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Letters & Opinion
Please help with the pear tariff Dear Editor, Well, here we are again in Pear harvest. Like last year, our livelihood is greatly affected by the Mexico Tariff. Even more farmers are going to go bankrupt this year. Did you know that processed potatoes are also subject to a 20 percent retaliatory, tariff, as are pears and cherries. In the last two weeks even more tariffs have been added. The new Mexican tariff on apples alone will cost Washington tree fruit growers over $44 million dollars in 2010-11. You may know that Bob Boyd made a trip to Washington D.C., with other farmers and talked to many folks about getting this tariff issue resolved. So far no one in DC has listened or lifted a finger to help. Please contact the White House and urge that they resolve the Mexican Trucking issue. They’ve promised for months, and nothing has been done. Go to www.whitehouse.gov and scan to the bottom of the page and click contacts to send an electronic message or call 202-456-1414. I am in hope that you will pass this on to others on your email list. We need a huge flood of emails and calls to get some attention before the situation gets worse. I’ve included some other details below about the financial and job losses in the last few months. It does not just affect pear growers. Its a huge ripple effect. Its the workers. The grocery stores where they buy their food, and its the whole town’s economy. Its the whole state economy. The largest private employer in Prosser — the town’s potato processing plant ConAgra Lamb Weston— shut down on May 30, putting 250 out of work! Prosser is located along the Yakima River in Benton County in south-central Washington. The town has about 5,000 people. Officials at the Washington State Potato Commission blamed the U.S. Congress for the plant closing, because a cross-border trucking program with Mexico was terminated and that generated “retaliatory tariffs” and “decreases in exports.” “The resulting 20 percent tariff on U.S. French fries exported to Mexico has cost Washington state over 32 million pounds of export business with Mexico at a value of over $15 million,” said Matt Harris, director of trade for the state potato commission, in a statement. Linda Boyd Peshastin PS: Here’s a letter that was sent last year in April to Gary Locke, Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce in hopes that someone
Quad City Herald • September 16, 2010
“I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building, no better than the builders of Babel.” Secular government demands that we return to that man centered political structure. If Mr. Zaferes wishes to hold the view that George Washington was the father of our country while dismissing Calvin’s influence that is fine, but was it Washington who moved the signers of the Declaration of Independence and those at the Constitutional Convention, not to mention those that came from England long before he was born? To say He did would be the “smokescreen!” Steve Lorz Tonasket
The butcher’s bill
would listen and work on the problem: Dear Secretary Locke, The Washington Growers Clearing House Association is a nonprofit tree fruit grower association with approximately 2,135 tree fruit grower members in Washington State. As a result of recent US Federal action, Washington State apricot, cherry and pear growers find themselves caught in a trade dispute between the US and Mexico. Because the 2009 US Omnibus Appropriations Act (Section 136) eliminated the U.S./Mexico crossborder truck safety inspection program (previously agreed to as partial compliance with NAFTA) Mexico has decided to punish apricot, cherry and pear growers with a 20 percent tariff. The tariff will increase the cost to retailers by $3 to $4 a box making it more attractive for Mexico’s retailers to purchase apricots, cherries and pears from other countries such as Argentina. Mexico is the number one export market for Washington pears. During the 2007-08 marketing season Washington State shipped approximately 2.6 million boxes of pears to Mexico, worth approximately $48 million FOB. It is estimated that the tariff will cause a 30 percent decline in Washington pear sales and about 50 percent decline in cherry and apricot sales. The reduction in Mexican demand for fresh Washington tree fruit products will force US marketers to put those apricots, cherries and pears in other already supplied markets, reducing fob prices in other markets and significantly reducing incomes to family tree fruit growers in the rural areas of Washington State. Especially during this worldwide economic downturn Wash-
ington growers, shippers, marketers, affiliated suppliers and their employees can ill afford significant reductions in their incomes. Maintaining access to export markets, such as Mexico, is crucial for the sustainability of Washington state’s rural economies and tree fruit farm families who are facing very difficult economic times, trade restrictions, high input costs, increasing regulatory costs, volatile prices, tightening credit and weather related issues. It is crucial that prompt action be taken to eliminate tariffs. Growers stand to lose more than $3.5 million in the remaining three months of this season. Please act fast to resolve this issue. Thank you. Kirk B. Mayer Manager
