCarthy
Perrysburg
Confused about when sex is OK Let me see if I have this right: An illicit sexual affair between two consenting adults (Bill and Monica) results in public humiliation and impeachment, while an illicit sexual affair by a minor child who becomes pregnant (Sarah Palin’s daughter) is a “private family matter.”
I will never understand the Republicans. MARK LONG Holland

How well has Sarah Palin done during her 21 months as Alaska's governor? Here are excerpts of editorials from the Anchorage Daily News about some major issues and challenges during her tenure.
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The fiscal record Aug. 5, 2008: The last time the Legislature's spending impulses got so far out of control, Gov. Sarah Palin stepped in to exercise some "adult supervision" with her veto pen.
That probably won't happen this time - because Palin helped start the frenzy.
She floated a plan to give every bona fide Alaskan $1,200 worth of energy debit cards over the next year. Add in electricity subsidies and a holiday on the state's 8-cent-a-gallon gas tax, and Governor Palin invited lawmakers to spend more than $1 billion.
The party was on.
May 24, 2008: Gov. Sarah Palin cut $268 million from the capital budget on Friday. That's a lot of money, but still less than 10 percent of the entire $3 billion capital budget.
For the most part, the cuts make sense. … The governor's cuts weren't perfect, but by and large she was right to stick with her criteria and cut accordingly.
July 16, 2007: Gov. Sarah Palin struck a modest blow for fiscal restraint with her $231 million of vetoes to this year's near-record capital budget.
The governor didn't show the same discipline with the operating budget, though. She let that $6.6 billion of spending slide through unscathed, even though months earlier she said she'd seek $150 million in budget cuts.
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Oil tax reform Nov. 18, 2007: It took almost all of a 30-day special session, but the Alaska Legislature passed a financially responsible fix to Alaska's corruption-tainted oil tax.
The final measure went beyond Governor Palin's proposal, with tighter deductions, stricter enforcement provisions and a steeper windfall profits surcharge. …
To pass any reform, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin needed cross-party support from Democrats. To the Democrats' credit, they backed away from plans to return to a tax on gross oil production instead of profits. To the governor's credit, she was flexible enough to accept significant enhancements in her initial proposal.
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Openness in government May 18, 2007: Gov. Sarah Palin got elected pledging to change the way business was being done in Juneau. Her commitment to open, transparent government is a stark contrast to the prevailing ethic in the Alaska Legislature.
June 6, 2008: Gov. Sarah Palin won office with the promise of running an open and transparent government. But when it comes to the state's work on the polar bear conservation controversy, her administration is closed and opaque. …
She should intervene and let Alaskans hear or see what state scientists had to say (about the global warming threat to polar bears) - before the politicians got involved.
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The $500 million natural gas pipeline June 15, 2008: The Palin administration has good reason to push for an independently owned gas pipeline from the North Slope.
June 8, 2008: The $500 million (that Governor Palin needs to finance her proposed natural gas pipeline deal) buys Alaska a way to break that hammerlock on our gas. It buys Alaska an experienced, multibillion-dollar partner that can help get our gas produced sooner, on terms that protect Alaska's interests.
May 29, 2008: Governor Palin's gas line team did an impressive amount of homework before recommending a state gas pipeline license for TransCanada Alaska.
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Troopergate July 22, 2008: It's clear the governor should have supervised her family more closely and made sure they, or any members of her administration, did not use official channels to press the family's complaints.
The big question is whether (public safety commissioner) Walt Monegan was sacked for not doing the Palins' bidding and firing Trooper Mike Wooten. If so, that would be an abuse of office. …
An impartial investigator will have a lot more credibility than politically charged legislative hearings.
Let an investigator sort it out.
Aug. 21, 2008: Governor Palin's ethically compromised aide Frank Bailey gets to stay on the state payroll, despite doing dirty work on the governor's behalf (in the trooper scandal), but she gives the hook to the ethically upright public safety commissioner who refused to do Bailey's bidding.
What kind of message does that send to Alaskans?
July 24, 2008: If it comes to the point that you have to say, "I am not a sex harasser," then you have no business being the state's top cop. The facts unfolding about new Public Safety Commissioner Chuck Kopp confirm that he is not the person for the job. …
Gov. Sarah Palin should withdraw the appointment and take time to carefully vet possible replacements before choosing a new commissioner. If she doesn't, the Legislature should reject his appointment.
Kopp was quickly appointed the day after the governor fired Walt Monegan - and the firing is proving to be a political disaster for Palin in its own right, regardless of who might replace him. For no apparent reason, she sacked a popular career cop with a reputation as a straight shooter.
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First legislative session May 18, 2007: From beginning to end, the first session of the 25th Alaska Legislature was a personal triumph for Gov. Sarah Palin.
Legislators, after initial reluctance, approved her Alaska Gasline Inducement Act with only occasional whimpered doubts ...
Ethics reform, sneered at by a few lawmakers and many lobbyists, is now a reality. Governor Palin's fingerprints are all over the bill and to the public she is the face of ethics reform. …
Alaska's rookie governor had a heckuva first legislative session.
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Gay rights Dec. 30, 2006: Despite her personal views to the contrary, she announced she would accept the state Supreme Court order that the state must provide benefits to same-sex partners. …
It's unfortunate that the Legislature and Governor Palin support a million-dollar special advisory election in April to stir up public opinion on prohibiting benefits for same-sex partners of public employees. Less than one-half of one percent of state employees have applied for the benefits, and it certainly seems that Alaska has more important issues to debate than this.
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Polar bears May 28, 2008: Alaska's political leaders generally condemned the listing of the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Gov. Sarah Palin joined the deniers and plans to launch a legal counteroffensive. The state will file suit against the listing decision, she says, because the science is "uncertain," "unproven," and "arbitrary." …
All this oppositional energy and effort is sadly misplaced. Instead of fighting the listing, Alaska's political leaders should be fighting to reduce the threat of global warming.

