Conservative Forum

Human Events, Mar 28, 2005

Federal Investigation Needed Into Forged CBS Documents

Thank you for the articles in HUMAN EVENTS ["Feds Refuse to Pursue Forger," March 14, cover story] about the conspiracy by CBS to attempt to influence a presidential election.

I hope someone will begin a move to bring all the persons involved in this alleged felony before a grand jury. Perhaps the three CBS executives who were asked to resign could provide valuable information.

In my opinion, the CBS investigative committee headed by Richard Thornburgh must be investigated, too.

All Americans who are informed liberals or conservatives must be laughing at the conclusion that political bias at CBS was not involved-because it could not be proved. I think Mary Mapes' failed fiveyear search for anything to discredit President Bush is proof of bias. I think her call to Joe Lockhart of the Kerry campaign is proof of political bias. I think Thornburgh had sufficient proof, which he apparently chose to deny.

Please don't let this issue die.

-Lorraine Pulley

Mechanicsville, Va.

Sensenbrenner's REAL ID Act Makes Anti-Terrorism Strides

In his commentary about the REAL ID Act, Robert Spencer [HUMAN EVENTS, "New Driver's License Bill Can't Stop Terrorism," March 7, page 14] makes the assertion that Rep. James Sensenbrenner's legislation would be ineffective in preventing terrorists from getting driver's licenses because people can still obtain and use fake Social Security numbers at the DMV.

Had Mr. Spencer accurately read the legislation, he would have seen that each document presented by a person applying for a license, including a Social Security card, must be verified by each state DMV with the issuing agency.

The REAL ID Act can't stop terrorism, but it can certainly make it more difficult for terrorists to operate inside our own country, just as they did for months and years before 9/11.

-Colleen Gilbert

Executive Director

Coalition for a Secure Driver's License

Washington, D.C.

Secure U.S.-Mexican Border With Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Securing the nation's borders is possibly the most important and challenging aspect of homeland security. Border security is not getting the resources it needs. Part of the answer is additional manpower.

Another part of the solution rests with the aggressive exploitation of available technologies. In particular, the Department of Homeland Security needs to invest seriously in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with which to conduct surveillance of the land and sea borders. The military has already done most of the development and testing. Systems such as the Global Hawk and Scan Eagle have been deployed in Iraq. Others, such as the tiltrotor Eagle Eye are nearing deployment. The Global Hawk can stay in the air for up to 36 hours and patrol millions of square miles.

Deployed with the appropriate sensors, UAVs not only can track people, vehicles, aircraft and ships but also potentially detect nuclear weapons being smuggled into the country. UAVs are an effective force multiplier. The skies over our borders should be filled with them. We are spending $4 billion a year to protect airliners and virtually nothing to patrol our borders.

-Daniel Goure

Vice President

The Lexington Institute

Arlington, Va.

Dems' Social Security Ideas Don't Fix the Real Problem

I often hear it said that the Democrats do not have a plan to fix Social Security but just oppose the President's plan. They do have a plan and Terri Schiavo is an important part of it: Get rid of those who are no longer productive and have become a drain on the system. How do we do it?

1) California Assemblyman Lloyd Levin of Van Nuys is proposing a bill to legalize "physician-assisted suicide." Oregon already has such a law. Here's where the disabled woman from Florida comes in. On the word of her husband, backed by the ACLU, his lawyer and one pro-active judge, she can be starved and dehydrated to death. If I treated my golden retriever that way, the ASPCA and PETA would hang me out to dry.

2) Raise the age limit before one is eligible to collect. Read the obituary column and you'll see that many more people die before age 70 than before age 65. My father-in-law died two months before he retired. His wife had died before him. Although he had paid into Social Security all of his working life, we received $250 toward his burial expenses. Chalk one up for the system.

Social Security benefits from those workers who die before they can collect from the system. In the 1960s Ronald Reagan said it best: "It's social, but is it security?"

Back in the '60s my husband heard a financial planner who advised workers to save using a tax-deferred annuity whatever they could afford from their paychecks. (For us it started at about $15 a week.) We followed his advice and that fund has grown to almost $300,000. If we had died that money would be there for our children. We've invested much more in Social Security than we did in that annuity, but when I die it will all disappear. President Bush is trying to give today's workers the opportunity that the annuity gave us.