WATCH FOR CANDIDATE FORUM ON PUBLIC-ACCESS TV

I enjoyed the League of Women Voters' forum for political candidates Tuesday night.

A videotape of the forum will be run twice on the local cable company's public-access channel 5. One broadcast will be next Tuesday evening at a time to be announced.

The primary voter decisions for the contested races of nominees for U.S. representatives (Democrat), Cape area state representative (Republican), and Cape Girardeau County coroner and public administrator will be made Aug. 8.

This is worth your viewing time to become acquainted with the candidates' qualifications, experience, mannerisms and positions on those issues they addressed.

To me, the evening was humorous, educational and informative.

Don't go to the polls uninformed. These candidates are spending a lot of time and money seeking your vote. They deserve an informed response.

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Hazardous to our health and pocketbooks: The Environmental Protection Agency has finally acknowledged that its mandated gasoline additive, MTBE, contaminates water supplies. The agency is therefore asking Congress to amend the Clean Air Act, which has caused refineries to mix this poison into our fuel. MTBE is an example of EPA junk science and high-handedness. Outside experts publicly warned the EPA years ago that MTBE would do more harm than good, but it brusquely brushed aside these fact-based admonitions.

The real polluters are old automobiles. Newer vehicles spew forth a tiny fraction of the pollutants that their ancestors did. In fact, some refineries are now able to produce cleaner gasoline without additives such as MTBE. -- Forbes magazine

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Executing the innocent: Congressional sources tell us that legislation will be introduced soon to reaffirm the long-standing rule of law barring the execution of any pregnant woman convicted of a capital crime. The issue surfaced once more when Al Gore indicated that he was unsure whether or not he would oppose such an execution, ultimately saying he believed the matter would be up to the woman herself to decide in line with Roe vs. Wade. The statement has provoked an outcry from across the political spectrum.

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The oil problem: There are a lot of folks who can't understand how we ran out of oil here in the United States. Well, here's the answer: It's simple ... nobody bothered to check the oil. Didn't know we were getting low. The reason for that is geographical. Most of the oil is in Texas and Oklahoma. All the dipsticks are in Washington.

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Clinton threatens to veto marriage-penalty relief: President Clinton said about marriage-penalty relief, "In the interest of fiscal responsibility, I will veto this and any subsequent legislation that threatens our ability to pay down the debt and strengthen Medicare and Social Security." Well, Clinton had better start using his veto pen on a plan of his own. The president had offered to go along with a GOP marriage-penalty relief bill, if the Republicans accepted a plan to make Medicare pay for prescription drugs. If he is so set on saving Medicare, then why is he trying to make it more expensive? And why, with predictions of a $2.2 trillion surplus, is he uptight about a plan less than one-seventh of the cost? Where the taxpayer is concerned, it looks like Clinton is robbing Peter and only giving IOUs to Paul. -- Washington Update

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Gephardt and taxes: Whenever a tax refund is passed by Congress, two things can be counted on. First, the evening news will have a short clip of Dick Gephardt decrying another "tax giveaway" that "largely benefits the wealthy," and then, the next day, a Post-Dispatch editorial saying the same thing with a few added words about "fairness."

It's ironic. For as long as I can remember, Gephardt and other liberals in Congress have done everything they could to make our tax system as progressive as possible. They have largely succeeded. The highest 10 percent of the population pay about 70 percent of the total federal tax bill. Bill Clinton upped this ratio when he pushed for and signed the largest tax increase in history when he first came into office. This tax increase affected the top rates only.

Now we have a surplus. The estimated size has just doubled. I you distribute this surplus back to the people who paid it, you can't help but give the lion's hare to the wealthy they are the ones who have been paying most of it!

To do anything less is to make the tax system even more progressive than it is now. Married wage earners should be taxed the same as single ones regardless of their income level. Period. -- Mike Micotto, Letter to the Editor, St. Louis Post Dispatch

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Ouch! A young brunette goes into the doctor's office and says her body hurts whenever she touches it.

"Impossible," says the doctor. "Show me."

She takes her finger and pushes her elbow and screams in agony. She pushes her knee and screams, pushes her ankle and screams and so it goes on.

The doctor says, "You're not really a brunette are you? You're really a blonde."

She says, "Yes, doctor."

"I thought so," he says. "Your finger is broken."

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.