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8/26/2015

If only the commercials for politicians had to follow the same side effect disclosure rules of pharmaceutical commercials.  Instead of “Viagra: It will help men get and keep an erection…” we might have something like “Vote for or donate to this politician. It may help large donors get and keep influence. Size (of donation) matters! Warning: Once elected, your politician may never give up office. Rules are such that voting out incumbents is rare and unlikely. Rules made by politicians often do not necessarily apply to those in office. If you are older than 55, you are likely to die before your elected official willingly leaves office. Normally, less than 50 percent of campaign promises are kept in the first or later terms. Expect budget deficits greater than $15 trillion. Future generations will be expected to pay the debt accumulated. No statistical difference in these side effects seem related to party affiliation. Check with your constitution before attempting to support any politician or deciding how to vote.”

Mike Rowley
-Clive

Hatred for a class of people
Donald Trump has unveiled his immigration policies. With 25 percent of the Republican registered voters agreeing with Trump, we hope everyone will consider the consequences of such policies. How does Trump intend to make Mexico pay the full cost of a 2,000-mile border wall? How does he intend to pay for increased border agents as well as new agents charged with rounding up 11 million undocumented immigrants? Where are those captured immigrants to be detained while waiting for deportation? Will more prisons need to be built? Will more judges need to be sworn into office? If legal immigrants are captured, will they have access to public defenders? After trials, how are the convicted to be transported to their country of origin? Will there be citizens arrested who are helping hide those without proper paperwork? Where is this country going with this hatred of whole classes of people? We all need to examine what are American values.

Julie Stewart Ziesman
-Waukee

Stop the regurgitation
I understand “war sells newspapers,” but you’d think TV, radio and print media across the country would be more responsible than in 2002-03 when they simply regurgitated every piece of misinformation about WMD (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq, leaked to Judith Miller and published by the New York Times.  Former diplomats, a group of 35 generals and admirals, 304 American rabbis, 29 leading nuclear scientists, as well as co-signatory allies France, Britain and Germany are all supporting the international deal to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.  So why aren’t our news sources doing stories on them and lining up for interviews? Because instead, we get opinions from neoconservatives at the American Enterprise Institute, Republicans and Benjamin Netanyahu, who all want to kill the deal. Remember them? Those are the exact same people who were dead wrong about everything Iraq and most gung ho to go to war. I find nothing attractive about wrong and hope national media, including Gannett’s newspapers like The Des Moines Register, will at least present differing views this time around.

CNA - Stop HIV Iowa

Tim Facto
-Des Moines

CORRECTION: In the Aug. 20 edition of Food Dude, it was reported that Cindy Barnes-Stone and Ron Biondi are the owners of The Beerhouse. That is incorrect. The current owners are Nick Kuhn and Kristi Cobb.

2 Comments

  1. Dennis Trollope says:

    Why is it that those people who fight change are the first to criticize that nothing is being done?

  2. Les Aasheim says:

    In the August 27- September 2 edition of City View, the article on Cityview’s Ultimate Pizza Challenge, a history of this Des Moines favorite was given. A number of places were included, but I would add Corso’s Pizza in West Des Moines to the list

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