Online-only Letters

Winds of change

Blowing some the wrong way

Editor, The Times:

Damage controllers are sugarcoating and rationalizing Gov. Christine Gregoire's dangerous decision to allow the Kittitas County wind farm [ "Gregoire approves wind-power project" Local News, Sept. 19].

Kittitas County is pro wind farms; they support alternate energy and love the tax revenues. The location that Gregoire approved was denied in part because Horizon refused to agree to 2,500-foot setbacks from homes (in Europe the minimum setback is one mile). Horizon half-heartedly submitted incomplete information and refused to submit prescribed information.

Horizon -- a billion-dollar, foreign-owned corporation -- bullied their way to the deal. There are thousands of acres of land in Kittitas County that are approved for use as a wind farm; areas that would not adversely affect private residences. Never in the history of Washington state has a governor overruled the decisions of a local government. This is a most dangerous precedence coming from a governor that adamantly complains about federal interference with "her" state.

When Kittitas County approved the Wildhorse wind farm, Gregoire said the project would be the model for future projects because they have local government and citizen approval. She apparently changed models and lied to her constituents. Her decision places all counties' ability to make land-use decisions at risk. It reeks of totalitarianism, doesn't it?

-- Jess Nelson, Woodinville

Like a comedy routine

Accusation draws laughs

Where did letter writer Linda Neilsen come up with the utterly ridiculous idea of "liberals" wanting the prisons emptied? [ "Government goofs: Liberals contradict themselves" Northwest Voices, Sept. 18.]

I've heard of dumb, but this goes way over the top. She thinks that liberal reasoning wants the prisons emptied of individuals like Charlie Manson and his kind? Puhleeze! How did she figure this one out?

I admit there have been some travesties of justice -- the wrong men on death row, etc. -- but emptying the prisons? Her letter sounds like something out of "Saturday Night Live."

-- Alan Cummings, Port Angeles

Plans in the toilet

Use money for something better

In response to "Were high-tech toilets worth $6.6 million?"[Local News, Sept. 4], I think that the city of Seattle should keep the high-tech toilets, and do something to make them cleaner or more of a restroom. Instead of using money to remove these toilets they should do something more important.

The article mentions that the homeless people use the toilets, so perhaps the city should use the money to build more homeless shelters instead of making the city more high-tech or futuristic. Seattle should use the money that it would take to remove the toilets and put it toward bigger and better ideas.

If they do keep the toilets, then they should make more rules for using them.

-- Emily Semler, Redmond

Behaving badly

Tasered student not the only one at fault

I am outraged at the behavior of the University of Florida Police and their treatment of student activist Andrew Meyer "Fla. university student Tasered at Kerry event" [News, Sept. 18].

Their actions need to be condemned at the highest levels. The police serve to protect our rights and safety, not to act as a goon squad for the organizers of a political event. Meyer may be long-winded and impolite, but the police had no cause to arrest him, and especially had no right to use a Taser in subduing him.

There are many people to fault in this incident. First, Meyer, for "behaving badly." The campus police, for acting brutally and illegally. Sen. John Kerry, for not forcefully defending this student and asking the police to release him. The students in the audience, for not coming to Meyer's defense, despite his cries for help. The university administration for not immediately condemning the use of excessive force on their campus. And finally, the media for trivializing the event.

I hope The Times will continue to focus on the response to this event to ensure that justice is done and corrective actions are taken.

-- Mike Koss, Hunts Point

Police need some Taser education

I was disturbed to see the now widely distributed videos showing the unnecessary and tactically questionable use of the Taser by officers of the University of Florida Police Department on a man who presented no physical threat.

A young college student, arguably pushy and obnoxious, asked a question of Sen. John Kerry while holding up a book. He displayed nothing that resembled a weapon, nor at any time did he approach the senator. Moreover, Kerry's first reaction when the police approached the young man, was to tell them their actions weren't necessary, and that he would answer the man's question. Soon the man was under physical control, posing no threat, and a Taser was applied.

