From an MSNBC article: “At a small VFW hall in Charlotte, N.C., former President Bill Clinton contemplated a John McCain/Hillary Clinton general election match-up, saying that it would be one between ‘two people who love this country without all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.’”

Are you kidding me? Bill Clinton is obviously trying to paint Sen. Barack Obama as unpatriotic, a theme that Republicans use so often during campaigns. And talk about the issues? Hillary Clinton is too busy with re-votes and criticism of Obama to discuss any real issues. When Bill Clinton talks about “all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics,” is he taking a low blow at Obama or is he speaking about his own presidency and his 1992 run for the White House?

As an independent who has never voted for a Democrat candidate for president and a New Yorker still waiting for Hillary Clinton to fulfill her promises she made during her campaign for New York senator, I hope I get the chance to vote for the only candidate who is actually talking about the issues and making sense: Barack Obama.

Regardless of what candidate people are favoring at this point, my hope is that they are not basing their decisions on 10-second sound bites aired continuously on TV and radio. Instead of feeling “safe” with a candidate because we are familiar with their names, their faces and their poll-based political positions, take some time to listen to entire speeches or complete statements made by a candidate, read a book to discover a person’s beliefs and values and see how each candidate is running their own campaign at this critical time. Do some research and please don’t rely on sound bites to swing your decision.

Step back from all of this media noise, see where we are right now as a nation and see where we need to go from here. After careful thought and analysis, decide who is best suited to get us there. Don’t let talk show hosts, public polls, newspaper endorsements or campaign rhetoric form your opinion. This year, decide for yourself.

—Patrick Sullivan Jamesville

With respect to Ed Griffin-Nolan’s “History Repeats Itself” What’s Shakin’ article in the Feb. 27 issue of The New Times and 1st District Councilor Michael Heagerty’s vote to not designate the Kingsley-True House {also known as the Ronald McDonald House} at 1100 E. Genesee St. as historic, I’d like to point out a few things. 

At a February campaign rally in Cincinnati, a speaker named Bill Cunningham, a radio show host, repeatedly referred to candidate Barack Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama.” Of course, this is Mr. Obama’s full name. 

Much of the country, save for those who watch Fox News and listen to the crazies on talk radio, is now in agreement that George W. Bush has been one of the worst, if not the worst, president in the history of our great nation. Unfortunately, many Democrats and some independents think Sen. Hillary Clinton is the answer to the enormous problems we face both at home and abroad. 

They forget any number of things: that Bill and Hillary’s administration reneged on their promise not to sign NAFTA {North American Free Trade Agreement} without significant environmental or labor reforms; that they pushed for the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which drastically consolidated the media, leading to Clear Channel and the like; and they cleared the obstacles that led to the merger of mega-banks which are now suffering from the mortgage loan crisis. They also pushed for the idiotic “don’t ask, don’t tell” sellout punishing gays in the military. They even conjured up a welfare reform bill that actually hurt poor women and their families and approved a permanent ban on Medicaid funds for poor women seeking abortions to appease the conservative Evangelicals and Tridentine Catholics. Just to name a few calamities.

The coziness between politicians and big business did not start with President Bush. Hillary Clinton may talk about change, but the connections she’s developed over the years with big business, the health industry and media fascists like Rupert Murdoch point to “more of the same,” centrist-right policies. 

Yes, many people will say that nobody can get elected without those ties. But if we are going to reform the way America confronts foreign policy, deals with the health care crises, remedies the enormous divide between the rich and poor as well as the accelerating evaporation of the middle class, the threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of rogue states and outlaw bands, the outsourcing of jobs, the elimination of the progressive income tax, the Israeli/Palestinian question and the countless other problems we face, we need a leader who is beholden to the people and not to the horde of lobbyists from the bowels of K Street. 

Will Hillary raise taxes on those managing hedge funds, i.e., to tax their compensation as normal income (at 35 percent), not capital gains (15 percent)? Some of her advisers represent the wealthiest people in America and she will do what is best for them. Even Warren Buffet agrees that their income should be taxed like the rest of us. Same with Robert Rubin, another guy who knows his way around Wall Street. But very well-heeled lobbyists are out in force to kill the idea and Hillary’s campaign is the recipient of their largess. 

