All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content or space limitations some comments may not be published. More than one comment from the same person during the same week will normally not be published. Please limit calls to two minutes or less.

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A woman called “in regards to her lost Shi-Tzu out on Avenue 13. I wanted to thank The Madera Tribune for putting the lost ad in the paper for free. Because if it wasn’t for your ad (and) the nice couple that found our dog, we would have never got him back.” She took a big breath and said, “thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

A woman had a suggestion for last week’s caller. “A man who moved here from Southern California, and agreed with the woman who said Madera was a dirty city. Pack up and move out.

“If you don’t like the trash on your street I’m sure the city, county, CalTrans even a grocery story will give you a plastic bag and you can pick it up. If you pick up the trash that your neighbors dropped and they saw you, I bet they would pick up their trash.”

After saying thieves went through her garage and “stole the beautiful stroller I bought,” and mentioning later “they stole my lawnmower,” a woman continued. “Next time you won’t be so lucky. I can use a gun in self-defense or use my newly acquired pit bull. So be aware.”

A man compared the health care on (Indian) reservations with the proposed health care bill. “They (the government) do not take care of reservation medical problems. Multiply that into the national health care that they’re pushing now and you have a larger joke.”

A woman wanted to know how (County CEO) Stell Manfredi can retire when he’s earning over $100,000 a year, then come back, work part-time for the county, and they’re getting ready to shut down Boot Camp.”

A woman “who was walking the trail around Rotary Park” had this to say. “I watched four kids using the skate park, and it was a rather nice Saturday afternoon. Only four kids. Then I stopped at the south end of the park when I saw a bunch of cars. I walked into the area and was greeted warmly by several people.

“There was a horseshoe tournament going on with probably 60 to 70 people and their families and they invited me to stay and watch and even offered me some food and refreshment. They were all having a good time with good clean family fun. It seemed very well organized. I don’t know what those nice horseshoe pits cost, but it had to be far less than the million-dollar skate park. Nice to see something being used for good family enjoyment that isn’t a waste of local taxpayer’s money.”

A few calls were received after “horses were spotted on the River Trail.”

A man said, “They should be riding off the paved trail or down in the riverbed.”

“I think the (Madera) Beautification Committee did a great job in selecting the home of Maxine Barnett for their award,” said a lady. “If you would have seen that house seven years ago you wouldn’t believe it is the same house.”

A man said, “There is no place for men’s soccer to play in Madera. They took away our place at Rotary and the schools. They have plenty of fields for the kids, but what happens when the kids grow up and still want to play?”

A visitor to the Red Line online responded to a letter by Larry Turner warning of an alleged scam, published on June 24. “Felicia” writes, “I thought you’d like to know that 1-888-382-1222 is actually a government number. it’s the Federal Trade Commission’s number,” not a scammer’s number. (Editor’s note: I checked and you’re quite right. Thanks for pointing that out.)

Another Internet guest reacted to a letter by Butch Helton on Aug. 16 in which he complained about an “animal-rights advocate” who broke up a “bloodless bullfight.” The reader, “Ceablue,” writes, “This is the USA, not Portugal. We have laws. We have rules. We have consequences. Live with it or leave.”

A friend of the late Krista-Rae Pike writes, “I miss you so much, Krista. It hurts still, but I will never ever forget you. You were one of my closest friends and I loved you like a sister and I always will. I’ll be seeing you again up there… I can’t wait till i get one of those wonderful hugs of yours again.”

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Thank you for your comments. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting maderatribuneredline.com.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The Cash for Clunkers program is ending, and there is no clear agreement on whether it was a success or failure. It might depend on whether you are an auto dealer still owed money by the government, or whether you are a new-car owner whose purchase was made possible by the clunkers program.

And, of course, you have to look at the program not only as economic stimulus, but also as an experiment in environmental improvement.

Success or failure, though, it got results. Nearly 500,000 new vehicles were sold — all of them more efficient and less polluting than the vehicles that were turned in.

