Really lame?
In today’s Record-Bee (02-17116) a Letter to the Editor stated that a poll showed that 51 percent of Republicans believed in the “false” claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and horror of horrors, if they got their news from Fox it was 52 percent. Interestingly, the number of Democrats polled, if they were, was not mentioned. It makes no difference what one’s political persuasion is, one must recognize Fox’s bias on the Conservative side and CNN’s bias on the Liberal side.
For the record, chemical weapons and poison gas are weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, ask the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south whether or not Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Incidentally, most of the world’s intelligence agencies believed Saddam was working on the development of nuclear weapons. After his capture, Saddam bragged to his FBI interrogators that he wanted to foster that suspicion as an intimidation for his enemy, Iran.
Peter MacRae, Lakeport
In justice
I think it is absolutely proper for the President to exercise his obligation to the country and present a candidate to fulfill the present vacancy in the Supreme Court as soon as possible. It is the proper thing to do regardless of the conservative uproar and I feel it would add to the information available to the voters in the up coming election.
Sadly though, it is the responsibility of the Senate to schedule the processing of the candidate and the approval vote at their convenience there will probably will be little, if any action! Not something new, there are apparently at least 100 of Mr. Obama’s presented candidates for judicial openings that the Senate has chosen not to pursue over the past years — a fact voters should be aware of.
Guff Worth, Lakeport
A torturous opinion
I watched the 8th Republican debate where the primary candidates discussed waterboarding. This was Ted Cruz’s opinion.
“MUIR: So Senator Cruz, you have said, quote, “torture is wrong, unambiguously, period. Civilized nations do not engage in torture.” Some of the other candidates say they don’t think waterboarding is torture. Mr. Trump has said, I would bring it back. Senator Cruz, is waterboarding torture?
CRUZ: Well, under the definition of torture, no, it’s not. Under the law, torture is excruciating pain that is equivalent to losing organs and systems, so under the definition of torture, it is not. It is enhanced interrogation, it is vigorous interrogation, but it does not meet the generally recognized definition of torture.”
This was the definition John Yoo (George W. Bush’s legal council) used to defend the use of waterboarding during George W’s term. This disturbs me because under US Code Title 18 I see:’ “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control’
Under title 18 pulling out someone’s fingernails with a pair of pliers would be torture. According to Ted Cruz it would not be. Ted Cruz is a lawyer. He worked in the Supreme Court as a law clerk. Is he suddenly not cognizant of US law?
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
Get serious
If the BOS is serious about mitigating the amount of nutrient loading in Clear Lake, another consideration should be to declare the hills in Nice, Lucerne, Clearlake Oaks and Cow Mountain as legally protected watersheds. The Middle Creek, Robinson Lake restoration project is not the only area that needs mitigation from sediment and nutrient loading.
For years the hills in Nice, Lucerne and Clearlake Oaks have suffered serious soil erosion from unabated environmentally disrespectful dirt bike riders. It seems that everyone in Lake County deems it necessary to own a dirt bike with the attitude that its their god given right to scar up the land and destroy the environment or private property.
The county’s response to this problem has always been that its private property and its the owners responsibility to fence and post no trespassing signs to get law enforcement involved. Most of the hills in these areas are paper subdivisions and the owners are absentee, so that’s unlikely to happen.
However, there are some responsible owners that do try to protect their property, but fencing is continually cut down and no trespassing signs are ignored and it’s becoming an ongoing battle.
It’s logical to me that the county should have the authority to declare these hills a legally protected water shed while still leaving them in private hands. Many other counties in California do have protected watersheds.
Some additional concerns for the county should be the prevention in dry summer months of serious grass fires taking place in these hills from a dirt bike with no spark arrestor or the hot muffler of a dropped dirt bike. If this county experiences any wildfires from negligent dirt bike riders county officials need be held accountable for letting these hazardous fire conditions to continue unabated.
The LCSO now has street legal dirt bikes that could effectively enforce such an ordinance when visible violations or complaints are reported. Some occasional patrols in the hills during the weekends could discourage these violations. Most of the dirt bike riders at Pyle road in Nice are staged and unloaded at the base of the hills. That should make it easy for the enforcement officers to cite violators in that area.
This mentality that anything goes in Lake County especially with dirt bike riders needs to stop and Lake County needs the legal tools to address this degradation of our environment.
Thomas Nickel, Lakeport
