Attorney Gloria Allred; the California elections; Obama and U.S. foreign policy

She keeps fighting

Re “Legal fray still suits her just fine,” Column One, Nov. 6

As a Republican, I don’t always find myself in agreement with Gloria Allred. But as someone who is concerned about community, I’m thankful to have her around, as she is passionate about causes and is willing to fight for the underdog.

Allred is a Democrat, but she can hardly be accused of being strictly partisan.

When Paula Jones accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment, Allred represented her. Although the lawsuit was settled out of court, here was Allred, a Democrat, going up against arguably the nation’s most powerful Democrat.

Like UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, I greatly admire Allred “for what she’s contributed to changing the law.”

David Tulanian

Los Angeles

Lawyers prepare their cases for trial. Allred, who handles National Enquirer-type controversies, prepares her “cases” for press conferences.

Lawyers try to get justice for their clients. More often than not, it appears that Allred and her clients are more interested in getting their 15 minutes of fame. (Actually it’s only one minute of fame for the client and 14 for Allred.) She seems more like a publicist than a lawyer.

Mary E. Gravlin

Rancho Palos Verdes

Fueling the death chamber

Re “State has drug for four executions,” Nov. 8

The time-consuming and expensive preoccupation with finding the best method to legally execute people raises the more important question: Why do California and other states cling to an outmoded, barbaric and uncivilized form of “justice” while much of the developed world has wisely and humanely abandoned the tragic folly of capital punishment?

Jerry Lasnik

Thousand Oaks

Anyone who recently had a procedure that required being “put under” can tell you that the controversy over anesthetics used for executions is ridiculous. You’re knocked out and you wake up or you don’t. This is similar to arguing over the sterility of the inoculation site of the soon-to-be deceased.

Jefferson C. Romney

Westlake Village

Foreign policy and Obama

Re “Diplomat in chief,” Opinion, Nov. 7

Though Doyle McManus offers an astute political analysis of the major foreign policy topics of our day, he fails to challenge conventional thinking regarding how President Obama ought to address these foreign policy issues.

After almost a decade of intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems logical to consider what we have accomplished in that region. Have we stabilized the area? Have we created strong allies? We have seen some measure of improvement, but going from complete chaos to sporadic chaos could not be called a success.

The reality is that nation-building does not work. When will this fact be recognized in the foreign policy debate?

Anthony Moreno

Washington

McManus describes those of us who take Iran at its word as “a few super-hawks who favor preemptive U.S. military action.” McManus joins the ranks of history’s appeasers who turned a deaf ear to those who threatened the last Holocaust.

Obama, like his predecessor, doesn’t have the guts — or the wisdom — to face down the Iranians with what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu correctly identifies as the only policy that will work, a “credible military threat” against the Holocaust-deniers in charge of that regime.

Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons. In prosecuting its war against the West, it has a powerful weapon in addition to roadside bombs, Hezbollah rockets and Hamas suicide terrorists: the preemptive capitulation of those spouting politically conformist platitudes about olive branches.

Samuel Appelbaum

Los Angeles

How we voted, and why

Re “Money is simply not enough,” Nov. 7, and “Money isn’t everything,” Editorial, Nov. 7

I voted for Gavin Newsom because he seems to be a fun guy. Carly Fiorina got my vote because she ran Hewlett-Packard. I voted against Steve Cooley because he won’t end the Roman Polanski case. I voted for Proposition 19 because too many Mexicans are dying.

Most people vote for non-political reasons. Spending campaign cash buying oodles of TV and radio time is largely a waste.

I find it interesting that TV pundits talk endlessly about the political ads their employers are being paid to show.

Bob Munson

Newbury Park

In all the analyses of the failures of Meg Whitman and Fiorina, so little attention has been paid to their (non) voting records. It’s the height of hypocrisy for a candidate to say that she cares about the future of our state while only sporadically having exercised her right to vote.

Whitman and Fiorina are the two most egregious examples of this political apathy, but even a congressional candidate here in Pasadena hadn’t voted until 2008.

I would never vote for any candidate who had not shown commitment to the democratic process by taking the simple step of casting a ballot. Our political system only works when citizens are engaged. In my opinion, a lack of that engagement automatically disqualifies any potential officeholder.

Roberta Davis

Pasadena

Latino power

Re “Latino voters’ impact varied by region,” Nov. 7

It just might be that the election results in California, and not the Republican victories nationwide, are the harbinger for 2012.

The big Democratic wins in our state were in large part because of a huge Latino vote, most of it going to the Democrats.

If Republicans continue their race-baiting ways against Latinos, they could well lose the presidential vote not just in California but in Florida, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

Karl Rove, who always understood this reality, pushed George W. Bush to be Latino friendly. But the far right is running the GOP now, and that along with a healthier economy could mean defeat for Republicans.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

No change

Re “Obama shake-up unlikely,” Nov. 6

The Republicans successfully nationalized the Nov. 2 elections and made them a referendum on Obama’s and the Democrats’ agenda. In the president’s own words, he and the Democrats took a “shellacking.”

The president, however, is deaf to what the voters said so loudly and clearly. Rather than changing course, he is sticking with his agenda, keeping his core team intact and continuing to blame the “shellacking” on his failure to clearly communicate his agenda’s benefits.

It appears Obama still does not get it.

Jim Fitzgerald

La Jolla

Gay soldiers

Re “Keep ‘don’t ask,’ Marine chief says,” Nov. 7

Marine Gen. James Amos, who said now is not the time to lift “don’t ask, don’t tell” because our military is locked in a “tough fight,” has been in the military since 1970. At what point during the years since then has America not been in a “tough fight”? We’ve had the Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, both Iraq wars, Afghanistan and many peacekeeping missions during those years.

At what point will we be safe enough to fight for equality and freedom at home like we fight for equality and freedom abroad?

Jamie Dimmel

Los Angeles