Ethanol to blame for engine repairs
We are advised that the government pays ethanol users 5 cents a gallon subsidy. It is also hard to find the fine print on a gas tank that warns that the “fuel may contain up to 10 percent ethanol.” The fuel company won’t discuss added costs for using ethanol, how it can only be shipped by truck and that it requires the use of a blending agent. The use of ethanol is a trade-off at retail, even as it costs the government 5 cents a gallon.
None of our elected officials in Georgia have responded to our complaint about this. My vehicle needs all the octane it can get. Reducing the octane by using ethanol makes it miss and struggle.
Recently I took an appliance in for repairs at the local small-engine shop. He was so swamped with small-motor repairs he couldn’t predict when he could get at my machine. When I asked what happened, he answered ethanol. Cleaning out small-engine carburetors is very costly.
ROBERT B. BRYANT
Hiwassee, Ga.
Yard sale traffic worse than bikes
While doing some grocery shopping last weekend, I had to stop several times for cars parked in the road.
There were cars also just stopping in the middle of the road looking at what people had for sale in their yards. I could not help but think these are the same people who complain about the bicycle traffic during the tristate bicycle ride.
The longest yard sale created way more traffic problems than the bike riders. The yard sale lasted three days versus a few hours for the bike riders. I say we ban the yard sale.
BRIAN FLAITZ
Rising Fawn, Ga.
Election panel workers on the ball
I am the officer of elections at Ooltewah 1, Precinct 60, and would like to thank the folks at the Election Commission for their fine work.
When I pick up and return election supplies, they run right out while I wait in the car and I am gone in two minutes or less. Their orientation sessions prior to the elections are also superb! Who says government is not efficient.
DR. GEORGE A.
MILLER
Ooltewah
Thanks to Unum for brighter school
The faculty and staff of Ooltewah Elementary School thank Unum employees for all of their dedication and hard work given to our school this summer.
The start of school has been made much brighter, due to the fresh paint in the classrooms and hallways. The students and staff really appreciate having all of the rooms painted.
The landscape work is also beautiful; also, the beautiful art work on the portable classroom doors.
FAYE SMITH
Ooltewah Elementary
School
New Deal programs saved bank system
President Obama finally got a new banking bill passed to avert another financial crisis similar to 1929 and 2008.
Roosevelt’s New Deal programs – the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security, unemployment insurance and the Glass-Steagall Act separating commercial banking from investment banking along with the Federal Reserve System created in 1913 under an earlier Democratic administration – prevented the 2008 financial crisis from reaching the panic proportions of the Great Depression.
As with national health care legislation this year, Republicans attacked the New Deal as “creeping socialism.” But FDR’s regulatory and safety net measures – his “bank holiday” in 1933 and Federal Banking Acts of 1934 and 1935 – rescued our banking system from self destruction and saved capitalism in the process.
While Republicans were largely unsuccessful in dismantling the New Deal, though Reagan tried hard, they did repeal Glass-Steagall in 1999. This allowed commercial banks where you and I keep our money to return to risky stock market speculation. Wall Street again ran amok without adult supervision and nearly crashed in 2008.
Didn’t philosopher George Santayana remind us “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it?”
GEORGE B. REED JR.
Fort Oglethorpe
Littlefield rejects citizens’ interests
Just as Obama got his health care bill passed over the will of the people, Mayor Ron Littlefield has pushed through a 19 percent property tax increase – he wanted 33 percent, a storm water fee increase of 300 percent for homeowners and 600 percent on businesses and churches, a 5 percent sewer tax increase, raised all permits and fees 500-900 percent.
All this in tough economic times and in a year when our property valuation goes up.
Then he is annexing county residents against their will at a time when the city does not have the funds to provide services or protection to them.
By his continued actions, he has demonstrated that he no longer represents the interests of the citizens of Chattanooga. He is crushing – oppressing – the people who have made Chattanooga a great place to live, work and raise a family. This is why he must be fired and someone who cares for the people elected in his place.
CHARLES WYSONG
Animals wastes kill marine life
Do you believe things will return to normal in the Gulf of Mexico now that the oil-spouting BP well has finally been sealed? Do you think that the devastating impacts of the massive oil spill on beaches, wildlife habitats, and marine ecosystem are gradually abating? Because, there is a more clear and present danger lurking in the Gulf, with no immediate plans to abate this much larger, deadlier, and continuing spill smothering life in the Gulf.
According to Wikipedia, there is an 8,500 square mile “dead zone” – roughly three times the size of the BP oil slick. It’s the result of the Mississippi River dumping agricultural and chemical waste into the Gulf of Mexico. Factory farming spews billions of tons of farm animal waste, overloaded with nitrogen and other potentially damaging nutrients compounded by waste from petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides, producing vast algal blooms that suck up oxygen from the water, killing all marine life.
We react dramatically to unanticipated threats like the BP oil spill and accidental deaths. Yet we tend to accept and tolerate the much more damaging, but routine, threats from animal waste discharges and deaths from killer diseases linked to meat and dairy-laden diets.
MAX SILVERBERG
New efforts identify more illegal aliens
Those demanding immigration reform will be delighted to learn that the Obama administration’s efforts have resulted in more unregistered aliens being identified and deported than at any time during the Bush administration.
Suspect businesses that hire unregistered immigrants are targeted and audited. If unregistered aliens are being employed, the auditor builds a case against the businesses. Illegal immigrants are identified and appropriate legal action is initiated by the INS. Guilty businesses are prosecuted and fined.
America’s underground economy depends on the influx of illegal immigration. The Republicans have historically supported legislation that overwhelmingly benefits special-interest groups and major businesses which in turn fuels the flow of illegal immigration. The economic reality is that many U.S. employers rely on illegal labor. It keeps wages low and eliminates social and health care benefits cost, and reduces overhead, thus increasing profits. Ironically, the bulk of the major businesses in America that benefit most from hiring unregistered aliens are owned by registered Republicans.
The majority of Americans identify the state of economy as the No. 1 issue in the run-up to the midterm election. Illegal immigration (4th place) and the Republican-induced failed economy are inextricably linked.
JOHN HIGHT