The other day I went into a big-box hardware store to shop for some hardwood flooring. I found a couple of take-home samples and tried to check them out, but I could not. The sales computer would not read the code to produce an item number. The sales people were unsure how to secure an item number, which was a prerequisite for me to take it.

Thinking that procedures can be put aside sometimes for the greater good, I suggested that they just take my name and let me give them some cash as security to ensure that I would return the flooring samples. They rejected my option; so I waited another 20 minutes while sales people and managers tried to find a solution as a way to provide me service. They couldn't, so I left without the sample.

Later, I went to Shiver's where I had been many times before during my three-year remodeling adventure with my house. After a few hello's to me by name, I got the flooring samples easily, quickly, and without a deposit. Although I have generally received good service at the big-box store, there is something to be said for old-time, personal service. I suppose you can guess where I ordered my flooring.

Miles Cooper

Americus

I am simply amazed, though I know I shouldn’t be, at the arrogance that is the Bush administration. It has come out that in Bush’s Justice Department that those law students and others applying for jobs that by law cannot use an applicant’s politics against him in the hiring process were denied overwhelmingly if they stated they were liberal. In 2002 alone, 100 applicants described themselves as liberal, Democrats or members of liberal leaning organizations. Of this number 80 were rejected. Of their Republican or conservative counterparts, 4 out of 46 were rejected. If this is chance I want to take these odds to Vegas.

On another issue the Bush administration refused to open an e-mail from the EPA concerning a new rule of the EPA because they didn’t want to implement it. This is our government, one that won’t open an e-mail to get around doing something they don’t want to do? This is a government of children. We have a Vice President who stated he wasn’t a part of the Executive Branch but the Legislative Branch in order to get around governmental oversight. What part of the Legislative Branch is he a member? Well, he is President of the Senate. He breaks ties in the Senate when necessary. So, I guess he isn’t subservient to the President at all and doesn’t hold any power within the Executive Branch. I am sure he will gladly give up any posts within that branch to concentrate on his grueling Legislative Branch responsibilities.

More Bush arrogance: in 2003, experts in nuclear physics were dismissed from a panel within the National Nuclear Security Administration because some of them had published about how the Bush administration's "bunker buster" weapons weren't very effective. And scientists who spoke out against the administration's stem cell policy were booted from the President's Council on Bioethics. The EPA in a political decision stated that the air around ground zero of the destroyed WTC was safe to breathe even without testing the air. Result: thousands of rescue workers who have lung ailments. Political hires of the EPA accepted fraudulent data on the drug Ketek, which led to dozens of cases of severe liver damage. The acting head of the EPA stated to EPA reviewers not to speak about this drug even though the EPA was facing congressional subpoenas. Executive Order 13422, gives the Office of Management and Budget a lot of control over how regulatory agencies handle science. Currently the OMB has the power to revise the findings of scientists within those agencies, despite the fact that the OMB has little to no scientific expertise. Bisphenol A is a substance that is common in plastic, such as plastic bottles. The Bush administration ignored numerous studies showing the dangers of this substance and accepted studies favorable to the makers of Bisphenol A. More than half of 889 scientists in a study felt they experienced at least one incidence of political interference in their work.

I wish I had more space to document the arrogance and disregard for sound science by this administration but anyone with some research can find many more examples.

James Markson

Americus