"Hypocrisy in criticism of Libby decision"

It was with great amusement that I read Winston Jones’ column of July 10. The selective indignation and hypocrisy brought me the best laugh I have had in quite a while.

“Scooter” Libby will serve the same amount of time for lying to the grand jury that Bill Clinton will. You might say that Clinton was never convicted and you would be right.

He just surrendered his law license in a deal to avoid prosecution. Clinton also outright sold pardons on his final day in the White House. Granting one to Mark Rich, husband of a wealthy contributor and fund raiser. He also granted pardons to two Jewish individuals in return for the votes of the entire community that they lived in for his wife Hillary.

I would remind Mr. Jones that the Bill of Rights is for American citizens and not for enemy combatants. The Geneva Convention does not even cover the insurgents captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to said convention we would be within our rights to execute them on the spot. As for torture camps around the world, no evidence of such places exists. If credible evidence had been found you can bet every newspaper in the country would have been running banner headlines about it.

I am also reminded of an incident where the White House (read: Hillary) obtained the FBI records of Clinton opponents. Talk about an invasion of privacy. As to the outing of Valarie Plame, it never happened. No one was ever charged with outing her or ever will be because no one did anything illegal.

U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President and can be fired for any reason (or no reason). Again no violation of the law. The invocation of privilege guarantees a President candid advice and counsel. The courts overturned Clinton’s invocation of privilege because it was being used to cover up possible criminal action. Bush on the other hand had every right to fire the attorneys.

Hillary Clinton stated that Bush’s commutation of Libby’s sentence was disgraceful. That she could do it with a straight face is amazing. What a great politician and sorry human being she must be.

Marty Stamps

Villa Rica

"City-county government"

Carroll County taxpayers have been provided periodic doses of comedy and embarrassment. Individual communities are provincial fiefdoms lacking vision for the county as a whole. There seems to be a management vacuum. The recent county health insurance debacle is the latest chapter.

The process of management involves planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, communication, and control, exercised with professional competence and responsibility. Lacking detailed knowledge of the situation, I’m mystified why everyone was caught by surprise only weeks before the end of the county’s fiscal year. Did the insurance company not give prior warnings that payouts weren’t matching premium inflows? If they did, did anyone listen? Are local healthcare prices too high? Does someone examine detailed monthly financial reports of county operations? If our millage rate was artificially too low for a growing county, did no one analyze and anticipate the problem? Why wasn’t a planned and gradual tax increase applied, along with budgetary oversight and discipline?

I agree with a recent article that there’s no point in character assassination. Neither school board members nor area commissioners are full-time professionals. Most folks serving us in city and county governments mean well, and some fight a heroic struggle. My heart goes out to them. They could be helped.

A surprising number of folks are in favor of a unitary city-county government and school system. I believe it’s time to combine all the multiple services, physical plant, salaries and budgets under a central umbrella. No one need lose their jobs, but all should be more effectively assigned county-wide according to needs. A properly paid professional and qualified cadre of managers should be carefully and objectively chosen to administer the entire county and all the communities within it. An elected board of commissioners can exercise oversight, but the managers should have the authority to exercise their best judgment for the good of all. Police protection should be county-wide. Fire protection also. Recreation also. Water services also. Especially schools. It’s the best way to deal from a position of competence and strength with proposals such as Wolf Creek.

If we eliminate duplicate levels of physical plant, personnel, management and services, we would probably be able to do much more with the taxes we pay and possibly even reduce them. It could put us ahead of other counties and groom us for the future. It’s worth study.

Ben L. Moon

Lowell