PUBLIC FORUM.

Shuffling to socialism

Re ``Council ducks `wage' fight'' (Feb. 1):

Why are our City Council and mayor determined to march us into socialism? First they hijack private enterprise by legislating higher wages at airport hotels, and now they broker backroom deals to offset these wages with tax benefits, so that the public, not the hotels, pays these higher wages.

If they would just embrace the notion of supply and demand, enforce the law and rid this city of illegal workers, the supply would shrink and demand would cause higher wages for our citizens. In Hawaii, where illegal immigration is not impossible but more difficult, a smaller work force has caused just 2 percent unemployment and higher wages for all.

-- Michael Guetzow

Woodland Hills

Chick on council

Re ``Chick wants back in'' (Our Opinions, Jan. 31):

All of the residents of the city of Los Angeles would be very lucky to have Laura Chick back on the City Council. As city controller, she put a blowtorch on the Department of Water and Power, which spent millions of ratepayer funds on really dumb stuff, such as the public-relations contract with Fleishman-Hillard. She is not afraid to take on the big boys of City Hall.

I served as the chief of staff to former Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky in the late 1970s. The problems of the 5th Council District are now more serious, and Chick is just the person the doctor has ordered to serve on the City Council. I hope she will move into the 5th District, take out the papers and win a big victory on election day.

-- Jack McGrath 

Valley Village

Condo conversions

Re ``L.A. takes very slow approach to protecting renters'' (Our Opinions, Feb. 1):

While condo sales may have cooled, condo conversion-related evictions have not. The San Fernando Valley neighborhoods of Valley Village, Studio City and Sherman Oaks had one of the highest number of these evictions, second only to the Westside, according to Housing Department data.

The proposed increased relocation assistance amounts, while needed, are still not enough to compensate tenants for the hardship brought by their displacement and will do nothing to guarantee tenants new and decent housing they can afford. The key issue is that without restricting the continuing wave of conversions and demolitions, more people's lives will be destroyed and the city's affordable housing crisis will worsen.

-- Larry Gross 

Executive director

Coalition for Economic Survival

Los Angeles 

Dim bulb

Re ``Proposal to ban traditional electric light bulbs'' (Jan. 31):

If state legislators, in their infinite wisdom, ban all conventional (incandescent) light bulbs, what about all the flashlights, auto headlamps, etc.? Assuming that they only ban 110- volt lamps, what about all the fixtures with a candelabra base and those little bulbs in night lights? I guess old-fashioned Christmas lights are out. Assuming that they ban only standard-base, 110-volt bulbs, do we throw away all the fixtures that these bulkier fluorescent bulbs will not fit? Or decorator fixtures that use flame-shape bulbs, big round bulbs and such?

OK, now how about those who are already saving energy by using dimmers and those funny little line-cord switches that have two positions, full on and dim? Put a fluorescent in either of those circuits, and it will either not work at all or possibly burn your house down. I hope that they think this one through.

-- James Moran 

Northridge

Not very bright

Re ``Proposal to ban traditional electric light bulbs'' (Jan. 31):

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine's proposal that California ban the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs is invasive and, in my opinion, not a very, er, bright idea. Unless the California Legislature and governor have gone insane, the proposal will never see the light of day.

-- Ken Green

Burbank

Bus fares

Why not use some of the gas-tax revenue to actually pay for our bus and rail lines so that people could ride for free. Let the people who buy gas pay to have fewer people driving their cars. Not only that, but we would have cleaner air because the bus and rail would be running on clean-burning alternate fuel.

We pay more than 38 cents a gallon in state and federal taxes now, and only a small portion of that goes to the bus system. We could put more buses on the street and run them more frequently.

-- Mike Hoblinski

Burbank

Racial slur

Re ``Biden explains Obama remark'' (Briefly, Feb. 1):

I think Sen. Joe Biden needs to get himself into a racial-sensitivity rehab program -- and the sooner, the better. Where does he get off calling an African-American man articulate, bright, clean and nice-looking? It's ... it's ... it's outrageous! It's one thing to think it, but quite another actually to say it. May he be corrected and forgiven. Gimme a break.

-- Eddie Johnson

Panorama City

Meddling government

I am getting very tired of the government trying to take charge of our personal lives with proposals for no-spanking and fluorescent-light laws.

My son got spanked, not beaten, when he was a child, and he has grown up to be a successful businessman and father.

I am a senior citizen on a fixed income. I do not have the money to change the light fixtures in my home and the light bulbs an assemblyman wants us to buy are a lot more expensive than the conventional ones. Don't legislators have better things to do with their time?

-- Patricia Meiner

Canoga Park

Taxing wrong target

Arnold Schwarzenegger took it upon himself to change the word ``tax'' to ``fees.'' The governor wants to raise fees (taxes) on doctors (2 percent of their gross revenues) and hospitals (4 percent of their gross revenues) to fund his poorly thought-out plan to pay for the legal and illegals in California who do not have health insurance. Plus, as an addendum: The good governor wants $45 billion-plus in bonds, not a tax, just bonds. I believe bonds have to be repaid -- with interest.

The governor should rethink his approach. Actors (including himself), producers, directors and professional sports figures all earn more than doctors and hospitals. Why not a 10 percent fee (tax) on these persons' gross revenues to fund the governor's free health-care plan?

-- Harvey M. Piccus

Tarzana

Snow job

Re ``Hope, nope'' (Your Opinions, Jan. 30):

David Hall must have been snow-jobbed by the right-wing group. How can you win a war based on lies? How can you call this a war? It's an invasion of another country without any provocation.

This war is all about profit. The longer it goes on, the more money some cronies in this administration make. Unfortunately, innocent people on both sides are dying every day.

-- Angela Morgan

Van Nuys

Selling out

Re ``Jihad Jane'' (Feb. 1):

I found Bob Tanabe's assertion that actress Jane Fonda is the one who ``sold America out to the communists'' interesting. I wonder if he's taken stock of how many things he owns that carry the label ``Made in China.'' I wonder how Tanabe would feel if it read ``Made in Communist China,'' and would he continue buying products made by communists? I wonder if he would then ask the question: Who really is selling out America?

-- Robert Barr

Burbank

Jane again

Does anyone think that Jane Fonda will travel to Iraq and pose beside an improvised explosive device?

-- Michael Lieberman

Woodland Hills