mikesoh.com

Original letter (in reply to Virginia cannot allow offshore oil drilling):

Kellen Lauer is misguided in opting to support so-called clean energy in lieu of oil.  Citing the gulf disaster only furthers this point.  The technology behind clean energy is still developing.  Furthermore, the energy transformation for many “green” sources is so low that they are not yet economically viable.  For example, solar power only converts less than 10% of the energy it receives.

I agree with the fact that we must continue to develop renewable energy sources.  But until they meet or exceed the power outputs of oil, we must continue to find sources of oil.  We don’t stop driving cars because we see accidents everyday.  Neither should we stop drilling because of an oil spill.

If Senator Jon Kyl’s story is true, congress should seriously start considering articles of impeachment on Obama.  The President’s sworn duty is to protect this country first and foremost.  If Obama is using political manuvering to not secure our borders, he is neglecting the job that people have voted him to do.  The Chief Executive is to execute the laws of the land, not write them.  If he wanted to do that, he should have stayed a senator.

Impeachment is not meant to be an easy process but when the President refuses to do his job, congress needs to get the courage to do the right thing and begin impeachment proceedings.  However, time has shown that courage is something that both the executive and legislative branch seem to lack.

Original letter (in reply to What ‘enough money’ means):

Mr. Thomas Sowell’s article was a bit outlandish, but the overall point is great.  One of the arguments used by the left to legalize gay marriage is, “Why do you get to decide what is moral and what isn’t?”  This same standard should be applied to Barack Obama.  His ‘enough money’ statement was tantamount to saying, “I’ll say when you’ve made enough.”  While he was talking to Wall Street, I doubt he would have the same attitude toward the unions that back him.  His statement reminds me of his campaign when he advocated “sharing the wealth.”

Mr. Sowell accurately wrote that the more people make, the more they donate.  The only reason why Obama would want to cap income is so that any excess could be taken by the government to be spent by the government.  And well all know how great that’s worked out.

Author’s note: This letter was not published.

Original letter (in reply to Terror attacks raise tension between Obama and GOP):

Under the Obama administration, there have been several attacks within the homeland, many of which have failed not because of intelligence but out of sheer luck.  Suspected “Christmas pants” bomber Umar Abdulmutallab was allowed on the plane with explosives in his underwear, while many of his fellow passengers had to discard their water bottles.

The Ft. Hood Massacre, regardless of whether you call it a terror attack, happened on a military base where there was evidence of Maj. Nidal Hasan’s instability and the army did nothing.

Times Square terrorist Faisal Shahzad was thwarted because his detonator did not work.  What’s worse is that he was able to buy a plane ticket in cash despite being on the “Do not fly” list.  His plane was minutes from taking off when someone realized he should not have been allowed to board.

The first job of any president is to provide for the safety and security of the citizens of the United States.  It is NOT providing health care, regulating markets, or even providing jobs for citizens.  If the president cannot keep his citizens safe, all of the mentioned policies will be for nothing.

Obama needs to get his priorities straight.

Author’s note: This letter was published in an abridged form on May 11, 2010 in the Washington Examiner.

Original letter:

I am disappointed with the Examiner’s coverage of WMATA and it’s bloated budget.  In today’s paper, it reported that over 70% of the comments received by WMATA indicated that they did not want service cuts.  What I believe is missing from the coverage is where is the money currently going.

After WMATA’s last 10-cent increase, I started my own investigation.  I found that in 2008, WMATA spent over 77% of it’s expenditures on salaries and benefits while only spending 3% on preventative maintenance.  These figures are available to the public via WMATAs web site.  I also found out that the industry with the highest salaries-to-expenditures ratio is the health care, which comes in at 55%.  Since finding this out, I submitted a Public Access to Records request to WMATA, asking for salary information of it’s unionized workers.  My guess is that much of the WMATA force is grossly overpaid when compared to the open-market and it’s the ATU that is forcing these fare increases.

I only have so much influence as a private citizen.  I’ve been working on my investigation on my own time for two months, negotiating slowly with WMATA’s legal council to release these records.  As a major news outlet, I expected much more from the Examiner.

I am covering my investigation on my website: http://www.mikesoh.com/tag/wmata

All of my figures and facts have been sourced.

Author’s note: This letter was published in an abridged form on April 12, 2010 in the Washington Examiner.

Original letter:

The advent of 24-hour-news channels has taken what used to be a noble career and turned it into the yellow journalism of today.  There is no such thing as an unbiased news source.  In a world were the number of viewers is more valuable than the number of facts, journalists has gone the way of the CRT monitor and have been replaced with political commentators.  The sad reality of this is that it is not common knowledge.

Because of this, many individuals such as myself, turn to the specialized blogs that dot the journalistic landscape.  Most of these bloggers are very new, but often offer far more detail and facts that MSM can.

These bloggers have one thing in common: they don’t care about how many viewers they get.  And because of that, they don’t care whose toes they step on to get the facts.  They may still be biased, but at least they are willing to admit it.

Author’s note: This letter was published in an abridged form on March  17, 2010 in the Washington Examiner.