PUBLIC FORUM.

Hog heaven 

Re ``Gas prices up 11 days in a row'' (April 13):

If you think the government has a role in overseeing the prices of oil and gas, I have news for you. Do you realize that every time oil and gas prices rise, the government (both state and federal) receives increased revenues from the taxes it imposes on these fuel sources? If it takes more gallons of gas to fill up the tank, that's more gallons the government taxes.

So what incentive does the government have to contain price increases? It is, in fact, the silent partner of the oil and gas industry. And with a war to fund, plus all the other programs it is underfunded on, do you really think the government is looking out for the consumers' interest? No, the government is in hog heaven with these high gas prices.

- Gary Haskins

Eagle Rock

Driving up cost

Re ``Gas prices up 11 days in a row'' (April 13):

Oil barons respond to consumption rates, and only drop prices when gasoline consumption drops. Barons are very pleased when drivers make jackrabbit starts, race between red lights, make unnecessary trips, refuse car pooling, run with low tire pressure and poor engine tuning, and choose the bigger vehicle when smaller vehicles are available. Most drivers drive like they own thousands of shares of stock in oil companies (or have more money than brains).

- Fred Coble 

North Hills

Arab buddies

Re ``Gas prices up 11 days in a row'' (April 13):

No one wants to talk about the fact that we can give Saudi Arabia competition with alternate fuel. With grass, tree trimming and animal fertilizer, we could supply the U.S. with enough fuel, gasohol and methane as to not need Saudi Arabia's or any other foreign country's oil.

The U.S. government and its Arab buddies won't let us build alternate- fuel refineries in large consumer areas like California so we wouldn't have to take over any country or kill anybody to get it.

- Ted Pearson 

Valencia

Clemency letters

Re ``Hahn hits Villaraigosa on clemency letter'' (April 13):

To be fair and just, James Hahn should ask Cardinal Roger Mahony, Art Torres, Richard Polanco and Sheriff Lee Baca the same question he is asking Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa about the letters sent to then-President Clinton asking for clemency for Carlos Vignali, a convicted drug dealer. To be fair and just ...

- Dante F. Rochetti

West Hills

Not developers

Re ``Without a plan'' (Editorial, April 12):

Your opinions regarding the reason for our run-down neighborhoods and diminished quality of life here in Los Angeles are totally off the mark. You point the blame at developers who are actually revitalizing many blighted areas with their new developments. As a Realtor who works with developers, I have seen firsthand how their projects have transformed once blighted areas into neighborhoods of pride and promise with their new construction of homes and condos on parcels of land that had long been neglected and had become eyesores to the community.

The city's own rent-control laws have caused neighborhoods to deteriorate. Apartment buildings become run-down and the neighboring homes become blighted as a result.

- Eileen Johnson

Woodland Hills

What law?

Re ``Violent crime dips'' ... but family's heartache remains'' (April 12):

According to Sheriff Lee Baca, 28 percent of the convicted criminals in the Los Angeles County system are illegal aliens, many of whom are deported for violent felonies and illegally return to L.A. Our current policy is to release inmates after serving 10 percent of their sentences, and Police Chief Bratton is pretty happy to have kept the homicide rate down to 138, rather than the 149 we had last year.

We had a total of eight killings over the weekend. You have to ask, ``What law?'' Our system is a joke. You want to reduce crime by 28 percent? Repeal Special Order 40, deport illegal aliens, impose a $1 million fine against any employer that hires an illegal alien, and simply enforce the law.

- Michael Guetzow

Woodland Hills

Queen looked sad

Re ``Charles: At long last love'' (April 10):

Queen Elizabeth looked so sad and certainly distanced herself from the ``happy couple,'' probably wondering how much more scandal the House of Windsor can bear before it tumbling down.

As adulterers, Charles and Camilla should have had a quiet family wedding. Instead laws were changed to allow them to marry in the church. Prince William and Prince Harry appeared to be loyal to their father, but I'm sure they both feel the pain that Princess Diana had to contend with, knowing that Charles never loved her, nor kept faithful to their marriage vows from Day One.

- Pamela Franklin

Granada Hills

Can be controlled

Re ``Border disorder'' (Editorial, April 8):

Sure, what the Minutemen are doing is temporary. And because it's temporary, it's only logical that illegals will just wait until this citizens group is gone to go back to business as usual. But the fact that crossings have gone down dramatically during this demonstration shows that illegal border crossings can be controlled, if we have the political will and the funding in place.

To say, ``Making border crossing significantly tougher won't make a difference in the numbers'' is sheer nonsense. Only when we put the brakes on this ongoing Third World onslaught can we begin to deal with the problems illegals already here have created, and get a true assessment of their value to the economy.

- Judith Lucas

Los Angeles

The catch

Re ``Shift tax burden off gas to fund transportation'' (Their Opinions, April 11):

Fabian Nuez, Democratic speaker of the Assembly, must think a lot of us are showing turnip stains to try to sell us his latest scheme. He proposes to reduce gas prices by about a dime a gallon by eliminating the sales tax on gasoline. The catch under his proposal is that the state will raise sales taxes by this amount on everything else.

By his own admission, taxes on all these other items amount to a lot more than the gas tax. So the dime we save is taken back and then some. Not content with the extra taxes, our Democratic speaker then proposes to borrow $10 billion to jump-start projects. No doubt there's a bit of interest to be paid on this bond.

- Bill Homan

Granada Hills

At whose expense

Re ``Arnold's poll plans assailed'' (April 12):

Gov. Schwarzenegger has cut benefits for the workers and now is targeting the retired. And he wants politicians to be held accountable for their actions. Injured workers can't get anything and the retired are getting too much? But it's OK for you to want a new election for stuff you can't get through at the cost of $50 million to $60 million, at the expense of the taxpayers.

Nice double talk. You should have pushed your measures through on Christmas Eve with the workers' compensation cuts with no opposition as everyone had gone home for the holidays. You need to be held responsible to those who will lose everything because of you and your slippery ways of doing things.

- Dave Hamblen

Sherman Oaks

Porking out

Re ``Value in losing a round'' (Their Opinions, April 12):

It's no wonder that the unions are squealing so loud through TV commercials about Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposed pension reforms. They have been gorging themselves at the taxpayer-funded trough. From a cost of $160 million five years ago, the taxpayers will have to give up $2.6 billion for state pensions this year, and $3.5 billion a year in four years.

While families of law enforcement officers and firefighters, killed or maimed in the line of duty, deserve to be protected financially, private-sector taxpayers should not have to pay for excessive pensions for public employees whose pay (excluding benefits) exceeds what private-sector employees earn including benefits.

- Victor N. Viereck

Valley Village