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Letters to the Editor

Despite the recent election it seems as though it is business as usual in Washington: Play politics and don't worry about what the country wants or needs. This can only mean one thing: Most of the people with power in Washington have been there too long and have simply lost touch with reality.

Less ideology, more real change

Despite the recent election it seems as though it is business as usual in Washington: Play politics and don't worry about what the country wants or needs. This can only mean one thing: Most of the people with power in Washington have been there too long and have simply lost touch with reality.

We saw that a grassroots campaign can work, but the tea-party movement is too far right and living too much in the days of an agricultural economy. Instead, how about an initiative from the middle that targets long-term, set-in-their-ways Washington legislators and not ideology? The goal would be to remove those on both sides of the aisle who have overstayed their welcome with new faces from the center who would also sign off on serving a limited number of terms. We would lose a few good people, but overall it would bring a fresh new atmosphere to our government.

The tea-party movement has made us more partisan, and what we need is the opposite, with new faces to implement real change.

John Moore

New Britain

johnsmoore@verizon.net

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Billions can't be spent overnight

One reason Americans can't seem to find consensus on anything related to the effectiveness of government is that many people lack a basic understanding of how government works.

The letter "Don't confuse TARP, stimulus" (Nov. 17) cites President Obama's comment about there being no such thing as a "shovel-ready project" as evidence that the stimulus package was some sort of scam. The comment was merely a reflection of the fact that construction on a project cannot start within days just because money becomes available. It takes weeks or even months to get a project off the ground once funding is provided. Major construction projects require a public bidding process as well as necessary permits. The major projects awarded stimulus money were fully designed and ready to be bid to contractors.

The comment the letter writer alludes to wasn't an admission that stimulus money was wasted. It was a reminder that billions of dollars for construction work cannot be spent overnight.

Sheth Jones

Philadelphia

sheth79@verizon.net

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Crime predictions often off the mark

It is with predictable, reliable ignorance that The Inquirer opposes Gov. Rendell's signing of the "castle doctrine" bill ("Veto this bill," Thursday). When state after state started passing concealed-carry laws in the 1990s, gun-control advocates - led by their generals in the media - predicted that blood would run in the streets, that fender-benders would escalate into shoot-outs, that we'd see the return of the Wild West. None of this happened. In fact, crime decreased substantially during that time period. When the assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, the editorial pundits predicted an explosion of violence. Yet violence did not increase.

Given the track record of The Inquirer and others on this issue, your editorial opposing the "castle doctrine" is perhaps one of the strongest arguments for it.

Chris Pollar

Newtown

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Look elsewhere on deficit problem

Why does the deficit commission include fixes to Social Security in its plans when the retirement program does not affect the deficit ("Report: Raising retirement age hurts poor," Friday)? The same question could be asked of the conservative politicians who rail against the effect of Social Security obligations on the future deficit.

Social Security is uncoupled from deficit accounting because - by law - it is self-funded. What is paid in is what is used to cover Social Security benefits.

Mark Friedman

Merion

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Don't waste court building

I applaud Father John P. McNamee for his article "Diminishing Family Court - and the people who use it" (Nov. 16). He made excellent points about the beauty of the current Family Court structure and the many advantages of its design.

As I read the recent articles about the millions of dollars already wasted on the new Family Court project, I was surprised, not by the inept handling of the project, but that there was no thought to renovating the existing building. Anybody with any common sense understands that buildings such as this one are rare and should be preserved.

If and when the new Family Court building is ever constructed, this building will be left to slowly deteriorate to the point that it is a hazard and taxpayers will eventually be forced to renovate it anyway. I hope that before more money is wasted, our politicians do as McNamee has suggested and start focusing on renewal, refurbishment, and expansion of the existing Family Court building.

Stephen Carney

Collegeville

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Anger over justice system

Color me naive, but I always believed that the purpose of a trial in our system of justice was to determine guilt or innocence. To John McCain and others on the right, this is a hopelessly discarded notion. A trial, it would seem, is not to weigh evidence to reach a verdict, but to confirm a predetermined outcome. In the recent case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, there is a furor because some believe the "job didn't get done" ("Guilty on just 1 terror charge," Thursday). I guess a guilty verdict with life imprisonment does not satisfy the crowd that seemingly wants either to do away with trials altogether or to guarantee the result first.

James F. Davis

Gulph Mills