PUBLIC FORUM GET IT DONE.

Re ``MTA didn't realize work on busway could restart'' (Aug. 26):

I can't believe that COST is still trying to stop the Orange Line construction. This is the first positive solution to alleviate traffic since the opening of the Ventura Freeway. It seems to me that this handful of NIMBYs are the only ones against this project. Even if MTA finds in favor of the Rapid buses, they don't have to abide by their findings. Prudent business dictates that the Orange Line get up and running as fast as possible.

These delays are not only causing loss of revenue for local business but also for the MTA as well as increasing expense by the long delays. These delays are also causing more traffic, pollution and a waste of time by making motorists drive around blocks in order to enter certain areas because of the no-left-turn signs. Let's get this project done.

- W. Fred Beck 

West Hills

Incapable counsel

Re ``MTA didn't realize work on busway could restart'' (Aug. 26):

The entire MTA Orange Line busway project is completely out of control. It is a very serious matter that MTA's own legal counsel is incapable of reading and interpreting a court order properly.

This was a court-ordered temporary stay, which obviously insinuates a specific time frame. Shame on MTA's attorneys. They should be held accountable for this gross oversight.

- Tito Flores 

North Hollywood

Not effective

Early in August my wife and I observed what appeared to be an ideal breeding place for mosquitoes, a cement-lined drainage ditch containing refuse, growing weeds and grass and standing water. I called the sanitation department and several days later I called again - still no cleanup. I called the Board of Supervisors' office and was referred to Mosquito Abatement.

That office informed me that they had been spraying it once a week. I protested that correcting the problem by removing the debris would be more effective. A tree beside the ditch is a favorite roosting place for birds in this area. Three dead crows have been found on the street less than a block from this site. We live in a seniors community. Do we need to have a death from West Nile virus in our neighborhood to get someone's attention?

- Clifford A. Kenny

Sylmar

Free speech, ha!

Re ``Vietnam mud - again'' (Editorial, Aug. 25):

Kerry made Vietnam his center point, not his 20 years as a senator. The Democrats and all their 527s have been going after President Bush for over a year - cost, $67 million. Now an anti-Kerry ad is called ``false and libelous.''

This ad is by members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. They want to set the record straight, that Kerry is ``unfit for command.'' Please tell me, where was the DNC and the Daily News when Michael Moore's ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' came out, or MoveOn's $15 million in ads, showing Hitler morphing into President Bush? For all you Democrats, speech is free only for your party. Not for veterans wanting to tell the other side.

- Doug Anderson

Simi Valley 

Outsource this

Re ``Outsourcing anxiety is unwarranted'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 26):

Daniel Weintraub's column falls somewhere between economic theory and zeppelin gas. Our government is supposed to be creating jobs for Americans, not Asian workers. Government taxation takes money out of the American economy and, ideally, recycles it back into our economy.

When government opts to outsource contracts for good and services to foreign countries, America's wealth is transferred into foreign hands. If Weintraub's thesis is true, that outsourcing is a ``net positive'' for America, then he will approve of phasing out The Sacramento Bee and he can write for The Beijing Bee.

- John Knight 

Glendale

Which dummy?

You've seen them on the news - a helicopter with a horse suspended from a sling. It's a Los Angeles Department of Animal Services DART team in action. DART has assisted rescue operations from San Diego to Santa Barbara. They have saved the lives of horses and riders. The Chatsworth Neighborhood Council's Equestrian Committee wants to spend money to buy a life-size, fully articulated, model horse (dummy) for DART and all of Southern California's fire departments to use for training.

But, we are done in by DONE, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment: It won't release the funds until we get letters from Animal Services and fire departments explaining the value of the dummy. So much for neighborhood power.

- Jerry England

Chatsworth

Truth is homeless

Re ``Media should learn Kerry facts, not demean his critics'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 26.):

Thursday's paper had me flip-flopping. I had no sooner read the front-page spread on the Navy report affirming Kerry's medal claims than I flipped over to Thomas Sowell's column condemning those who ``needed to know the facts'' about Kerry, before they demeaned his critics. Strangely, Sowell's tone mirrored that which he condemned. Another form of flip-flopping?

Facts and truth don't find a home with those that pre-judge; lies becoming gospel. Do we even want to contemplate - as this swift-boat bunch would have it - our military presenting medals indiscriminately, being ordered up by the vets like a meal at Burger King? Honor, courage and truth suggest otherwise. For shame ...

- Ellen Widran

Sherman Oaks

Kerry's rich friends

Re ``View from the Valley'' cartoon, Aug. 22:

Patrick O'Connor forgot to give John Kerry another medal. Kerry deserves the ``silver spoon'' medal even more than Bush. Like Bush, Kerry was born into wealth and has been wealthy his entire life. The major difference between the two is that Bush actually went out and worked for a living and helped create jobs so that other people could make money. Kerry has spent a lifetime in government trying to find ways to take money away from people who earn it - except his rich friends, of course.

So what if Kerry spent four months in Vietnam; he also spent eight years defending Bill Clinton's lack of service in Vietnam. He even used the phrase, ``service in Vietnam is not a prerequisite for president of the United States.'' But now it is?

- Greg Naster

Lancaster

Talk about Iraq

President George W. Bush has failed to condemn the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth ad which Sen. John McCain has called ``dishonest and dishonorable.'' By not denouncing the ad, the president has only reinforced the fact Republicans with close ties to Bush have funded these ads. The president has claimed that he respects John Kerry's service in Vietnam. However, he has not condemned this ad.

So it appears that the president is relying on these veterans to do his dirty work. George Bush cannot talk about his own military record because he did not serve in Vietnam. He cannot talk about the war in Iraq because every day more and more U.S. troops are dying.

- Sam Shirazi

Woodland Hills

Marriage as contract

I am so tired of the religious right saying that marriage has its origins in the church, when in fact from the beginning it was a legal contract for a man to own a woman. Religion became involved so that when a couple had sex to procreate, the church could sanctify what was thought of as a sinful act outside the permission of the church.

This also holds true for religions before Christianity. By the way, the percentage of homosexual co-existence lasting is far higher than heterosexual. They also make very good parents.

- Melinda Fleming

Sherman Oaks