PUBLIC FORUM.

Enough trough time

Re ``Council wants 4 more years'' (July 18):

I would be willing to extend the term limits of the L.A. City Council by four more years, provided that each and every one of them agreed to never campaign or hold elective or appointed office again in this country. Eating for 12 years at the public trough is enough.

-- Ken Keller 

Valencia

Enough damage

Re ``Council wants 4 more years'' (July 18):

The City Council is pleading for four more years as though that is going to make up for the incompetent performance of some of the members. Thank God, some of them are competent.

Where do they get the idea that no one else can do their job as well as they? What conceit and selfishness. There are plenty of competent citizens who can do the job better. How quickly they would abandon their seats if an opportunity to run for a higher office presented itself. These whiners should be sent out to pasture. They have done their damage.

-- William H. Link

Northridge

Flex this

Re ``Council flexes its power'' (July 19):

Thank God for our City Council. When Chief William Bratton was hired, I thought that his first job was to arrest every member of our City Council, whom I call the Downtown Mafia. These people have so hamstrung our police force that they cannot do their jobs. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

They should clean out their own nests before beating up on our police chief, who I think is the best police chief L.A. has had for a long time.

Apologize to our City Council? I don't think so.

-- Dave Whitelaw 

Los Angeles 

Beyond understanding

Re ``Council flexes its power'' (July 19):

I can't understand why the City Council is upset over what Chief William Bratton said about two city councilmen, as I hear similar remarks, in a much stronger language, about the whole council not knowing what they're talking about.

As for increasing term limits by another four years, I would like to see it reduced to a one-year limit with the option of putting it up to the voters each year based on their voting records, e.g.: Sunshine Canyon, excessive raises to DWP, increase in sanitation fees.

-- Don Segien

Canoga Park

Veto this

Re ``Ballot bamboozle'' (Our Opinions, July 19):

In one of the best editorials I have ever seen in the Daily News, the City Council is taken to task and rightfully chastised. Based on things that I have read, it sounds like the council is not functioning to the wants and needs of the people who put them in the position they are in.

And now the City Council has the sheer, unmitigated gall and audacity to ask those same voters to give them four more years. Here's a hot news flash for you guys: You ain't got it right yet. Why should Joe Lunchbox give you four more years to play in the sandbox? Mayor Villaraigosa, I'm sure, will see the travesty here and happily apply his veto stamp.

-- Robert E. West

Palmdale

HOV lanes a joke

I see a lot of one-occupant cars in the (HOV) lane and other drivers who use it as a passing lane, zipping in and out of it as they please. These same drivers will drive up the HOV lane on the on-ramps.

It's my understanding that the initial purpose of the HOV lane was to get more people to car-pool and thus have fewer drivers on the road. So how does a parent with an infant or a toddler (or any child under the age of 16) in the car qualify for the HOV lane? We haven't eliminated a driver. The HOV lanes should be restricted to cars with two or more occupants of driving age.

-- Sheila M. Cooley

Van Nuys

Digging deep

``Cop stops knit blacks in anger'' (Their Opinions, July 16) describes the simmering emotional residue of a traffic stop ... 30 years ago in Kansas. Perhaps the current situation isn't all that bad if we have to dig so deep to maintain our outrage.

Even a middle-aged white guy in a beige minivan (like me) gets pulled over sometimes. In fact, there have even been times when I thought the cop was unfair. Welcome to real life. Three words of Sharon Woodson-Bryant: Get over it.

-- David R. Gee

Van Nuys

He is a lawyer

``Ex-cop given prison sentence'' (July 19) and ``Nearly 8-year sentence for ex-cop in sex case,'' your headlines read. As a retired law enforcement officer, I find it offensive and demeaning to have labels placed on people that aren't in the business of law enforcement. He was an attorney. It's shameful to see your distaste for all those that serve honorably in the law enforcement profession.

Your selective use of specific professions to make dramatic headlines is, in my opinion, low-class.

-- Wayne Maier

Santa Clarita 

Some solution

Re ``Round them up'' (Your Opinions, July 16)

In America's continuing effort to bring democracy to Iraq, Ralph Smathers suggested that we ``set up fortified tent camps for all unemployed ... unmarried Iraqis.'' He added that we should keep them there until ``they gain employment,'' which should be a snap while incarcerated behind barbed wire and armed guards.

All in all, Adolph, a nice start, but maybe we should just gas them all and be done with it.

-- Denis Feehan

Simi Valley 

Religious engine

For the first time in this country's history, religion is beginning to have an ever-growing effect on political policy. Conservative evangelical groups have become the organizational engine of the Republican party, a party literally hijacked by fanatical religious militants reminiscent of the Taliban.

Additionally, we now have a president who believes he was called on by God to lead and fight the infidels. In the meantime, the neo-Crusades (aka World War III, anyone?) has broken out. This event frightens me. You see, Armageddon, or the return of Christ as seen through the view of religious fundamentalism, supports a willingness for war and an acceptance for collateral damage. Basically, to these individuals, the invasion of Iraq was a ``warm-up'' act, as predicted in the Book of Revelation.

-- Rick Cavaretti

Simi Valley

Creating enemies

For one Israeli soldier in Palestinian hands, George Bush allows his ally to bomb the hell out of them, with all the American ammunition available, U.S. attack helicopters, U.S. F-16 jets, killing innocent civilians, women and children with missiles, tanks, cannon fire. And you wonder why we are so disliked by the rest of the world? It does not count or matter that Israeli jails are holding over 9,000 Arabs and Palestinians. Is this OK?

Now Lebanon, and barely rebuilt Beirut. The Israeli killing machine with the aid of USA is leveling this city because Hezbollah got two Israelis. They even bombed the affluent Christian neighborhood. What have they done? Israel is creating more and more enemies and we are dragged into it.

-- Robert C. Paul

Woodland Hills

Bush's bungling 

Re ''Bush's ratings'' (Your Opinions, July 20):

President Bush's approval ratings are indeed below 50 percent. It is because he ignored the warning signs when the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history happened? Federal income tax breaks have been concentrated on the most affluent citizens.

Bin Laden is still at large. Bush attacked Iraq with no plan for victory. He won't enforce the immigration laws. He squandered the biggest financial surplus in U.S. history. Thousands of U.S. military and Iraqi civilians (have been) killed in Iraq. He approves the murder of real, live human beings, but not embryos. He is a senior citizen, a baby boomer and a proven incompetent.

-- Ernest Williams

Granada Hills