Ayotte’s Stance
I’ve read with some frustration Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s insistence that the “American people have the right” to decide the next Supreme Court nominee. I will admit I did not vote for Obama in 2012. But the “American people” did by a healthy majority. So which “American people” are you referring to, senator? You sound like one of Mitch McConnell’s parrots!
When your office responded to me last year after I thanked you for voting against the “Monsanto Protection Act,” the response stated that your decision was in part due to the fact that “not enough” money was taken out of SNAP benefits. Seriously? That’s it? You wanted more than the $36 it’s costing me to help folks not to starve?
Truly, I don’t believe you know how to decide independently. I can’t believe, as a registered Republican, I’m saying this, but you’ve lost my vote. We need to send you packing.
Daniel Moore
Grafton
What Biden Really Said
I am tired of reading and hearing people erroneously cite one part of what Vice President Biden said in 1992. In doing so, a speaker attempts to disguise the partisan reality of the Republican Party’s decision to not hold hearings for President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
The partial Biden quote is not an accurate description of Biden’s views on the subject, then or now. In that same statement from 1992, Biden urged the Senate and White House to work together to overcome partisan differences to ensure the court functions as the founders of our country intended. Misrepresenting Biden’s meaning is fraudulent and cynical.
Ellen Bettmann
Etna
Ayotte Is Right
I will be right up front. I support Kelly Ayotte for re-election to the Senate. I want to discuss her position on the selection of a candidate to fill the vacant seat caused by the tragic death of Justice Scalia.
First, the Constitution does not specify when a nomination must be made or when a hearing and a vote must be taken. So, can we get past the ridiculous charge that Sen. Ayotte is “not doing her job” or is “ignoring the Constitution?”
Second, we all are aware (or should be) of past situations when the shoe was on the other foot and the Democrats took the same position.
The Supreme Court vacancy poses a number of serious questions that people here in New Hampshire should consider. What direction do we want our country to take for the next several decades? What sort of person should serve on the bench of the Supreme Court? What values and qualifications should that individual have?
These questions should be put to the test this November when we elect a new president. President Obama was elected in 2012, and the public returned power of the Senate to Republicans in 2014, so clearly there are some competing ideas about which way the nation should go next.
Let’s not rush through a nominee this close to an election. We should wait until the new president is elected and the American people can weigh in.
Steve Winter
Newbury, N.H.
Avoiding GMOs in Your Food
A comprehensive list of products containing genetically modified organisms can be found with a 10- second Google search.
This Google search comes without photo opportunities for pandering career politicians, no taxpayer-funded lawsuits against mighty corporations, and no private lunches and drinks for politicians paid for by fancy lobbyists. Just a simple but thorough list that consumers can use to protect themselves and their families, if they choose to take the initiative. After studying this list one would think that just about everything we eat is either a genetically modified food or is likely to have been cross-pollinated with GMOs.
From the website substainablepulse.com: “It is interesting to note that 38 countries worldwide have officially banned the cultivation of genetically modified crops and only 28 countries grow them. . . . The picture painted by the biotech industry and the U.S. government that genetically modified crops have been accepted by the majority of countries worldwide is therefore quite obviously wrong.”
It never ceases to amaze me how Vermont’s congressional delegation can smile in front of the camera and with a straight face demand labeling for our foods and then turn around and vote for farm bills that give away huge amounts of our taxpayer dollars in the form of subsidies that benefit Monsanto.
The best and perhaps only way to avoid GMO products is to make arrangements, without the government, to buy from a non-GMO community-supported farm or grow your own non-GMO foods. This logic applies to all the food you eat. Know where it comes from and how it is grown, treated and processed. The purchasing power of your own hard-earned dollars is really the only vote we have left.
Stuart Lindberg
Cavendish, Vt.
Why Legalize Pot in Vermont?
Correct me if I am wrong, but not too many years ago the government preached that the use of marijuana led to the use of harder drugs. Now, the same governments want to legalize the same drug. We hear all the time about the problems of opiate abuse. What has changed about smoking pot? Does it not still lead to the use of harder drugs?
The state indicates it can keep the roads safe. It does well now with alcohol use, doesn’t it? My own (cynical) thought — just another way to raise money for the state to spend.
John M. Fragnella
Tunbridge
Smokers, Profiled
It’s taken decades, but finally we have the first hint of who it is that might smoke. Right there in the March 31 article, “Tobacco Effects, Marketing Focus of Talks,” a retailer profiled a typical cigarette buyer.
Does this mean that a taboo has been broken? I don’t think so; it was probably just an oversight. We in the intelligentsia will continue to enable smokers by saying nothing, class being something that makes Americans very uncomfortable, as you became when you saw that word.
Dick Mackay
Hanover