Nathanial Ayers performing at the White House; an injunction stops Arizona’s immigration law; California politics

Beautiful music

Re “ ‘Hello, Nathaniel’: Obama welcomes Mr. Ayers to D.C.,” Column, July 28

Your article covering Nathaniel Ayers’ visit to Washington for the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act brought tears to my eyes.

Having been a teacher for many years of young people with disabilities, both physical and mental — and also a musician — I have followed yours and Ayers’ saga from the beginning.

This latest development — Ayers performs for President Obama! — displays your consistent insight, concern and humanity with regard to an individual deserving of attention.

Thanks for being a bright star in Los Angeles.

Grace Margoles Heilig

Santa Monica

Injunction stops Arizona

Re “Judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law,” July 29

President Obama, Judge Susan Bolton and the Justice Department now must take responsibility for the ruling concerning SB 1070 in Arizona.

They should hope and pray that no illegal immigrant commits a serious crime in Arizona between now and Nov. 2 — specifically if that person was stopped previously with no questions asked because of this ruling.

The judge has tied the hands of our law enforcement officers and put a target on the backs of law-abiding citizens in Arizona.

This decision will come back to haunt the Obama administration. It owns it and will have to live with the consequences.

It’s too bad that many Arizona citizens will have to suffer more serious crime before the administration comes to its senses.

Robert R. Jacobs

Phoenix

When we as citizens — and all officeholders — pledge allegiance to the United States of America, we pledge allegiance to “one nation.” What made it one nation, and preserves it as one nation, is the Constitution.

Legislators, executives and judges of every state, and of the United States, take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution. This takes precedence over everything else.

Article VI says, “This Constitution, and the laws of the United States … shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding … and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution.”

Any officeholder who ignores the Constitution, or deliberately violates it, is no patriot.

Alan R. Gordon

Camarillo

Money, politics and disclosure

Re “Senate Republicans block political ad disclosure bill,” July 28

This week’s vote on the DISCLOSE Act was a calculated and disappointing move by transparency-ignorant members of the Senate. The public has lost its opportunity to know the whole picture of the intersection of money in elections.

But despite the setback in the Senate, Congress must continue to be pressed on the need for comprehensive, real-time disclosure for all election spending — across the board — from when and how often candidates, individuals and PACs report their contributions and expenditures to who is involved in independent expenditures or issue ads.

Disclosure remains a crucial antiseptic to the corrupting influence of money in politics.

We need to ensure that our system is as transparent as possible.

Ellen Miller

Washington

The writer is executive director and co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation.

Why we can’t get a budget

Re “Gov. issues strong budget threat,” July 27

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does not believe in passing a budget by simple majority because one party would make all the decisions.

Schwarzenegger does not understand that democracy is just that — a simple majority. The two-thirds majority required to pass budgets is nothing more than tyranny of the minority.

I hope Californians will approve Proposition 25 in November.

If people don’t like the party in power, they can always choose another party in the next election.

Domenico Maceri

San Luis Obispo

Re “Brown’s appeal to unions: He’s not Whitman,” July 27

The Times writes that gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has expressed deep reservations about a labor-backed ballot initiative that would allow the Democratic-dominated Legislature to pass a budget with a simple majority, “a measure critical to liberals’ agenda.”

Why would Brown have any kind of reservations about a simple majority in a state that is completely dysfunctional, due in large part to the two-thirds majority rule stalemating any decision ?

Judy Boroskin

Orange

Parking for the homeless

Re “L.A. to help find safe parking,” July 27

It is misleading to suggest that L.A. will find safe parking to help the homeless.

It is Venice and its neighborhoods that will carry the rest of Southern California in trying to find an answer to the homeless parking issue.

When will other communities step up to help rather than simply push the homeless issues onto the streets of Venice, whose public services are already overtaxed by the growing population of homeless citizens and visitors?

Councilman Bill Rosendahl would be applauded if he were to include this in his work to help the disenfranchised.

David Blocker

Venice

It’s news to them

Re “Who’s Cronkite now?,” Opinion, July 27

In a world where change is the law, it’s nice to have a few things that remain constant. The sun will rise in the East, gravity will keep us on the ground and Jonah Goldberg will be wrong.

About everything.

The New York Times reporter who refrained from printing private e-mails did the right thing. Climategate did not exist, as subsequent investigations proved. It was a story the right-wing media puffed up to prove global warming is a hoax.

It proved no such thing. Walter Cronkite probably would not have reported it because there was no “there” there. Cronkite did report that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, and history bore him out.

Mr. Goldberg, the left was fighting for a moral cause when you say they became enamored with a “riot ideology.” When Cronkite’s old clips of the civil rights movement are viewed, it is the “law and order” conservatives who don’t look so good.

Your Exhibit A, Fox News, has no Walter Cronkite equivalent. This is a fact that should be lamented.

John Mathieu

San Pedro

Why am I not surprised to read that Goldberg is a friend of Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger who released the rightly condemned, highly misleading video of Shirley Sherrod addressing the NAACP?

What I find hilarious is that Goldberg, apparently with a straight face, uses this example of his friend’s attempt to malign a member of the Obama administration — and by extension the administration itself — to launch yet another attack on the so-called liberal media (and such “overrated national icons” as … Walter Cronkite!?).

Goldberg fails to mention the role Fox News played in running with the false Sherrod story, failing to perform any form of the due diligence that typifies a real news organization.

Suzanne Zizzi

Sherman Oaks