Beware secular government Dear Editor, The idea that our founding fathers were influenced by the Bible and that their understanding of the Bible was shaped by the teachings (for the most part) from a man who died 50 some years before the Mayflower set sail must seem as comforting as fingernails screeching across a chalkboard to those who distain our Calvinist heritage. But let us set aside for a moment the concepts that John Calvin taught from the Bible, those that our founding fathers understood; things like governments being ordained by God and accountable to Him, the need for law, from whom our freedom and rights come, the sinful nature of man, the priesthood of believers (whereby there is one mediator between God and man,
and that people should be able to read and understand the Bible, which is crucial to their education), representative government, the sacredness of life, liberty, property, work and most of all, man’s need to call on his Creator for forgiveness, help, guidance, comfort and blessing. With these principles aside we have the foundation upon which to build a secular government, a government that will always look out for the interests of its subjects, a government where “freedom” is granted by the state (even churches today operate under the permission of the state, so where is that wall of separation?), a government that sees itself as “god” on earth and must “protect” the environment from the industry of man, a government that is not accountable to God and must be separate from God. (Now we can see how the deaths of 19 men and women at the Salem, Mass. witch trials are viewed as “fanatical temper,” while the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision can be seen as liberating many, many women from the bondage of pregnancy). A government that believes it can spend its way to prosperity by taking the labor of those not yet born. And a government that promises to make a heaven on earth by taking from those who have, and giving it to those who don’t. These and many other secular ideas have paved the way to this point in our culture. It was not the religion of John Calvin that helped form our system of government; it was his theology (his study of God and God’s relation to the world) that influenced our founding father’s thinking. On June 28, 1787 Ben Franklin expressed this theology in a speech to the delegates by quoting Ps. 127:1 and then said,
Dear Editor, The butcher’s bill for the Iraq war (Seattle Times, August 31st, 2010): Confirmed Iraq war US military deaths as of Aug 31st, 2010: 4,416. Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion: 97,461. U.S. cost for the Iraq war: $743.4 billion since 2003. CBO ten-year projection: $244 billion to $588 billion. War lasts 2003 to 2010, 7 years. The Bush right must answer here, yet for nothing close to “A million-plus Iraqi dead! War to last ten years minimum! 100,000 American military deaths! War to cost over $3 trillion!” etc., all widely published liberal/ Democrat claims during the war, along with “Unwinnable” (Barney Frank), “The war is lost!” (Harry Reid), “The Iraq war can’t be won.” (Senator Obama), ad nauseam. All the deaths have their own ratio of tragedy, of course. I’ve been to war. And it remains arguable whether the money was well spent or the war well advised. A new generation of historians with no political axes to grind will sort this out in 30 years or so, probably according to how democracy does or doesn’t fare in the notoriously unstable Middle East. Regardless, had the cut-andrun American left not held out years of continual hope that Democrats would force an American surrender if the insurgency just blew up one more crowd of Iraqi civilians or another squad of coalition soldiers, then the Iraq war would surely have been much shorter and cheaper, and the military and civilian death rates correspondingly much lower. Here, the Democrat left must answer to history. William Slusher Okanogan
Even Castro admits it – spreading the wealth doesn’t work Atlantic Monthly reporter Jeffrey Goldberg recently interviewed former Cuban President Fidel Castro and reported that Castro said, “communism no longer works for Cuba.” Of course by Friday he was denying the statement, saying his comment was misunderstood. First he said he was joking, then he said he meant to say capitalism doesn’t work. Whether he was joking or confused doesn’t really matter because 50 years of communism has clearly not resulted in a higher standard of living for the Cuban people. One would think that our President would be able to use the power of his great intellect to look around the world at the failures of centralized planning
In My Opinion Bill Forhan Publisher and recognize that fact. But no, Obama continues to use his worn out story that “spreading the wealth around” improves life for everyone. But exactly whose life is Obama trying to improve? His policies have continued to exacerbate the problems of a troubled economy. Let’s just look at one really local example. The Mexican government imposed 20 percent
