Vice president

Breath of fresh air? Sarah Palin’s nomination for vice president continues with the stench of cynical Republican politics that appears to believe they can market anything to the American people if the propaganda is clever enough. John McCain, who once pointed out the obvious truth, that many on the religious right were “agents of intolerance,” has now asked one to be his running mate in a cynical plan to win the culturally conservative voters, and women. But let’s look at the facts:

One, honesty: Campaigning for mayor in Alaska, she said, if elected she would be the first Christian mayor of Wasilla. The incumbent was Lutheran but had a Jewish sounding name. The “Bridge to Nowhere”: she was for it before she was against it. She said Obama had zero experience, but did not mention McCain also has zero experience by the same definition.

Two, respect for law: Once mayor, she tried to ban books, and then fired the librarian when she wouldn’t. The firing was overturned in a court of law.

Three, cronyism: She also dismissed city employees who supported her opponent. As governor, she has appointed her supporters to office rather than experts.

Four, abuse of power: As governor, there are allegations she had pressure put on the head of the State Patrol to fire her sister’s ex-husband. An ethics investigation is in progress.

Five, walks her talk: Her religion teaches sex out of wedlock is sin. However, Palin eloped and gave birth eight months later. Hmmm….

Six, disrespects science: Studies show abstinence only sex education does not reduce teen pregnancy. Still Palin wants to force it on us, and “Creationism” too.

Seven, foreign policy: Zero experience.

Lies, half truths, cronyism, rejection of science, foreign policy ignorance, hypocrisy? That sounds a lot like Bush.

Roger Ledbetter

Snoqualmie

VP choice

I would enthusiastically agree with Denise Hisey’s touting of Sarah Palin for vice president [Letter to the editor, Sept. 10], were it not for the realities denying the validities of her assumptions.

She “owes no favors in Washington, D. C.”? She owes John McCain, a 25-year veteran capitol insider politician who voted for the Bush agenda 90 percent of the time, everything for selecting her out of nowhere to be his running mate.

She “walks her talk”? She says she is now and has been against earmarks in the past including the “Bridge to Nowhere.” That’s a lie and the facts including her record as governor of Alaska prove it.

She “isn’t afraid to tackle real issues”? What issues has she tackled? The speaker of her legislature, a sister Republican, says she has paid little attention to legislation in the capitol. How could she when she wasn’t even there for 312 days of the past year? To the extent that she has been unpopular within her own party, the record reflects this has all involved personal issues with people — some valid and some not. Support for more oil wells in her state and building a natural gas pipeline from Alaska through Canada to the “lower 48” have been her highest priorities. Residents of Alaska love this because they benefit (ultimately at the expense of the rest of us in the “lower 48”?) in cash and jobs.

She’ll “help deliver exactly what we need for real change and a departure from business as usual”? The only definitive change she is committed to is support for McCain’s total elimination of earmarks — less than 1 percent of government largesse that often fund worthwhile projects benefiting the public good. She isn’t sure we are contributing to global warming, so no need to worry about that.

Palin may be good for Alaska, but qualified to be a heartbeat from the White House? No way!

Betty Olson

North Bend

Assisted suicide

Those in support of physician-assisted suicide argue that by providing lethal medication, they are showing compassion to the terminally ill.

Yet when offered the choice of death, patients, instead of feeling less pain or fear, actually had increased feelings of anxiety, pain and worthlessness. In fact, studies have shown that in areas where physician-assisted suicide is legal, severe pain and distress has increased.

Providing death as a solution could be abused, one 84-year-old woman explains. “I started losing my hearing about three years ago, it irritated my daughter. She began to question me about financial matters… one evening, she said she thought it was okay for older people to commit suicide…So I sit, day after day, knowing what I am expected to do” (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Sept. 14, 1993).

I have a close friend suffering from Parkinson’s. Watching his condition decline rapidly is very difficult, but to think that there are those who would like to offer him death instead of loving care disgusts me. What the terminally ill need is love, true compassion, and support. The last days of life should be as cherished as the first days of life, not discarded. After all, aren’t we all terminal?

Kira Clark

North Bend