PUBLIC FORUM.

Can't buy you scores

Re ``LAUSD's graduation rate: 44%'' (June 21):

Anyone who believes throwing more money at low-performing schools will fix LAUSD's sorry 44 percent dropout rate should access California's High School Exit Exam Web site for some politically incorrect enlightening.

With the exception of Asian students, minorities who are bused to ``wealthier'' schools still had a higher dropout rate. Similarly, Asians who attended low-income schools consistently scored higher than both minority and white students on the exam. Don't forget that over 50 percent of Asian students are also second-language learners. Obviously dropout rates are driven by cultural mores, not intellectual quotients. Unless attitudes towards assimilation and education change, these numbers won't either.

-- Matt Martelaro

Granada Hills

Call this free?

Re ``Phoning behind wheel worse than driving drunk, study says'' (June 30):

This new ``study'' finds that hands-free cell phone use while driving is more dangerous than driving while drunk. Since hands-free cell phone use is pretty much indistinguishable from carrying on a conversation with a passenger in the car (which may be even more dangerous due to peoples' habit of turning to look at the people they're conversing with), it would seem to follow that talking in the car is itself more dangerous than drunk driving.

I propose, then, that we outlaw all conversation while driving. However, realistically, since such a law would be virtually impossible to enforce, it's obvious that we need to go one step further and outlaw all passengers in cars. Only then will our roads be safe from the dreadful human menace of -- gasp! -- conversation.

-- Jim Newland Jr.

Santa Clarita 

Defensive occupation

Re ``Occupied lands'' (Your Opinions, June 29):

Hubert Bachtel asks why Israel should be allowed to keep the lands it has occupied while Germany and Japan were not permitted to keep the lands they occupied.

In World War II, Japan and Germany were aggressors. Allowing them to keep the lands they conquered would have rewarded their aggression. Israel, on the other hand, occupied Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights in 1967 after being attacked simultaneously by Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq. Because Israel's role was defensive, it was entitled to keep the lands it occupied as a result of the Arab aggression. Returning these lands would have allowed the Arabs' aggression to go unpunished.

-- Barry Lowenkron

Encino

Liberal Supreme Court

It has been reported that the president has overstepped his authority concerning trials for the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The reality is that five liberal, activist judges on the Supreme Court are the ones who have overstepped their authority. The other three judges are alarmed at this power play on the Supreme Court's part.

Congress passed a law in December of 2005 (Detainee Treatment Act) which specifically prohibited the Supreme Court from any jurisdiction in this matter. So by this ruling, people like Osama bin Laden have the same rights as American citizens. It was Thomas Jefferson who warned about the potential despotism of the judicial branch, not of either of the other two.

-- Dana Franck

Glendale

Oil plutocracy 

In ancient Rome, grain was the essential commodity. When it became too expensive so ordinary Romans became politically angry, wealthy economic and political Roman special interests made sure the price dipped, at least temporarily. This protected them from advancing beyond their inefficient economic system based on slavery they considered as the basis of their wealth.

In modern America, oil is the essential commodity. When it becomes too expensive so ordinary Americans become politically angry, wealthy, more collusive than competitive American oil companies make sure the price dips, at least temporarily. This protects them from advancing to a more energy-efficient economy, like one with alternative energy, which they perceive as threatening their wealth.

Are we going to let a devastating, civilization-busting mistake be plutocratically imposed again?

-- Martin J. Kotowski

Sherman Oaks

Subject to checks

Re ``High court rebukes Bush'' (June 30):

I'm OK with the limits on the executive. So were the founders -- the president's powers are nearly all subject to checks. Recall that many of the Gitmo prisoners were probably sold into that status by opposing warlords in Afghanistan. But since we have no due process and no press transparency, such claims cannot be examined and surely the founders cry a silent tear over that.

What the court is saying is that Bush is obliged to obtain those rules from Congress, which he manifestly did not do. The enemies of due process will carry the day, though, because the ruling holds that all Bush is missing is enabling legislation. Congress knows this and is preparing to furnish it. At least, thank God, the press will not be excluded from that process.

-- Mark Bell

Northridge

But no DSL?

Re ``Broadband'' (Your Opinions, June 30):

Joan Hertz is right about the lack of DSL service in many areas of the Valley. All this does is give the cable companies in those areas a monopoly on high-speed Internet connections. With home phone providers losing business to cellular and Vonage users, why are they not interested in providing home DSL to ready customers?

I can get Hi-Def TV just by using the antenna on my roof ... just not DSL ... in Los Angeles... in 2006. Now that's a technical divide that needs to change and soon.

-- John Adams

Valley Glen

Completely legal

Re ``None above the law'' (Your Opinions, July 4):

Zachary Charles accuses President Bush of breaking the law. If he is referring to the NSA program, the Supreme Court, three Courts of Appeals decisions, and the FISA review court set up specifically to monitor the law have upheld the president's actions as completely legal.

He refers to ``fascist-like attacks on our civil liberties,'' but doesn't give any examples. The Michael Moore-guided left regularly makes such wild charges, but cannot name anyone except Jose Padilla and the enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay who have been denied any rights. As for Cheney being accused of lying, isn't one of those civil liberties cherished by Charles that one is innocent until proven guilty?

-- Gregg Frazer

Castaic

Blue-collar workers

Blue-collar workers, like those working for the Department of Water and Power, L.A. fire and police all got substantial raises while a professional group like the Association of Architects and Engineers gets squat. I wonder what tax or assessment will go up to pay for this?

Methinks the City Council isn't seeing clearly again.

-- Kenneth Johnson

Tujunga

Can't do both

The only good thing about the mayor taking over LAUSD is that it forces the leadership of LAUSD to move their hands from their favorite positions: covering their butts or stealing from the cookie jar.

You can't defend this status quo and fight at the same time.

-- Nina Menart

Sunland

Global gasbags

Do you think global warming might actually be reversed if Al Gore and Ted Kennedy stopped producing all that hot air?

-- Bob Driscoll

Woodland Hills