Dear (editor's name here)

It's an old established political game for campaigns to have supporters all across the country write local letters to the editor extolling the virtues of their candidate and perhaps planting seeds of doubt or mistruths about their opponents. Many of these letters sound remarkably alike. Thanks to Google, letters editors can now easily find common published phrasings and discard the form letters.

But Barack Obama's campaign is trying a new angle on the old game. He's not trying to get supporters to write letters about the candidate. He's trying to get them to write letters feeding the country's anti-war feelings and criticizing President Bush, who is not running.

In an e-mail letter to supporters late this week Obama criticized the administration's report on Iraq war progress and said, "Al Qaeda's resurgence proves that the Iraq war has been a deadly distraction from the real threats we face--which is why I opposed the war from the beginning."

He then gives a campaign website where people can go and basically write an automated letter to an editor. "Share your outrage at President Bush's false claims of 'progress.'" You don't even have to know the newspaper's name. Type in your Zip code, up pops a list of local newspapers, check off the ones you want to write, add your name and address, choose the pre-written letter ("This is a war that should never have happened") or type in some other anti-war, anti-Bush talking points from a nearby list.

Then, with a simple click on the Send button, you've made a statement and helped to feed the unhappiness that--gee, here's an idea--may look around for a fresh political face to choose as national leader next year, a fresh face that coincidentally looks remarkably like Obama.

This item was not paid for by Obama for America, which did not approve this message.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Paul Jackson]

It is difficult for me as a Veteran of WW II to understand how those who hate war as they imply, to realize that a big picture emerges. What do we do if Israel is attacked? We have a treaty with Israel! Do we allow terrorists led by self annointed Clerics or Tribe Leaders govern the MidEast? Whose side are some of these dissidents on anyway? America is the strongest nation in the world and we could drop a Nuke on Iran or other radical countries to get their attention, but would that be rational defense of the American people?

Paul Jackson
Sioux City, Iowa 51106

[Fickles mattis]

I'm going to make it my mission your paper loses its readership, that its employees at both the LA Times and New York Times panders of illegal aliens destroying our great America you are the real criminals quite socialist spreading your political agenda to bring down our United States and individual Freedoms.

Barrack Obama a Liberal Fascist needs to be deported back to Africa land of his father, a long with the millions of illegal scum, all his fellow supports voting for him , policticens with his views, all the employees at the LA & New York Times deported... Maybe then will find news worth reporting, such as, after your starving to death, raped and killed by illegal scum you support and love, good reddens and every oppression Liberal Fascist will oppressions focused upon you to live, I say welcome home, living in hell SUCKERS!

GET OUT OF AMERICA LIBERAL FASCISTS SCUM!

[drfengshui]

I am writing about the most recent bailout. There must be a law that forbids co-mingling of appropriation bills. This would exclude ear marks, pork bill spending. How hard can this be?

[Michael P. Briodge, MBA, CPA]

I am a CPA from Encino California. I have been practicing my profession for 44 years and have worked a all spectrums of public accounting firms from the "Big 4 (8)" to a local accounting firm. In my 44 years of practice I have seen a continual erosion of the ethics of the business world. I have developed a concept which I believe could be adopted by many business that would go a long way to restore faith in our business community. I call my idea the "Business Code of Conduct." Below I have submitted a brief outline of some of my ideas.
I originall developed this concept about four years ago. I believe we are now going through the kind of business upheavel I referred to.

BUSINESS CODE OF CONDUCT

I would like to see the business world take the lead in redirecting the moral fiber of our country. I
believe that the business community could develop a "Business Code of Conduct," for public companies, that would become part of the company's "Corporate By-Laws" and would provide for
long term benefits to our country. The things that come to my mind are:
• A living wage for all full time employees of a company.
• A ratio between the wage of the lowest paid employee and the wage, including stock
options, for the highest paid employee.
• A policy which provides health care to all full time employees and makes health care
coverage available to their dependents.
• A policy to not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender political affiliation, preference etc.
• A policy to provide a safe work environment for all employees.
• A policy to respect and protect the environment.
• A policy that promises to insure that any manufacturing or service work performed outside the United States will not involve child labor or sub-standard wages or working conditions.

What I have proposed above is only a brief outline of what I believe could be done. I would think the concept could be fully developed by group conscientious members from the business community such as, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Stephen Speilberg, Michael Eisner, Robert Iger, Steve Jobs, Magic Johnson, Phil Knight, Andy Grove, Jack Welch, Pete Peterson, Warren Rudman Oprah Winfrey etc.

Most importantly the "Code" would come from the business world and not government. Each Business would be able to adopt its own version of the "Code." Investors would be able to evaluate a company's potential to some extent by the "Business Code of Conduct" adopted. Specifically a company without a limitation on salaries would say to the market, "if we are successful the executives will take out very large amounts of money;” while a company that has adopted a code would say “if we make a lot of money after a top salary of $2-$3 Million the balance of the income will inure to the benefit of the shareholders.” The value of such a company would be significantly higher than a company with similar earnings that was paying excessive bonuses to its executives.

I also believe that the annual audit of a company could include a statement by the auditors that XYZ
Company has complied with the "Business Code of Conduct" adopted by its Board of Directors.

This is only a work in progress. A great deal of additional thought needs to go into the concept of a "Business Code of Conduct" applied to publicly traded businesses. I am concerned that if we continue to allow greed to dictate the conduct of our business community, we will eventually create an environment which will lead to some kind of major upheaval in our society. In addition, this kind of greed is not “right.”

[Hazel Beidleman]

It amazes me to now thatj journalists are so interested in making fun of Sarah Paylon that they have totally missed focusing in on the fact that Barack Obama is not qualified to run for president because he is not a legal U.S.natural-born citizen. You as a newspaper have the responsibility to report ALL of the news, and especially something as this which is a crime against the U.S. I urge you to report about the suite filed against Barack Obama in the case of Berg v. Obama, No. 08-cv-04083. More information can be found at www.obamacrimes.com.