Letters to the Editor - 11/17/07

Lester Krause


What I want to be when I grow up

I want to be the CEO of any major U.S. company, make bad decisions, force the stock to plummet, destroy all public confidence in the company so that the employees are destitute, can#,t obtain or keep customers and then leave in disgrace and shame but with a $161 million bonus. I#,d try Merrill Lynch [Morgan Stanley], but they just paid their CEO that, so they may not have another $161 million around.

Is there anyone out there who is going to sue ML to get this sham transaction set aside for the sake of all of the stock holders (I own no stock in this company) who where sullied out of a fair value for their investment? Who is going to stop this wholesale corporate fraud in America? Undoubtedly it arose out of a contractual deal on going in, but this nonsense needs to be outlawed unless tied directly to performance. This CEO owes the company $161 million.

Noel Spaid

Del Mar

Congress is discouraging

Reviewing what the Democratic-controlled House and Senate have been able to accomplish since the last election is quite discouraging. Yes, I agree it has to do with the size of their majority ñ i.e., not enough votes to override the presidential veto. Itís not just that, however, after all, the Congress does control the purse-strings and, yet, it has fallen woefully short in doing something with this power. Shame on them! They just donít have the political clout to say to this president, ìWeíll fund the return of our troops from Iraq, and for the arms and equipment to ensure their safe return, but we will not fund for the continuation of this immoral war.î

Why do they lack this backbone? Could it be that the Democratic representatives (like their Republican counterparts) owe their very election to the money funneled to them by the big defense contractors?

Personally, Iíd love to see a viable independent candidate running ññ one beholding to nobody but the voters. Itís not gonna happen ññ too much money already spent to ensure the status quo. The best we disgruntled Republicans can hope for in í08 is a Democratic victory and the end of the unholy clique in the White House.

Robert Green


Oversight cannot be ignored

The festivities commemorating Carlsbad High Schoolís 50th anniversary were appropriately exuberant. Much planning by a great many people generous of their time and efforts should, of course, be acknowledged. However, one exceptionally unfortunate oversight cannot be ignored. Among the many prominent students of past years honored during the festivities, past valedictorians and salutatorians were mysteriously excluded, perhaps merely thoughtlessly but, since the central function of any school is education, the scant attention to the subject of education during the celebratory festivities is regrettable.

The schoolís first principal during those early years was a scholarly and enormously gifted leader, Alfred Lafleur.

Clay Wiest

staff member, 1957 - 1960, and first librarian, Carlsbad High School


