McCain is just like Bush

John McCain would be like a Bush third term. I don’t think this country can survive another Bush term.

Look at the state of our union now:

• $4-plus gas;

• Banks failing every day;

• People’s homes being foreclosed on;

• People on fixed incomes having to choose between food, medicine or gas.

You really want four more years of this? I don’t. Whatever Mr. Obama brings to the oval office can’t be any worse than what we already have.

Myself and everyone I know are voting Obama — this includes my Republican friends. We have all had enough and are ready for change, whatever that change may be.

I’ll tell you right now, I believe George W. Bush will go down in history as the worst president this nation has ever suffered.

R. Joseph Earle, Sweet Home

Ethanol: A reality check

I saw reality sneak into the paper.

The Linn County commissioners have discovered that the 10 percent alcohol mandate laid on all of us by the Oregon Legislature doesn’t work.

The gas mileage is less and can’t be saved by buying fuel-efficient autos that are actually available, not the ones that may exist in the Utopia seen by our legislature.

In fact it now costs Linn County more to drive the same amount. They are now going to begin additional documentation to see if this reality can actually change our legislators’ course.

The rest of us have been in the real world for some time and knew that our mileage had gone down, our prices had gone up and lawn mower engines and boat engines don’t do well with a 10 percent alcohol mix.

Also, the Lane County Transit District, that bastion of right-wing conspiracy, is abandoning their biodiesel experiment. It damages their buses and isn’t cost effective.

These are real “inconvenient truths” being overlooked by our governor and his partners in the legislature.

Passing a law doesn’t make the science work. Passing a law without understanding the consequences is just grandstanding.

Converting corn to fuel and then watching Third World people starve because they can’t afford the new price of their main food is reality as well.

The law of unintended consequences is unlikely to be repealed in the very near future. Relying on the world as we would like it to be rather than how it actually is is foolish.

There is a concrete tile in Salem near the Capitol building reputed to be an invocation by a minister prior to one of our early legislative sessions: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

It never really changes — the players just change from time to time.

Bill Molloy, Scio

Border wall just, necessary

I can’t believe the editorial of July 16. Comparing the United States with East Germany and the U.S.S.R during the Cold War and comparing our democratic government with a dictatorship.

The fence being built between Mexico and the U.S.A. is to keep out a foreign invasion, drug smugglers and terrorists out of this country, not to keep our people in, as in Germany; it is just and necessary. Have you forgotten 9/11?

You state that illegal immigration is a national issue but can be handled otherwise. Noble statement, but you offer no solution. The Mexican government either will not or cannot help their own people, so they come here. The Mexican government is and has been corrupt and will not change in the foreseeable future. This fence is not un-American; it is darn good business and hopefully a solution.

Yes the government is sending letters of condemnation to some people in Texas along the Rio Grande River. This happens everywhere: It’s called eminent domain. Land is taken from people for the betterment of the majority — happened to me in California.

I wonder if you would have the same feelings if some environmentalist discovered an endangered species on or in the river and shut it down to people. Like the spotted owl here or the sand fly in Southern California (yes, a fly that got protection and held up the construction of a hospital).

Yes, I’m from Southern California. Lived there for 58 years. I have seen what the invasion has done to schools, hospitals, infrastructure and general quality of life. I got tired of being the only one standing in a checkout line that was speaking English, billboards in Spanish and public announcements in Spanish, gangs, shootings, muggings and rape. Call me a bigot, but I am a red, white and blue American.

We are all immigrants some place in our family lineage, but we all wanted to be Americans and assimilate.

The fence will help protect us. I say build the fence, razor wire, electrify it, guard towers, whatever it takes.

Jim Regan, Sweet Home

Learn English or leave U.S.

If we have such a high need of Mexican help, then why are so many of them in our adult and family services programs?

I was in a grocery store in Albany the other day and two Mexican women were ahead of me in line. They had three shopping carts full to the top and paid for them with an Oregon Trail card.

We took a friend to the adult and family services, and over half of the people there were Mexicans who couldn’t speak English.

Our daughter-in-law works for a doctor in Salem, and some Mexican came in and demanded to be put on a dialysis machine. It seems things are getting out of control.

A while back, a Mexican was in the jail in McMinnville and had to have really expensive medical care. Why not send him home?

I also do not believe our school system should hire special teachers to teach them in Spanish. We didn’t have special teachers for French, German, etc., when they came here.

They came because they wanted to be Americans and learned English.

If the Mexicans don’t want to learn English, they can go back to Mexico.

Jessie Clayton, Scio

Impeachment long overdue

The impeachment of our current president, George W. Bush, is overdue. These proceedings should have been started years ago, but now that Congress is being given the chance to do the right thing on July 25, I fully expect them to follow through on promises of accountability. I hope everyone in the United States follows these proceedings closely and contacts their congresspeople about the impeachment of George W. Bush.

Leonora Rianda, Albany