PUBLIC FORUM.

Bolton would have won

Re ``Circumventing again'' (Your Opinions, Aug. 2):

The left, losers in 19 states in 2004, stridently condemns the recess appointment of the very well qualified John Bolton to represent our interests in the so-called United Nations. Given the fairness of an up-or-down vote, he would have won handily, but the left determinedly prevented that.

Their screams would now have you believe that no other president has ever done such a reprehensibly thing. Jean Strauber's letter promoted that error. Back in the real world, their favorite president, Bill Clinton, according to NBC news, did it no less than 140 times. Did they scream then?

- Jack Schlicht

North Hills

Unspeakable

Re ``Bush sidesteps Senate, installs Bolton'' (Aug. 2):

Unable to get his uniquely unqualified, unfit and perhaps unbalanced U.N. nominee, John Bolton, past the Senate because of his probable untruths and undermining many CIA and State Department officials, President Bush underhandedly bypassed advise and consent during the Senate recess.

Understanding Bolton is unable to undertake answering uncomfortable questions that would uncover undiscovered embarrassing or illegal doings, Bush unleashed Bolton on the U.N. Now Bolton will be in a position to unravel the U.N. and, unconcerned, leave the unfavorable, unauthorized and perhaps unconstitutional questions unanswered.

- Jerold Drucker

Tarzana

Bolton appointment

Re ``Bush sidesteps Senate, installs Bolton'' (Aug. 2):

The Democrats in the Senate have no one to blame but themselves for President Bush's recess appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. For four months, they stonewalled, using a rule of the Senate to forestall a vote they knew they would lose.

Now they have the nerve to whine when the president uses a provision of the Constitution to trump their filibuster? Recess appointments say more about the Senate's character than the president's. But I guess it's OK to disenfranchise Americans as long as you are a well-meaning liberal.

- John Kurt

Reseda

Where our money goes

Re ``DWP salary plan irks unions'' (Aug. 31):

Well, thank you, Ron Deaton, for ``fixing'' the Department of Water and Power. At least we now know where a lot of the price increases are going. Way to try to set the bar high so that all the other unions can complain about being ``underpaid.'' If this weren't so sad, you'd have to laugh.

Why can't these costs be controlled for a few years, so that the private sector might have a chance to ``catch up'' with the increases that the city workers have been enjoying? I can only hope that the council can see the spiraling effect approving this contract would lead to. Let's see some of that wisdom that we pay so well for.

- Mark Armer

Chatsworth

Medieval assumptions

Re ``Dems could create crisis of faith'' (Viewpoint, July 31):

Does Michael Goodwin want the pope running our government? As the Bush administration caters to the wishes of voters spouting unsubstantiated opinions as if they were God's truth, pseudo Christians will force their ridiculous morality on all Americans. John Roberts may be brilliant in the way he argues, but his assumptions are based on medieval theories coming out of Rome.

Roe vs. Wade needs to stay the law of the land, and it won't with Roberts on the Supreme Court. Democrats who vote for Roberts will lose the majority of women voters' support. Scientific truth leads us to God's truth. Blind faith in man-made religions serves stupidity.

- John Wisdom Dancer

Canoga Park

Arnold's big mistake

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

Governor Arnold made a big mistake taking on the teachers. In a recent national poll, Arnold placed last among all 50 governors. How quick the shine comes off the apple. Arnold is one of those arrogant celebrities who thinks he can charm the you-know-what off of a brass monkey.

Well, it doesn't work with the educated. Arnold is getting back what those familiar with guns call ``ricochet.'' If Arnold wants to save his venture into politics, he'd better start eating a little humble pie.

- Philip Wilt

Van Nuys

Typical government

Re ``City Hall gas tanks, never used, must go'' (July 27):

Councilman Dennis Zine stated, ``Here we are, as a council, trying to scrape together money to hire police officers and firefighters, to keep parks open, and we are wasting almost $2 million to install tanks we could never use and now to remove them. This just doesn't make sense.''

To this, I would like to add, of course it makes sense, because this is the kind of bureaucratic crap and waste of money that the government is good at. However, Zine is right on and the blame falls on his predecessors.

- Kenneth Dean

Santa Clarita

City Hall tanks

Re ``City Hall gas tanks, never used, must go'' (July 27):

I have a perfect solution: The gas tank need not be removed (cost, $800,000). I have a beautiful granddaughter who drives a cement truck for her husband's company. She could drive it down here from Littlerock, Calif., and fill those tanks with cement, leave them where they have been for four years and at a cost of much less than $800,000 - and the job is done.

- LaVonne Epstein

North Hollywood

Rifle and scope

Re ``In the line of fire'' (Editorial, July 15):

Regarding the shooting of the baby and her father by police, was I the only one who saw a member of the SWAT team holding a rifle with a scope on it and pointing it at something? Was that for showing off to the cameras? Or was he pointing at the father?

With a rifle with a scope, an average shooter could hit a dime at 100 feet. Those who know about firearms will agree; those who don't know will never admit a hail of bullets and shotgun blasts was not what was called for.

- Eloy L. Mendoza

Pacoima

Quit carping 

Re ``Modest return'' (Editorial, Aug. 1):

Rep. Howard Berman deserves our thanks for fighting to get funds to add an extra lane on the San Diego Freeway from the Santa Monica to the Ventura Freeway. To carp about whether he should have got more is to look a gift horse squarely in the mouth. The important thing is that the state - thanks to Berman and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer - now has $130 million that it did not expect to get. In a time of tight budgets in Sacramento and Washington, that's real money. And it's not for some pork-barrel boondoggle that benefits a special interest. It's for a project that will have an impact on every resident of the San Fernando Valley.

Everyone who sits for hours in the congested mess through the Sepulveda Pass should be celebrating an event that moves the start of construction from the end of the next decade to something in the next year or two.

- Richard Close

President

Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association

Obscene profits

Is no one outraged but me? We are paying over $2.50 a gallon for gas, and each fiscal quarter the oil companies are making more than $3.5 billion in profits. Chevron was the top earner, but the others are right up with them. Yet they need to raise prices.

And, of course, there is the school district with the ``for the children'' while our property taxes go sky high (to pay for their bonds), and they get new parking and such. Or the City Council with cars we pay for?

- Cathy Hardy

Arleta