It was a fairly pleasant day as we drove toward Highway 410 on Mud Mountain Road. Rounding the corner just before the area where Mount Peak hikers park, I grabbed the dash at the sight of a small white car coming over the hill straight at us! The driver was passing two cars on a curve in the road. “She’s going to hit us head on,” I yelled to my husband who by then was heading toward the ditch to miss the oncoming car. The young woman glared angrily at us as she sped by, barely missing us.

Once we recovered from our near head-on collision, my husband said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you what happened the other day. A man was behind me on Mud Mountain Road. He rode my bumper for what seemed like forever. Then he sped up and went around me so fast he almost lost control, nearly hitting an old man on a bicycle!”

I reminded him of the sad incidents on that road when people were killed. Very sadly, one young man hit a tree! We too have a son, and our hearts ache at the thought of how much pain his parents must be in.

We travel Mud Mountain Road every day and way too often people speed on it. Years ago it may have been just a beautiful country road. But these days it is fairly busy. Every day (and even after dark), we see people bicycling, walking or jogging. There is not much of a shoulder on many parts of the road and we often find someone very suddenly after rounding one of the many curves. We have seen deer, cows, horses, goats and pigs on the road, too. Hitting an animal does not bother some people, however, hitting a person would be an entirely different story that would affect their lives for years to come.

We sincerely wish drivers would slow down and be more careful. We can’t imagine anything more heartbreaking for a family, than to lose a precious family member in an accident that could easily have been avoided. Please be careful and respect yourself, as well as others.

The DeSisto Family

Enumclaw

Writer takes offense to criticism

I feel compelled to write after reading Ms. R. June Thornton’s letter to the editor in the Dec. 3 Courier- Herald.

Ms. Thornton took the opportunity to criticize me and the length of my letters. I think it is because she doesn’t like what I say. Ms. Thornton obviously fancies herself as a legal scholar since she made accusations that I libeled President-elect Obama and made comments on The Courier-Herald’s legal right to refuse to print my letters. I don’t know what institution of higher learning that Ms. Thornton received her law degree, but she may want to go back there and get her money back because they really misinformed her.

I am not an attorney, but I know that truth is not libel (or slander). So, when I say that President-elect Obama hung out with a known domestic terrorist, that is the truth. I also know that since President-elect Obama is a public figure, he has very little (if any) recourse through libel/slander laws. This is why the National Star newspaper can run a story about a public figure giving birth to alien twins. Everyone knows it is a patently false story, but it is speech protected by the First Amendment. I will give Ms Thornton credit for knowing the difference between libel and slander.

Of course, in true liberal form, Ms. Thornton implores The Courier-Herald to not print letters in excess of 300 words. Obviously she is afraid of views that are different than hers. She wants The Courier-Herald to protect her and other readers from my tirades. One that would ask a third party to protect her and others from speech that she disagrees with will have no problem in asking the government to protect her from other people’s speech. Obviously she has no respect for the First Amendment. If you don’t like what I say, don’t read my letters. Trust me, there will be more in the future.

I will end my letter, in hopes that it is no longer than 300 words. After all, I don’t want Frau Thorntonfurher to petition her beloved Democrat Congress to pass laws to hush me up.

J. Buss

Enumclaw

Time is ripe for patriots

to rise up

Those who ardently favored the massive bailout, tried in vain to have it reported as a “rescue.” But even that term would have drawn angry Americans to the conclusion that it isn’t they who were being rescued; it was the fat cats on Wall Street and elsewhere who would benefit.

Bailout proponents would be hard pressed to find any member of Congress who could claim that his constituents favored the measure. One New Jersey House member of Congress stated that messages he received were running about 50-50. He clarified: “50 said ‘no,’ and 50 said, ‘hell no!’”

The genesis of the financial meltdown can be traced to federal legislation over recent decades. A flurry of laws approved by Democrat and Republican presidents required banks to grant mortgages to people who couldn’t afford to make the payments. The process got to the point where people living on unemployment and welfare checks became eligible for a mortgage. Not to comply with these asinine laws would mean trouble for bankers who tried to refuse. Of course, most didn’t refuse because the federal government promised to bail them out.

The House barely defeated the initial three-page, $700 billion measure. But, only a few days later, after a round of arm-twisting and outright bribery, 58 members changed their vote in favor of an even worse measure filling 400 pages. Pork barrel sweetners, mostly in the form of tax breaks, got added and the final bill for U.S. taxpayers will total $812 billion. Who got these breaks? Wool producers, TV production companies, NASCAR racetrack owners, rum producers, wooden arrow makers.

Consider this: The House of Representatives voted “no” on a measure that would cost $700 billion. Then, 58 “no” members changed to “yes” and approved a new measure that will cost at least $812 billion. Obviously, some of those who switched did so because the original measure wasn’t enough.

In the midst of this ongoing travesty, the National Debt Clock in New York’s Time Square actually broke down. Only able to report 13 digits (up to $9.9 trillion), this privately-owned display has to be reconfigured so it can report that the U.S. government is now more than $10 trillion in debt. It will be up and running soon again. But even if it reports only the admitted indebtedness. If unfunded obligations for Social Security, Medicare, etc. are added (as they should be), the true indebtedness totals more than $50 trillion.

The burden of the indebtedness will be shouldered by hard-working and worried Americans who didn’t cause the problem. It amounts to what should be called, “Reverse Robin Hood.” Recall that Robin stole from the rich to give to the poor. Congress and President Bush – with Fed Chairman Bernanke at their side – have arranged to steal from the poor and middle class to give to the rich Wall Streeters and others. Now you know why Wall Street moguls send so much money to candidates for office.

This absolutely horrible bailout should have many Americans searching hard for something to do about the terrible leadership our country is enduring. So let’s convert this huge lemon into a large glass of sweet lemonade by steering properly incensed Americans into the John Birch Society. Onward and upward all you patriots! The time is ripe for JBS to grow into the force America desperately needs.

Edwin “Stormy” Storm

Enumclaw