Alaska News

Letters to the editor (9/11/12)

Sullivan may not be capable of handling anything 'serious'

Days without electricity in metro Anchorage. Apparently Mayor Sullivan has no plan to deal with a wind emergency. Add that to his proven inability to deal with snow emergencies. We live in Alaska, so I have to ask: What kind of weather related emergency can he deal with? Does he know that cold snaps, wind and snow can happen at the same time?

Now the mayor says we have a budget emergency. What will he cut? We all know that cutting police, firefighters or street maintenance never helps when natural disasters occur. Can this mayor handle anything serious?

-- John A. Farleigh

Anchorage

McClatchy story was failed exercise in matching parties

McClatchy reporters Douglas and Lightmore wrote a story in the Sept. 7 Daily News under a heading that was an attempt to be nonpartisan ("At both political conventions, truth is often a casualty") but which focused on the Democratic convention.

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For example, Sandra Fluke, who was called a slut by Limbaugh on radio, rightfully saw the slur as a personal attack and wondered why Romney "stood by." When asked, Mitt said it "wasn't the language I would have used." These reporters went on to point out that liberal talk-show hosts said bad things about Palin back in '08 and Obama didn't respond then.

In fact he said nothing. He was never asked about it!

This whole column was just a failed exercise in searching for distortions by Democrats to match those of Republicans, but came up short, thus proving that it is difficult to beat Republicans at distorting, or even to match them.

Imagine a Republican win in this election and then four years of troglodytic proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that government doesn't work!

-- Dick Palmatier

Willow

Chugach Electric Association lacking in its communication

I have been one of CEA consumers without power from Tuesday evening until late Friday evening. What concerns me is CEA's lack of communication with its members. I finally reached a CEA employee on Wednesday afternoon after a 50-minute wait. I heard nothing further, nor did I see any sign of a CEA representative or repair truck in my area (Jewel Lake and Dimond).

On Friday afternoon around 3 p.m., a CEA vehicle was sitting in front of my residence reading my meter. When asked if he had any information about when we might expect restoration he had none.

I find it incomprehensible that CEA would send employees to read meters when 3,000 or so customers were still out of power with no indication that CEA even was aware these consumers were out of power. The meter reader's time might have been better spent by going through the neighborhood updating customers. I am submitting this letter in the hope that CEA will better prepare for any subsequent extended outage.

-- Katharine Collins

Anchorage

Columnist missed his targets

Charles Krauthammer a pundit? Gimme a break! His list of Obama's sins is feeble. Barack's ambitious? Was there ever a presidential candidate who lacked ambition, or a conservative who deplored self-reliance and lofty goals -- i.e. ambition?

If he condemns Michelle Obama for "humanizing" her husband, he should be ridiculing Ann Romney, too, for trying to do exactly the same thing. But who can better report on a candidate's character than the one who knows him best -- his wife?

The pumping ulcer of health care had to be fixed, and the only question is whether Obamacare goes far enough. After the scandals of 2008 who can doubt that Wall Street needed regulation? And as for the misstep of Solyndra, it ain't even close to invading Iraq on fudged intel.

Krauthammer also sneers at Elizabeth Warren's phrase "a land 'wracked with misery and despair' " but doesn't this aptly describe the U.S. when Dubya handed it over to Barack? No wonder Bush wasn't even invited to his party's convention. How could they ever hope to live him down?

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-- Robert Crosman

Anchorage

Criminals getting more violent

I've been a street cop for over 30 years and I wasn't surprised to see the Sept. 7 ADN article about the corrections officer being assaulted. We're dealing with an increasingly violent criminal element out there who are getting long and longer sentences. Some of these criminals have nothing to lose by assaulting a corrections officer.

While almost all politicians pride themselves as being "public safety champions" and "the law-and-order candidate," many are willing, with the help of ambitious administrators, to put funding for the best training, equipment and adequate staffing aside as "too costly" -- creating a dangerous situation for those who do the job.

Finally, I urge people to never forget that Alaska's corrections officers end up spending a career in prison keeping us safe.

-- Kevin Ehm

Anchorage

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