Talk about political jiu-jitsu! Once again, our “food stamps” president has proven himself worthy of a master black belt. And he did with his State of the Union.

Okay, that’s the good news for President Barack Hussein Obama junior. As for the bad news, his re-election depends on three Republican (talk about irony!) governors remaining in office. And they are, in order of electoral importance: John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Scott of Florida, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is already lost, whether Walker stays or goes. The problem may well be the dislike for Walker leaking over into Indiana, thus making it hellishly hard for the Republican presidential candidate to carry that state.

As for the other two, the vast majority of those still enfranchised casting their ballots for Obama shall be not so much voting for him as against their state’s governor. And that is how unpopular each governor is.

Whoever wins the Republican presidential nomination had better be so lucky as to have those three aforementioned governors resign soon.

I believe it was best said by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Translated fast and loose from the Russian, this is what he meant to say: “You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

If the Republican Party sincerely wants to deprive the current President of the United States of a second term, three eggs, metaphorically speaking, shall have to be broken soon. And by “soon,” I mean “yesterday.”

Sincerely,

A Alexander Stella

Susquehanna Depot, PA

I was having my dinner and trying not to listen to the conversation at the table next to me. I could feel my pressure going up, and being I enjoy a good bowl of soup, I hate to have it spoiled by conversation that can only serve to pass wrong information. They would have none of that, but did wait till the waitress asked me if I'd like a piece of pie before he shook my chair. He said, "Cyndi, why isn't FEMA doing more to help?" I said they did. What!? Look at the flood devastation and you say they already helped!? I said FEMA came in and bought out the property. I also mentioned they may not like my opinion of FEMA, so I may not be the one to ask about this. One wise guy teases that maybe I should tell him anyway because he likes how I speak.

Ok. Here is the deal about FEMA. FEMA is an unregulated agency that has the sole purpose of buying American land to control it. How does this translate? FEMA is not an insurance agency. It does not buy you out so you can rebuild on that piece. That is why the folks in New Orleans are being made to repay the money back to FEMA, because they misunderstood it too. They thought that the government was helping them to get back on their feet. That is what the Federal Flood Insurance plan does, if you can get it. One said, wait I have flood insurance on my homeowners. I said did you ever use it? Fortunately he never has. Which is good. He would be mighty mad when he found out homeowners covers when the tree comes through the roof during a rain storm and floods your bedroom, not when it floods the basement, and takes out appliances, and moves your foundation. Boy, you could see that was never explained.

I told them I think anyone who sells out to FEMA crowds being a fool. Wait Cyndi, why do you think that? Because when you are bought out, your old property comes off the tax rolls, and services are cut. What is worse, is they only come around when your head is spinning. Just like a vulture. You can hardly think, your land is a wreck, house needs plenty of work, and well meaning folks are only trying to give you good advice, take the money, and rebuild somewhere away from where you made your life. Most folks that I have met are sorry they made that decision, except for a couple who never paid a tax for the land, it was gifted, so it was easy to be a fool.

I asked them, have you been to Conklin, NY lately? There are plenty of lots where homes once stood that are now overgrown with weeds, and fast food bags. I asked if they understood that the government collects taxes, not pays taxes, so that is why the current property owners are having the property taxes raised, and at a hefty rate, because there are less of them. One lady I overheard at a Conklin diner, lamented that there were no Christmas lights on in the village, and couldn't understand why. I told her I liked the roads being lit better. Man, the look on her face, she thought the lights needed a bulb replaced. I told her I would be very surprised if the street lights would be on again.

Another confusing thing about FEMA is that they don't rebuild communities, clean out the debris, or put the creek back in its stream bed. That would be the Army Corps. who are redesigning levees, instead of managing water. We forgot about the controlled flood this year on the Mississippi. They flooded out prime farm land, and ruined families, to protect the out of date levee system already in place.

Yep, New Orleans is a model of what not to do, and the Army corps. continues to do it anyway. I think that is why I liked the state of the union address on Jan. 24, the President specifically mentions the infrastructure, or the lack of, and the environmental laws that are in effect, which is disaster. Too bad he can't just do away with the group at FEMA. He can't because we belong to the United Nations... you really don't want my opinion on that group of...

Well, by now I have had my fill of coffee and tums, and I have left a table of men speechless. I thank them for buying my dinner and tease they probably won't bother me again when I'm dining. I was surprised when they agreed they would like to have me dine there more often, and said they will look for me, there is plenty they don't know, even when they did. They just never heard it put in such a way.

