Apr 21, 2008

Letters

John McCain

Dear Editor: John McCain's tax return shows that he paid his first wife (the one who nursed his Vietnam wounds - mental and physical), $17,700 in alimony last year. I wonder if Cindy McCain (who has the big bucks and whose tax records remain private due to the prenuptial agreement) pays the ex-Mrs. McCain a lot more than that to keep her mouth shut about the volatile and vulgar behavior McCain is capable of. American voters deserve to know the whole truth.

I do not want McCain's finger on the button. I don't believe he has recovered, or ever will, from the torture he endured when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He wouldn't even be accepted to serve on a jury in some cases because of his potential bias due to his personal experiences. Whoever takes office on Jan. 21, 2009, will be walking into the mess Bush and Cheney have created. I want to be able to trust that person can take charge in a crisis. McCain is not that person.

Toni M. Villa,

Mountain View



The use of torture

Dear Editor: Mark Peterson [Letters, Wednesday] points out how far George Bush has fallen in authorizing waterboarding and claiming that it is not a form of torture.

It was pointed out some time ago that waterboarding can be fatal. II Kings 8:15 (King James version) describes the assassination of Ben-hadad, king of Syria, by the usurper Hazael: "And it came to pass on the morrow that he took a thick cloth, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died. ..."

The prophet Elisha foresaw the evil that Hazael would do, and wept.

Members of the Republican religious right who support this administration's evil deeds, will you please read the Bible instead of thumping it?

Peter Bradshaw,

Menlo Park



Peace center program

Dear Editor: Letters on April 2 and April 15 by Paul George of the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center concern an interview on local public-access cable TV about a project using a live video link to connect American high school students with Palestinian students at Al-Najah University in Nablus (West Bank). George argued with earlier Daily News letters, one by Sheree Roth, about the choice of Al-Najah for this project (which refuses to connect the Americans with Israelis to hear the other side) and attacked his opponents as "right-wing extremists." I was at the filming, and so I'd like to set the record straight, without this name calling.

Roth noted that this same university celebrated a deadly 2001 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem pizzeria by recreating the scene on campus, complete with fake blood and dead bodies and with photos glorifying the killer. The school viewed this as a student "exhibition." George called this a "mere geographic coincidence."

No, this issue is central to evaluating this "educational project." One of the final questions from the audience asked whether the students discussed suicide bombings. The answer was that an American student asked, but the Palestinians clammed up. So while we didn't learn what those Palestinians think of suicide bombings, it is no coincidence that they didn't want to share their school's history with the Americans. It might have spoiled the educational mood.

Alan Fisher,

Atherton



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Dear Editor: Paul George engages in name-calling ("right-wing extremists," "fanatics," and "deliberate distortions"), all the while refusing to answer the basic charge that Sheree Roth originally leveled at him on March 28. Roth was concerned about the recent video clip from the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center Web site indicating the program intentionally will present only the Palestinian perspective. This deliberate omission of the Israeli position is problematic for a program involving U.S. schools. George's evasion is hardly surprising, given the constant kvetching and entitlement mentality for the Palestinians that is pervasive on the PPJC Web site.

Larry Yelowitz,

Sunnyvale



Death penalty barbaric

Dear Editor: I can't believe that the Supreme Court can be so insensitive and so hypocritical that it worries about the pain inflicted by the needle that gives the lethal injection and does not worry about the supreme pain that follows the injection: death. It seems also that, in times when innocence projects exonerate, every day, people who have been falsely convicted and erroneously sentenced to death, the court should be more cautious in its decisions. In any case, the death penalty is a barbaric practice that has no place in a modern state. And those who insist on inflicting a cruel punishment on criminals should remember that the death penalty is more expensive than life incarceration. And it is much, much more expensive than rehabilitation.

Christiane Cook,

Palo Alto



Campaign financing

Dear Editor: I applaud Tom Elias for recognizing in his article ["Sidestepping campaign finance laws," Wednesday] a clear and present threat to our democracy. That is the stranglehold that wealthy campaign contributors have on our politicians and our government policies. (Although, his analogy to the sports world is like comparing shinsplints to a heart attack.)

His chagrin over the lack of a solution to our corrupt campaign financing system is, can and should be relieved because there is a remedy called clean money, which is voluntary system of full public campaign financing for candidates who qualify by demonstrating a broad base of voter support. Clean money has been tried and tested for eight years by two states and several cities. In those places, voters thoroughly enjoy knowing that they can vote for candidates who are accountable only to the voters, not their wealthy contributors, because clean money candidates are not allowed to accept campaign contributions from any source (not even their own wallets), except from a public fund. Clean money also effectively counteracts the problem of independent expenditures in those places.

If only there were such a clean solution for heart attacks.

Joe Ely,

Pleasanton