The American Spectator

The Alaskan and Russian mainlands are on opposite sides of the Bering Strait about 50 miles apart at their closest, possibly visible to each other on a clear day. Even more so, in the middle of the Bering Strait are Big Diomede Island, which is Russian territory, and Little Diomede Island, which is American real estate. These two islands are only 2.5 miles apart. Not only can each island be easily seen from its foreign mate, but this distance is swimmable by a United States Air Force Pararescue Specialist with a passport, a visa, a cold water suit, and maybe someone to keep the orca away.

Therefore, even THIS remark by Governor Palin is true and unlaughable. Perhaps Miss Couric needs to review her knowledge of geography before her interviews.
— David Shoup
CW2, MI
Georgia Army National Guard
Camp Phoenix, Afghanistan

STILL UNWARRANTED
Re: Peter Ferrara’s The Republican Alternative:

You just don’t get it. Neither do RINOs like Paul Ryan — my Congressman.

A Republican alternative health care plan may be better than the Democrat plan. It could hardly be worse.

But it is still an unwarranted takeover of the private health care system by the federal government.

I don’t want that. Neither do a majority of Americans.

I want less government intrusion into health care, because every intrusion makes things worse, not better. Before it’s too late, I hope a majority of Americans agree with me.

But I fear it is already too late. The line for Death Panels forms on the right and goes way over to the left.
— Lloyd G. Daub
Greenfield, Wisconsin

I am a registered Republican and I voted for John McCain. And I think this newly revealed Republican plan has a good chance of winning some folks over who were former Obama supporters, but we need to work.

I would suggest that this plan be highly publicized not only on the major network stations as well as cable TV, but on Radio and not just conservative radio. I also believe it should be publicized on billboards and newspapers. The reason I suggest this is that I work for a State agency and the majority of my co-workers voted for Obama. However, the difference now is that I am hearing some negative tones about the current administration and that ALL of the American people are not getting the “change” they had hoped for.

My co-workers truly believe that folks are expected to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and go out and earn a decent living, but they also feel that they are tired of the entitlement programs and they as hard working citizens of the great country just want a “fair” shake. My colleagues are hard working people and they are drowning in insurance premiums and medical bills and all the other taxes that the government feels is “good” for “the people.” I truly believe a lot of the democrats who voted for Obama are finally seeing that this administration was just giving lip service and that he is just as bad, if not worse than most of the politicians already in office. The problem is that most of them only listen to the news on the major networks and as we both know they are not getting the real truth about this administration.

So if they even get a whiff of what the Republican plan is I am sure they will be skeptical, because we have all heard these promises before. But if the Republicans can even get a foot in the door of these type of folks, I really believe they have a chance to convince them that Obamacare is not for the good of the people and that we need to give the Republican plan a chance to work, even if we just do a trial run in a few states.

The current government run plans in other countries, as well as Tennessee and New Hampshire are abysmal failures and we certainly don’t want to repeat those failures. We all need to think outside of the box to try and truly fix our healthcare problems in the USA so every American can take advantage of a great healthcare program. The United States has always been the leader of other nations, so why not create a model that will be best healthcare plan across the globe.
— Carol C

MICHELLE ANTOINETTE
Re: Ralph R. Reiland’s  Imperial Hypocrisy:

I wonder how much longer it will be before Michelle says “Let them eat cake.”
— Gretchen L. Chellson
Alexandria, Virginia