Obama and BP’s oil spill; Michelle Obama’s oil use; prison overcrowding

Obama and the spill

Re “Obama calls on nation to alter its ways,” June 16, and “ BP will create fund to pay claims,” June 17

President Obama’s speech from the Oval Office on the oil spill was by far the worst speech I have ever seen during a major national crisis.

But his results from paying hardball with BP’s oil leases in getting money for the American victims of the oil spill now are unprecedented.

The victims of the Exxon Valdez spill had to wait 20 years to receive a pittance. Many were dead and most had spent years in poverty, their family businesses destroyed, before seeing a penny.

President Obama: terrible at speech making, but a man of action? Who would have thought?

Bruce Williams

Pasadena

During his Oval Office speech, President Obama proclaimed: “For decades, we’ve talked and talked about the need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels.”

Let’s be perfectly clear: Americans never have been and are not now addicted to fossil fuels. To the contrary, we have always been addicted to the unparalleled freedom of mobility that fossil fuels have provided throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries.

Correspondingly, there’s an addiction to the generous profits that fossil fuels generate to keep our freedom of mobility active and competitive.

Why would any free-spirited American want to give up freedom of mobility and profit incentives to return to the 19th century?

Robert L. Rosebrock

Brentwood

I was very disappointed in the President’s speech. This was a defining moment when he could have told the nation what we should do to help.

Here is what he should have said.

“I am asking my fellow Americans to take the following pledge:

“We are addicted to oil and need to do things substantially differently to reduce our dependence on it and other fossil fuels.

“We need to rely on shared scientific consensus on the environmental impact that is occurring and what we can do about it.

“We need to recognize that we have not done nearly enough to develop clean energy and fuel alternatives.

“I pledge to actively work personally and professionally to reduce consumption of fossil fuels as much as possible.”

The pledge could be posted online by the White House, printed and signed by everyone who is serious about reducing our addiction. If some politicians and business leaders won’t sign, let that be held up during the next elections or shareholder meetings.

Allen Dusault

San Francisco

The writer is program director of Sustainable Conservation.

There was a lot of moaning and groaning today about the remarks made by Carl-Henric Svanberg, the Swedish chairman of BP, expressing concern about the “small people.”

Grow up, America! President Obama has already gotten a remarkable financial commitment out of BP. The chairman’s remarks clearly show a lack of familiarity with English idiom rather than any lack of sensitivity.

I say this as an Indian American who learned English in India in the ‘40s, from a German nun! I later spent my boyhood and youth in England before coming to grad school in the U.S., so I know something about the intercultural nuances of language.

Svanberg was obviously referring to the average citizens and small-business owners who have been so damaged by this disaster. He was probably trying to distinguish between average Americans and major commercial interests, both of which have suffered losses.

Dilip Adarkar

Manhattan Beach

Democrats and Republicans who are still behind drilling in deep water must have very deep pockets that they want the oil companies to fill.

BP has demonstrated that it had no real cleanup plan in place. The oil industry has lobbied successfully to get the government to weaken regulations on drilling.

These politicians are probably the same ones behind nuclear energy. Do they want to bet that the nuclear industry hasn’t been as corrupt as the oil industry? The animal and human deaths that have already occurred and will occur as the result of the oil volcano in the gulf will be nothing in comparison to an accident at a nuclear power plant.

To quote a movie line, “Feeling lucky?”

Les Hartzman

Sherman Oaks

The first lady’s oil addiction?

Re “First Lady Visits L.A.,” June 16

Is this hypocrisy or what? On Wednesday I read in The Times that Michelle Obama and family dined out and saw the Lakers play at Staples Center.

Just a few hours earlier President Obama had called the nation to alter its ways and end oil addiction.

The Times described Michelle’s not-quite-typical trip to Los Angeles saying the family members “were shepherded around in a convoy of black SUVs with numerous Secret Service agents in tow.”

Does this fit the adage “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”?

Randolph Logan

Chatsworth

Why prisons are overcrowded

Re “Who’s in charge here?,” June 13

Not mentioned in the prison overcrowding article was California’s parole revocation system.

Of the 165,000 state prisoners, 70,000 are parole violators, who have been found guilty through an arcane administrative process in which judges are not required to have a legal education, a guilty verdict may be based on 51% certainty, and hearings are closed to the public and open to the press only at the discretion of corrections officials.

Most violators are returned to custody for minor rule infractions or are found guilty of crimes on questionable evidence that would never see the light of day in a state court proceeding. Roughly a fifth of these parolees are mentally ill and are routinely denied their medication upon arrest.

If we want to reduce our prison population, all criminal charges should be adjudicated in the state courts and the expensive, unconscionable morass of the parole revocation system should be junked.

Brian Hudson

Los Angeles

The writer is an attorney and author of “California Parole Revocation Defense.”

The solution to the problem of prison overcrowding is to change the penal code so that fewer go to prison. Do the following:

- Legalize pot, heroin and prostitution. These are victimless crimes.

- Amend the three-strikes law so that only violent crimes are strikes.

- Roll back sentence enhancements for use of a firearm to what they were 20 years ago.

The overcrowding of California prisons has created unconstitutional conditions and is costing the state billions of dollars. The state can’t afford to maintain the status quo. Things need to change.

Josh Rivetz

Northridge

A shoving target for Whitman

Re “Whitman reportedly shoved EBay employee in ‘07,” June 15

After learning that Meg Whitman shoved a subordinate out of a meeting during a disagreement, I wonder if your organization could arrange to film her practicing her management techniques in Sacramento on our current governor.

Peter Shinnerl

Escondido

Pot’s Johnny Appleseed

Re “ ‘Prince of Pot’ is at a low,” Column One, June 12

Once the U.S. understands that it has been duped about cannabis, it will recognize Canadian Marc Emery, with his marijuana seed catalogs, as a modern-day Johnny Appleseed.

Apples were vilified once too.

Loring Greene

Glendale