Sue Con Ed! To The Editor: I think that it's wonderful for Con Ed to pay $350 to homeowners for their spoiled food and $7,000 to food stores and restaurants for their spoilage. How about the "Mom and Pop" stores that were forced to stay closed? I hope it's true that a class action suit is being organized. Renold Damiani Bellerose Events Dismay Her To The Editor: Usually I share feelings of elation and optimism when I write and share my views with the Gazette readers. However today, unfortunately, I must express my dismay as I comment upon three events that occurred this week.

Firstly, how appalled I was when I read in the pages of the July 19 issue of the Gazette that the governor vetoed the bill which would have extended Access-ARide five miles into Nassau County. I cannot understand the governor's reasoning for vetoing the bill. Senior citizens and disabled members of our population have the right to move and travel freely, to visit doctors, hospitals, visit family and even work outside the NYC area. This is a discriminatory and capricious act to deny the Access-A-Ride population their rights of mobility. It is wrong to compromise the health, safety and rights of movement and mobility of these very important segments of the population. Access-A-Ride users are not charity cases, and they are voters and taxpayers.

I am also dismayed about the electrical situation in Astoria. Astoria is the home of the major Con Edison plant. It is absolutely disgraceful to have [so] many out of power, out of food, out of air conditioning and out of subway services during the hottest days of the year due to Con Edison's failure to upgrade delivery systems. I agree with Peter Vallone Jr. We are not living in a third world country and electricity and power are not a luxury but a necessity and yet we do not delay to pay our utility bills every month. Let us speak out because lives must not be compromised by Con Edison's delay in upgrading. Also, there must be a watchdog appointed to see how Con Edison spends its money that we give them to pay for utilities. I am appalled at this awful situation.

Lastly, I read in the Gazette that Medicare premiums may be raised again next year. Shameful again for seniors and disabled who live on fixed incomes. Why must these two groups be forced to increase their Medicare payments and thus suffer decreases in their monthly Social Security income? It is appalling since we have money in our federal government budget for war, space programs and the balancing act has to be upon the backs of the senior citizens and disabled segments of our population. Let us begin exerting our political action voices today before it is too late. Cynthia Groopman Long Island City We Failed To Act To The Editor:

The history of terrorist attacks reveals that the present situation should have been expected. The bombing of the Marines in Beirut in the 80s was part of nation-sponsored and organization terrorist attacks. U.S. interests have been a favorite, but not an isolated, target.

Even-handed American diplomacy kept a cap on much of the hatred that spawned radical fundamentalism. What is perceived as blind support for Israel and the invasion of Iraq has stripped the U.S. of its former role. The CIA aided the Afghan insurgency against Soviet occupation. We seem amazed that those we trained to act as our surrogates have turned their weapons upon us.

Every administration from Reagan onwards avoided overt action against the terrorists. By forsaking taking the fight to them we left our borders open to 9/11. As much as we ridiculed Ollie North, his stated fear of bin-Laden was well founded.

Israel's Lebanon campaign directly results from the weakness of the Lebanese government to act as a sovereign ruler. it also is the result of numerous failures by the Europeans and the U.S. The time to aid Lebanon to form a national army capable of taking control of its borders with Israel passed. the UN's force sat on the border as impotent observers while Hezbollah rocket launching sites were established.

The mistake of invading Iraq has removed from the U.S. a credible military option. The power vacuum has emboldened Iran and North Korea. Syria and Iran can safely thumb their noses to U.S. demands to cease supplying the terrorists in Lebanon and Iraq. Each day that Israel continues its present action the U.S. becomes more hated in a world that honors terrorists. The ultimate failure was made by the Bush administration in believing peace was dependent upon subduing Saddam. The road to peace has been and remains through Jerusalem. Edward Horn Baldwin, New York Stand By Israel To The Editor:

I'm distressed what is happening in the Middle East, as many of us are, and that is where Israel is forced to defend its borders again. They have two terrorist groups, the Hamas at one end, then the Hezbollah at the other end. Both groups have one goal and one goal only, and that is the complete destruction of Israel who have the backing of Syria and Iran. Two more players in this high stakes game who think the major powers are too involved elsewhere to intervene (sic).