They asked me how do we get the streams cleaned around here to prevent more flooding. That my friends would be a question you should ask an environmental group. They know my opinion of those gangsters. yet they still want to know. You need to apply for a permit, yes, even the state has to apply for a permit because the state agencies try to regulate each other. The look on the faces of these boys makes me laugh. What!? Yes, PennDOT needs a permit from the fish and game, DEP, historical, and conservation and the Army Corps. If I wasn't so serious, I believe they might think I was telling a story. So this is why things don't get done. Exactly.

The other big thing is, it costs a fortune to do this, and alas, most of us are just getting by, which is why a FEMA buy-out appears to be the only recourse. There are other methods, but no one tells you about them, because FEMA got the press.

In this area, there will be gas companies that will be tapped to fix infrastructure, and maybe some stream bed repair so that they don't lose the pipe they invest in. Already Harrisburg, and Washington are conniving ways to pick the gas mans' pocket to do these repairs, keep the tax money there, and not locally where the production is occurring. So I told them I flip a coin to who I think is worse, an unregulated, non-government entity who will buy you out, or the unregulated attorney we vote in who sells you out? Either way it makes you wonder where all this very big money is going, and in whose pocket, that you still can't get any repairs done.

One would think you would throw a few dollars in the stream bed for prevention and maintenance, and not wait until route 11 caves in on the three lane, before a fat cat gives a permit. But that is what will need to happen. Maybe FEMA will buy out all the property in a flood plain, and we will all be living somewhere else. And that, is a true story.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Allen

Summersville, PA

At the December 28 Commissioners’ meeting, it was revealed that the County budget for 2012 was formulated without input from the public. There were no budget workshop meetings for the public. There was no discussion of the budget at any of the bi-monthly Commissioners’ meetings. The budget was created by the Commissioners, advertised in a tiny public notice in the November 9 edition of a local paper and quietly placed on the front desk of the County Clerks’ office in the Courthouse.

A county resident present at that meeting spoke at length about the lack of transparency inherent in much of what the commissioners do regarding county business. This resident reminded the commissioners that this was a clear violation of the Commonwealth’s Sunshine Law which states that the business of the public has to be conducted in public.

At that same meeting, another resident reiterated that despite the fact that the minutes of the Commissioners’ meetings include a public comment section, not once in the four year tenure of Commissioners Warren, Allen and Giangrieco was public comment ever recorded. Nor were the names of those making public comment ever recorded. The Pennsylvania Sunshine Law specifically states that “the names of all citizens who appeared officially and the subject of their testimony...” must be included in the minutes. Presently, anyone reading the minutes of Commissioners’ meetings could only conclude that nothing was discussed and no one participated in the process.

There have been two meetings under the chairmanship of Commissioner Hall and despite there being public comment at those meetings, there is still no record of any comment being made, nor the names of those making the comments.

At the January 26 Commissioners’ meeting, this issue was raised again and the section of the Sunshine Law regarding public comment was read aloud to the three commissioners. A request was made for the commissioners to adhere to the Sunshine Laws of the Commonwealth.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Commissioner Hall was asked, under his tenure as chairman, would the meetings be conducted within the mandates of the Sunshine Law. He responded that he was quite familiar with the Sunshine Law and that the foregoing reading of it was ‘your interpretation.’ He further stated that he would check with his ‘solicitor’ (Meagher) about the law.

It will be a very sad day in Susquehanna County when the opinion of a county solicitor can decide on whether or not the laws of the Commonwealth should be obeyed.

At a Candidates’ Forum in April, 2011, then-Candidate Hall, ran on a platform which included “getting these meetings opened back up... We’ve got to get public input. We’ve got to serve the public instead of having the public serve us...” I agree, Chairman Hall. Let’s start by obeying the Sunshine Laws.

Sincerely,

Bruce Paskoff

Montrose, PA

What do these 2 cities have in common? They each had a doctor with similar and different lives. They looked into human bodies. One with a glass window, one with ultrasound.

