LETTERS TO THE NEWS-PRESS

12/27/05

Who's afraid of Montecito?

Wow. Ten thousand residents in Montecito paid over $60,000,000 in property taxes for 2005-2006. That is an impressive per capita contribution.

How can Andy Caldwell be upset that Supervisor Salud Carbajal listens to his constituents in Montecito? I would call that nothing more than taxation with representation.

Exactly what is it that little old Montecito is keeping Andy Caldwell and his friends from accomplishing?

It wasn't too many years ago that the county paid little more than lip service to Montecito. Among other things, I remember enterprising architects who discovered that by bypassing the Montecito architectural review board and going directly to the Santa Barbara architectural review board they could typically get what they wanted with less muss and fuss.

At the time, the Santa Barbara politicos were quick to point out that the Montecito ARB was advisory only and had no authority.

It was that attitude that inspired Montecito to consider cityhood. It was put to a vote, and on a fluke, cityhood lost by a small margin. That fluke is for another letter.

I suspect the near miss alerted the Santa Barbara politicos that they needed to pay attention to Montecito or face the real possibility of losing a nice revenue stream.

Montecito more then pays its way, and I, for one, think Mr. Carbajal is prudent in recognizing that reality. Which brings me back to my earlier question: What is it that little old Montecito is keeping Andy Caldwell and his friends from accomplishing?

For the record, I live in Santa Barbara.

Stephen Black

Santa Barbara

Rep. Lois Capps joined six of her fellow California congressmen in voting against protecting the "symbols and traditions of Christmas."

She and her fellow 22 Democrats lost on the resolution by an overwhelming 401-22 vote.

Rep. JoAnn Davis, R.-Va., the resolution's sponsor, said the resolution was necessary to counter "political correctness run amok."

Note: The PC police reside on our nation's college campuses.

Mrs. Capps, unfortunately, has been on the wrong side of a lot of legislation in the past. She usually follows the lead of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, except, in this case, even Ms. Pelosi recognized the political hazards of voting against an issue that 95 percent of Americans would agree on.

Mrs. Capps apparently feels far more confident in her 22nd District constituency.

The resolution was simple: Whereas Christmas is a national holiday celebrated on Dec. 25; and Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment to the Constitution . . . of the nited States would prohibit the establishment of religion, not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog; Now, therefore be it resolved, that the House of Representatives:

(1) Recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;

(2) Strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and

(3) Expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions, for those who celebrate Christmas.

Perhaps Mrs. Capps would like to direct her voters to the part of the resolution that she does not agree? Does she recognize a culture war is occurring throughout the United States?

Donald M. Gallagher

Santa Ynez

On Dec. 15 the House of Representatives passed overwhelmingly, 401-22, a resolution to protect the symbols and traditions of Christmas. Rep. Lois Capps voted with a small minority of secular progressives, including Pete Stark, Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, to oppose recognition of Christmas for what it is, a Christian holiday.

For Mrs. Capps to go on record saying "Merry Christmas" is wrong illustrates her increasing tendency to side with the far left socialist wing of her party in Congress. It is a cruel slap in the face of Santa Barbara's Christian community.

Richard A. Johnson

Santa Barbara

Emperor G.W. Bush is de-constructing. As of Friday, G.W. has 1,123 days left in office, and my hope is that our country survives the remaining days of his regime.

Remember when he ran as a compassionate conservative? The compassion has disappeared and in its place is a desperate man who speaks in double-talk with a pattern of lying, blaming, whining, smirking, ranting and speaking in a condescending manner to the entire world.

This self-proclaimed religious man is reported to be verbally abusive using profane language to those who work under him, which in my view is not the behavior of a compassionate, religious person.

Is it the sign of compassion to reduce the current deficit by cutting spending on Medicare, Medicaid, student loan funding and education, and to reduce money for foster care and other social programs?

At the same time, Congress approved, with Emperor Bush's support, $70 billion in capital gains tax cuts for the rich, and across-the-board pay increases for federal workers, including members of both houses of Congress. Republicans actually increased the federal debt.

On top of this, a $453 billion defense spending bill was passed, minus the amount toward hurricane aid and avian flu preparedness, that equals $420.2 billion for military purposes.

Our federal debt continues to grow and grow as this administration spins out of control. I will continue to count the days.

Dennis Naiman

Santa Barbara

The article "Fungicides: Major tool for county growers" was filled with misinformation and propaganda disguised as objectivity.

The article was based on a report by the Crop Protection Research Institute, which is funded almost entirely by the pesticide industry, including the following companies, as listed on the group's Web site: Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, ISK Biosciences, BASF, AMVAC, Gowan Company, Valent, Cheminova, Arvesta, Bayer CropScience, DuPont, Cerexagri and Nufarm. This is not mentioned in the article.

Instead of reporting on the recent positive link between some of these chemicals and Parkinson's disease resulting from peer-reviewed science, the News-Press decides to publish this group's "research" unchallenged.

Particularly ludicrous was the claim by Richard Quandt, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, who said that spoiled vegetables used to kill people. This would be funny if not for the seriousness of the issue.

Robert Miller

Goleta