Readers share thoughts on the Kansas City Zoo, political mailers and the GOP

Royal George

I’m a Kansas City Zoo fan, but I’m not sure that our British friends would appreciate Kansas City naming its baby chimp Royal George, considering the name of the latest scion of the House of Windsor (10-21, A4, “Baby named Royal George joins zoo’s chimp troop”).

Barbara Loots

Kansas City

Aid for needy

As we approach the upcoming election, I hope voters will take into consideration that the powerful and wealthy don’t need tax breaks. The poor and helpless do.

Patrick Meagher

Westwood

Political mailers

Last week I received a glossy, mass-mailing, four-page, political brochure from the Kansas Republican Party. It states darkly (without a shred of proof) that independent Senate candidate Greg Orman has spent much of his adult life hiding money in the Cayman Islands.

This ad — along with the equally vicious ads run by Gov. Sam Brownback that equate Democratic challenger Paul Davis with illicit sex, drugs and prostitutes — is as malicious and corrupt as any that I have seen in my 73 years on this earth. These ads border on depraved.

Has the Kansas Republican Party lost all sense of perspective and honesty?

I considered myself a moderate Republican until the Koch brothers beat that out of me a few years ago. Whatever dignity and self-respect Republican Sen. Pat Roberts may have once had has been thrown in the trash. He now appears to be just a mean-spirited and confused old man.

Richard Warrick

Lawrence

Do-nothing GOP

Thank you, President Barack Obama, for keeping all of us safe. If this Republican Congress had its way, it would have us fighting one war after another.

Our president is calm, cool and collected when the issues are so important. He thinks everything through.

We are so fortunate to have a president who cares about all the people in this country, not just the ultra-wealthy, whom the Republicans idolize.

Republican members of Congress are brainless, doing what they’re told by those who hold the money bags. They want to sue the president for doing his job because they’re incapable of doing anything themselves to help move our country forward.

These Republicans are jealous that we have a great president who makes decisions based on what’s best for our country. We Americans should sue members of Congress for giving themselves huge salaries while they refuse to pass any legislation for the betterment of the country.

This midterm election is the most important we’ve ever had. Every vote counts.

Do not let the do-nothing Republicans take over the Senate. That would be the end of the middle class and the end of America as we know it.

Sam Stone

Prairie Village

Voter identification

There has been a collective outrage by Democrats over identification requirements to prove eligibility to vote. It supposedly places huge hurdles in the way of the poor and minorities, who often vote for Democrats, because they are less likely to have the required identification and the costs can be prohibitive.

Republicans say that voter ID is to prevent voter fraud, not to aid voter suppression. President Barack Obama said that apathy, not voter ID requirements, keeps minorities from the polls.

Most people have identification. Most people have driver’s licenses. Most people can get to the polls.

President Obama continued that these laws are not preventing African-Americans from voting. Apathy is.

Your vote makes a difference in elections. This applies to Republicans and Democrats alike. Make your voices heard and be informed. Vote.

The president is telling the truth for a change (and maybe he’s more than just a touch worried about the midterm elections) and supports what Republicans have known all along.

Sandra Schifferle

Lansing

Vote for Roberts

Don’t believe independent Senate candidate Greg Orman. He says incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is attacking him. Roberts is only telling the truth.

Orman says he has tried both parties. When has he been a Republican? We know he has been a Democrat and supported President Barack Obama.

The record speaks for itself. He says there is “stalemate in Washington.” It is because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will not let passed House bills come to the Senate floor for a vote.

We cannot send Greg Orman to Washington, D.C., because his record says he is not a true independent.

Esther Cotton

McPherson, Kan.

Political solicitations

My wife is registered as a Democrat. For years, the Kansas Democratic Party has been regularly calling from Johnson County for campaign contributions.

She made the mistake of contributing once, and it has been like getting a leg caught in a wood chipper. It keeps pulling you in and getting louder.

I usually answer the phone. Four years ago, they got specific and started soliciting for the Kansas Democratic U.S. Senate campaign. When I said nobody was up for election in 2012, the caller said the party needed to get a fund ready for 2014.

It is 2014. The Democratic campaign has been a non-starting heap that didn’t even show up on the track. There were no primary campaigns or presence with a barnstorming platform message.

I have learned to listen for solicitation, apologetically decline and hang up in less than 15 seconds.

Brad Lieffring

Prairie Village

Governor’s race

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s campaign for re-election is trying to find ways to discredit his Democratic opponent, Paul Davis.

Before Brownback throws stones, he should remember that his friend, Congressman Kevin Yoder, who is also running for re-election, made national news by frolicking nude in the Sea of Galilee.

Or was that a religious experience?

Joyce Koch

Leawood

Dictator Harry Reid

Why aren’t any news media letting the public know that this country is now controlled by one person?

There are three branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. But now none of this matters as one person controls all. Think about it.

Almost everything the House of Representatives passes and sends to the Senate winds up sitting on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s desk. That’s why nothing gets done in Washington, D.C.

This nation was not formed to allow it to be run by a dictator. That is exactly what Sen. Reid is doing now. One nation under Harry Reid, with the help of President Barack Obama.

So where are the news media, which should be reporting this and raising a stink?

Jerre N. Fischer

Shawnee

Political robocalls

Dear Politicians: Let me explain something to you. To get my vote you need me to like you, at least like you more than your opponent.

Your robocalls at all hours of the day, particularly at dinnertime, do not endear you to me. Do you really have such a low opinion of the electorate that you think this annoying kind of marketing works?

For any business it’s illegal, but only because of your contempt for the public are you allowed to make these unwanted calls. Isn’t it enough that we are hammered into insensibility by your inane TV advertisements?

Why don’t you just use spam? At least then my computer can ignore you for me. Maybe we could make Election Day a national holiday because we could all celebrate a short break from your telephone torture of us — at least until the national insanity of election time next year.

Bill Stoker

Overland Park

Love for the Royals

I am most impressed by the tip of the hat.

What a kind and polite way of being a gentleman.

I Googled “champagne showers ...”

It sounds like the jazz town we were/are.

Thank goodness.

It has all been great fun!

We love them.

Hoorah for the Royals

They seem to be gentlemen.

How refreshing.

Paul Mesner