We need someone who is for single-payer universal health care, immediate withdrawal from Iraq, wants to change the tax code so the wealthy pay their fair share, while protecting Social Security and taking the necessary drastic steps to reverse global warming.

Stop listening to the pundits and so-called experts who are part of the problem. They are so synergistically entwined with the politicians they cover and receive enormous benefits from the media moguls who own them; therefore their views cannot be trusted. Independent they are not! Stop watching TV and, most of all, stop listening to talk radio. America has lost its soul and we need a leader who is willing to stand for decency, pluralism, evenhandedness and, most of all, is committed to serve all of the people.

—Gerald R. Lotierzo

Baldwinsville

On Feb. 13, NBC-TV aired an episode of Law and Order that dealt with an officer of the New York Police Department’s Auxiliary Police shooting a gun into a crowd of innocent civilians at a peaceful protest, killing a woman. During the episode, numerous derogatory statements against the Auxiliary Police were said, including calling an Auxiliary officer a “wannabe” and also saying they are not “real cops.”

On behalf of the members of the New York State Association of Auxiliary Police, we feel these statements and this episode are a slap in the face to the Auxiliary police program and a complete disrespect to all Auxiliary officers. Auxiliary officers are volunteers from the local communities, serving without pay. They patrol the streets in full police uniform and run the same risk of getting injured or killed as regular paid officers. 

Auxiliary Police in New York state operate under the authority of the Defense Emergency Act of 1951. Most are trained and registered with the New York State Department of Criminal Justice as peace officers. There are Auxiliary Police in all 50 states, with more than 7,000 in New York state. There are Auxiliary Police in Canada and Puerto Rico as well. We responded to the needs of the NYPD and other police departments on Sept. 11 and again during the 2003 blackout. Two NYPD Auxiliary officers gave their lives protecting the public on March 14, 2007, bringing the total to eight officers killed in the line of duty in New York City. 

It is insulting that this episode would portray these volunteers as anything other than heroes. We demand NBC apologize to the members of the NYPD Auxiliary and have an episode of Law and Order that positively represents the NYPD Auxiliary and all volunteer peace officers. We feel that this episode was not an accurate representation and the Auxiliary police and its officers deserve a proper representation. 

For more information, visit www.auxiliary-police.org.

—Glenn J. Kearney President,

New York State Association of Auxiliary Police

I have a situation that I suspect many of your readers share: mail shows up in my mailbox that I do not wish to receive. United Airlines sends me, on average, three to four letters or packets of information every week. Some letters are sales pitches for credit cards, some are for specific trips and some are addressed to my son who has not lived here for seven years. I have called United Airlines, requesting them to take us off their mailing list, and I have written on the envelopes, “Return to sender,” all to no avail. Because of their failure to even respond, I will not fly with them again.

This is just one example of the junk mail that I receive. I have asked the post office for help, and didn’t seem to get anywhere, although the person with whom I talked was understanding of the dilemma. I am hoping that if you publish this letter, some of your readers can offer some advice.

—Daniel Leete

Syracuse

This is in regard to “Brain Waves,” Dr. Sam Graceffo’s Dec. 26 column on how brain wiring could lead to criminal activity. The doctor asks if it could be possible that some individuals could have no other choice but to be attracted to children. He cites a study of 127 men, half of whom were pedophiles and half non-sexual criminals, in which it was revealed that the pedophiles had significantly less of a substance called “white matter.”

I wonder: What was the specific nature of the non-sexual crimes of the other criminals in the study? Were they guilty of stock fraud or purse snatching? How old were all the men in the study and how did that play out in the lower white-matter distribution? What were the environmental histories of all the men?

White matter are the bundles of axons that connect the two sides of the most highly developed portions of the brain, the cerebral cortex. White matter is larger in the female brain than in the male brain. And evidence suggests that the development of the cerebral cortex is not complete until humans reach their late 20s or early 30s and that the development of the cerebral cortex is greatly affected by the environment. 

If anatomy is destiny, it seems Dr. Graceffo left out one very salient fact about white matter.

—Debra Merryweather

Syracuse