Letters to the Editor Jan. 19, 2010

As a telecommuter, I need my state-funded cell phone

Regarding Gary. Puente’s Jan. 15 letter (“Additional things governor could do to save Calif. govt. money”) and his reference to taking away the cell phones of all public employees, there are very good uses of cell phones by private and public entities, providing a way for employees to support their employers while being able to have a life.

I have a state-provided cell phone, and am the technical lead for a statewide telephone system that services real people 24/7, 365 days a year. I also live 450 miles away from my employer’s office and telecommute 75 percent of my work time.

There are many state-employed, technology-based staffers that depend on cell phones to keep in touch with the systems we support both during a work day and on off-hours (yes, I work nights, weekends and cancel vacations when work calls).

Without a cell phone many people would be receiving poor service from the state; for example if the system I support goes down during off-hours thousands of people will not get timely information. With a cell phone, no matter where I am, I can be contacted and start the process to fix whatever is broken. This is true for many other state staff.

While looking at cell phone use to eliminate ones not needed is a great idea ,getting rid of all would hamper dedicated state employees from delivering the services we, as taxpayers, expect and deserve.

Joanna Hawley-Jones

Crescent City

Unfair to blame conservatives for shooting tragedy in Tucson

I would like to know why, during a tragedy as happened Jan. 8 in Tucson, the liberals act so stupidly. Without any facts the Pima County sheriff, (he is a liberal operative), states that Sarah Palin is at fault for Congresswoman Giffords being shot. MoveOn.org blames Gov. Palin, stating her map last March incites hate because she used cross-hairs to denote 20 Democratic seats she thought Republicans could pick up.

As a candidate, President Obama said, “If they bring  a knife to the fight, we’ll bring a gun.” Chris Mathews said of Rush Limbaugh, “At some point somebody is going to jam a co2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp.” Montel Williams said of Michele Bachman, “So, Michele, slit your wrists! Go ahead.” Ed Shultz said, “He is an enemy of our country, in my opinion, Dick Cheney is, — you know Lord take him to the Promised Land.”

Even our own newspaper chimed in with an editorial caroon Jan. 12 showing a radio with “talk radio” printed on the radio in each frame with words such as “TYRANNY,” “TREASON,” “SOCIALISM,” “DEATH PANELS,” “DON’T RETREAT, RELOAD,” “WE’RE NOT TO BLAME,” and more on the other frames. A silent way of pointing to talk radio as being part of the problem.

Why does this paper not criticize the liberals that I pointed out above and be fair and balanced? It is way past time for those who print our newspapers to give each side the same treatment and not inject their own biases.

Marlowe Thompson

Crescent City