PUBLIC FORUM.

Either way, he wins

Re ``Candidates don't let up in blitz on Hahn's record'' (Feb. 9):

As a lifelong resident of the Valley, I can't wait to see the outcome of this upcoming race for mayor. I think most people will agree that without the support of the Valley voters, no candidate has a chance of winning.

I still remember those sleazy scare-tactic commercials that Jim Hahn used to stop the Valley from leaving the L.A. cesspool. Remember the rhetoric: fewer police, higher water bills, higher rents, crumbling streets, higher taxes. Gee, it's a good thing we didn't secede, isn't it? So on the assumption Hahn makes it to the election without any federal investigations nailing him for corruption, and somehow wins re-election, that's the day I put my house on the market. If he loses, I will stick around to see if the new mayor is any better.

- George Timko

West Hills

LAPD culture

Re ``Council rejects cop tax'' (Feb. 10):

LAPD Chief Bill Bratton says we can't expect ``true and lasting change in the culture of the LAPD'' unless the taxpayers give him more money. That statement is one, or both, of the following: an admission of his total impotence as a manager and leader of that organization, or an extortion threat by an out-of-control punk.

I'm a law-and-order voter and support the police, but Bratton's statement was outrageous. He needs to pack his bags, and be replaced by an effective manager who is also acquainted with the LAPD's motto: ``to protect and serve.''

- Linda Blankenship

Reseda

Not getting more

Re ``Council rejects cop tax'' (Feb. 10):

I think it is so much fun to watch Mayor Hahn and Chief William Bratton threaten the citizens of Los Angeles when they don't get their way. Hahn says the council members who voted not to put the half-percent tax on the ballot should be recalled.

Bratton says the city could burn again. Sounds to me like they are holding us hostage. Maybe Hahn should stop paying off all his buddies and use the money to better the city. L.A. officials better learn to do with what they have. They are not going to get any more from its citizens.

- Jane McKinsey

Canoga Park

Crime and punishment 

Re ``Teacher accused of sex with boy, 13'' (Feb. 9):

It will be interesting to see what type of conviction and sentencing there will be for Pamela Turner. She is a schoolteacher charged with having sex with her 13-year-old student.

Would the punishment and conviction be different for a ``desperate housewife'' in the suburbs home-schooling or private tutoring? Both are authority figures.

- Susan Duran

Glendale

Not in the comics

What were you thinking? There, on the comic pages, you have inserted your ``This Day in History'' box. The comics are a place to relax and laugh. This history box is totally inappropriate for children, and totally against the spirit of the comics.

The Feb. 8 highlight is about ``Birth of a Nation,'' a racist film from early America. Then we proceed to a beheading in 1587; a war in 1904; the first execution by gas in the United States in 1924; the killing of three college students by highway patrol officers in 1968; a lying abortionist surgeon general nominee in 1995; Internet vandalism in 2005; and finally last year, the liar Bush is recognized for his denial of having led us into the Iraq war under false pretenses. Please remove this box and spare youngsters all this before they really need to know about it.

- James Hamilton Moore

Burbank

Lucky for him

Re ``4-year-old's car trip is a smashing success'' (Feb. 8):

How fortunate that this 4-year-old was in Michigan and not on the streets of Los Angeles, where the police would surely have shot him for backing into their police cruiser.

- Paula Dresser

Burbank

Means testing

Re ``Ongoing Mantra'' (Your Opinions, Feb. 9):

L.A. Calabro mocks the critics of Bush's Social Security ``reform'' plan, saying Bush's opponents have offered no alternative plan. In truth, we know that there is a problem and that it is fixable. Bush's plan does not even try to fix the problem, opting to chip away at the system instead.

Recognizing that Social Security's purpose is to ensure some minimum standard of living for those who have worked hard all their lives, the clear answer is to stop risking the future benefits of those who need them by helping higher-income retirees buy their vacation time shares and luxury cars. Means testing would keep the system intact for those who need it.

- David Holland

Northridge

Immigrant criminals

Re ``Slamming California'' (Editorial, Feb. 8):

Spending more tax dollars to house illegal immigrant criminals is about as thoughtful as thinking that the only way to hire more L.A. cops is with new tax dollars. The simple solution is - deportation. Take all those who are being ``housed'' in our jails on nonviolent offenses and those scheduled for release, early or not, and send them back to their respective countries.

The problem is not overcrowded jails. It is illegal immigration.

- John Miller

Chatsworth

Substitution works

Re ``Left loves cars'' (Your Opinions, Feb. 10):

John Levy's protestations are easily dealt with. Let us substitute the word ``collective'' for ``mass'' as the modifier for ``transit.'' One then obtains ``collective transit,'' which only a leftist could love.

- James F. Glass

Chatsworth

Bush's true colors

Re ``Cuts to hit L.A. hard'' (Feb. 8):

After the grandiose but hollow rhetoric of his inaugural and state of the union addresses, President Bush's budget proposal reveals his true colors. Surprise, surprise. Defense contractors, the Pentagon, pharmaceutical companies and the obscenely wealthy make out like bandits while the elderly, disabled, poor, educators and children, among others, are left behind.

Cases in point: programs providing low-cost heating fuel to the elderly and assistance to American Indian schools (among the poorest in the nation) get slashed while elderly Oglala Sioux on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota are literally freezing to death because they can't afford the increased price of propane heating fuel. Compassionate conservatism, indeed.

- Grant Gullickson

Northridge

The other truth

With Iraqi's military demolished (Desert Storm), Saddam Hussein was in danger of being finished off by Iran, or overthrown by numerous coups d'etat. The Republican Guard was struggling to eliminate the organizing factions, bent on overthrowing the government. Threatening hordes of Kurds were subdued with biological weapons - supplied by the USA.

Hussein kept the WMD question in doubt - not wanting Iran and possible coup leaders to know he was defenseless. He forced U.N. inspectors out when they were about to reveal his lack of WMDs. Threatened with invasion, he welcomed USA inspectors, and finally and openly admitted his lack of WMDs prior to our invasion.

- Fred Coble 

North Hills