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PrintThe GOP is responsible for more poor voters
Thank you for your March 6 editorial "Kid's Stuff: On Her 50th Birthday, Leave Barbie Alone." It makes an important point. The best way for a politician to bring attention to him/herself is to propose something really stupid. The piece you left off was that the tactic is doubly effective if the politician is proposing something that is red meat for the base of his or her own party.
Just ask state Sen. Jane Orie.
Sen. Orie has proposed legislation that will go far beyond federal mandates by requiring each voter to show photo ID every time he or she casts a vote ("Orie Wants to Require Voters to Show ID at the Polls," March 4). Hopefully this blatant attempt at voter suppression will die the death that dumb ideas deserve.
We have heard Republicans claiming ad nauseam that Democrats were in the business of promoting election fraud. First it was illegals. Then it was ACORN. Now Sen. Orie is targeting the poor, minorities, nondrivers, renters, people who have recently moved and others with her misguided proposal.
Perhaps Sen. Orie and the remainder of the Grand Old Party of Limbaugh realize that their equally stupid governing, forced upon Americans for eight years, has created even larger numbers of poor, renters (former homeowners), people who have recently moved (after losing homes) and people who can simply no longer afford to drive. These people are not likely to vote for the party of wealth and power.
Might I make a suggestion? Take a good look at the people you represent. Think of something other than excluding them from the voting booth. You have better things to do with your time.
ALBERT SCHUBERT
Penn Hills
Daily dose of hatred
Your recent article "Republican Party Treading Carefully With Limbaugh" (March 4) serves to increase the focus on, perhaps, the most evil man of American politics for the past two decades. Rush Limbaugh's egomania and demagoguery were abundantly apparent in his puerile and histrionic rants at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. This cowardly man, hiding behind a talk radio microphone, has broadcast a daily three hours of unrelieved hate for the past 20 years -- a virtual deathwish for all Democrats and liberals.
Intelligent and articulate, he feeds a daily ration of raw meat to those eager to find a scapegoat for all their personal, political and cultural fears and failings. The evil that Limbaugh represents isn't so much the easily detectable, definable hateful oratory of a vicious tyrant, although at certain times it comes close. It is the evil of the clever, disguised appeal to a base minority that solidifies and strengthens, daily, their previously held biases and contempts. A masterful comedian and entertainer, Limbaugh has enriched himself Midas-like, but at the cost of creating an impenetrable barrier between people of good will who rationally disagree on political issues and those cemented in the narrow casket of Rush-think.
This spotlight on Rush Limbaugh serves as an opportunity for all fair-minded people, especially Republicans, to repudiate him unequivocally.
ROBERT JEDRZEJEWSKI
Tarentum
Rush's unwise wish
Aside to Rush Limbaugh: If your president fails, we all fail. Wise up!
JOHN GOODNIGHT
West Mifflin
Pointless proposal
Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto wants everyone to turn their lights out for an hour ("Peduto Wants Landmarks to Be Dark for Earth Hour," March 4), and I'm sure the criminals have this day circled on their calendars already. Some estimates peg the wasted electricity due to standby (printers, instant-on TVs, computers, basically anything nowadays that has a separate power supply) in the United States at 10 percent.
Turning your lights off for 1/744th of the month proves nothing, and the unintended consequence will be a spike in crime at 8:31 p.m. (To stop a thief, light a light, as the saying goes.)
Reminds me of the well-intentioned Bostonians who decided they should close half of the downtown parking lots to lower air pollution. It increased due to drivers circling the blocks for hours searching for a parking space.
TIMOTHY BRIDGEMAN
Carnegie
City litter
As a lifelong city-area resident I confess to no small measure of embarrassment when I have the occasion to show visitors around our beautiful city.
I continually hear Mayor Luke Ravenstahl exhorting on the air about our clean, safe city -- would that it were so! Many areas of the city are so polluted with litter that it causes one to cringe just driving past.
One eyesore I frequent several times a week is the deplorable mess that decorates the turning circle area at the bottom of Marshall Avenue at California Avenue on the North Side. And a short jaunt along Bigelow Boulevard is enough to cause a gag reflex. A host of other locations also could be cited.
There must be some way to allocate some small measure of our limited and meager resources in cleaning up this mess -- so that we can rightfully brag about our beautiful city. Mr. Mayor -- please!
BOB GOLD
Mt. Lebanon
About investments
It's hard to feel sorry for two major universities for losing so much on bad investments ("Little Chance Pitt, CMU Can Recoup Funds," March 4). These institutions claim top-echelon business graduate schools, and Carnegie Mellon has had Nobel Prize winners in economics. Couldn't they find someone on campus to perform a neutral financial analysis (perhaps even giving extra credit for the exercise)?
Isn't the first thing they teach in basic investing 101 "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true?" I guess the ivory towers of academia aren't immune to "irrational exuberance" or simple greed.
GEORGE YURGEC
South Park
The U.S. should lead the push for Darfur peace
On March 4, the International Criminal Court issued a long-awaited arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity ("Sudan Chief's Arrest Ordered," March 5). The government of Sudan under Bashir's calamitous leadership has used janjaweed militia and government forces to carry out a campaign of terror and destruction against the people of Darfur. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died and thousands of women have been raped.
It's deeply appalling that in response to this first ICC warrant against a sitting head of state President Bashir has decided to lash out against civilians and aid workers.
We urge President Obama to declare his support for the International Criminal Court's pursuit of justice in Darfur and to lead the world in a diplomatic push for peace. The United States and other U.N. Security Council members must make clear to Bashir and his regime that any violence against civilians, peacekeepers or aid workers is unacceptable by identifying severe consequences and employing them if necessary.
The president of the national Save Darfur Coalition, Jerry Fowler, is in Pittsburgh this week to mobilize support for a breakthrough for Darfur at this critical moment. For more information, check the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition Web site at www.pittsburghdarfur.org.
DAVID ROSENBERG
Coordinator
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition
Mt. Lebanon
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