PUBLIC FORUM.

Manipulation

Re ``Tipoff column'' (Aug. 14):

Manipulation seems to be the mayor's only tactic when dealing with the public. Another case in point: the recent column by Rick Orlov that talks about the mayor's attempt to exempt hundreds of his new hires (a 200 percent increase to the current allotment) from the civil service procedures in place to keep hiring fair and transparent.

Why? His spokesperson indicates the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment and neighborhood councils have ``taken'' too many workers! How can he justify adding 300 newly exempt employees to replace the handful of employees taken by DONE and neighborhood councils? It's shameful, sleight-of-hand political manipulation and should not be allowed.

-- Hallie Kemper

Past president

Greater Valley Glen Council

Mayor Chameleon

Re ``Mayor sings different tunes citywide in LAUSD pitch'' (Aug. 14):

Oh my! Our mayor, Gulliver, got caught in his travels telling people what they want to hear. Maybe a chameleon is what has been created. Another front-page photo op has been provided.

By the time all the amendments have been added to the educational magic cure-all and we have read them, we will be too old to lift a pen to vote. The mayor still has not filled our potholes nor gained his 1,000 more police officers that his hot air blew.

-- Ira Kaplan

Woodland Hills

And 50 years later

Re ``Sun Valley pushes for a trust fund'' (Aug. 12):

For almost 50 years of trashing little Sun Valley, the trash factories, dumps and junk yards are offering a lousy $200,000 per year if they're allowed to expand. The City Council has allowed them free rein while all the rest of the Valley has improved. They haven't even taken care of their own properties without a court order or the threat of one.

I've lived in Sun Valley for 49 years, one year before a gravel pit was dug -- which later became the Bradley dump -- and saw my community go down the drain. The neighborhood council has not mentioned mitigation at our meetings. Doug Corcoran, who is manager of the Bradley dump, sits on the Sun Valley Neighborhood Council Board as well as on the Bradley Dump Advisory Committee, which he finances. But we in Sun Valley are to be enthused over a stinking $200,000 per year so that these places can expand?

-- Jerry Piro

East Valley Coalition

Not my mistake

Re ``Self-serving council'' (Aug. 14):

What betrayal to the voters and community. Thank God, I didn't vote for any of them.

-- Cynthia Y. Wilson

Pacoima

Teacher Goldberg

Re ``Termed-out Goldberg eyes education'' (Aug. 13):

I would love to see Jackie Goldberg ``go back to being a teacher.'' What better way to understand how to address the ``achievement issues of low-income kids and literacy skills'' than to experience those issues firsthand.

Maybe after a few years in the classroom, she could bring a more comprehensive approach to a position such as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Wow, what a novel idea. Maybe every school board member and superintendent should be required to spend some ``quality time,'' without cameras, in a classroom. And so, Ms. Goldberg, are you up for the challenge?

-- Nancy Wankovsky

Chatsworth

Killing the innocent

Re ``Ravages of war'' (Aug. 15):

It's not that I support Hezbollah, but all the rhetoric from our president and Israel that the civilian deaths in Lebanon are Hezbollah's responsibility alone is ridiculous. For one thing, the hostilities between these two go back to 1948.

Anytime missiles are fired at the capital of a major city of millions of citizens, you will unavoidably and predictably kill innocent people. They know this, but do not take responsibility for it. Last I heard, Tel Aviv airport and all roads in Israel were open. The same is not true in Beirut. These are civilian infrastructures. How are the people supposed to get out of harm's way? Fifty civilian deaths to one Hezbollah fighter is nothing less than murder.

-- Vatch Arouchian

Reseda

Peace with honor?

Re ``An uneasy peace'' (Aug. 14):

After returning from a conference in Berlin on Sept. 30, 1938, Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister of Great Britain, stood before a cheering crowd in front of 10 Downing Street and said, ``My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time.''

Now the Israelis and Americans have stopped the war in Lebanon, but the terrorists have not been disarmed. Does anyone see the similarity?

-- Don Evans

Canoga Park

It's all about fear

Re ``Brits foil terror plot to blow up U.S.-bound jets'' (Aug. 11):

Here we go again: terror level at red! Not elevated, but at red. What does this mean? 2000 campaign: fear, smear and queers. 2004 campaign: fear, smear and if you're not with us, you must be against us, and this must be construed as a ``cut-and-run kind of guy.''

Dignity, honor and valor are just a few things that you would think would be admirable to aspire to and hold dear to your beliefs as an American; yet we have people in power who will ``Swift'' you off your feet just to get their agenda done, whether or not it's in America's best interest. I personally regret where we are and where we're going, and it all reflects upon a leader who is a wolf wearing sheep's clothing.

-- Erik Eskelin

Woodland Hills

An American design

Re ``Too convenient'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 14):

Thank you so much, brave, courageous and bold Geri Mellgren-Kerwin, for having the audacity to question the recent terrorist ``plot'' as nothing more than an American design.

Think about it: If there was a plot to blow up planes with hair gel, wouldn't the homes of the arrestees in London have yielded supplies of such material? As yet I have found no such reports, and doubt I ever will. I had wondered whether or not I was the only person on the planet who suspects this episode is nothing more than an elaborate ruse cooked up by the U.S. and British governments for purposes of political aggrandizement and, most important of all, to defend the indefensible Iraq war.

-- Kathryn Durfee

Agoura

Oil and blood

Re ``Average Joes not welcome'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 14):

Yes, I think Joe Lieberman is an honest and sincere man, but he crossed the line when he defected to the George W. Bush doctrine and started a war he cannot finish.

And you hit the nail on the head when you stated that ``if we withdraw our troops, our oil supply will dry up.'' Bush and Dick Cheney are oilmen. So what else is new?

-- Earl D. Horwotz

North Hills

Name-calling and fear

Re ``Average Joes not welcome'' (Their Opinions, Aug. 14):

I have never read such unmitigated rubbish as spewed by Mike Reagan. He must be looking at the political and military scenes through an inverted mirror. He states that ``with our troops withdrawn, we could expect to see Iraq and the entire region descend into chaos.'' What do you think it is in now, Mike?

Reagan has resorted to using name-calling and fear in a desperate attempt to keep his neoconservative party in power. The administration that he so ardently defends has made disastrous mistake after mistake with no end in sight.

-- Patricia Lamoree

Granada Hills

The decider

George W. Bush is very dangerous because he doesn't have a clue what is going on. He's the ``decider,'' but my guess is that using eenie, meanie, mynie and mo to make those decisions isn't quite what the American people had in mind.

-- Cindy Rutherford

La Crescenta