Both sides of aisle hand out goodies

This is in reference to Stephen Dick’s column on the GOP: I haven’t seen any sign of Ayn Rand in the GOP. Both parties have bent over backwards to bestow goodies on every segment of society.

Of course, their political bedfellows such as Obama’s czars get the most goodies. They are invited to Washington and get paid back by getting lucrative jobs.

The politicians passed NAFTA so that every country, especially the Chinese, could dump their goods on our shores and ruin our small businesses. The Democrats see no value in business, although I can’t see how citizens can pay taxes unless they’re employed.

This country needs to get back to being fiscally responsible. Refusing to spend money we don’t have is not being selfish. It’s showing some common sense for once.

Our children and grandchildren will pay dearly for our fiscal recklessness.

Evelyn B. Harrington, Kokomo

Donnelly must go as representative

Joe Donnelly voted for the horrible House bill on health care. This bill forces people who do not have health care and do not want to buy health care to purchase a policy. If they do not, then the federal government will fine them $250,000 and put them in prison for five years.

How is this constitutional? It is communistic for sure. This bill places a federal czar to oversee all areas of health care.

Shame on Joe Donnelly for supporting such anti-American legislation. Folks, it is time to rise up against him.

Joe Donnelly also does not support House Bill 1207, auditing the Fed. The Fed has absolute power to create money from nothing. If you and I did this, we would go to prison for counterfeiting.

The Fed does not want to be audited by Congress because it is using the new money to take care of its friends who happen to be the big bankers who caused our current problems (along with the Fed itself).

Why, Mr. Donnelly, would you not want to audit the Fed? We citizens demand to know what the Fed is up to, and we want to know from you. But you do not know because you will not support a full audit of the Fed, even though 308 of your colleagues in the House want this, including Democrats and Republicans.

Joe Donnelly likes big government and wants to take away our freedom because he votes this way. It is time for Donnelly to leave Congress, and I plan on working very hard to make that a fact next year.

Steve Matthews, Greentown

Inhumane use of fox, coyotes must stop

The violent bloodsport of dog-fighting is a felony in Indiana, and rightly so. Few folks would argue the merits of setting dogs upon one another for thrills, sport or profit, deeming those involved in this cruel pastime devoid of basic humanity.

Disturbingly, most citizens don’t know it’s perfectly legal in Indiana to “sic” dogs on penned wild canines from mid-October to mid-March for dog “training” or hunting contests. During this time, captured coyotes and foxes may be kept crammed into filthy wire cages with no provision for shelter or sustenance – warehousing them for sale to penning facilities, urine collection units, or holding them while winter pelts thicken prior to execution by any means.

In 2007, the media exposed the case of a Hoosier who confined two legally trapped coyotes in deplorable conditions for weeks, then beat their heads with a shovel and stomped their chests to kill them. Sadly, he escaped prosecution because Indiana anti-cruelty statutes apply only to domestic animals, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources has no rules prohibiting the wanton mistreatment of wildlife taken live while in season.

Unfortunately, the DNR has no minimum standards of care requirements for live-trapped coyotes and foxes legally taken from late fall through the early spring. As long as these hapless animals aren’t kept past the prescribed season, the DNR turns a blind eye to the specific fates or abuse of captured fur-bearers, including their sale or use as live bait for training dogs or for hunting contests. Ironically, this same agency exerts far more regulatory control over wildlife rehabilitators pertaining to possession and standards of wildlife care or housing. The inequity is notable.

Indiana wildlife belongs to all state citizens, the majority of whom abhor wanton cruelty and violence perpetrated on animals, tame or wild. All things that are reprehensible about dog-fighting are true for the use of their wild cousins for training or hunting contests. The suffering of these animals is unconscionable.

Please encourage the Natural Resources Commission to favorably consider current petitions for year-round prohibition of using penned foxes and coyotes as live bait for dog training or field trial contests. A public hearing for these petitions is scheduled at 10 a.m. Nov. 17 at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis.

Concerned citizens are encouraged to send their sentiments in advance to Jennifer Kane at jkane@nrc.in.gov, including name, address and county of residence. All comments legitimately submitted will be read by the commission members and may influence the likelihood of formal rule-making.

Jacqueline A. Molden, La Porte