PUBLIC FORUM ARNOLD'S SCRIPT.

Now we know why Arnold Schwarzenegger will only participate in one debate. The reason is it is the only debate where he is given the questions ahead of time. By having the questions ahead of time his two billionaire advisers can write out his answers for him.

He apparently has no independent knowledge of what is expected of a governor - so he doesn't want to take a chance on making this perfectly clear to California voters by answering questions he has not been prompted on.

Although he is ignorant about the job of being governor, he is smart enough to only participate in a debate where he won't stick his foot in his mouth. I don't believe, however, this qualifies him to be governor of California.

- Robert Wilson 

Sunland

Adding it up

Arnold Schwarzenegger plus Tom McClintock equals Cruz Bustamante.

- Steve Morsa

Thousand Oaks 

It might work

When I first came to California and settled here in Los Angeles, people asked me where I was from. I told them Chicago. Shocked, they asked how did I put up with all the graft back there? Let's see - the mayor always made sure things important to the people got taken care of. Street lights were all over (the city), including poor areas. You'd call the police, they showed up in minutes - plus, there were 28,000 police officers, enough to handle problems.

Now if we could cut the salaries of the officials out here to match nationwide standards, cut the so-called slush fund and, as Arnold said, do an honest and complete audit of all moneys coming in, God only knows what we could get done.

- Russell E. Spencer Sr.

Encino

Body count

Re ``3 Taft students shot'' (Sept. 10):

After watching the casualty count at Los Angeles Unified School District for the past 30-some years, it seems that anyone who sends a child to L.A. public schools either is broke, doesn't care about the kid or just doesn't understand the situation.

- Ron E. Young

La Crescenta

Get serious about gangs

Re ``3 Taft students shot'' (Sept. 10):

Until a little over a year ago, I was a Valley resident and I often frequented the intersection of Winnetka and Ventura Blvd. A few years back, this same intersection was the location of another murder. A young black Taft student, who was waiting for the bus, was murdered by Latino gang members. This was a racially provoked murder, according to witnesses who heard the killers yell racial slurs.

Mayor James Hahn is making a lot of noise, but he is not serious about doing anything about the gangs. Over 50 percent of Latino gangs are composed of illegal aliens and deportable.

Special Order 40 prevents police from inquiring about legal residency when these hoods are apprehended and as a result they go into the justice revolving door. If Mayor Hahn were serious about stopping gangs, he would see to it Special Order 40 is revoked.

- Haydee Pavia

Laguna Woods

Shocking bias

As a teacher, I find your editorial bias against educators and other hard-working employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District shocking. This was dramatically evident in the Sept. 3 Daily News.

When the school board voted to keep our salaries and health benefits at their current levels, you made it a front-page article with the headline ``School kids lose again.'' While, buried on page 9 of the same day's edition, you reported Congress had voted themselves a 2.2 percent pay raise - boosting their salaries to a whopping $158,000 a year. Congress members' health benefits, by the way, put the HMO options offered by the LAUSD to shame.

- Michael Pucher

Reseda

Prop. 13 a blessing

I beg to differ with Al Sheaben, whose letter declares California's budget woes are a result of Proposition 13 (Your Opinions, Sept. 4). Before Prop. 13 was made law, countless numbers of California citizens were forced to sell their homes or lose them because of confiscatory property taxes.

I know because I was a Realtor and I was near tears numerous times during interviews with these victims, whose taxes had escalated from about $300 to more than $1,000 in only a couple of years.

The passage of Prop. 13 was a blessing that saved thousands of homes for people of limited means over the past 25 years. As for closing schools, libraries, hospitals and a broken state budget, profligate, wasteful spending by politicians is the culprit and none other.

- Sid Conkwright

Van Nuys

Still needed

Re ``Still a bad idea'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 4):

This individual is either from out of state or not a property owner. When Proposition 13 passed, our property taxes had doubled four times. We refinanced and requested to be billed direct on tax notices. This passage of Prop. 13 saved our home. Any property owner benefits by Prop. 13 - the apartment owner merely passes a tax increase on to his renters.

The big problem here is low voter turnout. If you don't like to go to the polls, request an absentee ballot. You can vote from home and it will cost you only a postage stamp. The voter information booklet has a form on it for ordering a ballot.

- Darrel Blauser

Chatsworth

Israeli restraint

Re ``13 die in pair of Mideast suicide bombings'' (Sept. 10):

Israel has the capability to destroy virtually every living soul in Gaza and the West Bank. The fact they either target Hamas operatives or bulldoze vacant houses shows enormous restraint in this cycle of violence. Homicide bombers terrorize a whole country and kill civilians - in fact specifically target civilians - since in their eyes, all Jews are legitimate targets of jihad.

Perhaps in 100 years or so, the number of extremist martyrs will decline significantly. Or, the hawkish leaders of Israel will say ``enough'' and bulldoze all of Gaza and the West Bank and force the survivors into exile in ``friendlier'' Arab neighbor countries.

- Sol Taylor

Sherman Oaks

Where's the profit?

About a year or two ago, President Bush gave the wealthy a trillion-dollar tax cut, stating they are the ones who create jobs. Well, his plan seems to be working perfectly.

I understand that American companies have created about 3 million new jobs in the last two years - most of them in China and a good number in India. They are doing jobs that Americans were doing. They are exporting their products back to the USA, but our government profits in no way from this.

- Stan Niedwicki

Woodland Hills

World War III 

Will American citizens please step up to the plate and realize that the war on Saddam Hussein is over - we won - but Iraq is still the focal point of our new war (World War III). Along with more than 50 other countries that are under murderous attacks from the Islamist hordes (1.2 billion worldwide at last count), we are their primary target and the present front lines are in Iraq.

Get real, Americans, our lives and lifestyles are in very great danger, and we must fight them wherever they are.

- Ralph Smathers

Newhall

Bush and company

How long are we letting George Bush and company control the world? Check the dictionary. Dictatorship: command by one in authority. This is the definition of dictatorship. We are getting close and we had better wise up and very soon.

A very rich, influential-through-Bush dynasty of Texas oilconnections (Cheney from Halliburton and Kenny Boy from Enron) and Halliburton's very lucrative Iraq repair contracts (Cheney again). Face it. Bush wants $87 billion for the next few months in Iraq. A trillion dollars, ad infinitum. Ever onward. Who cares?

- Dorie Crowe

Calabasas