To the Editor:
    There she goes again. Another week, another cheap shot from liberal columnist Celia Murray. You would think with the Democrats having complete control of our federal government and with socialist nirvana fast underway, Ms. Murray would exhibit some degree of happiness. But her columns are nothing more than mud-slinging bitterness.
    Last week was the latest in a string of viciousness that has seen her use the failings of one man, Governor Mark Sanford, to impugn the character of all Republicans and conservatives by playing the hypocrite card. Newsflash for Ms. Murray: we are all sinners, each and every one of us. In Ms. Murray's world, if you have standards and have values and fail, you are a hypocrite. There’s not a preacher in the country who could measure up to such an impossible yardstick.
    Would it be better to abandon our principles because some of us fail? Would she rather our politicians espouse the virtues of infidelity and corruption?
    All this after a previous column blaming Republicans for the shooting death of the abortion doctor, a classic example of guilt by association. Interesting that Ms. Murray does not blame the black community for the doctors death, as they also overwhelmingly oppose partial-birth abortion. Politically correct bashing I guess.
    The coup de grace of hatefulness occurred in her column following the Tea Parties of April 15 where Ms. Murray used a degrading sexual slur to describe the participants. Ms. Murray found it necessary to demean the hundreds of good people of Madison, participants of all walks of life, of all ages, races and political affiliations, as just a bunch of sexual deviants. How nice.

To the Editor:
     With a July 20 deadline for appealing your property tax assessment, time is of the essence. If you believe your property has been unfairly assessed and you have not appealed then it is time to be proactive. The first step is to not rely on what is printed in the tax assessor's annual assessment notice. Do your homework. You have to go to the tax commissioner's office and request and review your tax record card for more detailed information. Or, you can email or call the chief appraiser, Chuck Anglin, at (706) 342-0551 and have this year's card sent to you. You can review it online, BUT that is not this year's notice, it is last year's.
    Do they not want you to see it?
    In fact, you can request and will receive tax records of any property in the county, whether it is an adjacent neighbor or a home located down the street. That is the best way to get an indication if all are being assessed equally. It will be apparent from that document and comparing it to past years and other tax record cards if your property is being arbitrarily increased.
    With just a little digging you may discover your acreage is overvalued, you are being assessed for a finished basement or attic space, when it is not, your square footage increased for no apparent reason and/or out buildings are suddenly overvalued. Interestingly, when the tax appraiser shrugs his shoulders and comments, "We can't come in, so if it looks like a two-story house, well, then...," how is that a fair assessment?

To the Editor:
     I am writing to address Fred Johnson's July 2nd column entitled "The Electric Car Folly" and to correct some inaccurate assumptions he made in its writing. I own a Prius, which is a hybrid car, half electric and half gas. My car does not ever require plugging into an electricity source. It is made with a battery that generates energy when it is driven. True, there are some cars made to be plugged in, but they do not go far and thus are not very practical. Fortunately, automotive
technology has advanced way beyond that point. If we have more hybrid or fully electric cars we will be, in fact, using both less gasoline and less electricity (which is needed to operate the gasoline industry). We will also be protecting the quality of our air and becoming less dependent on foreign oil-producing nations. We can save ourselves money at the pump while conserving our natural resources and becoming a more self-sustaining country.
Pat Wells
Madison
Via e-mail

To the Editor:
    I sure wish Nancy Pelosi and our president would chat every now and then.

    Candidate Obama vowed to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. Yet Pelosi’s House of Representatives just passed the “Cap and Trade” Bill which will double your electric bill, and increase gasoline and natural gas by 55 percent according to economic experts at the Heritage Foundation. In fact, nearly everything you buy will become more expensive.

    Just hope your not one of the 1.1 million jobs that will be lost. They’ll be outsourced to nations like China and India - who have no intention of ham-stringing their economies like we are. Farmers will especially suffer; in higher gasoline, diesel, electricity, and natural gas-derived fertilizer costs, which will erode their profits by 57 percent. But hey, what’s $9.4 trillion among friends? That’s how much poorer America will be by 2035.

     Speaking of the poor - they will be hit the hardest. The bill actually admits it, throwing a paltry bone to low-income workers in tiny subsidies that won’t begin to cover skyrocketing costs. I use the word “skyrocket” because I am quoting what Mr. Obama said his energy plan would do to electric bills. Jason Furman, the deputy director of Obama’s National Economic Council, even admits the plan will cost three times what they originally thought - increasing energy costs by $250 billion a year, a 50 percent hike.

To the Editor: 
    I don’t get it!
    On the front page of last week’s paper I’m smacked in the face with “MMH CEO leaves abruptly” then turn the section over and find the "Business of the Year award went to Morgan Memorial Hospital."
    To read all this, all at once in the same little county paper was no doubt ironic, but the more I thought about it, it was also no doubt crazy!
    I felt like I had fallen right down the rabbit hole and out of Madison altogether. Just when it seemed we were actually getting close to a hospital of our own, undoubtedly because of Mr. Jolley’s tireless efforts, I could envision the County Commission and Hospital Board, all dressed up like characters from Wonderland, running around willy-nilly screaming, “Off with his head, off with his head!”
    I admit I’m confused and don’t know what’s going on. But whatever it is, it’s getting “curiouser and curiouser” and we, I fear, will end up back in the real world still driving 30 minutes to Athens (or Lake Oconee perhaps?) to go to a real hospital. 
Emmie Smock
Madison
Via e-mail

To the Editor:
    From personal experiences I've had over the last three years with the hospital I wonder about how it is managed. I run a collection business in Madison if it were not for clients in Athens and surrounding areas, I would have to fold. They seem to appreciate us for our personal service and return rates. They don't complain about our fees. We collected more than 1.2 million dollars for Morgan Memorial and have not been able to get but one set of accounts in the past three years, most of the dollar amount was on one person. Our collection percentage was twice as high as the ones being used by the last CFO and our rates matched any outside competitor.
    We had a 17-year track record and we can't even get anyone to return our phone calls when we try to talk to them. I did, however, receive an invitation to contribute to the new hospital and buy something from one of the board members I tried to talk to.
    Three of us in this community signed a note for a very large sum of money and provided some much needed equipment to help Patrick Green turn the finances around. No good deed goes unpunished is as true as it ever was. I was told recently that the hospital was doing "in-house" collections only to find out that they are using yet another outside agency. Something is wrong and assuming we did something to warrant this kind of treatment, I would like to know what it is.
    I remember that Minnie G. was being supplemented at about one-fourth the rate Morgan Memorial was just prior to them selling their hospital.