U.S. immigration law needs to be changed
As a card-carrying member of the Republican Party, I cannot begin to express how upset I am with the state party leadership.
While both Arizona senators understand that we must take a pragmatic approach to immigration reform – especially now that we are the minority party – our own state party leadership is trying to cut them off at the knees.
They cheer that they killed the bill so we can “keep out the furriners” while ignoring the fact that with the political calendar, it will be two or three years before we can bring this subject up again.
They scream about “amnesty” while wrecking the only possible chance to do anything about it for the foreseeable future.
They insist the bill be crafted entirely the way they want without any compromise.
It may come as a shock to them, but Republicans no longer control Congress and cannot write legislation that way anymore.
They insist “the law is the law!” and must be enforced.
Never mind that the Fugitive Slave Act was once a law, too. Some laws need to be changed.
DAMON MOSIER
Jeff embarrasses self with offensive ‘tripe’
Re: Jeff Smith’s Friday column “Make it again the home of the braves”:
What a piece of unqualified tripe. “Dirt worshippers”? “Native Americans all”?
Just when you think you’ve heard it all, some moron like the “writer” of this rubbish emerges.
“Deadwood” is hardly what can be called a reliable source of information.
And the writer’s characterization of the Lakota Nation’s spiritual cosmology as “dirt worshipping” is as offensive as his use of “Deadwood” as some kind of historically accurate source. Embarrassing!
JEN CROW
What’s not to hate of acting un-American?
It is a basic American responsibility to know about our three branches of government, as taught even in kindergarten.
Our Constitution defines the president and vice president as within the executive branch.
Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim that his office is not within that branch is without merit, laughable and filled with the kind of hypocrisy only Cheney can display.
When Cheney was sued to find out whether there was improper influence on his energy task force, he refused to comply with discovery as ordered by the courts.
He said the Advisory Committee Act did not apply to his energy panel because only federal officials were on it.
Never mind that people such as Ken Lay were members, the Supreme Court said Cheney did not have to comply because he is in the executive branch.
His noncompliance in that case cemented the fact he is in the executive branch.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that Congress has the right to request information from the president, who “ought to communicate such papers as the public good would permit and ought to refuse those the disclosure of which would injure the public.”
The only injury to the public in Cheney’s case is sanity.
Defenders of this administration call those who question “Bush haters.” What then do we call those who defend every action, no matter how bizarre?
Since President Bush took an oath to uphold the Constitution, I’ll call them un-American. Their punishment should be to sit in a kindergarten class and learn something.
ANDY MORALES
Dishonorable Cheney irreparably mars office
Dick Cheney has made a mockery of the office he holds.
His penchant for secrecy is pathological, and his disregard for our U.S. Constitution is unforgivable.
His sins are innumerable, and he must not “serve” one more day in a position he has dishonored beyond repair.
Impeach Cheney and Bush, too.
DONNA HUNGATE
Power-hungry despots should be impeached
Bush and Cheney should be impeached! They are both liars and power-hungry despots who should never have been put in office in the first place.
Al Gore was elected by the people, and it was only because the Supreme Court was controlled by right-wing Republicans that they were successful in stealing the 2000 election.
GEORGE TADD
Green Valley
End vice president’s shadow government
We must avoid at all costs the potential permanent state of world war by allowing the vice president continued carte blanche and blank checks to run his dangerous shadow government without the consent of the American people and citizens of the world.
JILLIAN ATKIN SIM
Youth’s appreciation of military is touching
At noon Tuesday, my husband and I went to a Pizza Hut near our home.
We had barely been seated when a young man, maybe 12 or 13 years old, came up to my husband, took his hand and said, “Thank you for protecting our country.” (My husband is a Vietnam veteran and had on a hat saying so.)
This young man went to several other service personnel who were there, took their hands and said the same thing to them.
My husband and I were touched deeply. I was told the boy’s older brother is into his second tour in Iraq and is anxiously waiting his return home.
It made my day, maybe my year. And my husband, he stood a little taller.
JUDY YATES
Oregon outpaces S. Az in sharing the roads
Tucson and Pima County are strange. Where are the bicycle paths like we have in Oregon?
I can see why cyclists are run over by cars down here. Sharing the road is impossible as there are no shoulders.
And what happened to the half-cent sales tax we passed for transportation? This was for bike paths, bus turnouts and widening of Grant Road.
OTTO HOLGERSEN