PUBLIC FORUM THE BETTER CHOICES.

After watching the vice-presidential debate, I think we should ditch Bush and Kerry and elect Cheney and Edwards. Whoever gets the most votes gets to be president, the other will be vice president!

- Richard A. Buratti

Northridge

Cheney's wrong focus

``The only viable option for winning the war on terrorism is the one the president has chosen, to use the power of the United States to aggressively go after the terrorists wherever we find them and also to hold to account states that sponsor terror.''

This is what Dick Cheney said in the vice-presidential debate, and no one disagrees with this. The question is how well President George W. Bush has performed as a commander-in-chief. He failed to plan correctly; he failed to secure Iraq once it was taken; and he lost Osama Bin Laden. When the guy in charge makes mistakes that allow the enemy to go free - mistakes that cost lives and money - you replace him.

- Mary Ficalora

Agoura Hills

President Edwards?

The president of The United States is the favored target of terrorist assassins. The constitutional duty of the vice president is to replace the president in the event of the president's incapacitation. The thought of Sen. John Edwards assuming the Oval Office is terrifying. The debate with Vice President Dick Cheney only confirmed this fear.

- Robert A. Gismondi

Reseda

A better liar

This administration has a record of failure. Bush and Cheney are like poker players bluffing with a bad hand. All I learned from the vice- presidential debate is that Cheney can lie with a straighter face than Bush.

- Jackie Wollner

Valley Glen

They met before

I have just viewed the video of Vice President Dick Cheney shaking hands with Sen. John Edwards at a public function a year or so ago. A man who lies so effortlessly and with such aplomb about so inconsequential and easily verifiable a matter clearly must believe that he is above the common obligation of truthfulness which binds our society together. Would you buy a used car from this guy?

- Patrick Stansfield

Sherman Oaks

Grandpa, indeed

Re ``Grandpa's ghost tired of president'' (Their Opinions, Oct. 6):

How cowardly! In concocting a hallucination to which he can attribute Democratic political talking points to the (blessed) ghost of his grandpa, Richard Cohen prostitutes and profanes the memory of those poor, misguided immigrants who embraced the Democratic Party as the closest political party to their socialist delusions. Cohen's rants are glaring in their disrespect to those of us who are still alive, and have since come out from under the ether to find the Marxist/socialist ideals repugnant and antithetical to the well-being and future of our cherished America. We have found in today's political leadership under President George W. Bush a clarity of vision and purpose that is inspiring.

- Louis Marsten

Northridge

Twisting words

What is evident is that President George W. Bush and his re-election campaign have twisted the words and meanings of almost everything Sen. John Kerry said during last week's debate, despite Kerry's concise and clear explanations. What also becomes evident as a result is how the Bush White House could so easily twist the words and facts of the intelligence community in order to justify a war in the wrong place at the wrong time against the wrong people.

- Michael Smith 

Tarzana

The FBI, then INS 

Re ``Drive to get fair treatment vetoed again'' (Their Opinions, Oct. 5):

Joe Rodriguez is upset that his illegal-immigrant friend may need to be checked by the FBI before she gets a driver's license. Since she is an admitted criminal, this is hardly necessary. The FBI should ``interview'' her, then turn her over to the INS for deportation.

- James F. Glass

Chatsworth

Illegal insurance

In his column, Joe Rodriguez states that his friend ``Soledad,'' an illegal immigrant, bought auto liability insurance through a relative. I can tell you that this could never legally take place in California. During the last 10 years of my 50-year career in the insurance business, I worked for the Department of Insurance and regulated auto insurers. Each and every one of them required any person covered to hold a valid California driver's license. If there is an insurer who knows that Soledad doesn't have a valid California driver's license and doesn't exclude her, that insurance company is in violation of the California Insurance Code.

- Bob Salin

North Hollywood

Sensible economics

Giving the middle class a tax break makes sense to me. As President George W. Bush says, more money in people's pockets means they have more to spend. That means people will buy more stuff. That means more jobs. Higher employment means higher taxes flowing into the the government coffers.

- Theodora Howell

West Hills

Poll-fudging

The Sept. 17 Gallup Poll proclaimed that President George W. Bush was favored by 55 percent of those likely to vote in November, with Sen. John Kerry getting only 42 percent. Other polls had the gap at only 6 percent to 8 percent. Why the big discrepancy? The CEO of the Gallup Poll is a Republican donor.

Of 767 sampled, 40 percent were Republicans and only 33 percent Democrats. But in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections, Democrats were 39 percent of the voting populace with the Republican turnout being less. Fudging with the polling numbers has cost the Gallup Poll its credibility.

- John Wisdom Dancer

Canoga Park

Try harder

Re ``Hahn pitches traffic plans at intersection'' (Oct. 5):

When Mayor James Hahn said, ``We are doing everything we can to improve the city's busiest streets,'' he was either lying, stupid or both.

One thing we have not tried is a moratorium on all new development.

In a city with the worst traffic, the worst pollution and the highest housing density in America, that seems like a logical approach to improving the way of life for all Angelenos.

How about more common sense and less pay-to-play? - Jerry England

Chatsworth

Above the law?

Re ``Miller didn't have permit'' (Oct. 2):

Why is it that those who implement laws are not subject to them? I refer to the LAPD's John Miller and his ``forgetfulness'' about bringing a loaded firearm through airport security - an unpermitted firearm at that. This is an obvious violation, and the fact that this was committed by Chief Bratton's Homeland Security ``czar'' makes it all the more unacceptable.

And why is it that every time someone in law enforcement errs, it is passed off as a ``glitch'' or (my favorite) an ``aberration''? When an ordinary citizen is subject to all manner of invasive, degrading searches for something as innocuous as fingernail clippers, why does anyone have to even ponder prosecution for a firearms offense in this case? Would a remark such as Chief Bratton's ``hijack the plane to Cuba'' be acceptable if anyone else had said it?

Apply the law equally or abandon it entirely.

- Daniel F. Taylor

Tujunga

Cheap labor, high price

Re ``ERs in critical condition'' (Oct. 4):

Emergency room hospital closures, poor schools, overcrowded freeways, high insurance cost - these are the prices you must pay for having others trim your lawns and clean your houses.

- E.W. Cullen Jr.

Granada Hills