No jobs, please

Tonight on Channel 7, I heard Rep. Jim McDermott say that he wanted to tax $10 per ton on coal trains going through Washington state. He stated that the length of the trains creates too much delay at the crossings and that the coal dust will create health problems.

I agree with him. We need to use more trucks to move these goods. There would be less pollution and no more delay at the crossings. Besides, one coal car hauls only 100 tons, not to mention the container trains that are so long. We don’t need this revenue and jobs here anyway.

Oh, by the way, did you see where our elected officials in Washington, D.C. talk like 10th-graders?

J. Paul Downs

East Wenatchee

Too much fluff

Kathleen Parker’s article (The World, July 22) about the grave injustices of the Obama campaign painting Mitt Romney as an outsourcing, downsizing, big corporate monster has some veracity. The Obama campaign has exaggerated some of Bain’s activities while Romney was the executive and while he was off the clock, so to speak, drawing a paltry $100,000 a year.

Where’s the indignation when Romney canvasses the country painting Obama as the biggest government spender of all time? Fact check, Bush’s federal government rate of spending growth first term, 7.3 percent, second term, 8.1 percent. Contrast Obama at 3.4 percent. Where is the outrage when the right (read Republicans) spreads untruths about Obama’s birthplace, paints Obama and Michelle as radical Islamists bent on destroying America, and of course the Hitler talk, blackface, monkey, really trashy stuff.

Democrat and Republican campaigns don’t have much respect for the electorate’s intellect. We should be having a serious discussion about the quality of the jobs Bain created. Just guessing, the oft mentioned Staples office supply doesn’t have many high-paying jobs, few with benefits, more part-time. These kinds of jobs are the cotton candy of growth, not the meat and potatoes that sustains good economic growth.

The mental midget talking heads and politicians have convinced many Americans that government is bad and nobody should have to pay taxes especially the most financially able because they create the jobs, another Romney (Republican) whopper, (Reagan administration economist Bruce Bartlett studied rich countries rate of taxes and their rate of growth since 1979 and found no correlation).

We should be engaged in conversation about corporate and citizen responsibility. Best ways to restore our economy, educate, and rejuvenate the middle class. Improving on the health care reform already so painfully started, why go back to ground zero. So much fluff, so little substance.

Connie Fliegel

Quincy

Brandt, most preferred

I have lived in Wenatchee and worked as an attorney here since 1985. This is only the second time I have written a letter to the editor but I believe it is important to express my opinion regarding the upcoming Superior Court election. I want to first state that whoever wins the election has some very big shoes to fill. Judge John Bridges is not only respected locally but also statewide, having received more than one award for being Judge of the Year.

I know all of the judicial candidates, some better than others. Of the four candidates I believe that Travis Brandt is the most qualified to serve as the next Superior Court judge. Mr. Brandt is the only candidate who regularly handles the type of cases that a Superior Court judge will spend most of the workday with — criminal and domestic relations cases.

I am not the only attorney in Wenatchee who is supporting Mr. Brandt, as the local attorney bar poll results show. Mr. Brandt easily outpaced the other candidates in receiving 50 most-preferred votes as compared to the 17 each received by Ms. Esparza and Mr. Steinberg and the 36 received by Judge Nakata.

In terms of the votes for the least preferred candidate for Superior Court, Judge Nakata received 39 votes, Ms. Esparza received 41 votes, Mr. Steinberg eight and Mr. Brandt only seven.

In conclusion, I suggest that when voting for the new Superior Court judge that you consider the bar poll results and the experience that one needs in Superior Court to understand the issues that the new judge will be addressing and vote for the most qualified candidate on those issues and the most preferred candidate by the bar association, Travis Brandt.

Tony DiTommaso

Wenatchee

He really represents

Sometime ago, I had an important question that I needed my representative to answer for me. I do not know Rep. Mike Armstrong, and have never met him. I sent my question to his Olympia email address, and when finished, started reading news on the Internet, expecting to possibly receive an email later telling me that my question had been received and that it would be looked into. Perhaps five minutes passed, and my phone rang. It was Mike Armstrong. He told me that he was working at his computer and received my question and decided to call me to discuss my problem. Now, that is a representative of the people, who will personally call his constituents to speak with them about an important issue. I was in awe — the democratic representative process right there in my livingroom — on my phone.

We need Mike Armstrong. We need to keep him. He is a representative who really does represent the people.

Steve McCormick

Wenatchee