The Blade's Aug. 28 editorial about robocalls was well-timed. The general election is in full swing and it looks like, again, Ohio will be a "battleground state" that may determine who is the next president. That means voters can expect to be bombarded with political robocalls.
I started a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization last year to combat intrusive robocalls by using a voluntary, private-sector solution, the Political Do Not Contact Registry.
It's similar to the federal Do Not Call list but to succeed it requires politicians who will honor the wishes of voters who'd rather not endure the endless, robotic, political phone calls during campaign season.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) was the first to sign our pledge and we now have six state and national politicians who have signed a no-robocall pledge.
Voters' phones will soon be ringing off the hook. Fed up voters can visit our web site at StopPoliticalCalls.org and add their names to our free Do Not Call registry. It's time we give the political dialogue back to average, concerned citizens.
Shaun Dakin
Founder and CEO
National Political Do Not Contact Registry Washington, D.C. Democrats offering old socialist drivel Both the Democratic Party and Barack Obama have offered nothing new in their platforms, just the same old socialist drivel.
Fifty billion dollars to jump-start the economy? How about cutting taxes and reducing intrusive regulation, which will increase tax revenues by expanding the workforce by encouraging capital investment.
Bring the Iraq war to a responsible end? Please define "responsible." I would define it as victory. All I've seen from the Democrats is "cut and run." Remember, our enemies want us dead.
Preserve the right to arms? How stupid do these folks think we are? There is no such thing as the "gun-show loophole." Very few criminals get their weapons at gun shows. Reinstate the assault weapons ban? Even the Clinton administration admitted what a failure it was as a crime-fighting tool. Why enact something that has proven not to work? Focus on the criminal element, instead of restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens. Show me a "gun control" law that has worked. Just one.
Support women's "right" to choose abortion? How can anyone favor killing innocent, unborn children? If you don't want children, why not support elective sterilization instead? Why not just keep your pants on?
To our "public servants" I say: Remember your place as servants and obey your oaths of office. To my fellow Americans I say: Get off your behinds and take your righteous place as a "government of the people, by the people, and for the people" before it's too late.
Bruce A. Beatty
Lewisville, Texas
Republican policy created huge deficit We all should like the Republican Party policy - tax less, spend more, and let the grandkids pick up the difference.
Listening to the Republicans, they all say the same thing: "Cut taxes and increase the budget deficit."
President Bush increased the budget from less than $2 trillion to over $3 trillion, but listening to them it was the Democrats who did it.
Harry Lambers
Temperance, Mich.
Obama, Biden aren't average Americans I'm pretty sure all of us at some point in our life has heard the expression that one plus one will never equal three. However, in the math class version of election 2008, the Democratic National Committee, along with the mainstream media, is trying to convince the voting population that a little bit of Barack Obama mixed with a little bit of Joe Biden is mainstream America.
Since when are the number one and number three most-liberal senators in Congress representative of mainstream America, let alone the state of Ohio?
I've yet to see anything in either that makes them an "average Joe."
Mike Webber
Colony Drive
Obama's magic is almost 'Potteresque' I plan on voting for Sen. Barack Obama for best television show, along with special effects and drama. With such a star performance, and a mastermind at story-telling, he should be alongside all the Harry Potter movies.
The magic of Mr. Obama's spell-casting speeches are mesmerizing. I will definitely go see his new film called Change, and hope he wins "Best Actor" at the next Academy Awards show.
Wendy Merlo
Sylvania
Elect new Congress if you want change I am sick and tired of all the junk I am hearing on this year's presidential election.
Both candidates say if they get elected they'll do this or do that. On the other hand, they both say if you elect the other guy, he'll do this or he'll do that. Baloney. The president can only do what Congress lets him do.
If you want to make a change in the country, elect a new Congress.
David W. Smith
Erie, Mich.
God, not the Vatican, will judge our votes I had to comment on the Sept. 2 letter from the self-righteous Catholic woman from Sylvania. She claimed that no informed Catholic would vote for the "masquerading Catholic," Sen. Joe Biden.
How does she explain all the men who masqueraded as priests while they abused children for so many years? How does she explain the bishops who covered for those priests, while at the same time putting more children in harm's way?
What right do they now have to tell us Catholics how to vote?
In the end, God will judge us all, not the Vatican.
Virginia Ross
Perrysburg
Ask a 'hockey mom' to get things done Alas, we now have a "real mom" running for office, not just one standing on the sidelines, not a "soccer mom" type.
A "hockey mom" is like no other sports mom. You want things done, get a hockey mom.
The talking heads have all said that Sen. John McCain hit a "home run" with Gov. Sarah Palin. Rather, we must use the hockey lingo: Mr. McCain has scored big with a "one timer."
Hockey moms are the real deal.
Joe Reynolds
Past President
Sylvania Metro Amateur Hockey League Sylvania On the issues, Palin is no Hillary Clinton Wake up, John McCain. Adding Sarah Palin to your ticket doesn't mean that all Hillary Clinton supporters will vote for you. Women are not sheep who follow the fold because a female is in the lead. Women are concerned with the issues and Governor Palin's stand on the issues doesn't come close to Hillary's.
Also, trying to portray Barack Obama as a terrorist belittles both you and the office you're running for.
Jane E. Hamilton
Wyckliffe Parkway
Candidate promises are blowing smoke Barack Obama came to Toledo last Sunday and told us he was going to "fix" everything but, as usual, didn't tell us how.
He says he will get Osama bin Laden, So, he must know his cave address. If so, why doesn't he get him now rather than wait till after the election?
Sounds to me like he is blowing smoke as usual.
Pat Campbell
Waterville
Throw out all the incumbents We have the best Congress money can buy. For a real change that amounts to something, throw out all the incumbents.
Perhaps then, Congress will understand that the voters are unhappy with them, and get back to work RICHARD M. REDER Foxcroft Road