Most of those cars would not have been sold if there had been no Cash for Clunkers.

The scheme cost $3 billion, not a small amount, but let’s take a look it in light of other bailout programs.

First, people actually have something to show for the money, and so, presumably, does the environment, unless all this business about global warming is a bunch of hooey, and it really doesn’t matter whether vehicles are more efficient.

The government hurled many more billions than that at Chrysler and General Motors, only to watch them go bankrupt. What if those billions had been put into the hands of car buyers? Would that have allowed the automotive industry to heal itself, and further benefited the environment?

A lot more billions were shoveled into the furnaces of banks and investment companies, and it’s a little hard at this point to see what the benefits might be, unless you are a New York banker.

But what if some of that money had been sent to local banks, where it could be used to subsidize low-interest loans to businesses for making improvements in energy use and to homeowners for making weatherization changes to their houses?

We’ll never know the answers to that question, but it is interesting nonetheless.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Now that the state is making plans to release more than 20,000 prisoners as a cost-saving measure, some policy wonks are calling for sentencing laws to be changed, and for those laws to be more lenient, so that fewer people would wind up in prison.

That seems wrong to me.

Tougher sentencing laws, enacted over the past two decades, have been followed by lower crime rates. Here is the logic behind that: crimes are committed by criminals; if you get criminals off the streets, you have fewer crimes.

We don’t need more-lenient sentencing laws, which would lead to more criminals among us. We need more and better prisons.

When tough sentencing laws were enacted, legislators went into denial about the need for prison-building. Yes, more were built, but not nearly enough to house the criminals being taken off the streets.

The result has been overcrowding in California’s prisons, which is both dangerous and costly.

This has invited lawsuits, and the state has been faced with having to get some 40,000 prisoners out of state prisons. Some of these prisoners are being moved to facilities in other states, which can save money, because most other states are able to operate prisons at lower cost than California seems able to do.

But the 20,000-plus prisoners being let loose to save money will for the most part be sent back to civilian life.
A lot of them will wind up back in local jails, where they will become the problem of the state’s counties.

Many California prison inmates are illegal aliens. It might be a good idea to send them back to wherever they came from, which wouldn’t be cheap, but would be less expensive than turning them loose in California, where they likely would reoffend. That sounds almost too easy, though.

This is to let you know that I predicted that our Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to ruin California and it will not stop.

The union for the prison guards should have continued with their petition to recall him. For this man had called the men working at the capital (girlie-men).

I would prefer we had kept (Gray Davis).

H.G. Velasquez II,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

This has been an arduous week of hearings for the Madera County Board of Supervisors. Their job was to cut the present fiscal year’s operating budget, and lay the foundation for cutting next year’s as well. And they still have to borrow $10.7 million to balance the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

It was not a dilemma of their making. Madera County has never been accused of being an uber-spender. If it had, like other counties in the Valley, it might have been forced to do even more cutting and borrow more money.

State budget woes caused financial shocks for the county. Sources of funding for social services, such as those provided for mental health, pretty much dried up. Without the resources to pay for those services, the county had to let many welfare workers go, and many recipients of their aid will go without.

On top of that, the state started forcing local municipalities to lend it tax dollars that normally get sent back to cities and counties.

The local economy didn’t help, either, With property values dropping, property tax collections have gone down, too. Sales tax collections have dropped.

For the supervisors and county Chief Administrative Officer Stell Manfredi and his staff, it was a week of reading and discussing a litany of budget items taking money away from programs and departments which have benefited Madera County citizens for years.

Little was left untouched, unless financed by outside funds that could be used no other way.

When the blood-letting was all over and the votes had been taken, Manfredi complimented the supervisors.

“You have backbones of steel,” he told them, praising them for solving problems they had no part in causing.

They should remember that. In a few months they may have to go through the process again if the economy doesn’t improve.

Concerning the closure of the Correctional Camp, the supervisors have deducted $750,000 from the camp budget. The camp operates on a little over $2.29 million a year.

