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Published: October 06, 2009 11:43 pm
Readers' Forum: Oct. 7, 2009
Republican Party abandoned Americans
In your newspaper in the recent headline story “House votes to extend jobless benefits” I saw a terrific verification of the old joke, “What’s the best thing that ever came out of Kentucky? — Highway 41.”
Republican Rep. Geoff Davis of Kentucky is now blaming the Obama administration for the state of the economy, just like old Rush Speedball did before Obama was sworn into office. Davis’ statement regarding the need to extend unemployment benefits, “yet another sign of the failure of this administration’s stimulus plan to create jobs” is an example of the adage, “if you tell a lie often enough, and for long enough, people will believe that it’s the truth.” This is especially true in Kentucky where they recently lynched a census taker because he was a “fed.”
The stimulus package was to stop the recession that the Republican de-regulation of everything caused. Of course, I don’t spend all the spare time that I have watching the Fox propaganda channel which, according to the Glenn Beck Internet site, you should be watching if all that you can otherwise get on television is any legitimate news source. Were it not for the stimulus legislation that the Obama administration sponsored in this, his first 9 months in office, we would be in a deepening recession instead of taking the first steps toward economic recovery.
Re-visiting how we came to be where we are must be like trying to forget a shameful weekend of drunken abandon for many devout Republicans. If George W. Bush had not bailed out the FDIC we would have had a serious worldwide economic depression on our hands because the banking system of America would have collapsed, taking the rest of the free world’s banking system down with it.
Of course, certain elements in the Republican Party would like for us to forget that Osama bin Laden is still running around loose in the mountains of Pakistan because we exacted revenge on Saddam in Iraq over the assassination attempt on George H.W. Bush instead of avenging the 2,751 people killed in the World Trade Center attack. They also want us to forget that John McCain gave us a harbinger of things to come with his involvement with the Keating 5 Savings and Loan scandal.
Who can forget how Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, (who was John McCain’s financial advisor and is now the president of a Swiss Bank) pushed through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, gutting the Roosevelt-era Glass-Steagall protections, and setting off wave after wave of megamergers among banks and insurance and securities companies in 1999. The Republican Party set up the crisis that ushered in the administration of Barak Obama.
If the Republican Party still wonders what happened, let me explain. Americans never left the Republican Party to vote for Barak Obama. They voted for Barak Obama because the Republican Party left them and took their jobs and their money with them … and we still don’t have those things back and we may never get them back.
— John Garner
Terre Haute
Thanks to officials for leadership
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Vigo County Commissioners Paul Mason, Judy Anderson and Mike Ciolli for their leadership in the very important acquisition of the former Pfizer property for the future of Vigo County.
I would also like to thank the leadership of the Vigo County Council — Kathy Miller, Mark Bird, Bill Bryan, Derrick Scott, Tim Curley, Brad Anderson and Ed Ping as well as County Attorney Michael Wright, Steve Witt and Claudia Tanoos of the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp. for their great leadership working through many complicated issues to make this happen.
Jeff Lind, the Vigo County Redevelopment attorney, worked countless hours with Pfizer and the consultants to make this acquisition work for the best interest of Vigo County.
Also, thanks to Vigo County Redevelopment Commission members Mary Caye Pfister (chair), Rick Jenkins, Gordon Bryan, Rick Burger and Jackie Lower, advisory member, for their many meetings to work through the many issues.
The main goal of this project is to attract more business and industry to Vigo County and create good paying jobs to move our local economy forward for generations. Vigo County is very fortunate to have Steve Witt and the Terre Haute Economic Development Corp. working with business, industry and government to bring jobs to Vigo County.
— Patrick R. Ralston
Terre Haute
37th Oktoberfest a great success
A weather-perfect weekend favored our 37th annual Oktoberfest in downtown Terre Haute. We welcomed several thousand festival guests who came to enjoy the food, drink and music by Eddie Korosa Jr. and His Boys from Illinois and the International Main Street Polka Band.
All of 79 Red Hatters from Indiana and Illinois opened the event on Thursday with their Fifth Annual Chicken Dance, and LIFE students from the Conservatory of Music provided beautiful organ music for the Friday lunch crowd.
We thank Clabber Girl for use of their Festival Marketplace, the Terre Haute Police Department, Dever Distributing, Gordon Food Service and Goodwill Industries. Thanks also to WTWO-TV, WTHI-TV, the Tribune-Star and other Wabash Valley newspapers, and the local and area radio stations for their wonderful promotion and coverage of the event.
The members of our German Oberlandler Club are also most appreciative of the enthusiasm and good help given by students from Erika Cantin’s German classes at Terre Haute North Vigo High School.
We invite you to mark your 2010 calendar with our 33rd Strassenfest on April 29, 30 and May 1 and our 38th Oktoberfest on Sept. 16-18 at the same location — Clabber Girl Festival Marketplace in downtown Terre Haute. Do come back and enjoy.
— Ken Warner,
president,
German Oberlandler Club Inc.
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