PUBLIC FORUM RECALL IS DEMOCRATIC.

Re ``Casting call'' (Editorial, Aug. 1):

I am a lifelong Democrat who intends to vote in favor of the recall, and I hope I'll have the opportunity to elect our former mayor, Richard Riordan. Our state desperately need Riordan's astute judgment, experience and bipartisanship to begin to unravel the fiscal crisis, and crisis of confidence, that we find ourselves in.

Gray Davis charges that this recall is undemocratic. However, it was his cynical manipulation of last year's primaries to keep Riordan from being a general-election candidate that was undemocratic. Now, the recall will be the most democratic election possible: Davis has to gain a majority vote of confidence. If not, voters can choose anyone on the ballot, regardless of party affiliation.

- Steven Presberg

Calabasas

See the pattern

Re ``Davis to sue again for delay'' (Aug. 4):

Fascinating. Gov. Davis' lawyers are going to court again to try to stop the recall election. Failing that, they want the court to rewrite the law. When the San Fernando Valley wanted to form its own city, Jimmy Hahn and his crowd tried to stop that vote.

Both have supported, and continue to support, attacks on the protections of Proposition 13 and other laws that restrict government's ability to take actions against the public's wishes. Is there a pattern here? It seems that whenever the general public wants to take action that government won't, the Democrats are in the forefront of trying to stop it.

- Jerry Schwartz

Granada Hills

Two chances

Look in the dictionary today and you should see Gov. Gray Davis under ``chutzpah'' for asking the California Supreme Court to have his name added to the list of candidates to replace himself if recalled. As the law stands, all voters have to do now to vote ``yes'' for him is to vote ``no'' to the recall. Adding his name to the ballet is in essence putting his name down twice.

It would be like President Richard Nixon resigning and appointing himself president. It doesn't make any sense and solve any problems. The difference between Nixon and Davis is Nixon resigned for the good of the country even when his approval rating was actually higher than Davis' is now.

- William S. Tracy

Burbank

Davis set up

Much of the California debt attributed to the country's economic condition was created by the Republican administration. Due to this economy, 47 other states are heavily in debt. Why pick California?

Debt can also be blamed on price-gouging by Texas energy suppliers to California, longtime supporters of the Bush administration. Enron admitted to driving up electricity prices although there was no shortage. Same for gas-oil. The energy market was deregulated under Republican Gov. Wilson's approval and passed. Pleas by Gov. Davis to the Bush administration for investigation - none was made since Bush and Vice President Cheney were former oil industry executives with ties to Texas suppliers.

- Stan Karotis

Ridgecrest

He should resign

Instead of wasting $40 million on a recall election, Gov. Gray Davis should resign. Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante becomes governor and the state saves lots of money.

- Carmen Lofrano

Canoga Park

Mentor program

Re ``State budget impacts start coming clear'' (July 31):

I read about the cancellation of the $5.7 million Academic Mentor Program serving 11,000 students with 9,000 volunteers. Although tragic, you missed the bigger issue entirely. Twenty LAUSD schools were in the program at a cost of $1.6 million. That's $80,000 per school per year for a program using free volunteers. Except for background checks of the tutors, the program shouldn't cost anything.

So why does a great program that should be free cost so much that it needs to be canceled? I say keep the free part of the program and cut the bureaucratic waste within our state government.

- Jim Cusack

Simi Valley 

Hahn's LAX plan

Re ``No-fly zone'' (Editorial, July 31):

A thousand thank-yous for your recent editorial and article about the folly of Mayor Hahn's Alternative D to the LAX Master Plan. Thank you for exploring the usually ignored unlikelihood that the 78 million annual passengers (MAP) cap can actually be accomplished or enforced. Westchester and the rest of the South Bay area has been had before: In the last master plan, LAX was supposed to be limited to 40 MAP; at its peak it was handling 68 MAP. No sirens sounded. No planes were sent elsewhere.

L.A. seems content to pay lip service to regionalization while continuing to put all its planes into one cramped LAX basket. L.A. has owned Palmdale Regional Airport, with its vast acreage, for decades. Current status: No scheduled airline service is operating at this time.

- Carole Hossan

Westchester

Capping LAX flights

Unbelievable. On the one hand, Mayor Hahn and other L.A. area officials speak of a looming future air passenger demand ... and then they move to cap LAX's capacity below the theoretical capacity LAX's runways can handle. Worse, they also refuse to expand the four other airports that L.A. already owns to meet this alleged looming demand, most of which will occur in the areas where these four other airports are located.

What hypocrisy. I guess my only question is whether or not they experience any physical pain from talking out of both sides of their faces.

- Douglas K. Blaul

Trabuco Canyon

U.S. first

This is getting ridiculous. I'm tired of reading the paper or listening to the news each morning to hear of another one of our soldiers being killed in Iraq. They should be home instead of looking for the so-called weapons of mass destruction that the ``Blair Bush Project'' seems to think they have.

Iraq is the size of Texas - are we sand-digging now to find what we're looking for? Let's take care of our country, which seems to be in dire straits.

- Eddie Bengston

Simi Valley

Naive enough

Re ``Honest leader, finally'' (Your Opinions, July 24):

Is Paula Fagan naive enough to believe that Iraq was about to strike the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction made with uranium purchased from Africa? Tragically, the Bush administration needs people like this who will believe anything they're told.

- Clayton Kodama

Van Nuys

NASA research

In his Aug. 1 letter, Martin de Haas asserted billions of dollars are being wasted on Mars exploration. The public and private sector benefit tremendously from NASA. NASA maintains an Office of Technology Transfer and Commercialization to facilitate the transfer of NASA technology to privateindustry at no cost. Just a few of the industries that have benefited fromNASA are the aircraft, communications and medical industries. Recently, NASA engineers applied fluid dynamics and pump technology to develop a miniaturized efficient blood pump.

Many of these technologies have come out of programs like Mars Rover. And NASA does this on an annual budget of about $12 billion, the cost overrun of a couple of modest defense programs.

- Michael Tabak

Northridge

Reading the news

Three judges release criminals onto Los Angeles streets. Two police officers are free in a videotaped beating of a young man. An 86-year-old man kills 10 people - and his license is revoked. A 19-year-old gets one year for killing a person while street racing.

Kobe Bryant is looking at four years to life if convicted of rape in Colorado. Kobe: Move your case to Los Angeles or Ventura County. Is anyone looking at the picture now?

- Lane Anderson

Tujunga