PUBLIC FORUM.

Congressional ethics

Re ``Foley's messages being examined'' (Oct. 2):

We have known that the ethics committee, there to protect the people, has pretty much closed up shop. But this committee apparently did nothing when members were asked to investigate one of their own who might possibly be a child predator. More disgusting still was the fact that he was on a committee that was in place to protect those same children. What did they do? They swept it under the rug, apparently, and did nothing.

I wonder how the child felt when he went out on a limb and reported this sick situation to the committee and committee members did nothing? You should have to think more of the child than politics. That apparently is not the case with this ``ethics'' committee.

-- Cora Byrd

Van Nuys

A pox on them

Re ``Foley's messages being examined'' (Oct. 2):

A chicken hawk pox on the House of Representatives for being complicit in covering up allegations that Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who ironically co-chaired the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, sent sexually explicit e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page.

This is yet another example of politics uber alles.

The House leaders knew about these specific charges for an entire year and have been warning Republican pages about Foley's proclivities since 2002. They did nothing -- at the expense of the underage pages who worked for them and of the voters for whom they work. No matter the party affiliation, whoever knew and did nothing must be held to account.

-- Sandy Sand

West Hills

Scorched-earth policy 

Re ``Firefighters close to stopping blaze'' (Oct. 2):

I would like to ``thank'' those in charge of the Day Fire. This fire has burned more than 163,000 acres of prime forest at a cost of over $63 million and has taken a whole month to control while we have suffered with heavy smoke.

Whose bright idea was this to let a man-made fire burn in the first week with little or no aggressive fire suppression? I watched other fires in the area being attacked very aggressively and extinguished in record time, while the Day Fire just got bigger. To those in charge: Thanks for the scorched-earth policy.

-- Joseph Dillon

Chatsworth

In an odious way

Re ``View From the Valley'' (Oct. 1):

Please present proof that churches out of their collection plates give directly to political campaigns. If you are unable to, please retract in an odious way the Sunday ``View From the Valley'' editorial cartoon.

-- Allen Conley Heatherly

Reseda

`Jesus Camp' film

Re ``Does Jesus love you? Ask these happy campers'' (Sept. 29):

I just read Glenn Whipp's review of the movie ``Jesus Camp.'' Very good! Having produced documentaries myself on touchy subjects, I understand the concept of letting the story tell itself. And for the ``Jesus Camp'' producers to not ask important questions about the background of the camp leader is totally amateurish, unless the producers got carried away with making a propaganda film.

Can you imagine if they had handled a documentary about radical Islam and their students, or about Orthodox Jewish kids, in the same manner?

-- R.J. Johnson

North Hollywood

Basic economics

Re ``Demonstrators close Century Blvd.'' (Sept. 29):

OK, so downtown hotels get $125 a night and Los Angeles International Airport hotels get $94 a night. Gee, why do you think that is? You pay $20 for a pair of store-brand blue jeans or $120 for a ``designer'' brand, and you pay more because of the perceived value and because you can afford it. If you can't afford it, you buy store-brand blue jeans.

The airport hotels are not perceived as having as much value as the downtown hotels. Which means, boys and girls, the airport hotels have less money to pay employees. If you want to earn more money, go work for a more expensive hotel or go to school.

-- Martin Klein

North Hollywood

The answer? Yes

Re ``Do you believe global warming is real?'' (Daily News Online poll, Sept. 28):

To the 47.5 percent of readers who question if global warming is real, the answer is yes from all the scientists and the politicians of the world (except a few in Washington, D.C.).

The 300 scientists at the Sept. 13-15 Sacramento California Climate Change Research Conference reported the following effects now: higher temperatures, increased forest fires, increased heat waves, increased smog, increased deaths of plants and animals, decreased crop productivity and decreased snow. They outlined future effects including species extinctions, decreased water supply, failed crops, increasing insect-caused disease and sea-level rise.

-- Jim Stewart

Los Angeles

No safety

Re ``Gunman selected blond girls'' (Sept. 29):

The notion our kids are safe on Los Angeles Unified School District campuses is baloney. When my daughter's backpack was stolen from the girls' locker room at North Hollywood High School, I was told there was no point in interviewing the students because anyone could have walked in and stolen the bag.

When I asked to file a police report, the campus officer could not be found. Are the schools prepared for emergencies like the Colorado emergency? No, they're just lucky they don't happen very often.

-- Michael Guetzow

Woodland Hills

Positive changes

Re ``Picture bright for Northeast Valley economy'' (Sept. 29):

Charles Bostwick was right when he wrote there was both opportunity and change for the better occurring in the northeast San Fernando Valley. Much has been written about quarries, auto-salvage yards, waste-transfer facilities and landfills. Less has been written about how the vast majority of these businesses operate successfully and are making positive changes for the future.

With the help of the Sun Valley chamber and local community leaders, a transformation is happening in Sun Valley, where a whole new generation of environmental-service jobs is being created. Waste Management is one of the largest employers in the area with more than 200 local employees. We've operated for more than 45 years in the Northeast Valley, and we want to stay.

-- Doug Corcoran

Waste Management of Sun Valley

`Cut-and-run' chant

``Cutting one's losses'' is genetically coded into the minds of Republican- dominated high-dollar investors. When a stock loses 10 percent of its value, they cut and run like scalded dogs. Not very macho, but smart (considering the personal nature of their at-risk capital).

But it's not so when the obvious fiasco of Iraq requires people from the other end of the economic spectrum to be at mortal risk. Then they -- safe from afar in their lives of ease and prosperity -- boom the ``macho'' Karl Rove's ``cut-and-run'' chant to promote continuing on with the fiasco. How is it their bean-counting brains cannot see that the billion-plus dollars per week being poured down the Iraq rathole would be better spent defending the point of feared attack?

-- Bill Pratt

Northridge

Walking the walk

Re ``Tipoff'' column photo (Oct. 2):

A few months back, I read a comment, in this letters column, about Antonio Villaraigosa never missing a photo opportunity. I have a better one. Last Thursday, at Macy's Passport Gala fundraiser for AIDS/HIV at Santa Monica Airport, our mayor walked the runway as a menswear model. It seems he'll do anything to get noticed -- anything with ``fluff,'' that is.

-- Anne Friedman

Northridge