tariffs in April 2009 on a lengthy list of American exports after Congress killed a pilot program that allowed a limited number of Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways. That new tariff contributed to a $19.7 million decline in the value of Washington agricultural products exported to Mexico last year according to the Washington Department of Agriculture. Why was the pilot truck program killed? Unionized American truckers protested the program. Now Washington growers and the Washington state economy are being heavily impacted by the inaction of a union controlled Congress and President. After complaints from Wash-
ington growers, Mexico lowered the tariff on potatoes to 5 percent but then added apples to the list to be taxed at 20 percent. Democrats are always blaming private industry for taking jobs overseas, but they never blame themselves or the unions for the harm they do to private sector jobs. The truth is that in a worldwide economy every policy we enact has an impact on the lives and the livelihoods of each one of us. Some of those policy changes are positive and some are negative. Our economy can be restored but only if our leaders are willing to quit blaming American business for the problems and
recognize we all need to work together to restore the power of the American economy. Policies of increasing regulation, excessive taxation and demonization of profit as a fair return for business risk has not worked to improve the economy. In fact, our country has enjoyed its greatest economic progress when private industry has been encouraged and supported. Think this is just another of my radical right wing rants? Well consider the following letter I received this week from a local producer. Then decide if our leaders are doing everything they can to insure our farmers have a level playing field in the global market for their crops.
When the going gets tough – Dem’s resort to smear tactics Well, look who got a write-up in the Wall Street Journal. Our own Dino Rossi, in a tantalizing top of the page editorial entitled "A Washington State Smear Campaign." "Desperate political environments tend to inspire desperate political tactics," writes Kimberley A. Strassel. "In Washington State, liberal activists are desperate." Dino attracted the Journal's attention in his race to unseat U.S. Sen. Patty Murray because if this turns out to be a "wave election" on Nov. 2, meaning a loss of over 20 seats by the Democrat majority, our man could be the 51st Republican vote in the Senate. And now that he is leading in some polls says Strassel, "the left is unleashing the dirty tricks." Well, the left knows how to do it. Dino went down in history as
Adele
Ferguson Syndicated Columnist having been elected governor here twice, on election night and in a machine recount, but never count King County out when it seeks power. They managed to come up with some boxes of uncounted ballots after the polls had closed to give Democrat Chris Gregoire 129 more votes than him. Strassel doesn't rehash the 2004 race but the rematch in 2008 when activist trial lawyer Knoll Lowney filed a lawsuit against the Building Industry Association of Washington claiming it
was using workers comp money to fund political campaigns. BIAW is a big backer of Rossi. Lowney demanded that a judge immediately bar the BIAW from accessing any money it might use for Rossi. The judge said no so Lowney filed another lawsuit claiming BIAW and Rossi improperly colluded on campaign activities. Lowney got a judge to allow him to depose Rossi eight days before the election, an action that put enough doubt in voters' minds to cost him the election, according to Strassel. The lawsuit was dropped. It wasn't needed any more. But, by golly, here it comes again. Rossi had no sooner declared for the Senate than Lowney sent a process server with a subpoena to Rossi's home demanding more documents from the years of both elections,
2004 and 2008. This despite the fact the Public Disclosure Commission conducted its own investigation into the affair and gave him a clean bill of health way last March. The trial for the new lawsuit originally was set for Nov. 1, the day before the election but it was moved until after the election by the judge in the case, Mike Heavey, of the well known Heavey family which is well established in the Democratic Party. There is no telling what Lowney will ask for in the meantime, reporter Strassel says, (obviously to force the matter back in the public eye in the hope of rekindling doubt as to Rossi's integrity), "but no one should be surprised when he asks for it.. We're now about to discover whether Washington's judicial system will again be abused for politics.
Washingtonians should watch this one." We're not the only ones watching. The Rossi-Murrray contest has crept up into the top events of the election. Just this morning, I heard Chuck Todd, NBC's political analyst, say that President Obama has some busy times ahead. "He's going to spend a lot of time trying to save Barbara Boxer in California and Patty Murray in Washington State." Personally, I am so sick of her ads on TV that run all day long wherein she claims credit for everything but the capping of the oil well. She's being sold as the most powerful woman in Congress. Then why are the D's worried? Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA, 98340
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