Published: September 05, 2008 05:16 pm            

In Your View — 09/07/08

Pickens Plan offers genuine solutions

When an oilman and environmentalists agree, you know the momentum for real change is building.

Yet that is just what is happening. In Denver this week, Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens and Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope talked about the Pickens Plan, which calls for huge increases in investment and production of wind power and using American natural gas as a transition.

In a recent ad publicizing the plan, Pickens says the current debate over drilling “misses the point.” As a Sierra Club member, I concur. The current political emphasis on whether or not to open up more of the coastline to drilling is a distraction, a “head fake.” Pickens, who has made billions from oil, believes the Bush administration is wildly exaggerating how much oil can be found offshore and in Alaska.

The failed policies of the past won't move us forward. True economic opportunity for all Americans is in clean energy technologies like wind and solar. Even T. Boone Pickens understands that. The question is when will our leaders in Washington?

Joseph Palmer, Ashland



State audits never assume anything

A recent editorial in your newspaper gave an account of former Boyd County Clerk Doris Hollan’s 2006 audit from the perspective of her attorney. As Kentucky state auditor, let me explain the audit so your readers may better understand our role and the role Ms. Hollan played in the process.

Kentucky law requires the auditor to annually audit the books of the county clerk and to report those results in writing.

The 2006 audit found Ms. Hollan expended $62,171 more than her office received during 2006. The clerk collected this money in taxes but failed to turn it over to the fiscal court as required by law. The unpaid obligations to the fiscal curt included $25,108 in ad valorem tax and $29,725 in deed transfer tax.

Ms. Hollan was given an opportunity to respond to the audit. Our auditors included a seven-page appendix submitted by Ms. Hollan, in addition to her responses after each finding in the audit, which can be viewed at www.auditor.ky.gov.

In the audit, Ms. Hollan says the deficit was caused by increased personnel-related expenditures and a large lease payment for computer equipment, which the previous clerk obligated the office.

Ms. Hollan acknowledges she should have monitored the expenditures during the year and notified the Boyd County Fiscal Court in a timely manner so the court could have decided either to appropriate additional funds or require expenditures be reduced.

Our audits never assume anything. We present our findings based on government auditing standards.

Our goal is to hold public officials accountable to the taxpayers based on the standards established for proper financial management. This was the goal when auditing the county clerk in the past and it will be our goal for future audits.

Crit Luallen, Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts



Impeach Congress not the president

Who do those who continue to cry for the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney think they are? It’s too late for that now.

If you want to impeach someone, impech Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and others.

Why not impeach the whole bunch in the House of Representatives and Senate — both Democrats and Republicans — and get rid of some of the mess in Washington, D.C.? Member of Congress draw big salaries, lots of perks, long vacationing, etc. — all while we foot the bill.

It is a shameful farce that all of them in Washington do so little while the U.S.A. goes down the tube?

Call all the incumbents home and let them see how the poor live. It’s time the people we elect experienced our misery. Let them see how the poor live.

Joe T. Alley, Ashland



Want to stay in Iraq? Vote McCain

In regards Randall Mitchell’s Aug. 28 letter, Barack Obama didn’t vote to ban guns for self defense. Obama has said he’s only interested in upholding laws that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally unstable people.

I believe the losses of civil liberties in other areas such as illegal phone and e-mail taps are just as important. If you believe we should restart the draft and stay in Iraq for 100 years, privatize Social Security and continue the huge tax breaks to big oil companies that leave the U.S. for cheaper labor, John McCain is your man.

One last thought: A 72 year old man who’s had two bouts with cancer wants someone who was mayor of a town of 7,000 and governor of Alaska for two years to be a heartbeat away from being president.

C. Wayne Tipton, Ashland



Obama is rated the most liberal

Barack Obama is rated the most liberal senator. His running mate, Joe Biden, rates third most liberal (Ted Kennedy rates second).

Obama boasts of a 100 percent voting record with Planned Parenthood and NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League). He’s co-sponsor of the “Freedom of Choice Act” which would remove all limitations on abortions including parental notification of minors receiving abortions.

The “Born Alive Infant Protection Act” is what brands Senator Obama as the most pro-abortion. It requires medical treatment for infants who survive an abortion. Obama voted against the bill when it came before him in the Illinois legislature. President Bush signed it into law in 2002.

At a recent forum, Senator Obama was asked, “At what point should a baby be given rights as a human being?” He replied, “That’s above my pay grade.”

If not at conception when would he give a baby rights?

Glenda Wellman Conn, Ashland



He didn’t change, but the party did

In an Aug. 27 letter, Christina Gilgor of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance praised the Democratic Platform Committee for including such things as opposition to the “Defense of Marriage Act,” support for security in adoption rights for all (read "same-sex') caring parents, and inclusion of same-sex couples in its description of family.

If Christina thinks that such a direction reflects mainstream Kentucky values, she’s mistaken. Precious few of the many Kentucky Democrats I know reflect the warped values reflected by the Democratic Platform Committee. I wonder how many are even aware of this ungodly left-wing bias within their party.

I used to be a registered Democrat. I didn't change, but the party which I once favored now indicates my moral values are quaint and old fashioned. Maybe so, but I’d rather find myself on the side of the King James Version than those of the Democratic Party line.

Dan Long, Hitchins

        

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