HEY, didn't she give a great speech? Yes, indeed, Sarah Palin left no doubt why John McCain tapped her to be his vice presidential running mate.
The Alaska governor's debut Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention may have been a little light on fact and details, but it certainly demonstrated, to Democrats as well as Republicans, that she can deliver a political message with serious bite.
In short, she effectively waved the bloody political sirloin before a crowd of hungry partisans, who ate it up.
Ms. Palin pretty much had to hit an oratorical home run to silence criticism about her lack of qualifications, and, in speech-making terms, she hammered it. Her performance was folksy and down home - just an ordinary American mom. The only thing liberal about it was the generous dose of sarcasm aimed squarely at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Still, even though her delivery was impressive, she failed to put to rest the controversies that swirl around her selection.
Her zingers about the Democratic ticket tended to slide around reality, to be charitable, and left open continuing questions about her self-styled reputation as a reformer.
On the infamous "bridge to nowhere," for example, she claimed to have said "no thanks" to federal pork-barrel dollars. In reality, she publicly supported the $233 million bridge, then summarily canceled the project with a press release after it became a political hot potato. And the state got to keep the federal tax dollars. That's hardly reform.
Also left unmentioned in her speech was the continuing investigation of her role in the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was in the middle of a nasty divorce with her sister. Ms. Palin has now hired an attorney to represent her in that case.
And making the rounds of the Internet is an open-microphone recording, made by but never broadcast on MSNBC, in which conservative columnist Peggy Noonan and former McCain campaign manager Mike Murphy, a Republican consultant, were heard making decidedly unflattering remarks about Ms. Palin's meteoric rise to the GOP ticket.
The recording, made before the speech, captured Ms. Noonan, who wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan, describing the Palin selection as "political bull----," inasmuch as more experienced Republican women, like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, were available.
Responded Mr. Murphy: "You know what's the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical."
Maybe the two changed their minds after hearing the speech, but their blunt assessment about the biggest surprise of the campaign thus far put a chill on Ms. Palin's otherwise warm welcome to the national stage.

