Love Letters, hate mail

AA Bailout

Dear UTW:

Vision2 is nothing more than a bailout/bribery fund for American Airlines (prop 1) wrapped in the guise of community improvement (prop 2).

The airport does needs repairs, but who is responsible for those repairs? According to the lease signed by IC Bus, American Airlines, Spirit, and others ... they are, and not the taxpayers of Tulsa County as Dewey Bartlett would have you believe.

If Tulsa County and Mayor Bartlett cannot be trusted to hold to the contracts or to hold these private corporations accountable to the leases they have signed, how are we to believe they will hold to promises of grand projects that are not tied by contractual obligation to monies in prop 2? Every project that anyone has advocated for or that you have heard of in the news is nothing more than an idea. The money in prop 2 is not tied to ANY project and would not be tied to any project until AFTER the vote and then only when decided upon by a panel of 7 in secret meetings not open to public record. If that doesn't send up a red flag I don't know what will.

This may be a Vision, but a vision for whom? These proposals do not have Tulsa or Tulsa County citizen's best interests in mind. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the projects suggested getting done, but to hand a blank check over to Tulsa County with very little to no oversight is not the way to do it.

If you are a conservative you cannot support these proposals as they encourage and condone crony capitalism, corporatism, and the government picking winners and losers. If you are a democrat you cannot support these proposals simply because they encourage and condone taking from the 99 percent to give to the 1 percent.

Vision2 is too rushed, too much, too sloppy, and too soon. Vote NO on Vision2, Prop 1 & 2.

--TCRyan

Rediculous

Dear UTW:

This whole argument that Vision2 is an AA bailout is ridiculous. Those buildings are owned by the citizens of Tulsa and all the funds go toward citizen-owned infrastructure.

I was skeptical at first, but after studying it out and not just listening to all the naysayers that opposed the BOK Center, it is clear that is wise investment.

If AA does leave, we must have facilities that will attract other high paying jobs. If not, we could easily lose over 11,000 jobs. Does anyone realize what that would do to our city.

--J.R. Johnson

Doubling Up?

Dear UTW:

I think it's time for one of these "temporary" taxes to expire, since that is always one of the selling points that they stress when they are trying to pass one of these taxes to begin with. Except that they are trying to extend this one before it has even gotten close to expiring.

--Brent Saska

Ryan to the Rescue

(Re: "Finding Privatizer Ryan," Oct. 11-17, Vol. 22, No. 15)

Dear UTW:

This column is a nice example of why Rall is a cartoonist and not a political analyst. Unless he thinks up-to-the-minute analysis means writing columns two months in advance of publication, he should know Romney has already released his tax records (why is it with Democrats, requiring them to release private information not required by law is a "witch hunt", whereas with Republicans it's "mandatory"?)

Romney correctly read the political landscape, and it's generally seen as a boost to his candidacy to pick Ryan as his veep. This is the age of the Tea Party, the powerful grassroots organization that evolved basically out of frustration with RINOs who got elected then kept drifting leftward. The "centrist" thing might be time-honored, but it's not going to work anymore (remember John McCain?). If Romney loses, it's not going to be because of Paul D. Ryan.

Ryan was chosen primarily because of his analytical skills pertaining to budgets. He has already put forth a solid plan to address the problem of the deficit long-term. That stands in sharp contrast to an administration that thinks the best solution to running out of money is to just print up more and a Democrat-controlled Senate that refuses to even pass a budget. Romney/Ryan know the gravity of the fiscal debt bomb that's about to explode. If it does it's not just granny who'll be headed over the cliff. It will be her kids and their kids (and all of us) along with her.

Romney/Ryan would like to defuse the debt bomb. That necessarily involves things along the lines of cuts and consolidations. Unfortunately, for those whose sustenance comes primarily from government, that's a tough sell.

So it might well be that the Romney/Ryan ticket loses the election. That would not be a surprise to me. If it does, though, the reason won't be because they're inept, bumbling politicians that can't inspire their base. It will be because too many clueless voters want to think the federal goody trough doesn't have a bottom.

--Todd Kreigh