"When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal."

- Richard Nixon

Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush has been trampling all over the Constitution. Unfazed by public opinion, the law, or Congress, Bush seems to think he can get away with anything.

In recent years, the price of gasoline has soared as the supply of crude oil has risen in response to unprecedented global demand.

But never fear, Uncle Sam is here! Citing the need to decrease our country's dependence on foreign and potentially unreliable sources of energy, Congress, encouraged by President Bush, has passed laws mandating that ever-greater quantities of corn-based ethanol be produced, and subsidizing this production with tens of billions of dollars.

(Editor's note: Danny A. Holmes, general manager of the Radisson Quad City Plaza Hotel, sent the following letter to Davenport city officials on Tuesday, June 5.)

I sincerely hope all points of view will be considered as negotiations for lease of the RiverCenter by Isle of Capri Casinos move forward at what appears to be a surprisingly rapid pace. Please be advised that Radisson Quad City Plaza and John Q. Hammons Hotels strongly object to this proposal for a number of reasons, including but not limited to the following:

There are some things I would like to add to and comment upon in Jay Lehr's guest commentary from the May 23 Reader. I'll start by simply saying that it's hard to respond to the specific points he brings up in the first half of his article relating to the effects of cranberries, trans fats, DDT, Freon, and others since he simply presents a list of these environmental and health fears and claims they are unfounded without giving any specific reasons why. Dr. Lehr simply lists them all, each with a sentence, and tells us they were all wrong without taking into account any sort of research people have spent their lives working on in these areas.

 From the lack of recognition given to such work, it seems as though Dr. Lehr is implying: "What you have said and done was a waste of time; you are simply wrong." Then to tie everything together by a sort of analogy, all environmental and health scares which Dr. Lehr can remember, which we would assume to be many on account of Dr. Lehr's position as a science director, have never "proved to be true."