To the editor,

Headline! "MACHINISTS STATE COUNCIL ENDORSES FRANKEN." It is natural for Democrats to give labor total support to repay unions who give more than 90% of their money donations to the Democratic party. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. This can be seen at www.opensecrets.org/pacs/topacs.asp.

Lisa Stager, president of the state council, sez that Franken will proudly co-sponsor the Employee Free Choice Act recently passed by the house with support by virtually all Democrats and no Republicans.

The Employees Free Choice Act would take away a workers fundamental right to a secret ballot while voting to approve a union. This would lead to intimidation by union leaders of employees that do not want to be unionized. Having been on both sides, management and union member, I see that this change would be giving labor an unfair advantage over management. I report,U decide.

Alan W Anderson
4316 Thornhill Lane
Vadnais Heights, MN 55127

To the Editor,

A reformed Foreign Intelligence Reform Act, supported by the president, has
been passed by a large majority in the US senate. Even ultra-liberal Sen.
Jay Rockefeller has said it's passage is vital.

Attorney General Mukasey and National Intelligence Director McConnel report
that we are already losing valuable information due to the house's partisan
delaying. Speaker Nancy Pelosiu refuses to bring it up for a vote, even
though a large majority of representatives would approve.

House Democrats seem willing to give terrorists protection while allowing
some businesses to be ruined by frivolous lawsuits. The House leadership
apparently feels that poliical donations from trial lawyers trump national
security. Trial lawyers give 96% of their donations to the Democratic party.
I report, U decide.

Alan W Anderson
4316 Thornhill Lane
Vadnais Heights, MN 55127
Phone 651-407-7206
Arizona phone 651-485-6631

Political instability in Africa and the Middle East render them less than dependable providers of imported oil, which is to say that 28 percent of U.S. oil demand is less than dependable.

Oil is currently over $100 per barrel and given the giant sucking sound coming out of China and India, this time next year, $100 may seem like a bargain unless the surge in oil prices is matched with a surge in oil exploration and delivery.

Total annual consumption of oil in the U.S. is about 7.6 billion barrels. However, it is estimated that there is more than a trillion barrels of retrievable oil under the U.S., most of it in oil shale (Green River basin), and billions more in deep formations (Bakken Play) and under the Arctic's Northern Slope.

When oil was at $35 per barrel, there was no incentive to retrieve these reserves. At $100 per barrel plus, however, there is plenty of incentive.

Enter ignoble laureate Albert Arnold Gore and his gullible warming Gorons. They are intent on stopping further domestic-oil exploration, claiming that human industrial activity is a major factor accelerating global warming.

The Gorons have already lobbied hard to prevent additional offshore exploration on our East and West Coasts and are adamantly opposed to renewable energy sources such as nuclear generators. Teddy Kennedy certainly doesn't want his Cape Cod views obscured by unsightly wind generators.

Where do we go from here?

The most readily available proven U.S. oil reserves waiting to be tapped are under a vast wasteland on the northern slope of Alaska called the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR). I am one of few humans to have actually visited ANWR, and can tell you that the most prolific wildlife species in the region are mosquitoes the size of Turkey Vultures, but with more voracious appetites.

I report, U decide.

Having spent my childhood in Gaza and Cairo hearing Jews cursed and called “apes,” “pigs” and “enemies of God” from the pulpits of mosques, I commend “In Gaza, Hamas’s Fiery Insults to Jews Complicate Peace Effort” (front page, April 1).

Worldwide Islamic terrorism is the natural product of the constant hate speech and propaganda children hear in Arab schools, mosques, media, Islamic universities — and now children’s television.

Hamas seeks to produce a generation ready for jihad. Even Arabs from middle-class families cannot shed the legacy of hatred we were subjected to as children in the Middle East.

Arab religious and political leaders do not realize that this indoctrination of hatred and violence against Jews and Israel in children has infected Arab society. It started against Jews. But it leads to bombings of Muslims by Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to indiscriminate bombings in New York, Madrid and London. The world must demand an end to it.

Nonie Darwish
Los Angeles, April 1, 2008

The writer is the author of “Now They Call Me Infidel.”

•

We would all agree that government cannot solve every problem. Yet when the heat is on, most politicians are willing to blow past all limits and promise the full faith and credit of Uncle Sam.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, the likely presidential nominee of the Republican Party, should be credited for resisting this impulse. He told an audience in Los Angeles this week that the federal government may not be able to bail out homeowners and investors who have been hurt by the downturn in home prices and the epidemic of home foreclosures.

"It is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,'' McCain said during a California campaign trip. He did not close the door on possible government help but said "any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren't.''

The two Democratic contenders, U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, have called for federal programs to help homeowners and communities hit by foreclosures. They have focused on the lending industry's role in the crisis. McCain said "some Americans bought homes they couldn't afford.'' He called on lenders to voluntarily help borrowers and said he opposed a plan being considered by the Bush administration to reduce the down payment required for federally backed loans. I report, U decide.