Letters to the Editor

Christie was just being foxy

Gov. Christie's protestations that he really didn't want to be Mitt Romney's pick for vice president remind me of Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Grapes." After many failed attempts to reach the luscious-looking grapes, the fox said, "Those grapes are too sour for me anyway!"

If he wasn't interested, why didn't Christie ask Romney to remove his name from the list? The chances of his being chosen were small at any rate.

Now that he's the Republican convention's keynote speaker, much less attention will be paid to the rising unemployment rate in New Jersey and the falling revenue rate, statistics that give lie to the governor's boast of making New Jersey the "comeback" state.

Marlene Lieber, Medford

Big banks are hustling America

The power of the evil Federal Reserve should be obvious to all but the most simpleminded among us. When we accept the concept of "too big to fail," and don't try to trim the size of financial institutions, we are putting ourselves in the hands of extortionists. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, Clayton Act of 1914, and Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 all tried to address the dangers of "too big."

Democratic President Woodrow Wilson turned over the financial fate of our nation to bankers back in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve, to allegedly stop the financial disasters that have occurred many times since.

Wake up, America! Recognize that the Fed and Goldman Sachs are hustling you and your offspring in full view. Stop the printing machines. They just make the rest of the dollars less valuable. And stop listening to the drug-crazed, rehab-dependent Hollywood crowd. Like they know what's best for you - right!

Joseph DuPont, Towanda, Pa.

Medicare plan under scrutiny

I have always tried to keep an open mind about all ideas and sides in the political discourse, but I'm having a very hard time understanding Republicans' stance on Medicare. I want to believe they are trying their best to help this country's seniors, but the more I learn about their Medicare plan, the harder I find it to believe.

Rep. Pat Meehan, who as a candidate vowed to protect Medicare, became the congressman who voted twice in support of Paul Ryan's Medicare plan. Under Ryan's voucher system, the average senior would be paying an extra $6,000 annually.

When talking about budgets and deficits that are measured in trillions and billions of dollars, $6,000 seems paltry, but when you stop and think, $6,000 is a lot of money to a lot of people. In 2010, the median income for seniors was calculated to be $25,757; the $6,000 in extra payments due to Ryan's plan would take away almost a quarter of that yearly income. How can anyone in good conscience support something like that?

Jesse Moore, Swarthmore

Shale industry is creating jobs

Arthur Sterngold questions jobs provided by the Marcellus Shale as reported by the Department of Labor and Industry ("Natural gas and hot air," Tuesday). Sterngold parses data and makes assumptions to come to the conclusion that Marcellus Shale development supports 40,000 jobs.

Sterngold fails to realize that many sectors aren't in the department's "Fast Facts," including the legal sector, real estate, and the service industry. A full picture of Marcellus Shale employment is likely between Sterngold's assumptions and what the labor department reports.

Sterngold also assumes mostly doom and gloom for the counties in the state's northern tier. That's a tough assumption given that last year Bradford County was in the top 100 nationally in wage growth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. There is no way around the fact the Marcellus Shale is providing good jobs for thousands of hardworking Pennsylvanians.

Tom Shepstone, Campaign director, Northeast Marcellus Initiative, Honesdale, Pa.

Biden has made worse remarks

In your seemingly never-ending effort to shore up the Obama administration's failures while casting his opponents in the worst possible light, your editorial Wednesday paints with a massive brush.

The headline "Will comments define GOP?" is so far-fetched as to be laughable. Out of millions of reasonably sane conservatives comes one Todd Akin, who says something derided by all.

While it's clear that Akin's syntax made his comment even worse than intended, he is being used as a poster boy for one of the areas near and dear to progressives. It's inarguable that Vice President Biden holds a more significant position in government than Congressman Akin, yet his foolishness just seems to be written off as "there goes old Joe again."

Stephen Hanover, Parker Ford, Pa.

Just take the vote from women

The Republicans' problem winning women's votes is easily fixed. Just repeal the 19th Amendment, which gives women the right to vote. Given the good-old-boy network of Congress and the state legislatures (30 have Republican majorities), should the nation become more conservative, that day can't be far off.

Who better to decide for women than men like Reps. Todd Akin and Paul Ryan? These men have the good sense to know that fertilized eggs have more rights than the women who carry them. And shouldn't rapists be allowed the joy of becoming a parent?

Jim Kippen, Plymouth Meeting

Rape remark was about abortion

No one should be surprised by Rep. Todd Akin's recent remarks regarding rape. No one, that is, who has been paying attention to the rhetoric from the Republicans on this issue.

They have been trying for years to make distinctions about "levels of rape," as if there were "legitimate" or "forcible" types of rape.

Why? The answer is easy. If they can persuade a gullible public that certain types of rape are less heinous (read, the woman's fault), then abortion should not be available to those women.

In other words, it's not about rape in the end at all; it is another tactic to limit abortion using concepts such as "complicit" rape as the excuse. Disgusting!

This is the party, remember, that keeps hollering about keeping the government out of people's lives. For such a party, it seems all too willing to interfere in the lives of many of us.

James F. Davis, Gulph Mills