Time is running out for Congress to renew a federal program that reimburses local hospitals for providing emergency medical treatment to illegal immigrants.

A warm cockle to the volunteer Center of Southern Arizona, which presented its annual Community of Hearts Awards on Thursday. Five individuals and groups were honored.

Shapiro's is among voices of reason

St. Paul, Minn.

By Ajay K. Mehrotra

As a volunteer for No More Deaths, I walked down a canyon near the border that looks like the wash behind my parents' house. It has the same sand, sun and soul as the creeks on Mount Lemmon where my Pocahontas-self played and is similar to the "river" I ran along in high school.

By Paul Gessing

Land crabs cannot be removed during the closed season, beginning July 1 and continuing through Oct. 31.

It is no surprise that the current IT manager (who had no election experience when hired, and is a brother-in-law of the warehouse manager) would have caused the latest snafu.

Supporting the “Hart” attack on Clem’s political dynasty.

Sorry I was in the wrong room at the wrong time with the wrong people. 

THE husband with a roving eye - an all-too-common species everywhere, to hear women tell it - could have a genetic excuse, but that doesn't mean philandering hubbies will be able to say, "It's not my fault, it's in my genes."
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm say that men with a certain gene variant are at increased risk both of serious martial discord and of being viewed by their wives as not very cuddly. Men with the gene variant also were less likely to be married to the women with whom they lived.
About 40 percent of men carry one or two copies the gene variant, called an allele. Men with one copy of the allele showed greater risk than those without the allele, but according to a Washington Post report, it was the two-allele men who were at greatest risk of having commitment and nurturing issues.
Men in the study with two copies of the allele were more than twice as likely to have experienced serious marriage trouble than men without the gene variant. And nearly twice as many two-copy men were living with women but not married to them as their no-allele brothers.
Where the findings get interesting, however, is when they are coupled with previous studies involving voles, little rodents commonly called field mice. Those studies linked the presence of the same gene variant to the inability of certain male voles to mate for life, and even demonstrated that monogamous voles could be created through genetic manipulation.
Thus, by extrapolation, it occurred to some that the gene variant, which plays a larger role in male than female brains, might be a handy scapegoat for unfaithful husbands and boyfriends, high divorce rates, and boorishness male behavior of all sorts.
Nice try, but people aren't field mice and there is no free pass for marital infidelity.
Marriage, most experts say, is hard work. Knowing of one aberrant allele, which can only be determined by genetic testing, could serve as a warning for those men and their prospective mates of what they will have to work to overcome. As Rutgers University biological anthropologist Helen Fisher told the Post, "No one is saying biology is destiny."
In other words, forewarned is forearmed. Indeed, even without testing for the variant, knowing the genetic basis for bonding issues ought to better enable men to, as they say in the vernacular, keep it in their jeans.

Recent, roughly comparable cases suggest that Harvey’s punishment was grossly out of proportion.

It has been a deadly two weeks on Ventura County roadways. No, not for those sitting behind the wheel, but for those walking, jogging or working near roads.