Letters to the Editor

CALVERTON

What does the GOP think of Randy?

There’s an old saying that Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line. That’s why it’s no surprise that Suffolk Republicans are lining up behind Randy Altschuler, who they reviled just two short weeks ago. Fortunately, if we want to know what they really think, we just have to go to the Web.

Let’s start with how Mr. Altschuler shopped for congressional districts in New Jersey before he decided that our CD1 would be easy pickings.

Found on the website Urban Elephants, which claims to be the website of the Queens County Republican Party, is a letter Virginia “Ginnie” Littell, former chairman of the Republican State Committee of New Jersey, supposedly wrote to Suffolk Conservative Ed Walsh warning him not to nominate a man who outsourced thousands of American jobs:

“I was shocked when I read the part of your [Ed Walsh’s] letter in which you extol the jobs Randy ‘created,’â” she wrote. “You are aware of the business he was in, aren’t you? Look, we all have to do something, but when that’s the something you do you pretty much have to rule out running for office — at least when the country is suffering from high unemployment and there are lines of people waiting for even a single job.”

The Daily News reported that Jim Teese, campaign manager for Republican Chris Cox, refuted a carpetbagger charge from Altschuler and said, “Being called a carpetbagger by Randy Altschuler is like being called ugly by a toad.” He went on to say, “Mr. Altschuler’s home was in New Jersey, where he spread his pro-choice money and views around in hopes of running for a Congressional seat. New Jersey Republicans said ‘No Sale!’ Then he hired a consultant to find Suffolk County for him. Mr. Altschuler parachuted with his checkbook into lush Head of the Harbor, not St. James as he continues to claim.”

You can still go to the website “OutsourceRandy.com” and view a Cox-sponsored video of an Indian actor singing the praises of Randy Altschuler as a “very, very good man” who shipped thousands of jobs to India. This is the same site that sponsored a mock contest where the winner won a trip to India to visit their former job.

I think voters in the 1st CD can tell when Republicans were actually telling them the truth about Randy and when they are just “falling in line.”

Jerry Silverstein

JAMESPORT

What are we paying them for?

New York State has a budget deficit in excess of $9 billion dollars, while Rhode Island is showing a budget surplus of $17.7 million dollars. From these figures I can only guess which state’s representatives are doing the job that they are being paid to do and which state’s representatives are just fooling the voters.

If I was to paraphrase a TV advertisement I would say to my representatives in Albany: “Its my taxes and I demand that you spend them wisely.” But unfortunately they seem to care less what we, the people, expect for the salary we pay them.

Thomas W. Smith

ORIENT

Where’s the outrage?

The minister of a tiny church proposes to burn a Koran on 9/11. This very unnewsworthy idea, whose wisdom I do not see, instantly becomes a cause cà lîbre when Hillary Clinton, President Obama and CIA Chief Brennan put aside all the myriad concerns of governing a very troubled nation and focus with laser-like intensity on the misguided musings of one man.

Clinton, Obama and Brennan tell the nation that they are compelled to condemn the burning of the Koran because it will inflame the Muslim world, endanger American citizens and military and serve as a recruiting tool for al-Qaida. Besides, we are told, it is wrong to offend a billion Muslims because of a few crackpots from al-Qaida and its affiliates engage in criminal violence.

My question is, why didn’t the leaders of the Muslim world condemn al-Qaida when it killed 3,000 people on 9/11? I also wonder why more Americans, in and out of government, couldn’t generate an amount of outrage equal to that of, let’s say, the imam who wants to build a mosque over 3,000 mostly American bodies.

I also wonder why far too many Americans agonized over what America had done to provoke the Muslim world (not, curiously enough, al-Qaida) to commit an act of such extreme violence. Why did so many so-called American intellectuals nod their heads in solemn agreement when Reverend Wright said, “America’s chickens have come home to roost”?

Why wasn’t the Muslim world concerned that American passions would be inflamed when al-Qaida beheaded Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl, videotaped the beheadings and broadcast them worldwide? Why didn’t the imams condemn the murder, mutilation, burning and hanging of the bodies of American contractors as an incendiary act which would prove to be a recruiting tool for America?

I have yet to hear a single Muslim leader or cleric wholeheartedly and unconditionally condemn al-Qaida, et al, or apologize for their actions and ask that they not be judged on the basis of the actions of al-Qaida and other Muslim terrorist groups. Why is that?

Whatever the reason, this lack of condemnation cannot help but convince Muslim terrorists that their cause is just. I’m sure they also find American self-loathing absolutely delightful.

Richard Morabito