If you haven’t already, watch the archived video of the meeting on Aug. 20. Mr. Moss, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Wheeler, and Mr. Dominici prior to the meeting met with union reps, and it was a consensus among those four that they would postpone voting on the issue. The idea behind the delay was to let the department try and create an alternate plan to save employees.

A few days before the hearings, the MPPOA decided to do a press release on the proposed closing. Several of the supervisors advised them not to. They didn’t feel that a “fire storm” was necessary before we even or they knew the outcome.

The MPPOA has actively supported Max Rodriguez for many years with donations to his campaigns. Last year, many of the members went door to door to speak with voters to help support him. When the Probation Department ended their presentation for the board, Mr. Dupree asked for questions or comment. The four previously mentioned declined to say a word. When it was time to vote, barely a word was said, unanimously decided, the camp would take the cuts.

It has also been brought to attention that CAO Stell Manfredi will be retiring this year in September, his salary around 128,000. He will return and work part time for the county, as well as the director of human resources, Kathi Taylor. I guess double dipping doesn’t just apply to ice cream! At one point a community member asked the CAO what cuts administration had made, and he stated that they had let an executive secretary of 46 years go.

The administration is proposing a cut of 12-14 employees for the Probation Department. Yet they are calling for increased consequences for Taggers? Most likely that charge will result in a book-and-release on the legal basis of a misdemeanor crime because the Juvenile Hall will be too full to house the offenders. Wonder if they will feel the same if it happens to their homes. Something is not quite right here.

Katherine Rojas,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

I had an opportunity the other day to have a sinful supper — a sandwich made from plain white bread, a thin slice of ham, a slice of provolone cheese, lots of mayonnaise, some sliced dill pickles and a little salt and pepper. It was delicious.

It had been years since I had eaten plain, white bread — the kind dietitians tell you to avoid, even if you have to cross the street. This was not Wonder Bread, but it was a softer, doughier cousin.

For many years, I have eaten bread made of whole wheat and wood shavings, bread I am assured is good for me, even though it tastes like somebody drug it along behind a pickup.

I’m not saying I dislike this good-for-me bread. You can get used to anything. Well, almost anything.

I still haven’t developed much of a taste for arugula or radicchio. A few weeks ago, I fought my way through an arugula and radicchio salad, hoping I would stumble on some iceberg lettuce, but with no luck.

When it comes to salads, I’m an iceberg lettuce and cabbage man, although I do like a little romaine if the leaves haven’t started to turn
brown.

When it comes to cabbage, I like the old-fashioned kind, the kind you use in cole slaw, better than the Asian kind, which I think secretly wants to be lettuce.

Another thing I love is potato salad. Mrs. Doud, by the way, makes the world’s greatest potato salad.

Another thing she makes is an unforgettable deviled egg.

Imagine this: A plate on which is a white bread sandwich, as described above, a nice little green salad made of lettuce and a little cabbage, a big dollop of Mrs. Doud’s potato salad, two deviled eggs and some black olives. The thought of it makes my mouth water.

The next day, of course, I’d have to go to confession.

If Obama wants to fix medical insurance, he should cap frivolous lawsuits. Of course he would never do that. He and his wife are lawyers. Doctors, druggists, hospitals and all have to pay big bucks for liability insurance. We who have insurance pay more because of it and we also pay for those who aren’t fortunate enough to have insurance.

When Edwards got the law passed that you can sue your HMOs, our insurance skyrocketed. We already pay for those on welfare and kids in foster homes — some, by the way, who could be raised by family at no expense to taxpayers. But the parents, even though they’re incarcerated, have the power over who takes care of the kids. I know this for a fact. We pay for lots of expenses that aren’t necessary because of stupid laws that should be changed.

Speaking of lawyers, have you seen how many commercials they have on TV? The medicine, doctor, hospital, cigarette, asbestos, auto accident, police, highway patrol, sheriff officers, employers, Fresno County by the A.C.L.U. Who by the way kept most of the money? Can’t believe what I see.

First of all, when it come to auto insurance, the policy has a cap on what the insurance pays, and if you have insurance you have a lawyer of the insurance company at your request to sue the person’s insurance company, probably at no expense. But the lawyers in the ads say the insurance companies hate them. Look at your policy see the cap? When someone gets sued their assets come into the picture if the person doesn’t have money or property. Chances are the lawyer tells you to take what you can get from the insurance company or perhaps take it to small claims court. Because they only get a third or more of the payment and if the person getting sued has no assets it wouldn’t be worth it to them!

Talk to your insurance company and check it out.

Speaking of lawyers and laws, when it comes to moving a case from where it happens to another area because of knowledge of the case, the TV news media should not get any information that would compromise the justice of the hearing. This is ridiculous and we taxpayers pay for it.

J. Willingham,
Madera

Short Animation: “One Life” (“Old Man” by Neil Young)

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By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

When it comes my turn to go before the Death Panel, if ever there is one, I hope they give me a break.

First, I don’t want them giving me a physical that involves the use of probes that snip pieces off, as one sees Martians use in sci-fi movies when they are inspecting earthlings they have beamed up into their ships that are hovering just out of sight over the horizon.

If they want to find out how I’m doing, I hope they just ask, “How are you feeling?”

Since I would be appearing before the Death Panel, which already has a bad reputation even before it is formed, I probably would say, “I never felt better. Lemme outta here.”

I am one of those people who hesitates to go even to his own doctor when he is sick, let alone go to the Death Panel.

The last time I was ill, I spent most of the time lying on the couch watching TV, groaning and making Mrs. Doud mad at me.

“Stop being sick,” she would say. Or, “why don’t you go to the doctor?”

It seems to me an inconvenience to the doctor to go see him when I am ill. First, I might give him whatever I have. I would feel terrible if I did that, because then he, too, would have to lie on his couch watching TV, groaning, with his wife getting mad at him.

Second, he might find out something is wrong with me that actually needs treatment, and I would wind up taking pills, getting shots and undergoing a colon inspection. He also would suggest that I change my diet to eat healthier (read that “dull tasting”) foods, that I should exercise more, stay away from chocolate and drink cod liver oil.

None of that is bad, but it makes lying around and groaning seem almost fun.

So you can see my dilemma. If I’m feeling ill enough to go before the Death Panel, would that be because I didn’t go to the doctor — or because I did?

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Musical Parody: “(Here Comes the) Public Plan”
by Jeff Horwich of Minnesota Public Radio

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just got back from an 11-day, seven-country tour of Africa, and one wonders whether that trip will have done anything to advance the interests of the United States.

Secretaries of state traditionally go to the dark continent and come back with a lot of information and directions for the African offices of the Department of State. These instructions usually tell the diplomats where to pour more money, the benefits of which are seldom seen. Then, the secretaries of state take a few well-deserved days off and privately say, “Thank goodness that’s over.”

Hardly anything can be more frustrating than trying to help those countries in Africa which need it, which is just about all of them. Though African nations may call themselves republics, most of them are still tribal and they behave that way.

The policy makers, once they are in power, make rules to benefit their own tribes, and to heck with everybody else.

Some examples are the countries of southern Africa, which include South Africa. These countries, also including Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, have low life expectancies because the AIDS virus is running amok. The governments of these countries deny there is an AIDS problem — even though they officially say they are doing their best to fight it. These nations are incubators for AIDS, but do only as much to battle it as they find necessary to avoid approbation from the rest of the world.

In Nigeria, which sits on oil riches, the death rate from disease is one of the world’s highest. Of the 150 million people who live there, the median age is only 19. The oil money is basically expropriated by the ruling people for benefit of their own tribes.

The so-called Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda have even lower median ages — about 16 years. Rich in natural resources, the countries are ravaged by their own so-called leaders.