Today’s newspaper (May 19) has a headline that states that Devil’s Slide funding is somehow at risk due to $30 billion of regional funds being stretched thin.

This is untrue. The funding for Devil’s Slide is separate from the $30 billion and was secured via federal legislation many years ago.

We face difficult choices with respect to other projects for which funding hasn’t yet been fully secured, but the tunnel happens to be a project that will be completed with available funds. Please let your readers know.

Adrienne Tissier

President, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and chair, MTC Programming and Allocations Committee

Daly City

Inappropriate remarks

A May 16 article reported that former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee “responded to an offstage noise during his speech to the National Rifle Association by suggesting it was Barack Obama diving to the floor because someone had aimed a gun at him.”

When Huckabee heard a loud noise and interrupted his speech, he said: “That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he — he dove for the floor.”

An ordained Baptist minister, Rev. Huckabee should know better than to spew such venomous, hateful, violent and racist speech. The American people should strongly condemn Huckabee’s comment regarding Sen. Obama, the next president of the United States.

Anh Le

San Francisco

Democrats offended

You can really tell when you strike a nerve. The Democrats and Barack Obama aren’t offended — they are scared. Talking to despots has never worked, nor will it ever.

We tried talking to Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Kim Jong-il, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and Hugo Chávez. Ronald Reagan is supposed to have negotiated with Mikhail Gorbachev. He did not — he told Gorbachev, “We will not let you win.”

If the Democrats think that talking to Islamofascists will make them go away, they should say so and not act indignant at the question.

This is an election and we should talk about issues like negotiating with terrorists or defeating them. The public needs to know the answers to these questions. Pretending to be offended by the question only makes the Democrats look foolish.

Keith C. De Filippis

San Jose

A double standard

Your op-ed piece on Friday (“Racism emerges in the Democratic primaries,” May 16) suggested that racism was the reason a majority of whites have voted for Hillary Clinton.

I think Barack Obama enjoyed the benefit of the doubt, when, as an unknown, he impressed voters across the board, as displayed in Iowa. The revelation of his relationship to Reverend Wright, who offended many with his hate-filled speeches, and Obama’s campaigning to maintain affirmative action, has alienated many blue-collar whites.

Meanwhile, Clinton — who has had wide support from the African-American community and supported its causes as well — has received only ten percent of its votes.

The author of your “Viewpoints” article didn’t seem to think there was anything racist about that. Seems like a double standard to me.

Tim Donnelly

San Francisco

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