Letters to the Editor for May 20

Taxpayer wants businesses to pay their fair share

Don't tax me, tax the businesses.

Next time you hear the politicians say they are looking out for the little guy and only raise taxes on the businesses, don't you believe it.

Politicians, Democrats and Republicans, want you to believe this lie. They know that if they can get you to believe this lie, you feel good and all fuzzy inside.

The truth is, businesses do not pay taxes, fees or assessments. They are tax collectors for the government - local, state and federal. Business tax, fees and assessments are all passed on to the consumers.

That's right, baby. You and I pay all the taxes, fees and assessments that the politicians put on the businesses.

So, don't you feel good and fuzzy inside knowing that they are not raising taxes on the little guy but only on the businesses?

Feryl Fitzgerald

Carson City

Shot that killed bin Laden fired 10 years ago

When the Navy Seals slid down those ropes into the hideout of Osama bin Laden, President Obama became the final arbiter of bin Ladin's fate. He could have opted to micro-manage the situation from the White House and order the Seals to stand down, but he didn't. That left the Seals to determine the course of action necessary for the safety of the team, which was to kill Osama bin Ladin.

For President Obama's decision to leave the Navy Seals to measure the danger of their situation for themselves, he is to be credited his due.

But make no mistake about it, the bullet that terminated the life of bin Laden had been airborne for 10 years, fired by President George W. Bush as he stood on top of a podium of debris that, just hours earlier, had been the Twin Towers.

Orlis Trone

Fernley

Mining plan is an outrageous intrusion

Since Comstock Mining Inc. appeared in our midst and announced its intention to begin 25 years of digging pit mines in Gold Canyon and beyond, many people in Virginia City, Gold Hill and Silver City have received the dismal news that inactive mining claims underlying their homes and businesses may become active again.

In presenting its plans, the company has invoked the mining heritage of the Comstock Lode while simultaneously showing how it intends to demolish it. It has declared its intention to dig a pit mine 800 feet deep on the south side of Silver City, intruding well within the town limits. By way of comparison, Hoover Dam is 726 feet high.

We have lived through this before, during the Houston Oil & Minerals debacle of the 1980s, and we learned that pit mining is dirty, noisy, often toxic and utterly ruinous to the natural landscape. It is heavy industry on a massive scale, an outrageous intrusion into our tranquil communities. And in the end, we were suddenly left with that great empty hole at Greiner's Bend, plus even bigger and emptier promises.

It's as if the mining industry went out for cigarettes one day and never came back. And now, 30 years later it's at the door again, with a big bunch of flowers and a hopeful smile, but not one word of apology.

A recent assessment of CMI's prospects for success at http://our-street.com/2011/04/22/wil-comstock-mining-turn-profit-into-promise/ is surprisingly negative.

David Toll

Gold Hill

Politicians need to represent us, not corporate America

Recently you printed a commentary by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown on how the Obama economy is making you poor. The Appeal must have been desperate to fill a void of content that day.

The Browns presented a litany of serious problems the USA is facing; somehow they connect all these grievances to the Obama economy as if only the current administration was responsible.

Their only constructive suggestion was, "At least open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down (gas) prices in the short term." What a joke. Greedy speculation ruined our economy and is currently driving up gas prices.

Only when our elected officials represent people instead of the corporate interests who fund elections will we have an economy that isn't making us poor. Only when we stop subsidizing highly profitable corporations and quit wasting trillions of dollars on wars we can't afford will our economy stop making us poor.

Why are substantial defense cuts off the table, but cutting Medicare, Medicaid, education, environmental, health and other programs that really help Americans are considered acceptable sacrifices?

We should be investing in education and technology that will create quality jobs now and will guarantee new jobs and cleaner, safer energy sources for our children and grandchildren. Who do these legislators really represent?

Politicians promised jobs and economic recovery; where are these jobs and why have politicians from both parties been caught up in the usual obstruction and petty bickering while real Americans are being made poor?

Rich Vadenais

Minden