Robbed by Bigfoot?

I just can’t get over the picture released with this story about the US Bank robbery. In this day and age when you can go out and buy a digital camera that’s at least eight megapixels, full color and takes a beautiful picture of almost anything, there is no excuse to even print a photo like that. It looks like some photo from 1945. That could be a photo of Bigfoot and we wouldn’t be able to help!

Banks should be required to have camera equipment good enough to take a decent photo so when they release it for help in solving a robbery we can actually see what the person looks like. Full color, and of as high a resolution as possible.

Oh, and one other thing. Why doesn’t someone from the bank walk outside with a cell phone and follow or at least watch which way the guy goes? It seems to me about half the time the robber just walks off down the street and by the time the police get there he’s vanished. I would think an employee or even a customer for that matter could follow or watch without being in any danger.

I can’t blame the customers, really, because they probably don’t even know the robbery occurred. These banks need to take some of that 10 to 20 billion dollars they make on overdraft and ATM fees and buy a couple nice cameras.

Pat Bender, Albany

Grateful for patrols

I just want to say “thank you” to the Albany Police Department for their presence in the Lehigh/Center Street neighborhood.

I have noticed you driving through daily and watching a section of the road where the stop sign is continually run and speeding is a huge issue. I am a parent of small children, and cars use our road as a raceway.

Just yesterday my son’s basketball rolled into the road. You should have seen the look on the lady’s face who almost ran over the ball. Obviously she was going way too fast, and I hope it scared her enough to slow down.

I know this is an issue everywhere and it will never be fully resolved, but I know I speak for a lot of people on my street when I say “thanks.”

Karie Cordle, Albany

Golden oldies on WMD

Well here we go again. Saw another letter the other day repeating the tired mantra, “Bush lied, and people died.”

It’s amazing to me that people would rather be victims of liberal largesse instead of actually taking the time to research and think for themselves. It’s worth going back in time to revisit “The Big Lie.”

Remember these golden oldies? “It is necessary to disarm Saddam Hussein because a deadly arsenal of WMD in his hands is a real and grave threat to our national security;” “We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing WMD.” How about “We know Saddam has stored supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country,” or even this one: “Intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, missile delivery capability, and he has also given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including members of al-Qaida.”

The audacity! The unmitigated gall, lying directly to the American people like that!

Small problem though. The preceding quotes came from, in order, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton.

Furthermore (gasp) they were all made before the CIA report claiming that Saddam was trying to buy uranium, before the president asked for authorization to invade Iraq, thus making the war “legal” for you people who still insist on calling it an illegal war.

Even before President Bush was elected, others were saying that Iraq possessed WMD and intended to use them against the United States.

WHO? Well, Sandy Berger, Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle and even President Bill Clinton in 1998.

But for some reason, whenever I pick up my newspaper or watch the news on TV, no one seems capable of remembering that all of these people “lied” to us too. Maybe it’s just possible that our current president was making the best decision that he could make, relying on the same resources that all of these other people had access to

John S. McDaniel II, Albany