Jaramillo's leadership shows; she shows up

Regarding Commissioner Annabelle Jaramillo's presence at last Thursday's couplet meeting in Philomath (mentioned in the Aug. 18 editorial, "Leadership extends outside city hall"): It was no surprise to members of the community and myself.

That Annabelle (Jaramillo) is a dedicated community leader - not only for the bigger cities but also for the smaller places in the county - cannot be questioned. Just as an example, we, in the small community of Wren have been impressed with her concern and involvement with our projects (e.g. the Cardwell Hills Project, singled out for praise by the State of Oregon, that involves working with willing landowners to protect endangered species on their lands).

Her presence at our community hall meetings, as well as on occasional field trips, has shown her interest and support.

Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder, as the saying goes, but this may not hold in politics. I, for one, will remember this in the upcoming November election for commissioner.

Amy Schoener

Philomath

Iraq has asked us

to leave. Let's do it.

George Bush said about Iraq: "We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. If they were to say leave, we would leave." Well, now the prime minister and foreign minister of the Iraqi government - the same one the U.S. installed - is asking us to leave. Actually, they asked us to set a date for when we would be gone, which is the same thing. If the oil contracts being negotiated go through as desired, then we will have gotten what we came for, and maybe the troops can finally come home.

After spending $500 billion and thousands of lives, we can concern ourselves with taking care of the gravely wounded vets who never should have been asked to go there in the first place.

But wait; it's not over yet! The largest deployment of Oregon National Guard yet - 3,500 members of the 41st brigade - are planned to be sent to Iraq next spring. Their mission will be to ride with the supplies shuttled between the humongous bases the U.S. has built, which we are assured are "not permanent."

Enough is enough! We sacrifice the lives of our youth and our wealth on the oil we supposedly "need," without seriously conserving what we use, negotiating fairly with those that have it, or developing alternative supplies of energy. That's just not right.

Andrew Gray

Corvallis

Examples of U.S. wrongdoing abound

John Brenan's request for details concerning U.S. global meddling is understandable. (Letters, Aug. 13, "Back the string of insulting opinions with hard facts.")

These details are not difficult to find with a little research. I submit a truncated list of American-backed anti-democratic coups over the last 60 years: Greece, 1949; Iran 1953; Indonesia, 1958; South Korea, 1960; South Vietnam, 1963; Cambodia, 1970; El Salvador, 1972; Chile, 1973; Grenada, 1983; Iraq, 2003. Each of these instances has had devastating human and cultural consequences. Pick up a history book sometime to glean the details.

As for Bush administration officials profiting from their chosen wars: It is a matter of public record that the Bush family is heavily invested in oil drilling, shipping and processing operations in the U.S. and in the Middle East that stand to benefit from a restructured Middle East.

George H.W. Bush was a board member of the Carlyle group until just a few years ago, and Vice President Richard

Cheney continues to draw pay from his former chief executive position at Halliburton - which benefited from no-bid contracts for various services in Iraq. We have a polite name for these practices: cronyism. The rest of the world has a meaner and more accurate term: fascism.

Tucker Selko

Philomath

McCain the best suited for president

I want to encourage you to vote for John McCain for president. He has the maturity, political, military and foreign policy experience needed by a President of the United States.

He supports school vouchers and has the morals for the job. I think Mr. McCain's support for offshore drilling and affordable nuclear energy are good. I also like his wife for her charity work and loyalty to our country.

Obama has none of the above experience. His record is so thin that it barely exists. What record he does have has qualified him as the most liberal member of Congress. He is not loyal or patriotic to the United States. I am thinking about his lack of loyalty in not wanting to wear a flag pin and taking the U.S. flag symbol off his airplane.

He has made major flip flops on positions during his campaign. I doubt his Christianity and I think he would say anything to be president. He has talked bad about his white grandmother and threw out his pastor when it was going to hurt his symbolism. When he spoke to the Germans he sounded like "one worldism." After four years of him "remaking" our nation, the people would have lower morals, bad judges would be appointed, we would have higher taxes, the national debt would be higher, and there would be more government regulations.

Carolyn Webb

Corvallis

Democrats' ethics are more flexible

Bravo, Jane Sivetz, you have redefined ethics for politicians: "It doesn't matter if you lied, as long as nobody died."

Jack Quinton

Corvallis