Their minds were made up

The selection of Dan Bedore as Albany’s mayor was a slap in the face to the citizens of Albany and further evidence that this city council majority could care less for the words “Of, by and for the people.”

The council’s Gang of Four — Bedore, Reid, Johnson and Christman — already had their minds made up before a single citizen was heard. The overwhelming majority of citizens who attended the meeting were in favor of longtime Councilor Sharon Konopa to be our next mayor. Even Mr. Bedore said at a previous council meeting that the citizens who show up should sway the council’s actions. Yet tonight, he voted in his own interests and not those of the citizens of Albany.

As the testimony and condescending city councilor comments continued, it become clear to me that this Gang of Four has an agenda that runs counter to the best interests of our fine city. They tried to paint the opposition to Bedore as a small group of North Albanites opposed to any kind of growth. The audience however, represented a broad cross-section of residents from all parts of Albany including our brave firefighters.

The taxpayers of Albany need to wake up. This Gang of Four is spending millions of your hard-earned tax dollars on projects and incurring record-breaking public debt in the name of progress. Yes we need to grow, but putting the taxpayers on the hook for a company that will be less likely to locate here with the down-turned economy is not in the taxpayers’ long-term interest.

We should not be spending millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to lure big companies to Albany. We have a beverage company and a renaissance fair that likely will never come our way and the taxpayers will be left holding the bag. We should be investing in developing small businesses and supporting the ones we have. Small businesses generate the most jobs and pay the most taxes — without taxpayer handouts and incurring public debt.

Liberals and conservatives should be able to agree on that!

Tony Nelson, Albany

Not fit for the paper

The Rubes cartoon printed Jan. 21 in the so-called “Comics” section was especially inappropriate for that page, a page traditionally read by children. (In fact, I believe it should not have appeared anywhere in our newspaper.)

It wasn’t funny. No instance of sexual abuse is “funny.” I’m sorry for the parents who may have had to explain, or avoid explaining, that “comic” to their young children. I’m embarrassed that our community supports a newspaper that considers that “comic” fit for publication. I’m appalled at the lack of oversight of the one who edits the “comics.”

Using a popular fairy tale to illustrate this depraved behavior does nothing to elevate it to a level that meets a “standard of common decency.” If anything, it makes it worse, because at first glance one would expect some innocent, family-friendly humor.

I feel your readers deserve an apology for being subjected to this morally offensive cartoon. If this is the caliber of content we can expect in the Democrat-Herald, please count me out as a subscriber.

Judy Ross, Albany

False statements

Noticed a small news item, on page 9 of the D-H for Jan. 23, titled “Study: Bush made false statements before Iraq invasion.” I won’t go into the details, but I would like to point out some interesting facts:

President Clinton made at least one, possibly more, false statements regarding an alleged affair with a certain White House aide. This was after he was thoroughly investigated for the so-called Whitewater business deal, which turned up nothing, but got a lot of people, including innocent ones, in a lot of trouble and cost us, the taxpayers, over $50 million. He was impeached and found not guilty.

The article referred to above mentions hundreds of false statements made by President Bush and high government officials in a calculated effort to invade Iraq. To date, nearly 4,000 service men/women have been killed, as a direct result of this invasion and over 25,000 seriously injured. An untold number of innocent civilians have been wounded or killed.

Is it just a quirk of history that one president was impeached for having an affair and lying about it, while a sitting president is not and probably won’t be impeached for causing such death and destruction as has happened in Iraq, not to mention the collateral damage, e.g. failure to bring to justice the chief perpetrator of 9/11, that Rudy is so fond of citing, and the loss of prestige of our country around the world, especially in the Muslim world, not to mention the fact that it has cost us taxpayers over a trillion dollars and saddled our children and probably great grandchildren with the largest debt in this nation’s history?

It doesn’t make sense to me, and I’m sure it won’t make sense to a lot of voters come this November.

Kenneth O. Houston, Albany

Are you people inhaling?

As B. Hussein Obama would say, “That is just factually incorrect.”

In response to my Jan. 24 letter on the biased economic reporting in the Democrat-Herald, the powers that be opined, “The previous day’s recovery had been overshadowed by more bobbling in the market, which was reported on the stocks page.”

More bad news, right? Wrong! The stocks page on Jan. 24 reported that, “broader stock indicators also bobbled but managed gains.” So the gains on the 23rd were “overshadowed” by the gains on the 24th? This is Clintonesque. I guess it all depends on what the meaning of “was” is. Bill Clinton didn’t, but I think someone at the D-H inhaled.

Larry A. Smith, Shedd

Capital outflow hurts U.S.

We have heard for years that the tax cuts for the wealthy is the answer to stimulate the U.S. economy as they will invest in corporate America and the economy grows. Also known as Trickle Down Economics.

Last year we had “Record venture capital flows abroad.” U.S.-based venture capitalists last year (2007) invested $1.4 billion in 133 deals in China and $1.1 billion in 91 deals in India, both records for U.S. investments in companies in those countries, the National Venture Capital Association and Price Water House Coopers said.

While we had the top 1 percent investing in China and India, the Bureau of Labor was busy projecting the wage decline for industry. Cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing will decline by 58 percent. Computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing by 34 percent. Printing and related activities by 22 percent. Motor vehicle parts manufacturing by 21 percent. Office supplies and gift stores by 21 percent. These are predictions made back in 2006 and projected for 10 years. This is sad to see our nation being led in this direction for the middle class taxpayers.

All we hear is “Stay the course.” The Titanic sank because it “stayed the course.”

Elden B. Huntling, Lebanon