Letters to the editor
Bonus babies
Re “Bank bonuses spark talk of a levy,” Jan. 12
Maybe all the bonuses that the federally bailed-out bankers, stockbrokers and AIG executives received should be turned over to organizations trying to build a new Haiti.
Robert Remes
Dana Point
Though there may be some element of unfairness in taxing big banks that have already returned the federal money they received (with interest), given all the facts and circumstances, I’m not really troubled. What is troubling is that nothing is being done to prevent another such meltdown.
Two simple things could go a long way: First, reenact the Glass-Steagall Act, and second, regulate credit-default swaps and similar derivatives like the insurance policies that they are.
David Berman
Tarzana
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My outrage against big bank CEOs has grown. From my very minor position, I’m telling these executives that my tiny CDs will be moved to community banks on maturity, and I hope other outraged citizens do likewise.
Paul H. Wangsness
Burbank
Jonah on the race card
Re “Playing race-card ‘gotcha,’ ” Opinion, Jan. 12
Jonah Goldberg appears to be above the political fray, but he cannot disguise the overt contempt embedded in his rhetoric against the Democratic (liberal) trends of thought. This leads him to make inflammatory exclamations such as, “Most of the ‘black agenda’ is simply a throwback to the ethnic spoils game played by Italians, Germans, Jews and the Irish in previous generations,” and his arch reference to “absurdly [elevating] the racial pork barrel into a test of one’s soul.” So past black enslavement and Jim Crow in U.S. history are irrelevant?
Goldberg’s characterization of the Democratic Party as one in which “cognitive dissonance” prevails, and its position for redressing national problems affecting minorities as “lacquered with a thick coating of self-serving sanctimony,” reveals more about his overweening ideology jammed into self-inflated rhetoric. One might call it cognitive flatulence.
Chuck Hackwith
San Clemente
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Goldberg tries to have it both ways. He says there is so much to enjoy in Sen. Harry Reid’s racial gaffe, but he also bemoans the African American head of the Republican Party for making a big deal out of it. It’s this cynicism in Goldberg’s writing that irks.
Talking about the realities of race does not make one racist, which is what Reid was doing. If President Obama were an Ebonics-speaking black man, he would not have been elected; saying this doesn’t make me a racist. Goldberg’s joy in Reid’s comment doesn’t make him a racist, just a cynic -- but he wears that cynicism like a badge of honor.
Alex Downs
Long Beach
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Goldberg is wrong. Racism is alive and well. Take, for example, efforts by the Republican Party and its fellow travelers to suppress voting in black and other minority communities, and the strenuous effort to paint ACORN as a criminal enterprise by inflating the fraudulent activities of a few employees to a vast left-wing conspiracy.
It would be wonderful if the GOP truly believed in a colorblind society. But its rhetoric is a cover for its efforts to appeal to white racism with all the coded and barely coded messages utilized since the invention of the “Southern strategy” by Richard Nixon.
David Carr
San Diego
Jobs, yes; bureaucracy, no
Re “The mayor gets it: It’s about jobs,” Opinion, Jan. 13
Why does President Obama not follow the path to create jobs on a national scale that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is pursuing for Los Angeles?
The mayor has reached out to Republicans (Richard Riordan, for example) for leadership roles in formulating policies that will create jobs. Whereas the president is committing much stimulus money to developing green energy jobs for the intermediate and long term, the mayor’s team is apparently focusing on establishing policies that will soon result in many jobs.
The president could say something about using more natural gas, which can be produced and consumed in America in the very near term. Not only would many jobs be created now, but America’s reliance on foreign oil and the pollution from coal-fired utility plants would be significantly reduced.
Marc Jacobson
Los Angeles
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Why would anyone assume that adding another layer of bureaucracy in the form of a “czar” would make a jumbled mass of independent agencies more efficient? The act itself is an implicit admission of complete bureaucratic inefficiency. It should be remembered that the mayor’s job czar will be in charge of city departments whose unions exist first and foremost to protect workers. These unions are beyond the reach of a powerless czar or the elected mayor.
Please recall how the 10 Freeway was fixed in record time after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Managers were given complete control over all aspects of the job and everyone associated with it. That is what’s needed now.
Jerry Andersen
Pacific Palisades
Planning for the future
Re “Nuts-and-bolts L.A.,” Editorial, Jan. 11
The Times identifies some of the reasons our town has trouble finding its vision.
You rightly say that long-term strategic planning doesn’t come naturally to most politicians, but fail to mention that term limits build shortsightedness into the system.
Additionally, in-house expertise has been enticed to leave city employ by the recent attractive retirement package. This loss of historical memory and commitment to municipal excellence is bound to lead to the poor management you bemoan.
Hiring outside consultants is no panacea because, aside from the expense, those folks are not “experts” on Los Angeles until they’ve spent the time to learn the basics of our history, demography, geography, communities and the workings of our city structure.
Julie Downey
Los Angeles
The writer is a retired employee of the city of Los Angeles.
Teaching is tough enough
Re “L.A. Unified paid $200 million in unbudgeted salaries,” Jan. 14
It does not surprise me that a recent internal audit found that the Los Angeles Unified School District does not do a good job of keeping track of salaried positions.
I have been teaching for the last 33 years in the district; last September, the State Teacher’s Retirement System office informed me that the district did not give me a full year’s service credit for working last year. (There are also other years in which mistakes have been made.)
Do you have any idea how hard it is to fix a payroll, illness balance or service credit mistake? After countless calls and messages, no one returns calls or fixes the problems.
The district needs to get its priorities straight and use all of its “extra” money to help its employees get what is due them.
Mary Stern Weiss
Oak Park
Malibu views and rock stars
Re “Malibu mansions, the sequel,” Column, Jan. 13
Thank you, Steve Lopez, for bringing The Edge’s plans to construct five homes in Malibu to our attention.
What, is The Edge building a home for each member of U2 plus a producer? Are they now planning to write their stirring, soulful music for troubled humanity while enjoying the magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean? Maybe their next album will be found in the “easy listening” section.
Sorry, The Edge, but if you really want to make a contribution to The Earth, please revisit your plans and drastically scale down your eco-friendly design to preserve our fragile habitat.
Although that would still leave me at a loss as to how you can feel the pulse of distressed humanity in . . . Malibu.
Carolin Atchison
Studio City