I am familiar with the Taser from trainings I have attended, and from having reviewed its manuals. There are two modes in which the Taser can be used. One, which involves use of the barbs, immobilizes the person, and may arguably have some utility. The other mode, which Taser now calls "drive stun" and which many departments refer to as "touch-tasing," does nothing to immobilize the person, but merely causes pain in the manner of a cattle prod -- a device the police are not normally allowed to use. From everything I can see, the campus police subjected this young man to the second, more questionable use.

Reports from many groups, including Amnesty International and the ACLU, have warned of the propensity of the Taser to be used not as a tool that will protect lives, but one that will merely be used to torture the unruly. The actions I saw from the UFL Gainesville Police seem to bear this out. As this is a university, might I suggest, that this police department is in severe need of better education?

-- Paul Richmond, Port Townsend

Government overhaul

Time for a change

It is inconceivable to me that just when our country needs to fill a critical void at the Justice Department, that Democrats -- with obvious political objectives -- would threaten to hold off confirmation hearings until the president gives in to their demands, instead of doing the right thing and working it through the congressional and court processes [ "Extreme Justice makeover" Editorial, Sept. 19].

To threaten the safety and security of our country over such political objectives reveals the true colors of these politically motivated, power-hungry politicians. I am sick and tired of the theatrics in Washington, D.C.

My biggest hope for the coming elections is that there is a wave of dissatisfaction so profound that there are 100 new senators and 435 new congressmen and women, a new president, and stricter term limits!

-- Art Francis, Issaquah

Politicized Justice Department

Uneven press coverage

If there is an award for journalistic chutzpah, my nominee is Cynthia Tucker. In her "A lingering stench at Justice" [syndicated column, Sept. 17], Tucker attempts to spin the multiple felony convictions of two prominent Democrats -- former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman -- into a critique of the Bush administration.

Never mind the fact that impartial juries found both of these men guilty of multiple felonies, what bothers Tucker is a vague notion that the Bush administration has "politicized" the Justice Department. I say "vague" because, despite months of probing by zealous Democrats, no evidence was found either of criminal acts or politically motivated criminal investigations during the tenure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

But Tucker is hardly alone in her attitude. The non-crimes of Gonzales have received 100 times more press coverage than the actual crimes of Democrats. The average person has probably never heard of Campbell or Siegelman, nor of the dozen Democrats recently indicted on corruption charges in New Jersey. The press can continue to nurse its absurd delusion of impartiality, but such blatant partisanship is impossible to hide.

-- Stephen Triesch, Shoreline

Case doesn't reek

In the recent column by Cynthia Tucker, her opinion seems to be that all the supposed evils within the Department of Justice can be summed up in the Alabama case of Don Siegelman.

Tucker speculates that the former governor of Alabama was railroaded only because he was a Democrat . . . and the federal prosecutor was overzealous.

Was there a jury? Did the ex-governor have an "adequate" defense team? Was Siegelman deemed guilty by a jury of his peers? Tucker seems to gloss over all these question to present her opinion that this case represents the stench that still lingers at the Justice Department.

-- Rick Murphy, Seattle

Ignorance is showing

Maryland made a mistake

While I strongly disagree with the Maryland judges who ruled that gay couples may not marry in their state, and presented the absurd rationale that "homosexuality is not immutable," I would not doubt for a second the unquestionable immutability of their ignorance, bigotry and stupidity [ "High court tosses gay-marriage suit" News, Sept. 19].

-- Mark R. Scott, Seattle

Paying for mistakes

Seattle school district should foot the bill

Danny Westneat's criticisms of law firm Davis Wright Tremaine's efforts to seek attorney's fees from Seattle Public Schools for the firm's successful prosecution of the claims from Seattle parents that the district unconstitutionally assigned students to schools based upon race is misguided. The district needs to feel its own self-created pain in order to, of all things, learn that violating constitutional rights isn't something that can be done scot-free.

It's curious that Westneat, given his personal history of being on the receiving end of similarly motivated district abuse, isn't more sympathetic to the law firm, whose efforts on behalf of parents were vindicated by the U.S. Supreme Court, instead of the district, whose politically motivated, educationally oblivious School Board -- despite advice to the contrary -- violated the federal constitutional rights of parents and students.

Chickens come home to roost, and the School Board must be held accountable, painful though that accountability is. In the school of hard knocks, education is costly.

-- Scott St. Clair, Kirkland