PUBLIC FORUM IT'S A GREAT GAME.

Well, John Kerry may not have enough touchdowns to win the game yet, but the yardage gained during the first debate was impressive. I'm now looking forward to seeing the rest of the game. Kerry immediately connected on a long pass when he delineated his strong plans to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Although I wish he'd been even stronger in his response to the ``flip flop'' attack, he scored at least a field goal when he used the Pottery Barn rule and when he stated that one can be consistent but also be wrong. Kerry definitely recovered a fumble when President Bush refused to acknowledge any mistakes made with regard to Iraq. I have no doubt Kerry was correct when he stated that both men love this country; they just have different convictions, different ideas of how best to lead America.

- Lisa Agay

Woodland Hills

Advantage, Kerry

I don't plan on voting for either man in the first debate. That said, to my eye, George Bush spent the night fuming, grimacing, stammering and smirking. John Kerry looked like the next president of the United States. Advantage Kerry.

- Patrick Meighan

Venice

Clearly apparent

John Kerry did an exceptional job in the first debate. I feel confident and secure with Kerry being our next president. He walks in integrity and truth. He has a plan and he understands what America needs now and the world at large. All Bush could do was stutter - he doesn't know what he is doing and that was clearly apparent.

- Camille Licate

Los Angeles

Couldn't defend

John Kerry hit a grand slam. George Bush could not defend his positions, and stuttered in his defense of positions that appear misguided based upon his disjointed speech.

- Jay Rose

Woodland Hills

Bush's message

Bush missed a ``knockout'' blow to Kerry when Kerry said as president his foremost concern would be nuclear proliferation - yet he continually charged Bush with being wrong in attacking Saddam/Iraq. However, isn't the direct proof to the exact opposite - by Kerry's own most-important criterion - the fact that Libya voluntarily gave up its nuclear program when Gadhafi saw what the U.S. did to Saddam?

And isn't the same Bush message clear to other tyrants desiring WMD - about the U.S. resolve to protect itself?

- Aaron L. Kolom

Los Angeles

No childhood game

John Kerry proved in the first debate that he is the dynamic, intelligent, thoughtful leader we need now. President Bush remains intent on approaching foreign policy as if it were a childhood game of cowboys and Indians. This country requires a leader capable of more sophisticated thinking.

- Cynthia Friedlob

Toluca Lake

Unlike real life

Re ``LAUSD spends money'' (Your Opinions, Sept. 24):

Barbara Evans writes, ``Los Angeles Unified School District officials spend money as if there were a flowing stream of it.'' What do you mean, ``as if,'' Ms. Evans?

People employed by large government entities don't have to earn money. Money (from taxes) is part of their environment. It's always there; it's called ``the budget,'' and acquiring it requires no personal effort. There may be more of it or less of it in a given year, but there is no end to it, and there is certainly no sense of accountability on an individual's part regarding spending it well or amiss, because unlike real life, where one gets fired or loses one's business when resources are squandered, there are no repercussions beyond the occasional revelatory newspaper article followed by some letters to the editor.

- Pauli Carnes

Woodland Hills

We're doomed

Re ``School district still aiming for the top'' (Sept. 26):

Visioning process? Draft goals? Well-thought-out metrics? They needed a taxpayer-funded ``retreat'' to come up with this nonsense? The worst part is that it took two of them to write it.

We are all doomed if this is how the LAUSD's leadership deals with the very real problems facing our schools. Here's a suggestion: Forget the vision quest and start getting the job done, period.

- Matt Reinstein

Van Nuys

Not for raises

Re ``County finds unexpected $309 million'' (Sept. 29):

So Los Angeles County has found an unexpected $309 million surplus and already knows what to spend it on. We already know it will go toward raises and fixing county buildings and new hires. In my opinion it should go right to police and fire, not for raises, but to hire additional personal to ease over time and crime.

Equally important is to the hospital network. Take a look at the number of trauma rooms and hospitals closing. Take a good look at King-Drew Medical Center and fix what is happening. We are far from out of the woods on our budget crisis. Not for raises at this point. We have some of the highest salaries of elected and county workers in the U.S.

- Mike Hoblinski

Burbank

Smoggy immigrants

Re ``State passes world's most toughest smog rules'' (Sept. 25):

The recent approval of the ``world's most stringent rules'' to reduce auto emissions is just another example of our legislators passing more feel- good laws. How pathetic. At an incredible cost to consumers, they will now force auto manufacturers to produce vehicles nobody will buy.

They will do this without addressing one of the prime causes of air pollution: illegal immigration. Auto manufacturers have made dramatic reductions in tailpipe emissions only to have much of the gain offset by the incredible increase in vehicles on the road. A major contributor to this increase is the millions of illegal immigrants now driving California streets and highways.

- Bill Hamburg

Woodland Hills

Seriously, folks

Re ``O'Brien to replace Leno'' (Sept. 28):

So Jay Leno is leaving the ``Tonight Show'' in 2009. Perhaps he might want to leave sooner and apply for Dan Rather's job as CBS News anchor if it becomes available. Leno is a master of political satire and Rather an expert at politically motivated agendas and CBS News the straight man. As I see it, if Leno becomes the new anchor their news anchor would be a comic replacing a jokester.

- Ralph L. Myers

West Hills

A direct line

I earnestly thank Ernst F. Ghermann, Leslie Clack, and (ta-daaa) Bob Deluca (Your Opinions, Sept. 22, 25 and 26) for making my points for me in their responses to my letter describing a direct line from Bush's anti-environment policy through global warming, straight to these hurricanes.

I voted for Bush, believing him to be a Calvin Coolidge Republican, but every day since his election he proves his administration corrupt beyond the limits of imagination from the no-bid Halliburton deal to the stripping of our national forests.

- Marshall Abernathy

Woodland Hills

Voting heroes

In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott's Seneca Falls Convention produced the Declaration of Sentiments, based on the Declaration of Independence, to demand women's rights. It took another 72 years for the 19th Amendment to pass. Today these women, and our grandmothers and great-grandmothers are looking down from heaven at us in shame and disbelief.

Fifty million women, 22 million of them single women, did not vote in 2000. Do not take this hard-earned right for granted. I challenge all women to get out there and let your voice be heard, loud and clear. Together we can move mountains, as those heroes of the past did. Get out the vote.

- Gay Lannon

Sherman Oaks