The Reign Of Mccain

In response to “The McCain I Know” in the Feb. 7-13 issue of the Weekly, I’d like to add what I think is a very important point about the upcoming presidential elections.

People seem to forget that President Bush very questionably won the 2000 and 2004 elections with cries of voter fraud resonating throughout the country. With faulty electronic voting machines still being used in 2008, is there any doubt that the GOP will steal yet another election and install McCain as the next president of the United States?

While the media revel in and spin the idea of the plausibility of a first black or woman president of the United States, McCain is licking his chops knowing the presidential suite is his to lose.

America needs to wake up and realize that the Electoral College is a farce. That delegates and “super” delegates, like most politicians, are bought and paid for with large favors and hefty sums of “soft” money.

I await the day when all this madness subsides and a true election is won with actual votes. –Pablo Carbajal | Pacific Grove

Absentee Transparency

I consider voting both my right and my responsibility. I choose to vote absentee because it is convenient, it assures a “paper trail” and it appears foolproof.

The results are anxiously anticipated and I, like almost everyone else I know, succumb to the intriguing promise of early projections, of super pundits’ spin and final pronouncements, only to now discover, two weeks after Super Tuesday, that California is still counting absentee ballots.

How, then, can delegates be accurately assigned? How are “winners” and “losers” accurately declared?

Is there no way to vote and be absolutely confident that one’s ballot has been counted? Can the manipulators of the count be thwarted? I want to vote. I am eager to participate. I want my vote to count without delay or fear of it being hijacked. -Ann Sherman-Flint | Pacific Grove

Stop It! Stop It! Stop It!

Enough is enough! Will the Republicrats and the Demopublicans please stop invoking the ghosts of Ronald “Recall” Reagan and John F. “Groper” Kennedy!! If I hear one more political hack from either party speak in sycophantic drivel about how America needs another Reagan or another JFK I think I’m going to drive down to Bixby Creek Bridge and take a swan dive into the creek bed! 

Have we forgotten some of Reagan’s less than stellar moments in political values? And what about JFK’s lackluster presidency? Because JFK was cut down at age 46 by an assassin’s bullet with his young gorgeous wife by his side, a myth has evolved about him these past 45 years that clouds the reality of his efficacy as a president.

We have serious problems facing America today that desperately need today’s solutions offered by whatever real leadership might lurk in the present. -Jeffrey Van Middlebrook | Pacific Grove

Take My Ideas, Please

I am amused at your reference to city manager Colangelo’s firing of city employees as an “ass kicking” [Letters, Feb. 14-20]. Yes, but he kicked the wrong posteriors. He should fire the assistant city manager, as this position is superfluous since he leveled the work force in City Hall.

He should take a sizable pay cut as he is paid $163,000 per annum and this is excessive for what little he has done to better our lot in the past 2-1/2 half years. He should hire a CPA to do the city finances.

If we have any property free and clear of encumbrances, then go to the Monterey County Bank and borrow money to be paid over a five-year period. Fix up the Old Bath House and lease it to someone to run a restaurant. Get some new businesses in town.

On top of that, we have a mayor with Walter Mitty ideas of bringing in a farmer’s market. Who said we want a farmer’s market? We have Charlie Higuera of the Grove Market and this would be harmful for his business. We also have Save Mart and Safeway to furnish any produce available. Moreover, the markets have vegetables clean and free from E. coli; a farmer’s market may not. We don’t want our quaint little village turned into a circus as evidenced in his ideas in a recent issue of the Weekly. Finally, contact Congressman Sam Farr to see if he can get a federal government grant for our library and museum. -Andrew Wilson | Pacific Grove