Local prosecutors, judges are laudable

The Honorable Wallace P. Carson presided at a hearing I attended at the Benton County Courthouse on Aug. 14. I was impressed with the helpfulness and courtesy of all the people in charge. After years of watching various courtroom dramas on television, including my favorite, Boston Legal, it was a sobering experience to witness the very sad situations some of our citizens and their families must endure.

Christian Stringer the Chief Deputy District Attorney and the clerk each helped me navigate my situation. Justice Carson, retired from the Oregon Supreme Court, and filling in for vacations, seemed sincerely patient and respectful of others. Watching the various cases presented that day made a good impression of the judicial system in the oldest operating courthouse in Oregon.

Mary Jeanne Reynales, Corvallis

John McCain was not so moral to ex

Carolyn Webb (Letters, Aug. 21) says she likes McCain's morals. Is she aware that McCain took up with his present wife, Cindy the beer heiress, while still married to the woman who had stood by waiting for him, taking care of his children while he was a POW, despite the fact that she had been seriously injured in a car accident?

I watched my mother struggle to raise six children while my father was in Vietnam, and I do not consider Mr. McCain's behavior to be moral in any way.

More important, perhaps to the future, I do not consider his policies of eliminating unemployment insurance in favor of "training" for jobs that are going to China, destroying that last vestiges of the employer shared health insurance program in favor of "consumer-driven health care" or his not-so-idle threats to bomb Iran to be moral.

Pat Haggerty, Corvallis

Iraq, Afghanistan Bush's best? Hardly

In answer Jean Nelson's Aug. 26 letter, "Here is a recap of Bush's finest actions," I would have to say, hogwash!

President Bush did not liberate two countries. He used a lie to start a war in one, using weapons of mass destruction as an excuse, and our young people are still dying there.

The Taliban, far from being vanquished, has come back stronger and better-organized than before.

Bush authorized domestic wiretapping without a warrant, allowed waterboarding,(i.e. torture), by declaring it "legally permissible" and failed to follow through on his promise to fire anyone in his administration who was involved in outing a CIA agent.

He told (former FEMA head) Michael D. Brown that he was doing a fine job after Hurricane Katrina, emphasizing the dismal failure of Bush's administration to step up and take decisive action to mitigate the problems in the South.

Bush admitted that he did not commit enough ground troops to find Osama bin Laden, and he and his advisors ignored warnings, pre-9/11, that airplanes might be used as bombs (see CBS News, May 17, 2002).

He opposed the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ("Good-bye from the biggest polluter in the world!"). Our national debt has increased 70 percent since he took office, and judging from the fact that nothing has been done by this administration to lessen our dependence on foreign oil by establishing alternatives, and by the huge profits the oil companies are reaping while America suffers, I've got to believe that Bush is in the pocket of Big Oil. Historians will, no doubt, write that Bush was the worst President this nation has seen. Instead of respecting or admiring this man, I can only hope that this country can recover from his administration.

Rebecca Stillwell, Albany

G-T must try harder with proofreading

I am writing because of a sentence that appeared in the Aug. 25 editorial, "County boldly housing the unwanted."

I always thought my grasp of English grammar was good. Please reassure me that they haven't changed the rules of English that much since my schooling in the 1950s.

When I read the following sentence in the third paragraph regarding support for the homeless I thought "Here the G-T goes again with confusing wording."

The questionable sentence is "… They may be homelessness and mentally ill." They may well be homeless, but what, pray tell, does "They may be homelessness …" mean? Surely someone who writes an editorial needs to be more precise than that. I hope it was an error in setting type.

That I can understand, but still wonder who let it slip through proof-reading.

To add to my consternation with G-T and my perception of English errors I read in Tuesday's paper on page A3 the article titled "4 arrested in OSU vandalism spree" the third paragraph, which reads "They tried to flee from a state trooper on foot before behind they were caught".

Whoa! Who let that sentence escape detection? Sorry, but I am underwhelmed by the errors stemming from a basic failure to proof-read and catch such nonsensical stuff.

Boyd D. Nash, Corvallis

Out-of-touch McCain offers more of same

The Bush administration has accomplished one thing: the division of America into "red" and "blue" factions.

John McCain would continue that division because he states publicly his perception that millionaires making less than $5 million annually are still in the middle class. No wonder he believes that the American economy is OK!

John McCain owns seven homes while increasing numbers of American families cannot even hold on to one, due to jobs being outsourced, enormous debt to China influencing our balance of trade, and huge profits in the loan industry going to the rich on Wall Street while foreclosures are daily news.

McCain is so out of touch that he tries to put this lie forward in the face of facts such as that our Oregon Food Bank is having to serve more people every day than ever before in its history, and our oceans are dying instead of feeding us!

In reality, America cannot afford more of McSame! The earth cannot afford more of McSame! Let's bring about some real change! Let's elect Barack Obama, who has real proposals for helping us educate our children, keep our homes, improve our environment and have decent health care for all.

Cathryn Kasper, Corvallis