Elizabeth Warren and her new agency, the fight over Proposition 23; safe sex and the porn industry

Not sold on this agency

Re “Q&A: Elizabeth Warren,” Business, Oct. 27

With the benefit of hindsight, Elizabeth Warren claims her new agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, would have prevented the credit crisis. What she conveniently leaves out is that it was government bureaucrats who made the crisis possible.

Without federal overseers browbeating lenders to make loans to borrowers in lower-income neighborhoods and then providing an implicit taxpayer guarantee through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, much of the damage could have been avoided.

I predict her agency will do nothing to prevent a future credit crisis but will raise costs for consumers and decrease income for businesses.

The creation of this agency is a symptom of the anti-capitalist disease that afflicts liberal elites. We don’t need it, and we shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Peter Wilson

Los Angeles

A closer look at Proposition 23

Re “It will save California jobs” and “Ignore the scare tactics,” Opinion, Oct. 26

From the start I have been against suspending the state’s global warning law, AB 32. However, after reading David Nahai’s comments against Proposition 23, I may have to take another look.

This is the same Nahai who was in charge of the very dysfunctional Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and who left his position at a time when the DWP was sinking and utility bills were rising.

Perhaps that 60% rate-hike allegation by supporters of Proposition 23 is not far from the truth, especially when one sees one’s DWP bill increasing with no solid explanation as to why.

Richard Whorton

Valley Village

This is Exhibit A for repealing the initiative process. The backers of Proposition 23 have somehow determined that 5.5% is the magic number for unemployment in California to proceed with the state’s global warming law.

Why should we believe that folks with energy interests (and from out of state) have any better knowledge of adequate employment levels in California than our own legislators? Yet the initiative process allows these interests to spend millions to try to change state law.

If they succeed, it will be a good return on investment for them but bad for Californians who want to protect the planet.

Todd Koerner

Hermosa Beach

From my home on the other side of the country, I have been following the debate in California over Proposition 23.

I am writing to simply give the heartiest endorsement of a vote in opposition to Proposition 23. And the reason is simple: We need the jobs here in Virginia.

Ken Cuccinelli

Richmond, Va.

The writer is attorney general of Virginia.

The best of a bad choice

Re “Careful what you wish for,” Editorial, Oct. 25

Warren Buffett, the uber-financial wizard, says we’re about halfway back to recovery with this stagnant economy, but there’s still a lot of frustration and people are hungry for change. The danger is that if we “throw the bums out,” we’ll just revert back to the previous “bums” — you know, the bums who got us into this mess in the first place.

I know it’s tough to hold your nose and vote for the Democrats, but giving power back to Republicans is insanity.

Richard Marracq

Redwood City, Calif.

Your editorial on voter preference for inexperienced politicians does not address the question of why.

Maybe an inexperienced politician would be reluctant to vote in favor of borrowing money from the Social Security Trust Fund or fly on taxpayer-provided aircraft, for example.

Our experienced politicians have become irresponsible with our money. Maybe inexperience is our only hope.

Gerard A. Healy

Santa Monica

Protecting the porn industry

Re “Safe sex on the set,” Editorial, Oct. 26

The National Coalition of STD Directors fully endorses The Times’ editorial on condom use in the adult film industry. We believe there are critical roles for policymakers, public health and business in this area, and the responsibility for addressing this concern does not lie with one entity alone.

These efforts must include the enactment of legislation requiring mandatory use of condoms in film production and protections to ensure worker health, confidentiality and safety training; increased support for public health agencies to enforce regulations and control occupational exposures; and efforts to work with both the hospitality industry and cable television providers to prohibit the distribution of adult films in which condoms are not used by performers.

William Smith

Washington

The writer is executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.

Why don’t we have a sin tax on porn? We could get an extra billion for our state. We need to tax what we don’t want and

incentivize what we do.

Alan Rand

Orange

On the border

Re “Lacking papers but not hope,” Opinion, Oct. 27

Tim Rutten suggests that we handle the immigration issue with common sense and urgency.

I agree, but a bipartisan solution will only come about when there is a consensus on securing the borders first.

Just when will the amnesty issue end? We had amnesty in the Reagan administration and look what happened. We are back in the same predicament.

We cannot continue to reward illegal behavior. Let’s demand that our elected representatives fix immigration, but only after our borders are secure.

Rutten wants common sense. Why doesn’t he take a trip to Tucson or El Paso and ask some of those folks?

Terry Johnston

Newport Beach

China and Iran

Re “Chinese help Iran sidestep sanctions,” Oct. 25

The article claims that China is poised to take over for foreign companies withdrawing from Iran’s oil and gas fields. I find the report baseless.

China’s position on Iran’s nuclear issue is in conformity with other developing countries’. China opposes Iran having nuclear weapons, but we also believe Iran has the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy.

China voted for four United Nations Security Council resolutions against Iran over its nuclear policy. More important, China has enforced those resolutions to the letter.

However, China opposes expanding unilateral sanctions, which went beyond U.N. resolutions. Those unilateral moves undermine the seriousness and authority of the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

We maintain that at the end of the day, the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through diplomatic negotiations.

Mike Liwen Yue

Los Angeles

The writer is spokesman for the Chinese consulate general in Los Angeles.

Mexico’s fight

Re “The improbable advisor,” Oct. 23

Your article’s premise — that past experiences fighting the insurgency and civil war in El Salvador are today the basis on which Mexican President Felipe Calderon is implementing policy in the fight against transnational organized crime — is off-base.

Today’s situation in Mexico — a struggle against violent organized crime — cannot be compared to the civil war that fractured El Salvador in the 1980s.

This is no war; the Mexican strategy is modeled on the experiences fighting organized crime in Italy and Hong Kong, and even in Florida and Miami in the early 1980s.

Insurgency is not and cannot be the conceptual framework used to take on transnational organized crime operating on both sides of our common

border.

Ricardo Alday

Washington

The writer is spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in the United States.