Letters To The Editor

Is the UAW Running The USA?
Editor, Times-Dispatch: On May 19, the president summoned automobile executives from around the world to come to Washington to hear his announcement of the new U.S. auto fuel consumption and emissions standards. The Rose Garden setting was quite impressive, as the 10 top world auto producers gathered to hear the details of the program.

Included in the group: EPA Director Lisa Jackson, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, other notables including governors from various states, and Ron Gettelfinger, president of the UAW. As the cameras focused on the scene, all were standing in their predetermined spots, awaiting the arrival of the president. Just to the right of the podium and in front of everyone else stood Gettelfinger.

As the president approached the microphone, Gettelfinger got a special acknowledgement with a pat on the shoulder. When the speech was over, who was the first to receive a handshake from President Obama? Ron Gettelfinger!

It will be interesting to watch the recovery of the U.S. automobile industry under the direction of Ron Gettelfinger and President Obama.

Gene Puckett.
Midlothian.

TARP, cap-and-trade, stimulus, budgets that defy the understanding of the word, takeovers, bailouts, thousands of pages of legislation that nobody reads but that is voted into law anyway -- the ongoing nightmare careens down the road toward the abyss at breakneck speed. We may no longer have a war on terror, but the war on sanity rages.

This country is presently on a course to either burn to the ground or sink into obscurity as a result of government's reckless actions. China is buying up critical resources and is set on the path to become the world's leading superpower. We can only hope it doesn't call in our debts. If we allow ourselves to become merely one nation among many, this great experiment called the United States will perish. Is this the goal of our leaders? Is there any common sense left in Washington? It is time for the citizens to reclaim our country. We cannot be content to slow the present course, we must reverse it. If our elected officials refuse to undertake this mandate, they must be expunged from office. Our security, prosperity, and individual freedoms depend upon it.

Dianne Flynn.
Glen Allen.

The petition says, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse environmental gases of the Earth, is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth." The petition was promoted by the late Dr. Frederick Seitz. Seitz's honors and positions include: president of the National Academy of Science, USA, and president of Rockefeller University. The contention that human activity causes global warming is absolutely unsustainable scientifically.

Dr. S. Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, explains in his book, Unstoppable Global Warming, that global warming is a natural phenomenon, which has occurred over the millennia in roughly 1,500-year cycles. Science shows no human involvement in these changes. As Dr. Vaclav Klaus, eminent scientist and president of the Czech Republic, says in his book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles: "science has long left the issue and it has become political."

Consequently, it is a dangerous mistake to adopt the politically promoted contention that human-produced carbon dioxide is causing climate change and to establish laws based on the hypothesis. Such laws as are proposed would be disastrous to our economy. For the well-being of our country, the ill-conceived cap-and-trade legislation should not be passed.

Robert H. Moore.
Richmond.