In Prairie du Chien, WI, there lived a Dr. William Beaumont, a U.S. Army Dr. at Ft. Crawford. In the late 1820’s he inserted a glass window into the side of an army soldier who had a large hole in his side that would not heal. Dr. Beaumont viewed how the digestive juices reacted on food; the results greatly explained the purpose of a stomach. Ft. Crawford also had wrongly held the great chief Blackhawk imprisoned there. Prairie du Chien is also noted for 2 French explorers who traveled down the Wisconsin River in 1673 to reach the great Mississippi River, Fr. Marquette, S.J. and Louis Joliet.

In New York City there lived a Dr. Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician and a gynecologist. Dr. Nathanson is noted for being very pro-abortion and later to becoming very pro-life. He performed or presided over 70,000 abortions. He helped in finding NARAL and being instrumental to sway the Supreme Court to enact the “Roe v. Wade” case that said that an unborn baby is not a human life, or words to that meaning.

Later on Dr. Nathanson decided to look at an ultrasound of an abortion. He was shocked at what he saw and realized how wrong he was. He narrated and made 2 videos - the “Silent Scream” and “Eclipse of Reason.” He also wrote books about how bad abortion is. Read “The Hand of God.”

Dr. Nathanson converted to the Catholic faith before his death.

Sincerely,

Bruce Moorhead

Susquehanna, PA

They're as interesting as a railroad timetable and have as much substance as a Ken and Barbie conversation. What are they? The Republican debates. But you knew that.

What you may not know is that there have been two dozen of them with another dozen on the horizon. Plenty of time to dodge crucial issues and to dwell on the peripherals: gay marriages, abortion, exchanging scandals, contraception and, of course, war on Iran. It's like worrying about a sink full of unwashed dishes while the house is burning down.

What should be aired are problems that this nation is awash in and solutions in which there is a dearth. For starters, How about disengaging from the two senseless wars we started before talking about starting another senseless war this one in Iran? Then... take a meat cleaver to the military budget.

The military's allowance is $700 billion a year plus $30 billion for off-budget black ops. Lopping off $100 billion would still be 57 percent more than the next ten biggest military spenders and eight of those ten nations are our allies. If we consider the U.S.’s two potential enemies in that top ten, it would be 650 percent more than China and Russia combined.

Next, swing that cleaver down on the federal budget.

Eliminate the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And what in the world are we doing with the Bureau of Indian Affairs established in 1824? And put the thousands of other departments and programs and subsidies and earmarks and grants that litter the federal budget on the butcher's block.

Abandon Empire America.

The military has 1,000 bases in 130 nations circling the globe. Half a century after WW II there are 269 bases in Germany, 124 in Japan, and 87 in South Korea. Why? They are more than able to defend themselves.

Our own military budget, with its atrociously extravagant spending is our worst enemy; it is bankrupting the nation.

The other enemy bleeding the budget white is entitlements, mainly Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security.

It might seem anachronistic in these post-Constitution times to point out that both medical care programs are un-Constitutional. When Lyndon Johnson created Medicare and Medicaid in 1968 he destroyed the free market in medical care. Competition in a free market results in the best product at the lowest price. Government interference in medical care has resulted in poorer quality at a higher price.

Medicare and Medicaid cost an out-of-control $724 billion every year. Progressively eliminating these programs would be ideal; reform is second best.

Looking for a perfectly fair health care system is like searching for Shanghai-La, neither exists. But what we had before 1968 worked as well as possible.

As for the extra-Constitutional Social Security program, it's the world's biggest Ponzi scheme. It, too, at more than $700 billion/year should be eliminated by degrees or lacking that, radically reformed.

Next, put America's dysfunctional system of taxation under the guillotine’s blade.

It started in 1913 with four pages. Since then it has ballooned in size and complexity to 72,000 pages that no one understands. For this we pay the IRS $13 billion a year. Go to a sales tax, or a value-added tax, or a flat tax. Anything to get the IRS off our backs and out of our lives.

Lastly, jobs.

How, exactly do we go about repatriating jobs and putting a tourniquet around the outsourcing of manufacturing? How can fair trade replace free trade? How can the U.S. compete with coolie wages in China, slave laborers in Indonesia, and child workers in India?

The European PIGS - a fitting acronym for Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain - have all taken the necessary, unpopular measures to bring socialization under control. But the U.S. just keeps raising the debt ceiling and spends on.

Let's face it; we're little better than the PIGS. The party's over, but the candidates are still wearing party hats and blowing their own horns. The debates have degenerated in to a popularity contest, a political American Idol. We had better start at least talking about those tough decisions that should - that must - be made and made soon.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA