ICC an example of wasteful, corrupt highway system Re: “ICC traffic increasing slightly; ad campaign to lure more,” May 10
The headline of this article, which is yet another indictment against the proliferation of wanton highway construction, should have been: “The folly of the Inter-County Connector.” More highways mandate more traffic, more parking, more cars, more pollution, ad infinitum. “Luring” more people into this corrupt and wasteful system is obscene.
The ICC was first proposed as a second Beltway some 45 years ago. During decades of opposition — litigation after litigation, land acquisition, petitioning at the highest level — the costs of this highway continued to roll. Finally, when they reached over a billion dollars, folks simply gave up. The enemy was too great.
This same battle has been waging all over the country. Abolishing the Interstate Highway Trust Fund is way past due.
Edward Abramic
Washington
Naturalization law in ’60’s was more restrictive
Re: “Where was Smiley when Shabazz N-worded Obama?” May 4
Gregory Kane states: “There exists a law that says any child born abroad whose parents are married and has at least one parent who’s an American citizen is also an American citizen.” This is true, since Congress liberalized immigration policy in the mid-90s.
However, Kane then asserts that President Obama is “natural born” because his mother was — even if the president himself was not born in the USA. But if he had been born in 1961 in Kenya, Obama would have been born a British subject and therefore ineligible for the U.S. presidency. “Natural born” status is decided at birth; the law Kane referenced above could not retroactively make Obama “natural born” if born in Kenya.
The relevant law in force in 1961 was Sec. 301 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, under which young Stanley Ann Dunham did not meet age or residency requirements to transmit citizenship of any kind to her son, Barack Obama, Jr. if he was born abroad. This explains why “birthers” sought the release of Obama’s concealed citizenship records.
Margaret Hemenway
Alexandria
Ryan proposal would gut services to disabled
Those of us who have spent decades taking care of our developmentally disabled offspring at home, at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayers, were rudely surprised by Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposal and the follow-on McCaskill-Corker bill. Cutting, capping, and block-granting Medicaid will have a predictable effect on the more than 370,000 disabled adults in the United States who already suffer abuse, neglect, and many deaths that go unnoticed.
These proposals are reckless, irresponsible and immoral. Wait lists for services increased 56 percent between 2005 and 2009. One has to assume that Republicans believe in the “sanctity of life” only when there is no financial price tag, or only for “normal” people.
Ryan wants to strike at the disabled to fix the deficit problem when we have a wealthy financial elite with the lowest personal taxes in 20 years, large corporations that pay no U.S. taxes, and not one, but two wars we cannot afford, and a government that bailed out the selfish financial class? In the mental health field, there’s a diagnosis for this kind of thinking.
Edward R. Arnold
Boulder, Colo.
