I am proud to live in California.

Georgy Prodorov

San Francisco

Court funding vote regressive

Once again, the shortsighted majority of the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee, who voted to defund the Tenderloin Community Court and refer to themselves as “progressives,” have shown that they are actually “regressives.” (“Tenderloin court funding locked up,” May 15)

Mayor Newsom’s attempt to install a “best practice” that originated in New York City under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has worked successfully in other cities and will work successfully in San Francisco. It is not expensive when considering the entirety of the more than $6 billion budget and the amount of money given to the “regressives” favorite nonprofit organizations.

I’m usually not a Newsom supporter, but when he’s right, he’s right.

Howard Epstein

Chairman, San Francisco

Republican Party

San Francisco

100 more years of war

President Bush recently revealed that he had given up playing golf because of the Iraq war, stating “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander in Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

But, now that McCain has indicated that we might be in Iraq for 100 more years, it makes you wonder if he might vote for Obama or Clinton so that he can start playing golf again in his lifetime.

Marc Perkel

San Bruno

Reap what you sow

Inflation pressures eased a bit in April despite the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years. The U.S. government has massaged the numbers to exclude energy and food, as well as using percentages which are a farce for most middle Americans. All the government numbers are rigged to lower inflation numbers so as to keep Social Security COLA’s as low as possible.

The Democrats have ignored these lies, but still consider themselves as representatives of all the people.

The Democrats are directly accountable for the high cost of energy because they have blocked all legislation to develop our energy supplies. Neither Democratic presidential candidate has made energy supplies and the measurement of inflation a campaign issue. Then the Democrats created superdelegates so that the party’s elite can control the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a party that only supports their insider views and does not really represent “blue-collar Americans,” retirees and middle Americans. The fog created by their rhetoric is just an attempt to avoid discussion of the true issues. The Democrats will never win the presidential election in November. They need to reap what they sow.

Charles Rotthoff

Round Rock, TX

Nothing to celebrate

Nate Beeler’s Examiner cartoon “Happy 60th, Israel!” (May 15), depicting a large, hairy Hamas suicide bomber taunting a small, meek-looking Israeli, perpetuates racist stereotypes and reverses reality.

For Palestinians, there’s nothing to celebrate: Israel was created by driving almost a million Palestinians from their homeland in 1947-48, then bulldozing their villages and barring their return to the new “Jewish state.”

Ken Scudder

San Francisco

Credit has become a drug

Credit has become the drug of choice of the modern world, far more widespread than any other. Individuals, companies and governments must have their fix of it, for they are addicted to it, and the withdrawal symptoms are too painful to endure. Life without credit means no future debt is possible, and often their present debt is so large and overwhelming that they cannot go on without another credit fix.

Like many drug users, however, they do not see that they have a problem. They’re surrounded by other users who are in similar situations. “Credit and debt are just the way of the world, a necessity, and nothing to worry about. Everyone does it and no one’s especially concerned about it. Besides, it feels good and helps make life more enjoyable. I need it. I’ve got to have it.”

Occasionally the “users,” the debtors, feel the pain of their addiction and regret what they’ve gotten themselves into, but a fresh infusion of credit brings relief and temporary surcease from the pain.

Ted Rudow III

Menlo Park

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