PUBLIC FORUM.

Oops

Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for steroids, but claims it was an accident. I guess that's what he gets for showering downstream of Sammy Sosa.

- Jeff Zimmer

Sherman Oaks

Reassuring

It is reassuring that President George W. Bush still has confidence in both Karl Rove and Rafael Palmeiro.

- Siegfried Othmer

Woodland Hills

Arnold reneging

Re ``Arnold vs. the teachers'' (Aug. 1):

Sounds like Arnold is trying to gut public schools by reneging on an agreement. The governor says he has a four-year window to repay school money, but that's news to Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. And now the Guv wants to pass what he calls the Live Within Our Means Act so that he could make further education cuts. Through this, teachers must teach to the tests and are blamed for everything.

I wonder: Do Arnold's little darlings attend public schools? They should as a show of support for the beleaguered districts. It's time the governor started living within his means as a state employee and sending his kids to public schools. Perhaps then he'd stop trying to gut them.

- Pauline Roth

Santa Clarita 

Special privileges

Re ``405 plan may be accelerated'' (Aug. 2):

So the who's who of the San Fernando Valley gathered to praise Rep. Howard Berman for bagging $130 million to build an exclusive car-pool lane on the 405 Freeway. Does anybody believe they're doing this for the good of all motorists? Hardly, because these elitists either have a driver or an assistant riding with them everywhere they go. Under a true democracy, public freeway lanes would be built for equal use by all motorists alike.

If Andrew Jackson had been at this meeting, he would have said: ``Equal opportunity for all and special privileges for none.'' Ronald Reagan would have said: ``Mr. Governor, tear down these 'car pool only' signs.''

- Robert L. Rosebrock

Brentwood

So dumb

Re ``Priorities'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 1):

Having a garden in the middle of the street is so dumb and of no use at all. Why don't they add that money to street repairs?

I'm sure they can use every penny they can get, and, believe me, a street garden takes a lot of pennies, and it will take a lot of money to maintain forever.

- Betty Bliley

Northridge

Select company

With John Bolton's appointment as United Nations ambassador, the United States can now join such nations as China, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan that have U.N. ambassadors appointed without legislative approval. Perhaps they could forma caucus.

- Robert Matanof=Swis721 Lt BT

Redlands

Not lackeys

Re ``Bolton would have won'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 3):

Yes, John Bolton might have won. But the administration, in stonewalling on furnishing the Democratic senators with the records they requested, contributed to the delay in the vote.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and Karl Rove planned this all along, fearing that with the way the hearings would progress, their fair-haired boy would not have won the consent of the Senate in an up-and-down vote. And, who says the Senate must consent to an appointment? The Senate should not be the lackey of the executive branch of our government.

- Jean Strauber

Encino

Big-stick Bolton

The liberal cries against the installation of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador reflect the thinking of a band of political obstructionists who live in a nonreal world. The fact is that the United Nations is an organization so corrupt that this action forestalls a cry for U.S. withdrawal, which most certainly is the thinking of most Americans.

If Bolton is unsuccessful in making progress toward cleaning up that organization, then withdrawal will be an issue in the 2008 campaign. Bolton is the big stick that Teddy Roosevelt talked about. When all else fails, use it.

- Sion Colvin

Woodland Hills

Litmus test 

The nomination of John Roberts to become a Supreme Court justice has brought out the apparently anti-religious zealots in the U.S. Senate. The new liberal litmus test appears to reject any religious person with strongly held beliefs from a public post. The liberal senators seem to prefer atheists, agnostics or pro-abortion zealots. This religious litmus test is a dangerous path to pursue.

Fortunately, our Founding Fathers precluded any religious test to prohibit Americans - regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof - from participating in the system. Let's hope these senators will gain their senses and confirm this highly respected and qualified candidate.

- Gary Curtis

Granada Hills

Tragedy, not crime

Re ``Officials give bullies upper hand recently'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 2):

Ralph Schaffer is right on when he opines that the boy in Lancaster was unjustly sentenced for murder by bat. It was wrong to attack his bully with a weapon, and it was tragic that the bully died. But the defendant should have received counseling as opposed to incarceration. Bullies can be vicious.

I know firsthand that ignoring a school bully will only bring forth more bullying. I was a ``nice-guy tech nerd'' in school, a victim of teasing and bullying. At age 38, I still remember how it feels to be the victim of bullies. While politically incorrect, I would teach my child to fight back against the bully, but not with a bat. This was a tragedy but not a crime.

- Charles Murray

Santa Clarita

If you know Bush

Re ``Hasn't been charged'' (Your Opinion, Aug. 2):

John Green has it wrong. He claims that Valerie Plame Wilson was not undercover. This claim seems to have originated with the man who supervised her prior to 1990, but a recent colleague of hers testified to Congress that she was in fact undercover when Bob Novak outed her, and she could have faced execution for espionage once her cover was blown.

The only reason Karl Rove is not currently facing charges is that he is a close adviser to President George W. Bush. Rove is a scoundrel who needs to stand trial.

- David Holland

Northridge

Could, but we don't

What has long been obvious is no longer the elephant in the living room. Karl Rove is nothing more than a shallow bully with a middle-school mentality. Of course, he can win something with such behavior, but what is he winning and who is supporting him? Ethical, honest, upright people? Not.

He just does things the rest of us were taught by our mothers not to do. We can think them up. We just won't do them. A president is known by his friends, not the other way around. This story is the most important story of the decade.

- Linda Gartzman

Los Angeles

Not a fact

I do not understand why George Bush wants to push this country back toward the 15th century. Creationism or ``intelligent design'' is a religious concept. There is absolutely no science behind it. If we are going to teach radical Christianity in our schools, our children should also be taught about the creation myths of the Hindus, Buddhists, the Confucianists and the Kalihari bushmen so that they can see how different religions approach the issue.

A deeper understanding of religions besides Christianity will help our students become world citizens and combat ignorance-induced fear and bigotry. Religious Creation stories are just that, stories. They should not be taught as fact, but as relics of our unenlightened past. You can not govern a modern rational society based on the preconceptions of a 2,000- year-old fable.

- Leif Bunting

Arcadia