The perils of taking single comments out of context came to the forefront recently when the White House/Department of Agriculture fired Shirley Sherrod for a comment played on a website, only to retract after they bothered to watch a few more minutes of the speech and realized her intent was opposite of the initial accusation.

Another outrageous example of misusing a comment in a disingenuous manner can be seen in the TV commercial by Walt Minnick about his congressional opponent Raul Labrador.

State Legislator Raul Labrador was giving a lengthy, thorough and thoughtful answer to the complicated problem of illegal immigration and Minnick took one partial sentence for his commercial completely out of context. This is more than disingenuous, he is purposely misrepresenting the truth. Another definition for that is LYING.

Washington, D.C., is full of politicians who twist and spin the truth. Congress already has enough leaders who are willing to lie to deceive the American people and retain their own power. We need to restore honor, integrity and trust to our Nation's Capitol.

Minnick is trying to spin Raul Labrador's experience as an immigration lawyer as a negative. On the contrary, we are a nation of immigrants; his experience is LEGAL immigration, which includes cases such as foreign adoptions (an example: Minnick's adopted daughter). What is more noble than that! His experience will be invaluable in D.C. in finding solutions to the huge problem of illegal immigration.

The Democrats have more money to spend in this election cycle than the Republicans (hmmm... billions of un-spent taxpayer confiscated stimulus money?), but don't be fooled by these lying ads. Join me in supporting the conservative congressman we need to help STOP the insane spending spree in Washington, D.C. Vote for Raul Labrador Nov. 2.

DENISE GRAVES

Hayden Lake