$7.2 million surprise

“School repair tab hits $7.2 million. It’s a complete surprise,” says the COO for the schools. The head of the school board was only somewhat surprised! Were we—the taxpayers—surprised? Why would we be? This is not the first time that taxpayers have been screwed by contractors hired by elected officials to “fix” a problem. Is every elected official a mindless bleeping idiot who has never heard of “due diligence,” who feels it is their God given right to waste and misuse taxpayer dollars? The media love it when corporate executives are sent to prison for ripping off employees and shareholders. We are continually ripped off by the sheer dishonesty or incompetence of elected officials. The difference being, elected officials merely say, “Oops, guess we’ll demand more taxpayer dollars.”

I once, half jokingly, suggested that all elected officials be required to carry malpractice insurance. If a surgeon removes the wrong leg he can’t simply say, “Oops, sorry. I’ll fix it, but you’ll have to pay for two surgeries.” The surgeon would be sued for millions. Only elected officials can continually—without sanction—misuse taxpayer dollars. Incredibly, these projects are 400 percent over budget and these incompetents apparently had no clue or didn’t care. If it were their money they would care. Every person involved with this fiasco should be held accountable. They should be immediately removed from office, or if not elected, fired and forced to pay some sort of restitution. We’re already hearing from these obviously tone-deaf idiots that they will need to issue more school bonds (raise taxes). If these people were held to the same standards as corporate executives few of them would be still running loose! Why is the media not clamoring for their heads?

Tony Moschetti
Old Winston Rd

August 26, 2006

Democrats still too soft on worldwide terrorism

The recently foiled terror plot hatched in England is a striking example of why we cannot afford to have the weak-kneed Democrats in charge of our security.

The tools used to discover this diabolical plot, including foreign money-tracking and monitoring citizens' phone conversations, have been vociferously opposed by the Democrats. Obtaining search warrants based on "reasonable suspicion," not probable cause, as were the warrants in England, would be a non-starter for Democrats. Had this plot been hatched here, thousands may have died while Democrats clamored for Bush's impeachment.

Thank God the British don't have a party like the Democrats during this most dangerous period. This is a clash of civilizations, long wanted by the radical Muslims. They can't escape their 10th century mentality. Yet, we have a political party that believes we are the problem, and that Bush, not the terrorists, is responsible for terrorism. They continue to wail about Iraq being a terrorist breeding ground. Was Iraq the reason for the 1993 World Trade Center attack? The Africa embassy bombings in 1998? The USS Cole attack in 2000?

If you Democats don't want to join the terror war, at least please stop trying to impede it.

Tony Moschetti
High Point

News & Record
August 26, 2006