S-R slant disgusting

Why don’t you and your employees that run your Republican newspaper just call it “The I hate Obama Review”?

You just love printing any degrading cartoon or editorial against our president you can. I didn’t see you printing a cartoon picture of Bush calling him a “liar” when he said there were “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, which was the biggest lie you could tell the nation to start an unnecessary and senseless war.

And to let you know, your paper is in the same lowest form of sleazy journalism as Fox News when the Affordable Care Act was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and you turn it around immediately and call it a “mandate on taxes” (just like Fox News did). Congratulations, Spokesman-Review, your newspaper is getting as sleazy as anything Rupert Murdoch prints or airs on television.

Your paper disgusts me.

Charles T. Bowman

Spokane

Fan of health reform

I am a fan of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, as (like many Americans) I think it is well past time for us to join the ranks of civilized nations whose citizens all have access to care.

While I realize that the mandate is difficult for some to swallow, that is the critical piece that allows for coverage of everyone, including people with previously existing conditions.

I will listen to Mitt Romney and others when their plan to overturn Obamacare includes a reasonable way to pay for their version of affordable health care.

Jeff Ellingson

Liberty Lake

Lower costs, higher quality

I would like to comment on your June 29 editorial, “Cost-control must be next in reforming health care.” While I fully agree with you that “revision not repeal is the best way forward,” I think that the June 24 guest column by Scott Armstrong, “Health innovation region’s hallmark,” made it more clear how savings can be achieved in the health care arena.

In that column, higher quality is paradoxically linked to lower cost. But think about it: If a doctor has more information about his patients, he can increase the quality of his service by making preventive care recommendations, avoiding hospitalizations and possibly emergency visits.

While “being surgical about spending” can sound scary, lowering the cost through higher quality could be a slogan that on the local, state and national level will motivate cooperation.

Peter C. Dolina

Veradale

Hold Holder accountable

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s death and other crimes committed with “fast and furious” guns, may not be able to be charged with conspiracy, but he should be held accountable under “reckless disregard” and prosecuted.

A $1,000 fine for contempt of Congress is laughable. Young people, jail inmates and others seeing “good ’ol boys” committing crimes and then letting one another off the hook with executive privilege get a bad impression that perpetuates crime and shady behavior in American life.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”? All the stones might just as well be on Mars. Now, the young and impressionable will always have the opinion that “if the attorney general can get away with it, then I’m not gonna worry about it either.”

What’s happened to this nation?

Robert L. Wimp

Spokane

Mayor wrong about police

I’m having a hard time wondering why the mayor of Spokane would ask “embattled” Frank Straub to come lead the Spokane Police Department. Oh! I think I know why! He wants a “metro” police department because we all know bigger is better! Not!

In case the mayor missed it, the citizens living in Spokane voted no for creating a metro police force several years ago. The voters know they will get a further reduction in services with this type of policing model. This silent majority also knows their force has great women and men on it who fight daily to keep Spokane citizens safe from a growing criminal element, and they don’t want to share these officers with the rest of Spokane County.

Since the mayor feels interim police Chief Scott Stephens isn’t qualified to be chief, then perhaps he needs to call retired Chief Terry Mangan and ask him to come out of retirement to lead the department.

When Terry left, the SPD was one of the premier police departments in the nation! That can happen again, but not with an embattled candidate!

Tom Stanton

Deer Park

Obamacare will overwhelm

Several years ago, I concluded more than 16 years of employment focused on recruiting health care professionals at Deaconess Medical Center. Quality health care people were extremely hard to find then and they remain hard to find today.

If Obamacare becomes effective in 2014, as projected, there will be a serious shortage of qualified people available to fill the job openings. And this includes doctors. The harsh reality is fewer health care professionals will be available to provide the care for a hugely expanded population eligible for and demanding such care.

The result will be a reduction in the quality of care provided to you and to me here in Spokane. A specific manifestation of this reduced quality includes more competition for routine doctor appointments, specialists, lab work, hospital beds, overworked/stressed caregivers, etc.

Why hasn’t the left side of the political equation, the authors of Obamacare, provided meaningful answers? Or have they even considered the staffing side of health care implementation?

Gordon Spunich

Spokane Valley

No lightning rods, please

When I read in the July 3 Spokesman-Review that the mayor encouraged the public safety director from Indianapolis to apply for our job here in Spokane, I was reminded of my school district in Toppenish in the early 1970s.

It was looking for a superintendent that would be tough, one that was wrangling with the community and teachers. Well, that’s exactly what it got. After two years of total disruption, he was on his way out and the district was actually looking for someone who could work with people.

The same scenario has been played over and over again in school districts and police forces. Please, mayor, do us a favor and find someone who commands respect rather than one who is described as a “lightning rod.”

Bruce Embrey

Spokane

Advertise your allegiance

Our political system and the so-called watchdogs (media) are so cozy; they can’t see the forest for the trees.

Why would you elect someone with one goal in mind, themselves? Of late (and probably has been going on for years), the people that run for office in our interest do not seem to understand what our interests are. Nor do they care. Yet we elect and re-elect them over and over.

The unwritten quest is to run and last at least five years, and then you are set for life (pension and health care). We have many nondescript congresspersons, but we see only the showoffs that court television with idiotic sound bites. It seems that the sole purpose of getting elected is to be the opposition on everything without initiating or co-sponsoring any bills for the benefit of society (the American Legislative Exchange Council does the work).

In the aftermath of Citizens United, it appears that Congress is for sale. I often admired the dress of NASCAR drivers that identified their sponsors. Perhaps the time has come to require members of Congress to adopt and publicly wear similar outfits, while on the job, to inform the public of their allegiance.

Edward Thomas Jr.

Spokane