Israel, I think, is right in not negotiating with the terrorists and doing what is necessary by demonstrating to her enemies their actions will not be tolerated. Sincerely yours, Frederick R. Bedell Jr. Bellerose Send Illegal Aliens Back To The Editor:

The only logical position regarding our illegal alien problem is: no amnesty, no guest worker scams, deport all illegal aliens and build a wall across the entire Mexican border, NOW!

Why? Well, let's take a brief look at what illegal aliens are doing to our nation.

Crime: 29 percent of our prison population is comprised of illegal aliens. This just happens to cost us a whopping $1.6 billion and is constantly growing. Vicious gangs of illegal aliens prey upon our citizens throughout our nation, especially in our major cities. Many gangs are connected to international drug smugglers and terrorist sleeper cells. In addition to the millions of dollars lost to theft, they inflict all manner of barbaric injuries upon their victims. Then we must tack on the additional millions our local police departments must spend in order to combat these violent border jumpers.

Social Security: Yes, some of them do pay into the system via fraudulent SS numbers. Our senators (the men and women we elect to represent us-not them), must be told not to grant legal status to people who violate our laws! Why? Well, buried deep within this "Senate Sell Out" are provisions that would grant these illegals even more largess. Furthermore, this treasonous proposal would also permit illegals to bring an additional four family members into the USA. Can you even imagine what this would do to our sagging, "outsourced" economy?

Health Care Systems: Many hospitals across our nation have already gone bellyup. Whenever illegal aliens show up at a hospital, they pay nothing and the hospital has no way to get reimbursed. Thus, those who employ them are indirectly destroying our hospitals. Yes, they get cheap labor, but the rest of us make up the difference many times over. These employers fail to consider these disastrous long-range consequences.

Why are hospitals and other social providers squandering our taxes on people who don't even belong here? Radical judges on all levels throughout our nation have violated our laws and ordered our health care and welfare agencies to provide their services to all who ask, regardless of their legal status. Every one of these radical judges should be impeached, jailed and lose all rights to any pension. and all such illegal judicial orders should be annulled. Once this is done and illegal aliens are no longer employed they'll leave this nation faster than they came. Then we'll see how fast Americans will take those jobs for a decent wage.

Education: Throughout our nation, schools are inundated with children of illegal aliens, most of whom don't speak English nor desire to. In fact, many now demand that our schools provide teachers who speak "their language". Yes, many have no desire to assimilate. Go on the Internet and look up "La Raza" and see what they really want. Back in 2004, the Federation for American Immigration Reform calculated that our states were spending $28.6 billion to educate the children of these border-jumpers.

Terrorism: We cannot ignore the very real possibility of future terrorism. "Homeland Insecurity" continually tells us it's going to happen. Well, many MidEastern terrorists have indeed already infiltrated via our nonexistent Mexican border. President Bush, you do recall, adamantly campaigned to stop the hemorrhage at the border during his first run for office. And that's all he did! Talk is indeed cheap! Just recently he mocked retired Americans who were protecting our borders, calling them "vigilantes." Now, once again he claims he'll stop this alien invasion. However, the 6,000 National Guardsmen he recently sent to the border are not allowed to carry weapons or even assist border patrols in capturing the hordes dashing across our border. Yes, he conveniently forgot to tell Americans about these insane treasonous restrictions. Oh, he's deeply concerned about democracy in Iraq but exacerbates the crisis at our Mexican border.

Thus we see illegal aliens are, indeed, contributing enormously to our nation. Many of us are children of legal immigrants and we welcome all legal immigrants, but we must not give into the illegal aliens.

And now a modest proposal: bring all our troops back from Japan, Korea, and Europe for starters. These nations no longer need our protection. In fact, they now have robust economies and can well afford to build and support their own armed forces. Why should Americans be taxed to pay for their protection? It's absolutely insane to send our troops to protect foreign nations while our homeland is under siege! The billions saved will swiftly reduce our unbelievable debt. Our troops will spend their cash here at home and help stimulate our "Bush out-sourced economy." Let our troops protect our borders and save our nation before it's too late. Log onto www.thenewamerican.com for more detailed information. An American, Frank S. Ferrari Bayside